I get upset with people who slam these collections on the basis of comparing them to today's standards. There is no debate that Justice League and the Unlimited incarnations of these characters are simply wonderful examples of how we've advanced as a culture in the past 30 years.

That said, I have to admit that going back in time through this little collection (4 episodes) while nostalgic, certainly does reveal many of the limitations of 1978 animation. Most notable are the overly simplistic storylines that require thorough narration of what is clearly taking place on screen. Next, after the viewer is brought "up to speed" by the narration itself, we are then treated to another set of explanations usually from the villain at hand who audible hatches his scheme to the rest of the Legion of Doom.

The other major flaw in the Superfriends (aside from the standard Hanna Barbara sound effect library shared with Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and Captain Caveman to name a few) is the lack of character depth. The unfortunate reality is that all of the members of the Justice League of America are basically cardboard cutouts. There is almost no discernable personality between heroes other than their abilities which are often cheaply used for resolve.

Oh well, it's all in good fun and there is no denying that this is the closest thing to real-life time travel we have. Slipping in the Challenge of the Superfriends simply begs its viewer to get into their pajamas and pour themself a tall bowl of sugary cereal.

The various series of the SUPER FRIENDS ran from 1973-1986 this set is actually the third incarnation in the SUPER FRIENDS franchise. It is however, the season that was called CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS. And it is complete in its original running order. The real first season of THE SUPER FRIENDS featured Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. Remember them? For those reviewers that lambasted this show in comparison to JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED,(which in fact are awesome shows) that's a very unfair assessment. Not only was the budget limited so was the general additude of the animation industry at that time. Remember these were cartoons, and "cartoons" were geared to small children on Saturday Mornings. Back then 12 year old boys were expected to mow lawns and rake leaves not sit around watching tv. But now with the advent of DVDS giving us back the Satudays Mornings we lost, we expect the production values to be low, but the fun invaluable. Sometimes simple animation with cut and dried stories of good vs evil is what we need to get us through the rough times in our lives, no matter how old we are.

I remember growing up as a child, sitting in front of the television on Saturday mornings watching these cartoons. I loved it back then and I still do now! The electrifying musical score under the supervision of Paul DeKorte and the direction of Hoyt Curtin prepared you for what was about to take place, as well as the narration voice-over from Stanley Jones. It was an amazing feat to gather 13 villians to go up against the Super Friends! I think William Hanna and Joseph Barbera did well and the show really reflected the time, which was 1978. Yes, there are a few blunders in the animation, but the scripts are well-written, although you will find that some of the dialogue, again reflected the time in which it was made. All in all, it is a very good show.
My favourite episodes are " The Time Trap, The Monolith Of Evil, Secret Origins Of The Super Friends, Swamp Of The Living Dead, Fairy Tales Of Doom, Super Friends: Rest In Peace and History Of Doom."
The transfers and the audio are quite good for the time and the age(1978) of the prints, although Warner Brothers should have done some restoration work on this collection. The audio should at least be in 2.0, but they gave us 1.0 with this collection. The special features are good, espically "Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends: A Retrospective."
All in all, it is a very good collection. I will never forget my memories of watching these cartoons growing up as a child. These were my Super Heros and i am so happy that they have finally been released on DVD!

I purchased this for my son's third birthday. He is absolutely crazy about superheros but most of the recent superhero cartoons are too violent. This show has all the superheros and is perfect for children young and old--we have had kids from 3-10 watch it and love it. I highly recommend it!

I bought this for my husband as a fun christmas gift. He loves it and loves sharing these fun episodes with our son. It feels like Saturday mornings in the 70's.

This DVD set is sure to be a hit with Super Friends fans of all ages. Growing up as a young boy in the 1970's I didn't have a worry in the world, because the Super Friends were there to protect me. Each week the Super Friends battled the Legion of Doom and tried to protect the world from evil. This show is pure entertainment for the whole family. The DVD picture and sound are really good but the video does suffer from age related issues and debris but not enough to detract from the overall viewing experience. This show contains some of the greatest Super Heroes and memorable Villains DC Comics has to offer. After all these years the Super Friends message is still evident, good conquers evil and truth, honesty and justice are standards to live by. Some very nice special features are included in this set and I found them interesting to watch. Even though I'm much older now, I still enjoy the opening theme song and characters from this show. They just don't make them like this anymore, five stars all the way!

