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Super Friends Season 2, Episode 7, Storyline D – “Time Rescue”

Original Airdate – December 10, 1977

Short Synopsis: Guess what TIME it is!? Yes, it’s another installment of “The Super Friends Attempt a Time Travel Story.”

“On the outskirts of Metropolis, at the Comstock (?) Research Institute, an incredible experiment is about to take place.” – Narrator

“This is a great day for science, Dr. Lao! My time machine is finally ready, and I will be it’s first test subject!” – Professor Comstock

“My time machine is finally ready” roughly translates to “get ready for a heaping pile of dog turds” from Superfriendese.

Professor Comstock sashays into his time machine and demands Dr. Lao “prepare the electron stimulizor” and to “activate the time thrusters,” which Dr. Lao does. I’ve cut through all the technical jargon and created this comparison to help you understand how it works:

Here’s Professor Comstock in the future looking like he’s about to break into song but he didn’t and that was a disappointment.

Behind that rock are some hooded creatures ominously watching this man not break into song and dance.

Dr. Lao tries to return Professor Comstock to the present day but fails. This is a job for the Super Friends (said as unenthusiastically as possible by me).

Here We Go

Superman, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl show up at the Institute and are sent to the future to save the Professor. They are told by Dr. Lao they have one hour to retrieve the Professor and get back to the time travel bus stop.

The trio arrive in the future and yet again the creatures are watching. They look like they all just got out of the shower with their little purple robes (they look like what would result if a Jawa and a Chubbles doll mated):

The trio head on to the city in the distance, where they find what used to be Metropolis. Some things have changed: the world is now inhabited by all sorts of intelligent life forms; some things haven’t: people still sit around drinking coffee in hipster cafes.

Somehow Hawkgirl, Superman, and Hawkman get a table right away – that’s the most unrealistic thing so far, look how crowded it is! They ask their waitress if she’s seen Comstock.

She tells them she hasn’t seen him, then they see one of the so fresh and so clean creatures spying on them. They corner him and demand answers! He tells them the  “desert slavers,” which I guess is what the purple robes are called, are holding the Professor “in the Jobo Desert to the North.”

At the Jobo Desert camp, the desert slavers are gathered around a fire, presumably telling each other horror stories.

Because this is only a seven minute story, the slavers are easily overcome with a dust storm Superman creates and they rescue the Professor and make it back safely to the groovin’ 70s.

Health Segment

There was a health segment but it was just Aquaman swimming up to some girl who tells him she’s passed the physical fitness exam, then lists types of exercises. Then he reminds her about swimming, because that’s all he knows.

P.S. I’m posting Super Friends outtakes on the Cannibalistic Nerd Facebook page. So, if you need a mid-week Super Friends pick-me-up, that’s the place to get it.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.

 

Super Friends Season 2, Episode 7 – Magic Trick

Original Airdate – December 10, 1977

Magic Trick

Yes, it’s that time again. Time to learn an amazing magic trick courtesy of the Super Friends!

This time it’s Batman who’s going to show us how to impress our friends and get that promotion we’ve been hoping for by dazzling our boss with an illusion.

Batman is in the Magic Theater and calls to Robin saying he needs his help. Robin then SWINGS IN ON A TRAPEZE, looking mighty proud of himself.

Batman give Robin the once over and says, “You look like a strong young man.” What. A. Creep. After some talk about Turkish prisons and gladiator movies, Batman says that this trick will be a test of his strength.

He twists a HUGE napkin – look at that thing in the above picture – into what looks like a track and field baton and hands it to Robin, telling him to take hold of either end of the napkin and try to pull it apart.

“Child’s play, Batman!” exclaims the ever-confident Robin.

Robin struggling with a napkin is now one of my most favorite Super Friends moments.

Batman is then all, “alright you sweet little bitch, hand it here.” Notice the shock on Robin’s face:

Robin starts from scratch – twists up a napkin and still can’t tear it in half.

“That’s because you didn’t use some water!” Batman bullshits.

As with previous magic tricks, the animators weren’t exactly clear about what was supposed to happen based on the script. So, in the initial demonstration, at no point could Batman have actually used any water – there’s no cuts or anything that would have conceivably been a time when he could have applied water to the napkin. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

“While you were trying to twist the napkin apart, I dipped my finger in the water…” here’s a demonstration in case you’re confused:

This could have happened. The weirdo Batman could have been dipping his finger in water while Robin struggled, but he most certainly did NOT apply water to the middle of the napkin like so:

Which, according to him, is required to do the trick. Or, maybe he was just retroactively explaining it to make Robin feel better. I’m pretty sure it was animation tomfoolery, though, because another magic trick was happening during the segment that we didn’t get an explanation for:

Batman’s suit emblem kept switching colors. Now THAT’S magic.

And yes, I will be attempting this magic trick later in the week.

P.S. I’m posting Super Friends outtakes on the Cannibalistic Nerd Facebook page. So, if you need a mid-week Super Friends pick-me-up, that’s the place to get it.

If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.