MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Christopher]

"The Dog Who Knew Superman" was kind of a lightweight episode. Lois wasn't even kidnapped! And Jimmy was kidnapped, but released. I'm getting a little tired of all these episodes that are preoccupied with Superman protecting his secret identity, rather than actually fighting crime. Although I've seen it argued that the reason Silver Age Superman was involved in so many frivolous adventures is because he'd pretty much eliminated major crime and thus didn't have that much else to occupy him.

The main virtue of the episode was Dona Drake as Joyce, the dog's owner. She was hot, despite playing a rather unpleasant character. Apparently she had a moderately notable career in the '30s and '40s as a singer, dancer, and actress, and her real name was Eunice Westmoreland, though she often employed a Latina stage name and persona: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dona_Drake

I wonder if Clark/Superman was actually supposed to be communicating with the dog. Talking to animals is one of Wonder Woman's powers, but I don't know if it's ever been established as one of Superman's. Then again, in the '40s and '50s, Superman pretty much had whatever powers the writers wanted to give him in any given issue (a precedent followed by the Christopher Reeve movies decades later).


I bet George Reeves enjoyed "The Face and the Voice" more than most episodes, since he got to do more acting than usual -- not just playing a different character, but playing Clark with some higher emotional stakes. It's a pretty solid episode.

My favorite part is when Clark, distressed that he might have been sleep-stealing, hears from Perry that Superman was in his office not half an hour before, and Clark immediately says "That's all" and heads into action. No messing around with surprised reactions or "What did you say?" Just "That's all" and he's on his way. (As in "That's all I needed to hear," I guess.) It fits Superman's keen mind and quick reaction time. It's just so non-melodramatic and abrupt that I love it.

We got a pretty clear look at Superman's photo double in that scene where he came out of the truck, but I guess he didn't look too different from Reeves. On little '50s TV screens, it would've probably been a fairly convincing illusion.

Oh, and they did say the stolen record was a recording of a Fourth of July speech Superman gave. They may have cut out that line you remember, Old Mixer, but the plot point was there.

 

[The Old Mixer]

OK, maybe not a plot point so much as a story beat...it was at least one whole scene, not just a line. I remember them playing part of the speech, then he repeats the line to the beat of the metronome several times (with a bit of time lapse, I think), perfecting his Superman voice.

As cut, it comes off as a bit of a gun that wasn't fired...a record that was important enough to the plot that they showed it being stolen, but it wasn't played. They couldn't cut out the theft itself because it tied in with Jimmy recognizing the thief.

The dog episode was a bit of a mess...maybe more syndication edits at work? I wasn't clear when the main hoodlum decided to use the dog to find out who Superman was; the plot relied on too many instances of the dog being let loose to roam the city; and it was a stretch that a dog wandering a city like Metropolis would ever find him. It's rare that a half-hour TV episode feels so padded...it seemed like the tiniest snippet of a story idea that might have been more worthy of a 10-minute short or something.

 

[Christopher]

Actual Saturday episodes again...

"The Man in the Lead Mask" is a bit misnamed; it's really more about the fingerprint McGuffin, with the mask being a secondary element. Decent little mystery, though, and I didn't see the final twist coming. (And it's a reminder of how dependent the police were on fingerprints before DNA forensics was developed.)

And man, Superman was reckless with stopping that car -- he gave the guy a concussion! Well, better than leaving a couple of hoods on a cliff face and failing to notice when they plummet off of it two minutes later.


And now we get the classic "Panic in the Sky"! How rare to have an episode with fate-of-the-world stakes and elaborate special effects (for the time). And the story's so iconic that it's been remade at least a couple of times, on Lois & Clark and the syndicated Superboy. The episode itself owes something to the Fleischer short "The Magnetic Telescope" (the asteroid) and the radio serial "Superman vs. Kryptonite" (the amnesia).

It does have its credibility issues, though, notably when Perry, Lois, and Jimmy are looking right at Clark in bed without his glasses and talking about Superman, and yet they fail to recognize him. Also, if Superman had lost his memory, how did he know to change back into the Clark Kent clothes that he somehow had invisibly available? And at the end, how did the astronomer know that the asteroid had "almost destroyed" Superman when Superman had been incommunicado for days?


