Look to the Sky...

As a child of the '80s and early '90s I was also into comic books of the era, too. Batman and Superman were at the top of the list for me...I love the Super Friends cartoons as well. I was not familiar with the earlier cartoons of Superman until they were released on a low-budget home video in the early '90s. Those cartoons were the theatrical releases by the Fleischer Studio. I was then acquainted with the George Reeves version of Superman when Nick-at-Nite began to air the television show...around the same time I began hearing the radio version with Bud Collyer that would often show up on NPR and the anthology series, When Radio Was, formerly hosted by Stan Freberg. I was very familiar with the movie version of Superman played by Christopher Reeve. The movies used to air seemingly all the time in the 1980's on HBO and TBS.

In addition to Superman, Bud Collyer was equally noted as a game show host ("To Tell the Truth", "Winner Take All", "Beat the Clock", etc. etc.).

In this DVD we get 36 six minute episodes. I don't necessarily know if each episode runs exactly 6 minutes but I'd say 6 and a half to 7 minutes is the general length per episode. Among the many adventures in this collection quite a few of them are wonderful in their story-telling...one of the adventures that's fine but isn't on the same level as the other episodes is "The Iron Eater". In that episode Superman has to stop a bizarre looking mechanical menace devouring iron all over the world. That episode, as well as "The Imp-Practical Joker" featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, are more whimsical than anything else.

One of the criticisms of the collection is that the episodes aren't in chronological order. For example, "The Return of Brainiac" is on Disc 1 while "Superman Meets Brainiac" is on Disc 2. As you can tell, the compilers of this collection should've caught the error before the DVD collection was released. Even with the collection not in chronological order at least someone should know, judging by the titles of those two episodes, which one came first. Regardless of this it doesn't take away from the enjoyment you'll get watching the episodes.

In what could be described as a forerunner to the future Legion of Doom makes an appearance as A.P.E. The members of the A.P.E organization are: Lex Luthor, Toyman, Prankster, and the Warlock. In their episode "The Men from A.P.E." we have Luthor as the inventor of a Kryptonic projector which is shot from a light-house. It's beam of kryptonite is capable of aiming at Superman within a mile radius. The villains purposely device schemes that cause Superman to fly near the light-house. "The Tree Men from Arbora" is a tale of a tree creature that consumes gallons of water...ponds, rivers, even the water from a by-stander's car engine. The creature hides in the Redwood Forrest and Superman has to battle him and return him to the Arbora planet.

"Merlin's Magic Marbles" involves Luthor and his assistant, Blinky, obtaining magic marbles from the spirit of Merlin. Toyman, in a later episode, creates a robot version of Superman for criminal use. The episode, "The Two Faces of Superman", is on Disc 2. One of the funnier aspects of the dialogue is when Superman refers to one of the insects in "Insect Raiders" as Buzzy...in another episode, "The Prehistoric Pterodactyls", Superman refers to one of them as Terry Baby. In the Superman history there have been various criminals to use the name, Toyman. The original, Winslow Schott, is who the Toyman in these cartoons is based on. The illustration of him in these cartoons has him with dark hair, a big red bow tie, and just as a side-note the Toyman in these cartoons makes me think of comedian Henry Morgan (most famously known as a regular panelist on the classic game show, "I've Got a Secret").

Something of a mystery to me is the identity of the person providing the voice in the opening sequence saying the line "It's Superman!". We hear Jackson Beck do the narration but then we hear "It's a bird!", "It's a plane!", and then "It's Superman!". The reason I'm curious about who did that particular "It's Superman!" voice-over is because it sounds incredibly like Danny Dark, the man who voiced Superman in the 1970's and 1980's Super Friends episodes. If anyone has any information I'd love to know if it was Danny Dark or someone else.

Given that The New Adventures of Superman originally consisted of three short episodes per half hour (2 of Superman, 1 of Super-Boy) we have all of the Superman episodes that aired on that program. Since there were 2 short adventures of Superman per half hour episode, and there were a total of 18 half hour episodes produced, that's 36 in total.

The Super-Boy episodes aren't included due to legal complications.

To clear up some of the on-going confusion of whether to call this a "complete series" it's important to note that without the Super-Boy segments it isn't a "complete series" but as far as the Superman segments are concerned it's indeed a "complete series" since it has each and every Superman adventure from the first season, 1966-1967. The second season, 1967-1968, aired under the title The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. The third season, 1968-1969, aired as The Batman/Superman Hour.

Each of those Superman adventures in the third season were split up into 2 parts.

The fourth season, 1969-1970, was nothing but reruns from earlier seasons.

Bud Collyer passed away on September 8, 1969 which was the same day an updated version of "To Tell the Truth" began airing with Garry Moore as the host!

Collyer was the voice of Superman/Clark Kent on radio, in theatrical cartoons, and in the made for TV cartoons of the mid to late '60s.

The voice of Lois Lane in these episodes is Joan Alexander...she also provided the voice of Lois on the radio version, too. She became a regular panelist on the 1950's game show, "The Name's the Same", in addition to her being a regular actress on various radio drama's of the time period.

