THE FILMATION FILES: Celebrating the late Lou Scheimer’s birthday… — UPDATED 10/19/26: The late Filmation impresario Lou Scheimer was born 98 years ago, on Oct. 19, 1928! Perfect time to reprint this piece, which first ran in 2017. Dig it! — Dan — I’ll let you in on a little secret: I don’t really love Super Friends. It’s not like I actively dislike it or anything and I know it sounds heretical to anyone who, like me, grew up in the ’70s. Though I dug the whole Legion of Doom schtick, Super Friends was a staple mostly because it was often the only superhero game in town on Saturday mornings. Filmation? That’s another thing entirely. I love Filmation’s DC Comics cartoons from the ’60s, which I discovered through the magic of syndication. Part of it is because Filmation’s cartoons are unapologetically schlocky in a way that Super Friends isn’t. Super Friends, with its contrived teenage interlopers, derivative animal sidekicks and “Health” segments, feels more annoyingly earnest. Even the name “Super Friends” is condescending. Filmation had no such pretentions: They’re adventure cartoons starring my favorite superheroes, done on the cheap, cheesy in the best possible way. Why am I mentioning all this now? Simple: The big-screen Justice League is out next week (11/17, officially) and I can’t help but think back to the first time the League banded together on screen — in three shorts produced in 1967 as part of the Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure. Quick bit of background for the uninitiated: Filmation struck it big with its Saturday morning The New Adventures of Superman cartoon in 1966 — a good year for TV superheroes — on CBS. The next year, they expanded with Aquaman cartoons, which may be the best Filmation ever produced. But they also added a series of “guest-star” shorts featuring solo adventures of the Atom, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman, and two teams: the Teen Titans and the Justice League of America. Each got three shorts apiece. I wasn’t really exposed to those shorts when I first watched Filmation’s DC cartoons in the early ’70s. But now, they’re a frequent source of background noise at 13th Dimension headquarters. They’re easy to get, either on disc or online. (Click here.) As it happens, those JLA cartoons are the weakest of the bunch: Three nondescript adventures — Between Two Armies, Target Earth and Bad Day on Black Mountain — feature our...
A BIRTHDAY SPECIAL: She was the Platonic ideal… — UPDATED 10/17/26: The late Margot Kidder was born 78 years ago! This piece first ran when she died in May 2018, but the sentiments endure. — Dan — Certain actors so embody a role that their performance becomes a touchstone, an exemplar. When it comes to superheroes and the like, there have even been a handful of cases where that real-life performance surpasses what’s on the page — or at least sets a new template. I’m thinking Burt Ward as Robin, Julie Newmar as Catwoman and, of course, Christopher Reeve as Superman as three prime examples. You can add Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane to the list. Kidder has died at the age of 69 (click here). But her run as The Daily Planet’s most fearless reporter is indelibly etched in the public imagination. Here are 13 QUICK THOUGHTS: Why MARGOT KIDDER Was the Best LOIS LANE Ever: 1. She redefined Lois Lane for all media. DC had begun to modernize her in the ’70s but it’s Kidder’s portrayal — as conceived by director Richard Donner, script doctor Tom Mankiewicz and co. — that took hold in the decades that followed, whether on screen or on the page. Lois’ raison d’etre was no longer to marry Superman: She was a completely modern, thoroughly committed career woman who just happened to be interested in the Man of Steel. That’s a big distinction. 2. And she wasn’t just good at her job — as she was in the comics or Mary Richards was on TV — she was big and brassy about it. In 1978, that was still a big deal. 3. Kidder’s Lois had such sizzle that’s it’s obvious why Superman would want to be with her. For years, whether in comics or on screen, Superman treated Lois like an amusing annoyance or something of a mascot, akin to a female Jimmy Olsen. Kidder, on the other hand, gave us someone whom the most powerful and desirable man on the planet would want to be with. — 4. She was no damsel. Sure, Superman had to rescue her from the helicopter crash and the earthquake. But he would have had to rescue anybody in those circumstances. The one chance she has to meet an adversary on equal footing — the mugger in the...
SUNDAY FUNNIES WITH KERRY CALLEN!
A 60th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: The one-time second-rate Batman villain debuted in April 1966…
