Their mission: To fight injustice, to right that which is wrong, and to serve all mankind!
Super Friends premiered Sept. 8, 1973, on ABC, to much ballyhoo among the kiddie set. I was among that first wave, so it’s with a certain level poetic satisfaction that I’m the co-host of The World’s Greatest Super Friends Podcast with our pal John S. Drew.
In addition to being a weekly DC superhero-cartoon fix, Super Friends gave us a litany of pop-culture and comic-book references that endure to this day: Aquaman jokes; “Wonder Twin powers… activate!”; the Legion of Doom; the never-not-annoying Marvin; the Hoyt Curtin theme music; the Alex Toth designs; the mind-numbing De-Coder segments and, conversely, the often helpful Safety Tips; “Inook chook!”; and so much more.
Beyond all that it was just a kick. Too bad that to a substantial degree, the show doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves: I mean, the notoriously inscrutable Max app recently took Super Friends off the streaming platform, just shy of the show’s 50th anniversary. What the fork?!
But I’m not here to moan. I’m here to salute a show that was part of the fabric of growing up in the ’70s — and well into the ’80s. How best to pay tribute? Why, with a special episode of The World’s Greatest Super Friends Podcast, which is live now. John and I are joined by two guests — 13th Dimension contributor and podcaster Chris Franklin and Will Rodgers, co-writer of the essential, two-volume The Ultimate Super Friends Companion.
We wax rhapsodic and idiotic in equal measures, talking about a show that was an indelible part of life in the Bronze Age.
Right on.
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MORE
— The Secret Origin of the SUPER FRIENDS Comic Book Series. Click here.
— Pour Yourself Some Cereal and Dig This Groovy SUPER FRIENDS Art. Click here.
September 8, 2023
Happy 50th anniversary to “Super Friends”!
September 8, 2023
I never put it together before but I think SUPER FRIENDS was my “gateway” to DC Comics. I’d already been picking up Harvey and Archie comics but the first DCs I got were on the stands in late (December) 1973/early 1974. Happy Anniversary and thank you for putting me on the path to decades of awesome comics, SUPER FRIENDS! (You’ve cost me a fortune lol!)
September 9, 2023
It was hard to understand the success of ABC’s “SUPER FRIENDS” in Fall 1973, because the previous TV season (1972-73) was an experiment, as CBS’s “THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES” brought back Batman and Robin in two episodes, while ABC’s “THE BRADY KIDS” also had Superman appear in “Cindy’s Super Friend”, and also made the cartoon debut of “Wonder Woman”, which prompted ABC to create “SUPER FRIENDS”, and even using Ted Knight’s voice as series narrator, since he did this same function at Filmation Associates from 1966 to 1968, and frankly, The Filmation/NPP-TV versions were much more better! Hanna-Barbera’s first season of “SUPER FRIENDS” was a watered down, non-violent, and somewhat bland version of the DC Superheroes, because their violence was not allowed, especially after 1968, when angry parents began objecting to the cartoon violence- and, from 1974 to the 1976-77 TV season, ABC reran “SUPER FRIENDS, and even edited down the series to a half hour, until the series official second season began in September 1977 as “THE ALL NEW SUPERFRIENDS HOUR”, which was much better then the first season (where the animation was made in Austrailia at Eric Porter Studios), while “CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS” in 1978 took the format to a greater level-but by Fall 1985, they saved the best for last, when ABC finished the 11th and final season with “GALACTIC GUARDIANS-THE SUPER POWERS TEAM”, with improved character designs and overseas animation, which made a huge difference! Ruby-Spears Enterprises later made “SUPERMAN” in Fall 1988 for CBS, which also quite impressive, shortly before the arrival of “BATMAN-THE ANIMATED SERIES” on FOX in Fall 1992.
September 11, 2023
Super Friends was one of my all time favorite shows growing up great memories Happy 50th Anniversary.