The History of The Super Friends: From 1973 to Today & All the Versions In Between
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- čas přidán 1. 11. 2023
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Welcome to our deep dive into the history of the beloved Super Friends cartoon series! Join us as we journey through the different iterations and versions of this iconic animated show, spanning from its debut in 1973 to its modern adaptations. From classic characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to the introduction of new heroes like the Wonder Twins and formidable villains like Darkseid, we'll uncover the evolution of this legendary superhero ensemble.
Explore the evolution of animation styles, storylines, and character designs that shaped the Super Friends universe over the years including it's unfortunate try at a live action version (kinda) and it's arrival in the toy aisle as Kenner's Super Powers action figure line.
Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the world of Super Friends, this comprehensive retrospective is sure to delight and inform. Join us on this nostalgic journey through animated heroism and witness the enduring impact of the Super Friends legacy.
SOURCES:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_F...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_All...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challen...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_F...)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_P...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sup...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends...
superfriends.fandom.com/wiki/...
hanna-barberawiki.com/wiki/Su...)
cartoonresearch.com/index.php...
www.toonopedia.com/super_fr.htm
decider.com/2021/07/13/super-...
web.archive.org/web/200806031...
dc.fandom.com/wiki/DC_Super_F...)
www.amazon.com/gp/video/detai...
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“Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…”
"Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom...."
"Meanwhile, under Meg Griffin's bra..."
I randomly hear meanwhile, at the legion of doom in my head weekly 😂😂😂
Ted Knight from Mary Taylor Moore show !
🫡
I was born in 1973 and Superfriends was appointment viewing for me on Saturday mornings in the '70s and '80s. And now, at age 50 every Sunday night just before going to bed I wind down my weekend by watching an episode of Superfriends. Literally every Sunday night. So glad I have the technology to revisit it and end my weekend on a high note before life starts back on Monday morning. Great episode Secret Galaxy.
Nostalgic medication works far better than it's given credit for.
And this is why we kick asphalt at work during the week!
I can remember keeping the volume down low so my dad could sleep in on Saturday. He was one of those grumps if he didn't get enough.
I was also born in 73 and watched every saturday and had the sheets and comics.
Hated that I couldn’t wake early enough for Saturday cartoons. Listen to me - born 1972
Honestly, Super Friends, the Batman '66 show, the animated Spider-Man show (you know the one...with the theme song) and the live action Hulk show were what lead me to be a life long comics fan. Such good memories of all these. Thanks Dan!
Pretty much my experience as well, but I'd add in Lynda Carter to that list.
@@cassiedevereaux-smith3890 Absolutely!
How are you guy’s going to forget Christopher Reeves portrayal of Superman? That casting was absolutely legendary back then.@@cassiedevereaux-smith3890
The 90s Justice League show was nearly as good as these
You mean the 2001 Justice League animated series and yes that show was ten times better than Superfriends. The only thing it lacked was a guest appearance of Firestorm and Plastic Man.@@paul16451
The Super Friends of the 80s was awesome. That included the first adaptation of Thomas and Martha Wayne's death and Brainiac shedding his body for a robot version.
Galactic Guardians was a series I loved in the 80’s. I watched the older versions in the 2000’s and they were such a letdown.
@@philiphanan1493i would watch Superfriends just to see that iteration hoping wishing and praying
"That included the first adaptation of Thomas and Martha Wayne's death" wstine79: To THIS DAY. I STILL remember where I was that Saturday Morning when that episode first aired (The Fear). Up until that moment, I just assumed Bruce Wayne was just some random millionaire who wanted to do good beyond simple philanthropy (never read the comics as a kid so....) and then later learned that they actually quoted excerpts direct from the comics.
Yeah. That was an incredible and iconic episode for back then you couldn’t show nor promote gun violence in a Saturday morning cartoon. I still remember seeing that episode as a kid for the first time and being scared 😱 as shit to the point that I had waited by the widow to make sure my mom came back home safely from work. We lived in the Bronx,New City and our neighborhood looked dark and creepy at night just like Crime Ally did in that episode. Losing your parents at an early age like Bruce Wayne did is definitely a scary feeling. Yet they do mention Batman’s origin briefly in the pilot of the 1960’s Batman Television starring Adam West and Burt Ward. I found that out later on after I purchased the 📀 Boxset.@@JonathanMCook
@@JonathanMCook What's pretty awesome is that Adam West himself, did the voice of Batman in those final two years of Super Friends. I suppose that it a more modern equivalent would if you had Lynda Carter come back to voice Wonder Woman on the subsequent Justice League animated series from the 2000s.