Batman's "The Joker is Wild"/"Batman is Riled" gives us a pretty strong initial showing for the Joker, who's able to keep Batman and Robin on the defensive and undermine public confidence in them, which is a harsher blow in its way than the typical deathtraps. And it's interesting in retrospect how his first moll, Queenie (Nancy Kovack), is almost a proto-Harley Quinn in a way.

This 2-parter is an adaptation of "The Joker's Utility Belt" by David Vern Reed and Dick Sprang, appearing in Batman #73 in 1952. It's close enough that by modern standards, they'd probably be entitled to story credit. A lot of the details are changed, but the main set pieces are all from the comic -- the Comedians' Hall of Fame with Batman getting knocked out and escaping with his utility belt, the Joker resolving to make his own, the Pagliacci encounter where the Joker debuts his belt, the Laughwell robbery where the Joker switches belts (right down to the insulting flags), and the knockout-gas cork at the cruise ship christening. Although the comic plays out differently, with more Joker-belt capers between those big set pieces, and with a different, more belt-themed climax where the Joker tries to kill Robin on a conveyor belt going into a furnace (which the show just did in the Penguin episodes), is ultimately defeated and wrapped up in the same conveyor belt, and is sentenced to work in the prison belt factory, to his dismay.

It's always seemed to me that the scene in the Hall of Fame was written with the assumption that the statues would actually be the actors holding really still, and that the henchmen would actually look like the famous comedians. It's a case where there's a pretty distinct mismatch between the script and the production. And that supposed Joker statue looks more like Jack Nicholson than Cesar Romero.

Here are ComicsAlliance's reviews of these two episodes:

http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x05-the-joker-is-wild/
http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x06-batman-is-riled/

...which point out the anomaly that most of the dialogue and narration in this episode seems to have been written under the assumption that "Boy Wonder" was Robin's actual superhero name, rather than a descriptive epithet.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, the bedroom scene in "Panic in the Sky" really makes you wonder if there's supposed to be something else factoring into Superman's ability to hide his identity, like the super-hypnotism gimmick from that 70s story.

Also note that he now has not one but two spare costumes in his secret closet, when he only seemed to have one back in "The Stolen Costume". I suppose one might assume that he had the spare Kryptonian fabric and made another couple up (or had Ma do it, if she's still around)...or perhaps one of those was the knock-off costume of his impersonator from a couple of episodes before.

Also, MeTV cut out on me for a bit during the last 5 minutes when Superman was planting the bomb on the asteroid. When it picked back up, I presume he was supposed to be on the surface of the asteroid...in which case even the surface of an asteroid bears a remarkable resemblance to the Southern California countryside! And was it just me, or were there even birds chirping in that scene...?

I wasn't watching Batman or Wonder Woman closely, but it looks like they did set her up in L.A. with a new supporting cast in a pilot-like fashion. During that introductory scene showing all the establishing shots of L.A. landmarks, I could hear Jack Webb narrating in my head.

 

[Christopher]

^Speaking of LA, the Daily Planet Building bears an uncanny resemblance to Los Angeles City Hall, doesn't it?

And yeah, I didn't hear it myself, but IMDb's Goofs page for the episode did mention the birds chirping on the asteroid. Maybe they were... starlings! Yuk, yuk.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"This is the city--Los Angeles, California. Seven million residents count on the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department to protect them from all manner of threats to their safety and well-being. When we can't, we call on her. She works here. She carries a lasso."

BUMMM-ba-BUM-BUM!

 

[Christopher]

^Okay, now somebody needs to write the rest of that crossover.

That lasso would pretty much guarantee "just the facts," wouldn't it?

 

[RJDiogenes]

"How's your mom, Perry?"

I actually got to see part of Sci-Fi Saturday. They're still showing Community Auditions at 6pm, but I got to see the asteroid episode. Quite a mix of bad science and a compelling situation-- I liked how Superman was able to stop the imminent threat of the asteroid at the cost of injury to himself, but the asteroid ended up in orbit and remained a threat.

The bedroom scene cracked me up. Not only were they looking at bare-faced Clark, but he even asked them what Superman looked liked.

I thought the amnesia was handled well. He half-remembered things that he did by rote, like change into his Kent clothes and return to his apartment, and his memory seemed to return gradually, unlike the usual TV trope of needing a second knock on the head.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I've watched one of today's outings and thought I'd post while the thoughts are fresh....

