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109-468: Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC as part of its Saturday-morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics . The title of the series varied from season to season, as did the superheroes on

218-474: A comic book version of the Super Friends from November 1976 to August 1981. The comic book series was launched by E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Ric Estrada . Zan and Jayna were given back stories and secret identities as a pair of blond-haired high school kids; they were more competent heroes than their cartoon counterparts. While the television cartoons were not part of the same fictional universe as

327-745: A JLA emblem on a communicator and a reference to a mission to repair the Justice League satellite, the Super Friends are often linked with the JLA. The Justice League satellite under repair is clearly the same design as the Justice League Satellite that appeared in the comics at the time, but was shown to be substantially smaller than its comic book counterpart. The voice of the Narrator was provided by actor Ted Knight during

436-463: A boy and a dog, but they were never able to sell it and almost closed down; until approached by DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger to do a Superman cartoon that premiered on CBS on September 10, 1966. This was followed by several of the other DC superheroes, and then, in 1968, the first Archie Show . Both series greatly helped Filmation's popularity to increase into the 1970s, when it scored big with several of its series. The Filmation studio

545-518: A child-friendly show, shifted its target group to ages 12 and up, resulting in a darker and more mature storyline. Animated film theatrical series include all early animated series: Animated Weekly (1913), The Newlyweds (1913 — 1915), Travelaughs (1913, 1915 — 1918, 1921 — 1923), Doc Yak (1913 — 1915), Colonel Heeza Liar (1913 — 1917, 1922 — 1924), Kapten Grogg  [ sv ] (1916 — 1922), Les Aventures des Pieds Nickelés (1917 — 1918),

654-435: A device that was supposedly created to allow Prescott and Scheimer to share equal billing. Previously, Scheimer's name had been placed above Prescott's. However, the later Filmation productions credited only Scheimer, in the form of his signature ("Lou Scheimer, (Executive) Producer"), starting with Gilligan's Planet (1982). Many of its series—particularly the productions of the late 1970s and 1980s—are notable for imparting

763-516: A direct adaptation, was inspired by the film (and later TV series ) M*A*S*H . M*U*S*H is an acronym for Mangy Unwanted Shabby Heroes since all the character were dogs stationed in the Arctic . The studio's intellectual property assets have changed hands on a number of occasions. The in-house productions ( The Archie Show , Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids , etc.), which form a majority of

872-491: A fear-induced flashback. Additionally, in the same episode, Professor Jonathan Crane appears as the Scarecrow's secret identity, which was unknown to the authorities, allowing Scarecrow to use it to secretly sabotage the Super Friends' investigations until Batman managed to deduce his identity, leading to his arrest. The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians lasted one season before being canceled. The final new episode aired

981-483: A government liaison with the Super Friends during emergencies. Colonel Wilcox was voiced by John Stephenson . Conflicts were usually resolved with the antagonists persuaded to adapt more reasonable methods to achieve their aims (with the assistance of the heroes). Natural disasters triggered by human (or alien) activity were often shown, and environmental themes featured strongly in the program. Three other DC Comics superheroes were featured as guest stars during this season:

1090-566: A group of classic monsters. Directed by Sutherland and written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville , it aired on ABC as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie on December 16, 1972 . While most of the Warner Bros. characters were drawn well (veteran Warners animator Virgil Ross was working there at the time, along with other animators that had worked for Warner Bros. Animation in the late 1960s, such as Laverne Harding and Ed Solomon ), and were voiced by veteran voice actor Mel Blanc ,

1199-598: A local station of a television network broadcasts an animated series as a part of its own programming, the time-slot will vary by region. All early animated television series, the first being Crusader Rabbit (1950 — 1959), are comic cartoon series. However, later series include sports ( Speed Racer , Captain Tsubasa , Slam Dunk ), action ( Hajime no Ippo , G.I. Joe ), science fiction ( Mobile Suit Gundam , Tenchi Muyo ), drama ( Neon Genesis Evangelion ), adventure ( Dragon Ball ), martial arts ( Baki

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1308-527: A majority of Filmation's work in the 1980s), along with John Erwin (voice of Reggie Mantle, and later the voice of He-Man ), Alan Oppenheimer (character actor in TV and film), Ted Knight , George DiCenzo (John Blackstar , Hordak , Bow on She-Ra ), Bill Cosby (voice of Fat Albert and himself), Melendy Britt , Howard Morris , Pat Fraley , Charlie Adler , Ed Gilbert , Susan Blu , Peter Cullen , Frank Welker , and Lou Scheimer (either uncredited, or under

1417-521: A movie for theatrical release, Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All . The original film edit was only aired three times on NBC , years after the series was cancelled. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was another hailed series created by and starring Bill Cosby with an explicit educational focus. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe , based on the popular line of Mattel toys, opened up

1526-423: A new Tom and Jerry series as well. Filmation also ventured into the feature film business. With their success in television firmly established by 1970, the company became profitable enough to return to the shelved Journey Back to Oz project, completing the animation and some minor voiceover work begun in 1962, and finished the film in 1971. It would take another year for Journey to be released theatrically in

