In this case, you’re actually LOSING picture with the widescreen matting. It’s only Season Two onwards that they composed the series for widescreen without a fullscreen pre-composition. For Season Two onwards, the fullscreen TV airings were blow-ups of the widescreen which really did lose information on the sides of the picture. Not so for Season One!

Sure, a matting option would be nice, but techically WB isn’t wrong here. Several animation sites covered the fullscreen/widescreen issue when JL was a brand-new show.

Even the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker direct-to-video was composed fullscreen and matted wide for the Uncut release. The Uncut release strips away information from the top and bottom of the frame. It’s also quite a bit grainier and scratcher than the first Return of the Joker DVD release. Compare both versions of that film on DVD and you’ll see what I mean.