DVD Features:
* Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
* Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
* Commentary by: on 2 episodes by comic book writers Geoff Johns and Mark Waid
* Contains All 16 episodes from the 1978 season
* "Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends" a retrospective
* Character bios

Episodes Include:
- Wanted: The Super Friends
- Invasion of the Fearians
- The World's Deadliest Game
- The Time Trap
- Trial of the Super Friends
- Monolith of Evil
- The Giants of Doom
- Secret Origins of the Super Friends
- Revenge of Gorilla City
- Swamp of the Living Dead
- Conquerors of the Future
- The Final Challenge
- Fairy Tale of Doom
- Doom's Day
- Super Friends: Rest in Peace
- History of Doom

This amazing DVD box set is a time machine. It will instantly place any viewer over the age of about 30 back in front of their TV set on Saturday morning chowing down on the Crunchberries in their pyjamas out in the living room, absolutely rivited to whatever cushion or bean bag they had at their disposal as the fate of the whole world would be battled over week after week. This is hand-drawn animation for TV at it's attention deficit disordered best, with fantastic color that provides instant wish-fulfillment for any other grown up 11 year old who like myself was forced to grow up with the cruelty of black & white TV as some obligatory punishment for an offense that was never quite understood. All the cool kids had color, we had B&W, but you know, I think we maybe enjoyed it a bit more because we had to use our imaginations to color what we were seeing in grayscales.

The original Superfriends were great of course, and as a classmate from grad school pointed out to me once, one of the important things about the show is that these super heroes were FRIENDS before all else. Yes they worked together to fight crime and protect the American consumer culture which spawned them, but they cared about each other just like the rest of us care about our friends & family. It made them more human, and even apprentice super heroes Marvin, Wendy (one of my earliest crushes) along with the annoying Wonder Dog and later Gleek the Super Chimp always came across as actual people. With "Challenge of the Superfriends" the core Justic League outfit was expanded with the addition of several other DC Comics heroes. There were even ethnic super heroes added for cross-cultural appeal, all of them incorruptable, honest, modest and totally devoted to upholding justice.

BUT THE REAL STARS OF THE SHOW WERE THE VILLAINS!! and that's where this particular 16 episode series really outshined all other incarnations of The Superfriends. Without a good villain super heroes can be kind of boring, even silly, and this series' creators were well aware that while we may have been rooting for The Flash & Green Lantern, the real reason we kept tuning in week after week was because of the fantastic array of super villains they populated this series with: Black Manta and Solomon Grundy were always my favorites. They had a Dark Side mentality to them that allowed the kids watching to actually precieve a threat that required Superman or Wonder Woman to intervene on the behalf of mankind lest our whole planet be doomed.

Super villains also require super plots at global domination to make them memorable, and this show had plots to set the world on fire, send it back or forwards into time, enemy invaders from the cosmos who were indifferent to the meek, humble ordinary humans populating the planet. No nation was safe from the chicanery of The Riddler or Captain Cold either -- the Russians, Chinese and Arabian nations were just as likely to be clobbered by some super plot as the USA, linking those of us on the world together in needing to oppose tyranny from wherever it came. The USSR may have been bad news but they weren't as bad as the Legion of Doom.

Gone are the days of hand-drawn animated cartoons of this nature, and this DVD set is a treasure trove of material that continues to look fresh and exciting when placed next to the computer rendered animation of today. Sure some of it was goofy, the repetitive, over-excited music gets kind of routine after a while, and some of the plots border on the ridiculous: Trapping the Superfriends in the classics of literature anyone? It may have been clumsy but ultimately that episode might have encouraged young viewers to read the books in question, so in the end you wound up learning something even if it wasn't as cool as "Swamp of the Living Dead" or "Revenge on Gorilla City".

I simply cannot recommend this box set enough: Any kid will be delighted and any parent will be oddly compelled to go out and find a box of Quisp or Freakies to wolf down. Just remember to get an extra box of cereal for the kids too, since traditions are best handed down from generation to generation intact.

