Superman Cartoons from the 40's - Today

Superman Cartoon Wallpaper

Cartoon Time Line

First there was the comic book Action Comics but before even Kirk Alyn took off into the wild blue yonder there was Max and Dave Fleischer's Superman cartoon shorts shown before movie features in the early forties. No one would even come close to the quality of these cartoons until the 1990's Superman the Animated Series.

Not much in the way of animation for Superman in the 1950's,  but George Reeves ruled the small screen for that decade.

Having witnessed the death of the live action Superman actor, George Reeves, the sixties would once again see an animated Superman. This cartoon would be on Saturday mornings instead of movie screens. Not great on animation but not without its fans due to its campy fun quality. This Superman cartoon premiered on CBS in 1966 as The New Adventures of Superman. The show was renamed The Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure in the second season and renamed again in the third season as the The Batman-Superman Hour.  Superman was voiced by the same actor who did the radio show earlier, Clayton "Bud" Collyer. These cartoons also consisted of Superboy and Krypto cartoons. These cartoons are now seen on the Boomerang Cartoon Network, a spin-off of the Cartoon Network. Usually the show runs on Sunday afternoons on the Superman Batman Hour which also includes episodes of Super

In the 1970's it was several incarnations of the Super Friends to make Saturday mornings something to wake up for. It was groovy man! 

Super Friends (1973) 
The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977) 
Challenge of the Super Friends (1978) 
The World's Greatest Super Friends (1979) 

Very Honorable mention of course, this was the decade that Christopher Reeve starred on the big screen with the Superman Movie.

Check out the Super Friends link below if you've always wondered what the actors who did the voices for the Super Friends look like.

The Super Friends continued into the 1980's and revamped the show 2 more times with: 

SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984) 
The SuperPowers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)

After the Super Friends was over Superman didn't let go of the decade without a fight. Superman got his own show again by Ruby Spears Enterprises. This show lasted a year and was led by comic book legend Marv Wolfman.  This series was more closely related to John Byrne's 80's revamp of Superman than a continuation of the Super Friends. Lex Luthor was a millionaire business man here just like in the comics. The show consisted of both a Superman adventure and a Smallville story with young Clark Kent in the Superman Family Album segment.  Unlike the John Byrne revamp, Clark was shown to have super powers at a very young age. The theme was a Super Friends like rendition of the Superman movie theme. Listen to the theme at comic book resources It was actually a very good show. Although it didn't have the quality of acting and stories of the 1990's cartoon, the animation was a step up from the Super Friends which had been improving toward the end.  Considering the quality of a lot of other cartoons at the time,  it's very surprising this one only lasted a year.

Also in the 1980's a syndicated television  live action Superboy show began in 1988.

The Nineties really rocked for Superman the same guy that worked on the Batman animated series, Paul Dini brought us an excellent Superman show with stories that rivaled the movies. Great show it should have lasted longer. Tim Daly who did the voice of Superman was perfect for the Man of Steel.

On the live action side of television Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman on ABC was breathing new life into the Superman story.

Superman has rejoined his Justice League friends, not in the Super Friends mode but in the Paul Dini and Bruce Timm  style. These cartoons appear on the Cartoon Network and are far superior in quality to the Super Friends show , of which I still look at with fond memories. Justice League

As usual Superman has a live action counterpart on tv. This time its the young teen of steel, but instead of running around as Superboy, Clark Kent is not aware of his destiny yet. The show is Smallville of course on the WB.

Krypto the Superdog airing on Cartoon Network has at least one appearance of Superman, but focuses mainly on the Dog of Steel and his cartoon buddies Bat-Hound (Batman's dog) and Streaky the Supercat. It's all about fun. No serious storylines in this one.

Legion of Superheroes debuted September 23, 2006 and features the story of 31st heroes who go back in time to the 21st Century to  retrieve a young Clark Kent right before he goes off to begin work at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. In this rendition Clark hasn't quite learned to fly yet, but relies on the young members of the Legion of Superheroes to teach him what his powers are and how to fully use them in the fight against crime.