I think my interest in superhero teams and team-ups definitely goes back to the Super Friends cartoon show. It was regular Saturday morning viewing for me and I was entranced watching all of the colorful costumed heroes interacting with one another. Later seasons would have multiple stories each episode, with some tales featuring team ups between one of the Super Friends and a special guest star, and I absolutely loved those. It's safe to say that the show is a cornerstone for my lifetime love of comics, and ultimately the creation of this blog.
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Love, love, LOVE this cover!!!
Battle of the Planets was an awesome cartoon! Now I have to go and dig out Alex Ross' mini-series!
Thank you!
Ross, 1960s' Filmation had the first such meeting in Superman / Aquaman hour of adventure. The Aquaman portion had individual cartoons of Flash, Atom, Hawkman and Green Lantern then had them team up for the first televised adventures of the Justice League of America. Ironically, tho he was in the promo for it, Aquaman was not included in those adventures that also had Superman. (Teen Titans were there also, but never worked with anyone else.)
Yup, love those cartoons and even have some cels from them - but I never saw them until I was an adult, they didn't play on TV where I lived when I was younger.
If memory serves, Team Gatchaman was being syndicated in the US, weekday afternoons, as "Battle of the Planets." Which was around the same time this incarnation of the Super Friends (Wonder Twins era) was being telecast on Saturday mornings. So, I applaud your clever composite pun!
As to cartoon Green Lanterns? I think, next to the Filmation original (voiced by by Gerald Mohr, circa 1967), my second favorite would be this version. Voiced by the same actor who had done the steampunk version of the Lone Ranger (also back in 1967)!
Ah, yes! That would be the late, great Michael Rye. He was about fifty when I first watched that cartoon.* Which featured animation from the same British company that had animated "Dodo The Kid From Outer Space." Halas & Batchelor; the other H-B!
*Dining on Sugar Smacks...with a glass of whole milk on the side. :-)
Hoyt Curtin, composer, wrote both the Superman and Battle of the Planets musical themes.
I actually remember watching The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, and it had roughly the same effect on me that you describe for Super Friends. I had some familiarity with the characters from looking at comics, but I was fascinated by this show with its wide variety of superheroes.
Super Friends was similar, but of course struck me as incredibly cheesy even at the time. (I don't remember what level of cheese SAHA was at, but of course I was much younger then.) I'm trying to imagine something of that tone with Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Jason Momoa, and... well, I've no doubt that at least Ben and Jason would be up to the challenge*, but otherwise it just hurts my brain.
*Pun not intended, but appreciated.
The Superman/Aquaman Adventure Hour was an outgrowth of the success of the Batman TV Show. I believe that Congress determined that the super-hero shows were too violent for kids. I believe Superman/Aquaman was replaced by Scooby Doo. I always hated Scooby Doo because of it. Also, I was getting older. Anyway that’s my vague recollection of that era.
Why don't I see Hanna-Barbera Superfriends members (though it's not the first time)?;also the "G" in Gatchaman bears a strong resemblance to Superman's "S" logo; BTW, how about the Flintstones and Pokemon?; if shellders lived around Bedrock, they would make great core refrigerator parts, like the dragons in Bedrock make great core heating parts.
I loved the Super Friends cartoons as a kid. Admittedly I never got into Gatchaman/BotP.
For more classic cartoon goodness, how about Thundercats & Voltron?
Super Friends and Battle Of The Planets? I would have watched or read that crossover over and over!
I love this cover. I was a fan of both shows as a kid. Scooby-Doo, too.
@Big Mike: I'd love to see Voltron on these pages again (their only appearance is way back in #1255, with Shogun Warriors). In the unpublished sequel to my novel, I do an homage where a Voltron-like mech team battle a Godzilla-like creature, and seeing the real deal happen here would be a blessing. Voltron with MF's Captain Marvel would be fun too, as respective "special power-ups" are quite opposite from each another!
@Bob Greenwade: I'd buy that latter team up in a "Split!" second.
The Superman/Aquaman hour was in syndication on Channel 5 (NYC) in the afternoons in the late 70s/early 1980s. Ross, if you lived in the Boston, MA area I'm surprised you didn't have access to them because I fell New England had similar local stations listings as New York (when I visited my cousins in Newton). Superboy, The Flash and Aquaman was really common, and occasionally Teen Titans would pop up. It was rare to see a Green Lantern short (I remember it catching one or two shorts tops). I vaguely remember a Hawkman short. These cartoons were inconsistent because some afternoons they would be replaced by an extra hour of Wood Woodpecker.
Most of my childhood, all we had was NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS. If it didn't show on those channels, I didn't see it.
@Anonymous814: by my calculations, there were only three cartoons apiece devoted to the guest-star superheroes on THE SUPERMAN/AQUAMAN HOUR OF ADVENTURE.
Cover of the month!
Somebody get Doc Samson Ready for Super TraUMA! tHE SUPERFRIENDS HAVE NEVER HAD to deal with actual warfare before. All that innocence lost bums me out. No Pun No witty comment just sadness. The letters are messed up on purpose.
Battle of the Planets Alan Young(Mt. Ed)as the Robot 7-Zark-7 and Tiny the Pilot of their Aircraft Phoenix which could become giant Bird of Flame he was kind of Obease but Profesional Wrestler and each with a Bird type of power or something like that Eagle, Condor, Owl, SWallow Swan Krye Luke was Zoltar the Villian who sressed up like Jackale and the Great Spirit which lookedd like it was Flames and two evil eyes
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