Olan Soule, who had previously played Batman in the Filmation series from the 1960s, had been doing Batman on Super Friends up until that point. I always looked to the "Fear" episode as evidence or proof that when allowed, Adam West could've given us a much darker and tragic interpretation of Batman. He also kind of did that when he played the Grey Ghost on Batman: The Animated Series.
The way this series did Aquaman dirty has left a scar on his reputation that will never truly heal.
"My ability to talk with fish is of no help Wonder Woman!"
I've never met another soul who remembers the Shirt Tales, it's probably just you guys doing a bit but I'm glad they aren't just a hallucination I had combining the Get Along Gang with Care Bears
The only thing which kept Shirt Tales in my memory is my possession of a Shirt Tales Old Maid/SNAP card game.
Thank you, Secret Galaxy, for being my Super Friend ❤
Super Friends made me a lifelong DC comics reader and fan. My fondness for this show is off the charts! Thank you for this terrific video!
I miss Saturday morning cartoons!!
"The 80's isn't just a decade, it's a state of mind"... i love it
This was my gateway to DC and best of all, Wonder Woman. I would wake up very early on Saturday to watch this despite dreading it during the week for school. This show really made me want to read the comics which opened a whole new world to me. I still love this show and have almost all my Super Powers figures in my collection.
My peers watched every one of these series, repeatedly with reruns. Most of us wish the Legion of Doom years would have continued.
truth
The Justice League of America versus the Legion of Doom!
Me too. I wish the episode History of Doom included all the silver age Legion of Doom Super Villains 🦹 Origins. That would have been fun.
I never missed it if I could help it. The show aired at 7 am in my area. My mom had to peel me out of bed for school, but I would get up on Saturdays for The Superfriends no problem.😂
one thing worth noting, the later seasons when they had Adam West as Batman had been the first time Batman's tragic origins were adapted out of the comics in the episode "The Fear".
Greatest theme music EVER!
And Ted Knight narrating doesn’t get any better!
The Superfriends is my all time favorite cartoon! It's hard to pick which version that I love the best, because I love them all. Each version brought something a lil' different to the table. It was something that was very, very special about watching the Superfriends at 7:00 am on Saturday mornings and weekdays at 3:30 after school. I own all of the dvds and still watch the show often. Ironically, the show made its debut the exact same day as one of my other favorite animated shows: Star Trek. Both shows turned 50 years old this year...just like me! 😄
OMG this is one of those videos that you always wanted to know the backstory but forgot about it😅
Challenge of the Superfriends intro is evergreen
Hello there Secret Galaxy. I have to admit that this video was really entertaining and well researched. I remember watching reruns of The Super Friends on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, whenever I visited my grandparents and I have to admit without a series, like that we probably won't have the incredible Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series that we had, as well as series, like Young Justice.
This was my go-to Saturday morning show, with the Power Twins and Gleek, I would draw and doodle them while eating cereal and dream about having their powers lol Thanks for the nostalgia, Dan and Co.
I never thought I'd see the day we'd get all of Secret Galaxy's bits back, to back, to back, to back. 🤯🤯🤯
Super Friends and Batman (66) reruns were my introduction to DC Comics in the early 80s and I'll be forever a die-hard DC fan until I die thanks to those two shows. Thanks for covering one of my childhood milestones! 🤩
saw it during the 80s. was able to collect some of the super powers figures. The challenge of the Super Friends were my favorite episodes. Seeing the legion of Doom was so cool. Never forget an episode that starts with Batman's death. That was like so shocking to me. I almost cried.
A few pieces of trivia, if I may:
Apparently National Periodics (now DC) wanted to make trial runs of sorts in existing animation shows, no doubt to help them decide between licensing to Filmation or to Hanna Barbera. Batman and Robin guest starred in Scooby Doo, and Superman and Wonder Woman in separate episodes of The Brady Kids. That turned out to be the first animated appearance of Princess Diana.
The last season of Superfriends (1985 IIRC) was also the animated debut of Cyborg, and the first time that the character was part of a version of the Justice League. It took until 2011 for the same thing to happen in the comics.
The early, 1973 season had a few animated debuts of their own - Marvin, Wendy and Wonder Dog, of course, but also Plastic Man and Green Arrow.
The 1976 Super-Friends comic book was of course inspired by the TV series, but it had a very different continuity, much closer to the silver age comics than to anything in the animated series. It had limited impact on the main comics continuity, most obviously by way of the introduction of the Global Guardians characters. It also acknowledged the main continuity by its turn, but to a much further restricted degree - it may not go further than acknowledging that Wonder Woman's love interest Steve Trevor had changed appearance and name, going by Steve Howard (long story).
