Ok,
forget the movie. How about a decent TV series? For petes sake
S.H.I.E.L.D. got a series before the JLA? Why? It's not as if decent
superhero shows haven't done well over the years. In fact there have
been many series over the years which did a fantastic job adapting
various characters well, supporting character and villains included, in
some cases even redefining them. These shows worked but a JLA show is impossible?
Since
I already looked back at superheroes in movies, today let's look back
at the various superheroes who had TV shows in the last sixty years, and
imagine that in some universe they are all together as the Justice
League I have always wanted to see. Since I did not really watch many of
these, and others I have talked about to death, I asked my good friend
Les to help. Welcome to my corner of the blog my friend.
LES: You know me, my friend. I'm always eager to do a crossover LOL
RichB:Great to have you along. Let's start with one of the first and strangest superhero shows of them all!
Batman & Robin (Adam West & Bert Ward)
RichB:The show
was campy, but Adam West really did a great job selling Batman. I
already talked about this in depth so will not go into to much detail.
But this show got many people interested in the character, who was
fading at the time, and I think that's cool. It also took the villains
and made them all house hold names.
LES:
Well, I first saw it in reruns as a kid, where I loved it! As an
adult, I can look back on it as the brilliant satire it is and
appreciate it for the camp masterpiece it is. As a superhero show,
however, I'd say Batman has been done a lot better over the years. It
was, however, undeniably fun to watch, and still is years later, my
friend.
RichB:True Batman has been done better but what I admire about the show is that it got people excited about the character and that is awesome!
The Green Hornet (Britt Reid)
RichB:What the heck is the Green Hornet? Actually it was a successful radio show
back in the old days. They tried to make it a TV series, but it didn't
take. The only experience I had with the character was the crossover
with the Batman series. He was a masked vigilante who had a really cool
car, and of course a kid sidekick named Kato. Did you ever watch Les?
LES: Absolutely! That was Bruce Lee's breakthrough role in show
business LOL! The Green Hornet was a really blatant rip off of Batman
in almost every way except the way his "hero" was purported to be a
criminal in order to learn the secrets of the underworld to battle the
other criminals. Otherwise....Billionaire/Orphan protagonist....secret
identity....sidekick....cool tech and bitching car...CHECK!...In his
favor, Kato was miles better than Robin which kind of floored me when I
saw the crossover episode, since script or no script, Kato would've
wiped the floor up with Robin....but I digress...
RichB:Well you can't have Robin defeated in his own show! LOL!
Captain Marvel (Jackson Bostwick)
RichB:Yes,
this happened. This series was called Shazam! and later The
Shazam!/Isis Hour. It was a live action series geared to kids...but you
know it looked like it was pretty decent. From what I can see it didn't
talk down to kids or anything. It treated them seriously, and the show lasted for a few years.
Since I was sort of being born when this was on I kind of missed it, did you see it Les?
LES: Indeed I did, and I was a big fan of this show.
Now fans of the comics Captain Marvel will have nitpicks with it and
the way it changed his origin story and paired him with an elderly man
simply called "Mentor," but the spirit of the show was intact. Imagine a
boy called Billy Batson who is granted the powers of 6 immortals when
he utters the magic word "SHAZAM!" Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus,
Achiles, Mercury(It's an acronym, right?) He's transformed by a magic
lightning bolt into the world's mightiest mortal: Captain Marvel! As
superheroes go, he's fantastic! Like Superman, he can fly, is super
strong and impervious to conventional weapons. Also, I liked the heroic
music they used in it.
RichB:I think I would have liked that show, sad that it's forgotten today.
Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter)
Rich:Yes! I loved this show!
Well, to be honest I haven't seen to much of it. Sucks I was so young
in the 70's. But let's be honest, Lynda Carter was born to play this
character. She was great and the show was really decent. It was a very
honest portrayal of Wonder Woman. It ran for four years (which seems to
be the average for most of these shows) and was great it remains the
only live action version of what is a very popular character!
LES: Wonder Woman was awesome. I remember the TV show
fondly and am aghast that nobody has been willing or able to bring her
to the big screen where she belongs! Lynda Carter was perfectly cast to
bring the Amazonian to life as well as her alter ego, Diana Prince.
