The Kid Super Power Hour premiered on the 12th of September, 1981.It was nominated for a Young Artist Award for “Best Children’s Television Series,” in 1982. One of the actresses, Rebecca Perle won a Young Artist Award for “Best Young Actress in a Daytime Series.” for her portrayal of “Glorious Gal.” . The series finds its roots going back to 1940s Captain Marvel character, The Captain Marvel and Isis television program and the segment that features the students from Hero High is reminiscent of Archie and the Gang at Riverdale High. Many episodes are available for viewing on the Internet and the program remains as an influential television show among some groups of viewers.
The show is built upon two interrelated segments interspersed with live musical comedy skits. The character as is befitting a multi-level program the high school roster includes Captain California, Gorgeous Gal, Dirty Trixie, Misty Magic, Rex Ruthless, Weatherman, Punk Rock, Billy Batson, Shazam Mary Freeman, Mary Marvel Freddy Freeman, Captain Marvel Jr. Uncle Dudley Batson, and Tawky Tawny. Billy Batson, Shazam Mary Freeman, Mary Marvel Freddy Freeman, Captain Marvel Jr. Other characters, such as Isis also sometimes put in an appearance. It is not surprising that with a show that traces its roots back to the 1940s that many of these characters has stereotypical aspect. In fact, as is true for many cartoons most of these characters have so many typical stereotypical aspects they are more charactetures rather than characters.
The characters are sharply divided as either good guys or bad guys. The students and others who serve honesty and beauty are Captain California, Gorgeous Gal, Misty Magic Billy Batson, Shazam Mary Freeman, Mary Marvel Freddy Freeman, and Captain Marvel Jr. Some of the bad guys in this show are Dirty Trixie, Rex Ruthless and Punk Rock. Many of the interchanges and humor in the series involve these blatant stereotypes. Captain California and Gorgeous Gal portray the concept of the “perfect” clean cut American teenager. Rex Ruthless and Dirty Trixie are their polar opposites. In as much as these teens are students at a high school for heroes, they still follow the sale coordinated balance of teenagers that became popular through the Archie Comic and TV shows and still provide inspiration for plots and series today. This bias exists so strongly it is easy to see how this program is more intended to poke fun at its predecessors. However even at that, any repeated prejudices and biases reinforce an incorrect image.
The television commercials that air during children’s programming is frequent more generally braised and reflect a stricter social images than the program its self. In the commercials, the creators are less constrained to present a balance of male and female roles that are more in keeping with marketing a product than they are with providing a socially acceptable television programming that will air regularly. This program was created at a time when gender roles in children’s programming were being exposed and reconstructed. For the time this program started to bend, if not break gender roles. However the advances that were made by this form of program was often set back by the intensely biased advertizing programming that aired in interims during the program. This is especially true of when the series first aired in the 1980s.
Works Cited
Classic Media. "Hero High." 2012. Classic Media. 14 5 2012
ToonaRific. "The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam." 2012. ToonaRific. 14 5 2012
TV.Com. The Kid Super Power Hour. 2012. 14 5 2012
