Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 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 name of the program (and the Justice League members featured with the Super Friends) has been variously represented (as Super Friends and Challenge of the Super Friends, for example) at different points in its broadcast history. There were a total of 109 episodes and two backdoor-pilot episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, with Batman and Robin appearing in "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair" and "The Caped Crusader Caper".
Series titles
Writing
Production history
1973–1974 series
1977–1978 season: The All-New Super Friends Hour
1978–1979 season Super Friends / Challenge of the Super Friends
First segment: Super Friends episodes
Second segment: Challenge of the Super Friends
1979–1980 season: The World's Greatest Super Friends
1980–1982 seasons: Super Friends
1982–1983 season: The Best of the Super Friends (reruns)
1983–1984 season: Cancellation and the "lost episodes"
The Lost Episodes of the 1983-1984 season of Superfriends was a series of 24 rare episodes that were made by Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. They were lost until The Superman/Batman Adventures show aired the 1983-1984 lost episodes of Super Friends on American television. The series also aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
In August 11th, 2009, Warner Home Video (thru Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and DC Comics Entertainment) released all of the 24 lost episodes on DVD.
1984–1985 season: Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
1985–1986 season: The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians
Characters
The Justice League of America
Legion of Doom
Other DC Comics villains
Other DC Comic characters in Super Friends comics and merchandising related to the series
Shazam, Supergirl, Catwoman, etc.
References to the Justice League of America name
Notable voice actors
Adam West voiced Batman in the final two seasons of the show. Ernie Hudson (Winston from Ghostbusters) was also Cyborg's voice actor in the final season.
Reception
DVD releases
Spin-offs
Legends of the Superheroes
The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show
Batman
The New Teen Titans
The New Teen Titans was a proposed spin-off of the Super Friends, taking place in the same universe. Wonder Girl would have been the leader, and the team would have consisted of Changeling, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven. Terra and Blackfire and other villains would have appeared.
Sadly, it was not greenlit, due to ABC wanting more shows like The Smurfs. Yes, the gosh darn Smurfs. Because of the gosh darn Smurfs, Black Vulcan was not able to appear on the final season of Super Friends and instead got replaced with Cyborg, who would have had been in a series already!!
However, an anti-drug commercial featuring the Titans did get produced and aired, but no one has a full copy complete with audio. Sad, because Cyborg winks at us complete with gleam in that commercial.
