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| - Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C. is the third episode of the first season of the Super Friends series. It featured the first appearance of Plastic Man, the famous elastic superhero that originally came from Quality Comics. His appearance here is very brief, and he doesn't show up until close to the end of the episode. Nevertheless, the popularity of his character lead to a spin-off series six years later from Ruby-Spears called The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. In this series, Norman Alden provided the voice of the character, whereas in his own series, he was voiced by Michael Bell.
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| abstract
| - Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C. is the third episode of the first season of the Super Friends series. It featured the first appearance of Plastic Man, the famous elastic superhero that originally came from Quality Comics. His appearance here is very brief, and he doesn't show up until close to the end of the episode. Nevertheless, the popularity of his character lead to a spin-off series six years later from Ruby-Spears called The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. In this series, Norman Alden provided the voice of the character, whereas in his own series, he was voiced by Michael Bell. A number of characters from the real world are seen or referenced in this episode, such as Willie Mays, Joe Namath, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, just to name a few. We also see the school that Marvin White and Wendy Harris attend for the first time. We also are introduced to the neighbor of Marvin White, Slim Smith, who also owns a local gas station. This episode is the classic "machines are turning mankind lazy" story. It dealt with a supercomputer that was capable of doing all physical work, allowing humans to do nothing but rest and be entertained. It also shown the consequences, and the undesired traits that manifest in people who allowed themselves to become lazy due to being serviced by the computer. For example, "Slim" Smith had became overweight, due to a lack of physical activity, and Wendy hated riding in row boats that she couldn't row, because there was no fun in it. The computer was called G.E.E.C., which was invented by Professor Goodfellow, who is not a real villain, in fact, the real antagonist of the story could be laziness itself. In the end though, when the G.E.E.C. begins to malfunction, the real problems begin. Goodfellow, despite being a man of good intentions, ended up nearly causing some of the biggest disasters the world ever seen, multiple plane crashes and stuff like that. But thanks to the Super Friends, such disasters were thwarted and Goodfellow is able to learn his lesson, that mankind was meant to work and that no machine can truly replace a man. This is a classic theme in science fiction, and this theme was even used for the eighth feature film of Star Trek, which told a similar story except it shown a world where machines were used at a minimum, and one of the characters pointed out that if you build a machine to do the work of a man, "you take something away from the man." Another thing referenced in this episode was that Robin used to be a part of a circus act. Although not referred to by name, fans of the comics know that Robin was a member of the Flying Graysons, before he became Batman's sidekick. One other thing that was a bit interesting, was the inclusion of an original song, which was a country music song about a railroad gang, which told a humorous story about a railway worker that smashes his toe with a hammer!
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