Super Friends

This was a must on Saturday morning. I wouldn’t find out till later but…Ted Knight did some of the dialogue such as “Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice…” I think the first year (16 episodes) was the best. Altogether the show was on and off during its 13-year run and they ended up with 109 episodes.

Super Friends was produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1973. The show brought all the DC superheroes together and it told their stories. The first season was comprised of only 16 episodes, which were re-run through August 1974. The show was then canceled. Presumably from less than anticipated ratings.

The success of the Wonder Woman TV show in 1975, and probably the early development interest in the Superman movie led ABC to reconsider Super Friends. The original 16 episodes were re-run beginning in early 1976, while production began on a new series. To help promote the new series, DC also began publishing a Super Friends comic. While the stories there were independent of the show, they followed much the same style of the original series.

Beginning in mid-1977, E. Nelson Bridwell, writer of the Super Friends comic, learned of some of the cast changes (notably, the replacement of Wendy and Marvin with Zan and Jayna) after working on the book for several months and wrote the change into his stories, so by the time the new season of the show began in September 1977, the comic had already made the transition to the new characters.

The comic only survived until mid-1981, while the show continued into 1982. However, the show was only re-runs for the 1982-83 season and was canceled outright in the fall of ’83. The show was brought back again in 1984 and ran until September 1986.

The below link will give much more history to the show.

http://www.kleefeldoncomics.com/2016/12/on-history-super-friends.html

 

 

 

Author: badfinger20

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

29 thoughts on “Super Friends”

  3. Don’t think I ever saw that. Casey did voices on quite a few cartoons apparently- Transformers too, though I seem to recall he quit because he objected to way Arabs were portrayed as villains on that one.

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  4. My brother and I ALWAYS watched this! I didn’t realize that Marvin and Wendy were on before the Wonder Twins. We always made fun of the fact that Marvin and Wendy really were worthless as they really didn’t have any powers. At the same time, one of the twins, Zan I think, always did something that was water related, which we always laughed at.

    You mentioned Ted Knight. Whenever I am asked to do a voice over commercial that is “superhero-ish” it is always my imitation of him! I always loved Norman Alden as an actor, and he voiced Aquaman.

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    1. I just looked up Norman Alden…I remember him! You can’t go wrong with Ted Knight. And Meanwhile………
      I guess Marvin and Wendy were for the teenagers lol.

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      1. Alden had such a distinctive voice! I remember him not only from Super Friends, but he was also on Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (another show we watched on Saturday mornings!)! He was a great character actor who was one of the Joker’s henchman in a ’66 Batman episode, appeared on Perry Mason, the Untouchables, was Johnny Ringo on Wyatt Earp, My Three Sons, The MOD Squad, and Gunsmoke (all before his work on Superfriends). He was Leroy on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and showed up all over TV (Welcome Back, Kotter, Eight Is Enough, Dallas, The Dukes of Hazzard, and so many more)!

        I was thrilled when I saw Back to the Future and recognized him! It’s because of him that I started looking deeper into the great character actors of TV and movies.

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      2. As soon as I saw him I remember him from Gunsmoke and other shows. Hogan’s Heroes…he was on that also.
        I have such respect for those great character actors.

        I’m going to watch

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      4. That would be cooI…I wanna see who you come up with…. I did one on Burt Mustin… and I’m planning one on…ready for this name? Avery Schreiber… I knew his face but not his name.

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      5. Your blog on Burt may have been the one that made me think about doing some on Character actors….LOL. I heard Burt on an old Carson show on Sirius a week or so ago! I remember Avery!! He was very funny! My former father in law and I talked about character actors all the time. Herbert Lom always came up!

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      6. Wow Herbert Lom… people will not know the names but the face they will. I know him as well…but I didn’t the name.
        I’m looking forward to it…

        Burt was sharp plus he was at the first World Series ever.

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  5. I loved that show and always remembered that wonderful music. I liked the kids with Wonderdog. The Wonder Twins I found annoying. I was not happy when Marvin & Wendy disappeared with no explanation.

    You can pick out Ted Knight’s voice tho, as a kid, I hadn’t a clue.

    I’m actually a Marvel fan more than DC but, this show was so cool. There just wasn’t much Marvel stuff then. I do vaguely remember the Spider-Man cartoon from ’67 to ’70. I was just days old when The Marvel Super Heroes debuted in ’66. I was too young for The Fantastic Four in ’67/’68. Nothing else showed up until the late 70s.

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    1. Oh I loved the Spiderman cartoon so much. I didn’t see it until the late seventies…but it’s my favorite of Spiderman.
      This show was great…Ted Knight…AND MEANWHILE…BACK AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE.

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      3. Unfortunately, no. I kept my Graphics album/binder for years but, it disappeared during my moves to TN, VA & TX. He also hand drew the High -n- Dry Def Leppard triangle symbol for me for a t-shirt.

        I was printing up a writing pad & I wanted a side view of Olivia Newton-John from Xanadu on it. He free-handed for me.

        He drew the Cavalier mascot of our school for his 1985 grad class (assuming this link works):
        http://www.e-yearbook.com/sp/eybb?school=84154&year=1985

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      4. Too bad you don’t still have it…that sucks. I lost everything in moves. I have nothing from my childhood.
        I saw the mascot drawing…that is awesome. He is living a dream drawing comics for a living.

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      5. I think…keyword ‘think’…I still have some of our Cavalcades. That was our little school newspaper and he did comic strips in it. I will have to dig for that…

        Hell…I still have all of my report cards except 2nd grade. I made that one disappear.

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      6. lol making a report card disappear even in 2nd grade!
        My sister might have some report cards of mine…I i will have to check.

        I dread tomorrow Vic…gotta drive to Atlanta and fight that stupid traffic…gotta go to the other corporate office.

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      7. Damn. I still have them. I was just digging… He and his work is in all of them.

        I dread tomorrow, too. I have been battling a broken tooth (and gallbladder issues) and have to have it ‘fixed’. Can we trade places?

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      8. That is cool that you still have them!

        No…no broken tooth thank you very much. I was going to email you and ask you if everything was cool. You just disappeared for a bit…that answers some questions.

        Good look with both issues.

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