Super Friends (1973 TV Series)-Trivia

* Danny Dark (Superman) and Casey Kasem (Robin) are the only actors to appear in all nine seasons of Super Friends and voice the same character every season.
	+ The second longest running cast member in Super Friends is Olan Soule who voiced Batman in season one through seven and Martin Stein in season eight, with Adam West taking over the role of Batman in this season. For unknown reasons Soule was not involved with the final season.
* The characters of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were introduced to the DC Comics Universe over 30 years later in Geoff John's 'Teen Titans' series around 2006. Marvin would be subsequently killed off (by a rabid Wonder Dog, no less) and Wendy made paraplegic by the writer who took over after Johns left the title two years later.
* DC launched a Super Friends treasury sized edition to tie into the cartoon, which included a section, drawn by designer Alex Toth, which explained the animation process for the show. A regular comic series followed, which explained that Wendy was the niece of Batman, though how that was possible was never explained. Wendy and Marvin were later replaced by the Wonder Twins, after their debut in the All-New Super Friends Hour.
* When ABC was rebooting its Saturday morning Cartoon serial "Super Friends" (which in 1985 was to be retitled the "The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians") they sought out high profile actors to play some of the parts of the superheroes. They reached out to Lynda Carter, who previously played Wonder Woman in the Wonder Woman television series, to voice the character of Wonder Woman at this point. Adam West, who played Batman in the live action TV series; had agreed to play Batman this season; and show producers hoped they could strike gold again by having another iconic actor associated with a DC hero take part in the series. But Lynda Carter said no; she had other commitments. (In interviews she has said she has been approached several times since Wonder Woman was cancelled to do a reboot or a reunion special; like they did several times with Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman reunion movies. Carter said these reunion movies often turn out "pathetic"; so she always turns them down).
* During the last two seasons of the "Super Friends" Show (1984's Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and 1985's The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) Wonder Woman is cast mostly as a damsel in distress and the object of Darkseid's affections and obsessions. This is very different from how she is portrayed at the beginning of the series as very tough and independent.
* There was an ongoing attempt to do crossovers and tie-ins both with DC comics and Kenner Toys for the entire life cycle of the Super Friends Show on ABC.
* When ABC rebooted the Super Friends Show for its 1984 and 1985 seasons, they spliced together the theme song from the first season with the theme song from later seasons in a unique blend.
* In 1978, Hanna-Barbera elected to include more ethnic diversity in their Super Friends line-up. To this end, they created several original characters of distinctive cultural and/or racial diversity to fill out the Super Friends roster. Included in the new line-up were: Black Vulcan, El Dorado, Samurai and Apache Chief. Although Hanna-Barbera's intent was to create a more politically correct atmosphere, the writers of the show fell back upon age old stereotypes and several of the characters became little more than token archetypes of their respective cultures. Apache Chief himself was often found speaking in clipped, stilted tones reminiscent of stereotypical Native American speech patterns.
* Wonder Woman's red boots did not include white stripe lines until The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
* "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" was introduced in 1981 as a competitor to "Super Friends." The Spider-Man show was very successful and took much of Super Friends' audience for three seasons.
* The live-action "Superman" film series starring Christopher Reeve were in production during this animated series. Due to acting for the first film production, Reeve could not perform as his iconic character for the television special Legends of the Superheroes (1979) which was based on Challenge of the Superfriends (1978).
* Most of the Super Friends had secret identities: Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Superman all had sectret identities. The only ones who didn't were Wendy and Marvin and the Wonder Twins. Firestorm didn't have one secret identity; he had two.
* There was a show on CBS in the 1960s called "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure." This show was a "Filmation" animated series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1968. Premiering on September 9, 1967, this 60-minute program included a series of six-minute adventures featuring various "DC Comics" superheroes. This was basically the prototype for "Superfriends", and led to the production of the "Super Friends" show 5 years later on ABC.
* Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, actually make an appearance on "Smallville," the CW's "Superboy" TV series adaptation which aired in the 2000s and 2010s. This is the only live action appearance they would make on any tv series or film.
* There is a Wonder Dog who is the official mascot of the Super Friends the first season. This is not to be confused with Dog Wonder; the mascot of Blue Falcon; another superhero featured on ABC Saturday morning cartoons; this character was featured on Scooby-Doo; his alias is Dynomutt and he's actually a robot; unlike Wonder Dog who has no super powers and is just a pet of Marvin and Wendy and the other Super Friends season 1.
* Batman and Robin were also featured in their own cartoon series, "The New Adventures of Batman (1977)," produced by Filmation and airing on "CBS." This marks perhaps the only time in which the same character was featured simultaneously on two different TV series, produced by separate companies and airing on rival networks.
* In an effort to add racial diversity, Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief were created specifically for the show. Black Vulcan is black, Samurai is Japanese, and Apache Chief is an American Indian. 25 years later, the Justice League comic writer Joe Kelly, a fan of the show, brought the character of Apache Chief to the comic book world. Hanna-Barbera had originally planned to use Black Lightning, DC Comics' first prominent black superhero, for the African-American character. But the company learned that, in order to use the character, it would have to pay a royalty fee to Tony Isabella, the writer who had created Black Lightning and wrote the "Black Lightning" comic book. Instead, the artists created Black Vulcan, whose powers and costume were similar to Black Lightning's, in order to avoid paying the fee. In response, Tony Isabella wrote a story in the comic book that featured a con artist named Barbara Hanna and an impostor pretending to be Black Lightning.
