Isis live-action did get syndicated, I think.

Animated Isis did exist, but not as a solo series that I know of. She was part of the Freedom Force.






I saw Plastic Man and Spider-Woman. Unless you want to see the novelty of Spider-Man guest-starring on Spider-Woman once or twice, I kinda doubt there's much in the way of gems.

As far as the early 80s Marvel cartoons go (Spider-Woman, Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends), I'd say they're still fun in a campy kind of way.

They did take a lot of liberties in deviating from the source material, so there is very little resemblance between comic book Spider-Woman and cartoon Spider-Woman aside from her costume, secret identity, and most of her powers. She does a TV Wonder Woman twirl to change into Spider-Woman and she works at a magazine aided by supporting characters Jeff ( a kinda/sorta love interest?) and her kid nephew Billy.

I like all four shows mostly on the power of nostalgia, but expect silliness and some less than stellar animation going in.

The 70's was a sad time in animation for America with VERY limited animation of the worst kind. Yet there are still gems and fond remembrances of some shows for me. Filmation was strong on Saturday morning still with Flash Gordon, Batman/Tarzan/Zorro/Lone Ranger, Return to the Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Archie, Sabrina, and the Groovie Goolies. Hanna- Barbera's Challenge of the Superfriends was great if only for sharing screen time with many of the DC villains. Dynomutt was silly camp fun. Funky Phantom, Speed Buggy, Hong Kong Phooey, Godzilla, Grape Ape, Laff-A-Lympics, Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and Pussycats, Scooby Doo Movies were other faves of the H/B shows. Enjoyed Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Hulk not so much. After school syndication for Battle of the Planets (editing the G-Force anime) helped to kick in the new generation of Japanimation coming to the US.

For the most part I barely remember the Ruby Spear's shows Spider-Woman and Plastic Man and Superman. They were only on 1-2 seasons for Saturday's and never left any lasting impression. It was the shows in perpetual Saturday rotation that mostly capture my memories.  

The Freedom Force was awesome!

I saw one episode of Spider-Woman, and it was awful. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't.

I do remember the Isis live action show. It was decent. Isis was hot! I remember it being teamed up with the Shazam live action show.

I love the 70's superhero cartoons, but the biggest problem with them is that the censors were so strict at that time. They basically couldn't punch or kick, and there were a lot of other things the censors in the 70's and 80'swouldn't allow. It's pretty tough to make a superhero cartoon, or any other action cartoon, when you can't do any of those things!

I saw the animated Isis, also Plastic-Man... but I followed Spider-Woman (somewhat). There was also Dynomutt & The Blue Falcon for superheroics... may not have been short run though.

How about Mighty Man and Yukk?

Return to the Planet of the Apes was DePatie-Freleng, producers of the Pink Panther cartoons and the later Marvel cartoons.  Marvel ended up purchasing the studio, which became Marvel Animation.

I'm old enough that I saw the transition from 60s cartoons to the 70s.  One big reason for the state of 70s cartoons was censorship.  The Batman cartoons, from Filmation, had fight scenes in nearly every episode; real punches and kicks.  Watchdog groups got up in arms about it and other cartoons and demanded change.  The networks caved on their own; but, there were new FCC guidelines about educational content in children's programming.  Each network handled it differently.  ABC solved it by buying the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons and shaving off a minute or two of programs and commercials.  CBS used to have little mini-informational features, in between shows.  NBC bought a lot of Filmation programming, which included socially conscious messages within the story and would also have morals and educational segments, at the end, such as the Spanish lessons at the end of The New Adv. of Zorro.

There's plenty of good material in the 70s; but, like most things, there are a lot of derivative and cheaply made shows.  Scooby Doo was a big hit and was less violent; so, H-B churned out copies.  Filmation recycled the Archies format endlessly and pretty much repeated the same adventure stories (often to reuse the same footage.

Comedy became a bigger deal, since violence limitations made it harder to do adventure.  Most of the comedy was slapstick and varied greatly from show to show.


Live action shows were a big staple, such as Isis, which spun out of Shazam.  Shazam proved to be a hit; but, Filmation didn't own it.  So, they created their own show as a companion, which was Isis.  The structure was almost identical, with a female star instead of a male.  Other than that, the plots were pretty interchangeable.  They also had some sci-fi series, like Space Academy (a junior Star Trek, complete with Jonathan "Mr Smith" Harris) and Jason of Star Command (with James Doohan, for the first season).  They also produced comedy series, like the original Ghostbusters (Forrest Tucker & Larry Storch) and hybrids, like Uncle Croc's Bloc, which was a parody of local children's tv shows, with a live host and cartoons.


The Krofft Brothers produced a ton of stuff, starting in the 60s, with HR Puffnstuff.  They did Liddsville, the Buggaloos, Sigmund & the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost, Far Out Space Nuts and produced the Donny & Marie variety show.


There were also things like the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, which was a variety show, with the band.  The Kroffts did similar, with the Krofft Super Show.  At first, it had a fake band (including Michael Lembeck) called Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.  Then, they cut a deal with the Bay City Rollers, just in time for their popularity to decline.


Itended to prefer the adventure shows of the 60s, which had fewer restrictions; but, comedy shows were about the same.  The best were still the theatrical cartoons, like the Looney Tunes bunch, Tom & Jerry and The Pink Panther.  Both T&J and Pink Panther got new, limited animation cartoons; but, Warner mostly stuck with the theatrical cartoons (except for holiday specials and compilations).


By the mid-70s, syndication offered better adventure choices, with things like Battle of the Planets and Force Five, plus 60s staples, like Speed Racer.  By the 80s, a lot of the restrictions had been eased, and you got things like Flash Gordon (still shooting robots, though) and Thundarr (more indirect violence than direct combat).  Syndication proved more welcoming for things like He-Man and GI Joe, with lighter restrictions (such as being a 30 minute toy commercial).  Cable brought more avenues for programming and network tv began its decline, with animation being all but abandoned, except for Disney-owned ABC.


My favorites were Scooby Doo, reruns of Jonny Quest and Space Ghost, the Filmation Adv. of Batman, Challenge of the Super Friends, the first season of the Super friends, Zorro, teh Shazam cartoons on The Kid Power Hour, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Thundarr, Dyna-Mutt, Josie & the Pussycats, Groovie Goolies, Underdog (syndication), Tennessee Tuxedo (same), Rocky & Bullwinkle (ditto), Land of the Lost, HR Puffnstuff, Here Come the DoubleDeckers, Lancelot Link, Isis, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Pink Panther and related cartoons and the Looney Tunes shorts.