10 Classic TV Superheroes Everyone Forgot About

Published Sep 26, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Mustafa Gatollari has been an internet culture and entertainment writer since 2015, but got his start reporting in local print in Bergen County, NJ at 18 years old. His work has appeared on the Daily Dot, Distractify, Motor1, BroBible, The Independent, The Mary Sue, Subplot, The Big Lead and his personal blog, Ultra News. Mustafa's passion for film and TV dates back to his first visit to the movies at 5 years old, when his mother took him to watch 'The Addams Family.' Mustafa's also been in front of and behind the camera. He co-created and successfully distributed 'Haunted Discoveries' alongside Brandon Alvis, whom he initially met on A&E's 'Ghost Hunters' where the two were selected as lead investigators for the reboot of the popular unscripted series. He and Brandon are currently releasing a slate of new documentaries, beginning with 'Ghosts of the Gold Rush,' which combines decades of their film production and paranormal experience to convey an oft-overlooked period in America's history. And the hauntings purportedly connected to this time that have persisted nearly two centuries later. You can email him at mustafa.gatollari@gmail.com or find him online on X or Instagram. There have been a lot of superhero TV shows; so many, in fact, that plenty of them have been lost to time. While there's no shortage of cartoons and live-action shows that have been based on popular, known heroes from iconic comic book franchises, many of these heroes were created solely to live on the small screen. A few of them managed to persist as beloved and well-known characters, like Darkwing Duck, for instance. However, others didn't manage to resonate with audiences as much. This lack of popularity could be chalked up to several factors: a lack of ratings, high production costs, or in some instances, not having enough source material to draw from to keep producing the show with the same workflow. The following are some made-for-TV heroes that have been largely forgotten since they debuted. Some of them produced moments that rank alongside the very best superhero show episodes, despite their legacies not standing the test of time. Max Steel Everyone's going Turbo This hero from the series of the same name holds the distinction of being the Kids' WB's first ever fully CGI show to air on the network. The series presents the type of superhero fantasy plenty of kids have probably caught themselves day-dreaming about while in social studies class: getting superpowers. Max Steel's titular hero, real name Josh McGrath, is a 19-year-old who gets imbued with nanomachines that give him "Turbo Power", which is the show's branded phrase for superhuman powers. Whenever these powers are invoked, he shouts "Going Turbo!" Despite garnering strong ratings throughout its three-season run, trouble with its production company behind the scenes kept Max Steel from broadcast until its revival on Disney XD in 2013. There were a few Max Steel made-for-TV movies that aired, and even a 2016 box-office bomb that has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any superhero movie, leaving this character largely lost to time. Big Bad Beetleborgs Featuring a ghost who looks like a famous late-night talk show host If a series is successful, viewers can bet their bottom dollar that networks will rush to air properties similar to it that cash in on the trend. That's exactly what happened when Power Rangers dominated the children's TV airwaves space in the 1990s. Not long after Big Bad Beetleborgs started airing on Fox Kids, and just like Power Rangers, it featured footage from a Japanese Saban series that was dubbed over for US audiences and intercut scenes with American actors outside of costume. It was a brilliant production formula that worked for the network. What isn't widely known about Big Bad Beetleborgs is that Saban actually blended scenes from two separate domestic series to create this stateside release: Heavy Shell B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto. Toys based on the IP sold well and audiences enjoyed watching the bug-themed fighters go up against bad guys week after week. It was ultimately taken off the air because Saban ran out of footage from the Japanese series to curate new episodes. Viewers hoping to see more of Flabber, the Jay Leno lookalike ghost, interact with its heroes, had to stick with reruns. Understandably, the series isn't as fondly remembered as Power Rangers, which was the OG TV show of its kind in the US that really resonated with audiences. M.A.N.T.I.S. Executive Produced by Sam Raimi FOX via Classic TV Zone YouTube opening credit video screengrab M.A.N.T.I.S. only ran for a single, 22-episode season on FOX in 1994 and featured a cool premise: Dr. Miles Hawkins is a ridiculously accomplished scientist and publisher who is tragically paralyzed after being shot in the spine. Following this, he puts his big brain and vast resources to work, crafting an exoskeleton suit that not only allows him to walk, but grants him superhuman abilities to boot. Big names backed the show: EPs Sam Raimi and Sam Hamm took it on, but network executives at FOX purportedly pushed for a more grounded vision of the series at first. Then, towards the second half of the first season, M.A.N.T.I.S. began incorporating more sci-fi elements into the series, chief among them multiversal worlds and time traveling. These pivots didn't appear to help the show's ratings and M.A.N.T.I.S. never made it to a second season. Mutant X Fox sued Marvel over it The Movie Stills Database In 2001, Marvel Studios released a mutant-themed TV show that's now been forgotten called Mutant X, which had nothing to do with X-Men. While this may sound like a head-scratching statement, it's true, and the series ran for a whopping 66 episodes over 3 seasons. Understandably, viewers thought that this show may have had some type of connection to Marvel's popular X-Men franchise, but Fox wasn't happy about the series. That's because Fox had the film and TV rights to show off X-Men characters on big and small screens, and network executives weren't happy that Marvel