''Shazam!'' is an American

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

television series that was produced for Saturday Mornings by

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company founded by Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott in 1962, before closing by Group W Productions on February 3, 1989. Located in Reseda, California, Filmation produced animated ...

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

Captain Marvel, now 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, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series ''

Whiz Comics ''Whiz Comics'' is an anthology comic book series that was 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 ...

'' (now owned by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

). The program starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, a teenage boy who can transform into the superhero Captain Marvel, originally played by Jackson Bostwick 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 a British-born American actor who performed in Vaudeville, film, theatre, radio and television. Early life Tremayne was born in Balham, London. He moved with his family at the age o ...

), 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 coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which is as the name suggests, like a home on wheels. Features Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed o ...

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

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

'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 syndi ...

'', a series 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 female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

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, 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 (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

/ Nick@Nite’s sister network,

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...

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. The series was available for streaming on the now defunct 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 promotional 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 as a bonus disc with the release of the third season of ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

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

Entertainment Rights Entertainment Rights PLC (formerly known as Sleepy Kids PLC and SKD Media PLC) was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialised in television shows and cartoons, children's media, films, and distribution. ...

, Classic Media, and

DreamWorks Classics DreamWorks Classics is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded as Classic Media in 2000 by Eric Ellenboge ...

; 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 int ...

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

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

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

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical Film gauge, gauge of Photographic film, film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm film, 8 mm and 35mm movie film, 35 mm. It ...

and 35 mm film elements by Warner Bros.' in-house post-production team.

References

External links

* {{Children's programming on CBS in the 1980s 1974 American television series debuts 1976 American television series endings 1970s American children's television series 1970s American superhero television series Captain Marvel (DC Comics) in other media CBS original programming Teen superhero television series Television shows based on DC Comics DC Comics television series by Filmation 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 American television series about teenagers American English-language television shows