I love Challenge of the Superfriends. I,m a big comic book fan. I remember watching it every day after school. This show premiered in 1978 and is very popular. It's a classic version of the Justice League of America against the deadly Legion of Doom, 13 of the nastiest villains that include, Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Bizzaro, Black Manta ,Gorilla Grodd, Brainiac, Cheetah, Toyman, Riddler, Giganta, and Scarecrow. The epsisodes are fun and amusing. Kids will love this show. I watch them almost every month.

with the shape of t.v. today(and cartoons and channels like cartoon network that don't really show kid friendly cartoons anymore) my wife and i try our best to keep an eye out as to what our boys(8 and 6) get to see.we use a lot of dvds of old t.v. shows and cartoons to better keep an eye on what they see. with that in mind this set is great as it has heros that i grew up with and even bad guys i grew up with and this show is still fun without getting to graphic or any of the things that we feel are wrong with todays cartoons. i remember watching these as a kid and i get a real pleasure out of watching these again with my boys and seeing the look of wonder and the way they get into the stories and it is still fun to watch them myself(ok a few times i watch them after the boys are in bed,what can i say,their still very good shows. the extras are great and the transfers are the best,so give them a try and help the super friends defeat the bad guys one more time.

Get ready to experience again the ultimate battle of good versus evil in the classic animated comic book series "Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season". From their secretive swamp-based headquarters, the Hall of Doom, thirteen of the most sinister super villains have banded together for a single objective: intergalactic conquest. Now, the fate of the entire universe rests in the hands of the eleven powerful members of the Justice League of America. Based on the popular DC Comics' superheroes, "Challenge of the Super Friends" was one of the early "Super Friends" cartoons produced by the creative team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in the mid 1970s. The Saturday morning favorite premiered on ABC in 1978. "Challenge of the Super Friends" featured a colorful roster of heroes and villains and old-fashioned comic book adventure. The 1978 version ranks as one of the most memorable of the "Super Friends" cartoons due to its simple "Heroes versus Villains" storylines and no goofy junior sidekicks. Though the stories, characters and animation are pretty straightforward, the half-hour animated series does offer some decent amusement.

If you grew up watching the TV show as a kid, then "Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season" will truly impress you. All 16 episodes are presented in their original full screen format. The 2-Disc DVD contains a fine-looking video transfer and a fair Dolby Digital sound. Its special features include two audio commentaries on selected episodes, character biographies, the 14-minute "Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends: A Retrospective" featurette and promos of other Warner animated titles. Overall, "Challenge of the Super Friends" gets a "B-"

This two-disc set contains all sixteen episodes from the series "Challenge of the Super Friends". Unlinke the other shows, which just had Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, two twins, and a dog, this amazing series also featured Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkman, Apache Chief, Samurai, and Black Vulcan, although there are neither twins nor a dog. Some of these do not appear in any other shows on television, such as Apache Chief, Samurai, and Black Vulcan. These Super Friends, alias the Justice League of America, don't just face different villains. They also battle the 13 members of the Legion of Doom. Giganta, Bizarro, Riddler, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Toyman, Cheetah, Scarecrow, Braniac, Black Manta, Scarecrow, and Sinestro, led by Lex Luthor, all enemies of certain superheroes in this group in the comics. These DVDs also include profiles of both the Super Friends and the Legion of Doom, which state their powers, first appearance in the comics, enemies in the team which they fight, and even a music video of them. There is also commentary on Wanted: the Superfriends and The History of Doom. Here is a list of the discs, their episodes, and their bonus features.

Disc One:

Wanted: the Superfriends
Invasion of the Fearians
The World's Deadliest Game
The Time Trap
Trials of the Superfriends
Monolith of Evil
The Giants of Doom

Commentary on Wanted: the Superfriends

Disc Two Side A:

Secret Origins of the Superfriends
Revenge on Gorilla City
Swamp of the Living Dead
Conquerors of the Future
The Final Challenge
Fairy Tales of Doom
Doomsday

Disc Two Side B:

Superfriends, Rest in Peace
The History of Doom

Commentary on The History of Doom
Profiles on the Legion of Doom and the Super Friends
Trailers (Four, one is B:TAS Volume 1)
Saturday, Sleeping Bags and Superfriends Retrospective

This is a very nice set with some very cool episodes. Some really good ones are The Time Trap, Secret Origins of the Superfriends, and Superfriends Rest in Peace. There is a lot of classic action, surprises, laughs, and adventure in this amazing collection. The storylines may be a little the same and it might get repetitive but I really like it.

