Adventures of Superman (TV series)
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Adventures of Superman was the first television series featuring the comic book superhero Superman. The series, which was syndicated rather than being tied to a network, began filming in 1951, and was first aired on September 19, 1952. The final first-run episode was broadcast on April 28, 1958. George Reeves starred as Clark Kent/Superman with Phyllis Coates as the original Lois Lane. In 1953 Noel Neill, who had previously played Lois in two serials, replaced Coates from the second season onward. Jack Larson played Jimmy Olsen and John Hamilton was Perry White. Robert Shayne played the semi-regular character Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis Police Department.
The opening narration of the show, expanded from that of the 1940s radio show and the Superman cartoons, was dramatically voiced by Bill Kennedy and framed by the show's dynamic theme music which set the stage for each program:
- "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! ("Look! Up in the sky!" "It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" "It's Superman!")... Yes, it's Superman ... strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman ... who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!"
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[edit] Title
The show's title card, which imitated the three-dimensional lettering of the comic book covers, was Adventures of Superman.
Occasional confusion arises about the article "the", since it was spoken by narrators in voice-overs. Some references title the show "The Adventures of Superman"; other books simply label the show "Superman".
Several of the following lines were added for the second season and were voiced by announcer Charlie Lyons:
- "Kellogg's, the greatest name in cereals, presents the Adventures of Superman."
- "And now, another exciting episode, in the Adventures of Superman."
- "We'll return to the Adventures of Superman in just a moment."
- "Don't miss the next thrill-packed episode in the amazing Adventures of Superman."
[edit] Series production
The show was originally syndicated. A total of 104 half-hour episodes were filmed, with the first two seasons (26 episodes each) in black and white. Reeves' Superman costume was brown (for red), grey (for blue), and white (for yellow), so that it would "read" in appropriate gray tones on black and white film. As a hedge against the eventual introduction of color TV broadcasting, the show switched to filming in color for the 1955 season onward, though it was initially broadcast monochromatically. This rendered the gray tones of Reeves' new blue and red costume nearly indistinguishable.
The budget for the series was relatively low; the series' actors were paid $200 per episode. TV historians and Jack Larson state that the cast had to make repeated requests to the show's producers before they were given a $50 raise, or else they would quit production. By the end of the run, star Reeves was making at least $2500 per episode, but the rest of the cast still made considerably less. The stars were signed to a "run of the show contract," meaning the producers could demand their services to shoot a new season within thirty days' notice. However, this clause also prohibted them from doing any long-term commitments like movies or plays.
The series was filmed like movie serials in that the principals wore the same costumes throughout the show to expedite out-of-sequence shooting schedules and save budgetary costs. For instance, all scenes that took place in the "Perry White Office" set would be filmed back to back, for future placement in various episodes, which was often confusing to the actors.
[edit] Series history
Robert Lippert released a feature called Superman and the Mole Men in 1951, effectively being a pilot episode for the series. The film was a hit with audiences, prompting the first season to go into production, but the series itself remained unseen until 1952-53, when Kellogg's agreed to sponsor the show, as they had previously done with the Superman radio series. [Grossman, page 59-64; Henderson, no page cited). The "Mole Men" feature was divided to create "The Unknown People", the only two-part story of the series. Seldom seen after its initial release, the film reappeared in 2005 on a DVD issue of the first season, and again on the 2006 DVD release of Superman: The Movie.
The first season's episodes were filmed in 1951, but major confusion has always reigned regarding the copyright dates. When the series was syndicated in the early 1960s, film editors frequently spliced the 1951 title and intro onto second season episodes. Likewise, all the episodes from the third and fourth season frequently had opening Adventures of Superman title cards that had 1957 copyrights on them. The DVD release compounds this confusion by exclusively using the first-season titles on all of the first and second season episodes, and retaining one 1957 title card on all 52 color episodes (the actual copyright date appears at the start of each of the closing credits).
As a syndicated show sold separately in every market, Adventures of Superman did not have a proper "premiere" date. It was first seen in Los Angeles on KECA (now KABC-TV Channel 7) on February 9, 1953; it first showed in New York on April 1, on WABC. (Grossman, p 65). IMDB, notorious for miscalculations in dates, states that its official debut was September 19, 1952, but this date is unsourced.
