Super Friends

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Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1973 to 1985. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Series
4 Challenge of the Super Friends
5 Legion of Doom
6 Other DC Comics villains
7 External links

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History

When animation company Hanna-Barbera licensed the animation rights to the DC Comics characters and adapted the Justice League of America comic book for television, it made several changes in the transition, not the least of which was the change of name to Super Friends. In part, it was feared that the name Justice League of America would have seemed too jingoistic during the post-Vietnam War Era. Nevertheless, team members sometimes referred to themselves as the Justice League on the show. The violence common in superhero comics was toned down for a younger audience, as well as to fit with the restrictive broadcast standards regarding violence in 1970s children's television.

The primary characters featured in the series were Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are generally considered DC's flagship characters. Aquaman had previously appeared in his own animated series produced by Filmation, as had both Superman and Batman. This was Wonder Woman's first appearance in animation. The team's first sidekicks were Wendy Harris (voiced by Sherri Alberoni) and Marvin White (voiced by Frank Welker) and their dog Wonderdog, none of whom had any special abilities (unless one counts the dog's unexplained ability to reason and "talk") Marvin and Wonderdog did exhibit a levitation ability in one episode, however it was only for comedic effect, and never shown or mentioned again. Later they were replaced by pointy-eared shape-shifting extraterrestrials Zan and Jayna, the "Wonder Twins," and their "space monkey" Gleek. Earlier seasons occasionally introduced other members of the Justice League as guest stars, including The Flash, Plastic Man, and Green Arrow.

Initially, each episode was a single one-hour story, and the villains (mostly original creations not in the comics) were often misguided, rather than evil. Subsequent seasons were a mix of one-hour and half-hour episodes, the one-hour episodes sometimes featuring two or more short stories in each hour, and made use of established villains from the DC comics. The Challenge of the Superfriends season introduced the Legion of Doom, a team of 13 recurring foes comprised of the Super Friends' worst enemies. They used a swamp-based, vaguely mechanical, flying headquarters, the Hall of Doom (which suspiciously resembled the helmet of Darth Vader), as a suitable contrast with the Super Friends's gleaming Hall of Justice.

Hanna-Barbera's writers experimented with team composition as well. Challenge of the Superfriends kept the teen sidekicks but not directly involved with the Super-villain stories. It also added Hawkman, Green Lantern, and The Flash as well as three characters without previous comic-book antecedents: Black Vulcan (who does appear to have been based on a minor DC character, Black Lightning; see Trivia below), Apache Chief and Samurai, intended to be international heroes, were created for the show as well in order to encourage racial and cultural diversity. Critics felt that these attempts were awkward at best and very stereotypical and somewhat offensive at worst. Subsequent versions of the show resulted in a fourth "diversity" hero, El Dorado, and guest stars who had also appeared in DC comics, including Rima the Jungle Girl (a Tarzan-like character similar to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Marvel Comics' Shanna the She-Devil), Hawkgirl and The Atom.

The final two seasons, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, (the "Super Powers" tag reflected a marketing tie-in with a Kenner toyline of the same name[1]) made further refinements to the roster, adding teen members Firestorm and Cyborg, respectively, each with a comics history. The tone of these last two seasons, in particular the Galactic Guardians version, was notably more serious than Super Friends had been in the past. This was reflected with the introduction of Darkseid and his minions on Apokolips as recurring villains in these episodes. The series, in these last two seasons, ceased trying to be so much a "kid-friendly" version of the DC characters and mythos, and began targeting a slightly older audience with more of an emphasis on action as opposed to morality lessons disguised as superhero stories.

