Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
| Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Super Friends VII |
| Genre |
Adventure Animation Fantasy Sci-Fi |
| Created by |
E. Nelson Bridwell Carmine Infantino Julius Schwartz (consultants) |
| Written by |
Alan Burnett Gerry Conway Rich Fogel Cynthia Friedlob Glenn Leopold William M. Marston Al Milgrom John Semper Joe Shuster Jerry Siegel Jeff Segal Marc Scott Zicree |
| Directed by |
Ray Patterson (Supervising) Oscar Dufau |
| Creative director(s) | Iwao Takamoto |
| Voices of |
Jack Angel René Auberjonois Michael Bell William Callaway Constance Cawlfield Danny Dark Fernando Escandon Buster Jones Stan Jones Casey Kasem Stanley Ralph Ross Olan Soule Mark L. Taylor B.J. Ward Frank Welker Adam West |
| Narrated by | William Woodson |
| Composer(s) |
Hoyt Curtin Paul DeKorte |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 8 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Joseph Barbera William Hanna Margaret Loesch (Supervising) |
| Producer(s) | Kay Wright |
| Editor(s) |
Michael Bradley David Cowan Mary Gleason Jon Johnson Carol Lewis Catherine MacKenzie Kerry Williams Jerry Winicki Cecil Broughton Daniels Mclean Terry Moore Joe Sandusky Giv Iverson |
| Running time | 30 minutes (including commercials) |
| Production company(s) |
Hanna-Barbera Productions DC Comics |
| Distributor |
Taft Broadcasting (original) Warner Bros. Television (current) |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 8, 1984 – August 31, 1985 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Super Friends |
| Followed by | The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1984[1] to 1985[2] on ABC. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
Format
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show was the first Super Friends series in a new format since 1979's The World's Greatest Super Friends. Continuing the previous three years' policy of producing short stories, this series' format was two stories per half-hour, so all the separate stories were ten minutes long each. Furthermore, the Wonder Twins were largely supplanted as audience identification figures by Firestorm, a well established teenage superhero in the DC Comics Universe.
Toyline tie-in
Unlike previous series, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show was produced to tie-in with the Super Powers Collection toyline produced by Kenner, hence the name change. The general story, as detailed in the mini-comics that accompanied the figures, was that the major heroes of Earth had teamed up to fight Darkseid and his villains.
Characters
Super Friends/Justice League of America
Thirteen heroes made up the Super Friends. They were:
- Superman
- Batman
- Robin
- Wonder Woman
- Green Lantern
- Firestorm
- Black Vulcan
- Gleek
- Apache Chief
- Samurai
- El Dorado
- Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna)
According to DC writer/historian Mark Waid, Aquaman's sole appearance in The Legendary Super Powers Show comes via his appearance within the opening credits. The same is true for The Flash. This was the first time Wonder Woman was animated with the =w= symbol on her costume instead of the eagle design, this carried over into the final series, Galactic Guardians. Lynda Carter was unable to reprise this role for animation because she was busy with her singing career, commercials for Maybelline cosmetics, and television films. The series was also noteworthy for using Adam West as the voice of Batman, two decades after the end of his live action television series of Batman. West replaced Olan Soule and would continue through the subsequent Galactic Guardians series.
Villains
- Darkseid – Outside of the comic books for the first time, Darkseid was still attempting to conquer Earth (often with help from other villains), but also had a secondary goal, of making Wonder Woman his bride. Darkseid brought a degree of seriousness to a show that had largely lacked it.
- Kalibak – His appearance was not as brutish as in later TV incarnations, more like the original Jack Kirby design for the character. He was almost always depicted as boastful, dull-witted and ineffectual against the heroes.
- Desaad
- Brainiac – The mechanical version of Brainiac appeared in the episodes "The Wrath of Brainiac" and "The Village of Lost Souls". In "The Wrath of Brainiac," Brainiac reveals that he shed his earlier appearance when he worked alongside Darkseid.
- Mirror Master – Mirror Master appeared in an episode entitled "Reflections in Crime". Interestingly enough, the Flash doesn't appear in this episode. In the episode, Mirror Master sets about trapping the Super Friends in this particular episode inside mirrors called the sixth dimension. The Super Friends managed to escape and trap Mirror Master in a House of Mirrors.
- Lex Luthor – He appeared in the opening and the episodes "No Honor Among Super Thieves" (in which acquires his power suit from the comics of then), "Case of the Shrinking Super Friends" and "The Mask of Mystery".
- Mister Mxyzptlk – In this series, Mxyzptlk's name is pronounced as Miks-ill-plik (backwards, Kilp-ill-skim) and he takes to tormenting all the members of the team, even when Superman is absent.
- The Robber Baron and Sleeves
- Dollmaker
For this series, Lex Luthor and Brainiac were completely revamped to resemble their comic book counterparts.
List of episodes
Cast
- Jack Angel – Samurai
- René Auberjonois – Desaad
- James Avery – Mirror Master (in "Reflections in Crime"), Alien Auctioneer (in "Darkseid's Golden Trap")
- Michael Bell – Zan, Gleek, Captain Mystery/Sidney Wanamaker (in "Mask of Mystery")
- Gregg Berger – Benny the Bungler (in "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp"), Orson the Pig
- Arthur Burghardt – General Plankton (in "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp")
- Howard Caine – Dr. Dan Corwin (in "Island of the Dinosoids")
- William Callaway- Aquaman
- Connie Cawlfield – Wonder Woman
- Danny Dark – Superman
- Fernando Escandon – El Dorado
- Patrick Fraley – Remlar (in "The Curator")
- Liz Georges – Little Superman (in "Uncle Mxyzptlk")
- Buster Jones – Black Vulcan
- Stan Jones (actor) – Lex Luthor, Sleeves (in "Mask of Mystery")
- Casey Kasem – Robin, Shaggy Rogers
- Mary McDonald-Lewis – Lois Lane
- Mickey McGowan – Princess Tara (in "The Royal Ruse")
- Stanley Ralph Ross – Brainiac
- Michael Rye – Apache Chief, Green Lantern
- Olan Soule – Professor Martin Stein
- Mark Taylor – Ronald Raymond/Firestorm
- Dick Tufeld - Announcer
- B. J. Ward (actress) - Jayna
- Frank Welker – Darkseid, Kalibak, Mister Mxyzptlk, Dollmaker (in "The Case of the Dreadful Dolls"), Pingu
- Adam West – Batman
- Bill Woodson - Narrator
Note: Beginning with this version, Adam West replaced Olan Soule as the voice of Batman
Crew
- Gordon Hunt - Recording Director
Home Media releases
- Warner Home Video released The Complete Series of Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show on DVD[3] on August 7, 2007.
| DVD name | Ep No. | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete Series | 16 | August 7, 2007 |
See also
References
External links
- Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show at Big Cartoon DataBase
- Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show at the Internet Movie Database
- Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show at TV.com
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