Series synopsis
Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animation sci-fi & fantasy action & adventure television series that premiered on ABC on September 9, 1978. It ended on December 23, 1978. It stars Casey Kasem, Jack Angel, Don Messick and Vic Perrin.
Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Warner Bros. Television and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics and created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. It was the third series of Super Friends cartoons, following the original Super Friends ...
Premise
Challenge of the Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from September 9, 1978, to December 23, 1978, on ABC. The complete series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Warner Bros. Television and is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics and created by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. It was the third series of Super Friends cartoons, following the original Super Friends in 1973 and The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977. It continues to air on Boomerang in the United States.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
Supporting cast
- Melanie Chartoff
- Michael Bell
- Bob Holt
- Bob Hastings
- Stan Jones
- Jimmy Weldon
- Danny Dark
- William Callaway
- Stanley Ralph Ross
- Shannon Farnon
- Marcello Mastroianni
- Richard Chamberlain
Guest cast
Episodes
This series spans 3 seasons with 35 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 3 | December 23, 1978 | |
| Season 1 | 16 | September 9, 1978 | December 23, 1978 |
| Season 2 | 16 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Saturday, Sleeping Bags and SuperFriends: A Retrospective A brief retrospective on the impact of the series by several people involved in more recent incarnations of these Saturday morning heroes and villians. |
|
| 2 |
Wanted: The Super Friends - Commentary by Geoff Johns and Mark Waid Lex Luthor creates a Dream Machine that causes the SuperFriends to steal the world's treasures overnight; Bizarro and Cheetah turn people around the world into Bizarros and Cheetahs. Includes commentary by noted comic book writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid |
September 9, 1978 |
| 3 |
History Of Doom - Commentary by Geoff Johns and Mark Waid Three aliens come to a ruined Earth. Travelling to the Great Hall of Justice, they find a series of memory tapes chronicling the Superfriends and the Legion of Doom. Although they find some origin tapes, they find nothing on the calamity that destroyed the Earth. They find the Legion of Doom HQ and discover that Luthor unleashed a solar flare that interacted with the Superfriends' planet-protecting shield, devastating all life on Earth. The aliens go back in time and alter the timeline with an eclipse so that the flare never makes it to Earth. Includes commentary by noted comic book writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid |
December 23, 1978 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Wanted: The Superfriends Lex Luthor uses a dream machine to control the unconscious minds of the Superfriends and make them commit crimes. Not knowing of Lex's influence, the heroes surrender themselves to the authorities. Bizarro and Cheetah have taken the place of the police and paralyze them and send them toward the Sun. Given free rein, the Legion takes over the Hall of Justice and use the Justice League satellite to transform all of Earth's inhabitants into duplicates of Bizarro and Cheetah to steal for them. The SuperFriends escape the trap when Superman spots a meteor and Wonder Woman telepathically controls her lasso to direct the cell's paralysis projector into the meteor's path. While the SuperFriends try to thwart the worldwide crime spree, Batman and Robin try to figure out how to reverse the transformation but are sent off a cliff by Bizarro-Alfred. They manage to escape at the last minute and finish their computations and reverse the polarity of the satellite and untransform everyone. They ambush |
September 9, 1978 |
| 2 |
Invasion of The Fearians Captain Cold strikes a deal with the Fearinans that involve tricking the Super Friends into converting Earth's climate to something closer to Venus'. In return the Fearians take on the Super Friends. They suceed in trapping the Super Friends but Green Lantern tricks them into dropping the field by making himself and his comrades invisible. |
September 16, 1978 |
| 3 |
The World's Deadliest Game The Legion lure Wonder Woman, Black Vulcan, and Hawkman away from Earth by cloaking it and get them to the Toyman's artificial planet within a black hole. While they try and avoid the Toyman's deadly games, the Legion has the Riddler lure the Super Friends to a deathtrap in the Grand Canyon, then to a planet in Orion's belt where a tribe of women try to petrify them. The Riddler's last clue leads them to the black hole planet which is about ready to close for good. Green Lantern and Superman combine their powers to escape and return to Earth where the Legion is collecting a ransom on the missing Super Friends, but the Legion escapes thanks to the cloaking device. |
September 23, 1978 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rokan: Enemy from Space | |
| 2 | The Demons of Exxor | |
| 3 | Battle at the Earth's Core |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | ABC |
|---|---|
| First aired | September 9, 1978 |
| Last aired | December 23, 1978 |
| Runtime | 30 minutes |
| Status | ended |