As the series progressed, the style and content differed significantly:
- Episodes 1-26: Black and white. Considered by many fans as the best (and 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 seen as 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.") Jimmy is shown as a Daily Planet intern always investigating the truth to something wrong, usually receiving help from Superman in the nick of time. 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. A large portion of the stories, however, dealt with Superman's personal issues, such as his memory loss in "Panic in the Sky" (see below).
- 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. Now very popular to viewers, Jimmy was now being played as the show's comic foil to Superman. A lot of the plots had him and Lois being captured, only to get rescued at the last minute by 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 tied to a set of railroad tracks with a speeding train bearing down on her, Perry White 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, in an attempt to inject some new life into the series. 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. Although Reeves' efforts did not save the series from cancellation, "Perils of Superman" is regarded as one of the best episodes.
[edit] Villains and Character Actors
Neither Lex Luthor, Brainiac nor any of the regular comic book villains were used in the TV scripts, although a midget Martian, "Mr. Zero" (Billy Curtis) bore a vague similarity to the comics' magical imp and recurring Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk. Carrying over the precedents established in previous electronic media productions of Superman, the bad guys on the TV show were usually generic thugs, evil scientists, Russian agents, crooked businessmen, or spies of fictitious foreign countries. Since the producers never expected the audience to view one episode more than once a week, character actors like Tris Coffin would often be hired as government agents one week, sleazy gangsters the next week. Herb Vigran and Ben Welden made multiple appearances over the course of the show, always as different characters. One of the most recognizable repeat performers was Sterling Holloway, the honey-throated actor best known as the voice of "Winnie the Pooh". Other players who landed a Superman episode early in their careers included Chuck Connors (later star of The Rifleman), John Beradino (long-time star of General Hospital), Billy Gray (Father Knows Best), Claude Akins (BJ and the Bear), Vic Perrin (the "Control Voice" of The Outer Limits) and Dabbs Greer (the preacher in Little House on the Prairie). Director Tommy Carr's brother Steve appeared as an unbilled extra in nearly every one of the first 26 shows (he was also the show's assistant director, and was the man pointing "up in the sky" in the black-and-white intro). In "Czar of the Underworld", he played a movie director, and was even called "Mr. Carr" by the other characters.
The final episode of the series, All That Glitters, concludes with a line that turned out to be much more darkly ironic than its writers could have anticipated. The episode features a dream sequence in which Jimmy and Lois acquire super powers. Back to reality, at the end of the show, Jimmy says to Clark, "Golly, Mr. Kent, you'll never know how wonderful it is to be like Superman!" Clark responds, "No, Jimmy, I guess I never will." One year after the episode was broadcast, the most-beloved icon of the show would leave many in shock and without a hero.
[edit] Visual Effects
While considered simple by today's standards, the "flying" effects on The Adventures of Superman were advanced for that day and age. In the two Superman serials of the 40s with Kirk Alyn, the flying scenes consisted of the actor Kirk Alyn jumping up and turned into a cartoon character as he flew away. This was done by the still-new techniques of rotoscoping. Many were upset that they never actually saw the actor fly, but this would be improved later for the series.
Several approaches were used to emulate the "takeoff" portion of Superman's flying. For Superman and the Mole Men, Reeves was suspended by cables while they were rigged to make it look like he was flying. This was not particularly effective, but it was regarded as a major improvement over animation. Sometimes powerful fans were used off-camera to add apparent realism to the takeoffs. Reeves often performed the stunts himself in lieu of stuntman, although stuntmen can be discerned on some of the early takeoff shots. After Reeves nearly suffered a concussion during one take of the episode "Ghost Wolf", when the wires broke, the wires were abandoned in favor of the springboard: Reeves would run into frame, hit the out-of-frame springboard (or "diving board" as Jack Larson called it) which would boost him out of frame (sometimes over the camera), and onto padding. The springboard had enough force, along with subtle camera manipulation, to make it look as though he was actually taking off. This technique was much more effective, as well as being safer, and was used through the remainder of the series.
The flying scenes were accomplished through a relatively small amount of stock footage that was used repeatedly, although the set of that footage was redone for each of the three distinctive periods of the series. The typical technique, referred to by Gary Grossman as the "swish-pan" shot, had footage of Reeves stretched out on a board, with various techniques used to make his cape appear to ripple in the breeze. That footage was matted onto various backgrounds depending on the needs of the episode: clouds, buildings, etc. that he would appear to fly by.
