The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure

Filmation's 1966-8 foray into DC Superheroes animation produced what remain among the best television cartoons ever. While the overall animation itself will never win any awards, the character designs and backgrounds are superb (due in part to the employment of ex-Jonny Quest animator Anatole Kirsanoff), the voice cast is superior to all, and the music tracks by John Marion and Gordon Zahler are among the finest in filmdom.

Aquaman features some of Marion and Zahler's strongest music scores, while Superman features one of the Man Of Steel's signature theme cues. Bud Collyer, Jackson Beck, Jack Grimes, Marvin Miller, and company flesh out the characters with voice performances that remain among the strongest ever.

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure was my original introduction to the DC Universe beyond Superman and Batman and motivated me into loving comic book heroes to this day. Although the animation quality is considered crappy by today's standards, it will always have a special place in my heart.

I would like to point out some issue a few people have raised about the cartoons and why they were made the way they were.

Green Lantern - the main reason they used some alien kid instead of Hal Jordan's Eskimo buddy in the comics is because these cartoons were made at the height of the civil rights movement at a time when being friends with a non white still made a few people uncomfortable. The television executives at the time had to worry about the stations in the southern states refusing to air their programming over race.

Robin - Why he wasn't leading the Titans in their cartoon segment? Simple. The live action Adam West show was still in production and right in the middle of its original network run at the time these cartoons were made. The rights to the Robin character were still tied up with that show so Filmation couldn't include him. It was after the live action series ended when Filmation got the rights and produced the Batman cartoon show the following season.

Wonder Woman - The television execs were sexist pure and simple. A cartoon about a woman kicking butt didn't sit too well with them (these guys weren't happy campers about Honey West and The Avenger's Emma Peel).

Despite these issues, The S/A Hour of Adventure will always remain one of my all time favorite childhood shows.

This will always be one of my favorite super hero shows. When I saw it as a child, not only did I get to see my favorite super hero Superman, but it also introduced me not only to Aquaman and several other great D.C. Comics characters. I also loved the fact that they pretty much played like the comic books and didn't rely on the camp that dominated "Batman". The only complaint I had about the show was what another person mentioned about the costumes and the fact that Wonder Woman and Green Arrow not included in the Justice League segments or weren't included as guest heroes (the same can be said of J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter from Mars). In fact, Hawkman never had a specially designed gauntlet with special weapons, he always relied on ancient weapons such as crossbows, maces, lances etc.. Also, Wonder Girl wore sandals during that time period and not go-go boots. Another small complaint is about the Teen Titans. During the era when this show was produced, Robin, not Speedy, was a member of the team. In fact, Speedy only appeared with the Titans on a couple of occasions and didn't become a regular member until 1969. I would have loved to have seen Robin in those segments. However, all complaints aside, this show will always bring fond memories for me because it introduced me to the wonderful heroes of the D.C. Universe.

Being a child of the 70's, I wish I had been around in the late 1960's when Saturday morning programming consisted 80% of animated Super Hero cartoons. I would have loved to have seen the original format of the DC Super Heroes by Filmation. I'd already seen Superman and Superboy on the Bozo Show when I was around the ages of 11 or 12.

As for Aquaman, I didn't see those cartoons until I was a high school senior and we had finally gotten a VCR, so I went to Blockbuster video and rented the Super Powers Aquaman cartoons. I was blown away. Loved the music and the voice overs. I enjoyed Aquaman and Aqualad and could handle Mera and the sea horses. It was Tusky the Walrus I could have done without. I think he and Space Ghost's monkey Blip were the beginning of useless cartoon characters who had no business hanging out with Super Heroes. Aquaman's foes were enjoyable. The only one who I wasn't too hot about was Black Manta. The design and Ted Knight's voice for him just didn't do him justice. After seeing Black Manta on Challenge of the SuperFriends voiced over by Ted Cassidy, no one seems to hold a candle. I loved watching Aquaman create hard water balls even though that is actually Mera's power. It seems to me that the Aquaman cartoons were trying to cash in on the camp style of the Batman TV show. The Aqua duo had an Aquacave and Aquacomputers that work underwater. And Aqualad has catchphrases like Holy Haddocks! or Sufferin Sailfish!! And what was up with Aquaman's boots? I'm used to the legs with fins. But these flaws are minor and shouldn't stop you from checking out the Aquaman animated series of 1967. I love the music, especially the theme music. Lots of Almanacs and sites pertaining to Aquaman tend to get one thing wrong. It wasn't Ted Knight who did Aquaman's voice, though he narrated and voiced over all male villains and background characters. It was actually Marvin Miller and he did a pretty good job.

As for the DC Heroes, I didn't see them until the badly edited Superman/Batman Adventures package that aired in 1996 on USA Network. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, and the Teen Titans each had something odd or wrong about their outfits, but that doesn't stop the shows from being exciting with lots of action packed action. I only wish Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow could have been on Justice League and Robin could have been leading the Teen Titans. But in the cases of Batman and Robin, it's understandable since their rights were tied up with the Live TV show at the time.

Though I've never seen this hour long show in its original format, I did one time see what a sample of half the format looked like. It had 2 Aquaman episodes with one rotating DC cartoon in the middle. The first of those I saw was the Justice League of America. Awesome!! Like I said before, these cartoons are well worth checking out.

I was in fourth grade, the thick of my comic-reading years, when this show came out. I couldn't believe my luck that my favorite DC heroes were now on TV.

The stories may seem corny now, but they were played straight, unlike the campy or downright comical Super Friends.

But some things really annoyed me. Most basically: What was so hard about getting the costumes right? Almost every character had such changes to his costume that even I at age 9 could notice (and still remember at age 44!).

1. The show gave Aquaman black boots. In the comic, he wore no boots, just the green tights.

2. The show gave Flash yellow gauntlets and a regular yellow belt. In the comic, he wears a yellow lighting belt and lightning bands around his forearms with red gloves.

3. The show reversed Kid Flash's color schemes.

4. The show gave Hawkman some kind of claw/glove on his right hand. It could emit beams of some kind. The comic Hawkman fought bare-handed, though sometimes with a mace. And he didn't have a pet hawk in the comics.

5. The Atom wore a plain blue shirt and trunks, broken by a black belt, instead of the comic's red and blue shirt, blue belt, and no trunks on red tights.

6. Green Lantern's costume came out unscathed. But he has this alien buddy Kiro instead of the Inuit buddy Pieface. Never figured that one.

7. We get Wonder Girl and Speedy in the Teen Titans, but we don't get Wonder Woman or Green Arrow in the Justice League of America. Go figure.

This show left me wondering for years whether Filmation got the rights to the characters, but not to all of the costumes. At least when Super Friends came out, they got the costumes right. And they gave us Wonder Woman, too!