50 Fun Facts About Super Friends

The Super Friends' Hall of Justice was modeled on an Art Deco train station in which Ohio city?

Cincinnati's Union Terminal gave the Hall of Justice its sweeping semicircular front. The background artist who sketched it later said the building gave him nightmares because it was so hard to draw.

The Wonder Twins of Super Friends, Zan and Jayna, were named after which classic adventure hero and his mate?

Tarzan and his partner Jane, the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, supplied the names. In early plans the twins were simply called Dick and Jane.

Which star of the 1960s live-action Batman series voiced the Caped Crusader in Super Friends from 1984?

Adam West returned to the role two decades after his TV series ended, replacing the actor who had voiced Batman since 1973. He stayed through the final 1985 season.

Which famous radio countdown host voiced Robin in every Super Friends series from 1973 to 1985?

Casey Kasem, creator and host of American Top 40, played the Boy Wonder across the whole twelve-year run while counting down the hits on radio each week.

In Challenge of the Superfriends, where does the Legion of Doom keep its flying headquarters, the Hall of Doom?

In a swamp, where the base can sink below the surface or lift off on rockets. The site was a compromise: three villains had argued for the ocean, the polar ice and a jungle.

In Super Friends, what must Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna do together before their shape-shifting powers will work?

Touch fists and speak a command: that is how the twins switch on their powers. Unlike the teen sidekicks they replaced in 1977, the pair could join in the fighting.

Which Legion of Doom villain in Challenge of the Superfriends is a flawed copy of Superman with ice vision?

Bizarro was made when a duplication ray was turned on Superman, and his powers came out backwards: ice vision and heat breath.

Shortly before Super Friends began, Batman and Robin teamed up in two episodes with which Saturday-morning cartoon star?

Scooby-Doo and the gang met the Dynamic Duo in two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, from the same studio that went on to make the superhero team show.

Which DC Comics villain first appeared outside comics in Super Friends in 1984, plotting to marry Wonder Woman?

Darkseid made his screen debut in the 1984 season, bent on conquering Earth and making Wonder Woman his bride. His menace brought a seriousness the cartoon had largely lacked.

Which two teenagers, joined by a talking dog, were the Super Friends' trainee sidekicks in the 1973 first season?

Wendy and Marvin, with Wonder Dog, were invented for the cartoon so young viewers had someone to identify with. Having no powers, the trio was dropped after one season.

Which animation studio produced every season of Super Friends from 1973 to 1985?

Hanna-Barbera acquired the rights to DC's characters in 1973 and toned down the comic-book violence to suit the rules for children's television of the day.

In Challenge of the Superfriends, which Superman enemy founded and leads the thirteen-member Legion of Doom?

Lex Luthor assembled the group, as one episode shows, and his last-minute escape plans often saved the villains from capture.

What is the name of the pet space monkey who tags along with the Wonder Twins in Super Friends?

Gleek took over the comic-relief job from the talking dog of the first season. On the drawing board he was called Mighty Monkey.

In Super Friends, Jayna of the Wonder Twins becomes animals, while her brother Zan takes the form of what?

Water in any state, from solid ice to vapor, is Zan's only form. Early plans gave him stretching powers, but they were scaled back so the older heroes would not look superfluous.

In Challenge of the Superfriends, which villainess gained her powers by stealing Apache Chief's magic powder?

Giganta lassoed the pouch after watching the young hero grow fifty feet tall to face a grizzly bear, then used the powder to match him in size.

Which Teen Titans hero joined the team for the final 1985 season, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians?

Cyborg arrived as a teen lead for the last season, which told more dramatic stories than the cartoon had before.

Which toy company's Super Powers action figures gave the last two Super Friends seasons their new titles?

Kenner launched its Super Powers Collection in 1984, and the cartoon was renamed to match. Squeezing a figure's arms or legs set off a hidden action move, which is how the toy line got its name.

Which animated sitcom recreated the Super Friends opening titles with its own main characters as the heroes?

Family Guy opened its episode Family Goy with the spoof, casting Peter as Superman, Lois as Wonder Woman, Brian as Batman, Stewie as Robin and Chris as Aquaman.

Which Legion of Doom member in Challenge of the Superfriends is a zombie revived by energy from a monolith?

Solomon Grundy is the Legion's walking dead man. One episode revealed a secret fourteenth member, Doctor Natas, maker of a crystal that copies any hero's weakness.

Which US network was the Saturday-morning home of Super Friends between 1973 and 1985?

ABC cancelled the cartoon three times and revived it twice, the first time after live-action superheroes such as Wonder Woman became prime-time hits.

In Super Friends, the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna are teenage aliens from which distant planet?

Exxor is their home world, and the tie-in comic added a backstory: orphaned by a plague, the twins were raised by a kindly clown in a space circus before fleeing to Earth.

Super Friends invented an original hero in 1977 because a creator dispute kept which DC Comics character off the show?

Black Lightning could not be used because of a dispute between DC and the character's creator, so the animators drew Black Vulcan, another hero who throws electric bolts from his hands.

Super Friends hero El Dorado wraps his cape around his body to use which signature power?

Teleportation was his most-used trick: anyone inside the cape vanished with him, over any distance. He joined in 1981 as the cartoon's Mexican hero.

Which teenage DC Comics hero joined Super Friends in 1984 and largely took over the Wonder Twins' role?

Firestorm, an established teen hero in the comics, became the character young viewers were meant to identify with, pushing the alien twins into smaller parts.

The 1983 Super Friends lost episodes were made after the US network dropped the show, to air in which country?

Australia kept getting new episodes while the American network sat out a season rather than compete with weekday reruns. Most of them did not reach US screens until 1995.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show actor narrated the first season of Super Friends in 1973?

