SF4Ever
09-08-2007, 10:18 AM
It's September 8, 2007-34 years ago today(September 8, 1973) at 9:00 a.m. on ABC-TV, The Superfriends, an hour-long animated series from Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers, premieres. The show stars Superman, the Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, the Amazon Princess, Batman & Robin, the Dynamic Duo and Aquaman, the King of the Seas, with teenagers Wendy Harris & Marvin White, and of course, Wonderdog(The Wondertwins, Zan, Jayna & their pet monkey, Gleek, took over, four years later). SF, in various series, ran for a total of 13 years. The very first episode of The Superfriends was "The Power Pirate", about an alien(disguised as Sir Cedric Cedric, from Scotland Yard as the real detective was hospitalized after an injury in a skiing accident in California) who steals energy from freight trains, cruise ships, construction equiptment, reservoir dams and power plants, before being captured by the heroes, while attempting to steal energy from a new power plant that had just opened. In the end, Superman agrees to use his super powers to polish the alien visitor's planet's moon until it was as smooth as glass, enough so that moon would reflect the sun's light back on to that planet. Not many would've guessed the show would eventually run for 13 years when it first started. Yes, The Superfriends started slowly, but by the late 1970's, it was leading off ABC's Saturday morning line-up, even leading into another long-running animated series, namely Scooby-Doo(he arrived on ABC in 1976, after seven years on CBS). Isn't it ironic that SF began after Batman & Robin appeared on Scooby-Doo(CBS) and Superman and Wonder Woman appeared on Filmation's The Brady Kids(ABC), both in 1972. Now, you know the rest of the story, but you know something, other animated superhero programs come and go, but nowadays, only a few will last for more than 10 years. Jonny Quest was Hanna-Barbera's first animated adventure series, but The Superfriends was clearly the most successful of H-B's animated adventure programs. Now, SF, H-B, D.C. Comics and Warner Brothers Television are now owned by AOL Time Warner. Warner Home Entertainment will continue releasing the show on DVD-it's a true classic.