Filmation's DC Comics Superhero Cartoons of the Sixties

In the late Sixties, Saturday morning television was dominated by superhero cartoons. Among these were cartoons featuring characters from DC Comics, such as Superman, Aquaman, and Batman. These cartoons were produced by Filmation, an animation production company founded 1962 that would become one of the biggest providers of Saturday morning cartoons in the Seventies.

Given Saturday morning had become a lucrative time for animated cartoons on television in the Sixties. DC Comics decided to seek out an animation studio to produce a Saturday morning Superman cartoon. They settled on Filmation, a studio that had up until then produced animated commercials, a failed pilot for a Marx Brothers  cartoon, and a few other pilots. The New Adventures of Superman debuted on CBS on September 10 1966.

The New Adventures of Superman drew upon the comic books of the time for its designs. Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman titles at DC Comics, served as the story consultant, on the show and such DC Comics writers as Leo Dorfaman, and Bob Haney wrote episodes.The New Adventures of Superman marked both the television debut and the first time in animation for many of Superman's enemies, including Lex Luthor, Braniac, Mister Mxyzptlk, The Prankster, Titano, and Toyman.It It also used some of the voice cast from the radio show The Adventures of Superman and and the Fleischer cartoons, with Bud Collyer as Superman/Clark Kent, Joan Alexander as Lois Lane, and Jackson Beck as Perry White and the show's narrator.

The New Adventures of Superman proved to be a hit. In fact it was so successful that Filmation made a deal with DC Comics to develop more of their superheroes into Saturday morning cartoons.  It was DC who requested Filmation create a show based around Aquaman. Filmation made a pilot for the Aquaman series and CBS bought it. It was then that The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure debuted on CBS on September 9, 1967.

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure not only featured Superman and Aquaman cartoons, but a rotating roster of other DC heroes, including Atom, The Flash, Green Lantern , and Hawkman, as well as the Justice League of America, Teen Titans, and Superboy (which had originated on The New Adventures of Superman the prior year). Aquaman's supporting cast included Mera, Aqualad, and Aquagirl from the comic books. Some well-known actors voiced many of the heroes on the show, including Pat Harrington Jr. as The Atom and Speedy (of the Teen Titans), Marvin Miller voicing Aquaman, Gerald Mohr voicing Green Lantern,  and Vic Perrin voicing Hawkman.

Mort Weisinger once more served as a story consultant on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventures, while comic book writers Bob Haney and  George Kashdan wrote some episodes. Like The New Adventures of Superman, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure features supervillains from the comic books, all of who were making their debuts in both television and animation. Among the DC Comics supervillains who appeared in episodes of the show were Black Manta, Evil Star, and The Fisherman, To create the underwater effects for the "Aquaman" effects the animators would rub material like baby oil on a clear piece of acetate. And then the acetate with the baby oil would be put closer to the camera and moved at a different speed from everything in the background.

With the success of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Filmation had plans for more DC Comics cartoons. A whole hour of DC Comics cartoons was planned, with concept drawings featuring Metamorpho, Plastic Man, the Blackhawks, the Doom Patrol, B'Wana Beast, Green Arrow, and the Metal Men. This idea fell by the wayside when Filmation got the animation rights to Batman.

At the time  ABC was still airing the live action TV series Batman, which had been a smash hit in its first season. As it turned out, while ABC, 20th Century Fox, and Greenway Productions held the rights to do a live-action Batman show, they did not hold the animation rights.  Filmation's cartoon The Adventures of Batman went into development while the live-action series was still on the air.  Of course, the live-action Batman would not remain for long. A smash hit with phenomenal ratings when it debuted in 1966. by its third season ratings had fallen dramatically. ABC then  cancelled Batman. The Batman/Superman Hour debuted on CBS on September, about six months after the last original episode of the live action Batman aired.

The Bamtan/Superman Hour consisted of two Batman segments and three segments, two Superman segments, and one Superboy segment. Olan Soule voiced Batman, while Casey Kasem voiced Robin. The two of them would go onto voice the Dynamic Duo in Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends cartoons in the Seventies. Batgirl voiced Jane Webb. The Adventures of Batman portion of the program featured many of the villains who had already appeared on the TV show, including The Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler, Mad Hatter, and Mr. Freeze. There were also members of Batman's rogue's gallery who made their television debut on The Batman/Superman Hour: The Scarecrow and Tweedledee & Tweedledum. Comic book writers Bob Haney and George Kashdan wrote episodes of The Batman/Superman Hour.

