History Series / Shazam

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvshazam_4454.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Captain Marvel and his alter ego Billy Batson, keeping it real in TheSeventies.]]

->''"Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders -- Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury -- Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never-ending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word!"''
-->-- '''OpeningNarration'''

Based upon the Fawcett/DC comic book character [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]], ''Shazam!'' was Creator/{{Filmation}}'s first foray into live-action children's programming in TheSeventies. The program ran three seasons on Creator/{{CBS}} and was considered successful enough to launch a spin-off, ''[[Series/TheSecretsOfIsis Isis]]''.

It's probably noteworthy that Filmation also produced ''[[WesternAnimation/HeroHigh The Kid Super Power Hour]]'', which featured animated adventures of Captain Marvel (not a continuation of this series, although it did keep the show's theme music as the Marvel Family's {{Leitmotif}}) as well as the extended Marvel family.

The character of Captain Marvel is also the main hero of a [[{{Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainMarvel}} 1941 Film Serial]], and a [[Film/Shazam2019 2019 movie]].

!!This series provides examples of:

* AdaptationDistillation:
** The wizard Shazam does not appear in this series nor is he mentioned in the OpeningNarration's back story (instead, the six Immortal Elders speak with and confer their various powers to Billy directly). This makes the magic word "SHAZAM!" totally dependent on the [[FunWithAcronyms initials of the Elders]].
** None of Captain Marvel's RoguesGallery appeared in the show, most likely due to licensing and to keep the violence to a minimum. Instead, Cap would help out normal people with various problems usually caused by [[TooDumbToLive their own poor choices]].
** The rest of the Marvel Family has no appearances in the live-action show.
* AdventureTowns: Every episode
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "Debbie"
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: A staple of children's shows at the time. But you knew that, right? And Knowing Is... well, you know.
* ArtShift: In an otherwise live-action show, the Elders are animated. [[LimitedAnimation Minimally]], of course.
* BeYourself: "The Sound Of A Different Drummer"
* BigBrotherInstinct: Danny in "The Brothers"
* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: As per the opening ''"Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word! SHAZAM!"''
* TheChosenOne: Every episode [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin opens with the narration]] ''"Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders — Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury — Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land..."''
* TheChooserOfTheOne: The Immortal Elders — Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury — picked Billy Batson.
* ClearMyName: "The Past Is Not Forever", "Double Trouble"
* CoconutSuperpowers: Being a low-budget 1970's children's live-action show, this was a given.
* ConflictBall: In "The Treasure", the series panders to the then common stereotype of the young Native American character who was disdainful of white authority by having young Native American Johnny refuse to call the police to deal with some looters on his land even though that is the simplest and most obvious solution to the problem.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Most episodes open with Billy being summoned by the Elders so they can talk to him using vague platitudes that foreshadow the conflict of the episode's plot. So many problems could have been dealt with more quickly if the Elders were just more direct in their conversation. This is even {{lampshaded}} in the series when Billy is especially confused by one of their advice sessions only to have Solomon reply ''"It is not our intention that you understand everything clearly now, only that you will use this knowledge when you need it."'' and then summarily ends their communication when Billy starts to seek more clarification.
* {{Crossover}}: After ''Isis'' debuted, she and Cap would occasionally appear in each other's series.
* CrossoverCosmology: A given with ''Franchise/{{Shazam}}'', what with the presence of Solomon amongst the otherwise Greco-Roman Immortals; but it also crops up in "Bitter Herbs" which features a Jewish family (hi, Solomon!) in a presumably predominantly Christian town. And let's not forget [[Series/TheSecretsOfIsis Isis]], whose powers derive from the Egyptian pantheon.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: In "The Joyriders", a kid drives a stolen car the wrong way down a one-way street and responds to his friends' objections with [[BlatantLies "I know what I'm doing!"]] Almost immediately thereafter, he barely avoids a head-on collision with Mentor's RV... by cutting across a small corner lot.
* DrugsAreBad: "The Lure Of The Lost" / "The Road Back"
* {{Expy}}: Mentor for Uncle Dudley.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: "Goodbye, Packy" features a girl who has raised a wolf pup like a pet dog. She thinks she can go on treating it like a dog, even after it starts getting into the neighbors' henhouse and grows more and more uncontrollable. As Zeus points out, "Nature never breaks her own laws."
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Mentor, on more than one occasion, says that this actually is his name.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Inverted in "Out Of Focus", when Captain Marvel asks Andrea Thomas to leave a dangerous (and crowded) area to phone some phantom authorities, so that she can disappear and transform into Isis.
* InitiationCeremony: Well, not an Initiation Ceremony so much as an Initiation Dare, but happens in "The Brain".
* LatexPerfection: "Double Trouble"
* {{Magitek}}: The Winnebago that Mentor and Billy drive around in contains a plastic dome covered with lights that flash with "beep-boop" sound effects whenever the Elders want to talk to Billy. This leads him to waving his hand over the dome and deliver the following incantation:
