BareKnucklez
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Superman has always been a hero of television
This weekend, millions of Americans rushed to theaters to see Superman in his so-called return. Critics and audiences welcomed him with open arms, going on and on about how much he was missed and asking why it took so long for him to get back.
Get back? When did he leave?
Sure, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace hurtled the big-screen franchise into the sun in 1987, thanks to a cheesy plot and ho-hum script. But, on the small screen, the Man of Steel has been fighting for truth and justice ever since.
And, in most cases, he's been doing it better than some his big-screen counterparts.
Just a year after the Superman IV fiasco, Ilya Salkind, who had produced each of the Christopher Reeve films, tried to both profit from and distance himself from the series by launching Superboy, a syndicated, hour-long drama about a young, fully powered Clark Kent.
Actor John Haymes Newton played Clark in the show's first season, which was pretty terrible. But after Gerard Christopher replaced Newton for the final three seasons, the show improved slightly. In fact, the low-budget, mediocre Superboy, with its late-'80s-adventure-show charms, served as a fine stopgap for the fans still smarting from Superman IV who wanted to keep getting their hero fix until the really good TV shows began.
Starting in 1993.
Looking back, I guess I was predisposed to liking Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which debuted that year on ABC. It co-starred Teri Hatcher, after all, whom I'd first crushed on during her frequent guest spots on MacGyver. Still, I was charmed - like most of the country - by Hatcher's immediate chemistry with co-star Dean Cain as the two morphed the Superman mythos into a fiery romantic comedy.
Since the show concentrated on Clark more than his alter ego, Cain eschewed much of the clumsy and shy stereotype Reeve had perfected in his movies. Instead, Cain made Clark a smirky Boy Scout who grounded Hatcher's professionally confident but emotionally insecure Lois.
Yes, the show famously dove-tailed once the two got hitched in the fourth and final season (another classic case of fans not knowing what they really want), but by then, I had moved on to yet another Superman adventure.
In 1996, four years after his Batman: The Animated Series revolutionized the way superhero cartoons were perceived, animator Bruce Timm worked his magic on the Man of Steel. Airing on Saturday mornings, Superman: The Animated Series suffered early from comparisons to Batman's more noirish show. (Unfortunately, when the two get compared, dark and broody Batman almost always earns more cool points than high-and-mighty Supes.) But Timm's devotion to strong storytelling and interesting characters (Wings star Tim Daly voiced Superman, by the way) allowed the show to establish its own identity.
More importantly, though, a string of guest appearances by other heroes in the show's final season paved the way for Superman's greatest animated show to date - Justice League. Launched in 2001, the show featured the Man of Steel teamed up with Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and a slew of other DC comics heroes. Way more than a revamp of the campy Superfriends show from the late '70s, the new series (which added characters and the word Unlimited to its title in later seasons) also offered Superman his best stories.
It's easy to give Superman giant baddies to smash, but Justice League, which aired on Cartoon Network, also gave him personal demons to battle, especially when he bickered with the morally nebulous Batman. Clearly aimed at grown-up fanboys like myself, the show aired as late as 10:30 p.m. before finally signing off earlier this year.
Younger fans, though, still had other options. Cartoon Network launched Krypto the Superdog, a spunky animated series about a human boy who adopts Superman's Kryptonian mutt, in 2005. Aimed at grade-schoolers, the vibrant show featured such characters as Streaky the Supercat.
It was teenagers, though, who should be credited with keeping Superman relevant these past few years. Without them, the young-adult skewing WB network would never have found success with Smallville.
Launching in the fall of 2001, almost a month before Justice League premiered, the show quickly established a formula that would woo die-hard fans and Superman newcomers for five seasons (and counting). In the world of Smallville, which has Clark Kent growing up in modern times, there are superpowers, yes, but no tights. And while superhuman leaps aren't out of the question, flying certainly is. And just when the show seems to get too caught up in alien plans for world domination that can only be stopped by some superhuman feats, it cuts to the tragic, star-crossed love story of young Clark (Tom Welling) and Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk).
In the pilot episode, after noticing Clark is reading a book by Nietzsche, Lana asks him, "So, what are you, Clark? Man or Superman?" Thankfully, Smallville, which moves to the new CWnetwork this fall, doesn't make him choose.
The show's ability to explore both sides of our hero's character is what gives Smallville its power - and what makes it the best Superman saga since 1978. On any sized screen.
Contact Jeff at 343-2371 or [email protected].
Alrighty then.
