''Shazam!'' is a half-hour

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

television program that was produced for Saturday Mornings by

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...

(the studio's first non-animated series), based on the

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam, of

Fawcett Comics Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel, the alter ego of radio reporter Billy Bats ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series ''

Whiz Comics ''Whiz Comics'' was an anthology comic book series published by former American comic book publishing company, Fawcett Publications between February 1940 until June 1953. It is widely known for being the comic run in which hugely popular superhero ...

'' (now owned by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

). The program starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, a teenage boy who can transform into the superhero Captain Marvel, originally played by

Jackson Bostwick Jackson Leonard Bostwick Jr. (born October 23, 1943) is an American actor, theatre director and film producer. He is best known for portraying Captain Marvel in the first season and beginning of the second season of the '' Shazam!'' television ...

and later by John Davey, by speaking the magic word "Shazam!" With his guardian "Mentor" (

Les Tremayne Lester Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was an English actor. Early life Born in Balham, London, he moved with his family at the age of four to Chicago, Illinois, where he began in community theater. His mother was Dolly Trema ...

), Billy travels the country in a 1973

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

Open Road

motorhome A motorhome (or motor coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation. Features Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed or conv ...

, looking for injustices to resolve. The show ran from 1974 to 1976 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

's Saturday morning lineup. From 1975 to 1977 it was known as ''The Shazam!/Isis Hour'' and included ''

The Secrets of Isis ''The Secrets of Isis'', originally broadcast as ''Isis'', is an American live-action superhero television series produced by Filmation from 1975 to 1976 for CBS's Saturday morning lineup. The series was renamed ''The Secrets of Isis'' in syndic ...

'', about an Ancient Egyptian superheroine resurrected in the body of a schoolteacher, as the second half of the hour.

Format

The Mentor character, as played by Les Tremayne, was unique to the TV series and did not originate from the ''Shazam!'' comics. His background, and the origin of his relationship to Billy, were never explained. In later issues of the 1970s ''Shazam!'' comics meant to tie-in with the TV show, Billy's Uncle Dudley grows a moustache, drives Billy around the country in an RV, and tells Billy that the Wizard Shazam chose him to be Billy's "mentor", essentially turning Dudley into the comic book version of Mentor. The Mentor character has not been used since, although Uncle Dudley is shown driving a similar RV in the 2010s animated series ''Justice League Action''. Neither

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

nor Freddy appeared in this series, although the three main members of the Marvel Family did appear together in new stories in the tie-in era comics. After ''Shazam!'' was paired with ''The Secrets of Isis'' in 1975,

Joanna Cameron Patricia Kara Cameron (September 20, 1948 – October 15, 2021), sometimes credited as JoAnna Cameron, was an American actress and model, perhaps best known for her portrayal of the title role on ''Isis'', a 1970s children's television series, wh ...

, the star of ''Isis'', appeared as Isis and her alter-ego Andrea Thomas on three episodes of ''Shazam!'', and John Davey likewise appeared as Captain Marvel in three episodes of ''Isis''. ''Shazam!'' is one of the first Filmation productions to carry the trademark spinning executive producers' credit wheel ("Norm Prescott-Lou Scheimer") during the opening credits rather than the closing credits.

Broadcast history

After its original network run, ''Shazam!'' was brought back for reruns from January 5 through August 30, 1980. A handful of episodes appeared on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

Nick@Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET/Pac ...

’s sister network,

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cla ...

infrequently throughout the 2000s, originally appearing on the "Ultimate Fan Hour" in early 2004 as part of the "TV Land Kitschen" late weekend night programming block. Since early March 2019, the series was available for streaming on the now defunt DC Universe streaming service.

Episodes

Season 1 (1974)

Season 2 (1975)

Season 3 (1976)

Home media

The pilot episode, "The Joy Riders", was released as ''Warner Bros. Television Commemorative DVD Volume 8: Shazam'', part of a DVD series designed to promote 50 years of Warner Bros. Television and to promote other TV shows that were not yet released on DVD. It was included with the release of the third season of ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

'' in 2005 in North America. Meanwhile, the rights to ''The Secrets of Isis'' remained with Filmation's successors

Entertainment Rights Entertainment Rights PLC (formally known as Sleepy Kids) was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialized in TV-shows and cartoons, children’s media, films, and distribution. In May 2009, the company was ...

Classic Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

, and

DreamWorks Classics Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Medi ...

; that series was released on DVD in its entirety in 2007, including the three episodes featuring Captain Marvel. On October 23, 2012, Warner Bros. released ''Shazam!—The Complete Series'' on DVD via the

Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

burn on demand service. Warner Archive re-released the complete series in HD on a four-disc

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

set on October 8, 2019. The new HD masters for ''Shazam!'' were created from restorations of the original Filmation 16 mm and

35 mm film 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on f ...

elements by Warner Bros.' in-house post-production team. The series is also available at the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

References

External links

*
Official Jackson Bostwick/SHAZAM! SiteMichael Gray's Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shazam! (TV Series) 1970s American children's television series Captain Marvel (DC Comics) in other media CBS original programming Teen superhero television series 1974 American television series debuts 1976 American television series endings Television shows based on DC Comics DC Comics television series by Filmation American superhero television series American children's science fiction television series Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios American children's action television series American children's adventure television series American children's fantasy television series Television series about teenagers English-language television shows