Superboy Season 2

[tomswift2002]

So it's been six years since Warner Brothers first released "Superboy" Season 1 on DVD (June 2006), and now through their Archive Collection, Warner has released Season 2.

I must say, I'm enjoying this series about Superman in his youth a whole lot better than any single season or episode of "Smallville", and before the DVD's I had never seen a single episode. I guess, in a way, "Superboy" is an "All-New" series, even though it was aired between 1988 and 1992; from 1992 to 2005 the various rights to the series, including the broadcast rights, were held up in various lawsuit, and as such the series has not been in syndication since the summer of 92.

But the Season 2 video is really vibrant. Even though this is prepared as a MOD release, I wonder if Warner created some new transfers from the original film masters, or else back in the 90's the film masters must've been transferred to a digital tape before being put into the Viacom/Paramount vault.

Anyway, aside from having Michael J. Pollard, who is the most annoying Mr. Mxyzpytlyk, Superboy really soars. (There are no bonus features on this release, but since these are DVD-r releases, bonus features weren't expected.)

[ToddKent]

I remember watching it years ago. It has a pretty good reputation. I may have to Netflix this one.

[cylkoth]

Season 2 won't be available to rent through Netflix. As tomswift said, this is a MOD-Manufacture on Demand release through Warners' Archive Store, meaning they make the discs for each order made. And they don't seem to make these available to rental outfits.

[tomswift2002]

Well, hopefully this will mean that Seasons 3 & 4 will be released, even if it is just MOD discs.

But with Netflix, you have to remember that those would be digital downloads and a whole bunch of other rights would need to be negotiated between Warner, CBS and the Salkinds, if the haven't been negotiated already.

[davejames]

Somehow Gerard Christopher's Superboy always came across a bit too... smarmy and stuck up to me. But the storytelling definitely improved from before.

It's really the 3rd and 4th seasons I want to see again though, as that's where the show got a bit darker and more inventive.

[Donald Draper]

I am glad to hear the picture quality is so good. Earlier in the year there was a rumor that the films elements for the show no longer existed. But later WB refuted this. So these must be new transfers.

My copy should arrive in the next few days. I am very looking forward to this. I would have been 11 when this season aired. I definitely remember some episodes but there are many I never saw.

[Guy Gardener]

The season 2 onward Lex Luthor made this show.

Although the better the picture quality, the clearer you can see how everything is made of cardboard.

Actually, no I forgot, the spy place they work at in season 2-4 is the same set as the Daily Planet from the last half of Smallville.

Metaphorically ignoring sage advice, Smallville was built on an Indian burial ground.

High-larious.

[cylkoth]

Can't telling if you're joking, but not only does this show pre-date Smallville, but it was produced at the MGM-Disney studios in Florida, while Smallville was shot in Canada.

[Guy Gardener]

Don't ask me how they did it, but it's identical.

I watched all four seasons late last year, so I'm not dealing with childhood memories.

When the season 3 dvds come out, you can remark on the similarity.

[Gotham Central]

I loved Gerard Christopher as "Superboy"...though it defied credibility that someone that looked like him would EVER be called SuperBOY.

[Donald Draper]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Don't ask me how they did it, but it's identical.

I watched all four seasons late last year, so I'm not dealing with childhood memories.

When the season 3 dvds come out, you can remark on the similarity.

I think both were inspired by architecture and style of offices, newsrooms of the same time period. Probably the 30s and 40s. Art Deco.

I have also heard people compair the looks of the Superboy offices to the Daily Planet set on Lois & Clark.

[Guy Gardener]

Gotham Central wrote:

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I loved Gerard Christopher as "Superboy"...though it defied credibility that someone that looked like him would EVER be called SuperBOY.

Well, the release I saw (which coincides with what Wikipedia says) had a mucked up run order. Episode One, The Jewel of Techacal was not the intended pilot, it's episode 5 "Countdown to nowhere" where at the end after saving a space shuttle he introduces himself to Lana and the world for the first time in front of many tv cameras and he might have bee waving an American flag for some reason... So for the first 4 episodes one could be foolishly led to assume that Clark had been putting on those tights since he was 6 years old back in Smallville.

[Donald Draper]

I long had an idea of an Elseworlds realistically treating Superboy's becoming an adult. Based on child actors who are never able to escape their youthful image and kid nicknames. Or child prodigies who have to live up to high expectations as they grow up. So that people would continue to call him "Superboy" regardless of how old he gets.

Possibly with a title inspired by "The Man who would be King". "The Boy who Would be Superman" Meaning trying to become but never being. Smallville is certainly an inspiration for this idea. Where everyone tells him for years how great he will become in the future and seems to show no sign of it through his own actions.

[Christopher]

Gotham Central wrote:

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I loved Gerard Christopher as "Superboy"...though it defied credibility that someone that looked like him would EVER be called SuperBOY.

It was a rights issue, as I recall. The Salkinds had sold the rights to Superman and his associated characters to Cannon Films by that point, but they retained the rights to Superboy and his associated characters (which includes the Kents and Lex Luthor as well as Lana -- in fact, it was in the Superboy comics that Luthor and the Kents gained their first names). So they pretty much had to call him Superboy no matter how old he got. It's weird that Superman and Superboy are separate entities from a licensing standpoint, but they are.

[Donald Draper]

I believe that goes back to start of the legal battles between National Publications(DC COMICS) and Jerry Siegel in the 1940s. He pitched Superboy to them after the payment for Action Comics 1. They turned it down and later when he was serving in WWII they used it behind his back.