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Submitted by Garland P, voiced by Casey Kasem
Super Friends was a cross between the DC Comics universe and some Scooby Doo knockoffs. (Actually, I think there was an actual Scooby Doo crossover at some point.) The cartoon ran for some 13 years, and though the show itself was never great (not terrible, but never brilliant), it’s cultural legacy remains ingrained on our collective consciousness. What am I talking about again?
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Batman and Robin were super “special” friends.
Na na na na na na na batwoman
Na na na na na na na na Na na na na na na na na Fat Man!, Fat Man. (Repeat)
boy blubber, boy blubber and fat man!
OMG, of all the things to dredge up from the shattered bits and pieces of my memory…
GLEEK MUST DIE! Gods, how I hated that stupid beast!
Actually, the Scooby-Doo / Batman crossover predated the Super Friends by a year, and was part of the “New Scooby-Doo Movies” series in 1972.
Unfortunately, I remember the SF as being part of the wimping down of Saturday Morning cartoons. Five years before, you had “Space Ghost,” “Herculoids,” and such; here, you have DC’s finest and… WENDY AND MARVIN?!?!?!!??
And half the time they weren’t fighting baddies like Lex Luthor (at least not for a few seasons), but were “educating” viewers. (Note to all writers — conflict is a basic element of a good story!)
Unfortunately, it also continued a growing trend of subcontracting out the animation overseas, so what little quality control Hanna-Barbera had on their productions totally went out the window.
Sorry, I don’t remember it so fondly. If you want an animation win from that era, look at “Star Trek: The Animated Series.”
While I agree with everything else you said completly, that anything can be said to be _worse_ than Star Trek: TAS hurts my brain.
I mean, it was so bad Gene disavowed all knowledge of it. We’re talking Star Wars Christmas Special-level bad here. (Did that stop me from getting the DVD, no; but I also bought the un-MSTed version of “Manos” The Hands of Fate…)
I kinda enjoyed the blatant crossover with Larry Niven’s Known Space universe.
Herculoids, Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr FTW. The only real problem I had with Superfriends was when someone pointed out that Ted Knight was the narrator (I could never listen to it after that without thinking “Yup, that’s Ted Knight.”).
“Form of: dirty mop water!”
“Form of: an iguana!”
Wuh?
Back to its very earliest days, the Justice League always had a “token mortal.” See: “Snapper” Carr.
how did aquaman make it to the top 4 in the greatest heroes of the universe contest???
He showed up to the casting call.
Not terrible? I’ve been reading some reviews of a show on a Web Site, and, yes, it IS terrible. Continuity errors, animation issues, characters’ powers coming and going for nothing more than plot convenience…
Let us not forget to heap some disrespect on Challenge of the Superfriends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7cnPBxAI8M
Sure, they began to acknowledge that there are other Justice League members besides the “Big Three” and Summon-Fish-Guy, but then Hanna-Barbara starts creating new characters to promote “racial diversity”, and ends up with some of the most stereotypical non-white characters on animated television. Apache Chief? Samurai? El Dorado? Sheesh. (At least Black Vulcan–who was created solely so Hanna-Barbara wouldn’t have to pay royalties to the creator of actual DC Comics character Black Lightning–wasn’t flying around calling people “jive turkeys” or something.)
And I want to know who exactly voted any incarnation of the Toyman (at the time) onto the Legion of Doom. Even pantless Brainiac gets more respect than My-Gimmick-Is-Toys-Man.
“Apache chief, put the satellite on the roof.”
Wasn’t this the one where none of the villains were allowed to be “evil”? They were all just misunderstood. :b
That and the heroes weren’t allowed to punch anything.
Or am I thinking about another show?
__/^-^\__ *Miya!*
I love how Batman’s part of the intro doesn’t even make him look heroic. He just drives up in his car, picks up the kids, and totally rejects the dog.
Bat @*%! hole is more like it.
“…and to serve all mankind.”
It’s a COOKBOOK!
OK, here’s the ultimate tribute to the Superfriends that I found a few years ago….
http://www.seanbaby.com/super.htm
seanbaby’s Superfriends drinking game is awesome….and he gives Aquaman the proper amount of respect, which is, of course, none whatsoever.
You know, what’s really funny is that a couple years ago, in the comics, they introduced Wendy & Marvin as sort of supporting characters for one of the Titans episodes – till it turned out “Wonder Dog” was actually a hell hound in disguise, and KILLED AND ATE Wendy & Marvin….
Gotta love writers willing to do self-parody of a really bad idea from the past.
And, ST:TAS was nowhere NEAR as bad as Skyfire thinks, and Gene did NOT completely disavow it; that’s urban legend. It was treated as non-canon – but then again, TNG repeatedly violated the original series canon (starting with the pilot), and First Contact (movie) & Entreprise blew ST:TOS canon to smithereens.
Note that the same writers worked, for the most part, on TOS & TAS. The series might have been dumbed down a little, but it was still probably one of the more mature animated series of its time. ST:TAS’ big problem was that in had some copyright issues (let’s see – a kzin on the bridge, to start…) – and I doubt ANY of the episodes could hold a candle to the lameness of “Spock’s Brain”.
well, actually, Wendy survived, a parapelegic, but close enough….
Okay, so I’m a nerd…wasn’t the VO guy actually Ted Knight, not Casey Kasem? Ted Knight was the judge in Caddyshack, and Casey was the voice of Robin.
Ted Knight voiceover for the total win. And a Scooby-Doo crossover, good God, Casey Kasem must’ve had to put his vocal cords in traction for a month.
I think the best thing that ever came out of the Superfriends was the Budweiser parody…
Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog were added just to make Aquaman look useful.
Is that the Mac OS 10.5 default background image at 0:18 ?