Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Genre	Action/Drama/Comedy
Creator(s)	Deborah Joy Levine
Starring	Dean Cain Teri Hatcher Lane Smith Tracy Scoggins K Callan Eddie Jones John Shea Michael Landes (Season 1) Justin Whalin (Seasons 2-4)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	88
Production
Running time	60 minutes (approx. 42 min)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 12, 1993 – June 14, 1997
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (often called Lois & Clark) was a live-action American television series based on the Superman comic books. It was advertised simply as "The New Adventures of Superman" in the United Kingdom (with the episodes having altered opening credits when aired on the BBC, though not on later Sky One or ITV2 repeats) — non-US audiences were not expected to understand the joking reference to Lewis and Clark — but should not be confused with the 1966 Filmation animated series The New Adventures of Superman.

1 Series overview
2 Series History
3 Trivia
4 Cast
5 Episodes
6 DVD Releases
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Series overview

Lois & Clark aired on ABC from September 12, 1993 to June 14, 1997, and starred Dean Cain as Superman/Clark Kent, Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane and John Shea as Lex Luthor. The series generally followed comic book writer John Byrne's 1986 revamping of the Superman mythos, with Clark Kent as the true personality, and Superman the secret identity. As the title suggests, it focused as much on the relationship between Clark Kent and Lois Lane as on the adventures of Clark's superpowered alter-ego. As Clark attempts to explain to Lois, in the Season 2 episode Tempus Fugitive, "Superman is what I can do. Clark is who I am."

The series spawned several short tie-in books aimed at young adults, as well as one full-length novel for adults, Lois & Clark: A Superman Novel (1996), written by C. J. Cherryh.

The plot of the television series is as follows: In 1966, Jonathan and Martha Kent witness the crash-landing of a small spaceship in Shuster's Field near Smallville, Kansas. When they investigate the craft, they discover the baby Kal-El. The Kents decide to raise Kal-El as their own, naming him "Clark Jerome Kent". 22 years later, Clark moves to Metropolis and gets a job at the Daily Planet under the gruff editor Perry White. There, he is partnered with Lois Lane, who at first considers him little more than a pest. Eventually, however, the two fall in love and marry after a turbulent courtship. The marriage was timed to coincide with the corresponding event in the comic books.

Unlike Pre-Crisis continuity, where they died, Jonathan and Martha Kent are very much alive and active in this version of the story. They remain on their farm in Smallville, but frequently visit Metropolis.

Lois & Clark was notable for being the first medium outside of comics to reflect John Byrne's retcon of Superman which involved making Clark Kent more assertive and less of a performed persona, emphasizing that Clark was the personality Superman was raised as, not the Superhero. In fact, the show took this notion even further, depicting Clark fairly unequivocally as the "real" personality (apart from necessary precautions to safeguard his secret identity) and Superman as a somewhat performed persona. The Lois and Clark version was also notable for having the reverse of the traditional distinction between Clark Kent and Superman's hairstyles; here it is Superman who has the slicked-back hair and Clark whose fringe falls more naturally, perhaps to reinforce the notion that Kent is the "genuine" personality whereas Superman is the artificial disguise. Most of the time, neither persona features the character's trademark spit curl, but in a few instances it appears on Clark.

[edit] Series History

Dean Cain as Superman.

Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane.

John Shea as Lex Luthor.

[edit] Season One

The first season (1993 - 1994) was a success; garnering the cast, especially Hatcher and Cain, critical praise for their performances. John Shea also met with rave reviews over his portrayal of Lex Luthor, while Landes gained a cult following for his more modern-day Jimmy Olsen character trying to uncover the truth and become a reporter. Lex Luthor was soon written out after a falling-out with producers over salary prices and other commitments. He only appeared sporadically; once in season two and twice in season three. Another big change that upset many fans was replacing Michael Landes with Justin Whalin as the new Jimmy Olsen in Season Two. The official reason, according to Landes, was that he looked too much like Clark Kent and was replaced to emphasize the character's youth, a move which still angers Landes today and turned off many fans^{[citation needed]}. Another controversial move was the dismissal of Deborah Joy Levine, the series' creator, as executive producer, along with the entire first-season writing team. The new producer, Robert Singer, planned a stronger focus on "action", bringing Superman and his exploits more to the foreground. ^[1]

[edit] Season Two

The second season (1994 - 1995) focused more on the budding romance of Lois and Clark, as well as many villains from the comics like The Prankster, Metallo, the Toyman and the criminal group known as Intergang, and features new love interests for the ace reporters: D. A. Mayson Drake (Farrah Forke), who fell in love with Clark Kent, before being killed in a car explosion, and Dan Scardino (Jim Pirri), a government agent interested in Lois Lane and rival of Clark Kent. This season also featured the debut of fan favorite villain Tempus (played by Lane Davies) and H.G. Wells, as a time-traveler. Wells' younger version was played by Terry Kiser, and the older version was played by Hamilton Camp. Season 2 ended with the cliffhanger of Clark proposing marriage to Lois, with fans waiting 4 months to learn her answer.

