So far, this year, I've seen Superman Returns twice and watched five seasons of Smallville and two seasons of Lois and Clark. I continue to watch Smallville every week, and yesterday, I watched a Superman documentary on A & E. I like Superman, but I'll admit that I'm beginning to little burnt out on the character.
About a month ago, though, I found Adventures of Superman, Season One at Wal-Mart for $15.00. That's a darn good price, and it seems that the first season, at least, is a must have. (I understand that the first season was written for a more general audience, whereas subsequent seasons were written more as "kiddie fare." The first season dvd also includes the short theatrical feature Superman and the Mole Men as an added bonus.) What the heck, then. I've had the dvd sitting around the house for awhile, but I finally decided to pop it in today.
So far, I've only watched the first episode, which is also the origin episode. It was pretty enjoyable, over all. Of course, I think that we have to remember that this was a low budget tv show and that special effects technology wasn't as advanced then. I don't think, then, that you can really fairly compare it to Smallville or Lois and Clark. Frankly, it's not as good as those shows, and given the context, it couldn't be. That doesn't mean that it isn't fun for what it is, however.
I suppose that that's a polite way of saying that cheesiness abounds. Maybe it doesn't quite "abound," but it's definitely there. The opening episode's Krypton sequence provides some good examples. My favorite part is when Lara says to Jor-El, "It's getting hotter, Jor-El!!! Is that because the planet is moving closer to the sun????!!!!" (Ya think? )
Likewise, when Superman "flies," it's easy (from a modern perspective, anyway) to see that Reeves is really just hanging from a wire. A moving landscape is projected onto a green screen behind him, while "whooshing" sound effects complete the illusion. Of course, we've gotten spoiled in this day and age. Compare the effects of Smallville with the effects of Lois and Clark, and you can see how much technology has improved in just ten short years! Perhaps it's worth noting that the flying sequences in the Kirk Alyn serials were actually animated. Compared to that, the George Reeves flight scenes look pretty good.
Reeves himself is very likeable in the main role. He has a confident manner and easygoing charm. His Clark Kent is a stronger, less timid character than portrayed elsewhere, but it's easy to understand why. With a limited special effects budget, it follows that Clark Kent would have more screen time than Superman. Thus, Clark would have to be a stronger personality. Personally, I loved Christopher Reeve's bumbling Clark, but I'm not sure that I'd want to see that in weekly doses! (Clark was also the stronger personality in Lois and Clark and, I supsect that it was for much the same reason.).
The rest of the cast is pretty good. I confess that I haven't warmed up to Phyllis Coates as Lois, though. So far, she seems a bit icy to me. I've only seen one episode, of course, so my opinion could change.
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
I remember this being on TV when I was a kid. Haven't seen it since I was around 14 or so, but I thought it was great. Don't worry, Phyllis will grow on you. She's a great Lois.
_________________ "They'll bite your finger off given a chance" - Junkie Luv (regarding Zebras)
I liked that first season better than any other of the George Reeves show. It's really more like a noir newspaper tv series than it is Superman though, except for about 3 minutes per episode when they bring out the stuntman (it's painfully obvious on a big screen tv when he is used). It's very well shot, and the stories are interesting, if wrapped up a little abruptly. Phyllis Coates is my second favorite Lois behind Teri Hatcher.
i always loved Reeves's Clark...it was more of a Superman in disguise Clark...he always seemed to have an affable smirk on his face as if he could break down laughing at the fact that no one seemed to recognize Superman in a hat and glasses...
Don't worry, Phyllis will grow on you. She's a great Lois.
You're right. She is growing on me.
She's still no Terri Hatcher, though.
Jeff wrote:
I liked that first season better than any other of the George Reeves show. It's really more like a noir newspaper tv series than it is Superman though, except for about 3 minutes per episode when they bring out the stuntman (it's painfully obvious on a big screen tv when he is used). It's very well shot, and the stories are interesting, if wrapped up a little abruptly. Phyllis Coates is my second favorite Lois behind Teri Hatcher.
That's an excellent summation.
I've watched eight episodes so far, and this series has been a pleasant surprise. It's much better than I expected. Even when Superman isn't on screen, the plots keep me interested. Yeah, it's a dated, low budget show, but it's fun nonetheless. (Note that I never saw the show as a kid, so I'm not speaking with nostalgia here.)
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
I saw the color episodes in reruns years ago as a kid, but never the black and white earliest ones. I like these much better than the ones with Noel Niell or whatever her name is that followed. It's not just because of the Lois, the series took a huge shift in direction after the first season. Probably to draw more kid viewers, nothing wrong with that.
I saw the color episodes in reruns years ago as a kid, but never the black and white earliest ones. I like these much better than the ones with Noel Niell or whatever her name is that followed. It's not just because of the Lois, the series took a huge shift in direction after the first season. Probably to draw more kid viewers, nothing wrong with that.
