Despite being one among hundreds of other cartoons that graced the Saturday morning schedule, Super Friends, as well as its various incarnations, has a unique place of honor. Not only was it one of the longest-running animated superhero cartoons, but it also transversed a number of Saturday morning trends. From the teenage-heavy, mystery-solving early 70s, to the more action oriented mid-70's, then the incredibly boring early 80's, and finally the resurrection of superhero cartoons in the mid-80's. Super Friends was there during all of these eras.

There's no doubt as to the reason for this. Animated superheroes were a big thing ever since the mid-60s. With so little in the way of other animated superhero fare on Saturday mornings, especially in the early 70s, the viewers just ate it all up. Plus, it gave life to so many superheroes that we only saw in the six-panel pages of a comic book.

So there wasn't any actual fighting between the heroes and villains. And, some of the plots and dialogue were incredibly hokey. And, they stayed VERY far away from comic book continuity. It didn't matter to to the pajama-clad, cereal-eating crowd who tuned in week after week to watch episodes that they had seen only a few months ago. They were ready for their superheroes.