Hanna Barbera’s Super Friends

Title: The Super Friends Production Company: Hanna-Barbera Created by: Gardner Fox, Alex Toth, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera Creative Consultants: E. Nelson Bridwell, Carmine Infantino and Julius Schwartz Seasons: 6 Official Seasons Number of Episode: 109 On Air From: 1973-1985 Status: Canceled

General Information
Super Friends ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera as a child-friendly version of the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

They headquartered themselves inside of the Hall of Justice, a centrally located fortress set within the confines of Metropolis. The heroes routinely monitored global catastrophes with the aid of an automated warning system called the Trouble Alert (or TroubAlert).

The Super Friends roster consisted of a core group of characters central to the spirit of comic book heroism: Superman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Throughout the different seasons, they began to include other DC Comics characters such as the Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman. The program also introduced several unique characters in the hopes of adding ethnic diversity to its lineup. Such as:
 * 1) Apache Chief, a Native American gifted with enhanced size and strength.
 * 2) Samurai was an Asian crime fighter who could rotate the lower half of his body for locomotion (among other powers) similar to the Justice League character Red Tornado.
 * 3) There was also Black Vulcan, an African American with powers similar to that of the comic character Black Lightning.
 * 4) The final original character added was El Dorado, a Hispanic hero with a number of abilities including teleportation.

In 1984, the show introduced Firestorm to the line-up. Firestorm joined the Justice League in the comic book shortly before his appearance on the series. The primary villain for this series was the alien demagogue Darkseid and his crew of minions from the other-dimensional world of Apokolips. Each week, Darkseid would engage upon a new and daring plan to conquer the Earth, forcing the Super Friends into action.

In 1985, the Super Friends  changed its title to the  Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians and added Cyborg to the team roster. This incarnation was the only version of the franchise that did not have Super Friends in the title. This series lasted only ten episodes. The final episode, The Death of Superman, was aired on November 6th, 1985.

Continuity With DC Comics
The SuperFriends Universe did not take place in the universe that existed at the time, Earth-One. Rather, it existed in what fans have dubbed the Earth-1A universe. This was because it shared similarities, but was distinctly different.

Many of the characters are based on the Silver Age version of the characters. However, Hanna-Barbera's series is set not during the Silver Age, but the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age is generally noted as starting in the early 70's and ending with the 1985-86 crossover maxi-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Production 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  SuperFriends. In part, it was feared that the name Justice League of America would have seemed too jingoistic during the Vietnam War and 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.

Series Guide:

 * Season 1:
 * 1973-1974 series: Super Friends


 * Season 2:
 * 1977-1978 series: The All-New Super Friends Hour


 * Season 3:
 * 1978-1979 series: new Super Friends & Challenge of the SuperFriends


 * Season 4:
 * 1979-1980 series: The World’s Greatest Super Friends


 * 1980 series: The Shorts, Part One


 * 1981 series: The Shorts, Part Two


 * 1982 series: The Best of the Super Friends – re-runs only


 * 1983 series: The Shorts, Part Three – Did not air in the USA


 * Season 5:
 * 1984 series: SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show


 * Season 6:
 * 1985 series: The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians

Narrator

 * Ted Knight (1973, seasons 1)
 * William Woodson (1977-1985, seasons 2-6)

Principal Cast



 * Superman – voiced by Danny Dark (seasons 1-6)
 * Robin – voiced by Casey Kasem (seasons 1-6)


 * Firestorm (aka Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein)
 * Mark L. Taylor as the voice of Ronnie Raymond (seasons 5-6)
 * Olan Soule as the voice of Professor Martin Stein (seasons 5)
 * - as the voice of Professor Martin Stein (seasons 6)


 * Batman
 * Olan Soule (seasons 1-4)
 * Adam West (seasons 5-6)


 * Aquaman
 * Norman Alden (seasons 1-2)
 * Bill Calloway (seasons 3-6)


 * Wonder Woman
 * Shannon Farnon (seasons 1-4)
 * Connie Cawlfield (seasons 5)
 * B.J. Ward (seasons 6)

Junior SuperFriends:
 * Marvin White – voiced by Frank Welker (1973, season 1)
 * Wendy Harris – voiced by Sherry Alberoni (1973, season 1)
 * Wonder Dog – voiced by Frank Welker (1973, season 1)


 * Wonder Twin, Jayna – voiced by Louise Williams (seasons 2-4) and voiced by B.J. Ward (season 5)
 * Wonder Twin, Zan – voiced by Michael Bell (seasons 2-5)
 * Gleek – voiced by Michael Bell (seasons 2-5)

Original Characters Created By Hanna Barbara

 * Black Vulcan - voiced by Buster Jones
 * Samurai - voiced by Jack Angel
 * Apache Chief - voiced by Michael Rye
 * El Dorado – voiced by Fernando Escandon

