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The Show:
Where can you find a superheronie dressed like a hooker, a
post-op transvestite villainess, and a very buff shirtless actor with
huge
wings and a ridiculous mask? Legends
of the Superheroes, that's
where. This 1979 Hanna-Barbera produced
a live-action show features major DC heroes that weren't licensed to
other
companies (no Wonder Woman or Superman):
Batman, Robin, Capt. Marvel, Black Canary, The Huntress, Flash,
Green
Lantern, Hawkman, along with the some of the star villains on the DC
Universe: Mordru, Doctor Sivana, The
Weather Wizard, Solomon
Grundy, Sinestro, and The Riddler. This
TV rarity also has Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their Batman and
Robin TV
roles, the last time that they've appeared in character on screen. Though today's kids may stare at the screen
in disbelief, people who grew up in a time are sure to enjoy this campy
but fun
adventure.
This disc is actually two hour-long (with commercials) TV
specials that were broadcast in January of 1979 (and these were the
only two
that were made). The first is The
Challenge, where the villains have
banded together in order to destroy the world.
Doctor Sivana has created a doomsday device which will kill
everyone on
the planet (themselves excluded), so they start the machine which will
take an
hour to work. While they're waiting,
they give the Superheroes a series of clues (thanks to The Riddler
(Frank
Gorshin, from the Batman live action
TV series)) and watch the do-gooders scramble around trying to find out
where
the villains are hiding. It all ends
with a non-super powered slugfest between the two groups (since they've
both
ingested a potion that strips them of their powers... it would have been
way too
expensive to do it otherwise.)
The second episode is The
Roast, where (get ready for this) the family, friends, and enemies
of the
superheroes roast them, hosted by none other than Ed McMahon. This features most of the villains from the
earlier episode along with such notables as the hero who fought evil in
the
previous generation, the now-name Retired Man, the unforgettable Ghetto
Man, a
black man with an attitude who performs a standup act (a bit they'd
never be
able to get away with today), and Katar (Hawkman) Hol's mother who now
lives in
Jersey, Esther Hol. She throws such
zingers as "I run into people at the supermarket. They
tell me my son's a doctor, my son's an
accountant. How do I tell them my son's a Hawkman?"
Both of these are very, very low budget affairs. Even
so, I suspect that the second episode
was in the format that it was because they had used all the funds in
the first
episode. That's not really a slam
against these though, that where a lot of their charm lay.
The costumes themselves are hilarious. Just
look at the painted on eyes of Hawkman's
mask, and Doctor Sivana wears a bald wig with large wrinkles in it. The heroes never even use their powers (well,
The Flash will disappear and then reappear somewhere else, and Green
Lantern
will shoot a green beam out of his ring, but that's about it). When Captain Marvel is looking for the villain's
hideout, he spends most of the time walking! I got a laugh out of
that fact alone. Can you imagine the nerve
of selling a
superhero TV show where no one uses their powers? That
takes some balls.
The only big problem was the incredibly obnoxious laugh
track. Every line received a huge dose
of mechanical laughter. They even placed
giggles after lines that weren't jokes! When
the Huntress asks where the doomsday device could be hidden, Batman
replies
that he's not sure which is followed by laughter. What?
Who dubbed that?
Even with the obnoxious laughter, these were a lot of
fun. Highlights from the first show
include Batman and Robin negotiating to buy a used car after the
Batmobile
breaks down, Sivana dressed as a kid selling potion-filled lemonade to
Captain
Marvel "Oh please sir, please. My ma is sick, and I'm raising my
brother and
sister, and were gonna get evicted tomorrow and my father's in jail and
my
grandma croaked and they wouldn't burry my grandma until I come up with
the
money." and Charlie Callas in drag as a fortune-teller.
The second episode was even better with the ever delightful
Ruth Buzzi playing an old widow who has decided to marry one of the
heroes (she
intimidates them all by drawing a gun!), the aforementioned Ghetto Man
segment,
and Ed McMahon's interview with Solomon Grundy where the dim-witty
villain hits
the MC every time he says the word 'swamp' or something that reminds
him of
swamps, which is everything.
The show-stopping finale of the second special is the best
part of the whole disc however. It has
the magician Mordru singing his version of "That's Entertainment":
A flood, that turns a city to mud
Or a blaze, that keeps burning for days
Or a quake, even Richter can't take...
That's entertainment!
Now it might be a plague on the crops of Iran
Or a drought wiping out all the rice in Japan
Some great invention of man, like an aerosol sprayer that
kills the ozone layer
A louse, buys his grandmother's house
Ups the rent, though she hasn't a cent
Granny's sweet, but she's out on the street
The world's a mess
But never the less
It's entertainment!
Great stuff!
The DVD:
Audio:
The mono soundtrack is rather limited. The
range is pretty narrow with both the
highs and the lows being clipped off, and there's some distortion
through both
episodes. Nothing terribly annoying, but
don't expect the audio quality of a 70's TV show from a major studio. It's less than that.
Video:
Obviously taken from videotape, the full screen image isn't
the greatest, but it is light years ahead of the bootleg tapes I've
seen at SF
cons over the years. If you ever paid
$20 for a crappy 4th generation VHS dup, you'll be ecstatic
over the
way this looks. Even so, there are
occasional video dropouts, mainly at the beginning of the first
episode, and
the image itself isn't very crisp. There
is some color bleeding, though it's minor, and the definition isn't
very
sharp. Not horrible, but not great
either.
Extras:
I was very pleased to find that there was an extra included
with this disc. Warner Archives are
always bare bones discs (sometimes they'll have a trailer) but this one
includes 8 ½ minutes of cut scenes and extra takes.
These didn't have the laugh track, which was
nice, but they were pretty minor. Green
Lantern freezing and then running out of the frame so they could have
before
and after images when his disappeared, another hero waiting for the
noise of a
plane passing overhead to die, stuff like that.
Final Thoughts:
A cross between the live action Batman TV show (when is that
going to come out on DVD??) and the Superfriends cartoon, these two TV
specials
won't wow kids of today but they are a still a lot of fun.
Yeah, the jokes are corny, the writing is
horrible and the sets and costumes pretty low-grade, but I found myself
laughing throughout (though as much at the show as with it.) A great find and well worth checking
out. Recommended. |
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Buy: