A Guide to Superman on TV
Superman
The 1948 black and white serial contained fifteen episodes, was the first live-action Superman and featured such episode titles as Hurled to Destruction and Into the Electric Furnace!. According to the Internet Movie Database all images of Superman in flight were animated just like the cartoons of the early 40's. Sometimes animated images were superimposed onto live action shots as it was increasingly expensive to use any kind of special effect at the time. It is also rumored that actor Kirk Alyn was only ever credited as playing the part of Clark Kent because the studio wanted viewers to believe that the real Superman was playing the part of himself. Based on the comic book, actors Noel Neill play Lois Lane, Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen and Pierre Watkin as Perry White.
Atom Man vs. Superman
Featuring another fifteen episodes this 1950 serial recorded in black and white was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and documented Lex Luthor was secretly the Atom Man blackmailing Metropolis by threatening to destroy the city. Inventing a number a deadly devices using his intelligence and cunning, the evil Atom Man creates a disintegration machine and later tries to rob Superman of his powers using Kryptonite. Once again actor Kirk played the role of Clark Kent but defiantly not Superman. Actors Noel Neill return to play Lois Lane and Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen.
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Starring the super handsome Dean Cain as both Clark Kent/ Superman and the sexy Teri Hatcher of more recent Desperate Housewives fame as reporter Lois Lane. The TV show debuted in 1993 and had four seasons of superhero story telling. The series spawned eighty episodes with a run time of sixty minutes per episode including commercials or about forty four minutes on the commercial free BBC. Lois & Clark aired on American television network ABC between 1993 and 1997 with a similar broadcast pattern on BBC1 in the UK then more recently repeated on Sky One and ITV2 complete with original opening sequence which the BBC elected to change to 'The New Adventures of Superman rather than 'Lois and Clark'. The series loosely followed the comic philosophy of writer John Byrne with Clark Kent as the primary character and Superman as a secondary figure in the stories. The show focused as much about the relationship between characters Clark Kent and Lois Lane as the adventures of Superman in an attempt to gain viewers from those outside the world of superhero devotion. The show also starred the late Lane Smith as Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White, John Shea as Lex Luthor and K. Callan as Martha Kent. Famous guest stars during the series included Bruce Campbell, Richard Belzer and Fred Willard.
Smallville
The show Smallville shares the adventures of a young Clark Kent and the trials and tribulations of the life of a young Superman in the town of Smallville, Kansas where he grew up. The show documents the years before he becomes Superman and depicts his journey of realising his powers and later becoming the man of steel. The first four seasons of the show document Clark's high school years. The later episodes in the series however, introduce other comic book superheroes and villains and show Clark's life during his college years and then later his transformation into becoming Superman. The show stars Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luther, Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang and Allison Mack as Clark's friend Chloe Sullivan.
Superman in Popular TV
Superman has featured in many television shows one way or another showing how popular the character really is even today. The massively popular US television show Seinfeld featured the Superman theme in the episode 'The Race'and also 'The Chronicle' as well as featuring many Superman references such as:
Jerry: "If only you could put your mind to something worthwhile. You're like Lex Luthor." (Jerry to neighbour Kramer regarding his idea to mix concrete in Jerry's washing machine.)
[Christie's Apartment] Christie leads Jerry into her home. Christie: "Here we are." Jerry: (looking around) "Ah, so this is the Fortress of Solitude."
The show Seinfeld even went as far to write an episode called The Bizarro Jerry in which he finds a nemesis in the same vein that superman has Bizarro (Superman).
The popular American sitcom Friends saw a Superman theme in the episode 'The One With The Holiday Armadillo' where Joey Tribbiani played by Lost in Space star Matt LeBlanc burst into Monica's apartment dressed as Superman as the face of a non specific religion Christmas.
In one episode of the American cartoon Family Guy there is a scene from Superman II suggesting that one of the effects used was unexplained, pointless and just plain dopey as Superman pulls the 'S' from his chest and throws it at General Zod's evil accomplice delivering a highly ineffective attack during a battle at the Fortress of Solitude. In another episode Superman is flying past Wonder Woman's invisible plane in an attempt to ask her out on a date only to discover that she is in fact not sitting in the pilot's seat but rather the toilet.
A Superman toy plays a regular role on the Seth Green Emmy award winning TV show Robot Chicken. The stop-motion show featured one such skit based on the MTV television show 'Real World' where Superman lives with several other superheros such as Hulk and Falcon and turns out to be the thief of Wonder Woman's underwear.