1981 9:30 on NBC: The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

First, the straight data. The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam was a live-action/animated comedy/action/cartoon show that aired at 9:30 on NBC starting in 1981, and was produced by Filmation. The live-action segments were your standard vaudeville jokes and skits performed by attractive people in spandex super hero suits. The animated segments were of either "Hero High" (animated versions of the live-action spandex vaudeville folk) or "SHAZAM!" (animated adventures of the famous Superman knock-off of the 1930's). How many episodes were there? Good question...

See, this show is one of my favorites AND one of my most frustrating.

One of the first bootlegs I tracked down when I got in to "Tape Trading" (VHS tapes) back in the late 80's was Hero High. I paid $30 for 3 video tapes full of The Kid Super Power Hour With Shazam, which the seller swore were the only 9 episodes that were ever made.

When The Internet happened, I discovered that the order from NBC was for at least 13 episodes - four more than what I had paid for.

Since then, in my attempts to find the entire series, I have heard people claim that there are as many as THIRTY-EIGHT EPISODES of this show - and INSANE amount of episodes for a weekly Saturday morning cartoon!

I know for a fact that there were only 12 8-minute SHAZAM! cartoons produced, and the rights to them are owned by Warner Brothers who has no plans to ever make an official release.

I know for a fact that there were 26 8-minute Hero High cartoon segments produced, and they are available on DVD.

Combining those two might get us to the fabled 38 episodes, but since this was an hour long "block" of cartoons that regularly showed 4 or 5 cartoon segments along with the live-action vaudeville, I'm assuming that my 9 episodes are closer to the true number of episodes than 38 ever could be.

Wish I still had those tapes, even if they WERE on Betamax tapes :(

Comments

[aurora77]

I found the Hero High segments and the live action segments, but I can't find any of the actual SHAZAM! segments in anything reasonable reasonable quality. :(

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

There are rumors of a Brazilian DVD of all 12 SHAZAM! segments that was released in 2011, but I've never been able to confirm or deny it's existence or quality :/

But that cartoon was like a fine gorgonzola cheese - when paired with something like Hero High, it was a delicious punch that accentuated the flavors of all the other ingredients, but on it's own it's just overwhelmingly cheesy :)

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

I remember only one episode of this one, a Hero High cartoon that involved the students getting involved in some kind of competition as to who could help the school the most. The good kids came up with all kinds of plans, but the bad kids kept sabotaging their attempts (I vaguely remember something about bubblegum on the gym ceiling). The bad kids, however, paid no attention to actually doing anything particularly positive on their own but did create a machine that polished doorknobs. The wound up with I think three very clean doorknobs while the good kids' plans wound up all but destroying the school, yet they still got the award, natch. The only reason I remember this is I still refer to doing insignificant chores first rather than doing anything worthwhile as "doorknob polishing."

Weird, random memory.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Wow... and from now on, I will ALSO be calling all time-waster chores "Doorknob Polishing". That's great!

[cooperwench.livejournal.com]

THIS. WAS. MY FAVORITE EVER.
This and the Drak Pack, when I found the full DVD set, I thought I found the holy stinking' grail.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

You have excellent taste :)

[janusfiles.livejournal.com]

The IMDB entry seems to have more than a few holes in its information. The best information I have on the number of episodes is that, according to IMDB, the character of Dirty Trixie appeared in 14 episodes.

And if you are interested in perusing another look back at this series, I submit the following for your approval:

http://my-retrospace.blogspot.com/2008/08/kids-super-power-hour.html

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

FOURTEEN! A new challenger enters the arena :(