I have nothing against the current incarnation of Justice League(or Justice League Unlimited),which is splendily done by the creative team that brought us the likes of Batman:The Animated Series and Superman:TAS,but ,in my heart, Challenge of the Superfriends is still one of the coolest Saturday morning shows ever. Over the weekend,I watched a couple of classic episodes and felt like I was back in the day when it was acceptable to spend the whole morning in my nightgown,chilling out in front of the boobtube.
Challenge of the Superfriends,unlike the regular Superfriends show,didn't have any goofy teen sidekicks or space monkeys named Gleek. It was simply the Superfriends vs. The Legion of Doom,a group of some of the best DC villians who hung out in the Hall of Doom(sense a theme here,folks?)which looked like Darth Vader's snowglobe. The plot every week was no different from what Pinky and the Brain did every night,"Try to take over the world!" and oh,knock off the Superfriends aka "Super Fools" in the process.
Lex Luthor was in charge(when is he not running the show?)and the rogue's gallery tried to match up every Superfriend with atleast one of their sworn foes. However, it was a stretch like having Giganta face off on Apache Chief just because they had the same power(she was more of a Wonder Woman enemy in the comics)and most of the bad guys had beefs with Superman and Batman rather than Black Vulcan or Hawkman. Even so, you don't get such simple,innocently fun entertainment like that nowadays.
In fact,do they even make shows for Saturday mornings anymore? I remember when the networks would have special preview shows to get the kids all excited about the new cartoons coming up and the old shows they loved returning. What ever happened to that? I know we have Cartoon Network and other cable channels devoted to kids but still,Saturday mornings are special times for the young. Most Saturdays,I turn on the TV and see news programs-look,save that stuff for later on in the day! Let the kids have some fun(and hopefully,something better to watch than Bratz cartoons).
If you've never seen COTSF,here's your free shot,courtesy of YouTube. Get in your jammies,get a bowl of your favorite sugar coated cereal and enjoy!
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
2 comments:
This brings back sooooooo many memories for me.
I loved the superfriends and watched them religiously every saturday morning.
I was all about the wonder twins.
FORM OF... a wall of ice with a face!
FORM OF... a giant purple eagle!
The Wonder Twins were fun but Gleek was annoying(not as bad as Bat-Mite or Scrappy Doo tho!). The music cues are what still get me today-just close your eyes and it's easy to tell what's happening just from the background score.
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