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.

THIS SERIES CAME during the second year of the 2nd Invasion of the entertainment world of the 1960's. The first was, of course, the Great British Invasion of the Pop Music scene of 1964-???? It was spearheaded by that "Fab 4" from Liverpool. Once the Beatles appeared on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, the place was insured for Dave Clark 5, The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, Freddy & the Dreamers, en ad infinium.

THIS SECOND WAVE invasion had little too with the first; but, in its own way, was just about as influential in the future of kiddie kartoon time on the networks; as well as the perception of just what constituted the makes of a good action series*. This was the era of the Comic Book Super Hero; who had come of age.

ALTHOUGH THE GROUND had been broken the year before with THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (Filmation, 1966), this series superseded it and in the process doubled the air time for DC Comics' Super Hero stable. The SUPERMAN episodes remained the same along with those portraying SUPERBOY "the Adventures of SUPERMAN when he was a boy!"

IT IS OBVIOUS from the title that the series brought AQUAMAN to the small screen; but this may well have been a surprise to any astute followers of the comic book stories. Aquaman had bee a sort of second string hero during most of his long career. His feature was slated as a back-up in MORE FIUN COMICS and ADVENTURE COMICS; that is for about by the first 20 years of his run.

THEN SELECTIVE SERVICE System intervened. He was "drafted" to serve as one of the original "charter" members of the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF America".** It seems that there was a rather light roster of "Long Underwear" characters available; which even compelled an editorial adjustment in choosing J'ONN J'ONZZ-MANHUNTER FROM MARS to the League's ranks.***

PEHAPS THE GREATEST achievement of this series was to bring film/video counterparts of the comics' pages of THE FLASH, HAWKMAN, THE ATOM and GREEN LANTERN.

IT ALSO BFROUGHT the first moving images to the screen of THE JUSTICE LEAGUE; albeit in a sort of contracted version; being that there was no inclusion of GREEN ARROW, MARTIAN MANHUNTER, BATMAN or WONDER WOMAN. All of these characters were "members in good standing" and active at this time. We theorize that BATMAN and WONDER WOMAN were then under exclusive film rights to William Dozier's Production Company and to 20th Century-Fox Television. (Schultz says he agrees!)

AS FURTHER PROOF to our theory, the series underwent another name change following the ending of the BATMAN TV Series. It became known then as THE BATMAN/SUPERMAN HOUR OF ADVENTURE.

WELL WE KNOW that all of this doesn't add up to very much; but it is a part of the history of comic characters as well as that of television. itself.

NOTE * We've long held that series such as THE A TEAM were basically comic book fare that was transferred to the medium of the screen. The A TEAM could have very well been a creation of the team of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby and there is a definite influence there.

NOTE ** The depleted ranks of the superhero features, which had largely fallen from grace, forced the editorial board of National Comics/DC to sort of promote AQUAMAN. After the JLA bowed for the first time on December 29, 1959, in the "try-out" comic, THE BRAVE & THE BOLD (#'s 28, 29 & 30) it was decided to give him his own publication; which he did get following his "try-out" in the pages of SHOWCASE (DC's other introductory magazine).

NOTE *** Prior to this time, the presence of Martian J'ONN J'ONZZ was unknown to anyone on Earth; even though he had a secret identity and fought crime as a Police Detective. That all changed prior to the publication of JLA; allowing THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER to enlist as a charter member.

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!

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.

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.