Super Friends | |
---|---|
Genre | Superhero fiction |
Voices of |
Danny Dark Olan Soule Casey Kasem Shannon Farnon Norman Alden Sherry Alberoni Frank Welker Ted Knight Ted Cassidy |
Theme music composer | Hoyt S. Curtin Will Schaefer |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 9 over 13 years |
No. of episodes | 109 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Joseph Barbera William Hanna |
Producer(s) | Lewis Marshall Iwao Takamoto |
Running time | 60 minutes approx. |
Production company(s) |
Hanna-Barbera Productions DC Comics |
Distributor |
Taft Broadcasting (1973–1986) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (1983-present, syndication) |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Original release | September 8, 1973 | – September 6, 1986
Chronology | |
Related shows |
Justice League Justice League Unlimited |
External links | |
Website |
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of America (JLA) and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
The name of the program (and the JLA members featured with the Super Friends) have been variously represented (as Super Friends and Challenge of the Super Friends, for example) at different points in its broadcast history. There were a total of 109 episodes and two backdoor-pilot episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, with Batman and Robin appearing in "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair" and "The Caped Crusader Caper."
Over the years, the show existed under several titles:
Plot lines for the later series involved many of the familiar DC Comics super-villains but the first incarnation of the Super Friends did not. Instead, like the comic books, they focused on the far-fetched schemes of mad scientists and aliens, who were invariably revealed as being well-intentioned, and simply pursuing their goals through unlawful or disreputable means. Typically, at the end of each story, a peaceful and reasonable discussion would be performed by the heroes to convince the antagonists to adopt more reasonable methods.
The All-New Super Friends Hour departed somewhat from the previous series' formula by featuring villains using more elaborate methods to further their goals; as a rule they could not be reasoned with, requiring the heroes to use direct force to stop them. Beginning with Challenge of the Super Friends, several of the heroes' arch-villains from the comic books (such as Lex Luthor and The Riddler) began to feature prominently in comic-style stories. Throughout the series, plots often wrapped themselves up neatly in the final minutes of an episode in the fashion of the typical comic books and deus ex machina.