As the series progressed, the style and content differed significantly :
Episodes 1-26: Black and white. Considered by many fans as the best (certainly the most serious) of the series, these noir-ish films feature Phyllis Coates as a very strong-willed Lois Lane, given equal billing with star George Reeves (at his suggestion). Superman himself is a semi-mysterious presence, unknown to many of the crooks ("Who's the guy in the circus costume?" asks a villain in "The Chinese Jade.") The shows are typically presented as action-packed, gritty and often violent storylines in which Superman fought gangsters and crime lords. There were a number of deaths both on- and off-screen.
Episodes 27-52: Black and white. Noel Neil replaced Phyllis Coates as a more subtle Lois Lane, and given secondary billing with Larson, Hamilton and Shayne. The shows were generally serious in nature, with the violence tempered significantly, although there was still the occasional death of a villain, usually off-screen. Sentimental and/or humorous stories were more in evidence than in 1-26.
Episodes 53-91: Color. The series began to take on the light-hearted, whimsical tone of the Superman comic books of the 1950s. Violence on the show was toned down further. The only gunfire that occurred was aimed at Superman, and of course the bullets bounced off. Superman was less likely to engage in fisticuffs with the villains. On occasions when Superman did use physical force, he would take crooks out in a single karate-style chop or, if he happened to have two criminals in hand, banging their heads together. More often than not, the villains were likely to knock themselves out fleeing Superman.
Episodes 92-104: Color. Scripts for the last season did not hit the campy lows of the previous two years and reestablished a bit of the seriousness of the show, often with science fiction elements like a Kryptonite-powered robot (a left-over prop from "The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters"), atomic explosions, and impregnable metal cubes. In one serial-esque episode, "The Perils of Superman" (a takeoff on The Perils of Pauline), there was indeed deadly peril, in the forms of Lois nearly sawed in half while tied to a log, Jimmy in a runaway car, and Clark Kent immersed in a vat of acid. This was one of three episodes directed by George Reeves himself. Noel Neill's hair was dyed a bright red for this season, though the color change was not apparent in the initial black and white broadcasts.
Those four phases are represented in the four dvd releases. Seasons 1 and 2 each had 26 episodes, so each is a single dvd set. Seasons 3-6, on the other hand, had 13 episodes each. Thus, Seasons 3 and 4 - or episodes #53-91 - constitute the third dvd set, while Seasons 5-6 - or episodes # 92-104 - constitute the fourth and final dvd set.
An essay on supermantv.net explains how the tone changed after Season One (a.k.a., Episode #'s 1-26). I quoted this essay below, and you can read the whole thing here: http://www.supermantv.net/superman/suphistory.htm
Quote:
With the initial success of the first twenty six episodes already a proven fact, production of another twenty six was ordered by National Comics. The series went back into production in the summer of 1953 after nearly a two year hiatus since the first episodes had been finished. But now the series was under new leadership. Robert Maxwell and his team were replaced by Whitney Ellsworth as producer and comic book editor Mort Weisinger as story editor.
They were both from National Comics. National had felt that although Maxwell generated a solid show, it was a little too serious and hard-hitting for their taste. Whitney Ellsworth was brought in to tone it down by underplaying the violence and injecting more humor and wholesome entertainment. Ellsworth made more frequent use of Jimmy Olsen and Inspector Bill Henderson in his episodes of the show.
Phyllis Coates was not available to reprise her role as Lois Lane, so the production was in need of a new actress. Ellsworth turned to the perfect replacement, someone with just the right experience: Noel Neill was brought in to reprise the same role that she had portrayed for Sam Katzman in the 1948 and 1950 Superman serials at Columbia Studios.
In 1953, Whitney Ellsworth produced another 26 episodes. Color was introduced in 1954 and would be used for the remaining 56 episodes, produced from 1954 to 1957.
The standing sets got a fresh coat of paint and the wardrobes were reconsidered for their appearance on color film.
The first thing to be replaced was George Reeves' chocolate and gray Superman suit - now Superman would be outfitted in his traditional red and blue action uniform. The new color suits, however, were designed to still provide enough contrast between the red and blue to suggest the different colors in the black and white prints that were initially made. 1954 was still ten years away from color television broadcast capabilities being commonplace and viewers would not actually see Adventures of Superman in color until years later.
By the time the series ceased production in 1957, George Reeves had become the definitive Man of Steel for generations of television viewers.
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
Wow. Reeves' Superman is really a hard @$$ - during Season One, anyway.
Just watched "The Stolen Costume," which is Episode #13 of Season 1. A crook burglarizes Clark Kent's apartment and finds his Superman costume. The crook dies, but not before telling a mobster and his girlfriend where he got the costume. The mobster and girlfriend notice that they can't burn or rip the costume, so they know it's really Superman's (The show uses the explanation that Superman's costume is made from Kal-El's baby blanket.). They try to blackmail Superman. Superman, of course, won't kill, so instead, he flies North and drops them on a remote mountain. There's a cabin there, and he tells them that he'll bring them food but won't let them go. They try to walk down the mountain, fall off a cliff and die. Superman didn't directly cause their deaths, but he sure as Hell indirectly caused them! At the end, another character asks Clark Kent what might have happened to the burglars, and Clark joking says something like, "Maybe they fell off a cliff." Wow.