As to Aquaman, the previously aired Aquaman, Atom, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Justice League, and Teen Titans shorts were repackaged as a half hour show titled Aquaman and moved to Sunday morning. In the early Sixties, ABC had begun airing children's programming (particularly cartoons) on Sunday morning, and CBS followed suit in 1967. Nearly all of the cartoons aired on Sunday mornings by ABC and CBS consisted of reruns that had previously aired on Saturday morning. ABC and CBS would continue to air children's programming on Saturday mornings until the Eighties.

Unfortunately by 1968 the days of the superhero cartoon on network television were numbered. Action for Children's Television (ACT for short) was an organization formed in 1968, ostensibly for the improvement of children's programming. Among its targets were Saturday morning adventure cartoons, including the many superhero cartoons on at the time. To make matters worse, there was a moral panic over television violence in general that was taking place. Ultimately, the networks felt obliged to cancel the superhero cartoons whether they were still doing well or not. With regards to The Batman/Superman Hour , The Adventures of Superman returned to Saturday morning for one more season of reruns. It was the only superhero cartoon on CBS Saturday morning that season. The Adventures of Batman was moved to Sunday morning. Aquaman was cancelled.

Filmation's DC Comics superhero cartoons were made on extremely low budgets. Like every other producer of Saturday morning cartoons (such as Hanna-Barbera), Filmation utilised limited animation, whereby the number of frames per second to fewer than 24 framers per second standard for film and television. To keep costs down, Filmation made a good deal of stock footage, previously animated sequences that they would use over and over. To this day Filmation has a reputation for the poor quality of their animation.

While Filmation's animation may not be particularly respected, they were known for absolutely beautiful backgrounds that they often used for establishing shots. Filmation's often remarkable backgrounds were in evidence as early as their DC Comics superhero cartoons, particularly Aquaman. It must also be pointed out that Filmation's DC Comics superhero cartoons also stayed very loyal to the Silver Age comic books of the era, much more so than Hanna-Barbera's later Super Friends. And while the stories on Filmation's various DC Comics superhero cartoons may not be of the same level of quality as their later Star Trek and Flash Gordon cartoons, they were still better than much of what aired on Saturday morning at the time.

Ultimately, Filmation's DC Comics Superhero cartoons would have a lasting impact.  One of its biggest impacts was on the character of Aquaman. An obscure backup character during the Golden Age, Aquaman came unto his own in the Silver Age, although it seems likely he still was not as popular as The Flash or Green Lantern. The Aquaman cartoon gave him more exposure than he had ever had in his twenty six year existence. Indeed, without the cartoon, The Flash or Green Lantern might have been the fourth "super friend" on Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends. Filmation's superhero cartoons also marked both the television and animation debuts of several DC Comics characters. The New Adventures of Superman marked the television and animation debuts of Lex Luthor Titano the Super-Ape, Brainiac, Toyman, The Prankster, and Mister Mxyzptlk. While Jimmy Olsen had been on the live-action series The Adventures of Superman, The New Adventures of Superman marked his animation debut. The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure marked the animation and television debuts of Aquaman, Aqualad, Mera, Black Manta, The Fisherman, The Flash, Kid Flash, Green Lantern, Evil Star, Hawkman,the Justice League, and the Teen Titans.

Another way in which Filmation's DC Comics superhero cartoons would have a lasting impact is that many of the personnel who worked on them would later work on other DC Comics cartoons. Ted Knight, who worked extensively Filmation (often as a narrator), later served as the narrator on Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends. Olan Soule and Casey Kasem would reprise their roles as Batman and Robin on  Hanna-Barbera's Superfriends.Vic Perrin, who voiced Hawkman on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, later voiced Sinestro on the Super Friends series. Bob Hastings, who voiced Superboy on The New Adventures of Superman, later provided voices for the Super Friends series and Commissioner Gordon on Batman: The Animated Series and other DC Animated Universe shows.

In the end Filmation's DC Comics superhero cartoons paved the way for every other DC Comics animated series ever since. They proved that superheroes could be successful in animation, while maintaining a faithfulness to the source material that would not be matched for years. Filmations' DC Comics superhero cartoons also introduced a whole new audience to DC's heroes, many of who would remain fans of DC Comics for the rest of their lives.