was seemingly getting away with a title they said invoked the widely beloved IP. After Tribune Entertainment, the production company that made Mutant X was slapped with the lawsuit, production on the series halted. Leaving the team of Mutant X's heroes lost to time. Manimal Too campy One could argue that the upcoming Animorphs TV show on Disney+ will revive the spirit of Manimal, as the transformations featured in this Katherine Applegate franchise bear a striking resemblance to the shape-shifting that occurs in the show's episodes. One of the biggest draws of Manimal was the excellent special effects work that looked like something out of the "Thriller" music video or American Werewolf in London. The 1983 series didn't get a lot of time on TV to endear itself to fans: its universe spans a made-for-TV movie along with a single eight-episode season before the plug was pulled on it. The effort, time, and cost it took to craft these creature transformations made the series difficult to produce when stacked against procedural dramas that didn't require as much work. Furthermore, Manimal's tone belied the campy nature of these creature transformations. Ultimately, this created a jarring experience for viewers, so it's unsurprising why it didn't persist, and few people know about the show to this day. Mr. Terrific No, not that Mister Terrific CBS via 13 Week Theater Patreon screengrab Mister Terrific was a wonderful addition to James Gunn's Superman flick, providing plenty of deadpan comedy moments for viewers. The 1967 Mr. Terrific CBS series bears no relation to the hero that teams up with Guy Gardner, however. Airing the same month as Captain Nice, there wasn't enough superhero love to go around for Mr. Terrific, so it's no wonder that it was left by the wayside. As a comedy, the show has a decent set-up: Stanley Beamish is a gas station worker who is recruited by the government to engage in high-profile missions. Naturally, Beamish isn't exactly hero material, but power pills given to him by the Feds give him superpowers for a single hour, just enough time to take on some bad guys or avert a crisis with some words from the network's sponsors to be interspersed between his mission. It lasted only 17 episodes and wasn't brought back, unless you count the character Mister Terrific himself in the DCU. The Phoenix Too mystical ABC, via YouTube image Screengrab Bennu is an ancient warrior from outer space who re-awakens in 1981 America after he was placed inside a time capsule thousands of years ago. As the name of the series implies, he is The Phoenix brought back to life. Possessing a slew of powers that include regenerative healing, telekinesis, flight, and the ability to empathize with others, he has a two-fold mission. One: help others, and two: try and discover what happened to the alien race he originates from. The show never seemed to catch on with viewers; The Phoenix began as a TV movie that had some subsequent episodes picked up, but it never made it past five entries. According to the show's intro, astronauts from a distant planet far away left Bennu on Earth to assist humanity, but audiences never got to see what became of that mission after the series was ultimately canceled. Its high-mindedness paired with very slow pacing might've turned viewers off. Automan Too expensive Take one look at an episode of the 1983 series Automan, and it isn't difficult to see that its show runners drew heavy inspiration from Disney's Tron. In the '80s, many filmmakers viewed computer technology as some sort of magical, do-anything MacGuffin, and Automan takes this ideology to serve its plot in convenient ways. In the show, Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnax Jr.), is an LAPD systems analyst and computer programmer who could somehow materialize his software-based creations in the real world. Chief among them, Automan (Chuck Wagner) who uses his tech-powers to fight crime as a living, breathing, application. The production costs of the series and labor-intensive VFX work at the time meant that Automan needed to pull in big ratings in order for ABC to justify its time slot. However, this somewhat cheesy sci-fi show didn't draw in enough folks to keep it running past 13 episodes and the network decided to delete it program from its lineup. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl Began and ended as a segment Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman series was a cultural phenomenon, as was Adam West's campy Batman series, so it's no surprise that other TV shows wanted to cash in on superhero fun for its viewers. The Krofft Supershow in 1976 opted to dedicate some of its air time to a 15-minute serial segment as part of its programming called Electra Woman. The show's cancellation is a special case, as Electra Woman wasn't green lit as a standalone show. It was specifically created to fill in time slots for The Krofft Supershow and was only repackaged later on. Krofft producers ultimately decided not to bring Electra Woman back after Krofft returned for a second season in lieu of reserving time for musical acts and other programming. So fans of the hero and her sidekick, Dyna Girl, only have the 16, 15-minute episodes to look back on fondly. The Bionic Woman 3 seasons isn't too bad The Movie Stills Database The Six Million Dollar Man starring cyborg Steve Austin, aka the Bionic Man, enjoyed a stellar run on ABC. Networks love spin-offs, so it isn't surprising that ABC decided to invest in The Bionic Woman. It follows a similar premise as its parent program, featuring Steve's childhood sweetheart, Jaime Sommers, who moonlights as a secret agent for OSI when she's not a full-time teacher. Although The Bionic Woman's best episodes hold their own alongside its male counterpart, it was canceled after three seasons, and its tenure on air wasn't exactly smooth sailing. ABC handed this superhero TV show over to NBC, and the novelty of seeing two different cyborgs run in slow-motion with the trademark space sound effect wore off on audiences after a while. Unsurprisingly, the collective social consciousness of TV watchers remember The Six Million Dollar Man more than Sommers' foray into robo-powered OSI action.