Maybe it is just me, but I always felt that Zan, Jayna and particularly Gleek were fairly direct transpositions of Space Ghost's helpers Jan, Jace and Blip.
That's right - The Global Guardians were introduced in Superfriends and would eventually become key figures in the vaunted Justice League International run of the late '80's/early '90's. I had forgotten about that! I do remember Green Arrow being in that one episode of the first season too - cool to see him.
I'm old enough to have watched the original, and I remember buying that comic at a 7-11 in Yuba City, CA. That and Kasey Casem are the most nostalgic bits for me for some reason.
Challenge of the Superfriends was when I got hooked.
So cool seeing a cartoon with the Justice League and the Legion of Doom.
Plus, they introduced new heroes!
I don't care what anybody says, Apache Chief is cool.
All True and Alive Gospel Spoken here...
Had it not been for characters like Apache Chief, a generation of sheltered kids might have been less aware of the diversity of their own society. Points for trying, and for contributing to an ongoing process of change.
And then you have El Dorado...
I remember as a kid getting home from school just in time to watch the Superfriends and I loved it. Especially when weird stuff happened, like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman being transported to the Planet of Oz, or where Dr. Frankenstein created a monster that had the powers of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and looked like an amalgamation of all them. And then Robin became Super Robin! Insane!!!
"Created from the cosmic legends of the universe."
"Dedicated to a single objective: the conquest of the universe!"
There's no hubris like 1970s Superfriends hubris.
I always think every villain's plan pales compared to conquering the universe like the Legion of Doom wanted to do. Thanos in the MCU had nothing on them.
And in one of the episodes, the Legion finally defeated the Justice League... and then they were finally able to conquer the entire universe! Talk about the heroes journey, that may be the greatest of all time!
I love this channel so much. I hope it never runs out of stuff to do a history deep dive on. Also, the side projects have been great. Twin Peaks and the recent Clue Story.
I would love to see the winning entry of that "create a villain" contest 😮
Yeah, me too.
Speaking of "Justice League" there was two episodes with them fighting a team of Super Friends homage characters Wind Dragon, Long Shadow, Juice, Shifter and Downpour (Samurai, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and the Wonder Twins respectively)
I liked that the villains always got away with the superheroes saying some variation of how they'll catch them next time
Marvin from the first Super Friends series was featured in the comic miniseries Kingdom Come as a drunk metahuman.
Saturday mornings as a kid, this was my jam! I'd be up crazy stupid early so I wouldn't miss it. This along with Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.
Wow, what a memorable flashback to a more innocent time, courtesy of Saturday Morning cartoons and the Superfriends. Best friends for a kid to have. 😊👍
EDIT: Nice catch with the inflatable phone! 16:26
Challenge of the Super-friends was my favorite iteration. I still love that theme song!
Love Dan's running gags all chained together! 😂
I think it was '74 (I was 4) when my parents 1st started letting me watch SMC before they were up for the morning. Super Friends were simply an institution to me, present since some of my earliest, formative memories. I'm kicking myself for never picking up on the Donnie & Marie connection, because I watched plenty of that too 😅
While I never grew up with the show I did always manage to catch the reruns on Cartoon Network all the time back in the day. The retro vibes had a charm what can I say?
I vaguely remember Darkseid being obsessed with Wonder Woman and wanting to marry her and Felix Faust removing Superman's powers but Penguin stealing them before the transfer was complete. 😅
I loved watching this on Cartoon Network back in the day!
Challenge of the Super Friends will always be my favorite.
Thanks for doing such a thorough breakdown of what ended up becoming a VERY confusing series (constant name, format and roster changes, etc.) It remains one of my all-time favorite cartoons.
I was born in '99 but I've grown up with reruns of a whole bunch of shows that even came ot before my parents were born. I remember every night watching a combination of different DC shows such as Super Friends, Justice League Unilimited, The Batman, the 1940's Superman Cartoons, etc. Not to mention other properties such as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Jem and the Holograms, Hong Kong Phooey, SWAT Kats, Thundarr the Barbarian, etc. With all of those shows plus the ones that came out when I was a kid, I had the best childhood when it came to television!
I loved the Superfriends reruns when I was a kid. The Superpowers line was one of my favorite toy lines, and through it, I learned about DC characters like Orion and Desaad. The Hall of Justice play set was pretty cool, too.
As much as I love Super Friends they really made a joke of Aquaman.
I wanted a mention of Ted Knight as the announcer in the first season.
I remember entering that Create a Villain contest. Don't remember getting puffy stickers.
