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Super Friends is an animated series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1973 to 1985. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
History
When animation company Hanna-Barbera obtained the licensing rights to the DC Comics characters and adapted the Justice League comic to television, it made several changes in the transition, not the least of which was the change of name to the "Super Friends." The violence common in superhero comics was toned down for a younger audience. The primary characters featured in the series were Superman, Batman with Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Their first sidekicks were Wendy and Marvin and their mutt Wonderdog, none of whom had any special abilities; later these were replaced by Zan and Jayna the Wonder Twins and the space monkey Gleek. The other members of the Justice League were not regularly featured except as guest stars, such as The Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, The Atom, and Firestorm.
In the earlier years, each episode was a single hour-long story, and the villians were often misguided, rather than evil. In later episodes, there were two or more short stories in each hour.
The Legion of Doom was a team of recurring foes made up of the Super Friends' worst enemies.
A number of original superheroes (Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai El Dorado and Rima) intended to be international heroes, were created for the show as well in order to encourage racial and cultural diversity. Critics felt that these attempts were awkward at best and very stereotypical and somewhat offensive at worst.
Series
The show was featured under several titles, though only about 60 episodes were produced altogether.
- Super Friends (1973)
- All-New Super Friends Hour (1977)
- Challenge of the Super Friends (1978)
- World's Greatest Super Friends (1979)
- Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984)
- The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)
External links
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