RichB:It
is weird, Linkara pointed out himself that the character is pretty
easy. Maybe finding the right lead is hard? Or maybe this show just did
such a good job that people aren't able to find a new spin on the
character that works. Just look at that awful NBC pilot from years ago!
The Hulk (Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno)
RichB:I
really loved what they did with this series even though, again, I was
never a serious fan. But I was sure aware of it and unlike Wonder Woman
have seen it (and the TV movies). Ok, they took some liberties like with
David Banner rather than Bruce and changing the origin. And the slow
motion stuff was annoying. But this was a very strong series, and I
loved every time David Banner turned into Lou Ferrigno, er I mean The
Hulk! What made it work was that it was more adult oriented than kid
friendly, proving that you can have a serious show about a superhero aimed at adults as well kids.
LES: The Incredible Hulk was an exceptional show,
and I never missed an episode of it. Bill Bixby was an extremely
talented actor and infused so much pure humanity and passion into David
Banner so that when the bad guys were hurting him, you really rooted for
him to hulk out and give 'em what for. The transformation sequences
were handled really well, and Lou Ferigno was awesome as the Hulk.
Let's face it....no CGI, so you really needed to find a world-class
bodybuilder who was 6 feet tall to pull off that hero.
RichB:No
question, Bill Bixby OWNED that role. He was a fantastic actor and his
character always felt genuine. That's probably why people kept coming
back to what were, to be fair, predictable plots in every episode (David
gets mad, turns into Hulk, Hulk smashes, David walks down the road
while piano music plays...rinse and repeat). People loved it and the show lasted four years!
Now let's discuss a show that was a little different.
The Greatest American Hero
RichB:Yes this is cheating a tad but I put this on here to prove a point. This show
takes an entirely new character and mythology, and did a respectable
job with it! Of course it had its silly moments but for the most part
the series was treated seriously. Premise is simple, guy gets super suit
from aliens but doesn't know how to use it. Hijinks ensue. One thing i
do love about this show-THE THEME SONG! I do remember watching it, barely, but I really don't recall the show that well.
Les, did you ever watch it?
LES:
Yep, in fact, I remember how his name was Ralph Hinkley right up to the
real life assassination attempt on Ronald Regan by John Hinckley, and
they changed his name to Ralph Headley. "Believe it or not" was an
instant hit and still gets requested at the piano bar decades later. The show was a lot of fun, and was pulled off by great performances by William Katt and Robert Culp.
RichB:One
of my favorite themes, it's even on my IPOD! For some some reason there
wasn't much in the 80's, the superhero genre kind of quieted down. That
was until a little movie came out in 1989 called "Batman"! We got a
cool new show that did not get the attention it deserved:
The Flash (John Wesley Shipp)
RichB:ok
folks, go out and buy the DVD for the 1990 Flash series or go and check
the episodes out on YouTube. I promise it is worth it. If CBS had given
this show a decent time slot, it could have been better. It was darker
than Lois & Clark would later be but not to dark. It respected the
character and blended the Flash mythos nicely. John Wesley Shipp was
Barry Allen, the main character. He had a brother Jay named after Jay
Garrick (the original Flash). And the female lead was Tina McGee, a
character from the Wally West era. The villains were cool to, putting
new spins on the classic rogue's gallery with Mark Hammill as The
Trickster in two episodes and another episode with Captain Cold in which
they really put a twist on that character. They made a psychotic
killer for hire and for once he was interesting! This series was
underrated and should be seen!
Did you catch this one?
LES:
Yes, I did, and I loved The Flash. I couldn't agree with you more that
it was underrated and mis-aired in the wrong time slot. Given a
chance, it could've gone 6 seasons, easily.