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Trivia

The Wonder Twins were supposedly inspired by Donny and Marie Osmond.
The commanding voice of the Narrator was provided by actor Ted Knight. His signature line was, "Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice!"
Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were inspired by the Scooby-Doo gang.
Black Vulcan was created to avoid having to pay Black Lightning creator Tony Isabella royalties.
In one episode where a giant Kryptonian pteranodon is rampaging on Earth, the team must choose whether they should acquire a massive supply of kryptonite to drive it off and risk Superman's life in the process. Superman asserts that the team has a long-standing principle of seeking "the greatest good for the greatest number" and insists that the kryptonite be used. The quote is taken from John Stuart Mill and introduced the ethical principles of utilitarianism to viewers.
At one point, Cartoon Network produced three commercials lampooning the Super Friends. One dealt with the idiosyncratic nature of the Legion of Doom and Brainiac's odd manner of dress (Brainiac: "Look, all I want is pants... a decent pair of pants!" Solomon Grundy: Solomon Grundy want pants, too!"). The second dealt with the Wonder Twins' uselessness in battle. The third, co-starring the Powerpuff Girls, dealt with Aquaman's useless powers (Aquaman: "My ability to talk to fish is of no use to us, Wonder Woman!").
An issue of Wizard Magazine also parodied the Super Friends, in which the JLA is sent through a dimensional rift and meets some members of the Super Friends. After Martian Manhunter simply uses his martian vision to melt the villain and his machine, much to Green Lantern's dismay ("You have to trick him into leaving, or shutting off his machine, NOT direct physical violence!) The Super Friends decided to send the JLA'ers back to their own dimension by having the Wonder Twins turn into water and a bug and paddling, Green Lantern shone his ring on them, Flash ran around them a lot, and Aquaman stood around until water could be introduced at a convienent manner. Despite the fact that their plan made no sense scientifically, it worked and restored the JLA'ers to their proper world.
A first season episode of the Cartoon Network television series Justice League Unlimited featured The Ultimen, a group of superheroes that are a pastiche of heroes unique to the Super Friends. The members were Long Shadow (based on Apache Chief), Wind Dragon (Samurai), Juice (Black Vulcan), Downpour (Zan of the Wonder Twins), and Shifter (Jayna of the Wonder Twins). The headquarters of the Ultimen, although on top of a skyscraper, resembled the Super Friends' Hall of Justice.
The fifth season of "Justice League Unlimited" has shown Gorilla Grodd forming a massive Legion of villains. While not called "The Legion of Doom" on the show, their headquarters is a craft similar to the Hall of Doom, located in a swamp.
DC Comics published a comic book version of the Super Friends in the 1970s. In the 2000s DC satirized the Super Friends in two separate miniseries, "Formerly Known As the Justice League" and "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League!," as the "Super Buddies," a team of various ex-Justice League members. Writer Keith Giffen has stated that his original proposal was titled "1-800-SUPERFRIENDS."
The Hall of Justice from the Super Friends can be seen in the Teen Titans animated series. It appears behind the Titans Tower in the opening sequence and uses of the same shot in the show.
Filipino comedian Rex Navarrete gave a satirized depiction of the Super Friends in his comedy routine Maritess vs the Super Friends about Maritess, a Filipina immigrant who worked as the Super Friends' maid at the Hall of Justice. This was made into a short Macromedia Flash animation by Dino Ignacio. [2]
After Olan Soule served as the voice of Batman on the show for several years, he turned the part over to none other than the man who played Batman on the live action 60s TV series, Adam West, for the "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show" and "Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians" series. For these seasons, Olan instead played the voice of Professor Martin Stein, one half of Firestorm the Nuclear Man.
Noted painter Alex Ross is an avowed fan of the show and has worked it into his various projects. In Kingdom Come, the United Nations building resembles the Hall of Justice while the Gulag is obviously designed on the Hall of Doom. Marvin can also be spotted in a brief cameo in that book. Ross is also helping to create the current 12-issue Justice series in which a new and improved Legion of Doom clashes with the JLA.
The frequent pairings of Wonder Woman and Aquaman has led some fans to speculate on a potential romance between the Amazon Princess and the Atlantean King.
The opening credits of "Challenge of the Super Friends" names the Super Friends as the Justice League of America. Aside from the appearance of a JLA emblem on a communicator and a reference to a mission to repair the Justice League satellite, the Super Friends are never again linked with the JLA.
In that mission, the Justice League satellite under repair is clearly the same design as the Justice League Satellite that appeared in the comics at the time, but was shown to be substantially smaller than its comic book counterpart, and thus uninhabitable.
The Episode, "MC Pee Pants" in the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force uses backgrounds taken from the episode, "Monolith of Evil" of Challenge of The Superfriends for the location of Hell.
Super Friends was spoofed in an episode of That 70s Show with a dream sequence where the "Super Pals" made fun of Eric's Superman because Donna's Wonder Woman had given him a ring as a gift. "I got it at the mall!" she exclaims.

Image:That 70s Superfriends.jpg

At the end of Earthworm Jim Special Edition's Easy Mode ending, Doug TenNapel proclaims, "Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, Superman, Batman and Jan and Zeyna, uh- the Wonder Twins. They've... pronounced that it's the end. We're not kidding. Uhh... really!"
'The Hall of Justice' as often seen in the cartoon, seems to have a striking resemblence to the Union Terminal building in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once a train station, it is now a museum. It seems likely that the animators copied the design from this or a similar building.

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