1635-520: A new North American market for first-run television syndication for animation in the 1980s. The animated adaptations of the Archie Comics characters were also noteworthy for the original pop music produced for it, particularly the song " Sugar, Sugar ", which was a No. 1 hit single. In addition, certain episodes of He-Man and BraveStarr , in substance, and often animation, were pioneers in children's animated series of their time and paved

1744-441: A number of attempts to rise above the standard animated fare and produce reasonably well-written cartoons. The best-known example of this is its animated adaptation Star Trek: The Animated Series , which included scripts contributed by well-known science fiction writers and starred most of the original cast. Other favorably remembered Filmation series included a 16-part animated serial of Flash Gordon , originally intended as

1853-878: A power ring in an issue of The Brave and The Bold after the ring was destroyed in Super Friends issue #46. 3. Superman already being familiar with Dr. Mist and the international heroes in DC Comics Presents after meeting them in Super Friends issues #7–9 and #12–13. Animated series Animated television series are presented daily or on certain days of the week during a prescribed time slot , including for example saturday-morning cartoons , prime time cartoons , late night anime , and weekday cartoons ; series broadcast only on weekends. The duration of an episode also varies. Traditionally, they are produced as complete half-hour or nearly half-hour programs; however, many are presented as animated shorts of 10 — 11 minutes, which can be combined for filling

1962-547: A rare denunciation from the National Association of Broadcasters , which accused Filmation of corrupting the Lassie franchise with "violence, crime and stupidity." A trademark of the company's productions, beginning in 1969, was a rotating, circular "Produced by" (and on some series, "Executive Producers") credit seen in the ending credits (and in later productions, the opening sequences) of Filmation programs, as

2071-597: A resemblance to the original Filmation logo designed by Ted Littlefield, would soon go on to become "Sib-Tower 12 Productions" and produce the first few of Chuck Jones ' Tom and Jerry films for MGM , until becoming MGM Animation/Visual Arts for the remainder of the films). Norm Prescott brought in Filmation's first major project, Journey Back to Oz , an animated sequel to the MGM film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Begun in 1962, storyboarding, voice recording, and most of

2180-429: A series starring the character in his own solo adventures. A Batman animated series was also considered in the mid-1980s, presumably with Adam West reprising his role as the voice of Batman. "The Fear" was written as a pilot episode for the series, but was instead adapted in to an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians . In 1983, a cartoon based upon The New Teen Titans comics began development. It

2289-460: A set time period in "segments", including several such shorts. When advertising is taken into account, the cartoon itself may be only 15 — 20 minutes of the half hour, although Netflix and many other streaming companies do not show commercials. There are also series with a very short episodes lasting approximately five minutes; they have recently become more common in Japanese animation . If

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2398-400: A simple moral or life-lesson (explained by a key character, in a child-friendly manner) in the epilogue. The studio created very few original animated characters. Two examples were Fraidy Cat , a timid feline who has lost eight of his nine lives, which come back to haunt him; and Wacky and Packy, a caveman and his pet mammoth (Packy refers to the latter character being a "pachyderm") who enter

2507-413: A two-part riddle featuring the week's primary plot line. This was the first season to feature two villains appearing in the comic books, Black Manta and Gentleman Ghost . Each appeared in only one episode this season and each was somewhat modified for television. Black Manta's costume was not black and he was only referred to as "Manta". The Gentleman Ghost was referred to as "Gentleman Jim Craddock" which

2616-469: Is beginning to serve as representative for three animated films at the MIFED, in order to cleaning up unsold territories on various Filmation productions, which accordingly hit by a lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company back in 1985 in order to prevent making films that the company claims to be based on Disney classics. Like other animation studios, Filmation had its stock company of voiceover actors. Some of

2725-575: Is his human name in the comics. The next season of Super Friends featured two segments: The first segment of the program featured the established group of heroes: Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and the Wonder Twins and Gleek. They were rerun with intro from the All-New Super Friends Hour when in syndication in the early 1980s, but they are seldom seen in syndication since then. The second half-hour of

2834-710: The Tom and Jerry cartoon short films released in movie theatres from 1940 to 1967, and many others. Direct-to-video animated series include most Japanese original video animations (OVAs). The first OVA series (and also the first overall OVA) was Dallos (1983 — 1985). Almost all hentai (pornographic) anime series are released as OVAs. Animated web series are designed and produced for streaming services . Examples include Happy Tree Friends (1999 — 2023) and Eddsworld (2003 — present). They can also be released on YouTube , such as Asdfmovie , which debuted in 2008. Filmation Filmation Associates

2943-547: The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) to adapt the Justice League of America comic book for television . The network made several changes in the transition including the change of name to Super Friends to "cut off any accusations of extreme patriotism". Nevertheless, team members sometimes referred to themselves as the Justice League on the show. The violence common in superhero comics

3052-508: The BraveStarr episode "The Price", which includes the death of a character due to drug addiction. The 1985 Fat Albert episode "Busted" was a direct homage to the primetime Scared Straight! specials. A first for American children's cartoons, the original airing of this episode included mild profanity that has, however, been edited out of re-airings and home video versions. Likewise, the scripts for Star Trek , which were often written by

3161-574: The Challenge of the Superfriends season: Villains appearing independently from the Legion of Doom: Beginning with the original Super Friends season, the opening narration describes the team's headquarters as "the great hall of the Justice League". The opening credits of Challenge of the Superfriends names the Super Friends as the Justice League of America . In addition to the appearance of

