Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

I understand that episodes of "Challenge of the Superfriends" will soon be released by Warner Bros. on DVD. But what about the original 1973-74 "Super Friends" series? I'm talking about the one with Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog, and not with those God-awful Wonder Twins and their ugly pet! According to the Internet Movie Database , only 16 shows were made that year- something I find quite shocking, considering that I had to endure years of bad Wonder Twin episodes. The first year was the best, and with only 16 hours, it would make a fine box set.

So.... a) does anyone know of any forthcoming release, and b) how many of you out there share my opinion that the Wendy/Marvin shows were far better than the hokey Wonder Twin era?

Warner essentially led people to believe that many incarnations of the series would eventually be made available on DVD... if I remember the last Warner chat correctly. Tell you what: go to tvshowsondvd.com, look up either Superfriends or Challenge of the Superfriends and you will see the news item quoting Warner Bros. exactly. I'd do it, but I'm on break at work right now.

How about we just stick to the chat in question, since I left things vague at TSoD...on purpose, because in reality we're not sure WHAT Warner promised is coming.

Here's what the chat says:



There. Now how do you interpret that? After that, Warner announced recently the season-set release of "Challenge", but that and the 2 single-disc releases of "Challenge" are all that we have so far.

No Wendy, no Marv, no Wonderdog, no Zan, no Jayna, no Gleek. Not on DVD so far, anyway. What exactly Warner's plans are for these is unknown to me.

If I was to take a WAG (wild-assed guess) at it, though, I'd say that they are probably concentrating on the more popular (1978) CotSF series for now, and then will later go back to do the 1973 Superfriends series (original version with Wendy/Marv/Wonderdog) later. As you say, there aren't very many episodes with them, and they could knock them out fast...1 release will do it.

However, they may do the Zan/Jayna/Gleek episodes first, which are a bit more popular (sorry Charles, it's true), and actually ran the longest time. Well, that's because they ran in three different series, actually: (1) 1977's All-New Superfriends Hour (mentioned by ChadZ in the chat) introduced them. (2) The 1978 series "Superfriends", which aired simultaneously with "Challenge" but featured the more common adventures, WITH the Wonder-Twins and WITHOUT the Legion Of Doom. (3) The 1979 series "World's Greatest Superfriends", which consisted of a few new Wonder-Twin episodes plus mixed in to the airing schedule many of the old ones (this was done a LOT at the time; Scooby-Doo fans know what I mean).


Since ChadZ's chat question also mentions "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show", I guess I'll finish the timeline: To start with, 1980 saw more than 60 new shorts (under 10 minutes each in length) made featuring just the heroes, no teenage sidekicks, and those were combined with old eps into a new "Superfriends Hour", but then the show was shortened to a half-hour for 1981-83 and the show went under various names, accompanied by maybe about two dozen more new shorts, I think. Some of those were never aired in the original rotation, though. However, all of them aired later in syndication.

But in 1984 the folks at ABC wanted to revitalize the series, and that's when they did "The Legendary Super Powers Show", using the new DC Comics name from the action figure lineup going on at the time. "Super Friends" was stuck in the title just to tie in with fans who would recall that name. It was mainly the heroes from the toy line, so naturally the cartoons now featured Cyborg (from the Teen Titans) and Firestorm (aka Firestorm: The Nuclear Man), who were of course part of the toy lineup. There were only 15 episodes produced under that name, though, and then they finished up the SuperFriends' TV run with "The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians". That 1985 show had more of the heroes who hadn't been seen the previous year, especially fan favorites who had mostly been missing since "Challenge", like Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman. There were I think 10 episodes of this.


Info courtesy of IMDB and Dave's brain, which is all I have time for right now, so corrections are welcome. But you get the gist of it. There is a LOT of Superfriend episodes, and Warner will be able to plunder the vaults for quite some time before fans get bored.

Good recap Dave. I'm wondering why Warner put "The First Season" on the CotSF box instead of "The Complete Series" or something like that. It could lead people not familiar with CotSF to believe there are more seasons when there really aren't.

Good point, David. I always liked the later series better and they were probably more popular largely because of the great toyline that went along with them. I'd rather have the later Superfriends (weren't they at one point called
"Superpowers"?) incarnations first.

I too look forward to when they get around to the "Super Powers" line-up. Really loved the art and most of the stories from that late 80's series.

I really wish that they were releasing the full Challenge of the Superfriends hour as it originally aired - one Legion of Doom episode paired with a "Superfriends" Zan and Jayna episode as David mentioned earlier. These were some of the most bizarre and memorable Superfriends eps as far as I'm concerned.

Kinda OT - ABC was always messing around with its Saturday morning schedule in the 70's. Shows would go from 60 to 90 minutes and back again. It's unfortunate since we will probably not see many of these shows as they originally aired (Scooby Doo Dynomutt Hour, Scooby's All Star Laff A Lympics, etc come to mind). I'd at least like to see orignal openings and bumpers, etc included as extras on future DVDs.