Techniques for the landings involved Reeves jumping off a ladder or holding a horizontal bar and swinging down into frame, landing on the floor. Because he was already an athlete, Reeves was able to perform the stunts without much "stutter-stepping" and immediately deliver his dialogue without sounding "out of breath", avoiding the need to cut to another angle or scene.
The production and special effects team mostly consisted of B-movie workers and serial cameramen, who simply treated each episode as a 25-minute B-movie. Although Reeves did many of his own stunts, there are moments in some of the early black-and-whites, in which fisticuffs were much more common than in later episodes, where a stunt man can be seen in the wider-angle shots ("No Holds Barred", for example). In the 1950s, long before large-screen TV's and recorders, that likely would have escaped the viewers' notice.
[edit] Music
The music score to the series, like other television series of the '50s and '60s, was taken from stock music libraries, often adaptations of music from B-movies. Apparently the only original music written for the series was the famous TV series march heard primarily at the main and end credits, and typically whenever Superman appeared. The theme music is conventionally listed as being composed by studio music arranger Leon Klatzin, although some experts think that this music may also have been adapted from an earlier unrelated (and now lost) musical theme.
With the exception of the title theme, the catalog of musical cues was different for each of the three groupings described aboved, and each set was used to good effect. The first group's tracks ranged from the deadly serious to the downright scary, depending on the plot line. The second group was mostly serious, and the viewer could almost predict when a particular cue was likely to turn up. The third group occasionally included some of the cues from the second group, but many more lighthearted cues were used.
The main theme centered on a triad, matching the three syllables in the character's name, as has been the case with nearly all Superman music. In the case of this program, the show would begin with a planet in the foreground, and various celestial objects in the background. The camera would track forward to a string-based "drumroll", a meteor would streak from left to right and explode just as the triad was played twice consecutively, and the title card would appear, followed by the famous narration, the gun, the train, the tall building, Superman flying, and Superman standing facing the camera, complete with waving American flag.
The closing credits for the first group began with the music and just a series of title cards. The second and third groups including the exploding meteor, the main title card, and then the closing credits. All three versions included an extended version of the triad-based theme. John Williams later score for Superman: The Movie used a similar but not identical musical triad.
[edit] Locations
The establishing shot of the "Daily Planet" in the first season was a single piece of footage of the Carnation Building (at left) at 5045 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, a famous example of Streamline Moderne architecture. For episodes 27-104, Los Angeles City Hall stood in for the Planet building. The actual sidewalk and doorway to the office was initially on the lot in Culver City; in later seasons it was a studio-bound "exterior."
The first 26 episodes featured many exterior shots, often at the RKO Pictures backlot called "Forty Acres", the same buildings later used on The Andy Griffith Show. A coincidental connection between those two shows is that occasional Superman guest player Dick Elliot also played the mayor of Mayberry in some of its early episodes. During the first and second seasons, hillsides nearby in Culver City or residential neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley were occasionally used for exteriors. In later seasons, the episodes tended to be filmed mostly on soundstages, though the final season did have episodes with scenes shot on Los Angeles city streets (e.g., "The Big Freeze").
[edit] Lucy Meets Superman
George Reeves made a cameo appearance as Superman on an episode of I Love Lucy. In this episode (#165, on January 14, 1957 [1]), Lucy herself dressed up as Superman; which she accessorized with a red painted 1930s style leather football helmet-in order to fulfill a promise of Superman appearing at little Ricky's birthday party. Fortunately, the real Superman arrived and rescued Lucy from a narrow window ledge. After that misadventure, which Ricky proclaims to be the craziest thing Lucy has done in their fifteen years of marriage:
- Superman: You mean to say that you've been married to her for fifteen years?
- Ricky: Yeah, fifteen years!
- Superman: And they call me "Superman"!
[edit] After the series
Producers planned to continue the series in 1959 with two more years' worth of episodes, to begin airing in the 1960 season. The death of actor John Hamilton threw the plan for a loop. Actor Pierre Watkin was hired to replace Hamilton as "Perry White's brother" (Watkin had played Perry White himself in the two Columbia serials, and had guested on the series before). The death of George Reeves was not the end of the series either, in the producers' eyes. When Jack Larson returned from Europe after the death of Reeves, producers suggested the series could continue as "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen," with more focus on Larson continuing his character, playing opposite a "Superman" who would be a composite of stock shots of George Reeves and a look-alike stunt double to be filmed from behind. Larson rejected the distasteful idea out of hand, and the series was truly over.