* According to Darrell McNeil, an animator on the show, the Wonder Twins were originally named Tarzan and Jane. In their original conceptions, (Tar)Zan had Plastic Man's powers to stretch and transform into anything he wished, while Jane(a) could transform into anything, not just animals. The producers scaled down their powers because they felt they made the other Super Friends seem almost superfluous.
* Zan and Jayna's alien appearance was largely modeled after that of Mr. Spock from "Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)." In addition, the Wonder Twins relationship and interplay dynamics was largely based on that of Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond.
* A few months prior to the debut of this show, the characters of Zan, Jayna, and Gleek were introduced in the "Super Friends" comic book.
* Alex Toth had submitted a different roster for the Legion of Doom that included villains from the rogues galleries of both Batman and Captain Marvel, assuming the latter would be in the show. In the original proposal the Legion Of Doom consisted of: Dr. Sivanna, Abra-Kadabra, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Gorilla Grodd, Heatwave, The Joker, Mr. Atom, Oggar, The Penguin, Poison Ivy, Sinestro, and Beautia Sivanna (the Dr's daughter). Filmation Associates held the rights to Captain Marvel and related characters (featured in "Shazam!" (1974)) and most of the Batman villains were being used on The New Adventures of Batman (1977) (although HB and Filmation shared rights to Batman and Robin), so the group had to be retooled. The Captain Marvel villains were dropped and the Batman villains (with the exception of Riddler and Scarecrow) replaced, as were most of the Flash villains.
* The opening narration describes the Legion Of Doom as being banded together from remote galaxies. However, of the Legion's thirteen members, only two, Sinestro and Braniac are from alien planets.
* Giganta has been an enemy of Wonder Woman in the comics since 1944, where her character was originally a female gorilla that had been mutated into a red-haired strongwoman. When her character was written into "Challenge of the Super Friends", they introduced her shape-changing ability, which has been retained in the comics ever since.
* Mr. Myxyzptlk, the imp from the fifth dimension who's one of Superman's arch-foes, makes his Super Friends debut in this series. His name in all of the Super Friends series is pronounced "mixel-plick," which is incorrect. His name is actually pronounced "Mix-yez-pittle-ick." Kltpzyxm, the word that sends him back to his own dimension, is wrongly pronounced "kitzle-plim" in all of the Super Friends series. It's actually pronounced "kell-tips-yes-im."
* The Legion of Doom was based on DC Comics Secret Society of Super Villians, a criminal counter part to The SuperFriends basis The Justice League of America.
* This series marks the first appearance of Cheetah outside of the comics. Although she is Wonder Woman's arch enemy, Cheetah never had any live action appearances in the television series of Wonder Woman (1975) which was in production at the time same as this series.
* Originally when Black Vulcan first appeared in The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977), his costume covered his legs. Starting in Challenge of the Super Friends, Black Vulcan's costume no longer covers his legs; it leaves them bare.
* Although Giganta is an enemy of Wonder Woman, she is portrayed in the series as Apache Chief's arch enemy.
* The character of Wonder Woman permanently remained in this entire long-running Saturday morning animated television series a week after her live action series expired on CBS.
* Despite being seen in the opening of Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, Aquaman and Flash did not appear in the series.
* This series features the first appearances of the New Gods of Apokolips, such as Darkseid, Kalibak and Desaad. This was prompted by the fact that this series features the characters of the Kenner Toy Company's Super Powers collection and the toy company felt that the creations of the renowned comic book artist, Jack Kirby, were ideal larger-than-life villains for the toy line. In addition, Kirby was commissioned to design the action figures of his creations and thus for the first time in his artistic career received direct compensation for his creative work that was otherwise done in work-for-hire contracts.
* The new-look Brainiac debuted in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show. Brainiac's new look came about as a result of the decision to alter the character radically in time to celebrate the anniversary of ACTION COMICS, Superman's debut title. After his radical transformation, Brainiac appeared as essentially a big metal walking skeleton with a giant pink braincase containing his altered computer brain - the same altered appearance that he boasts on this show.
* This series has the first appearance of Firestorm, a well established teenage "DC Comics" superhero who largely supplants the narrative role of the Wonder Twins in this incarnation of the "Super Friends" series. For that matter, this series has the final appearances of the Wonder Twins as well as Black Vulcan as they would be wholly replaced in the series' final incarnation by Cyborg.
* This final incarnation of the "Super Friends" property, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, had the usual original kid sidekick members such as Wendy and Marvin and the Wonder Twins eliminated from the series. Instead, the youthful superheroes from the comics, Firestorm and Cyborg, take up that role for children's audience identification.
* The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians marked the first animated appearance of Cyborg. Cyborg was actually a character from another hero team, the Teen Titans, in the regular continuity.
* The episode titled The Fear marked the first time Batman's origin was adapted outside the comics. In addition, the episode was originally written as a pilot for a new Batman cartoon series, which after several changes resulted in the animated Batman series launched in 1992.
* René Auberjonois who voiced DeSaad in Super Friends later reprised the role in Justice League.
* In the final season, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, the Super Friends were renamed The Super Powers Team to tie into the branding of a line of "DC Comics" Action Figures produced by Kenner at the time of the show. The Galactic Guardians name was never spoken or referred to onscreen outside of the intro and commercial bumpers.