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Legends of the Superheroes is a pair of hour-long live-action television specials produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired in January, 1979 on NBC and are loosely based on Hanna-Barbera's Superfriends cartoon.

In the first special, "The Challenge," the Justice League (Batman, Robin, the Huntress, Black Canary, Hawkman, Green Lantern, the Flash and Captain Marvel) have one hour to deactivate a doomsday device that is used in the latest plan of the Legion of Doom (Mordru, the Riddler, Giganta, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Weather Wizard and Dr. Sivana).

The second special, "The Roast," consists of the heroes being subjected to a roast hosted by Ed McMahon, enduring in good humor heckling and taunting by villains, relatives, and other heroes.

The specials are notable for having Adam West, Burt Ward, and Frank Gorshin reprise their respective roles from Batman (1966) as Batman, Robin, and the Riddler.


Tropes:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: In "The Roast," Green Lantern laughs at Ghetto Man's remark about Green Lantern's membership not qualifying as the Justice League allowing people of color.
  • Adapted Out: This version of the Justice League doesn't have Superman and Wonder Woman as members, as their use was restricted by Superman having his own movie just a year before and Wonder Woman having her own television show airing on CBS. Aquaman is also omitted in spite of the specials essentially being a live-action version of Super Friends, as is Martian Manhunter (who wasn't present on Super Friends to begin with).
  • Berserk Button: In "The Roast," Ed McMahon gets Solomon Grundy irate every time he mentions the swamp or anything even remotely related to the swamp.
    Solomon Grundy: Grundy hate swamp!
  • Coconut Superpowers: One of the biggest pitfalls of the specials is the fact that they're live-action productions in the late 1970s, making it too difficult or expensive to faithfully depict the characters' powers as was done in the comics and cartoons of the time. The most egregious outcomes are the limitations made to Green Lantern and Sinestro, who are never shown using their rings to create constructs and are limited to using them to fire energy blasts and turn invisible/teleport.
  • Dirty Old Man: In "The Roast," Dr. Sivana is blatantly using his offer to give the superheroes medical examinations as an excuse to get close to Black Canary and the Huntress. His comment on doing "house calls" while glancing at Black Canary's breasts is particularly telling.
  • Dirty Old Woman: Captain Marvel's enemy Aunt Minerva appears accompanied by two muscular men in briefs and tries to get one of the male superheroes to marry her. She ultimately chooses Captain Marvel to be her husband (keep in mind that Captain Marvel's true form is a child), but in the end only gets a kiss and takes on a youthful appearance after saying "Shazam!"
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: In "The Challenge," Dr. Sivana tricks the superheroes into drinking a formula he's concocted that makes them lose their powers by pouring it into lemonade, but later he and the other villains drink the same lemonade by mistake and wind up powerless to stop the heroes in the final battle.
  • Legion of Doom: In this continuity, the only members retained from the Super Friends roster are Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Giganta, and the Riddler, with Dr. Sivana and Weather Wizard joining, and Mordru being the leader.
  • Old Superhero: The Scarlet Cyclone is an aged superhero who isn't fond of being called Retired Man.
  • Opposites Attract: Shrinking superhero, The Atom, is shown to fall in love with Giganta in "The Roast."
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: "The Challenge" has Solomon Grundy disguise himself as a mechanic, Sinestro disguise himself as a fortune teller, and Dr. Sivana disguise himself as a boy selling lemonade to trick the heroes into drinking a formula that will disable their super powers. Grundy blows his cover only by removing his hat in front of the heroes who approach him (justified since his outfit is enchanted so as to only fail if he removes his hat, making him unrecognizable in-universe otherwise), while Green Lantern sees through Sinestro's disguise when he notices his power ring. Sivana's disguise is the only one the heroes fail to see through before it is too late.
  • Pie in the Face: At the end of Mordru's performance in "The Roast," Batman throws a pie in his gigantic face.
  • Race Against the Clock: "The Challenge" has the Justice League scrambling to find and deactivate Dr. Sivana's doomsday device that is set to go off in one hour.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Mordru is depicted as the leader of the Justice League's enemies the Legion of Doom, when in the comics he was a foe of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Captain Marvel is blatantly used as a stand-in for Superman here (which makes sense, as Captain Marvel was originally created as a Superman Substitute).
  • Two Girls to a Team: Black Canary and the Huntress are the only two females on this continuity's Justice League.
  • Villain Song: "The Roast" has Mordru sing a take-off of "That's Entertainment" by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz where he describes the disasters he enjoys causing with his magic.

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