Great Way to Kick off Silver Age Super Heroes in Animation
17 October 2005
The first time I ever saw these cartoons of both Superman and Superboy was when I was 11 years old.At the time, it was on the Bozo Show on WGN around 1983 I believe it was. Anyway, I liked the character designs. I felt the Superman characters fit the look designed by Curt Swan, the definitive Superman artist of the Silver Age. Well, I did my research and found out about when it originally aired and what format it was in. But for me, I remember the Bozo Show airing Batman on Mondays and Thursdays, Superman on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Superboy on Wednesdays. I never really cared for Bozo the Clown or the like. Heck the only reason I watched it was just to see these Filmation cartoon shorts of the World's Finest.

Bud Collyer did a super job as his dual voices of Superman and Clark Kent, but unlike the 40's Fleisher cartoon classics, Collyer has more speaking lines as Superman since the Man of Steel was mostly silent in the 40's shows. And I was just given a surprise to learn that Joan Alexander wasn't the only voice over for Lois Lane. (Read the trivia above the comment line).

In comparison, I liked the Superman shows over the Superboy shows, though Superboy can be fun. Animation wise, the shows suck by today's standards. But I loved the character designs and voice overs not to mention the awesome musical scores. These cartoons helped me pick up and read some Superman comics from the 50's and 60's and enabled me to hear the voices of Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander in my mind.

If you love the Silver Age Superman, I highly recommend this series and I really wish WB would consider releasing these shows on DVD along with the other DC titles by Filmation. And yes, Superboy too.
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