Excellent packaging with double sided discs. Two key episodes "Wanted: The Superfriends" and "History of Doom" feature an audio commentary by DC Comics staff working on the current printed page adventures of Superfriends characters like the Flash. Here's hoping Warner releases every season of Superfriends on DVD, including the preceding one hour Superfriends shows from 1973 & 1976.

I bought this for my 5 year old son because he's really into the Super Friends right now. I knew this wouldn't be violent and I wouldn't have to worry about context. He loves it! He doesn't get all of the voice over information, but it doesn't matter. He loves the characters and the action.

Challenge of the SuperFriends first season (1978) is now on DVD! This series is based on the Justice League of America comic books by DC comics! The first season has the all the popular Justice Leagure characters are Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Samurai, Apache Chief, and Black Vulcan. These Superheroes fight for truth, justice, peace, and the american way. The Super villians are the Legion of Doom. The leader of the Legion of Doom is Superman's most famous villian, Lex Luthor! This cartoon aired 16 episodes in 1978! The Challenge of the SuperFriends is one of the most popular 1970s cartoons because it featured the most popular characters in the DC comics Library! Challenge of SuperFriends is awsome! Highest Possible Recommendation! A

Well seeeing these episodes sure brings a person back to more simple times. These cartoons are great and you have to love the good vs evil scenerio. If you love superheros taking down the bad guys then you will love these episodes.One of my favorite episodes on this disc would be SECRET ORIGINS OF THE SUPER FRIENDS.If you like the Super Friends you will love this collection

The superfriends collection is excelent. The second dvd is of double face. Fantastic twins do not appear in these chapters. This remembers our infancy

With the new Justice League show, which is fantastic by the way, does this old show have any reason to excist. The animation is very poor but since the 70s had poor budget and technological limitations this is forgivable everything else is not. The characters are corny much like the also horrible live action Batman show. The characters are flat lame and with no personality. Batman and Robins relationship is so wrong I can't even say. The worst is the wonder twins. These aren't in the comics with good reason. Its a shame they had to put childish characters like this in place of the real heros. The new show Justice League currently airing uses most of the stories of this cartoon but actually does them well. So really I can't think of a reason to watch the show today.

I loved watching The Superfriends every Saturday Morning as a kid! I wish they would release more Superfriends with Marvin,Wendy and Wonder Dog, The Wonder Twins one, Firestorm one, The Galactic Garidians ones. I wish Disney would release Kim Possible as a box set.

Hi everyone,
Michael Bell here...suffering from Seriesheimers.
I locked on to this website because I am trying to nail down when the Superfriends DVD's were made available by Warners, and if I am featured on them as Riddler,Zan or Gleek, and what exactly the title of those shows are.
MO: Trying to determine if Warner's owes me some "bling" for the re-release of this series. Perhaps one of the show's fans can clue me in.
"FORM OF RESIDUALS"!
Thanks,
Michael Bell
Aging Clueless Super Hero ( and part time villain ).

One of my biggest pet peeves in the DVD era is two-sided DVD's, i mean it is very inexpensive to produce DVD's and the studios make tons of money off them, two-sided DVD's should be extinct, they are harder to keep clean and it is very annoying. So PLEASE studios NO MORE 2-sided. As for Challenge of the Superfriends,I love it despite the fact that the creators broke every rule and made tons of mistakes. My favorite episode is TRIAL OF THE SUPERFRIENDS, in which Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Batman + Robin are systematically captured and forced to fight android versions of themselves. To be truthful any episode that featured Wonder Woman prominently is A-OK in my book. I'm not going to nit-pick at the flaws of the series, the episodes were just fun to watch. I hope Warner bros. releases other seasons of the superfriends on DVD as long as it is NOT Wendy, Marvin and that Dog. EP

I immensly enjoy this particular season of episodes, but it is way past time to release the rest of this series on dvd. I know for a fact there are TONS of other stories that haven't been seen anywhere since the seventies, not even when Cartoon Network was rerunning the series a while back(when Cartoon Network was in its infancy it was, beleive it or not, showing older, decent cartoons, I guess to attract viewers, something it doesn't seem to care about now.) I realize this might be the best season of the series(my particular favorite is The World's Greatest Superfriends, that came right after it), but that doesn't mean they should stop here. This was pretty much everyone of a certain generation's favorite cartoon growing up, and it should be treated with more respect. Whoever is releasing these dvds needs to get up off their butts and finish what they started.

