saturday_am_80s | 1981 11:00 on ABC: SUPER FRIENDS

At 11:00 on ABC in 1981, you would get to see a little how called "Super Friends" for the very first time.

Not "The Super Friends" as it had been when it debuted in 1973.

Not "The ALL NEW Super Friends hour which debuted in 1977.

Not "The Challenge Of The Super Friends" of 1978.

Not "The World's Greatest Super Friends" of the 1979/1980 season (which we have already covered in this community)

No... this is SUPER FRIENDS. So what's different about this series, other than the snappy new title sequence? The short answer is Length and El Dorado.

Up till this series, all the incarnations of the Super Friends had comprised of half-hour adventures, but the only new content for THIS serie were seven-minute shorts. Each episode of Super Friends would feature a rerun from one of the previous six years and three new shorts. These new adventures featured appearances by the 5 "Big Guns" (Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin) plus The Wonder Twins (Zan, Jayna and their space-monkey Gleek) and the occasional "Guest Star" roll by other heroes of th established DC Universe (Flash, Green Lantern, etc). Also heavily featured were past episodes that included "Ethnic" character such as Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Super Samurai. The only NEW character introduced this year was the Hanna-Barbera-created hero El Dorado, who was added to the show to provide further cultural diversity. This would prove to be one of the longer-lived incarnations of the series (three years).

(Also aired at 8:00 in 1982 and 1983)

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whoa, haven't seen this in ages! thanks.

This video was from the second season of the SF (shorts) season.
Check out the first season opening of the SF (shorts) from 1980-81.

BTW: Superfriends didn't air in 1983. ABC cancelled it for that season to promote "cute" shows (Monchhichis, Rubik, and The Littles). The Best of Scooby-Doo aired in it's place.

However, The episodes from the 1983-84 season were produced, but never aired on ABC (except 3 eps that were aired under "The Legendary Superpowers Show" for the 1984-85 season).

This is my first post on this great website. Glad to come aboard.

Welcome :)

I've heard this myth before about 1983 and there being no Super Friends, and I alo think I know where it comes from...

First, let me say that I, too, believed that there were no Super Friends cartoons in 1983 till I was presented with physical evidence from a member of the old BigRedToybox.com forums (rip). Super Friends aired in re-runs till September of 1983. Because the networks ran their Saturday mornings in 2-part cycles ("Fall" and "Spring"), their seaon are usually labeled as such ("The 1980/1981 season", for example). Super Friends was indeed a staple of the 1982/1983 season, then went away in the 1983/1984 season only to come back for the 1984/1985 season.

In this community, we try to deal with the actual years that a show was on the air. Shows that debuted in the 79/80 season are listed under 1980, as are the shows in the 80/81 season.

I hope this helps!

Oh, and I haven't been able to find an opening for a "first season" of Super Friends shorts in 80/81... all I can find for that season is World' Greatest Super Friends, as already noted (hot-linked in the post above)... do you have a link to it? I'd love to see it and compare/contrast for memories sake "_

1981 11:00 on ABC: SUPER FRIENDS

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