3270-863: The DC Comics character Captain Marvel ), The Ghost Busters and The Secrets of Isis . Filmation produced a live-action series called The Ghost Busters (1975), starring former F Troop stars Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker , with noted science-fiction fan and collector Bob Burns as "Tracy the Gorilla". The characters worked as paranormal investigators, working for an unseen "Chief" named "Zero" who delivered their "Ghost Busting Assignments" in whimsical disguised recording devices as in Mission: Impossible . Nine years later, Columbia Pictures , who produced an unrelated 1984 movie of almost

3379-511: The pseudonym of "Erik (sometimes "Eric") Gunden"). For the company's 1960s superhero efforts, composer John Gart (under the stage name John Marion) and music supervisor Gordon Zahler created strong themes and backing cues using a large orchestra, until the Batman entry in 1968, which used sparser production and jazzier themes. The company's 1960s adventure series Journey to the Center of

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3488-535: The "teen detectives and their talking animal" cliché , originally popularized by Scooby-Doo , was typical in Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the mid/late 1970s. Each episode began with the heroes responding to an emergency detected by the massive TroubAlert computer in the Hall of Justice , which served as the headquarters of the team. Colonel Wilcox, a U.S. Army official, was a recurring character who would act as

3597-476: The 'New' in All-New Super Friends . [emphasis in original] The show followed a basic format each week. The first segment of every show featured two of the heroes (for the purposes of the team-ups in the first and fourth segments, Batman and Robin were considered one hero) teaming up in a separate mini-story. The second segment featured a story with the Wonder Twins. The third segment was considered

3706-651: The 1960s Batman series (played for laughs, but this time, including a laugh track) and included several other DC characters who replaced Samurai, Black Vulcan, and Apache Chief: Black Canary , the E-2 Huntress Helena Wayne (a new DC character, gathering her own following in All-Star and Adventure Comics JSA runs as a JSA member), and Captain Marvel (who had previously had his own live action series through Filmation studios). The second special, entitled "The Roast", featured Ed McMahon as emcee of

3815-478: The 1990s, more mature content than those of traditional cartoon series began to appear more widely, extending beyond a primary audience of children. These cartoon series included The Simpsons , South Park , Family Guy , Futurama , The Ren & Stimpy Show , Rocko's Modern Life , Beavis and Butt-Head , King of the Hill , and Duckman . Canadian computer-animated series ReBoot , which began as

3924-444: The Cosby Kids , the animated version of Star Trek and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe . As of now, DreamWorks Animation , through DreamWorks Classics , owns all of the company's library (except third-party licensed properties). Lou Scheimer and Filmation's main director Hal Sutherland met in 1957 while working at Larry Harmon Pictures on the made-for-TV Bozo and Popeye cartoons. Eventually Larry Harmon closed

4033-727: The DC comic books, writer E. Nelson Bridwell made the comic book accord with the other DC titles via footnotes . An example of trying to fit Super Friends into the DC Universe: The argument for the comic being part of the Earth-One continuity also included the fact that certain elements of the series impacted other books in the DC line: 1. TNT's appearance in Kandor in an issue of Superman Family that references events exclusively from Super Friends issue #12. 2. Sinestro's lack of

4142-526: The Earth (1967) and Fantastic Voyage (1968) likewise used sparser music production. Journey made heavier emphasis on guitar than the company's previous series, while Voyage made use of deliberately haunting woodwinds to create a science fiction flavor. According to the booklets accompanying some of the DVDs of Filmation's shows, composer Ray Ellis (who was assisted by his son Marc Ellis) had produced

4251-413: The Filmation back catalog, were sold to Hallmark Cards in 1995, and were managed by its Hallmark Entertainment subsidiary. However, since the rest of Filmation's output was based on characters licensed from other companies, such titles are under the control of other studios (such as CBS Media Ventures and Warner Bros. via Turner Entertainment Co. and DC Entertainment ). In March 2004, ownership of

4360-462: The Filmation in-house library, which was under the ownership of Hallmark, was sold to UK-based Entertainment Rights . Entertainment Rights has since made the revelation that when Hallmark converted all of its Filmation series to digital format in the 1990s, only PAL-format copies were made, with the original film negatives and print rolls apparently discarded, as well as the original sound masters and other archival material belonging to Filmation. This

4469-464: The Flash , Plastic Man , and Green Arrow ; the latter two did not appear in any subsequent episodes of the series. This first run of Super Friends , consisting of 16 one-hour episodes which were rerun several times, concluded on August 24, 1974. At this point, the series was cancelled. However, interest in superheroes among ABC's prime-time viewers (with the success of The Six Million Dollar Man and

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4578-566: The French cosmetics company L'Oréal . Before that sale was complete, Westinghouse shuttered the film studio on February 3, 1989, which left L'Oréal with only the Filmation library. This happened a day before the WARN Act went into effect requiring companies to give employees 60 days' notice before a mass layoff. Like other producers of Saturday-morning cartoons , Filmation was more concerned with quantity rather than quality; however, it did make