Of the surviving players, several of them returned to the superhero world from time to time:
- Noel Neill made the rounds of the college circuit in the 1970s, entertaining now-grown fans of the series with videos and stories about the series.
- Neill and her original 1948 Superman serial co-star, Kirk Alyn, had cameos in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie as Lois Lane's parents. Their dialogue scene was cut for theatrical release, but played in its entirety when the film was broadcast on TV, and later in the 2000 director's cut restoration.
- Robert Shayne received a recurring role as "Reggie," the blind newspaper vendor in The Flash in 1990-91, because the producers knew of his connection to Superman.
- Both Noel Neill and Jack Larson made a guest appearance on the TV series Superboy in the episode "Paranoia" during the show's fourth season.
- Phyllis Coates also played the part of Lois Lane's mother, in a 1993 episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, at the suggestion of Lois & Clark guest star (and George Reeves biographer) Jim Beaver.
- Larson also had a guest appearance on Lois & Clark, playing an elder Jimmy Olsen. Sources stating that Noel Neill also appeared on that show are in error. Of the cast of the original Superman show, only Coates and Larson appeared on Lois and Clark.
- Larson was also employed as a man-on-the-street in an American Express ad called The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman, featuring Superman fan Jerry Seinfeld). Patrick Warburton voiced the animated Superman.
- Neill and Larson have participated in various conventions connected with Superman, and also donated their time to provide commentaries for some of the episodes on the DVD releases during 2005 and 2006, and the 2006 documentary history of the Superman character, Look, Up in the Sky.
- Larson and the ubiquitous Neill also had small speaking roles in the 2006 film Superman Returns.
[edit] Home Video releases
The first home video releases of the series by Warner Home Video were in the mid-1980s, in a series of VHS and LaserDisc packages called "TV's Best Adventures Of Superman". Each volume contained 2 selected episodes of the series (one black & white episode & one color episode), plus a select Max Fleischer Superman short (marking the first "official" release of such as Warner subsidiary DC Comics holds the original film elements). The short film "Stamp Day For Superman" is known to be in the public domain, and has been issued on low-budget video and DVD labels. The entire series has also been known to have been bootlegged on VHS and DVD.
The first season "Adventures of Superman" was released on DVD in North America in a five-disc set on October 18, 2005. The set contained 6 episodes on each of the four discs. The fifth disk contains the two-part "Unknown People", and its theatrical counterpart from which it was derived, "Superman and the Mole Men". This affords the student of the show the opportunity to compare the two. The musical track is different, and there are minor edits, noticeably the excising of Lois' comment that the creatures "look like moles", as well as trimming a chase scene. The quality of the prints overall was somewhat uneven, but noticeably superior to the choppy versions often used on TV in recent decades.
Notable by its absence are extras that "could have been": the mid-show break announcement that "We'll return to the Adventures of Superman in just a moment", and the extended closing segment, "Stay tuned for the next thrill-packed episode..." The dvd creators eliminated references to Kellogg's and made the programs consistent.
The second five-disc DVD set, episodes 27-52, or "Season 2", was released on January 17, 2006. Extras include a feature on Noel Neill, commentaries on a couple of the episodes by Neill with Jack Larson, and "Stamp Day For Superman." The print quality is noticeably worse than the full episodes themselves. "Stamp Day" is one of the few films on the discs that still has its original "1954" opening (with Clark Kent standing with his hands in his pockets, rather than stiffly at attention).
The typically truncated intros (due to chopping out the "Kellogg's" reference) appear to have been "solved" by attaching the 1952 version of the introduction, to varying degrees of success. Observant fans will note that although the entire show is normally presented (such as the radio/serial-type intro to Beware the Wrecker, often missing from TV prints), in at least one episode, Around the World, there is are key shots missing, in which Superman uses his X-ray vision to find a piece of glass lodged in the blind girl's (Judy Ann Nugent) optic nerve.
The third DVD set, episodes 53-78, or "Seasons 3 and 4", was released on June 20, 2006, the week before the release date of the new feature film, Superman Returns, and included a free pass to the film. It also included a preview of the two-hour documentary on the entire Superman saga, titled Look! Up in the Sky! The fourth and final DVD set, episodes 79-104, or "Seasons 5 and 6", was released on November 14, 2006.
