Challenge of the Superfriends

Show Summary

Aired: 1978 - 1978
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US

"Banded together from remote galaxies are thirteen of the most sinister villians of all time, The Legion of Doom. Dedicated to a single objective, the conquest of the Universe! Only one group dares to challenge this intergalactic threat, The Super Friends! The Justice League of America versus The Legion of Doom! This is the Challenge of The Super Friends!"

This was the premise for the late 70s cartoon featuring the DC Universe's most well-known heroes (and some other characters thrown in for racial diversity). The show was not as camp as the Batman television series featuring Adam West, but it's hard to tell going by today's standards. The JLA fought the Legion of Doom, and nobody questioned anything. About anything. The shows rarely had complex plots, or plots at all, and if these kind of cartoons riveted you as child, you'd probably have a heart attack these days.

Comments

ACcountryFanPosted: 10/06/2008

quote: "This was 80s.... way after Wonder Twins and Marvin & Wendy."

"Challenge of the Superfriends" actually ran from 1978 until 1979, so it isn't a 1980's cartoon. It was seen a lot in re-runs during the 1980's but the original run was 1978. The show ran an hour. The first 30 minute segment of "Challenge..." featured a story with the core line-up: Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aqua Man, plus the Wonder Twins and Gleek. The second half hour featured the version with the Legion of Doom, which consisted of 16 villains. The Superfriends line-up increased from 5 to 11 but there were no Wonder Twins and Gleek during this segment of the show. There were 16 episodes made of this series, which means after the 16 were shown, they were re-ran so it's original network run consisted of 32 Saturday morning air-dates spread out over the course of the fall 1978-spring 1979 TV season.

Marvin and Wendy and the dog were only on the original Superfriends in 1973...the show was brought back in 1977 as "The All-New Superfriends Hour" in 1977 and that series introduced the Wonder Twins and Gleek. Then in 1978 "Challenge of the Superfriends" premiered with the show make-up I described in the previous paragraph.

Thanks for listing the voice cast as well. I've got the DVD's that have been made available so far.

OroborosdramonPosted: 12/08/2008

Ha, I used to watch this on CN religiously. It's so funny now that I look at it. Lex, Brainiac, Sinestro, Toyman, and Cheetah were my favorite villains. Go DOOM!

BenJaminPosted: 06/08/2009

Use to watch this on Cartoon Network. I have two DVD copies of this. One has all episodes of this and the other one has the first four episodes and the DVD is called Attack of the Legion of Doom. If I had to pick my favorite villain I would say Black Manta. That voice of his is really sping-tingling. RIP Ted Cassidy.

The Midnight RiderPosted: 06/18/2009

Challenge of the Superfriends was so much better than the other versions.

benton goldPosted: 08/10/2009

This is an awesome cartoon.

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