--> '''Billy:''' Oh Elders, fleet and strong and wise... appear before my seeking eyes.
* MediumBlending: The Elders are represented as six cartoon figures that Billy stands in front of and speaks to.
* MilesGloriosus: Fittingly enough, "The Braggart"
* MyGreatestFailure: In "Little Boy Lost", this is given as the presumed reason Little Howard is TheSpeechless: his guilt over a botched prank that seriously injured a friend.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In "The Lure Of The Lost", a girl [[spoiler:flushes a bag of drugs down the kitchen sink]]. In her defense, she honestly thinks she's helping, by removing a temptation for her brother (who is [[spoiler:a reluctant drug dealer]]), but her action also destroys evidence against the drug ring's leader. [[WhatTheHellHero She does get called out on it]], although mildly since she already realizes her mistake.
* NoBadgeNoProblem: The local police of whatever [[AdventureTowns Adventure Town]] we're in have an odd habit of sharing information with Billy and Mentor (and, more understandably, Captain Marvel). Most noticable in "Speak No Evil", wherein the avuncular sheriff actively seeks the two out in order to impart pertinent information on matters that, technically speaking, should not concern them and which they should not be privy to.
* OpeningNarration: As was common in kid's TV series at the time, each episode opens with the exact same narration that lays out the fundamental premise of the show.
* PlotHole: In "The Past Is Not Forever", it is explicitly established that a gas station worker held the only key to the station; and this is why, when the place is robbed with no evidence of forced entry, everyone believes he was guilty. Later, a rival street thug confesses to having framed the worker; but it's never explained how he pulled off the "no forced entry" robbery especially since the episode belabors the point that ''the worker had the only key''.
* PlugNPlayFriends: For a change, this trope describes the main characters themselves. Billy and Mentor just seem to have a way with people, making folks (especialy teens) feel comfortable discussing private matters with a couple of dudes they've only just met.
* PoliceAreUseless: In "The Gang's All Here", the police refuse to arrest Vinnie (the Bad Guy Of The Week) for assaulting another kid, because he hasn't actually done it yet. Fair enough. Except that Vinnie, who is well known to be nursing a massive grudge against this other kid, '''has''' embarked upon a very public campaign of harrassment and intimidation -- all after having already been arrested for framing the other kid for robbery. Are there no laws about being on good behavior whilst released on bail? Apparently [[BailEqualsFreedom bail really does equal freedom]].
* SecretIdentity:
** The general implication of the show is that no one, except Mentor, should know Billy and Captain Marvel are the same person. But, being a kid's show, it doesn't hold to that requirement very strictly. The RV that Mentor and Billy drive around in has Captain Marvel's logo on the front which advertises that they are connected to him in some way especially given that Captain Marvel always appears where Billy and Mentor happen to be.
** In two episodes, Billy was forced to reveal his Secret Identity by transforming in front of someone. In both cases, the need to respond immediately to the crisis at hand, leaves him unable to duck away first.
* SecretKeeper:
** Mentor, obviously, for Captain Marvel, and later for Isis as well. And Marvel and Isis for each other, of course.
** Chad the blind kid from "The Brothers" and Adam the Native American grandfather in "The Treasure" both become this when Captain Marvel must manifest himself in front of them.
* [[PlotRelevantAgeUp Series-Relevant Age-Up]]: Billy goes from a 10-year-old to a teenager in this series.
* SeventiesHair: Billy's carrying around one '''huge''' coif, while Jackson Bostwick's Captain Marvel (mk.I) rocks the Seventies Shag.
* SigilSpam: Mentor's Winnebago has Captain Marvel's "lightning bolt" insignia plastered on the front rather prominently.
* StealthHiBye: Mentor does this in "The Lure Of The Lost".
* StockFootage: It's Creator/{{Filmation}}. Duh.
* TheSpeechless: Little Howard in "Little Boy Lost".
* StoutStrength: John Davey (Captain Marvel mk.II) is a little more... er, well-rounded than Jackson Bostwick.
* TapOnTheHead: Happens to Mentor (off-screen) in "The Boy Who Said 'No'".
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When Billy becomes Captain Marvel, his {{leitmotif}} invariably kicks in from the moment he says "SHAZAM!" He also gets a Theme Music Power Up whenever he appears on ''Isis''.
* TimmyInAWell:
** Actually, Daddy In A Well; Little Howard's dad in "Little Boy Lost", with TheSpeechless Howard taking on the role of Series/{{Lassie}}. Well, at least Howard does indeed have the human intelligence necessary to seek out help even if he doesn't speak.
** Played shamelessly straight in "Ripcord", with a boy hanging off a cliff and his dog running for help... [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything directly to Billy and Mentor]] (who, at this point in the episode, are [[PlugNPlayFriends complete strangers]]).
* TitlePlease: Like many early live-action kid shows (and the majority of Creator/{{Filmation}}'s shows in partiular), the episode titles weren't known until a later VCR or DVD release.
* TransformationSequence: It's more drawn out than the instantaneous change that happens in the comics, but forgivable given that it's likely the most expensive special effect of the series. Because it was shot as a Billy-to-Captain Marvel transformation, the change back to Billy is almost always done off-screen. Only on 3 rare occurrences was it was shown in the episode and was clearly obvious to be the standard transformation shown in reverse (complete with the lightning jumping up from Billy at the end).
* WrongParachuteGag: There is a dramatic version in which a boy incorrectly packs a parachute by himself without telling any adults about it. As a result, a skydiver takes the pack and takes off for a dive before the boy confesses. They are too late to stop the dive and everyone watches in horror knowing that his parachute won't open. Fortunately, Billy Batson transforms into Captain Marvel, and flies up to open the parachute pack himself.