4687-459: The Grappler ), and other genres. The first animated sitcom was The Flintstones (1960 — 1966), produced by Hanna-Barbera . It was followed by other sitcoms of this studio: Top Cat (1961 — 1962), Jonny Quest (1964 — 1965), The Jetsons (1962 — 1963, 1985, 1987) and Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972 — 1974), an adult-oriented animated series in

4796-485: The Hanna-Barbera animation studios later explained the change in cast: When the decision was made by ABC to renew Super Friends three years after the first series' 1973 production, ABC and Hanna-Barbera wanted to ramp up (as much as they could) the series' action content. And since we were ramping that up, that meant making all of our cast a bit more serious, and giving our five leads a bit more backup than three non-powered sidekicks. [New sidekicks] also helped emphasize

4905-423: The Hanna-Barbera sound effects were of a distinctively lower quality), though the company's DC Comics cartoons of 1966–67 used more realistic sound effects. Filmation received particular criticism for Lassie's Rescue Rangers , an animated continuation of the long-running live-action series Lassie . Lassie's co-creator and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax , said of the show: "That's not Lassie. That's trash." It drew

5014-458: The Riddler showing a set of playing cards with (from left to right) Gleek, Zan, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Batman, and Superman (which he then burns to ashes in his introduction in "Wanted: The Super Friends"), the Wonder Twins and Gleek did not appear in Challenge . The Challenge of the Superfriends segment was expanded to 90 minutes mid-season, with reruns of earlier episodes filling out

5123-509: The Superfriends and the Hanna-Barbera-created hero El Dorado , who was added to the show in 1981 to provide additional cultural diversity. This would prove to be one of the longer-lived incarnations of the series (three years). A total of 22 episodes were produced. For the 1982–1983 television season ABC ran half-hour reruns of shows from the previous seven seasons, with none of the seven-minute shorts rebroadcast. ABC called

5232-499: The Superfriends , several of the heroes' arch-villains from the comic books (such as Lex Luthor and The Riddler ) began to feature prominently in comic-style stories. Throughout the series, plots often wrapped themselves up neatly in the final minutes of an episode in the fashion of the typical comic books and deus ex machina . In 1973, animation company Hanna-Barbera acquired rights to the DC Comics characters and partnered with

5341-583: The Sword ), as well as continuations to established stories, such as Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) and Happily Ever After (1989; unreleased until 1993). In 1986, Omega Entertainment inked a worldwide television pact with Filmation in order to distribute the company's non-animated products, such as theatrical feature films, for worldwide TV distribution. Also that year, on October 22, Filmation

5450-564: The Teenage Witch credits and both "Ray Ellis", and "Jeff Michaels" appear side by side on Groovie Goolies credits, where "Ellis" is credited for "Sabrina background music", and "Michaels" is credited for "Groovie Goolies background music". Much of Ellis's background music in the late 1960s had a distinct, richly orchestrated sound not found on many other made-for-TV cartoon series of that period; though as time went on, it became more contemporary and often synthesized . Ellis's work at

5559-419: The U.S.A." strategy was comparable to the outsourced animation. Filmation did, however, rely on outsourcing once, when the company created its animated Zorro series. It was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan; however, the storyboards and graphics were made by Filmation itself. Filmation is also noteworthy for its background paintings under the direction of long-time department head Erv Kaplan, such as

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5668-663: The United Kingdom, two more years before its 1974 U.S. release, and yet another two (1976) before it finally found its audience in network television, the very medium in which Filmation became successful. There, the film was expanded with live-action segments featuring Bill Cosby , who was in the midst of his success with the studio's Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids . A deal with Warner Bros. yielded Treasure Island and Oliver Twist , but left several others unproduced. In its final years, Filmation produced feature films of its He-Man and She-Ra franchises ( The Secret of

5777-407: The Wonder Twins and Gleek, this time teamed up with Firestorm . In addition to this core group, episodes during this season also featured cameos by old (and new) Super Friends. The series ended August 31, 1985, and featured comic-book villains such as Brainiac , Lex Luthor , Mirror Master , Mr. Mxyzptlk , Darkseid , and his henchmen from Apokolips . This title of this season and the next featured

5886-561: The World's Greatest Super Friends theme, allusions to the Legion of Doom, and the Super Friends and their Hall of Justice. The first use of the Super Friends name on a DC Comics publication was in Limited Collectors' Edition #C-41 (December 1975-January 1976) which reprinted stories from Justice League of America #36 and 61 and featured a new framing sequence by writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Alex Toth . DC published

5995-509: The background music for most Filmation series under the pseudonyms "Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael". Yvette Blais was Ellis's wife, while "Jeff" and "Michael" were the names of producer Norm Prescott's two sons (exactly what role Prescott played in the music, other than hiring the composers and musicians, is unclear). The full-length features Treasure Island and Oliver Twist credit "George Blais". Ellis's name does appear in Archie and Sabrina

6104-517: The bands perform and Fat Albert had segments featuring series creator Bill Cosby . The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! , was more of a hybrid—a live-action variety show with animated segments. Actors appeared as characters from the Hero High portion of the series, singing songs and telling jokes. Filmation made six fully live-action series, including Space Academy , its spin-off Jason of Star Command , Ark II , Shazam! (based on

