Super Friends At 40: The Show That Defined Superheroes For a Generation

Has it already been FORTY YEARS since the show that shaped my very existence made its debut on national television?Make no mistake, to this day, everything I hold near and dear to me in pop culture is rooted in The Super Friends. I do have to say, though, that last sentence frustrated me for no other reason than the fact that Hanna-Barbera, the creators of DC Comics’ seminal TV series, couldn’t even make up their mind whether it was “Super Friends” or “Superfriends.” It’s almost up there with “Spiderman” when everyone knows it’s “Spider-Man.” But I digress, so long as the DVD catalog, to which I own every single offering, calls them “Super Friends,” that’s what you’ll get here.The Super Friends were to me what Yo Gabba Gabba and the Muppets are to my daughter, not even two years old yet. I watched the series from the very beginning, which is why it’s hard for me to offer my favorite superhero when on any given day it could be Aquaman, Batman, Wonder Woman or Superman. Being exposed to all of these greats at the same time formed my lifelong love for super-teams over solo endeavors. To me, Batman is friggin’ awesome, but with Robin at his side and someone like Superman, maybe Green Arrow or Plastic Man in there, the more the merrier. Speaking of Batman, it didn’t hurt that at the same time I was being exposed to this relatively fresh new show on Saturdays, a Detroit-based network was airing reruns of the mid-1960s live-action series starring the Dynamic Duo every weekday afternoon. Despite exposure to some other great offerings over the 1970s from Marvel Comics, my love for DC and their catalog was a lock as early as 1973.