"The Machine That Could Plot Crimes"--Superman isn't exactly setting a good example for the kiddies in this one, between his punch-and-run tactics when dealing with the decoy (even the '50s that had to be lawsuit material) and actively helping to commit a crime after receiving an unsubstantiated threat to his identity.

Episodes like this also make me wonder why they didn't think they could do Luthor on this show. Instead of having a crime-plotting computer or bank-robbing robot invented by a friendly professor and corrupted by a dumb thug, why not have them be the inventions of a recurring criminal mastermind?

Also, Lois's habitual berating of Clark gets a little silly at times...like when she yells at him to do something when they're both being held at gunpoint.

 

[Christopher]

"The Machine That Could Plot Crimes"--Superman isn't exactly setting a good example for the kiddies in this one, between his punch-and-run tactics when dealing with the decoy (even the '50s that had to be lawsuit material) and actively helping to commit a crime after receiving an unsubstantiated threat to his identity.

Well, he abetted their escape, that's all. I guess technically that counts, but aside from moving the truck, it's more passive than active.

The episode is notable for introducing the original voice of Winnie the Pooh, Sterling Holloway, in the first of his three scientist appearances on the show. He'll be back again as Oscar Quinn in "The Whistling Bird" later in the season, and then in the season 3 (and color) debut "Through the Time Barrier" as Professor Twiddle, who shares a surname with one of the various eccentric scientists from the Superman radio series (in "The Radar Rocket" in 1946, wherein his titular invention flew him and Jimmy to the Moon).

Episodes like this also make me wonder why they didn't think they could do Luthor on this show. Instead of having a crime-plotting computer or bank-robbing robot invented by a friendly professor and corrupted by a dumb thug, why not have them be the inventions of a recurring criminal mastermind?

I don't think it's that they felt they couldn't, just that it didn't occur to them. There were hardly any villains that ever crossed from one incarnation of Superman to another. The radio show and the comics never shared villains, nor did the Fleischer cartoons use any villains from either. The one crossover I'm aware of is that, shortly after the Fleischer cartoon "The Mechanical Monsters," the radio series did a story about an almost identical robot, though with a different origin. Luthor was used in the second Kirk Alyn serial, and he borrowed the nickname Atom Man from the radio show's most memorable villain even though he had nothing in common with the character, but that was about it. It just wasn't a normal practice at the time for Superman villains to cross media. It seems like a missed opportunity to modern eyes, but it just wasn't the way things were done at the time.

If anything, it was probably the '66 Batman series that created the mindset that a hero's rogues' gallery is every bit as important to an adaptation as the hero. It elevated the villains to "special guest" status and built the stories around their eccentricities, and that's influenced superhero movies ever since (just look at the Burton Batman movies, where Batman is essentially second banana to the villains). But even that show made up the vast majority of its villains from scratch. Only nine of its villains came from the comics: Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Clock King, and three characters who'd only appeared in one comics story each at the time: Mr. Freeze (as Mr. Zero), False Face, and Eivol Ekdal (the real villain of the "Zelda the Great" 2-parter). Superman had foes called Puzzler and Archer, but the Bat-villains of those names were not based on them. That means that nearly 3/4 of the show's villains were original creations. Admittedly, most of those were one-shot or two-time villains, with King Tut and Egghead being the most successful originals.


"Jungle Devil" was your typical stereotyped/vaguely racist portrayal of native tribes, even if it did try to be sympathetic in its way. I guess it wasn't as bad as it could've been. But it bothers me that Clark basically exposed his Superman identity to them, as if their knowing it didn't matter because they didn't really count as full-fledged people (though I liked the dramatic transformation). It's also odd that he could not only crush coal into a diamond, but crush it into a perfectly cut and polished one with his bare hand.

Still, he was totally rocking that pimp hat.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Jungle Devil" was pretty meh...I don't have anything to add about it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"My Friend Superman"

This is supposed to be a different diner than the one that they used an episode or two back, right? How many lookalike diners does the Planet crew frequent?

And you have to wonder that that sound of the recording playback wouldn't be heard from the next room.

Clark unbending the gun in a diner full of people...he's really playing fast and loose with the identity. Between stuff like that and the whole "he's the only one who knows how to contact Superman" schtick, you have to wonder why any Joe Schmoe couldn't have figured out who he was, never mind the Planet staff.