DC Comics characters who were not Justice League members in comics (at the time), only on the series

 * Rima, the Jungle Girl – voiced by Shannon Farnon or Kathy Garver
 * Cyborg – voiced by Ernie Hudson (season 6)

Guest Appearances

 * The Atom – voiced by Wally Burr
 * The Flash
 * Ted Knight (season 1)
 * Jack Angel (season 3-6)


 * Green Lantern / Hal Jordan – voiced by Michael Rye
 * Hawkman – voiced by Jack Angel
 * Hawkgirl – voiced by --

One-shot Justice League appearances

 * Plastic Man – voiced by Norman Alden?? and Michael Bell
 * Green Arrow – voiced by Norman Alden

Recurring DC Comics Villains

 * Desaad – voiced by Rene Auberjonois (seasons 5-6)
 * Darkseid – voiced by Frank Welker (seasons 5-6)
 * Kalibak – voiced by Frank Welker (seasons 5-6)
 * Mr. Mxyzptlk – voiced by Frank Welker
 * The Joker
 * The Penguin
 * Felix Faust
 * Mirror Master
 * The Royal Flush Gang
 * Gentleman Ghost
 * Bizarro's Clones
 * Woman Wondezarro (Wonder Woman Bizarro)
 * Firezarro (Firestorm Bizarro)
 * Cyzarro (Cyborg Bizarro)


 * Legion of Doom
 * Lex Luthor – voiced by Stan Jones
 * Brainiac - voiced by Ted Cassidy (seasons 3) and Stanley Ralph Ross (seasons 4-6)
 * Black Manta – voiced by Ted Cassidy
 * Cheetah (Priscilla Rich) – voiced by Marlene Aragon
 * Sinestro – voiced by Vic Perrin
 * Gorilla Grodd – voiced by Stanley Ralph Ross
 * Captain Cold – voiced by Dick Ryal
 * Scarecrow – voiced by Don Messick
 * Toyman – voiced by Frank Welker
 * Solomon Grundy – voiced by Jimmy Weldon
 * The Riddler – voiced by Michael Bell
 * Giganta – voiced by Ruth Forman
 * Bizarro - voiced by Bill Calloway

Other Characters

 * Colonel Wilcox – voiced by John Stephenson (1973, season 1)
 * James Gordon
 * Jimmy Olsen
 * Lois Lane – voiced by Shannon Farnon
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Jonathan Kent
 * Martha Kent
 * Perry White
 * Jor-El
 * Hippolyta
 * Steve Trevor
 * Solovar (ruler of Gorilla City)
 * Abin Sur (Hal Jordan's predecessor as Green Lantern)

Villains appearing not adapted from the comic books

 * Rock and Roll Space Bandits
 * The Robber Baron and Sleeves
 * Rokan
 * Dr. Gulliver
 * Vampirus
 * Dracula
 * The Doll Maker
 * Orville Gump
 * Darkon
 * Yuna the Terrible

Trivia

 * Cartoon Network produced a series of Super Friends lampoon shorts as a means of marketing their action/adventure line-up. In one animated short, Aquaman and Wonder Woman meet the Powerpuff Girls.


 * The SuperFriends have also been lampooned on popular programs such as South Park, the Family Guy, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Robot Chicken.


 * Wendy and Marvin, originally characters created specifically for the Super Friends, recently made their canon comic book debut in the pages of Teen Titans, Vol. 3 #34 (2006).


 * Late actor Ted Knight, more popularly known for his roles in the movie Caddyshack and the television sit-com Too Close for Comfort provided the voice of the Narrator on the 1973 version of the SuperFriends.


 * Up until 2003, Robin was the only original Super Friend who was never a member of any incarnation of the Justice League of America (excluding characters created expressly for the show). During the Obsidian Age storyline running through “select issues of JLA”, Dick Grayson became a deputy leader of the Justice League under his modern identity, Nightwing. Taking into account the entire Super Friends roster, Cyborg (Victor Stone) is the only comic-based character featured on the Super Friends who was never a member of the Justice League.


 * In the third chapter of the Secret Origins pilot movie of the Justice League animated series, the Flash issues a nod to older fans by referring to the newly formed Justice League as a "bunch of Super Friends".


 * Despite the fact that the series focused on high-flying heroes and evil, diabolical menaces, there has never been an overt scene of direct physical violence.


 * The character of Samurai made one canonical appearance in DC Comics. He appeared in the 1985 six-issue limited series “Super Powers (Volume 3)”. It can be argued that the Super Powers series of comic titles do not take place within mainstream DC continuity. Samurai is also the only character unique to the Super Friends cartoon to receive his own Super Powers action figure.


 * The character Apache Chief had the ability to enhance his physical stature to cosmic proportions by speaking the Native American words "Inuk-chuk".