The Super Globetrotters is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1979, and ran for 13 episodes. It was a spin-off series from Hanna-Barbera's Harlem Globetrotters.[1] Unlike the original Globetrotters series, The Super Globetrotters was solely produced by Hanna-Barbera, whereas the original series was co-produced with CBS Productions. Thus, Super Globetrotters later became incorporated into the library of Warner Bros. while the original series remains under CBS ownership.
| The Super Globetrotters | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Superhero |
| Developed by | Andy Heyward |
| Written by | Tom Dagenais Rowby Goren Andy Heyward Robert M. London Larry Parr |
| Directed by |
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| Starring | Harlem Globetrotters |
| Voices of |
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| Narrated by | Michael Rye |
| Theme music composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 22 (1979-09-22) – December 15, 1979 (1979-12-15) |
| Related | |
| Harlem Globetrotters | |
The Super Globetrotters aired in its own half-hour timeslot from September 22 to November 3, 1979, and beginning November 10, episodes were packaged together with Godzilla under the title The Godzilla/Globetrotters Adventure Hour which ran until September 20, 1980.[2]
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio. This is one of a number of shows made before the mid-1980s seen on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang to have been taken from PAL transfers.
This show featured the basketball team Harlem Globetrotters as undercover superheroes, who would transform from their regular forms by entering magic portable lockers. Each member of the group had individual super powers and could fly. The Super Globetrotters gained their powers through an element called Globetron and another exposure would weaken them on occasions.[3]
The Globetrotters received their missions from a basketball-styled talking satellite called the Crime Globe. Most episodes culminated in the Super Globetrotters challenging the villain and his henchmen to a basketball game for whatever treasure or device they sought. The civilian Globetrotters were always bested by the villains' super-powers in the first half, but they would use their own super-powers in the second half (often at the admonition of the Crime Globe) to save the day.
Fluid Man/Liquid Man, Multi Man, and Spaghetti Man (previously Coil Man) were recycled intact from the previous Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Impossibles.
| No. | Title | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Museum Man" | September 22, 1979 (1979-09-22) | 7902 |
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Museum Man uses his Skeleton Simulation gun to bring the dinosaur skeletons to life in a plot to take over Big City.
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| 2 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Bwana Bob" | September 29, 1979 (1979-09-29) | 7905 |
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A cruise ship that the Globetrotters are on crashes off the coast of Bongo Zuny where a big game hunter named Bwana Bob plans to hunt the Globetrotters and the people on the cruise.
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| 3 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. The Facelift" | October 6, 1979 (1979-10-06) | 7907 |
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A nuclear-powered alien named Facelift plots to steal the faces of the World Leaders and place them on his Demon Droids in order to gain control of the world.
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| 4 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Whaleman" | October 13, 1979 (1979-10-13) | 7901 |
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Whaleman uses the mechanical whale Moby Whale in order to steal supertankers containing 50 tons of oil as part of a plot to control the world's oil supplies.
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| 5 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Robo and the Globots" | October 20, 1979 (1979-10-20) | 7908 |
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To help in his revenge on G.G. Godfrey, Robo builds robotic duplicates of the Globetrotters to commit a crime spree that ends up framing the real Globetrotters.
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| 6 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Tattoo Man" | October 27, 1979 (1979-10-27) | 7903 |
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A space pirate named Tattoo Man is on a gold-robbing spree.
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| 7 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Movie Man" | November 3, 1979 (1979-11-03) | 7910 |
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Movie Man plans to steal a top secret mystery robot. Crime Globe warns them that the mystery robot in question is filled with Globetron.
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| 8 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. The Phantom Cowboy" | November 10, 1979 (1979-11-10) | 7904 |
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While visiting Miss Jenny on her Bar-B-Q-Ranch, the Globetrotters learn that the Phantom Cowboy is responsible for various attacks in Tombstone Valley. The Crime Globe states that the Phantom Cowboy is actually a remote-controlled zombie and now the Globetrotters must find the person controlling it.
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| 9 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. The Time Lord" | November 17, 1979 (1979-11-17) | 7909 |
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Time Lord invades the Time Research Center in order to steal a time machine called T.I.M. (short for Time Isolation Machine). He uses his criminals from history to help him.
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| 10 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Transylvania Terrors" | November 24, 1979 (1979-11-24) | 7906 |
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Count Bragula and his Transylvania Terrors plot to take over Transylvania and place it under their control. The Globetrotters are called in to keep Count Bragula from taking over Transylvania.
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| 11 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Bull Moose" | December 1, 1979 (1979-12-01) | 7912 |
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Bull Moose steals the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs in order to complete his golden ray and take over Breadbasket City.
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| 12 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Merlo the Magician" | December 8, 1979 (1979-12-08) | 7911 |
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Merlo the Magician and his Knights of the Crooked Table are stealing the world's monuments.
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| 13 | "The Super Globetrotters vs. Attila the Hun" | December 15, 1979 (1979-12-15) | 7913 |
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Attila the Hun and his Huns follow Professor Herbert George through his Time Transporter. When they cause havoc in San Francisco, the Super Globetrotters are called in to stop Attila the Hun and return him to his own time.
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On October 28, 2014, Warner Archive released The Super Globetrotters: The Complete Series on Region 1 DVD as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection.[4]