In the first season, they really weren't writing for kids. No question about it.
I usually don't listen to commentary tracks, but I've been doing it this time. Personally, I think that commentaries are more interesting with old shows like this. More time has passed, so there's more to talk about.
The commentary for "The Stolen Costume" points out sets that were used for other movies and tv shows. It seems that the exterior set of Clark Kent's apartment was also the drug store on The Andy Griffith Show! Some pretty cool trivia there.
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
Finished Season 1 last night. Overall, I enjoyed it a great deal.
I'm not sure how "faithful to the spirit of the comics" it is. I say that because most of the stories were noirish-type B movie plots. Krypton is mentioned in the origin episode and then never again. Of the twenty-six episodes, only four or so have any science fiction elements in them at all. I had to laugh at a couple "Scooby Doo" type stories where the skeptical Perry White keeps insisting that there's no such thing as ghosts, voo-doo, fill-in-the-blank. He doesn't believe these things, but he has no trouble accepting an alien who looks human and flies through the sky! I'm hardly an expert on Superman, but I also wonder about the origins of George Reeves' Clark Kent. Reeves' Kent is like no other, as far as I know. Personalitywise, he's really no different from Superman, and it's even more astounding than usual that no one can figure that out. Again - I enjoyed these episodes a great deal, but I think you can dispute the argument that they're more "faithful" than say, the Bryan Singer movie - or even Lois and Clark.
I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of dvd extras. I watched all the extras this time, though, and enjoyed them a lot. That's mostly due to the age of the show. It has a lot more history than say, Smallville, so there's more on which to comment, and there's all sorts of curiosities to dig out of the vaults. Examples of the latter include Frosted Flakes commercials and an old movie short in which George Reeves plays Buffalo Bill. (The latter includes a lot of historical inaccuracies and unintentional humor, as well as George Reeves as a sort of watered down, apple pie version of Buffalo Bill. )
I haven't really decided whether to pick up another season yet. If I do, then it'll be at a later date. I picked up Superman Returns yesterday, and I think I'll watch that with Superman and Superman II (I want to see how those movies work as a trilogy.). After that, I think I'm ready to give Superman a rest for a while.
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
Great posts, Bob. I've always been a bit curious about this show, only having seen small bits of it as a kid but never really sitting down and watching it. I've seen (and love) the old Fleischer cartoons, but the original Reeves is largely alien to me.
"The Stolen Costume" sound like a real hoot! "Maybe they fell off a cliff." Hah!
It's hard not to enjoy that first season of the Reeves show. Bob, are you going to watch the new Donner cut of Superman 2 as part of your trilogy, or the old version?
It's hard not to enjoy that first season of the Reeves show. Bob, are you going to watch the new Donner cut of Superman 2 as part of your trilogy, or the old version?
Possibly both. It depends on whether I can rent the Donner cut from a local video store.
I'm interested in seeing the Donner cut, but I don't feel that I need it in my collection. If I see it and find out that it's downright incredible, then maybe I'll buy it. With all its flaws, though, the Lester version is still the one that was released, so in my mind, it's the "official" one.
_________________ "The devil's pourin' drinks, and his daughter needs a ride." - Hank Williams III
Starting Sept. 6th: MeTV will feature an hour of The Adventures of Superman, followed by an hour of Batman, followed by an hour of Wonder Woman. Every Saturday night!
Made it thru the DVDs of the 3rd. & 4th. seasons,when the show switched to color.It's not an improvement:It just accents the chintziness of the production.The quality of the scripts also drops dramatically from the previous seasons.The IQ of the characters takes a dive;with such dimwits populating Metropolis,you understand how Superman can disguise himself with just a pair of glasses.What saves the show are the regular cast--they keep the show going.There's also appearances by such up and comers as Chuck Connors,Claude Akins,and Leon Akins,who was a regular on Hogan's Heroes.But the show got so ridiculous,you have to wonder how kids of the '50s could've went along with it... But maybe they were supposed to be in on the joke.All those times Clark Kent winks at the camera,perhaps that was a signal to the kids that what they just saw was meant to be ridiculous.In its own straightlaced way,this show may be a precursor to the camp style of superheroes that Adam West's show gets credit for introducing.
_________________ What will be will be even if it never happens.
I preferred Phyllis Coates as Lois as I never found Noel attractive enough. Teri Hatcher was physically perfect as Lois, you could see why every guy in town wanted her, including Lex.
_________________ DISCLAIMER: Everything I say from here on in is my opinion, semantics be damned. Allen Berrebbi Owner KRB Media
It seems this show had just 2 cameras,and one of them was on the fritz.The producers were too cheap to fix or replace the bad camera.Even on the "remastered" DVD sets,the picture quality suddenly jumps from sharp and clear to faded and fuzzy.Does anyone knows the story on this?
It's hokey as heck,but I like the George Reeves Superman,droopy cape and all.I like antiques.
_________________ What will be will be even if it never happens.
I preferred Phyllis Coates as Lois as I never found Noel attractive enough. Teri Hatcher was physically perfect as Lois, you could see why every guy in town wanted her, including Lex.
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