Noteworthy guest appearance that I wouldn't have known to spot until recently--One of the HOTW (hoods of the week) is played by Paul Burke, who'd go on to play one of the detectives on Naked City.

*******

"The Clown Who Knew Superman's Secret Dog"

I haven't watched this one yet.

 

[Christopher]

Clark unbending the gun in a diner full of people...he's really playing fast and loose with the identity. Between stuff like that and the whole "he's the only one who knows how to contact Superman" schtick, you have to wonder why any Joe Schmoe couldn't have figured out who he was, never mind the Planet staff.

I dunno, it seemed he was encouraging the diner owner's boasts in order to sow confusion about who Superman's real contact was. Which is a smart move where his secret is concerned, but kind of reckless where the owner's safety is concerned, let alone that of his daughter. The writers didn't really think that through, I think.

Also, the climax didn't make a lot of sense. Superman just came into the diner and started fighting with these guys before they'd actually committed their intended crime. That hardly seems legal. For that matter, why didn't the diner owner just sign one of those affidavits affirming that they were extorting protection money from him? Was this story even necessary?


EDIT: In "The Clown Who Cried," I love it that Clark's gambit to get rid of Lois so he could change to Superman was to drop and step on his glasses and send her off after his extra pair. His glasses aren't even needed as part of his disguise, apparently, so why does he wear them at all? I guess Lois and Clark's Martha Kent was right -- when he's in costume, nobody looks at his face!

Also, why would Clark agree to be the emcee of the telethon when he knew Superman was expected to show up? He just made things harder on himself and jeopardized the fundraising. Anyway, "send kids to camp" was a pretty anemic cause to hold a telethon for.

And Superman made a pretty ruthless call at the end there. Why couldn't he save them both? He's freakin' Superman! (Meanwhile, why didn't his x-ray vision immediately let him see through the fake clown's makeup? Why didn't his super-hearing discern the changed voice? Why didn't he notice the real clown lying behind the flimsy hammock?)

 

[Christopher]

I finally remembered to watch today's episodes live...

"The Boy Who Hated Superman": Yep, it's the 29-year-old boy who hated Superman. We were supposed to believe this guy was a minor? Well, Jack Larson was 26 at this point, and Jimmy Olsen's supposed to be a teenager. Still, this guy was even less convincing.

Jimmy looked pretty spiffy in that jacket, though.


"Semi-Private Eye": The Quest for Peace was right! Superman really does have the power to reassemble brick structures from a distance! He's not so good at spotting the people who push them over in the first place, though.

This was a pretty fun episode. Jack Larson had a real comic flair, and is more fun to watch than anyone else in the ensemble. Although he really behaved irresponsibly here. He endangered Lois and Garrity because he wanted to roleplay rather than involve the police, and he stole Garrity's hat and coat.

Interesting how both these episodes involve Superman's breath powers. I don't recall if the radio show ever used those. I guess they'd been established in the comics by this point.

 

[The Old Mixer]

U

I dunno, it seemed he was encouraging the diner owner's boasts in order to sow confusion about who Superman's real contact was. Which is a smart move where his secret is concerned, but kind of reckless where the owner's safety is concerned, let alone that of his daughter. The writers didn't really think that through, I think.

I thought he was trying to get the owner to confide in him in Superman's place. As for the daughter...Jimmy totally shoulda tapped dat.

Was this story even necessary?

Luthor's looking better and better, eh?

"The Clown Who Cried,"

Did the clown ever actually cry?

His glasses aren't even needed as part of his disguise, apparently, so why does he wear them at all? I guess Lois and Clark's Martha Kent was right -- when he's in costume, nobody looks at his face!

The more they let everyone clearly see his face without his glasses, the more I'm reminded of a bit in a Hyperion appearance in Thor. While impersonating the Squadron Supreme's Hyperion, the Squadron Sinister Hyperion surmises that people who know both of them are just used to the fact that Mark Milton and Hyperion look so much alike, and don't think anything of it.

Yep, it's the 29-year-old boy who hated Superman.

You looked that up, didn't you? I know, because you made me look it up! Actually, going by the episode's airdate, he still would have been 28 when it was filmed.

"Semi-Private Eye"

What, no mention of the dual Trek guest actor appearances of Elisha Cook and Paul Fix?

Jack Larson had a real comic flair, and is more fun to watch than anyone else in the ensemble.