I grew up watching reruns of Super Friends and one Easter egg that I always appreciated was the Ultimen in Justice League Unlimited who were based off Samurai, Apache Chief, Vulcan, and the Wonder Twins. Their costumes were a bit over designed (a sleek early 2000s aesthetic with a lot of meaningless geometry), but I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in reinterpreting those characters for a modern audience
The Super Friends designs/colors were always my favorite even today.
One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting in my room, playing the Super Friends audio-visual presentation. It required a record player/projector that synchronized a slide show of images from an episode, with an LP. There was a lot of media or that format I believe. I might have inherited it from my older sister who was born in '70.
I remember those two stars rocketing towards your TV screen whenever there was an intermission.
I wanna know who won the contest and what did the three new villains look like?! 🤓💪🏼
Lame to show it then not give a payoff.
I still have many episodes recorded on VHS, but I did purchase the Galactic Guardians series on DVD when it first hit. I had been wanting to revisit that series for a while as I only had the Wild Cards episode recorded. That version of Super Friends also featured the very first time Batman's origin had been adapted outside of the comics with "The Fear." Cool that Adam West got to voice him in that particular instance. He definitely had earned it.
Some version of Superfriends was on the TV all the time growing up. The oft repeated “Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice!” made my father laugh every time it was said. It generally became a catch phrase around the house for something silly and mockingly important. I can’t even think about it now and not have a giggle.
Man, Rene Auberjonois had one hell of a career. Voice acting, television, Broadway, the guy was everywhere. RIP to a shapeshifting powerhouse.
My time. My era. My joy. Thanks.
Gotta love a team that takes up residence in Darth Vader's helmet.
I was born in 1971. The Super Friends aired in the Fall of ‘73 when I was 2 yrs too young to see DC animated superheroes. My earliest memory of them was seeing this ad on ABC Friday evening in ‘76 when the MC announced coming up on Saturday mornings, seeing Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin running by, I was hooked for Saturday mornings! The following Saturday, got up early around 6am (not normal for 5 yr olds that time lol) turned on the TV little before 7 on ABC, the national anthem ad played, had to sit thru watching Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, and or The Flinstones until the Super Friends played at 8am, my Saturday mornings were made; got cereal and continued watching more animated shows that followed. I became a longtime DC fan even after my cousin introduced me to his comics collection including, seeing Superman and Wonder Woman crossover in The Brady Kids after Batman and Robin did on Scooby-Doo. Thanks for presenting this video Dan and happy 50th Super Friends!!
I was 7 years old in 1973. Hearing Hoyt Curtin's powerful theme music, and Ted Knight 's mighty voice, made me feel I could move mountains!
I watched it on and off as a kid in the ‘80s but it seemed like it wasn’t always on at a regular time. I really got into it when it came to Cartoon Network. I have the entire series on dvd
Waitaminute..you said Shirt Tales and it unlocked a childhood memory for me. Please tell me you have a video on that show!!!
I know Super Friends existed but I didn’t realize it was this extensive
It's funny, when I was a kid I watched the Superfriends just to see my favorite characters, even though I knew it was terrible, yet I couldn't force myself to sit through the recent Justice League movie .
17:47 these six construction vehicles are setting off my TF fan pattern recognition
Scrapper: "Face it, Megatron pays us utter scrap! This Super League/Justice Friends gig is far more worth our while!" (rest of Constructicons voice their agreement)
I watched Super Friends, but it was the Super Powers show and the Kenner toys (with those mini-comics) that solidified my full induction into buying comic books, especially DC. The marketing did exactly what it was supposed to do for an 11 year old in the age of Reagan in 1984. Those Kenner toys were the next toy holy grail for me (having started with Star Wars by late 70’s followed by He-Man, then G.I. Joe/Transformers)
One of my college drawing professors actually worked on Bullwinkle, Smurfs and Super Friends. :-)
One episode of the entire series stands out for me. It featured Batman and Scarecrow. In it Scarecrow has a device that causes Batman to have flashbacks to Crime Alley and the murder of his parents. Pretty deep stuff for a Saturday morning cartoon.
Watch the on the regular when I was a kid! My parents would record whole Saturday morning cartoon days so they could play it back for us when they wanted some quiet time. I must have watched the same episodes hundreds of times and never skipped it!
It may have already been said, but that theme song and narration...it was epic. As a kid, when I heard that urgent beat and the dramatic voice introducing the show, my heart would go into overdrive with my imagination. I knew that no matter what, no matter how bad things could be...hold on and keep your hope; the greatest Heroes of all time were on their way! Nothing made the world seem safer to a kid like knowing we had them looking out for us. Even as an adult, I still grin and get a little excited hearing that theme. Epic.