-->--'''OpeningNarration'''

[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvshazam_4454.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:Captain Marvel and his alter ego Billy Batson, keeping it real in TheSeventies.]]

-> Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders -- Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury -- Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never-ending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word!
-->''OpeningNarration''

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Most prominently, Captain Marvel's cape during flying scenes.

* ConflictBall: In "The Treasure", Native American Johnny refuses to call the police to deal with some looters on his land, a most obvious solution to the problem. The closest excuse the script provides for this attitude is that Johnny thinks "they [presumably meaning non-Native Americans] are all on the same side" and "I want to do this my way." The implication is that he distrusts the authorities, but no concrete reason is offered for this attitude. [[labelnote:The "Real" Reason:]]It's an artifact of the time period. During that time Native rights activism and cultural pride were at a high point and counter-culturalism was on the down-swing from the late 60's. So having a young Native character who was disdainful of white authority was a common stereotype. It usually gave the white protagonists the chance to show how good or fair or just or enlightened or whatever they were by treating the Native concerns seriously, while also giving an easy VillainBall to the white guys who were always out to bulldoze the Native culture to make a quick buck.[[/labelnote]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Most episodes open with Billy being summoned by the Elders so they can talk to him using vague platitudes that foreshadow the conflict of the episode's plot. So many problems could have been dealt with more easily if the Elders were more direct in their conversation. This is even {{lampshaded}} in the series when Billy is especially confused by one of their advice sessions only to have Solomon reply ''"It is not our intention that you understand everything clearly now, only that you will use this knowledge when you need it."'' and then summarily ends their communication when Billy starts to seek more clarification.