[edit] Memorable episodes
Much of the Superman "formula", in all forms of its media presentations, involves Superman rescuing someone, either one of his colleagues or another person or persons. In those cases, success is largely a matter of Superman simply "getting there on time" to save the day. Some of the strongest episodes in the series tend to be the ones where Superman himself is in peril, either due to exposure to the time-honored bugaboo of kryptonite, external forces, or from some other daunting challenge. Also, some story plots focus on his attempts to prevent Lois and Jimmy from finding out the truth about Superman and Clark:
- 1 - "Superman on Earth" - The pilot episode deals with Clark's arrival in Metropolis and the Daily Planet, as well as meeting Jimmy and Lois for the first time. He debuts his career as Superman in the same day.
- 10 - "The Secret of Superman" - Clark Kent appears to have been put under the influence of a truth serum. Fortunately, the criminal who drugged him never asks him the key question, "Who is Superman?"
- 13 - "The Stolen Costume" - After stopping a heist, Clark learns that a criminal has stolen his Superman costume and is attempting to use it to commit crimes. He must find a way to get it back and clear himself, without revealing his secret identity in the process.
- 24 - "Crime Wave" - Superman appears to have been killed by artificial lightning bolts produced in the laboratory of a scientist working for a criminal boss.
- 32 - "The Defeat of Superman" - Superman is captured and exposed to artificial kryptonite, synthesized by a scientist working for a criminal boss, and it nearly proves fatal. In a rare plot twist, Lois and Jimmy must act fast, in order to find a cure to save Superman's life.
- 33 - "Superman in Exile" - Superman is exposed to a high dosage of radiation while rescuing an employee at a nuclear reactor, and is compelled to isolate himself from society. In a rare political comment, Superman scolds the atomic scientists, "It's new, and you haven't quite got it figured out yet." He spends the rest of the episode, searching for a solution to the problem.
- 38 - "Panic in the Sky" - Superman puts his life in peril trying to save the earth from a potentially-fatal asteroid (see below).
- 56 - "Superman Week" - Superman is apparently exposed to the same piece of kryptonite that he eventually disposed of in episode 32.
- 68 - "The Big Freeze" - Criminals lure Superman into a cryogenic chamber, whose extremely low temperature (a fanciful "2,000 degrees below zero") takes away his powers.
- 76 - "The Deadly Rock" - In a kind-of sequel to "Panic in the Sky", a friend of Clark's becomes vulnerable to kryptonite's deadly power, and Superman must determine a way to save the man's life and destroy the kryptonite, without losing his own life in the process.
- 93 - "The Magic Secret" - Superman is tricked into entering a chamber where he is bombarded with kryptonite radiation. As with episode 32, Lois and Jimmy must come to his rescue.
- 95 - "The Mysterious Cube" - In order to catch a dangerous criminal, Superman is compelled to devise a way to pass through a solid object, a potentially fatal activity.
- 96 - "The Atomic Captive" - Superman is exposed to the powerful radiation of an atomic bomb test, and must find a way to neutralize its effect on him as well as that of his colleagues.
- 99 - "The Gentle Monster" - Superman must deal with a super-strong robot that is powered by a piece of kryptonite.
- 103 - "The Perils of Superman" - A mad scientist plans to trap all four of Superman's colleagues, in hopes of drawing the Man of Steel close for capturing. Lois is tied to a railroad, Perry is trapped in a log mill inches from death, Jimmy is in a car with no brakes, and Clark Kent is thrown into a vat of acid!
Countless episodes, of course, also raise the threat of exposing Superman's secret identity.
[edit] Panic in the Sky
Of the 104 episodes, the best-remembered is probably Number 38, Panic in the Sky. It is also one of the least typical, incorporating two flights into outer space, a vulnerable Superman, and a threat to the entire world, rather than the usual last-minute rescue of Lois and Jimmy from thugs. The plot is reminiscent of "When Worlds Collide" and similar to the much-later "Armegeddon" and "Deep Impact." Unlike the light-hearted playing in many of the episodes, the drama in "Panic" is in dead-earnest.