Superman (George Reeves/Dean Cain)
RichB:This
one is tough because there has been more than one TV version. For many
George Reeves was the definitive TV Superman on The Adventures of
Superman. I respect that series but I was never a fan and it. For me, it
was Dean Cain on the 90's show Lois & Clark:The New Adventures of
Superman. I love the way this show was done, and I don't just mean the
romantic stuff between Clark and Lois. The way Superman was played was
really cool, he was a little more reserved but all the mythos and angst
of the character were there and done pretty well. Unlike that horrible
Man of Steel movie, we get a Superman who knows how to have fun and
smile once in awhile! Oh, and doesn't kill! And the way Clark was played
worked for me to. In the old days Clark Kent never did anything for me
as a character, but this series made him a real person who just dresses
up as Superman to operate in public and not lose his private life.
Les,
I sense disagreement coming, and I know you were unable to watch
L&C (SeaQuest? You poor soul) so why don't you fill us in on the
classic Superman that pretty much started all of this
LES:
LMAO...actually, I have caught up on Lois and Clark in preparation for
the Super-collaboration I'm going to do with Fusionater to rate all the
actors who've played Superman like we did with all the actors to play
Batman.....
I
like the show a lot. In many ways, it has the light-hearted charm of
Smallville with the full cast of the Daily Planet and Superman in it.
My only real problem with it is in the way Clark(Cain) doesn't have a
look that can really change much with a pair of glasses. He looks like
Superman even when he's Clark, but it's a small complaint since he does
play both roles as individuals. My other nitpick is that his adopted
father, Jonathan Kent, is still alive in this show, where losing him
really affected his character in every other incarnation of the superman
mythos.
George
Reeves, on the other hand, really nailed both roles down well, and that
show was just pure, unadulterated '50s TV fun. I also like the cast of
Noel Neil as Lois Lane, Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen and John Hamilton as
Perry White. Those were solid characters that supported the stories
perfectly. Plus, the music was really heroic in this show.
RichB:Sounds
like I should give that show a chance sometime. And yes I overlooked
Superboy and Smallville to avoid being here all day, but Superboy was
decent and Smallville deserves its own article to get into that. One of
the the reasons I loved it is because of just how much respect they had
for the DC canon, bringing in heroes and villains I never would have
thought I would see on TV! In fact not only did Smallville hint at the
JLA but they did an episode with the Justice Society of America and it
wasn't half bad.
LES:
Agreed, I particularly liked the rivalry between Hawkman and Green
Arrow....but I digress...and Absolutely Christopher Reeve did
Clark/Superman better than just about everyone(Still waiting to see if
Henry Cavil can do Daily Planet Clark Kent different from Superman....)
Now let's briefly discuss the more recent superhero shows :
Birds of Prey
RichB:We
have The Huntress, Oracle, and Black Canary's daughter--why didn't this
show work?? I am not sure but I liked it and wish it had at least had a
full season of episodes. The show was to much like Smallville in tone,
but Smallville was about teenagers so it was ok making them the target
audience. It just didn't work here. Also they took to many liberties.
Killing Catwoman? Batman in hiding? No Commisioner Gordon? What?? This
show serves as a lesson, you can tweek things but your adaptation has to
be faithful to the source material or your gonna piss people off. If
they had lost all the Batman stuff I bet this show would have done
better. Ok so there were problems though it was nice to see the three
main characters in real life action.
Did you ever get to watch this one Les? I thought it had potential.
LES:Didn't
see it, unfortunately....I also missed the cult hit "The Tick" from the
Fox Network, but I've heard only great things about it.
Green Arrow
RichB:
I frowned when I heard Arrow was coming, and I never really watched a
full episode. However, it is still on and some of the clips I saw are
decent. So maybe it isn't so bad. Green Arrow was a character on
Smallville but this is wisely not a spin-off but a re imagining. It is a
darker show but since Green Arrow was always a darker hero it works
(ever read The Longbow Hunters?)
LES:
Arrow....yep, haven't seen it, but I do agree with you that as a spin
off, the character is a harder sell to pull off without looking like a
Batman clone.
RichB:Sadly
that's the only heroes that have made it to TV, and Spider-Man doesn't
count (or the Captain America and Dr.Strange movies). Of course there
have been attempts that always failed. Wonder Woman and Aquaman had
horrible pilots, THE Wonder Woman was especially painful, and of course
there was that god awful Justice League unsold pilot. You know, the one
where Martian Manhunter became a stalker and a kidnapper while the other
heroes became whiny idiots? Nah I think I will forget that one.
