Friday, January 11, 2008

Justice League of America Filmation Cartoon - 1968

I thought that since yesterday represented the end of an era for the JLA(Mike Sekowsky's final issue as penciller), now would be a good time to take a moment to talk about a significant event in the history of the team that took place outside the comic:
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Right around this time, this simple tag started appearing at the end of JLA stories promoting the brand-new JLA cartoon, appearing as part of the Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, from the fine folks at Filmation!
sgThe JLA segment only appeared three times, in episodes titled "Between Two Armies", "Target Earth", and "Bad Day on Black Mountain." (wow, only three? it seemed like so many more than that!)

The JLA cartoon was astonishingly faithful to the comic of the time, featuring a truly JLA-ish line-up of Superman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Atom, and Hawkman! They looked good, moved at a brisk clip, and were a lot of fun.

Despite the fact that some of the Filmation shows have been collected on DVD, none of these JLA episodes(or even the solo member shows) have been released. C'mon, Warner DVD, get with it!

(Fun Fact: The Atom was voiced by actor Pat Harrington, Jr., most famous for playing the handyman Schneider on the sitcom One Day At A Time!)

So for your viewing pleasure, here's one of the episodes, "Target Earth":
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 11, 2008 at 1:54 AM

    It's curious that Aquaman is featured in the intro (which I've never seen before) but he doesn't appear in any of the three JLoA episodes...

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2008 at 8:14 AM

    I'd love to see these on DVD, as the intros have long been replaced by "The Superman/Batman Adventures" intros first used on USA Network in the 90s, and now seen on Boomerang. I too, have never seen the intro to the JLA, the solo Leaguers, or the Teen Titans.

    If you watch Boomerang during their "Boomeraction" blocks, you may see the JLA and solo toons. They air them quite often, esp. between episodes of Super Friends, JLU and The Batman.

    Chris

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  3. PlaidstallionsJanuary 11, 2008 at 6:16 PM

    I can remember it being an event when these aired, we'd just go nuts huddled under my buddy's B/W TV on Sunday morning. He had an ariel that pulled in Buffalo you see.....

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  4. Bob BuetheOctober 1, 2008 at 4:11 PM

    They're on DVD now! Check out your local video store or Wal-Mart.

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