Before Super Friends and decades before the live-action television series, Filmation brought the Flash racing onto Saturday-morning television. Beginning in 1967, Flash and Kid Flash appeared in short adventures during The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, battling giant creatures, robots and even another super-speedster. Only three solo cartoons were produced, but the Flash also appeared alongside the Justice League.
The animation was simple, with repeated running scenes, bright streaks and dramatic narration, but somehow that made the Flash seem even faster. Years later, Sheldon Cooper regularly wore Flash shirts and dressed as the character on The Big Bang Theory, helping make that familiar lightning-bolt symbol cool again. Sheldon probably would have watched these cartoons frame by frame, then complained that Barry Allen’s speed was scientifically inconsistent.