Waking up at 8 AM on Saturday morning to watch the Superfriends was the highlight of my childhood.
I still say that there’s a book that a LOT of Gen-Xers would buy if someone could track down and write the stories of all those kids who won “fabulous prizes” off of cereal boxes and comic books. I totally remember the “create your own villain and win lunch with Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman in Hollywood.” I’d love to find out who won and what it was like.
The ethnic Superfriends and the Wonder Twins had a few great homages in both the Justice League Unlimited and Young Justice series.
Happy 50th Birthday to Super Friends Blessings and Hugs 💜💜
What a fantastic episode as always. Born in 73 here, I just loved superfriends growing up and still do. Thank you for this video and all that you do.
Super friends ! Throwback Thursday in cartoon Network 😊😊
Cartoon Network did great things with Superfriend clips. 'Solomon Grundy want pants too!'
Solomon Grundy was my favorite Legion of Doom villian.
7:31 You had it right the first time. Captain Marvel appeared on SHAZAM! and was called such within the show.
I watched Superfriends in various incarnations, and even had some of the tie in comics. I found it amusing that the heroes in the original Superfriends weren't allowed to hit villains, but in the comics they were. If not for Superfriends, we might not have Batman the Animated Series, Justice League, Young Justice, etc.
Used to camp in front of the TV Friday night just to get up Saturday morning to watch the Super friends and School house rock.. Right from the open the start of The Super Friends really has stunk in my head for 5 year old kid was really cool
This show introduced Darksied in a way that still holds up to this day.
A Mission Too Dangerous for Superman?
"I bid... one bleen"
One small correction. In the video you referenced several times that Wendy and Marvin didn't have superpowers. That's _kinda_ true. In the very first episode it was established that Marvin had super-strength, and could fly (though not very well) Shortly after the intro Marvin is found holding Superman in an arm-bar and the man of steel is "begging" for help. This could be taken as Superman letting Marvin win, Marvin is immediately shown hovering over the others, showing that he can fly, so it seems clear they were trying to establish his powers. AFAIK it was never referenced again and Marvin was subsequently treated as "mortal."
It’s possible Marvin just forgot he has super powers, or it was temporary due to an unseen previous adventure. Oh it was an alien doppelgänger. Or a dream sequence.
saw all the "missing" episodes in recent years on HBO Max. Nice. I don't remember any of them but they were fun to watch, for the nostalgia.
Thankyou for this one. I grew up with super friends in the early 80s
I don't know where to find the quote, but I read that the head of Cartoon Network at the time greenlit Justice League over a *phone call* with Bruce Timm, and primarily it was due to the built in audience for the JL the Super Friends re-runs had created (myself among them).
One classic show led directly to another!
I totally forgot about Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai!
I really thought Black Vulcan was cool.
In the '73 version, the teenage girl Wendy was the smartest one on the show. She solved darn near every case. The Super Friends just used their powers to clean up.
This was my introduction to comics and I have loved it since.
The winner of the contest isn't 100% known. A lot of sources say it was Todd Tjersland (future horror director), but I couldn't find any real citation on that or what the thing he drew was besides a little description of something with 3 eyes and horns.
I saw all of the super friends as they aired on TV it’s why I watched this, it brought back good memories
The theme song has been stuck in my head for over 40 years.
Bill Woodson's "Meanwhile . . . !" scene transition narration is permanently embedded in my brain. And its brain roommate is now that clip of Wonder Woman as a bipedal zebra . . .
Dear Dan it's always a joy to see you handsome face and have you talking about great memories of my favorites Old things
I remember being 2 watching the early Super Friends and outside the Trinity. Just loved Green Lantern and my grandfather was a fan of GL and told me everything from Alan Scott to Hal Jordan. I mess that man.
" form of a Useless bucket of water!" "Form of a mighty Condor to carry the useless bucket of water!"
One of my favorite cartoons !
I think I watched a vhs copy of Challenge of the Super Friends including Trial of the Super Friends, over and over again when I was around 8-10 years old. I loved it.
Thank you Dan Larson and his Amazing Friends!
I watched from the early 80s till Today.
I didn't know about the Live Action Series adaptation though. I'm definitely curious about it now. It looked interesting.
I was born in 71 I couldn't wait every Saturday morning to sit down and watch them through the 70s and 80s I'm still watching on Saturday mornings thanks to the technology of too day
The Kenner Super Powers line was /my/ toy line; the one I loved above all others. I had every playset, figure and vehicle.. except Captain Marvel.
Superfriends was one of the few Saturdays morning cartoons worth watching