6213-657: The company's last production was the feature film Happily Ever After (a sequel to the story of Snow White ); this film was produced from 1986 to 1988, and was theatrically released in the United States five years later, in 1993. Also, at the time of the closing, two new animated series, Bugzburg (a spin-off of Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night , concerning insect characters who had shown up in that movie) and Bravo (a spin-off of BraveStarr ), were beginning production. In 1989, Westinghouse sold Filmation to Paravision International, an investment consortium led by

6322-556: The deficiency, resulting in a "jerky" motion. Filmation also made heavy use of rotoscoping in later years (beginning with its Tarzan and Flash Gordon series). It also re-used the same animated sequences over and over, many times, to the point where the Filmation style was instantly recognizable. One example of this can be seen in She-Ra's and He-Man's transformation sequences. This frequent use of stock footage saved production money, but often resulted in sacrifice of continuity. This

6431-638: The early hour-long episodes. Bill Woodson took over with the revival of the series in 1977. His signature line was "Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice...". The voices of Marvin and Wonder Dog as well as Mr. Mxyzptlk, Toyman, The Dollmaker, Darkseid, Kalibak, and The Joker were performed by Frank Welker . Adam West provided the voice of Batman in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians . Casey Kasem provided

6540-443: The end of each story, a peaceful and reasonable discussion would be performed by the heroes to convince the antagonists to adopt more reasonable methods. The All-New Super Friends Hour departed somewhat from the previous series' formula by featuring villains using more elaborate methods to further their goals; as a rule they could not be reasoned with, requiring the heroes to use direct force to stop them. Beginning with Challenge of

6649-583: The ending credits that they were "made entirely in the U.S.A." This occurred during a time when rival studio Hanna-Barbera shifted from saying in the final production credits (immediately before the production logo appearances) "A Hanna-Barbera Production" to "Produced in Association with: Wang Film Productions / Cuckoo's Nest Studios" which is located in Taiwan (along with H-B's own Philippines -based Fil-Cartoons). The quality of Filmation's "Made Entirely in

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6758-490: The film was called The Real Ghostbusters . As a dig on the Filmation series, an episode was written about a group of fraudulent ghost fighters, trying to steal the "Real" Ghostbusters' business and thunder. Also of note is Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies , a special featuring several of Warner Bros. ' Looney Tunes stars (except Bugs Bunny ) paired with Filmation's own Groovie Goolies ,

6867-522: The firm, and now put together the new corporation with Scheimer and Sutherland. It officially became Filmation Associates as of September 1962, so named because "We were working on film, but doing animation"; so putting them together yielded the portmanteau "Filmation". Both Rod Rocket and the Life of Christ series credited "Filmation Associates" with "Production Design" in addition to Scheimer and Sutherland as directors. (SIB Productions, whose logo bore

6976-733: The following year. The remainder aired on the USA Network in 1995, as part of the Superman/Batman Adventures show. The 1983 Lost Episodes of Super Friends were released on DVD by Warner Home Entertainment (via DC Comics Entertainment , Hanna-Barbera Cartoons , and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment ) in April 2009. Super Friends returned to ABC Saturday, September 8, 1984, with a new 30-minute program typically featuring two 11-minute stories per episode. This incarnation featured Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and

7085-668: The heroes battled such familiar foes as Lex Luthor , Brainiac , the Scarecrow , and recurring villain Darkseid . It also contained the only appearances in the series by The Joker , The Penguin , the Royal Flush Gang , and Felix Faust . Notably, it is in this series that Batman's origin is depicted for the first time outside of comics and the first cartoon series. Batman and Robin chase The Scarecrow into Crime Alley, where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered, which triggers

7194-583: The last half-hour. In the fall of 1979, the Super Friends returned to their prior format, bringing back the original set of five DC superheroes and Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. Eight half-hour episodes were created for this run, with the majority of the season consisting of rebroadcasts of The All-New Super Friends Hour from 1977 to 1978 and The Super Friends segments from Challenge of the Superfriends from 1978 to 1979. Renamed The World's Greatest SuperFriends , this series began on September 22, 1979, and ran until September 27, 1980. Renamed SuperFriends in 1980,

7303-615: The life of Christ . Paramount Pictures soon purchased SIB Productions, and True Line's staff increased, including the arrival of former radio disc jockey Norm Prescott, who became a partner in the firm. He had already been working on the animated feature Pinocchio in Outer Space which was primarily produced by Belvision Studios . They eventually left True Line, and Scheimer began working on commercials, including for Gillette and others, which began what became Filmation. He met lawyer Ira Epstein, who had worked for Harmon but had left

7412-421: The live-action Wonder Woman series) caused the network to revive Super Friends . The original 16 episodes of the series were rebroadcast as a mid-season replacement, running from February 7, 1976, to September 3, 1977. These episodes were edited into half-hour versions. At the same time, DC Comics published a Super Friends comic, which used Wendy and Marvin from issue #1 (November 1976) to #6 (August 1977). In

7521-456: The meantime, Hanna-Barbera began production on a revamped version of the show. The All-New Super Friends Hour featured four animated shorts per program. Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were dropped from this and all future TV iterations of Super Friends , and were replaced by Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna, and their pet monkey, Gleek . Unlike Wendy and Marvin, Zan and Jayna had super powers. A total of 15 episodes were produced. Darrell McNeil of

