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(More customer reviews)I first watched this series growing up in the 80's - I was eight years old when it premiered in syndication. To me, it is *the* definitive version of Superman/Superboy. Looking back on it, nearly 20 years later, it hasn't held up as well as I remember it - but, it still gets five stars for pure nostalgia reasons.
I thought John Newton was much better as Clark/Superman than Gerard Christopher (both actors appeared later on Melrose Place). Newton brought a realness to Clark - a regular guy who skateboarded and lifted weights with his buddies. However, Christopher took Chris Reeve's interpretation and turned it up to 11 - displaying Urkel-level nerdiness. Thankfully his Clark was toned down a bit after season 2.
Unfortunately, the first season suffers from a number of weak villains. Too often, Superboy found himself pitted against wealthy land developers, cops gone bad, polluters, and old guys in junkyards suffering from World War II shell shock. The villains got much better in later seasons. Still, there are a number of standouts in the first year - the introduction of Kryponite, Mr. Mxyzptlk, battling a succubus, time traveling to Hollywood's golden era, etc. I like how certain elements from the movie franchise were melded with John Byrne's reinvention (Clark's father being alive in this version, etc.) Incidentally, Martha is played by Salome Jens, who would go on to menace Deep Space 9 as leader of the changelings in the Dominion War. Another strength of the series was the impressive wire-work. Take offs and landings were typically done well (using many people who worked on the Superman movies) and were very ambitious - much better than the "whip pan" cape over camera effect used in Lois and Clark to "depict" take offs.
I really hope people aren't put off by some of the plots of the first season. For seasons 2-4, a number of comic book writers came on the show and infused a fun sense of adventure into the stories (not to mention Sherman Howard's maniacal portrayal of Lex Luthor - my personal favorite live action version yet!) In addition, later seasons would see the show adopting a proto-X-Files format where Clark and Lana would investigate paranormal matters. Noel Neill and Jack Larson (Lois and Jimmy from the original show) even make a cameo! Please support this series on DVD - otherwise we may never get the later seasons released!
Now if Warner would release the 13 episode 50th anniversary Superman cartoon produced by Ruby/Spears (and written by Marv Wolfman) for CBS, I would be a very happy camper.
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Studio: Warner Home VideoRelease Date: 06/20/2006Run time: 558 minutes
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