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Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show

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Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
Also known asSuper Friends VII
Genre
Created by
Based on
Written by
Directed by
Creative directorIwao Takamoto
Voices of
Narrated byWilliam Woodson
Theme music composerHoyt Curtin
Composers
  • Hoyt Curtin
  • Paul DeKorte
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
ProducerKay Wright
Editors
  • 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 time30 minutes (including commercials)
Production companies
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseSeptember 8, 1984 –
August 31, 1985

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.[1]

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.[2] 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:

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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

List of episodes

Main articles: List of Super Friends episodes and The Legendary Super Powers Show

Cast

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

Production credits

Home media

DVD name Ep No. Release date
The Complete Series 16 August 7, 2007

See also

References

  1. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 802–804. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  2. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 606–610. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  3. ^ Cyrenne, Randall (2007-09-30). "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show: The Complete Series • Animated Views". Animated-views.com. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
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