7630-493: The miscellaneous item the Ghostbuster needs in a moment of despair, Eddie doing a number of clumsy/stupid things, etc.); although as previously mentioned, Filmation made various attempts to rise above the norm. Many of the sound effects used in its cartoons are also very familiar, the majority of them being recycled from Hanna-Barbera (this was, and still is, a common trait among animation companies, though Filmation's copies of

7739-559: The modern age through a time warp. Both of these originally aired as segments of the Uncle Croc's Block series on ABC (hosted by Charles Nelson Reilly ). In a period where comedy in cartoons was heavily scrutinized for violence and many shows duplicated the popular Scooby-Doo format, Filmation's strong point was its adaptations of popular television series, movies and other works, although at least one series, M*U*S*H (the first animated segment on Uncle Croc's Block ), while not

7848-465: The modern use of 3-D computer animation for vehicles in 2-D animated productions. However, it had a distinctive "flicker" to it, because some of the painted lines went in and out of visibility as the miniatures moved. Unlike many American studios, Filmation never relied on animation studios outside the United States for the bulk of its production; Ghostbusters and BraveStarr both state in

7957-724: The most famous included Larry Storch , Dallas McKennon (best known as the voice of Archie in the Archie cartoon and as Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series), Bud Collyer , the original radio voice of Superman , reprised the role for Filmation for their late 1960s version of the Man of Steel; Adam West and Burt Ward (who recreated their roles as " Batman and Robin " from their 1960s live-action series for Filmation's 1977 animated incarnation), Jane Webb , and good friends and colleagues Edward Asner and Linda Gary (Gary voiced

8066-562: The music scoring and animation had been completed when financial challenges caused the project to be put on hold for nearly eight years. In the meantime, the new Filmation studio turned their attention to a more successful medium, network television . For the next few years they made television commercials and some other projects for other companies and made an unsuccessful pilot film for a Marx Brothers cartoon series. They also tried to develop an original series named The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart (later renamed Yank and Doodle ) about

8175-484: The phrase "Super Powers" to tie in with a toy line of the same name produced by Kenner . In the fall of 1985, the next version of Hanna-Barbera's depiction of the DC Comics heroes began, although it no longer carried the Super Friends name. This series returned to a conventional lineup for the team, with a focus on teen members Cyborg and Firestorm. Once again headquartered at the Hall of Justice in Metropolis ,

8284-586: The primary adventure of the week, featuring the entire Super Friends roster (including the Wonder Twins) in a longer adventure. The fourth and final segment featured a story with one of the primary lineup and a "special guest star". This segment typically featured a problem that was solved using the guest star's unique abilities. Between segments there were short spots with members of the Super Friends giving basic safety lessons, providing first-aid advice, demonstrating magic tricks, creating crafts, and presenting

8393-465: The purple-colored "night sky" backgrounds used in He-Man and She-Ra . Characters, as well as plots, were typically run-of-the-mill for the time. For example, most episodes of Ghostbusters had the same scheme (bad guys develop an evil plan, the heroes are needed but always absent, Ghost Buggy the talking car complains about their dangerous position, Tracy the Gorilla pulls out of his back pack exactly

8502-426: The replacement character for Robin. A Teen Titans animated TV program was eventually produced , adding Robin and removing Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and The Protector. Fisher-Price developed a toy line named DC Super Friends featuring DC Comics characters as toys for young children. A comic book series and direct-to-video original animation called The Joker's Playhouse (2010) was developed to tie-in. The video features

8611-444: The rerun package The Best of the Super Friends . Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. had created a syndication package of the earlier Super Friends series (co-distributed by LBS Communications ); these were picked up by stations across the United States and typically broadcast on weekday afternoons. Not wishing to compete with the syndication programming, ABC dropped the series from the 1983–1984 Saturday morning television line-up. For

8720-542: The roast, along the lines of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast specials. Due to Warner Bros.' contracts on Wonder Woman (already being used in her own live action series in which Lynda Carter starred) and Superman (in his own live-action theatrical movie at the time, portrayed by Christopher Reeve ), they were unable to be featured on the specials. Plastic Man appeared in the first season of Super Friends , in one episode. Later, Ruby-Spears Productions released

8829-486: The same name , had to obtain the rights to the title from the company. Filmation capitalized on the popularity of the film by producing a new cartoon based on their earlier series. Like its other shows, it used stock footage heavily; in one episode, character designs and animation sequences were recycled from the Groovie Goolies series of nearly 15 years earlier. To avoid confusion, the animated series based on

8938-502: The same people who had written for the live-action version of the series, tended to be quite sophisticated, and garnered the first Emmy Award for the franchise. Filmation had a reputation for exploiting the technique of limited animation to produce a number of animated series with a distinct look. This technique involved limiting of the number of frames per second (fps) to fewer than the standard 24 fps seen on film or 25/30 fps seen on video. Frames would be repeated to compensate for

9047-463: The second time, Super Friends was cancelled. However, during this time Hanna-Barbera continued to produce new episodes with the Super Friends, with ABC's approval and funding. In total, 24 "lost episodes" were produced, but not aired in the United States that season; the series appeared in Australia. Three of these episodes were aired when Super Friends returned to Saturday-morning ABC television

