Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show |
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| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Creative director(s) | Iwao Takamoto |
| Voices of |
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| Narrated by | William Woodson |
| Theme music composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Composer(s) |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 8 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Kay Wright |
| Editor(s) |
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| Running time | 30 minutes (including commercials) |
| Production company(s) | |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | Color |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | September 8, 1984 – August 31, 1985 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Super Friends |
| Followed by | The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians |
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1984 to 1985 on ABC. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
Contents
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. However, continuing the trend from the "lost season" episodes, the Wonder Twins were paired with other Justice League members, as opposed to always teaming up with Wonder Woman or Batman & Robin. In "Case of The Shrinking Super Friends" they are teamed with Firestorm and Robin. In "Uncle Mxyzptlk" they work with Firestorm and Samurai. In "Village of The Lost Souls" they work with Wonder Woman and Apache Chief.
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". The Flash does not 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 – Alien Auctioneer (in "Darkseid's Golden Trap"), Cromar (in "Darkseid's Golden Trap")
- Michael Bell – Zan, Gleek
- Gregg Berger – Benny the Bungler (in "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp"), Ernie (in "Mr. Mxyzpltlk and the Magic Lamp)
- Arthur Burghardt – General Plankton (in "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp")
- Howard Caine – Dr. Dan Corwin (in "Island of the Dinosoids"), King Timon (in "The Royal Ruse")
- Connie Cawlfield – Diana Prince / Wonder Woman
- Danny Dark – Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman
- Fernando Escandon – El Dorado
- Patrick Fraley – Captain Mystery/Sidney Wanamaker (in "Mask of Mystery"), Bank Guard (in "Mask of Mystery"), Remlar (in "The Curator")
- Liz Georges – Little Superman (in "Uncle Mxyzptlk")
- Buster Jones – Black Vulcan
- Stan Jones – Lex Luthor, Robber Baron (in "Mask of Mystery"), Sleeves (in "Mask of Mystery")
- Casey Kasem – Dick Grayson / Robin , Mirror Master (in "Reflections in Crime")
- Mary McDonald-Lewis – Lois Lane
- Mickey McGowan – Princess Tara (in "The Royal Ruse")
- Stanley Ralph Ross – Brainiac
- Michael Rye – Apache Chief, Hal Jordan / Green Lantern, Dr. Dan Corwin's Assistant (in "Island of the Dinosoids")
- Olan Soule – Professor Martin Stein
- Mark Taylor – Ronald Raymond/Firestorm
- Dick Tufeld - Announcer
- B.J. Ward - Jayna
- Frank Welker – Uxas / Darkseid, Kalibak, Mister Mxyzptlk, Trucker (in "The Wrath of Brainiac"), Inspector Throckmorton (in "Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Magic Lamp"), Dollmaker (in "The Case of the Dreadful Dolls")
- Adam West – Bruce Wayne / Batman
- Bill Woodson - Narrator
Note: Beginning with this version, Adam West replaced Olan Soule as the voice of Batman.
Crew
- Gordon Hunt - Recording Director
- Mitch Schauer - Title Design, Story Director