These episodes were really badly done. You have to remember that this was Saturday mourning cartoon production. They were not ment to be faithfully based on comics or the original story ideas. No one thought they would be remembered, but Warner Brothers wants us to remember anyway, so they make cheap DVDs of them. No thanks.

I loved this show as a kid and I still love it! I've had a wonderful time watching these episodes. This is a nicely designed package too and I enjoyed the extras. It's great having the Challenge of the Super Friends on DVD!

I asked for this DVD for Christmas because I thought it would be fun to watch all these episodes again - I was always GLUED to the TV every Saturday morning to watch the Super Friends throughout most of the 70's. It has been a blast watching these episodes and I'm amazed how many of them I actually remember once they get started. The animation is classic 70's and it's fun to catch animation blunders such as Batman talking without his Utility belt on and then the next few seconds when the camera is back on him, he has it on! Also hilarious is the Justice League computer that prints out information instead of talking, and some crazy plot points such as the Super Friends always catch up with the Legion of Doom, but can never find their headquarters!?!

By the way, the Legion of Doom are the bomb!! They are so kooky and fun!

I have enjoyed every minute of watching these episodes... they are so corny now-a-days that I simply laugh all the way through them, and it's been great re-living my childhood again!

Oh, the memories: of watching these on Saturday mornings; of racing home after the last school bell so I could catch reruns in the 80's; and of the pure joy of seeing so many heroes and villains that I had heard of, all in one show. Cheesy? Predictable? Sure, but I loved it!

The older I get, the more I appreciate how good those of us who grew up in the 80's had it. Today's cartoons can't hold a candle to the characters and stories like you find in The Challenge of the Super Friends. Sure, the animation may be tons better today, but it takes lots more than good animation to make up a good 30 minute show.

The extras on this DVD box set were great too. The commentary was cool. It was cool hearing comic book writers relive and talk about things I had seen and remember in episodes. The hero and villain bios were too short in my opinion, but the sound bites and music leading up to the voiceovers which were included, helped balance these short comings.

The only disappointment I have with this series is that it didn't last longer. Oh well, it just makes the Super Friends seem all the more unique, and desirable. Personally, The Challenge of the Super Friends was, and still is, my favorite version of the Super Friends. All in all, a great box set that every fan, whether remote or passionate, of the Super Friends should have, especially if you remember the "good old days."

"My heat-vision will melt that rock away!", "Quick Robin, use the Batarang!" ... that was so lame! Imagine the Superheroes had to say what they're gonna do before they act. Superman in the Superfriends cartoon is almost all powerful except for kryptonite. Almost nothing can stop him. He's too powerful and the bad guys are just too stupid. As compared to the current Justice League Unlimited, it is more realistic and Superman do get hurt with powerful laser beams or forces and this makes the show more exciting. Well, we simply can't compare different cartoons of different eras...

Challenge of the Super Friends - The First Season is a must-have DVD set for any fan of DC Comics' most memorable and exciting Saturday morning cartoon series ever created. Even if you're not a fan and are just looking for a fantastic adventure, I would encourage you to check this out.

Back when Saturday morning cartoons were geared only towards toddlers, along came this "adult-themed" science-fiction and fantasy adventure for the "older" crowd. Pushing the boundries of science, imagination and characterization, Challenge of the Super-Friends introduced real drama, conflict, heroism and horror into one fine cartoon series.

This is a classic tale about good versus evil. The Super Friends (consisting of Aquaman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, The Flash, Hawkman, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai) face off against a team of villianous foes calling themselves the Legion of Doom (Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Gorilla Grodd, Giganta, Black Manta, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow, Cheetah, the Riddler, Bizarro, Captain Cold and Toyman). In each episode, the evil Legion of Doom hatches a horrific plan, and in each episode the Super Friends fight to stop them.

Although originally produced as a Saturday morning cartoon, this series boasts two very distinguishable attributes:

The first is that of incredible characterization. Each hero and villain has his or hew own unique look, personality and voice characteristics. In fact, the voice-over work done on this series is the best ensemble voice work ever done on a series of this magnitude. Indeed, no one can argue that the the voice of Black Manta is not the creepiest in cartoon history.