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

Well, it's been four years, and STILL no release of the first season- what gives? Other SuperFriends sets from later seasons have come out, but why not the original?

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

cause they were the lamest of the series. they didn't have the super villains. They couldn't get too exciting or violent. It makes sense to keep this one until the bitter end.

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

Tsk, tsk, Corey- haven't you ever heard of tact? Please remember that there are those (like myself) who actually PREFER the first season. Show some respect, please.

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

The only thing I'd add to that is there is no continuity from one series to another and it really doesn't matter in which order they are released or viewed. Warner has been like clockwork with Superfriends releases for a long, long time now. While I understand the want for the original incarnation, there's no doubt in my mind we WILL be getting them.

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

I grew up watching the original series. I wondered what happened when Wendy and Marvin and the dog vanished without a trace. A few years back I caught the hour long episodes when they aired on Boomerang. They were very slow moving with any excuse to limit the animation. I remember my nephew really getting bored with it being so timid.

there's always chats around here about how for some shows the first season was not close to the best and how a casual viewer might be bored and give up on the series. Warners is lucky that they can avoid this issue by putting the hour long Superfriends out later in the release schedule.

Although as far as H-B/Warner releases, I'm wondering if they'll put out Season 2 of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home with all the guest voice action.

Re: Has the original '73-74 "Super Friends" ever been released on DVD?

I appreciate the fact that there are fans who want the first series, i.e. with Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog. When we were talking about this in another thread a couple of years ago, we were in the time release frame of Justice League and JL Unlimited. I was just wanting to finish collecting all these and get the two Super Powers series. Thank God we finally got them last year. I'll be there to pick up all the rest of the seasons, but the truth is, my bp has come down a good bit since I got the ones I wanted. Hope you get your favorite season soon!

FINALLY! It's coming- sort of:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Super-Friends-Season-1-Volume-1/12775

I think the only reason why Season 1 is being split is because it the final batch of unreleased episodea to hit the DVD market, and Warner Bros. wants to get as much money as possible.  I just hope that these shows are remastered so I can once again enjoy them as I did 35 (has it been that long?) years ago as a kid.

 I think the reason that it is being split up is that it would be a four disc set and in this economy those size box sets are not doing so well in sales these days; in particular classic cartoons.  I think it is being split up to keep the cost down so people will buy it.

^ Just like every other set in the franchise, save Justice League. 

IIRC, every Super Friends release (and the Filmation DC ones as well) has been a two DVD set.  I guess that model works for WHV, which is why we saw split sets for The All-New Super Friends Hour and now for the original Super Friends.

i am glad to see this series come up. I always like wendy and marvin. I thought superfriends kind over did itself when it added in to many characters on the superfriends show.

I hope that is not the final artwork.

Not only does Wonder Woman have the wrong logo on her chest, but none of the characters look like the original Alex Toth designs from the show.

 Also, I wonder if they purposely left off Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog.

I don't recall Robin riding a motorcycle at any time in the show either. I have the entire season downloaded from iTunes. I'll take another look.

Looks to me they just took stock images from DC's Licencing guide. The artwork is by José Luis García-López, who not only has produced licencing art for DC for YEARS, but also did the redisigns for the last season of Super-Friends (The "Super-Powers" episodes) 

I thought that was José Luis García-López.  I've always liked his art, but it is just out of place here.

I agree...it looks like García-López Style Guide art (possibly/probably inked by Dick Giordano), courtesy of the Licensing Dept.

I always enjoyed the appearance of Green Arrow in this series, although I suppose that will be in the next volume.

i think green arrow was in this episode, which will be volume #2.

Gulliver's Gigantic Goof

A mad scientist named Dr. Gulliver hatches a plot to shrink people down to a height of two inches believing that he can solve global hunger. The SuperFriends try to stop him, but each is shrunk down and captured. Marvin and Wendy, however, manage to contact Green Arrow. Will the SuperFriends be saved by their friends and returned to their normal size?

I would of like too see them release the 1973 series complete, instead of volumes. I love the superfriends, especially aquaman/batman&Robin, etc. I was disappointed when the did reincarnation of the superfriends in 1970s, especially around adding some many characters. I thought it was overkill.

Throw in a volume or two of Filmation's 1968 Batman and the rest of Filmation's Superman, and this collection should be pretty much complete.

While they're at it we need them to toss in the 1967 Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four as well!

Isn't that owned by Disney? Along with the other Marvel short cartoons?

"In the hall of the great Justice League are assembled the world's four greatest heroes!"

 This is stellar news! I used to jump for joy when that theme song came on, back in the day.

Agreed the early ones were the real deal. Wonder Twins were silly to me. I hated as a kid when shows would put in kids for me to identify with. I wanted adventure, not a mirror! Early allergy to pandering, I guess.