Trivia / Super Friends

• Acting for Two:
  • Frank Welker voiced Marvin, Wonder Dog, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Toyman, Dollmaster, Darkseid and Kalibak.
  • Michael Bell voiced Zan, Gleek and the Riddler.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The line was always "Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice", not "Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom". Both lines became memes, but only the original was actually said on the show.
• Edited for Syndication: The USA Network began running The Superman/Batman Adventures in 1995, a mixture of the 1970s/1980s Super Friends shorts with the 1960s Filmation DC Comics shows, surrounded by 1990s video editing; after USA dropped it (in a prelude to their dropping of all cartoons by 1998), Cartoon Network picked up the rights, and aired the shorts separately as filler.
• Executive Meddling: Hanna-Barbera insisted on adding Marvin, Wendy, and Wonder Dog to the show as kid-appeal characters. The presence of Moral Guardians also made it difficult to include violence.
• The Other Darrin:
  • By the time the show and the JLA became The Super Powers Team, Superman, Robin, Green Lantern, Samurai, Mr. Mxyzptlk and Lex Luthor were the only characters still appearing who retained their original voice actors.
    • Batman was originally voiced by Olan Soule, but was recast with Adam West for the final two iterations Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
    • Aquaman was initially voiced by Norman Alden, with Bill Callaway replacing Alden by the New Super Friends/Challenge of the Superfriends era.
    • Wonder Woman was first voiced by Shannon Farnon, who was replaced by Connie Cawlfield for The Legendary Super Powers Show and then by B. J. Ward for Super Powers Team.
    • Jayna was originally voiced by Louise Williams before her voice actress was switched to B. J. Ward for The Legendary Super Powers Show.
    • The Flash was voiced by Ted Knight originally, with Barney Phillips voicing him for The All-New Super Friends Hour and Jack Angel voicing him from Challenge of the Superfriends onward.
    • Sinestro was voiced for his first speaking roles in Challenge of the Superfriends by Vic Perrin, by Don Messick for his remaining speaking roles in Challenge and by Jeff Winkless in the lost season episode "Revenge of Doom".
    • Brainiac was voiced by Ted Cassidy on Challenge of the Superfriends, with Stanley Ralph Ross voicing him for his remaining speaking roles after Ted Cassidy passed away.
    • The Scarecrow was voiced by Don Messick on Challenge of the Superfriends and by Andre Stojka in the Super Powers Team episode "The Fear".
    • Black Manta was voiced by Ted Knight during his appearance on The All-New Super Friends Hour and by Ted Cassidy for all his speaking roles in Challenge of the Super Friends.
    • Bizarro was voiced by Bill Callaway for most of his speaking appearances, but his final appearance in the Super Powers Team episode "The Bizarro Super Powers Team" had him voiced by Superman's voice actor, Danny Dark.
    • Dr. Martin Stein was originally voiced by Olan Soule in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, with The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians having him voiced by Ken Sansom instead.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dub, charas like Robin and Superman had at least three VA's and the Legion of Doom characters pretty much changed VA's every time they appeared.
  • In the Brazilian dub, while the voices were consistent within a same season, they tended to change from season to season. Superman, for example, had four voice actors (one of them, Silvio Navas, ironically voiced Superman's enemy Darkseid in the final seasons). The only voice actors to remain in the same characters through the whole series (except for the 1973-74 season, but it was very apart from the rest, anyway) were Robin, voiced by Carlos Marques, and the female Superfriends– Ilka Pinheiro as Wonder Woman and Vera Miranda as Jayna.
• Role Reprise:
  • Olan Soule (for every iteration prior to Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show) and Casey Kasem reprised their roles as Batman and Robin from The Adventures of Batman and The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
  • The final two iterations of the series, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, had Adam West reprise his role as Batman from the 1960s live-action series, The New Adventures of Batman and Legends of the Superheroes.
  • Brazilian dub: Gualter França reprised his role as Superman (in the Challenge of the Superfriends season) from the TV series The Adventures of Superman and the cartoon The New Adventures of Superman. Also, Newton da Matta, who had voiced Batman in the cartoon The New Adventures of Batman, reprised the role in the final two seasons.
  • This series was the last time Guillermo Romano reprised his role as Batman in the Latin American dub, after voicing him in the live-action series and The New Adventures of Batman.
• Short Run in Peru: The third season of the 1980 iteration initially aired exclusively overseas in 1983 and would not reach American airwaves until the relevant shorts were repackaged in the mid-1990s as part of The Superman/Batman Adventures. This era of Super Friends not airing in the United States until well after the franchise ended its run led to fans dubbing it the "lost season".
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Wonder Twins and Gleek went through many changes before reaching the depictions familiar to us. They were originally going to be named Dick, Jane and Mighty Monkey, with Dick having stretch powers akin to Plastic Man and Jane being able to turn into more than just animals. The powers were scaled back when Hanna-Barbera realized that giving the twins unlimited shape-shifting powers would make the rest of the Super Friends look superfluous. Before their names were finalized as Zan, Jayna and Gleek, they were also close to being named Tarzan, Jane and Squeeks.
  • Captain Marvel was going to be one of the Superfriends, but rights issues with Filmation prevented this from happening.
  • Indeed, according to former artist Darrell McNeil, during pre-production, when the series was called Battle of the Superheroes, Marvel's arch enemy Dr. Sivana was supposed to be the leader of the Legion of Doom, then called the League of Evil. Some other Marvel foes, plus Joker, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and Penguin would've been the membership. But due to cross-town rival Filmation making Shazam! (1974) and The New Adventures of Batman at the time, they couldn't be used, and we got the Legion of Doom as we know it.
  • The Legendary Super Powers Show episode "The Case of the Dreadful Dolls" was originally intended to have Toyman as the villain, but instead has a similar villain called the Dollmaker as the antagonist. Toyman being the villain who was originally supposed to be in the episode explains a lot of things in the final episode, such as Dollmaker being a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Toyman (right down to sharing his voice actor, Frank Welker), his hideout being located in Schott's Toy Factory (referencing Winslow Schott, the real name of the original Toyman) and the Super Friends regarding Dollmaker as if he was a previously encountered foe.
  • The Super Powers Team episode "The Fear" was reportedly planned originally as a pilot episode for a spinoff focusing on Batman, which could explain the episode having Batman just find out that the Scarecrow's true identity is Jonathan Crane, although the villain was a member of the Legion of Doom back in the Challenge of the Superfriends era, as well as Wonder Woman being the only Super Friend other than Batman and Robin to be the focus of the episode (one can easily get the impression that her role would've gone to Batgirl had the Batman spinoff idea gotten off the ground).

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