9156-419: The series changed formats again, abandoning the production of half-hour episodes and producing seven-minute shorts. Each episode of SuperFriends would feature a rerun from one of the previous six years and three new shorts. These new adventures featured appearances by the core group of five Super Friends and Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. There were also guest appearances from members previously depicted in Challenge of

9265-642: The show introduced the Legion of Doom , a team of 13 recurring foes who are the Super Friends' worst enemies. They used a swamp-based mechanical flying headquarters, the Hall of Doom, as a contrast to the Super Friends' gleaming Hall of Justice. A total of 16 episodes were produced. Additional heroes who had previously appeared as guest stars were added to the roster as well, to make a total of 11. These included The Flash , Green Lantern , and Hawkman from DC Comics and three Hanna-Barbera creations to reflect diversity: Black Vulcan , Apache Chief , and Samurai . Despite

9374-409: The shows which were licensed properties, such as Star Trek: The Animated Series , which was owned by Paramount Television (now CBS Studios , which is now part of Paramount Global since 2019), and Shazam! (owned by Warner Bros./DC Comics), because the master elements for those shows were turned over to the owners of those licensed properties years before the sale to Hallmark. On April 1, 2009, it

9483-790: The so-called 576i speedup effect in which the soundtrack plays 4% too fast, which results in the pitch being a half-step higher than it was originally (see PAL and Telecine for more information). PAL- NTSC conversion artifacts also include softness and ghosting. The exception appears to be at least three titles from ER's library: Groovie Goolies , Ark II and the animated Ghostbusters series. These series appear to have been sourced from original NTSC transfers for their U.S. release by BCI. The live-action series was, unlike most Filmation shows, shot on NTSC format tape (rather than film), so even if those did come from PAL masters, they would not have exhibited 576i speedup, as that only applies to material sourced from film masters. Other exceptions included

9592-487: The special is not liked by many fans of classic Warner Bros. animation because of its limited animation, as well as a weak storyline. This was not Filmation's last dalliance with classic cartoon characters; in the late 1970s the company produced new series based on the characters from the Terrytoons archive ( Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle , titled The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle ) and

9701-595: The studio by 1961. Scheimer and Sutherland went to work at a small company called True Line, one of whose owners was Marcus Lipsky, who then owned Reddi-wip whipped cream. SIB Productions, a Japanese firm with U.S. offices in Chicago, approached them about producing a cartoon called Rod Rocket . The two agreed to take on the work and also took on a project for Family Films, owned by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod , for ten short animated films based on

9810-517: The studio lasted from 1968 to 1982. Haim Saban and Shuki Levy composed and produced the studio's music for He-Man and She-Ra (during 1983–1986), along with the other studios for which they produced music scores. Frank W. Becker provided the music for Filmation's final animated series BraveStarr . In 1977, Dean Andre (Wallschlaeger), a 24-year-old composer/recording artist/producer, began writing theme and featured music for Filmation. His first series Archie's Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show featured

9919-1046: The style of All in the Family . The Alvin Show from Ross Bagdasarian Sr. and Beany and Cecil from Bob Clampett are also sitcoms. The 1980s and 1990s were a renaissance of the animated children and adult television series. Various broadcast networks and media companies began creating television channels and formats designed specifically for airing cartoon and anime series. Companies that already had these types of formats in place began to revamp their existing models during this time. Most of this animations were American-based or Japanese anime. Listed below are examples of television networks and channels that include animated programs. American British Japanese Canadian Australian Examples of animation-focused networks and channels are listed below; but some of them aired live-action programs occasionally. American South Korean Canadian Japanese During

10028-430: The superheroes, a trio of sidekicks was introduced, each of whom were new characters not drawn from the comic books: Wendy and Marvin (voiced by Sherri Alberoni and Frank Welker ) and Wonder Dog (also voiced by Frank Welker ), none of whom had any special abilities (save the dog's unexplained ability to reason and talk). The trio—or at least its human members—were depicted as detectives and/or superheroes-in-training;

10137-608: The team. Nine seasons, comprising a total of 93 episodes, were produced. Over the years, the show existed under several titles: Plot lines for the later series involved many of the familiar DC Comics super-villains, like the Joker and the Riddler, that the first incarnation of the Super Friends did not. Instead, like the comic books, they focused on the far-fetched schemes of mad scientists and aliens, who were invariably revealed as being well-intentioned, and simply pursuing their goals through unlawful or disreputable means. Typically, at

10246-432: The voice of Daws Butler. He went on to compose themes for The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle and Fabulous Funnies (featuring the voices of June Foray and Alan Oppenheimer ). Dean also lent his vocal talents to Filmation for thematic and featured music that he composed and produced for A Snow White Christmas , Sport Billy and The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! In 1981, Dean also took on

10355-476: The voice of Robin (and many others in the show). René Auberjonois lends his voice as DeSaad. In January 2009, IGN listed Super Friends as the 50th best animated television series. On January 18 and 25, 1979, Hanna-Barbera ran two one-hour live-action specials under the umbrella title Legends of the Superheroes . The first special, subtitled "The Challenge", was loosely based on the Super Friends and

10464-481: The way for broader storytelling. Examples include He-Man's "The Problem with Power" which dealt with He-Man believing he had killed an innocent bystander. Another is "Teela's Quest" which introduced a now-famous mythology on the Sorceress being Teela's mother, who is thus the heir to the mantle of safeguarding Grayskull, the versed continuity shared between He-Man and She-Ra, among others. Other notable examples include

