The Batman/Superman Hour

The Batman/Superman Hour

Title card from The Batman/Superman Hour
Genre Superhero fiction, Animated, Action/Adventure
Written by Oscar Bensol
Dennis Marks
Bob Kane
Jerry Robinson
Joe Shuster
Jerry Siegel
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Voices of Olan Soule
Casey Kasem
Jane Webb
Ted Knight
Bud Collyer
Bob Hastings
Jackson Beck
Jack Grimes
Joan Alexander
Narrated by Ted Knight
Theme music composer John Gart
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 34
Production
Executive producer(s) Allen Ducovny
Producer(s) Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time

60/30

minutes
Production company(s) Filmation
Distributor Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original release September 14, 1968 (1968-09-14) – January 4, 1969 (1969-01-04)

The Batman/Superman Hour is a Filmation animated series that was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1969. Premiering on September 14, 1968, this 60-minute program featured new adventures of the DC Comics superheroes Batman, Robin and Batgirl alongside shorts from The New Adventures of Superman and The Adventures of Superboy.[1] A similar animated television series aired from 1997 to 2000 as The New Batman/Superman Adventures.

Series overview

This series marked the animation debut of Batman, his supporting cast and some of their classic enemies like Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, and some villains exclusive to the series.

The success of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure in 1967 had prompted Filmation to produce a Metamorpho pilot and begin development on other similar series.[2] These plans were cancelled when CBS secured the animation rights to Batman in the wake of ABC's recent success with the Batman live action television series.[2] Going into production close to the start of the 1968 TV season, what would become The Batman/Superman Hour required Filmation to pull as many additional animators from other projects as they could spare to ramp up production.

This series was the first time Olan Soule and Casey Kasem performed as the voices of Batman and Robin. When The New Adventures of Batman was produced in 1977, Adam West and Burt Ward reprised the roles they had originally played in the live action TV series. Soule and Kasem would return several times to reprise their roles in 1972's The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973's Super Friends, 1977's The All-New Super Friends Hour, 1978's Challenge of the SuperFriends, 1979's The World's Greatest Super Friends, and starting in 1980 Soule voiced the character in the 7 minute shorter episodes that were produced through 1983. These 1980–1983 episodes aired under the generic Superfriends title. Kasem would go on to voice Robin with Adam West as Batman in 1984's Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and 1985's The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

In 1969, the series was repackaged into 30-minute episodes without the Superman segments and renamed Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder. Batman would next appear in The New Adventures of Batman in 1977. In 1985, Warner Home Video released five selected episodes of the series on VHS as part of the "Super Powers" video collection. These videos were re-released in 1996 and are out of print. In 1996, episodes were included in The Superman/Batman Adventures on the USA Network. They later aired on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang Network.

Episodes

The Superman portion of the program consisted of new 6 1⁄2-minute shorts from Filmation's The New Adventures of Superman and The Adventures of Superboy.

The Batman half of The Batman/Superman Hour consisted of new shorts. One story was presented in two 6 1⁄2 minute segments and one story in a single 6 1⁄2 minute segment. Thirty-four stories were produced.

Cast

Production credits

Batman © Copyright - Ducovny Productions, Inc. 1968

See also

References

  1. ↑ "A History of Batman on TV". IGN. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  2. 1 2 McNeil, Darren (July 2004). "The 1968 DC Filmation Pilots". Back Issue!. TwoMorrows Publishing (5). Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved May 2008. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
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