Challenge of the Super Friends

Challenge of the Super Friends
Genre	Adventure / Animation / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
Written by	Jeffrey Scott Carmine Infantino Bob Kane
Directed by	Ray Patterson Carl Urbano Bill Getty (sound director) Don Jurwich (recording director) Richard Olson (sound director)
Creative director(s)	Iwao Takamoto
Presented by	Hanna-Barbera Productions DC Comics
Voices of	Jack Angel Marlene Aragon Lewis Bailey Michael Bell Bill Callaway Ted Cassidy Melanie Chartoff Henry Corden Danny Dark Al Fann Shannon Farnon Ruth Forman Bob Hastings Bob Holt Buster Jones Stan Jones Casey Kasem Don Messick Vic Perrin Renny Roker Stanley Ross Dick Ryal Michael Rye Olan Soule Jimmy Weldon Frank Welker
Narrated by	William Woodson
Theme music composer	Hoyt Curtin
Composer(s)	John Beal Hoyt S. Curtin Paul DeKorte Fred Werner
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	16 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Joseph Barbara and William Hanna
Producer(s)	Don Jurwich
Editor(s)	Larry C. Cowan (supervising editor) Nancy Massie (color key) Joe Reitano (sound effects editor)
Cinematography	George Epperson Tom Epperson Charles Flekal Ron Jackson Jerry Smith Larry Smith Terry Smith Brandy Whittington Jerry Whittington
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 9, 1978 – December 23, 1978
Chronology
Preceded by	The All-New Super Friends Hour
Followed by	The World's Greatest Super Friends
External links
Official website

Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series (16 episodes) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Warner Bros. Television and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics. It was the third series of Super Friends cartoons, following the original Super Friends in 1973 and The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977. It continues to air on Boomerang in the United States.

Format

First segment

The plots for this series were, at the time of its initial airing, arguably the best effort to portray comic book heroes in animated television shorts. As originally aired, this season consisted of two half-hour segments. The first of these was an adventure with Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Wonder Twins, similar to those that had aired the previous season in The All-New Super Friends Hour.^[1] Thanks to these episodes being shown using the opening credits of the All-New Super Friends Hour in syndication^[2], the second segment along being used with the Challenge of Super Friends opening, and confused references to the show^[3] it is often mistakenly believed that the first and second segments were two separate shows.

Second segment

The second segment of this season featured the Legion of Doom, a team of thirteen recurring foes, the Super Friends' worst enemies. Every episode would feature battles between the thirteen supervillains of the Legion of Doom and the eleven superheroes of the Justice League of America. The Legion of Doom dwelled in a murky swamp and launched their attacks for global conquest from a sinister looking, swamp-based, mechanical, flying headquarters, called the Hall of Doom (which also resembled Darth Vader's helmet) as a suitable contrast with the Super Friends' gleaming Hall of Justice.

Production background

Narration, music and character designs

Challenge of the Super Friends was narrated by William Woodson. The show's main theme and original music was composed and arranged by musical director Hoyt Curtin. The music supervisors were Paul DeKorte and Fred Werner. Character designs for this particular Super Friends series were done by Andre LeBlanc, while color key was arranged by Nancy Massie.

Team composition experimentation

Hanna-Barbera's writers experimented with team composition as well. Challenge of the Super Friends added The Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Hawkman (Katar Hol) who were members of the Justice League of America, as well as several new characters: Black Vulcan (who was based on the DC Comics character Black Lightning), Apache Chief, and Samurai. These characters were created to add racial and cultural diversity to the show.

Challenge of the Super Friends lineups

Super Friends/Justice League of America

Eleven heroes made up the Super Friends/Justice League of America. They were:

Legion of Doom

Thirteen villains comprised the Legion of Doom during the Challenge of the Super Friends season. They were:

• Doctor Natas - a one-time member briefly mentioned in "Super Friends, Rest In Peace" as the inventor of the Noxium crystal, which had the power to kill any Super Friend. He never actually appeared on screen. Natas is "Satan" spelt backwards.

Despite the claim in the program's title sequence that the Legion's members hail from "remote galaxies", only Brainiac and Sinestro are extraterrestrials; the remaining members are all natives of Earth (though Bizarro is an imperfect duplicate of the Kryptonian Superman, he was created on Earth).

Voices

• Jack Angel .... The Flash, Hawkman, Samurai
• Marlene Aragon .... The Cheetah
• Lewis Bailey ....
• Michael Bell .... Riddler
• Bill Callaway .... Aquaman, Bizarro
• Ted Cassidy .... Brainiac, Black Manta
• Melanie Chartoff ....
• Henry Corden .... Dr Varga {"Invasion of the Brain Creatures"}, Torahna {in "The World Beneath the Ice"}
• Danny Dark .... Superman, Superboy
• Al Fann ....
• Shannon Farnon .... Wonder Woman
• Ruth Forman .... Giganta
• Bob Hastings ....
• Bob Holt ....
• Buster Jones .... Black Vulcan
• Stan Jones .... Lex Luthor
• Casey Kasem .... Robin, Computer
• Don Messick .... Scarecrow; Vartoo {in the episode "The Final Challenge"}
• Vic Perrin .... Sinestro
• Renny Roker ....
• Stanley Ross .... Grodd the Gorilla; Nar-Tan {in "Doomsday"}
• Dick Ryal .... Captain Cold
• Michael Rye .... Green Lantern, Apache Chief
• Olan Soule .... Batman
• Jimmy Weldon .... Solomon Grundy
• Frank Welker .... Toyman; Mr. Mxyzptlk

Episodes

See: List of Super Friends episodes

DVD release

Warner Home Video released this season of Super Friends on two DVD box sets, the first one being Challenge of the Super Friends: The First Season, which featured the "Challenge" segments, and the second being Super Friends: Volume Two, which featured the Super Friends segments.

Spoofs

Cartoon Network produced a couple of commercials spoofing Challenge of the Super Friends.

• One dealt with the idiosyncratic nature of the Legion of Doom and Brainiac’s odd manner of dress (Brainiac: “Look, I just want some pants...a decent pair of pants!” Solomon Grundy: “Solomon Grundy want pants, too!”).

• The second, co-starring The Powerpuff Girls, dealt with Aquaman’s powers (Aquaman: “My ability to talk to fish is of no use to us, Wonder Woman!”) as well as the level of violence compared to today’s cartoons, as Wonder Woman and Aquaman look away while the Powerpuff Girls beat up the Legion of Doom, going so far as to set the Scarecrow on fire. Most notabably was Bubbles' double-entendre reply to Wonder Woman's compliment on how they were developing as superheroes. "Someday we'll be as developed as you." Lex Luthor, as a villain with a dirty mind, began laughing. His underlings understood the joke and laughed as well. When a piece of the Hall of Doom's ceiling fell on Luthor's head, everyone laughed.

In 2003, Cartoon Network Latin America aired the spoof series The Aquaman & Friends Action Hour that starred Aquaman as a children's television show host and the Legion of Doom as his bankrupt villains.

References

Featured link

• Challenge of the Super Friends at Big Cartoon DataBase
• Cartoon Network: DOC - Challenge of The Superfriends - cached copy from Internet Archives

External links

• Challenge of the Super Friends at the Internet Movie Database
• Challenge of the Super Friends at TV.com
• Challenge of the Super Friends @ Legions of Gotham