In 1980, the long-running Super Friendsanimated franchise on ABC underwent yet another rebrand. Officially titled The SuperFriends Hour, the series continued under the more familiar onscreen name SuperFriends.
Produced by Hanna-Barbera, this iteration delivered eight new half-hour episodes, each divided into three seven-minute segments – much like the earlier The All-New Super Friends Hour format.
These new shorts brought back several fan-favourite heroes. Alongside Hanna-Barbera’s original creations – Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief – viewers also welcomed the return of classic DC characters, including Flash, Atom, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Rima the Jungle Girl, and Green Lantern.
Villains were just as varied, featuring familiar foes like Bizarro, Mr Mxyzptlk, and the Riddler.
Iconic elements from DC lore also made appearances: Wonder Woman’s mother Queen Hippolyta, the Batcave (complete with Bat-Computer and giant dinosaur), Superman’s Supermobile, and the Fortress of Solitude.
The show’s roster of threats leaned heavily into the bizarre and imaginative. Heroes faced an alien race of Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), a biker gang called the “Highway Angels,” trance-inducing Rock and Roll Space Bandits, Vampiress the Voodoo Vampire, Termites from Venus, the Incredible Crude Oil Monster, and Romac, a rogue supercomputer created by the IBN.
One particularly offbeat episode even featured General George Washington and Blackbeard the pirate in a shared storyline.
Each broadcast followed a simple structure: reruns from earlier seasons aired in the first half, followed by new segments in the second.
The show ran from 4 October 1980 through 19 September 1981, with plans for another batch of eight episodes. However, a 13-week strike by the Writers Guild of America halted production. Hanna-Barbera had managed to complete six episodes before the strike, and these became the final new instalments for the season.
Among these episodes, a new character was introduced: El Dorado, a Mexican superhero created to reflect the show’s growing Latino audience. El Dorado possessed an array of powers, including super strength, growth, telepathy, and “hologram vision,” which allowed him to project lifelike illusions. His teleportation abilities were granted by his cape.
Despite the fresh content, Hanna-Barbera opted not to produce new SuperFriends episodes for the 1982–1983 season. Instead, ABC aired reruns from the 1977–1979 archive until the show’s final broadcast on 3 September 1983.
By the time the network retired the series, Super Friends had produced an impressive 58 hours of animated superhero adventures since its 1973 debut.
To extend the show’s reach, Lexington Broadcasting Services Company, Inc. (LBS) created a syndicated package.
They edited the existing hour-long episodes – cutting some entirely and trimming others to fit a half-hour format – ultimately offering 110 half-hour shows.
The syndicated SuperFriends became a major success, ranking as the #2 syndicated program in the US, second only to Scooby-Doo.
Narrator
Bill Woodson Superman
Danny Dark Batman
Olan Soule Robin
Casey Kasem Aquaman/Bizarro
Bill Callaway Wonder Woman/Lois Lane
Shannon Farnon Jayna
Louise Williams Zan/Gleek/The Riddler
Michael Bell Lex Luthor
Stanley Jones Mr Mxyzptlk
Frank Welker Hawkgirl
Janet Waldo Apache Chief/Green Lantern
Mike Rye Flash/Samurai/Hawkman
Jack Angel Black Vulcan
Buster Jones El Dorado
Fernando Escandon The Atom
Wally Burr
Produced by Hanna-Barbera, this iteration delivered eight new half-hour episodes, each divided into three seven-minute segments – much like the earlier The All-New Super Friends Hour format.
The show’s roster of threats leaned heavily into the bizarre and imaginative. Heroes faced an alien race of Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), a biker gang called the “Highway Angels,” trance-inducing Rock and Roll Space Bandits, Vampiress the Voodoo Vampire, Termites from Venus, the Incredible Crude Oil Monster, and Romac, a rogue supercomputer created by the IBN.
Among these episodes, a new character was introduced: El Dorado, a Mexican superhero created to reflect the show’s growing Latino audience. El Dorado possessed an array of powers, including super strength, growth, telepathy, and “hologram vision,” which allowed him to project lifelike illusions. His teleportation abilities were granted by his cape.
To extend the show’s reach, Lexington Broadcasting Services Company, Inc. (LBS) created a syndicated package.
