“…created from the cosmic legends of the universe: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman.”

December 20th: five days and counting…

As mentioned yesterday, time goes by so slowly when you’re a kid. Especially with Christmas coming. There’s just no justice.

Which leads me to today’s ornament, the Hall of Justice from 2020.

Hoyt Curtin’s theme heralded the opening in an undulating brass section beating out a backbeat as William Woodson intoned:

“In the Great Hall of the Justice League, there are assembled the World’s Four Greatest Heroes created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
Superman!
Wonder Woman!
Batman!
Aquaman!
And those three junior Super Friends, Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog!
Their mission: to fight injustice, to right that which is wrong, and to serve all mankind!”

Super Friends aired on ABC from Sept. 8, 1973 to Aug. 24, 1974. A total of 16, one-hour episodes were featured and re-run until the fall of 1977.

The series was produced by Hanna-Barbera and National Periodical Publications (or DC Comics), based on the Justice League of America comic book. All characters, but Wonder Woman, had been featured on Saturday morning television as envisioned by Filmation in the late 1960s, but were victims of legislature that found children’s animation too violent. The heroes and their adventures were toned down for the new decade.

Hall of Justice

Superman and Wonder Woman were given a test drive on, of all cartoons, The Brady Kids while Batman and Robin were teamed with Mystery Inc. on two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. This was prior to the ‘73 Super Friends show.

While the big four were the featured heroes, Flash, Plastic Man and Green Arrow each made guest appearances.

In 1977 Super Friends was renamed The All New Super Friends Hour, then changed to Challenge of the Super Friends in 1978. In 1979, it was rebranded as The World’s Greatest SuperFriends before returning to simply SuperFriends from 1980 to 1983, then Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show in 1984 and, finally, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians in 1985.

In the wake of Warner Bros. successful Batman and Superman animated franchises, Justice League was launched on Cartoon Network May 29, 2004 followed by Justice League Unlimited airing for three seasons.

More recently the League has been featured on direct-to-BluRay feature length animations and shorts.

All this to honor what is – surprise, surprise – one of my favorite ornaments. Too bad Robin wasn’t shown a little more love originally. Wendy, Marvin and even Wonder Dog were given a mention in the opening salvo but, much like Chewbacca at the end of Star Wars who didn’t receive his medal, Robin was ignored.