He's good, but the more I watch, the more convinced I am that Reeves's charisma is what carries this show.

 

[Christopher]

Re: U

"Semi-Private Eye"

What, no mention of the dual Trek guest actor appearances of Elisha Cook and Paul Fix?

I noticed Cook, but not Fix.

He's good, but the more I watch, the more convinced I am that Reeves's charisma is what carries this show.

Honestly, I find Reeves rather bland. He's nowhere near as good as Bud Collyer was on radio, either at differentiating Clark from Superman or at playing either role with much intensity or emotion. But I guess he's got a sort of reassuring, avuncular charm that the kids probably liked.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Fix was the thug that Jimmy was trying to apprehend when he handcuffed himself to the bed.

 

[Christopher]

"Perry White's Scoop" didn't register with me much, I'm afraid, because I was distracted by my remote's mute button not working well and my effort to look up remote cleaning methods online, or failing that, to see if I had some universal remote I could program to take over the mute function. (On reflection, I remember that I've tried the latter before, but my central audio thingy is an older model that the universal remotes don't seem to have a code for.) What I did notice of it seemed rather convoluted. Why didn't diving-suit guy get out of the diving suit before going to alert the authorities? And why go to the Planet instead of the cops? (Well, maybe he wanted to sell his story.)

"Beware the Wrecker" made me wonder how all those previous disasters happened under Superman's nose -- especially when we saw that Clark was in the room when Perry got the threat for one of them, so he should've had plenty of time to intercept it. Also, how come they could hear the noise of the test-your-strength game (which I figured out well before they did) over the phone but couldn't hear the noise of the carnival crowd and the calling of the barker?

Lois's characterization is all over the map. One week, she's convinced that Clark is Superman and laying traps to expose him, then a week or two later she's convinced he's a feeble coward who couldn't possibly be Superman and doesn't get suspicious even when he destroys the strength machine (and why did he do that anyway?).

I totally failed to recognize Denver Pyle as the bomb-maker. I think I did find him a bit familiar, but I never would've recognized him as Uncle Jesse. Also of note in the cast: The airline official was played by Pierre Watkin, who had played Perry White in the Kirk Alyn movie serials, and was making his second of four appearances on the show. I read on IMDb that when John Hamilton died in 1958, the producers hired Watkin to replace him as Perry on the show (paralleling Noel Neill's career arc), but then George Reeves's death led to the show's cancellation shortly thereafter.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Perry White's Scoop"
...
Why didn't diving-suit guy get out of the diving suit before going to alert the authorities? And why go to the Planet instead of the cops? (Well, maybe he wanted to sell his story.)

And why was the thug waiting outside the Planet for diving suit guy to walk out the building fully suited up?

Loved the rooftop scene with the city backdrop that had large, clearly visible wrinkles (and I'm watching SDTV).

Denver Pyle

I'll have to watch for him...thanks for the heads-up.

The airline official was played by Pierre Watkin, who had played Perry White in the Kirk Alyn movie serials

...and was cast because his name was so close...?

ETA:

especially when we saw that Clark was in the room when Perry got the threat for one of them, so he should've had plenty of time to intercept it.

Yeah, that was a conspicuously odd thing to put out there...he's not usually the type to stand around with his hands in his pockets while somebody threatens to blow up a specific target in ten minutes.

Lois's characterization is all over the map. One week, she's convinced that Clark is Superman and laying traps to expose him, then a week or two later she's convinced he's a feeble coward who couldn't possibly be Superman and doesn't get suspicious even when he destroys the strength machine (and why did he do that anyway?).

Also, one week every TOTW knows that Clark Kent is the one guy who can get ahold of Superman...a week or two later, the Planet staff is putting notices in the paper to get Superman's attention.

I totally failed to recognize Denver Pyle as the bomb-maker.

And I still couldn't recognize him knowing exactly who he was.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, that was a conspicuously odd thing to put out there...he's not usually the type to stand around with his hands in his pockets while somebody threatens to blow up a specific target in ten minutes.

That opening montage looked like it was made from stock footage, like the montages that made up most of the first-season finale. So that would explain why it didn't quite fit. There was one bit where Lois was smiling just after Perry got a call that, according to the narrator, was a threat to kill hundreds. That must've been stock footage.

Also, one week every TOTW knows that Clark Kent is the one guy who can get ahold of Superman...

"Thug of the week"?