Super Friends: The Complete Series

Super Friends brought together the greatest DC superheroes, who teamed up to fight for justice with the help of some young protégés. Produced by Hanna-Barbera, this animated series ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC, becoming a staple of Saturday morning cartoons.

The TV series Super Friends had a significant impact on Aquaman’s reputation as a character, arguably doing more harm than good. In the context of the kid-friendly Justice League cast, Aquaman often felt like a fish out of water, struggling to stand. Interestingly, despite featuring characters from the Justice League, the series never actually referred to them by that name. One aspect I loved about Super Friends was the opening theme song. Composed by Hoyt Curtin, who also created the iconic Jonny Quest theme and countless other cartoon scores, the theme was a hard-driving piece that perfectly captured the spirit of adventure.

When Hanna-Barbera acquired the animation rights to DC Comics characters, the studio made several key changes. One of the most significant was renaming the series to Super Friends, as the title Justice League of America was considered potentially too superpatriotic for the era, especially during the sensitive period of the Vietnam War. Additionally, the level of violence typical in superhero comics was greatly reduced to appeal to a younger audience and to meet the strict broadcast standards for children’s television in the 1970s. The result was a more kid-friendly version of the Justice League that still preserved the essence of the original characters.

However, one thing that still puzzles me is why the show included two ordinary teenagers, Wendy and Marvin, along with Wonder Dog, who were regularly put in perilous situations against the world’s most dangerous villains. The later addition of the Wonder Twins and Gleek, who at least had superpowers, made more sense in that regard.

Super Friends starred an ever-changing lineup of DC superheroes, including The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Hawkman, and such TV-made creations as Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai, and El Dorado. The Hall of Justice-based Super Friends would eventually encounter Darkseid and the Legion of Doom, a maniacal menagerie of such supervillains as Lex Luthor, Bizarro, Brainiac, Scarecrow, the Riddler, Cheetah, Sinestro, and Gorilla Grodd. Among the actors to voice the show’s various iterations: Danny Dark (Superman), Olan Soule (Batman), Casey Kasem (Robin), Shannon Farnon (Wonder Woman), Norman Alden (Aquaman), Frank Welker (Marvin and Wonder Dog), Sherry Alberoni (Wendy), John Stephenson (Colonel Wilcox), Ted Knight (the Narrator), Jack Angel (Samurai), Michael Rye (Apache Chief), Buster Jones (Black Vulcan), Ernie Hudson (Cyborg), and Adam West (Batman, 1984-1985).

Super Friends: The Complete Collection features all 93 episodes of the ABC-aired series, including the original Super Friends (1973), The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977), Challenge of the Superfriends (1978), The World’s Greatest SuperFriends (1979), Super Friends (1980), Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984), and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985). The 16-disc set is available to pre-order on Amazon on both Blu-ray and DVD.