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The Adventures of Superman season 1

T

TheREALJM1

I buy very few videos and DVD’s, but I have always been a fan of George Reeves Superman. I went out and bought this one.
It is excellent. The B & W transfer is crisp and sharp and the audio is very high quality.
As for its content I think it is the best. Season one was done on a very serious level. It wasn’t silly at all. Superman actually kills people. Well, they try to kill him and fall cliffs or out of planes. George Reeves was a very fine actor and his past work proved it. The producers were lucky to get him. He became absorbed in the role and in my opinion no one has done it better. In season one he was at his peak. He was in great physical shape and young enough top pull off a young Clark Kent. Also, in my opinion, Phyllis Coates was the best Lois Lane ever. She was very sexy and what a bitch she was to Clark.
Jack Larsen was only about 19 that year and looked and acted great as Jimmy Olsen. John Hamilton (Perry White) and Robert Shayne (Inspector Henderson) were two very seasoned actors and were perfect in their roles. What I like best is the look of the show. Like a very good “B” movie. Even though the show was done on a tiny budget and each episode filmed very quickly , a lot of thought was giving to each shot. You can see the crew really cared about the finished product. The scripts were more science fiction oriented and even the background music was creepy. Over all I give it an A+ plus but I won’t bother to buy the next seasons releases. I know the series went way downhill after Phyllis Coates left. Even color didn’t improve it.
 
> Where did you make the purchase? I'm a Superman fan from way
> back, too.
>
It is everywhere Amazon.com, Wal-Mart and every other retail outlet of dvds pay about $27.00 season 2 comes out in January.
 
> > I agree Phyllis Coates was the better Lois, she wasn't a whiner like the second one. To me, most shows are best in the early years, like Andy Griffth for example. Did this include the pilot also? The two-part episode with the underground aliens. IIRC, wasn't that supposed to have been a movie instead?
 
Steve wrote:

> Did this include the pilot also? The two-part episode with the
> underground aliens. IIRC, wasn't that supposed to have been
> a movie instead?

I do know there was a 1951 movie titled "Superman and the Mole Men".

I believe it was split up into three episodes of the series: "Superman On Earth" (telling the story of the infant Kal-El being sent to Earth), and a two-parter later that season (I can't recall the title offhand). I thought the relative success of that movie led to 23 more half-hours being filmed later that year to become the first season of the TV series.

It is also my understanding that the first season, while filmed in 1951 and early 1952, did not appear on TV until the early months of 1953.

If my memory serves me correct, a second 26-episode black-and-white season was filmed in 1953 for release in early 1954, and then four 13-episode seasons were filmed in color from 1954 through 1957 for broadcast starting in January of 1955 through 1958 respectively.

I expect there would be three more DVD box-sets: season two, plus seasons three/four and five/six together, so each box set has 26 episodes.
 
> Steve wrote:
>
> > Did this include the pilot also? The two-part episode with
> the
> > underground aliens. IIRC, wasn't that supposed to have
> been
> > a movie instead?
>
> I do know there was a 1951 movie titled "Superman and the
> Mole Men".
>
> I believe it was split up into three episodes of the series:
> "Superman On Earth" (telling the story of the infant Kal-El
> being sent to Earth), and a two-parter later that season (I
> can't recall the title offhand). I thought the relative
> success of that movie led to 23 more half-hours being filmed
> later that year to become the first season of the TV series.
>
> The two-part episode is titled "The Unknown People."
>
>
>
>
>
 
> > Where did you make the purchase? I'm a Superman fan from
> way
> > back, too.
> >
> It is everywhere Amazon.com, Wal-Mart and every other retail
> outlet of dvds pay about $27.00 season 2 comes out in
> January.
>
I bought it at Media play for $32. It does include the Mole People movie and the pilot plus some great extras and information. I haven't watched the whole thing yet but I am very impressed by what I have seen so far.
 
> I bought it at Media play for $32. It does include the Mole
> People movie and the pilot plus some great extras and
> information. I haven't watched the whole thing yet but I am
> very impressed by what I have seen so far.
=============================================================================

Look closely at the "weapon" the Mole Men use.

It's an ElectroLux vacuum cleaner with a funnel stuck on one end!<P ID="signature">______________
"What's That?" "French Horns!"

</P>
 
> The "Daily Planet Building" was played by Los Angeles City
> Hall.
>
The only high-rise on the L.A. skyline in the early '50s.
 
> The "Daily Planet Building" was played by Los Angeles City Hall.

> The only high-rise on the L.A. skyline in the early '50s.

And the only one until about 1963, when the Occidental Life Building was built (which I think equalled, but did not exceed, the height of L.A.'s City Hall). It wasn't until a few years later (the end of the sixties?) that buildings substantially taller than City Hall or Occidental were completed.

Back in grade school (and I still remember this fact!), I read in a geography textbook (written around 1960) that there was for years a city ordinance in Los Angeles that prevented the construction of buildings that were taller than twelve stories. The book noted that the two exceptions made were for City Hall and the Hall of Justice. The book also mentioned that the ordinance had been repealed and that in the next few years (it said "by 1967"), skyscrapers would probably be built in Los Angeles.
 
The first season shows had a dark (Noirish?) feel to it and hold up much better than the later ones. Coates was indeed a fine Lois, though I've come to believe Noel Neill was underutilized; I've seen clips and pics of Neill making personal appearances in the fifties and can tell you she was much sexier than they allowed her to be on the series.
 
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