* NoBadgeNoProblem:
** The local police of whatever [[AdventureTowns Adventure Town]] we're in have an odd habit of sharing information with Billy and Mentor (and, more understandably, Captain Marvel). Most noticable in "Speak No Evil", wherein the avuncular sheriff actively seeks the two out in order to impart pertinent information on matters that, technically speaking, should not concern them and which they should not be privy to.
** Also applies, as in her own series, to Andrea Thomas/Isis. In "Out Of Focus" Andrea (not Isis) joins in a police chase first in her car, then on foot, and no one objects to her presence on the scene.

* BreakoutCharacter: Isis, a superheroine that appeared on this show, eventually received her own series from the show and was later adapted in the comics.

* BreakoutCharacter: Isis received her own series from the show and was later adapted in the comics.

* Breakout Character: Isis received her own series from the show and was later adapted in the comics.

** None of Captain Marvel's RoguesGallery appeared in the show, most likely to keep the violence to a minimum (and in Mr. Mind's case, the SpecialEffectsFailure). Instead, Cap would help out normal people with various problems usually caused by [[TooDumbToLive their own poor choices]].

** None of Captain Marvel's RoguesGallery appeared in the show, most likely to keep the violence to a minimum. Instead, Cap would help out normal people with various problems usually caused by [[TooDumbToLive their own poor choices]].

** In two episodes, Billy was forced to reveal his Secret Identity by transforming in front of someone. In both these cases, the time element left him unable to duck away first.

* {{Magictek}}: The Winnebago that Mentor and Billy drive around in contains a plastic dome covered with lights that flash with "beep-boop" sound effects whenever the Elders want to talk to Billy. This leads him to waving his hand over the dome and deliver the following incantation:

* CoconutSuperpowers: Being a low-budget 1970's children's live-action show, this was a given.

** The wizard Shazam does not appear in this series nor is he mentioned in the OpeningNarration's back story (instead, the six Immortal Elders speak with and confer their various powers to Billy directly). This would make the magic word "SHAZAM!" a case of GrandfatherClause and an ArtifactTitle, were it not the [[FunWithAcronyms initials of the Elders]]

** On the other hand, Mentor could be Shazam under a different name -- given how he can apparently hear/talk to the Elders himself, the way he can [[StealthHiBye appear and vanish as if by magic]], and that he (claims to have) taught archery to Cupid. Billy certainly can't ''call'' him "Shazam" -- he'd change identities!

** The rest of the Marvel Family has few to no appearances.

** The general implication of the show is that no one, except Mentor, should know Billy and Captain Marvel are the same person. But, being a kid's show, it doesn't hold to that requirement very strictly. The RV that Mentor and Billy drive around in has Captain Marvel's logo on the front which advertises that they are connected to Captain Marvel in some way especially given that Captain Marvel always appears where Billy and Mentor happen to be.

* TransformationSequence: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzdAedP7_po Yes.]] It's far more drawn out than the instantaneous comic counterpart is said to be.

* SigilSpam: It's probably not supposed to be quite so noticeable, but Mentor's Winnebago has Captain Marvel's "lightning bolt" insignia plastered on it rather prominently. See SecretIdentity, above.

** No one, except Mentor, should know Billy and Captain Marvel are the same person. But in the TV universe, either his identity isn't especially a secret or no one cares. In one episode, a girl knows that Captain Marvel will be able to give Billy a message, even though there's no way she should know that the two have a connection of any sort. But how could people not figure it out? Captain Marvel appears everywhere (and only where) Billy and Mentor appear.

** Possibly justified by the RV having Captain Marvel's logo on it, connecting them to Captain Marvel without explicitly revealing that Billy ''is'' Captain Marvel.

* PlotHole: In "The Past Is Not Forever", it is explicitly established that a gas station worker held the only key to the station; and this is why, when the place is robbed with no evidence of forced entry, everyone believes he did the deed. Later, a rival street thug confesses to having framed the worker; but it's never explained how he pulled off the "no forced entry" robbery. Did the thug have a key? If so, where/how did he get it? Remember, the point is belabored that '''the worker had the only key'''.

* OpeningNarration

* NoNameGiven / HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Mentor, on more than one occasion, says that this actually is his name.

* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: "SHAZAM!"
* TheChosenOne: Billy
** TheChooserOfTheOne: The Elders