Live-Action-Superman-On-TV Thread

What's your favourite Live-Action Superman Show?

  • Adventures of Superman (1951)

    Votes: 2 16.7%
  • The Adventures of Superboy (1988.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)

    Votes: 6 50.0%
  • Smallville (2001)

    Votes: 4 33.3%

  • Total voters
    12

Gothamite

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A thread for the discussion of all live action television Superman shows. Vote for your favourite.

My personal favourite is Lois & Clark from the early to mid-nineties. It was my first exposure to the Man of Steel and I still say that in many ways (but not every way), it is probably the closest to the definitive Superman experience. It teaches you everything you need to know about how and why Clark became Superman as well as how and why he ended up marrying Lois Lane. It doesn't just teach you about right and wrong and superheroics, but it teaches you a lot about relationships as well. The whole family can watch this show, because the kids can enjoy the superhero action and the adults can enjoy the Lois/Clark banter and the newsroom antics of the other supporting characters.

Obviously there are pretty big flaws with this show as well. Towards the end it just completely stopped taking itself seriously in any sense of the word and became a campy mess with every episode seemingly exactly the same. I also would have preferred it if more elements from the comics were brought in, but the budget probably wouldn't allow villains like Darkseid.

My second favourite Superman show is probably Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. The first season is pure Golden Age (even though the show was produced at the height of the Silver Age), and I love it. Casually ignoring the fact that Superman's strength is enough to easily splatter a human being, Superman regularly clocks villains with his bare fists in the early episodes and it is DAMN satisfying, especially considering the villains in this show are scum-of-the-earth mobsters. As the show continued, it became sillier and sillier, until eventually it was at a level of campy madness that rivalled the Adam West Batman show. But it's still fun to watch.

Another Super-gem is the little known 'The Adventures of Superboy' from the late '80s. This show was very much a reimagining rather than an adaptation, as it placed Clark in very unfamiliar surroundings. Instead of Smallville, Clark becomes Superboy in his Freshman year in Shuster University, in Siegelville, Orlando. I'll get right to it. This show is pretty much a camp-fest right from the start, the special effects have to be seen to be believed (as in, they're BAD) and the pacing is horrible. Nevertheless, the show has something of a 'kitsch' charm to it and is still watchable. Oh and the wire-effects are FANTASTIC. They actually rival the Reeve movies, they're that good. The computer-effects are diabolical, though.

When Smallville started, I couldn't get enough of it. "What an amazingly brilliant idea!" I thought. And for a while, the show did the brilliant idea justice. Midway through the third season, though, the show completely ran out of steam and became the garbage it is today. Now and again, it churns out brilliance and it seems as though it will triumph once again, but then Lana or a dumb storyline comes along and ruins everything. The thing I hate the most about the show is probably the tone. Just watch the finale of the last season and you'll know exactly what I mean. Everything's all dark and sinister with no Superman lightness to balance it out like in the other shows and movies. Clark is still the same whiney teen he was in the first season and the world's moved on without him and it's getting to be damn annoying. Personally, I can't wait for the show to get cancelled, not because it's crap, but because a cancellation would actually force the writers to get their act together and turn the whiney teen into an unstoppable force for justice.
 
Lois and Clark. It had by far the best development of all the characters, and the most good episodes on the whole.

That first season of L&C stands as the best season of any Superman show ever. They got everything right that season. They crafted Clark as this cool, incredibly relatable guy that you'd want to be friends with in real life. They made Lois just.... spot-on. They took Jimmy Olsen in a terrific new direction by making him very competent and ambitious while still a little rookieish. And Perry White, there's just no way they could've done a better job with. The Kents, too, were perfect, and Lex Luthor is my favourite live-action incarnation of him ever.

We lost a little momentum in the second season and third season, but the stories were still great and the show was still of the highest quality.

The fourth season started to suck a little, and the ending was weaker than American beer(hi-oh!), but even then, there were still plenty of good episodes.


Smallville would be my number two choice. It's sucked for the last three years(although season 6 was actually decent), but the first three were in-****ing-creible.

The always fun Adventures of Superman would come after than, and I never even saw Superboy.
 
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Where is "Superman is a chump" vote?

You do know that this thread has nothing to do with how 'cool' Superman himself, the character is, it's just how good his TV shows are, don't you?

You could suggest an "All Superman TV Shows Suck" vote, but I wouldn't put it up! :)
 
Dean Cain was an Awful Superman and Clark Kent, but I liked almost everything else about that show...

But since I only saw the first few seasons of Smallville, and those were pretty great, I'm going to go with them.
 
You do know that this thread has nothing to do with how 'cool' Superman himself, the character is, it's just how good his TV shows are, don't you?

You could suggest an "All Superman TV Shows Suck" vote, but I wouldn't put it up! :)

yes i do. I'm anti-superman.
 
Lois & Clark was a pretty cool show However my vote goes to Smallville. Smallville has IMO the best Clark. Dean Cain was good but his superman sucked. Chistopher Reeve in the films had a great superman , but his Clark sucked.

Tom Welling how ever Imo plays a perfect Clark. Just like Michael Rosenbaum plays a fantastic almost perfect Lex. The only reason his Lerx isn't perfect is story wise he's too nice HOWEVER when gets split in two and has the Kryptonite ring he's perfect. When he gets darker and darker he gets perfecter.
 
Lois and Clark definitely. The actors were all great, even Dean Cain. He did great in this version of Clark, I want more versions to think about the mild manner half rather than the alien part. I wouldnt want Dean to wear the cape again but he did good for that show. The great thing is the show doesnt try to aviod the cheesy stuff or act like its completely serious.

I hate Smallville because of the dialogue and the fact every average episode is the same damn thing. "Oh no! Some person who lives in this small Kentucky town got powers some how and one of my five friends are involved for some reason. Clark saves the day, and no one remembers anything!" It gets old real fast. The overall idea of the show and some episodes are good but other than that. God do I hate the dialogue and the ****ing plots.
 
I voted for Smallville because, even though I've seen only maybe three dozen episodes it's the most well-made of them all with the most respect for the comics.

Adventures of Superman, by the way, was nowhere near the height of the Silver Age. The Silver Age didn't start until 1954 at the earliest and Adventures of Superman started in 1951-52.
 
I voted for Smallville because, even though I've seen only maybe three dozen episodes it's the most well-made of them all with the most respect for the comics.

:noway:

Man, I thought you were cool.

Smallville doesn't even have respect for its viewing audience, let alone the comics.
 
But it damn well did for, at the very least, the first TWO seasons(although I maintain that the 3rd was as good if not better), and there are certainly three dozen truly great episodes out there.

Fair enough. Hopefully it's these particular episodes Kalicki is talking about. Even still though, I wouldn't rank the first two seasons of Smallville over Lois & Clark. L&C always had more heart to it, even if the special effects and the plots weren't on as grand a scale as on Smallville.

The early seasons seemed like they were building up to some great big payoff at the end, but instead, they just got really bad, to the point where I wasn't even bothered any more.

A bit like post-marital sex. :wink:
 
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Everyone who voted for Smallville needs to be shot in the kneecaps, then impregnated.

Even the men.

ESPECIALLY the men.
 
For the record I've seen Smallville season 2 and 3 in their entirity, the first half of season 1 and a handful of episodes from seasons 4 and 5.
 
The Adventures of Superman. Cause it had Mole People. And Superman could take any bullet but always dodged the gun.

God I loved that show...
 
The Adventures of Superman. Cause it had Mole People. And Superman could take any bullet but always dodged the gun.

God I loved that show...

Awwww Baxter I never you cared about my race
 

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