Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Part 4: Superfriends

 

"You have reached the Superfriends. Please listen carefully as our options have changed. Press 1 for Superman. Press 2 for Wonder Woman. Press 3 for Batman and Robin. Press 4 for Aquaman. Press 5 for the Wonder Twins. If you wish to speak with Wendy or Marvin, they have gone back to school. If this is a criminal matter, please hold and a hero will be with you shortly. If this is an Earth-shattering life extinction crisis, please hang up and kiss your ass goodbye." I used to imagine that would be the automated response you would get if you called the Hall of Justice, the headquarters of the Superfriends.

This animated hour-long series began on ABC in 1973 and ran under various titles until 1985. The Justice League had been adapted in animated form as part of the 1967 Superman-Aquaman Adventure Hour on CBS with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom as featured members. For some reason, Aquaman was not a part of this combo even though he had his own series produced by the same company, and Aqualad was a team member of the Teen Titans which rotated in the guest spot of the show. 

This series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, took a decidedly different tone at first. Instead of interplanetary mayhem and supervillains, the superheroes dealt with "timely" issues such as pollution and overpopulation and their antagonists were not evil but well-intentioned and just a bit mixed up. Instead of battles, the episodes always ended with a civilized discussion on the proper way to deal with the problem at hand. (Yawn!) The Superfriends were accompanied by "junior" superfriends--sort of summer interns--Wendy, Marvin and the canine Wonder Dog who spoke like other Hanna-Barbera mutts Astro and Scooby Doo with an R in front of every word.

Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

The New Super-Friends Hour saw the departure of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog--I guess their internship was up and they had to go back to school--to be replaced by the Wonder-Twins, a pair humanoid aliens with actual superpowers, and their useless pet monkey, Gleek. (Even more annoying than Blip on Space Ghost.) The girl Jayna had a legitimately cool ability to transform herself into any animal she chose, but the boy Zan had the lame power of changing into different forms of water. How much times can you make yourself into an ice-bridge?

Challenge of the Super-Friends moved away from Afterschool Special territory and back into comic-book land. Less learning and more bashing. Gone were the Wonder Twins and that obnoxious monkey. The core five--Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman--were joined by JLA members from the comic books Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hanna-Barbera created DEI hires Apache Chief, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and El Dorado (Note: I am in favor of DEI.) Their conflicts now centered on the Legion of Doom, 13 supervillains, mostly from the DC comics headed by Lex Luthor and including the Riddler, Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Mantis, Solomon Grundy, Giganta, and Toy Man, not to be confused with the Toyman who appeared in the Filmation Superman cartoon in 1966-7. The Legion holed up in a spaceship in a swamp and always managed to get away at the last minute.

All this time Olan Soule and Casey Kasem did Batman and Robin's voices, but for the final iteration Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Adam West returned to his role after the cancellation of CBS' The New Adventures of Batman. Kasem continued to voice Robin. I wonder how Soule felt having to relinquish a role they had played for almost a decade. The Wonder Twins rejoined the group who were now mainly occupied with Jack Kirby's Darkseid, his nephew Kalibak and henchman De Sade (voiced by Tony winner Rene Auberjonois, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Benson. Side note: In the 1986 Tony Awards salute to all the Best Play winners, Auberjonois read the excerpt from the 1966 winner, Marat/De Sade.) An interesting sexual twist was provided in this series of episodes. Darkseid was obsessed with Wonder Woman and wanted to abduct and marry her. Oh, and Firestorm and Cyborg were slipped in here as teen Super Friends to add to the youth appeal. (Olan Soule switched from Batman to voicing Prof. Stein, half of Firestorm's secret identity.)