A History of Cyborg on Television
DC Comics Very own Bionic Man Makes an Impression on the Tube
Dec 16, 2008
The character of Cyborg in the 1980's was in part a reflection of the increasing pervasiveness of technology in the day to day lives of North Americans at the end of the 1970's. The early 1980's spawned a number of "Man vs. Technology" films and television shows and comic books were no different.
It only took the Cyborg character a few years to become popular enough to show up on television.
Super Friends
With the previous year's smash hit, Terminator, fresh in the public's consciousness, it is hardly surprising that Cyborg was included in the final season of the Super Friends in 1985. Retitled The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, the inclusion of Cyborg was intended to infuse new blood into the show. Cyborg often teamed up with another relative newcomer, Firestorm. Sadly, the final season of the Super Friends only produced a meager eight episodes. Ernie Hudson, provided Cyborg's voice.
Teen Titans
For the five season run of Teen Titans and the direct to DVD feature, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Cyborg is one of the five core members. Along with Robin, Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire, Cyborg fights supervillains and interdimensional threats to the Earth. The Teen Titans show melded Japanese and Western animation styles, so the characters were not always portrayed realistically, something some fans disliked and criticized.
In the Teen Titans show, Cyborg is close friends with the trickster of the group, Beast Boy and provides most of the team's technological equipment, which he tends to be very protective of. Although he is never called "Victor Stone" during the show, in one episode he does take the alias, "Stone", in an undercover operation.
Justice League
In the early planning stages of the Justice League animated series, the producers considered adding three younger team members to the group. Impulse (a young speedster sidekick of the Flash), Robin and a female version of Cyborg (Cyborgirl) were included in promotional material that was used to pitch the show to the Kids WB network. The show was retooled before broadcast and the three youthful members were dropped.
Smallville
Victor Stone arrives in Smallville during the fifth season of the show. Although not outwardly changed by the surgery that turns him into Cyborg, a quick scan with Clark Kent's X-ray vision shows that beneath his skin, Victor looks very much like his comic book counterpart.
In the sixth season episode, Justice, Victor Stone returns, now using the code name Cyborg, as part of the fledgling Justice League that Green Arrow has cobbled together. Interestingly, here too Cyborg works side by side with Impulse, Bart Allen, since legal entanglements prevented Smallville from code naming the character "The Flash" as originally intended.
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