Shazam! is a half-hour live-action
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
program produced by
FilmationFilmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
(the animation studio's first such program), based upon
DC ComicsDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
'
superheroA superhero is "a fictional character of unprecedented powers dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest"...
Captain MarvelCaptain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
.
The show ran from 1974 to 1977 on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
; from 1975 to 1977 it was known as
The Shazam!/Isis Hour, and included
The Secrets of Isis, about an
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
ian superheroine resurrected in the body of a schoolteacher, as the second half of the hour.
Shazam! is a half-hour live-action
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
program produced by
FilmationFilmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...
(the animation studio's first such program), based upon
DC ComicsDC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. It is the publishing division of DC Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary company of Warner Bros. Entertainment...
'
superheroA superhero is "a fictional character of unprecedented powers dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest"...
Captain MarvelCaptain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
.
The show ran from 1974 to 1977 on
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
; from 1975 to 1977 it was known as
The Shazam!/Isis Hour, and included
The Secrets of Isis, about an
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
ian superheroine resurrected in the body of a schoolteacher, as the second half of the hour.
Shazam! was brought back for reruns in 1980. Actor
Michael GrayMichael Gray is a retired American actor, best known for his portrayal of Billy Batson in the 1970s Shazam! TV series...
stars as young Billy Batson, while Captain Marvel was played first by
Jackson BostwickJackson Bostwick is an actor best known for playing Captain Marvel in the first season of the Shazam! television series of the mid-1970s....
, and later by John Davey. Actress
Joanna CameronJoanna Kara Cameron, sometimes presented as JoAnna Cameron, is an American actress who appeared in several television shows, such as The Secrets of Isis and The Amazing Spider-Man. She also was in a few feature films, like the early 1970s curio, B.S. I Love You and the black comedy Pretty Maids...
appeared as Isis, and her alter-ego Andrea Thomas, on three episodes of
Shazam!, and Davey likewise appeared as Captain Marvel in three episodes of
Isis. Today it is considered to be one of the prime examples of
campCamp is an aesthetic sensibility wherein something is appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. When the usage appeared, in 1909, it denoted: ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and effeminate behaviour, and, by the middle of the 1970s, the definition comprised: banality,...
.
Differences from source material
The television version of
Shazam! is notably different from its source material. The wizard
ShazamShazam is a comic book character created by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck for Fawcett Comics. He is an ancient wizard who gives young Billy Batson the power to transform into the superhero Captain Marvel...
does appear in the series; teenage Billy speaks directly to the elders that empowered him; all of whom are animated characters rather than actors):
SolomonSolomon is a figure described in the Hebrew Bible as a King of Israel and later in the Qur'an, where he is described as a Prophet. The biblical accounts identify Solomon as the son of David...
,
HerculesHercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became...
,
AtlasIn Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens from the ranges now called the Atlas Mountains. Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia or Klyménē :...
,
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
,
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
, and
MercuryMercury was a messenger, and a god of trade, profit and commerce, the son of Maia Maiestas, also known as Ops, the Roman version of Rhea, and Jupiter. His name is related to the Latin word merx...
. Instead of remaining in his hometown, Billy and his guardian "Mentor" (
Les TremayneLes Tremayne was an British radio, film and television actor. Born Lester Tremayne in England, he moved with his family at the age four to Chicago, where he began in community theater. He danced as a vaudeville performer and worked as amusement park barker...
) were
nomadNomadic people are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in...
s, traveling around the country in a
recreational vehicleIn North America the term recreational vehicle and its acronym, RV, are generally used to refer to a vehicle equipped with living space and amenities found in a home; they are sometimes called motorhomes. A recreational vehicle normally includes a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and a living room...
. (Media promotion of the time explained that Batson had taken a leave of absence from his radio announcer job, a circumstance that is also obliquely referenced in bits of dialogue from the series.)
There were no supervillains and no violence in this series; the hero, both as Billy and as Captain Marvel, would find himself helping people out of precarious situations they'd gotten themselves into by doing things they shouldn't have. At the end of each episode, either Billy or Marvel would address the TV audience with a moral based on that show (which was customary of many Filmation shows and cartoons).
The most fundamental element of the
Shazam! mythos remains the same: when he spoke the magic word "Shazam!", Billy is struck by a magic
lightningLightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
bolt (via animation) and transforms into the World's Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel.
Shazam! proved to be a popular program of its day, and for a time the comic book was altered to match the format of the series. Michael Gray found himself typecast after the series ended production, and had trouble finding acting work, leaving the profession until the late 1990s.
Current rights ownership
The rights to the series rest with DC's parent company
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
, or Entertainment RightsEntertainment Rights Plc was a global media company. Its main role was in children and family television programming.The group was established in 1989 and was focused on the creation and exploitation of major children's characters and brands. These include Postman Pat, Rupert Bear, Basil Brush, and...
(who owns much of the Filmation catalog), which has the "Worldwide Free TV" rights to the series according to its website (meaning it has the rights to the license the series for broadcast on television). However, it is not clear whether it refers to this series, or the animated Shazam! segments from The Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam!The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! was a NBC Saturday morning cartoon produced by Filmation Studios in 1981. It contained two segments, Hero High , and Shazam! . From time to time the characters of one show would appear in the other...
series from 1981.
As of July 2009, the series has not been released on home video in any country, save for one episode that was released on a limited edition bonus DVD. Episode one, "The Joy Riders", was released as Warner Bros. Television Commemorative DVD Volume 8: Shazam. This DVD series was made 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 WomanWonder Woman is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book character Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston...
in 2005 in North America (the episodes of Secrets of Isis in which Captain Marvel appeared were released to DVD in North America in 2007). A small handful of episodes appeared on TV LandTV Land is an American cable television network launched April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon....
infrequently throughout the 2000s, originally appearing on the "Ultimate Fan Hour" and most recently in early 2004 as part of the "TV Land Kitschen" lineup.
External links