Second, the stories may be geared towards youngsters and teens, but there are elements in them that take it well above "kiddie-fare". There is an inherent quality of gothic horror in most of the tales (marauding zombies/attacking gorillas/evil swamp hags) that take this series up to a higher standard in cartoon story-telling.

The DVD also contains extras, such as commentary by current DC Comics writers. In addition, you haven't lived until you watch Challenge of the Super Friends dubbed in Spanish! (Just listen to them dub Black Manta's voice through what sounds like a tin can!)

Bottom-line: If you watched this series as a kid, you're already hooked. If you haven't watched this as a kid, then watch it now. This is a guaranteed winner!

I love Batman and the Superfriends. I can still remember watching this cartoon on Saturday mornings and after school back in the seventies and early eighties. I still watch it every so often on Boomerang. Watching these cartoons has brought back some very fond memories.

I am so glad that this is all on one set so I do not have to have lots of individual videos with four or five episodes on each.

If you liked the series and you like watching the shows over again then you will be super happy with this set. The picture is great, I liked the stories and this is the series that featured Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom- no Marvin and Wendy.

Boomerang is always showing the Marvin and Wendy or Supertwin episodes and lately they have shown the newest Superfriends episodes. Now I do not have to wait for them to to get around to showing the Legion of Doom shows. I have then in my hand to watch any time.

I love Batman and the Superfriends. I can still remember watching this cartoon on Saturday mornings and after school back in the seventies and early eighties. I still watch it every so often on Boomerang. Watching these cartoons has brought back some very fond memories.

I am so glad that this is all on one set so I do not have to have lots of individual videos with four or five episodes on each.

If you liked the series and you like watching the shows over again then you will be super happy with this set. The picture is great, I liked the stories and this is the series that featured Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom- no Marvin and Wendy.

Boomerang is always showing the Marvin and Wendy or Supertwin episodes and lately they have shown the newest Superfriends episodes. Now I do not have to wait for them to to get around to showing the Legion of Doom shows. I have then in my hand to watch any time.

...the world's greatest super heroes unite to keep a watchful eye on the planet earth.' And it's so cool to be able to be back with the Super Friends once again! Kudos to the creators of this once-in-a-lifetime and unprecedented Saturday morning series event that is certain never to be equaled again. Because of complex licensing issues producing a similar show on television today with all the same characters would be utterly impossible. And so a reunion of the 'World's Greatest Superheroes' is sadly unlikely as well.

Well, if you've seen even one episode of "The Challenge Of The Super Friends" you know it's no Hall Of Fame animated classic - at least not as far as the continuity is concerned. There are some very grievous errors that are hilarious to spot. For instance in the episode "The Time Trap" three sets of the Super Friends get trapped in various eras of earth's past, among them Batman & Robin who are captured and held by the troops of one of the Roman emperor Caesars. In the present day Superman discovers a clue that can pinpoint the time frames each of the set of heroes is being held so off he goes to the lab to have the piece of evidence analyzed; and who should be there amongst the other Super Friends waiting for the analysis - none other than Batman himself! Maybe he was just there in spirit and only we (the fans in Saturday morning TV land) could see him? Another sparkling moment comes in the episode "The Monolith Of Evil" when suddenly Green Lantern has three arms - I can't tell if he has more than one power ring. Other blunders that happened periodically were Hawkman missing his wings; the inversion of colors and/or direction of logos on the uniforms of Batman & Robin; Green Lantern's power ring would emanate a yellow (!) glow instead of green and, best of all, the Flash would go flying off (!!) with Superman and Hawkman whenever it was convenient to the plot. The Flash had no capability of flying in any of his comic book appearances that I can remember - and you'd think the creative staff behind the show would be aware of that. But these are all forgivable mistakes to the fans of the series because it's the strong points of the show that make it the classic that is revered by fans still to this day.