Jack Grimes is the voice of Jimmy Olsen in these cartoons just as he was in the final few years of the Superman radio show.

The show's narrator, Jackson Beck, also provided the voice of Perry White in addition to various incidental characters. Beck was also the narrator and voice of Perry White in the radio version of Superman. Beck's most recognized cartoon voice is that of Bluto/Brutus in the Popeye cartoons produced from 1944 through the 1960's.

Super Friends...They're in the Mail...

After several months of putting it off I finally got around to ordering the DVD's of the first season of the Super Friends. The episodes were released in two separate Volumes last year and those particular DVD's are the only ones missing from my collection. They should arrive in the mail within the week...probably near the weekend. I'd only seen a few of the episodes because back when Boomerang was airing them the channel would stick them on at Midnight and since I work nights I was never home to see the episodes...except on the weekend when I was home. It'll be nice to have all the episodes...from what I read there will be 2 DVD's in each collection with 4 episodes per DVD. There were 16 episodes produced altogether. The series ran 1 season and was ahead of it's time...considered a 'flop' originally. Later in the decade with the emphasis on escapist television drama and a live-action Wonder Woman series it was decided to re-run the 1973 Super Friends episodes which led to the eventual premier of The All-New Super Friends Hour which introduced the world to the Wonder Twins and Gleek (they replaced Wendy and Marvin and their Wonder Dog from season one). The original 1973 series, though, set in motion the overall formula for the remainder of the Super Friends programs that were to air throughout the late '70s and into the mid '80s.

Ted Knight narrated the first season's episodes...at the time, as far as animation fans are concerned, he was closely associated with the Filmation super-hero cartoons of the late '60s that were still airing in reruns on Saturday mornings in the '70s. Knight did the voices of The Joker, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Simon the Pieman, and Black Manta to name just a few...in addition he was the narrator on those super-hero cartoons. Knight became a huge television star beginning in 1970 with the arrival of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Knight played Ted Baxter on the series from it's debut in 1970 through it's final episode in 1977. It was in 1973 that he was called on to narrate the first season of Super Friends. By this time the adult audiences knew of him as Ted Baxter and I bet a lot of them were unaware of his contributions to children's cartoons.

This was also at a time when TV personalities often downplayed or hid their association with cartoons.

Meanwhile...when the Super Friends series was brought back with new episodes in 1977 (after a 4 year hiatus in production), William Woodson was the new narrator...and he, too, did character voices. Unlike Ted Knight, Woodson's voice roles in the series were in the category of incidental voices...characters that aren't part of the regular cast but are used to help support the storyline in a particular episode. Woodson would remain the narrator from 1977 through 1984. His voice appears in one episode of the series in 1985, ("The Bizarro Super Powers Team"), but in that particular version, (Galactic Guardians), the producers didn't use any narration on the rest of the episodes.

Ted Knight footage is easy to find on-line...videos of him are readily available on You Tube. William Woodson, on the other hand, not so readily available. One video clip, in particular, is a 1962 episode of The Rifleman. In this clip Woodson portrays the Sheriff of Red Creek. The episode aired on April 30, 1962. Woodson's footage begins at the 7 minute, 5 second mark but the bulk of the Woodson footage doesn't kick in until the 9 minute mark. This is where Woodson's character and Rifleman, Chuck Connors, have an intense confrontation.

Ray Stevens Animated Music Videos...

Country singer Ray Stevens has issued several limited animation music videos down through the years. His initial step into that sort of product came along with the release of a project called Cartoon Video Collection which features 8 music videos where live-action Ray is shown with an animated back-drop. Several years later Ray began issuing music videos that were completely animated...including animated versions of his own image on screen. The results shown up on a couple of DVD releases in 2006.

Those music videos, coupled with brand new additions and some other previously released videos, shown up on Cartoon Carnival, Volume One, a DVD release of 10 animated music videos. That DVD collection was released along side Cartoon Carnival, Volume Two. Keep in mind the years that these individual music videos were released doesn't necessarily reflect the year they were originally recorded. Ray has made a lot of music videos, both live action and animation, of previous recordings that otherwise had no music video counterpart.

The 20 limited animation music videos that a person gets on the two Cartoon Carnival DVD's are as follows...

The Moonlight Special (2009)
Gone For Good (2003)
Along Came Jones (2006)
Barbeque (2006)
Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat (2009)
The Ballad Of Cactus Pete And Lefty (2006)
Power Tools (2003)
Can He Love You Half As Much As I (2006)
Deerslayer (2003)
Gourmet Restaurant (2006)
Hugo, The Human Cannonball (2009)
Hang Up And Drive (2003)
This Ain’t Exactly What I Had In Mind (2006)
Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens (2006)
Bridget The Midget the Queen of the Blues (2003)
The Camping Trip (2009)
Harry The Hairy Ape (2006)
Erik The Awful (2003)
Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills (2006)
Misty (2006)

I highlighted the four exclusive music videos that were added to the collection. This was one of the last projects released by Ray Stevens prior to his change in direction to releasing topical/politically-humorous music videos...which have been seen by millions on You Tube.