Ted Knight, who played Ted Baxter on the sitcom, narrated the 1973 episodes and also voiced The Flash in a guest spot.

Which prolific voice actor played both a teen sidekick and his talking dog in the first Super Friends season?

Frank Welker voiced the boy and the dog in 1973, came back as Toyman, and by 1984 was playing the show's chief villain. He is one of the most prolific voice actors of all time.

Which star of a spooky 1960s sitcom voiced both Brainiac and Black Manta in Challenge of the Superfriends?

Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch, voiced both villains. At the time he was also supplying the growls and roars of TV's Incredible Hulk.

Which Batman villain is the foe in a 1985 Super Friends episode written as the pilot for a solo Batman cartoon?

Scarecrow is the foe in The Fear. The final 1985 season was also the first time Batman's origin was depicted outside the comics.

Which Legion of Doom member in Challenge of the Superfriends is a renegade former Green Lantern?

Sinestro and Brainiac are the only real aliens in the Legion, even though the opening titles claim its villains come from remote galaxies.

Which super-intelligent ape, exiled from his home city, belongs to the Legion of Doom in Challenge of the Superfriends?

Gorilla Grodd wanted the villains' base built in a jungle and lost the argument. He returned in two 1980s shorts, once swapping the twins' pet monkey for a mechanical double.

Which Batman villain made his only Super Friends appearance in the final 1985 season?

The Joker turned up in The Wild Cards alongside the card-themed Royal Flush Gang. He had been off limits in 1978 because a rival studio was using him in its own Batman cartoon.

Which DC Comics hero guest-starred in one 1973 Super Friends episode and later got his own Saturday-morning comedy show?

Plastic Man stretched into a single first-season story, then starred in The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show from another studio, Ruby-Spears.

The network revived Super Friends after the prime-time success of Wonder Woman and which other 1970s action series?

The Six Million Dollar Man was a hit for the same network, so its cancelled superhero cartoon came back, first as reruns in 1976 and then with new episodes in 1977.

The personalities of Super Friends' Wonder Twins were modeled on which real sibling TV hosts of the 1970s?

Donny and Marie Osmond were hugely popular at the time and had a show on the same network, so the alien twins were written to echo them.

Which live-action DC Comics series brought Super Friends' Wonder Twins to life in an episode called Idol?

Smallville cast David Gallagher as Zan and Allison Scagliotti as Jayna, giving the animated pair human faces.

In which Adult Swim comedy does Super Friends hero Apache Chief lose his powers after a hot coffee spill?

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law gave him the storyline in Very Personal Injury, where the scalding leaves him unable to grow until the end of the episode.

Which Cartoon Network stars beat up the Legion of Doom in a 1998 commercial spoofing Challenge of the Superfriends?

The Powerpuff Girls thrash the villains while Wonder Woman and Aquaman look away, a joke about how much tamer the 1970s cartoon was than its successors.

Which stop-motion sketch show opened its DC Comics Special with a parody of the Challenge of the Superfriends titles?

Robot Chicken swapped the Legion of Doom for its own characters in the title sequence, and the two rival headquarters feature heavily in the special.

Before gaining his powers, Super Friends hero Samurai worked in which profession under his real name, Toshio Eto?

History professor Toshio Eto was hit by a beam of light from the New Gods, who were trying to create heroes to battle their arch-enemy. He then joined the Justice League.

Which composer of the Flintstones and Jetsons themes wrote the music for Challenge of the Superfriends?

Hoyt Curtin was the studio's musical director for decades, and his start in advertising jingles shaped his knack for a catchy cartoon theme.

Which comics artist, creator of Space Ghost, designed Super Friends originals such as Apache Chief and Samurai?

Alex Toth designed most of the studio's superheroes from the 1960s on. His early concept art for the Legion of Doom included Poison Ivy and Heat Wave, who did not make the cut.

Early plans for Challenge of the Superfriends added which hero, with his foe Doctor Sivana leading the villains?

Captain Marvel never arrived: a rival studio was making its own Shazam! series, which blocked his supporting cast, and the planned League of Evil became the Legion of Doom.

Which team in Justice League Unlimited was modeled on heroes created for Super Friends, such as Apache Chief?

The Ultimen include Long Shadow, a giant modeled on Apache Chief, and turn out to be short-lived clones grown by a government project.

Before Super Friends, Superman and Wonder Woman guest-starred in which animated spin-off of a hit live-action sitcom?

The Brady Kids featured both heroes in two episodes, made by the studio that had already produced Superman, Batman and Aquaman cartoons.

Which rival studio made earlier Superman, Batman and Aquaman cartoons whose voice actors moved over to Super Friends?

Filmation later blocked several famous villains too: in 1978 its own Batman series kept Catwoman, the Penguin and Mr. Freeze out of the Legion of Doom.

In the first Super Friends season, what was the name of the Hall of Justice computer that detected emergencies?

TroubAlert kicked off each 1973 story by flagging a crisis, usually a disaster set off by misguided scientists or aliens rather than by true villains.

Which toy maker revived the name with DC Super Friends, a line of hero toys aimed at young children?

Fisher-Price built the line for young children, and it spawned a comic book and a 2010 animated video that reused the theme music of The World's Greatest SuperFriends.

Which live-action DC series named its season-two villain team the Legion of Doom after the Super Friends foes?

Legends of Tomorrow has a hero name the villains after a cartoon he loved as a child; its lineup included Reverse-Flash, Damien Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn.

Until the 1984 season of Super Friends, Wonder Woman's animated costume carried which emblem instead of a W?

An eagle spread across her costume until the 1984 redesign, the same season in which a new actress took over her voice.