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Before the Superfriends

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Though many superhero cartoon watchers of my generation probably saw something along the lines of a "Superman/Batman/Aquaman Show," these were culled from Filmation's 1960s series "The New Adventures of Superman", "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" and "The Batman/Superman Hour."

Just finding out this bit of information explained something I often wondered, which I'll get to shortly. This time around, we'll take a look at the guest-star segment often wedged in between Aquaman cartoons. I always thought that was a good idea. If you're getting too much of Tusky the walrus' weird barking or Aqualad's "Leapin' Lampreys!" a nice guest-star cartoon breaks it up nicely.

These guest-star spots featured the Teen Titans, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman and the Justice League of America.

It must have been a thrill to see animated versions of those DC heroes for the first time. Still, to my somewhat spoiled after-the-fact viewpoint, some of the design work was lacking.

For starters, Flash's costume was altered, presumably for easier animation. Instead of the lightning bolt belts around his forearms and waist, he was given a plain yellow belt and full yellow gloves. While this was a little disappointing, it didn't prepare me for seeing Kid Flash.

Kid Flash's yellow-and-red costume had always been one of my favorite designs, second only to the original Green Lantern costume. For some reason, the animators kept most of the design elements but reversed the colors.

Even when I watch these now, it's really bizarre.

The Atom and Hawkman episodes were fairly bland but perfectly serviceable entries. Interestingly, the Internet Movie Database credits Pat Harrington Jr. (Schneider on "One Day at a Time" with providing the Atom's voice. Who knew?

In the Green Lantern spots, Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku, Hal Jordan's friend and confidante, is replaced by his "Venusian friend" Cairo, who had pointed ears. An interesting change, though another I don't quite understand.

The Teen Titans segments were pretty decent translations of their then-current comic, complete with simulated teen lingo and all. Kid Flash's costume was still weird-looking, but Speedy (Pat Harrington again) and Wonder Girl turned out well. Aqualad was the other member of the group. Notably absent was the team's leader - Robin, the boy wonder. More on that in just a minute.

The Justice League spots never grabbed me as much as I would have expected. After all, this proto-Superfriends group had heavy-hitter Superman heading the lineup. Green Lantern, Flash, Atom and Hawkman filled out the roster.

Since I always saw this as part of a Superman/Batman/Aquaman show, I always wondered why Batman and Robin weren't around. The Batman cartoon replaced Aquaman the next year. My mystery was solved.

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