Super President

O Sombra - The Spy Shadow
O Sombra - The Spy Shadow
Produced by	David H. DePatie; I. Freleng
Production; companies	DePatie-Freleng Enterprises; Mirisch-Rich Television Productions
Distributed by	United Artists Television

*Super President*
Super President
Voices of	Ted Cassidy; Paul Frees; June Foray; Shepard Menken; Don Messick; Lorri Scott; Mark Skor
Narrated by	Paul Frees
Theme music composer	Doug Goodwin
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	30
Production
Producers	David H. DePatie; Friz Freleng
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	DePatie–Freleng Enterprises; Mirisch-Rich Television Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 16, 1967 –; December 28, 1968

Super President is an American animated cartoon that aired Saturday mornings on NBC from September 16, 1967 to December 28, 1968. The series was produced by the DePatie–Freleng animation company.^[1]

In the show, the President of the United States has extraordinary superpowers, including increased strength and the ability to change his molecular composition, and uses them to protect the Free World, as well as his hapless Vice President. The show was relentlessly criticized for its bad taste and low quality, and was cancelled after thirty episodes, midway through its second season.

O Sombra

There was a cartoon that aired on this show called "O Sombra - The Spy Shadow". It was also a superhero cartoon. This cartoon is unavailable and there are only a few recordings available that showed the entire cartoon. It was released in 1967.

Plot

The President of the United States, former astronaut James Norcross (voiced by Paul Frees) is given superpowers as the result of a cosmic storm during a space mission. The future President gains increased strength and the Metamorpho-like ability to change his molecular composition at will to any form required (like granite, steel, ozone, water and even electricity). A hidden panel in the Oval Office allows him access to his secret base, a hidden cave beneath the "Presidential Mansion" (a somewhat modified White House). Super President travels either by using a futuristic automobile/aircraft/submarine called the Omnicar, or by using jets built into his belt.

Despite the fact that the character's name is "Super President", for some reason only Norcross' chubby, pipe-smoking advisor Jerry Sales knows that the leader of the Free World is also a red and white-costumed superhero in his off-hours.

A total of thirty episodes of Super President were produced. Two episodes appeared in each show. Each episode also included an episode of Spy Shadow starring secret agent Richard Vance (voiced by Ted Cassidy) who had learned in Tibet how to command his shadow (also voiced by Ted Cassidy) to act independently of himself, an ability he put to good use as an Interspy operative battling a variety of villains, including the evil forces of S.P.I.D.E.R. ("Society for Plunder, International Disorder, Espionage and Racketeering"). Spy Shadow had the power to slip through small openings, hide himself in another person's shadow, and was invulnerable to harm thanks to his insubstantial nature, but his fists remained decidedly solid. Spy Shadow's only weakness is the inability to appear in total darkness for "there can be no shadow without light".

Reception

Super President came under fire from critics and TV watchdog groups, including Action for Children's Television, for its depiction of a national leader who was an invincible superhuman (especially since it debuted less than four years after John Kennedy's death).^[2] The National Association of Broadcasters said: "An all-time low in bad taste, with the President of the United States in a Superman role. NBC was responsible for this direct ideological approach to totalitarianism. We fear that there may be other broadcasters who are irresponsible enough to keep it in circulation".^[3]

In The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, David Perlmutter says that the show is "perhaps the worst animated program in the late 1960s (its producers admitted it themselves)" and calls the superhero president "arguably the most implausible superhero narrative idea ever invented".^[4]

Episodes

The Great Vegetable Disintegrator
The Billion Dollar Bomber
The Electronic Spy
Day of the Locusts
The Case of the Destroyer Satellite
King of the Sea
The U.F.O. Mystery
No Time Passes
Man of Steel
The Earth Robber
Monster of the Atoll
Return of the Vikings
The Cosmic Gladiators
The Condor's Eye
The President and the Pirate
Interplanetary Menace
Red Ray Raider
The Treachery of Jerry Sales
Rangled Terrors
Dound and Doom
Spears from Space
Toys of Death
Birds of Terror
The Menace of the Moles
The Chameleon
The Gravity Destroyer
Ice Invader
Electronic Giant
Time Crimes
A Million Years of Menace

Cast

Daws Butler -
Ted Cassidy - Richard Vance, Spy Shadow
June Foray -
Paul Frees - Super President/James Norcross, Narrator
Shepard Menken -
Don Messick -

References

^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 273–274. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
^ Hollis, Tim (2001). Hi there, boys and girls! : America's local children's TV shows. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 20. ISBN 1578063965.
^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 806–807. ISBN 978-1476665993.
^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 617. ISBN 978-1538103739.