The positives of this program are many beginning with the vibrant theme music; heroic and majestic sounding it is reminiscent of the theme for the classic early 60's animated cult favorite 'Johnny Quest'. It certainly wouldn't surprise anyone to discover that this quite probably was the inspiration behind it. The idea of 'The Legion Of Doom' is a great concept that is still unsurpassed. Scavenging back through the vaults and archives of DC Comics to get the right mix of villains must have been daunting at the time and not as easy to piece together as it appears when seeing the show. There were literally tons of adversaries, antagonists and nemesis's to choose from and creating a balance - that is a viable and believably powerful enough force to challenge the Super Friends - wasn't something that just jumped out at you I'm sure. Seeing such archenemies as Sinestro, Gorilla Grod and Gigantress in television animated form is a rare treat that is doubtful to happen ever again. The headquarters for 'The Legion Of Doom' is equally as impressive. They could go anywhere they pleased as a group; outer space, inner earth, backwards or forward in time, etc. The Super Friends on the other hand all have their own separate forms of transportation - and the Hall Of Justice is anchored to the ground permanently. While the stories are unquestionably juvenile in conception some of them still remain quite entertaining. My favorites are "Fairy Tales Of Doom" and especially "History Of Doom", and the episode "Secret Origins Of The Super Friends" is also memorable. There are other positives about this show I could list but they are already mentioned in other reviews here on this webpage so I encourage you to read them also.

The DVD set is nicely packaged and has an excellent 13 minute mini-documentary titled 'Saturday, Sleeping Bags & Super Friends: A Retrospective' that I think every fan will be pleased with. Also included are bios on each of the Super Friends and also the members that make up 'The Legion Of Doom' that I found indispensable. If I had one quibble at all it would be the title of the set "The Challenge Of The Super Friends: The First Season" - was there ever a second season?

After 25 years, Challenge of the Super Friends is finally released on DVD! Saturday morning viewers may or may not recall Hanna Barbara, the creators of Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear, brought the Silver Age of DC Comics more popular exposure with their earlier version of the Super Friends saving the world from catastrophe. They had Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Dynamic Duo with Wendy, Marvin, Wonder Dog, the Wonder Twins, and Gleek?! But after those campier seasons, DC Comics may have talked privately with H.B. to make the series more accurate to DC's storylines. Therefore, H.B. came up with JLA's archrivals, The Legion of Doom, in a 16 episode clash of good v.s evil warfare. "Holy turf wars Batman!" Yes those one liners were cliche and silly. But some of those episodes had some shocking moments.
Wanted: The Super Friends - Lex Luthor uses a dream machine to make the Justice League commit crimes.
(My personal favorite) Super Friends: R.I.P. - the Justice League pay their final respects to their fallen comrade Batman.
Some of the Silver Age heroes were different from today's Justice League series. Barry Allen was the Flash. Today his nephew Wally West is the current Flash. Hal Jordan was the Green Lantern. Now it's John Stewart. (In the comics, Hal Jordan is likely to return as Green Lantern again.)
And I was really surprised this series inspired today's comic-book artists and writers. This series was meant for those who are from the 70's and watching the current series still brings back those Saturday morning moments.

Of all the seasons of the I have to say the Challenge of The Superfriends were the best seasons to watch. No Wonder Twins, no dogs and no Wonder Marvin and Wendy..was that their names? This one has the almost complete version of the Justice League. It couldn't be called that because the word "justice" implied violence; according to a group who was against violence in cartoons.


All the classic DC villians make an appearence here. Even Jack Kirby's characters and villians from New Gods make a few episodes. I hope those in paticular come to DVD since Kirby has influenced a lot of the DC universe. The whole "Super Powers" action figure craze started by his inspired creations. I can't wait for season 2!

This is a HORRIBLE version of the DC comics characters. The scripts, dialog, and animation are all saccharin and anemic. Your 5-7 year olds might find this fairly amusing, but it's no where NEAR the quality of the DC Comics-based animated from 1992 and later..

Seriously, this series was a wasted of celluloid and is now a waste of plastic...

I am so glad they finally came out with all 16 episodes of this show. Of the incarnations of the Superfriends, this was my all-time favorite. I'm just a little disappointed that they did not release these separately from the first two releases they had. Only one question though. Why is it called the first season? Was this not the only season we saw the Legion of Doom against our superheroes?

I only wish this will be the beginning of more releases such as the same season where there were 62 episodes without the Legion of Doom. Now there's a collection one must have!

One of the best shows of all time finally gets the DVD treatment! After two piddly releases, now we get the full season. The superfriends were ok, but we all loved the Legion of Doom! Black Manta was without a doubt the coolest. Loved how his voice was masked by that vocoder...ironically a technology that Cher would incorporate into her act 20 years later! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next release will be the Galactic Guardians where the Hall of Justice battled Darkseid.