Originally Posted by tvshowsondvd.com
From the early '70s to the mid-'80s, the Super Friends were a mainstay of Saturday morning television, and the show went through a lot of different incarnations over the dozen-or-so years that it was aired in first-run broadcast. About five years ago I attempted to go over the ins-and-outs of those variations for benefit of the Home Theater Forum message boards. While that original post is apparently no longer in the archives (I couldn't find it, at any rate!), I posted a variation of it just two years ago right here at TVShowsOnDVD. At the time I commented that I wasn't certain my info was 100% correct, and according to an announcement by Warner Home Video today, it wasn't (although I was reasonably close, apparently...not too far off!). I don't mind finding out I was a bit wrong, though, especially when the studio is announcing another new collection of cartoons from the classic series. This time it's Super Friends - The Lost Episodes. Here's the studio explanation of this release:
During the 1982-1983 season, ABC continued to run a half-hour long show entitled The Best of the Superfriends. This show consisted of reruns of shows from the previous nine seasons. These episodes were mostly half-hour long episodes (not shorts) featuring the core group of five Superfriends. By the time the 1983-1984 season rolled around, older Superfriends series were well into sydication, and could be viewed on weekday afternoons. Therefore in its ultimate stupidity, ABC decided to drop the Superfriends from the 1983-1984 Saturday morning television line-up.
However, during this time Hanna-Barbera continued to produce new episodes of the Superfriends. In fact, 24 of these so-called "Lost Episodes" we animated but not aired in the United States that season. Three of these episodes were aired when the Superfriends returned to Saturday morning ABC television the following year. The remainder of the episodes finally aired in syndication years later as part of the Superman/Batman Adventures.
Super Friends - The Lost Episodes will arrive as a 2-disc set on August 11th, carrying the 24 new-to-DVD episodes mentioned above. Running time is 168 minutes, and the cartoons are presented in full screen video, English mono audio and with English subtitles. As a bonus there will be 2 downloadable Super Friends comic books, "adventures from the DC vault," with 24 pages of action provided in PDF file format (DVD-ROM capabilities required). The cost is $26.99 SRP. Below is a list of the episodes, followed by the packaging.
And, lest fans think that finding The Lost Episodes on DVD means that every super adventure is now available on disc, don't be deceived! Just as ONE example, the original 1973 series, simply titled Super Friends (and featuring Wendy, Marv and Wonderdog) STILL hasn't had a shiny round release so far! Hopefully Warner will dust these off for us die-hard fans, and the other unreleased Super Friends-related cartoons as well.
* Disc 1:
1. Mxyzptlk's Revenge
2. Roller Coaster
3. Once Upon a Poltergeist
4. Warpland
5. Two Gleeks Are Deadlier Than One
6. Bulgor the Behemoth
7. The Krypton Syndrome
8. Invasion of the Space Dolls
9. Terror on the Titanic
10. The Revenge of Doom
11. A Pint of Life
12. Day of the Dinosaurs
* Disc 2:
13. Return of the Phantoms
14. Bully for You
15. Superclones
16. Prisoners of Sleep
17. An Unexpected Treasure
18. The Malusian Blob
19. Attack of the Cats
20. One Small Step for Superman
21. Video Victims
22. Playground of Doom
23. Space Racers
24. The Recruiter
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