An asteroid is headed toward Earth, and humanity is powerless to stop it. At an observatory near Metropolis, Professor Roberts explains the situation to Superman, but warns him the planetoid may contain Kryptonite or some unknown element which could harm the Man of Steel. Grimly saying goodbye to Lois and the Professor, Superman flies into space and collides with the big rock, deflecting it into an orbit around the Earth. While the relieved world celebrates, Superman manages to fly back to Earth and instinctively change into his Clark Kent business suit. The collision has given him a severe concussion and amnesia. To make matters worse, the now-orbiting asteroid has upset Earth's climate and gravitational balance, wreaking worldwide havoc. It must be completely destroyed somehow... but Superman is nowhere to be found.
The rest of the episode has Clark/Superman trying to figure out who he is, several times coming perilously close to inadvertently revealing his secret identity to his friends and colleagues (who are baffled by Clark's strange memory loss). At the critical point in the show, and for the only time in the series, the superhero is seen wearing his Superman costume as well as Clark's horn-rimmed glasses, appearing very vulnerable. In a moment of frustration, he bangs his fist on an end table-- and obliterates it. As he removes his glasses, he realizes that he must, in fact, be this "Superman" everyone has been talking about. "Professor Roberts--!" he exclaims. "The observatory!" Again acting on instinct, he leaps out of the window and flies to the observatory. The Professor has a small but powerful atomic bomb which might utterly destroy the asteroid, but no guided missile can reach that far into space. Knowing the risks, Superman flies to the asteroid again and sets the device. "Well, no matter who I am," he says to himself, "here goes." The dangerous planetoid explodes, and Superman, with his memory intact, returns to his adopted planet in triumph.
The show contains more unique special effect shots than any of the 104 episodes, since using stock footage was out of the question. The flying effects combine Reeves "flying" against back-projected images, matte work with Superman flying through space; the glowing, fiery asteroid; and the explosive impact of Superman hitting it (done in cartoon animation). Although the quality of the composites is variable, the episode contains some of the most dynamic springboard takeoff sequences in the series. It also gives Reeves a rare chance to expand his acting range and dual characterizations beyond their usual formula.
On the DVD commentary, Neill points out that she used "Panic" on her college lecture circuit. Larson mentions that it was Superman aficionado Jerry Seinfeld's favorite episode. Also, aside from the obligatory story of the infant Kal-El's arrival on Earth, "Panic" was the sole episode re-made for future Superman series, first in the 80s-90s Live-Action Superboy (TV series) as "Superboy...Lost", and again in the 90s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman: the January 2, 1994, episode All Shook Up, an irreverent reference to what happens to the Man of Steel, and also a play on words, as that series' Perry White was obsessed with Elvis Presley, one of whose hit songs was All Shook Up. A climactic scene in Superman Returns also echoes some of the plot elements of "Panic in the Sky".
[edit] Trivia
To promote and advertise the show, cast members Reeves, Hamilton and Larson were able to gain extra money by appearing in Kellogg's commercials during the second (1954-55) season. However, Noel Neill was never approached for these, because sponsors worried that scenes of Clark Kent having breakfast with Lois Lane would be too suggestive.
During the first four seasons, Reeves (as Kent) wore prop glasses with flat, uncorrected lenses (some sources say they contained no lenses at all, just frames). In the final seasons, he wore his own prescription glasses. His spectacles often reflected the overhead studio lights.
Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in two serials, stated over the years that he refused the TV series role for fear of typecasting; producers of the series say neither Alyn nor his serial co-stars Noel Neill (who later replaced Coates), Tommy Bond, or Pierre Watkin, who later was considered to be the new Perry White, were ever seriously considered. Radio's Superman, Bud Collyer, felt he was too old at 43 to play the role.
On the DVD release of the first season, Superman expert Gary Grossman incorrectly identifies the first season's Daily Planet building as LA City Hall, and DVD editors compound the mistake by cutting to the first-season stock shot. The Carnation Building was used in the first season. Starting with the second season, the show used the City Hall as the newspaper headquarters.
In the second season episode "The Man Who Could Read Minds", the prop that was used as the top from the "Tip Top Cafe" that Jimmy obtained was in actuality a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side, known as a dreidel, that is played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Superman: Serial to Cereal, by Gary Grossman, 1976.
[edit] External links
- Adventures of Superman at the Internet Movie Database
- Adventures of Superman at TV.com
- Adventures of Superman at Bygonetv
- THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN FAN FORUM
- episode guide at superman homepage
- Armand's Corner of the Net
- "The Adventures Continue" website devoted to TV series and Geo. Reeves' career