10573-414: Was "Escape From Space City" on October 26, 1985. This third cancellation would be the final one, and Galactic Guardians marked the end of Hanna-Barbera's 12-year run of Super Friends . The core group of heroes made up the "Super Friends": Other members and guest stars: Junior Super Friends: Supporting characters originally from DC comic books: Thirteen villains composed the Legion of Doom during

10682-476: Was an American production company founded by Lou Scheimer , Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott in 1962, before closing by Group W Productions on February 3, 1989. Located in Reseda, California , Filmation produced animated and live-action productions for cinema and television. Notable productions that the company produced included the DC Comics and Archie Comics animated adaptations, Fat Albert and

10791-841: Was announced that Entertainment Rights would be acquired by Boomerang Media and on May 11, 2009, it was announced that the subsidiaries and offices of Entertainment Rights would be absorbed under the name Classic Media . In 2012, it was announced that Classic Media, owner of the Filmation library, would be acquired by DreamWorks Animation . DreamWorks Animation and its programming library, including those of Filmation (not including shows whose rights are owned by other companies, such as The New Adventures of Gilligan and Star Trek: The Animated Series ), would later be acquired on August 22, 2016, by Universal Studios for $ 3.8 billion. Filmation incorporated live-action into some of its animated series. Series like The Hardy Boys and Archie's Funhouse featured live-action footage of an audience watching

10900-490: Was brought in to work on the new show (with the exception of Marvin Miller who was replaced by Norman Alden as the voice of Aquaman). Shortly before the Super Friends series was developed, Superman and Wonder Woman also guest-starred in two episodes of The Brady Kids (voiced by Lennie Weinrib and Jane Webb under Filmation ), while Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies . In addition to

11009-419: Was countered by cutting from one stock shot to another after only a second or two, long enough to set the scene but before the eye could notice all of the unexplained errors. This became part of the Filmation style during a period when most television and motion picture productions tended to run minimum shots of 4–5 seconds. In contrast to the rapid jump cuts during action sequences, another Filmation trademark

11118-418: Was created as a companion for the Super Friends , to be set in the same continuity. Robin was not going to be featured in the cartoon though, at least not as a regular, since in the Super Friends universe, he was a member of the Justice League. Like Super Friends , the show was to be developed by Hanna-Barbera for ABC, but since shows like The Smurfs (airing on NBC ) were so popular at the time, this show

11227-470: Was due to Hallmark's previously unstated (but long-suspected) short-sighted policy of only distributing Filmation's in-house shows outside of the United States. As a result, many of Entertainment Rights' DVD releases (distributed by BCI Eclipse LLC in the United States prior to the latter company's folding) were based on the international versions (which have PAL prints). Because they were taken from PAL-based transfers, without correction, these releases exhibit

11336-560: Was later used in He-Man and in She-Ra ). It also pioneered a unique method of generating 3-D vehicle animation by filming white-outlined black miniatures against black backgrounds using a computerized motion-control camera and high-contrast film, then printing the negatives onto acetate frame-by-frame, to create animation cels which were then hand-painted. This produced a three-dimensional effect that had been used by Disney in films such as One Hundred and One Dalmatians previously. It predated

11445-461: Was never picked up by the network. The show would have featured Wonder Girl as the leader, along with Cyborg , Kid Flash , Changeling , Raven and Starfire . Although the show failed to get picked up, a television commercial with a substance abuse theme did feature the Titans, as they would have appeared in the animated series, along with a new superhero named "The Protector" who would have been

11554-768: Was not able to air Super Friends until after the merger of Warner Bros.' parent company, Time Warner and Cartoon Network's parent company, Turner Broadcasting System was completed in 1996. This merger also led to Warner Bros. taking control of Hanna-Barbera and all of its other assets as well. The series was owned by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, DC Comics Entertainment , Warner Bros. Family Entertainment , and Warner Bros. Animation . Super Friends first aired on ABC on September 8, 1973, featuring well-known DC characters Superman , Batman and Robin , Wonder Woman , and Aquaman . Superman, Batman and Robin, and Aquaman had each previously appeared in their own animated series produced by Filmation , and voice talent from these prior programs

11663-565: Was purchased by the TelePrompTer Corporation in 1969. Two years later, in 1971, Filmation and Warner Bros. signed an agreement to distribute cartoons for film and television. In 1981, while Prescott left the company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation , through its Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties. The last shows produced by Filmation were Ghostbusters and BraveStarr , and

11772-644: Was the recurring use of long establishing shots in which the camera would pan slowly across a very wide background painting, thus filling up screen time with sequences requiring little or no animation. Filmation also pioneered other animation technologies, particularly in Flash Gordon , which included backlighting effects for the first time in American animation (they were already in use in Japan), including moire effects to represent energy fields (a technique that

11881-399: Was toned down for a younger audience and to adhere to broadcast standards governing violence in 1970s children's television . As a DC Comics-based show, the Super Friends franchise was owned by DC's parent company Warner Bros. , who later put the series into syndication. Cartoon Network , which had the rights to air most of the rest of the Hanna-Barbera library from its inception in 1992,

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