It’s possible that without Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, you might not be reading this website.
The “Krypton Club” was my own personal first foray into writing about TV. It was an online newsletter, originally sent through AOL, that at one time boasted thousands of subscribers… which may sound like peanuts, but in 1995, that was a bit of a big deal. My love and enthusiasm for the 1990’s Superman TV show led to “fifth season” fanfiction, and ultimately, an interest in a “teenage Clark Kent” TV project for The WB network. That project, of course, was Smallville.
Lois & Clark was a staple of ABC’s Sunday night schedule, where it remained for most of its four seasons. When it first aired, it was put face-to-face against NBC’s equally expensive seaQuest DSV. At first the competition was tough, but L&C prevailed.
Why did the show work, as it was basically Superman by way of Moonlighting? Originally, a lot of the credit would have to go to executive producer Deborah Joy LeVine, who created such great voices for the characters, who were ably played by Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain. Yes, before Teri was Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, she played what might still be one of the most important females in comic book history. Teri’s Lois had flaws and weaknesses, but always remained strong and determined. Of course this drove Dean’s Clark crazy, in both good and bad ways.
From top to bottom, a great cast was assembled for Lois & Clark. The late Lane Smith was fantastic as an Elvis-loving Perry White, whose “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” was replaced instead with the exclamation “Great Shades Of Elvis!” For a few seasons a large replica of an Elvis stamp could be seen in Perry’s office. Michael Landes played a goofy Jimmy Olsen for the first season and had a ton of chemistry with the cast, especially Smith; unfortunately, producers most likely wanting a “teen idol” to compete with seaQuest’s Jonathan Brandis replaced him with Justin Whalin, who, with his black and white checkered shirt, eventually became embraced by the fans once they got used to the drastic change. (The “official” reason was that Landes looked too much like Dean Cain). K Callan and Eddie Jones were nurturing and relatable parents as Martha and Jonathan Kent, with Callan often getting some of the best lines of the show. The first season also featured Tracy Scoggins as gossip reporter Cat Grant. Cat would wear the craziest outfits to work, surely to drive Lois (and the actress who played her) as crazy as possible. John Shea also appeared in that first season as a Lex Luthor who was too rich to allow himself to go bald.
Lois & Clark was one of the earliest TV series to have a large fan following, with the infamous “Teri Hatcher wrapped in a cape” photo being the most downloaded picture online in the early 90’s. Eventually, the “will they or won’t they” factor was taken care of as Lois and Clark started getting closer in the second half of Season 2. These episodes were among the show’s highest rated. For whatever reason, that made the producers decide to speed things up a bit and Clark proposed to Lois in the Season 2 finale — which also happened to be the episode where Lois finally figured out his secret.
Some historians may argue that Lois knowing the secret was the beginning of the end; I disagree. Having Lois in on things added to the fun, and the excuses Clark would be giving her for running off were getting really thin. If anything became a problem, it was that the show stopped having fun with the secret. How fun would it have been to see Lois making excuses for Perry about where Clark has gone? I would have loved to have seen more of that. It also seemed, around the time Lois chopped off her hair in Season 3, that her brassiness took too much of a rest. “I could never forgive you for lying to me” became “I have never trusted anyone so much in my life” within only a few weeks. The show started getting sillier, with wacky guest stars coming in at an increasing pace. The show also got the couple engaged by this point, and since the wedding carrot had been dangled in front of the fans, something had to happen. And it did… but not what people may have wanted.
In retrospect, we should have gotten hints from the network promos, which said Lois and Clark’s wedding would be the biggest since Burt and Loni or Michael and Lisa Marie – couplings that had both recently ended. And yes… the very patient Clark ended up marrying Lois in the episode called “I Now Pronounce You”… but wait! No, it was a frog-eating clone. The real Lois hit her head and thought she was a lounge singer named Wanda Detroit. If only we were making this up. The wedding/amnesia arc seemed to last forever, and to some viewers, enough was enough.
Lois and Clark finally did get married for real in a Season 4 episode called “Swear To God, This Time We’re Not Kidding.” This, too, was a bit on the weird side, with an “angel” named Mike (David Doyle) giving the story a surreality that might not have been needed. The post-wedding episode, “Soul Mates,” was also a little bit of a bust, as it was clearly written for Lex Luthor, whose portrayer, John Shea, was not available. Instead, Lane Davies’ Tempus – a fan favorite – factored in, but in this case, it didn’t work. Tempus was, however, part of many of the show’s best episodes, including a 2-parter later in Season 4. The teenaged version of me didn’t realize at the time that Tempus was basically The Master from Doctor Who, but that’s fine… I still really enjoyed him.
ABC had made a deal with Warner Bros. television to pick up L&C through a fifth season; after ratings started to fall, they renegotiated for a different deal, and the Season 4 finale, “The Family Hour,” was the show’s end. The show had been moved to Saturday nights, and the final three episodes ended up being burned off in June — very sad, considering this was a series that would sometimes win its timeslot with ratings that would put most of today’s stuff to shame.
There are still gatherings of Lois & Clark fans, and those fans will surely be happy to see that the Hub cable network will tonight start airing Lois & Clark, beginning with the series premiere at 8PM. Lois & Clark on Sunday at 8… sounds like a great idea. Series stars Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain both made appearances on Smallville, with Teri playing Lois Lane’s mother, just like Phyllis Coates had played Teri’s mother in the L&C Season 1 finale before the great Beverly Garland took over the role. Dean has done many movies and had a lengthy stint as host of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and Teri, after years of Radio Shack commercials, became a hot commodity again with the recently-ended Desperate Housewives. Sunday nights on ABC are finally a family-friendly genre alternative, too, with Once Upon A Time being one of the top successes of the last season. Several L&C crew members have gone on to do great things as well, with many of them now employed with Robert Singer at The CW’s Supernatural.
Lois & Clark looks a little dated now, but the show – especially that first season – is definitely worth revisiting. Check it out tonight on the Hub – it’s also available on DVD, with the first season listed on Amazon right now for only $5.87. Nearly ten years ago, KryptonSite posted a Lois & Clark tribute, with features you can find here. Hope you can check out the show tonight – I know I’ll be watching.
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it was taken off sundays on the hub is it coming back