The New Adventures of Superman: 1966 - 1970

"Superman! Rocketed to Earth as an infant when the distant planet Krypton exploded. And who disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet fights a neverending battle for truth, justice and freedom with super powers far beyond those of ordinary mortals!"That's how announcer Jackson Beck opened this classic show from 1966. The opening scene showing Superman smashing meteorites to the show's very '60s jazz main title theme still looks cool.Following the '40s  Fleischer Superman  (made for theaters) and the '50s  Adventures of Superman  (first done as a movie then a TV series), Filmation's New Adventures of Superman (1966) was the first Superman done specifically for television. Paid a sum of $36,000 per completed half-hour by CBS (who struck a deal with DC Comics to create the show), Superman also was the then-little studio's first major TV deal.The legacy of the more revered Fleischer Superman shorts was not lost on Filmation. "The Fleischers did, as far as I'm concerned, the definitive one. So much so that we actually managed to hire some of them to work for us," producer Lou Scheimer said.In additon to comics faithful character designs, and effective yet limited [compared to today] animation, The New Adventures of Superman also featured the voices of Fleischer Superman's Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander (alternating with Julie Bennett) as the animated Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane.As a result, the series was a breakout hit. So much so Filmation was given a bonus and a 2nd season where the show expanded to "The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" adding heroes Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Flash, the Atom, Teen Titans, and Justice League to the lineup.Due to the ongoing Siegel/DC/Time Warner battle for Superboy copyrights, the  Superboy  episodes originally sandwiched between the Superman episodes are not included in this set. Despite this, I still recommend the set solely on the strength of the thirty-six 6 min. Superman eps that are included.The New Adventures of Superman is a 2-disc set featuring all 36 Superman episodes from the show's first season; Full Frame (1.33:1) video; Dolby Surround Stereo English audio; Closed Captioning; plus the following Special Feature: "Superman in '66" - Featurette explores how the '60s era influenced the character of Superman and led to his Filmation debut on this groundbreaking show.Episodes:1. The Force Phantom2. Mermen Of Emor3. The Prehistoric Pterodactyls4. Merlin's Magic Marbles5. The Threat of the Thrutans6. The Wicked Warlock7. The Chimp Who Made It Big8. The Deadly Icebergs9. Robot of Riga10. The Invisible Raiders11. Neolithic Nightmare12. The Return of Brainiac13. The Magnetic Monster14. The Toys of Doom15. The Iron Eater16. The Ape Army of the Amazon17. The Fire Phantom18. The Deadly Dish19. Insect Raiders20. Return of Warlock21. The Abominable Ice-Man22. The Men from A.P.E.23. The Tree Man of Arbora24. The Image Maker25. Superman's Double Trouble26. The Deadly Super-Doll27. Lava Men28. Luthor Strikes Again29. Mission to Planet Peril30. The Pernicious Parasite31. The Two Faces of Superman32. The Imp-Practical Joker33. Superman Meets Brainiac34. Seeds of Disaster35. The Malevolent Mummy36. The Bird-Men From Lost ValleyHighly Recommended!

A great older Superman cartoon serie. I recently Bought another copy and it's perfect! At the beginning and end there are two excellent documentaries about Filmation. The cartoon studio behind these early DC comics series It was great to see these again. They need to consider re-releasing these on bluray.

What a thrill that this has been released! I grabbed it immediately - simple packaging (the cover art is a little TOO simple), complete series AND great value for money. For me, the episodes were just as entertaining as they were when I first saw them as re-runs in the 70s and early 80s. As much as I enjoyed the Superfriends in their different incarnations, I prefered the Filmation Superman - I always found the Superfriends' Superman as being a bit of a wimp!The Filmation version of Superman runs a close second to the Fleischer animation in my opinion, (although by modern standards the animation may seem limited and stilted) both had great storylines and their mood reflected the comicbooks of the times. If you're a Superman fan, this is a must - the Filmation Superman often gets overlooked because of the Superfriends/Hall of Justice dominance through the 70s and beyond, yet is a superior Superman (what a tongue twister).Great value for money - enjoy.

