Martinex1: Back in September of 1967 (50 years ago - wow!), The Superman / Aquaman Hour of Adventure aired on the CBS television network on Saturday mornings. The hour-long Filmation produced show was a reverent take on the classic DC characters.
It may seem strange to us today that Aquaman was a co-headliner for DC's premiere comic book cartoon, but he was quite popular back in the day. Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad starred in 36 episodes including "Menace of the Black Manta," "The Crimson Monster from the Pink Pool," and "The War of the Quatix and the Bimphars."
While those titles are enough to get me interested, what I find even more fascinating is that the series had back-up features that starred some of my favorite DC characters. - Teen Titans, Hawkman, Flash and Kid Flash, the Atom, Green Lantern, as well as the Justice League of America. Batman and Robin, however, were nowhere to be seen as the characters were under contractual control with a rival network because of the ongoing live-action classic Batman.
These rarely discussed gems, feature the voice talent of Bud Collyer, who voiced Superman on the radio serial and continued here, Ted Knight who would later become famous on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a consistent and strong voiced narrator, and Paul Frees the cartoon voice legend taking on the Guardians of the Universe and Evil Star. Pat Harrington, Jr. who would much later play Schneider on One Day at a Time voiced the Atom and Speedy.
Some of the episodes were penned by Bob Haney and George Kashdan, who added some kooky stories and twists to the tales. Mort Weisinger, the famed Superman editor, also edited some scripts featuring the man of steel.
It was great to see the premiere heroic team actually referred to as the Justice League of America rather than the Super-Friends as I had known them in the 1970s. Check out the Justice League intro below, but be aware that the flashing lights and changing colors can be a bit irritating. The animation while still simple was a step above the Marvel Super-Hero concept that first appeared on TV a year earlier.
It was great to see the premiere heroic team actually referred to as the Justice League of America rather than the Super-Friends as I had known them in the 1970s. Check out the Justice League intro below, but be aware that the flashing lights and changing colors can be a bit irritating. The animation while still simple was a step above the Marvel Super-Hero concept that first appeared on TV a year earlier.
I honestly did not know that some of these shorts existed until recently but I really enjoy their nostalgic air and faithfulness to the concepts despite their wackiness, so let me share a few with you here. Enjoy the late 1960's sentimentality and action, and please share your comments.
9 comments:
I was about four or five when these came on, but they were on a station that we couldn't pick up all the time....this was the days of the rabbit ears or the outside antenna, three stations most days, four on a few lucky days. Every Saturday morning when I got up to watch cartoons (my folks couldn't wake me up with dynamite during the week, but I was up at 7:00 am on Saturdays), the first thing I would do would be to check the TV to see if we could pick up Channel 6. :) About once a month or every six weeks, I'd get lucky enough to watch.
I think these cartoons were what steered me to the comic books. I loved these shows and so my mom would pick me up a Superman or Batman comic book every time she went to the grocery store. I particularly remember the Justice League, especially the intro, because the team concept really intrigued me.
Wow! Didn't even know this existed. But the weird thing is that though I know I watched Saturday cartoons I really can't recall many of them. And when I see the Saturday morning lineups in old comic books I am mystified with how I don't recall any of the cartoons, You too???
I remember bits and pieces....sometimes when I watch these on YouTube, there will be a scene that jogs my memory, which is odd because I didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked. The only ones I really remember a lot are the old Looney Tunes because they were on for so many years and I've seen them so many times.
Graham I think we all battled the rabbit ears and tinfoil for a while. I missed many good shows because we couldn't get CBS on most days. But this one was just slightly before my time, and like CH 47 for many years I didn't know it existed. I get more kicks out of the lesser recognized cast like the Atom (battling bugs from another planet). It seems like intergalactic aliens are a very common threat for the heroes.
I am not sure why Wonder Woman did not appear in the JLA, but the rumor is that Filmation was working on Wonder Woman and Metamorpho shows when they pulled the plug. I really would have liked to see a Metamorpho show; he was a favorite and I can only imagine how strange he would have been in his own cartoon.
CH 47, I often stumble across shows that jog my memory like Graham. The Funky Phantom was lost to me, stumbled upon a clip a few years ago and was reminded how much I liked it around age 4. It's funny what gets buried in the recesses of the mind.
Ted Knight has a great voice for narrating. Thanks for putting these up.
I watched the show back then, although I can't recall any specific episodes.
Although Aquaman seems to be treated as a joke now, he must have been at least moderately popular in the Silver Age. Besides being one of the seven charter members of the JLA, he starred in a solo strip in Adventure Comics in the 1950's and had his own self-titled comic book in the 1960's.
Then again, I have heard a rumor that CBS and Filmation settled for Aquaman because they could not get the rights to Batman. The Batman live action series was still running on the ABC network.
For the same reason, the Teen Titans segment featured Speedy instead of Robin.
The show actually began in September 1966, as a half-hour Superman show. In 1967, it was expanded to an hour, with Aquaman and the other features added.
After ABC cancelled the Batman show, Filmation acquired the rights to the character, and the series became the Superman-Batman Hour.
Besides the 1940s radio show and the 1960's TV cartoon show, Bud Collyer also voiced Superman in a series of animated cartoons that were shown in theaters in the early 1940's.
Despite playing the character in three different series, Collyer did not seem to get typecast as the Man of Steel. Maybe because he only did voice-overs, not on-screen. He may be more famous for his work as a TV game show host.
Thanks for sharing that info TC.
Loved those shows as a kid. Not as much as the '67 Spidey and FF shows, but still watched faithfully. Especially liked the JLA, and liked the Superboy segments on Adventures of Superman.
Boy, Ted Knight was a busy fellow. He was everywhere back then doing voice acting. He worked on another great cartoon of that era that resides in my fondest memory: "Journey to the Center of the Earth "...
These are seminal cartoons for me, as they along with the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four cartoons from Hanna-Barbera were in many ways my entry ports into comics in general. I gobbled these JLofA cartoons up on dvd, both with a bootleg from a show and the official release from several years ago.
Recently read the Filmation story from Twomorrows and the the Superman and Aquaman cartoons were absolutely crucial to the success of that up and coming firm. They built on those to keep doing cartoons well into the 80's. I always liked the Aquaman cartoons, but wondered why him and and not a better known Leaguer. Later when I learned that Mort Weisinger was the contact guy at DC for these cartoons it made perfect sense, he co-created Aquaman with Paul Norris.
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