Flash Animated

In 1979, Filmation produced an animated series, often referred to as The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, but is actually titled Flash Gordon. The expanded title was used to distinguish it from previous versions. The project was originally designed as a TV film but NBC decided to change it into an animated series.

NBC was unhappy with the serial nature of the first season, as it clashed with their re-run style (details can be found on a documentary included on the DVD), so the second season was much changed and also aimed at a younger audience. Each episode included two stand-alone stories, often featuring a young dragon named Gremlin, introduced for comic relief. Unfortunately, this decision led to a decline in ratings and the show was canceled thereafter.

Filmation produced this successful animated television movie, written by Star Trek writer Samuel A. Peeples, before they began their Saturday morning series, but the TV-movie did not actually air until 1982. It was critically well-received, and is considered one of the best film versions of Flash Gordon, though it would never be re-broadcast following its premiere.

This movie has yet to be commercially released in the United States, although off-air bootlegs abound. The only known commercial releases were by VAP Video in Japan, c. 1983, in both laser disc and NTSC VHS videotape formats and in Bulgaria, where it was released on VHS . The movie also aired numerous times on the "Diema" Channel in the late 90s. In the Japanese release it is presented uncut with the original English voice track, with Japanese subtitles added for its intended audience. At the end of the movie is a trailer for the De Laurentiis live-action movie, as well as trailers for other titles from the VAP Video library at the time. The covers for both versions feature comic-strip panels, using stills taken from the movie. Its last listing was in VAP Video's catalog for 1983.

In the 1986 cartoon Defenders of the Earth, Flash teamed up with fellow King Features heroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician in 65 episodes. This series took extreme liberties with all the characters, revealing that Flash and Dale Arden had conceived a son, Rick Gordon, who is in his mid-teens when the series begins. Dale has her mind torn from her body by Ming in the first episode and is preserved in a crystal, which Rick is able to recover and give to his father. Dale is reborn on Earth as Dynak X, the strategic battle computer of the Defender's base Monitor Earth.

While Flash vows that he will restore Dale to her human form, later episodes of the series see him openly flirting and embracing other women, in one case developing a relationship with the android Kala in the episode "Flesh and Blood". Kala is killed at the conclusion of the episode when she sacrifices her life to save the Defenders.