But
that awful pilot is the only time they ever did a show where the whole
Justice League got together. It's weird you'd think with the
Superfriends being popular they would have done something, but then
again it was popular in the 70's and knowing the TV execs of the time
they would probably have done a corny as hell variety show, even going
so far as getting Adam West and Burt Ward to reprise their roles as
Batman and Robin. I mean, could you imagine something that silly
actually being made? Thank goodness it never did!
LES: Actually, they DID attempt the show you just described with "LEGEND OF THE SUPERHEROES!!!!!!!"
(yes, this happened!)
Batman(West)
hosted this show which was done like a panel gameshow with each hero
standing behind his/her lecturn and getting a solo moment to face/defeat
a villain(Captain Marvel faces Dr. Sivana...who most viewers didn't
know, but the comic book fans geeked out a bit at LOL!). Attempting to
do a "Justice League" panel, they left out some important heroes
like....
Superman
Wonder Woman
Green Arrow
Aquaman
But
they did keep, Batman, Robin, The Flash and some peripheral DC heroes
like The Atom, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, Green Lantern and a few
others.
It
was over-the-top cheesy, just plain silly, and ultimately, best left on
the cutting room floor. As I recall, it didn't get too many episodes
before being cancelled.
RichB:You're
kidding! Wait, let me check YouTube......Hey there are some clips...let
me see...WTF??? Why is Ed McMahon the MC? Is this supposed to be taken
seriously?? They are honoring Retired Man, WTH?? captain Marvel needs a
psychiatrist? The second episode was a roast, are you kidding me? Did
Batman just butt bump some guy named Ghetto Man? What am I looking at?
This is crazy, surreal, and just bizarre. I mean the Superfriends
cartoon at least took the heroes seriously, that's why they needed Zan
and Jayna for laughs, but this is....horrible!
Wow!
I could do a whole review on this but I am not that big a masochist.
But Les, let me ask you the big question, why is it so hard to do a good
version of the Justice League on film? I love the JLA, they were the
first super team I loved even before I read about them. Just seeing the
team picture was enough to give me the chills. The World's Greatest
Superheroes! And yet we can't get a movie and the TV attempts were
laughable at best. Why is it so hard to take such a basic idea and make
it work? And it's not as if it's the creators don't understand the
heroes and can't do decent adaptations. Even Smallville, silly as it
was, respected the DC mythos heroes and villains. So. why do you think a
JLA TV series or movie is so impossible?
LES:
Beats the hell out of me TBH. DC scored box office gold with Man of
Steel and the Nolan Batman films, and even if Green Lantern didn't do
well at the box office and pissed of some fanboys, I thought the
potential was there and the hero was well realized in the execution of
the film. You already mentioned Smallville for bringing most of the
Justice League together in the series(Minus Batman and Wonder Woman
since Clark wasn't yet Superman in that show) and I thought they did a
great job with Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, Hawkman and Green Arrow.
HEY
DC! Take a lesson from MARVEL! They laid out the blueprint for
successfully doing it with the 5 lead up films and then the Avengers.
How hard would it be to start building the Justice League with Man of
Steel II? You're already bringing Batman into it....
RichB:Amen
to that my friend! I don't get it either, and not only did Marvel do it
but they did fantastic! The Avengers was everything I always wanted to
see in a JLA movie! but maybe someday it will happen. Though with our
luck it will be the DCNew version and all the characters will hate each
other and be emo.
Les thanks for joining me today to take a look back at some of these wonderful characters!!
LES:
It's been a pleasure to collaborate with you again, my friend. I hope
DC gets its shit together soon, and gives the fans a great JLA film with
all the lead up films to establish the core characters like Wonder
Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Green Lantern(That one soooo needs to be
done right....)
Anyways,
I'd be interested in hearing what our readers think about all of this
too. Thanks for giving us some of your time, my friends. Peace.
RichB:I would be interested too, to the comment section Robin! Nah, that was cheesy. 
By the way there were tons of cartoons with these heroes, someday I may have to dig into them.
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