Very nice! Our friends in the industry tell us that Warner is about to announce 1984's Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show on DVD. "Classic DC Heroes Soar In 16 Epic Adventures" on August 7th, on a 2-DVD set that goes for $26.99 SRP. Here is the description we were sent:
When sinister forces like Darkseid, Lex Luther, Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk scheme to dominate the galaxy, it's up to the Super Friends to show them the light! Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Superman and new hero Firestorm risk it all to defeat evil and preserve peace throughout the cosmos. Featuring the voices of Adam West as Batman and Casey Kasem as Robin, this sensational TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera showcases favorite DC Comics heroes in adventures that meld galactic dangers, insidious villains and larger-than-life predicaments in a must-own two-disc collector's compilation!
We're also told to look for more than 20 minutes of bonus material, "examining the origins of the characters and their backgrounds and why this show was groundbreaking and important for both animation and comic books at the time" (in the words of the studio, apparently). Large artwork has replaced the thumbnail we had up earlier.
Also, along with the box art shot, I'm going to post an often-requested "clarification" of the various Super Friends series: what they were, when they aired, and which characters were in each one. This is a re-wording of a post I made 3 years ago at the Home Theater Forum, with information courtesy of the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB.com) and "David's brain" (in other words, my own recollections). I don't claim that it's fully 100% accurate (I'll leave that for the cartoon historians and dedicated toon sites), but the gist of it should be there:
1973 - Super Friends series: the original version with unpowered teens Wendy, Marv and their smarter dog, Wonderdog.
1977 - All-New Super Friends Hour,, which introduced "Wonder-Twins" with Zan, Jayna and space monkey Gleek.
1978 - Challenge of the Super Friends series, with the Legion of Doom, is the most popular incarnation of the show.
1978 - Super Friends, which aired simultaneously with "Challenge" but featured the more common adventures, WITH the Wonder-Twins and WITHOUT the Legion Of Doom. Considered by most to be technically a "continuation" of 1977's All-New Super Friends Hour.
1979 - World's Greatest Super Friends, which consisted of a few new Wonder-Twin episodes plus many of the old episodes mixed into the airing schedule.
1980 - Super Friends Hour saw more than 60 new shorts (under 10 minutes each in length) made featuring just the heroes, no teenage sidekicks, and those were combined with old eps into this show, but then the show was shortened to a half-hour for 1981-83 and the show went under various names, accompanied by maybe about two dozen more new shorts, roughly. But some of those were never aired in the original rotation. However, all of them aired later in syndication. Considered by many to be a continuation of 1979's World's Greatest Super Friends.
1984 - The Legendary Super Powers Show: ABC wanted to revitalize the series, and they decided to use the new DC Comics name from the action figure lineup out at the time; "Super Friends" was put in the title to tie in with fans who would recall that name...it was mainly the heroes from the toy line, so Firestorm was added since he was a part of the toy lineup. There were 16 episodes produced under that name.
1985 - The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians finishes up the long Super Friends TV run with roughly 10 episodes featuring more of the heroes who hadn't been seen the previous year, especially fan favorites who had mostly been missing since "Challenge," like Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman, plus Cyborg (from the Teen Titans) as well.

 
|