[edit] Season Three

In the premiere episode of season 3 (1995 - 1996), Lois revealed that she had recently learned Clark's identity. Only later in the 7th episode of the season "Ultra Woman" did Lois finally accept Clark's proposal. The long-anticipated wedding was put off to coincide with the characters' marriage in the comics, which led to many storylines designed to delay and interrupt the wedding on the TV series. Another controversy erupted when ABC announced that the wedding would actually take place Valentine's Day weekend, even sending out heart-shaped "wedding invitations" to ABC News staff, only to present viewers with a bogus wedding in which Clark unwittingly married a clone of Lois, developed by a mad scientist whose creations were required to ingest frogs periodically. The "frog-eating clone arc" lasted five episodes and was reportedly a huge viewer turn-off. It was subsequently revealed that an actual wedding had been planned, but ABC management had forced the changes ^[2] in the face of an impending buyout by Michael Eisner. In effect, ABC seemed to be dumping the show.

[edit] Season Four

The fourth and final season (1996 - 1997) began with the resolution of a cliffhanger involving a previously unknown colony of Kryptonians. After the conclusion of this story arc, Lois & Clark finally wed in the 3rd episode of the season. The series ended on a strange cliffhanger in which Lois and Clark find an infant on their doorstep, along with a note that claimed the child belonged to them. This mystery was never resolved. Earlier in the 4th season, ABC had announced and promised an additional 5th year of the show, so the show's producers and writers were caught unprepared when ABC later changed its mind and decided that no new episodes would be produced.

[edit] Trivia

An episode of Robot Chicken spoofs this show where Dean Cain lends his voice to a promo for "Lewis & Clark," combining Lois and Clark with the explorers of the Northwest Passage. At the end of the promo, Clark says it would have been funnier ten years earlier, when Lois and Clark was still on the air.

[edit] Cast

Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman
Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane
Lane Smith as Perry White
Tracy Scoggins as Cat Grant (Season 1)
K Callan as Martha Kent
Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent
John Shea as Lex Luthor (Season 1, Guest Appearance in Season 2, Two-Part Guest Appearance in Season 3, and an audio-only cameo in Season 4)
Michael Landes as Jimmy Olsen (Season 1)
Justin Whalin as Jimmy Olsen (Seasons 2-4)

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman episodes

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had a total of 4 seasons, and 88 episodes.

[edit] DVD Releases

Warner Home Video has released all 4 seasons of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman on DVD in Region 1 & 2 for the very first time.

Season	Region 1	Region 2
The Complete First Season	June 7, 2005 ^[3]	February 6, 2006
The Complete Second Season	January 17, 2006 ^[4]	April 17, 2006
The Complete Third Season	June 20, 2006 ^[5]	August 28, 2006
The Complete Fourth Season	November 14, 2006 ^[6]	October 23, 2006

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman DVD Site
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman at the Internet Movie Database
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman at TV.com
Swing the Sickle Episode Reviews
First Person Account from Season One Supervising Producer
After the cancellation of the show at the end of season four, fans of the series created a fan fiction site to prolong the series. Virtual "episodes" can be found at the Lois & Clark Seasons 5 and 6 page. Many additional Lois & Clark fanfics can be found at the Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive.

v • d • e Superman in popular media
Actors:	Bud Collyer • Kirk Alyn • George Reeves • Bob Holiday • Danny Dark (v) • David Wilson • Christopher Reeve • Beau Weaver (v) • John Haymes Newton • Gerard Christopher • Dean Cain • Timothy Daly (v) • Tom Welling • George Newbern (v) • Brandon Routh • Yuri Lowenthal (v)
Film:	Superman (1948) • Atom Man vs. Superman • Superman and the Mole Men • Superman (1978) • Superman II • Superman III • Supergirl • Superman IV: The Quest for Peace • Superman Returns • Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Television:	Adventures of Superman • Superboy • Lois & Clark • Smallville • Look, Up in the Sky!
Animation:	1940s cartoons • The New Adventures of Superman • Superman (1988) • Superman: The Animated Series • Legion of Super Heroes
Video games:	Atari 2600 (1979) • Arcade game (1988) • NES (1988) • Sega Genesis (1992) • The Death and Return of Superman • Superman 64 • Shadow of Apokolips • Countdown to Apokolips • Superman Returns
Other media:	Radio • Broadway Theater • Newspaper Strips

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