SYNOPSIS
"Faster
than a speeding bullet!" exclaimed the announcer. "More powerful than a locomotive! Able to
leap tall buildings at a single bound... 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 at Clark Kent, mild-mannered
reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle
for truth, justice, and the American way!"
Superman
was one of the most fabulously successful media creations of modern times - and,
if you think about it, an interesting reflection on what we would like to be.
Following a highly successful career in comic books, radio, and movies in the
1940's, he came to television in a syndicated (not network) version that was a
major hit of the 1950's.
His now-familiar genealogy was spelled out in the first episode. Kal-El was born
on the faraway planet Krypton, the son of scientist Jor-El and his wife
Lara (played by Robert Rockwell and Aline Towne in "Superman on Earth," the
establishing TV episode). When destruction of their planet became imminent, the parents of Kal-El sent the infant to Earth in a miniature rocket. The rocket landed
in Smallville, U.S.A. where the infant was discovered and raised by a childless
couple named Eben and Sarah Kent. They named him Clark. As he grew older,
Clark began to discover that he was different from other children, endowed
with superhuman powers. The Kents told him about his origin and Clark began
to consider how he might use these powers for the good of mankind.
At
age 25, after Eben Kent's death, Clark moved to Metropolis and landed a job
as a reporter for The Daily Planet, a crusading newspaper. When danger
loomed, he quickly changed from mild-mannered Clark Kent to Superman, leapt out
a convenient window, and flew to the rescue! His familiar red-and-blue costume
had been given to him by Mrs. Kent, who had made it from the blankets that had
swaddled him the rocket as an infant (with no explanation how she cut and sewed
it, since the completed costume was bulletproof, tear proof, and virtually as
indestructible as Superman himself!).
Clark's boss at the newspaper was blustery editor Perry
White, whose most common expletive was "Great Caesar's ghost!" Jimmy
Olson was the ambitious, but timid, young cub reporter and Lois Lane was the
top reporter on the paper. She was chief competitor to Clark, and chief female
admirer of Superman, but she never connected the two men. Lois was in fact
rather hard-nosed and aggressive as portrayed by Phyllis Coates, but became more
sensitive and vulnerable in the later characterization of Noel Neill. Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis Police
Department was hard-working, but somehow never managed to solve a case
without the help of Superman, the Planet staff, or both. Jimmy and Lois
also seemed to depend on Superman's help - he was constantly called upon to
rescue them from criminals - but no one suspected his true identity.
Superman did have an incredible
collection of
powers - super-strength, super-hearing, X-ray vision, telescopic
and microscopic vision, super-breath - and the abilities to split himself
into two functioning entities, to will himself through solid matter, to levitate
people, and, most importantly, to fly. The only thing to which he was vulnerable
to was Kryptonite, fragments of green rock that were the remnants of his
exploded home planet. The bad guys on Superman,
including semi-regulars Ben Welden, Herb Vigran, Tris Coffin, and Billy Nelson
(they turned up in different roles on different episodes), used everything they
could get their hands on, including Kryptonite, to defeat and destroy Superman,
but good always triumphed.
Although the first batch of 26 Superman
films were made in 1951, the series did not reach local TV stations until
late 1952. From 1953 to 1957, additional groups of films were made. Production,
as with most non-network series, was low budget, and the actors wore virtually
the same outfits all the time so that footage from different episodes could be
shot at the same time without having to worry about matching costumes. The
special effects were limited to having Superman crash through walls, lots of
explosions, and scenes of Superman flying around - the latter accomplished by
suspending him from invisible wires. The same flying sequences were used over
and over, sometimes running as long as 30 or 40 seconds, to fill time. In one
episode, Superman changed direction while flying, which was accomplished by
simply turning the film around - making the "S" on his uniform backward! There
was a good deal of action and violence on Superman initially, but over the years it
began to take itself less seriously and, by the last season, many of the
episodes were played more for laughs then for action.
The media history of Superman is
certainly varied. He was created by two teenagers, writer Jerry Siegel and
artist Joe Shuster in the 1930's, and was initially rejected by all the major
newspaper syndicates. He finally appeared in a comic book in 1938, and became an
instantaneous hit. This led to a regular newspaper strip that ran 28 years
(1939-1967); a radio series from 1940 to 1951, with Bud Collyer initially
providing the voice of Superman; 17 animated Paramount cartoons from 1941 to
1943; theatrical serials in 1948 and 1950; and a feature-length movie,
"Superman and the Mole Men",
in 1951 (later re-edited and shown as a two-part episode of the TV series).
George Reeves, who had made his
movie debut in Gone With the Wind, became so typecast by his TV Superman
role that he could not get other work. Although there were conflicting stories
surrounding his death on June 16, 1959 - including one that the series was about
to return to production - the coroner's verdict was that he had committed
suicide by shooting himself in the head. Nothing, however, could end the
fictional Superman's life. ABC reran the syndicated films from October
1957-September 1958 on Wednesday afternoons, and CBS revived the Man of Steel in
animated form on its Saturday lineup in 1966 (with Bud Collyer again doing the
voice). The CBS cartoons, under the titles Superman,
or The New Adventures of
Superman, or as part of
The Superman-Aquaman Hour
and The Batman-Superman
Hour, ran until
September 1970. Superman
then moved to ABC on Saturday mornings where he was an integral part of the
animated Superfriends
from 1973 to 1985. CBS brought the Man of Steel back to its animated Saturday
morning lineup for the 1988-1989 season, and the WB network aired The New Batman/Superman
Adventures on both
Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons from September 1997 until the fall of
2000. In 1978, Superman
got his first big-budget production.
Superman - The Movie,
starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Marlon Brando (Noel Neill in an
unbilled cameo role). It was a huge hit at the box office and precipitated a
series of films about the superhero. There have also been a Superman play on
Broadway, a novel, a Superman museum in Illinois, and endless nostalgia books
about the Man of Steel. He will no doubt be seen on videodisks and on
holographic TV in years to come! A thorough and comprehensive history of the
Superman character can be found in Superman - Serial to Cereal by Gary Grossman,
published by Popular Library in 1977.