'The New Adventures of Superman' was the first animated immortalisation of the Man of Steel for the small screen audience, since the Fleischer theatrical shorts of the 1940s. It was Filmation's first attempt at television animation, having acquired the license rights for DC characters, and quickly became Saturday morning's staple for superheroics for decades to come. The show's first season, which aired on CBS from 1966-67, had a particular format of two 7-8 minute Superman cartoons, with one 7-8 minute episode of the first season of 'The Adventures of Superboy' sandwiched in-between. Subsequent seasons would incorporate a variety of other DC superheroes into the format, including Aquaman, Batman, Atom and Hawkman, amongst others. What is most interesting about this show and subsequent seasons is that it served somewhat as a precursor to the long-running Super Friends series of the 70s and 80s, after Hanna-Barbera acquired the rights to use DC characters from Filmation.Throughout this first season of 36 7-8 minute episodes, Superman/Clark Kent deals with a lot of rather one-dimensional space villains from Pluto and Jupiter, for example, mad scientists harnessing insectoid and robotic powers, plus an army of sea-creatures and pre-historic dinosaurs. Classic villains from the Superman comic books also make their first appearance in animated form here in a few episodes, including Lex Luthor, the Prankster,the Parasite (albeit in a rather child-friendly depiction compared to his appearance in the comics), the Toyman, Brainiac, Mr. Mxyzptlk and original villains, the Sorcerer and the Wicked Warlock. Also making their small screen debut alongside the Man of Steel and his rogues gallery are Daily Planet Chief Editor Perry White, journalistic reporter Lois Lane and cub-reporter Jimmy Olsen. Interestingly, Bud Collyer, who voiced Superman in the 1940s' Fleischer shorts and the long-running radio programme, also voiced the man of Steel here; while Joan Alexander, who also voiced Lois Lane in the same radio show, reprises her role here as the journalistic beauty of Metropolis. Ted Knight, who went on to narrate the adventures and action during the Super Friends series, also provides narration here, explaining the action as it is happening in a way very much synonymous with radio broadcasting.Ironically, compared to today's standards, the action presented was very limited and Superman was not permitted to pull punches towards anyone or advocate any use of violence towards his enemies. This was due to a parental union, stating that comic book violence in books and on television were a bad influence on the young target audience. Therefore, the majority of DC's Filmation Adventures series and subsequent Super Friends cartoons (as well as many other contemporary Hanna-Barbera cartoon series) were not especially full of animated action sequences, but did present a lot of moral messages for young children through dialogue and story-telling. Also, being a fledgling company, Filmation was famous for making use of stock footage quite frequently in their series and, unfortunately, this makes the cartoon sequences a little repetitive and predictable at times. However, on the whole, the character depictions and storyboards are relatively faithful to their comic-book counterparts, such as the utilisation of Jimmy Olsen's Superman signal watch, for example.Regarding this release from the DC Comics Classic Collection, the first season of 'The New Adventures of Superman', comprising 36 episodes (culminating in 252 minutes of classic animation fun!), is spread over two disks, containing 18 episodes each, with each disc having an approximate running time of just over two hours long. Unfortunately, the 'Adventures of Superboy' segments, exploring Superman's teenage exploits, are not included, presumably due to the on-going legal dispute regarding character copyright and creation. Ironically, they did include the intro to one of the segments towards the end of the first disk, though the episode itself is not included. With the recent release of the Superboy live-action series on DVD, hopefully there will be a separate release of these segments on the horizon, plus additional seasons of 'The New Adventures of Superman' with any luck. Upon loading the second disk, there plays a sneak peek of the, then, upcoming release of 'Superman: Doomsday' on DVD, which is based upon the 'Death and Return of Superman' trilogy. The bonus features included comprise of trailers showcasing other Warner Brothers' releases from the Hanna-Barbera studio, including Birdman and Space Ghost, amongst others. The main addition to this set is a retrospective featurette entitled 'Superman in 1966', which looks back over the history of Superman from his debut in comics through to this series in 1966; exploring the connections made to the contemporary comic book stories at the time, and how Filmation acquired the rights to animate DC's most famous superhero. I would have appreciated the option of subtitling in English and possibly other language features, but this is only a minor flaw.As an additional retro accompaniment, I would suggest exploring both the two disk DVD set of 'DC Superheroes - The Filmation Adventures'; which includes the guest spot segments from 'The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure' (1967/68), and 'The Adventures of Aquaman', also available in a two disk DVD set from the DC Comics Classic Collection (which includes the Aquaman segments from the aforementioned show). Thankfully, Warner Brothers have finally released the last two seasons of 'The New Adventures of Superman' onto DVD as of 2014, and let's hope that we won't have to wait too long for the interconnecting Season One Superboy segments to be made available to a very eager audience of golden-age animation and Superman enthusiasts.

Very enjoyable series. There are some variations on the Superman mythology present - The Parasite for instance, doesn't resemble his comic book counterpart beyond his power siphoning abilities, Brainiac's back story in this series involves his being a minion of the mysterious Dr Hekla which provides him with a more suitable robotic persona than is usual for this character, and while never showing up in the comics themselves, The Warlock rates a fairly prominent place within the hierarchy of Superman's Rogues Gallery as a sort of cross between Dracula and Mr. Mxyzptlk. Also present are Lex Luthor (voiced by Jackson Beck who also portrayed Perry White here), The Toyman, Mr. Mxyzptlk (though he only makes one showing perhaps because of his similarities with The Warlock), and Titano (although he isn't named as such in the show).Though not as memorable as the soundtrack to say, the Spider-Man cartoon from this period, the music is catchy though sparse. The episodes themselves are fairly brief - perhaps seven to eight minutes a piece - and always end with a pun and a wink. Unusually, this breaking of the fourth wall is actually referenced in the last episode of the series (in the later release containing seasons two and three) when Jimmy Olsen asks "Who are you winking at Mr Kent?") Despite the formula employed here, the shows never get tiresome and should only interest you in seeing more.

It was great to see the Superman shorts I used to watch on B&W TV in the 1960s finally in colour. I wasn't disappointed in the stories, they were just as I remembered them. Each short story runs for around 8 minutes. The episodes on the first disk were in very good condition. Some of the episodes on the second disk showed print damage such as scratches.When originally aired The New Adventures of Superman often included a Superboy short. Unfortunately these are not included in this box set. Overall though a good example of early Flimation work,

Been a Superman Fan since i was five years old in 1959...I'd say that would tell you the Answer...Your's Chris Weeks,London England....Filmation,are equal to my Superman Comic Collection,which collected from the 50's to the Mid 70'S...As the Artwork changed...I never bought the modern version,to me they lost there way...but the Dvd,is Superb...Thankyou Amazon for getting my Superman Package to me,my Grandson loves it as well....

Great stuff just as I remembered it. If you are a skeptic on digital remastering etc.. this is not for you. It is exactly as it was when I watched it as a child in the 70's. It was created in the 60's and is great nostalgic material. I am a fan of the real mccoy. This is it.

Great memories