MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Christopher]

"King for a Day"

Jimmy's actually impersonating a prince...but nice to see what General Burkhalter was up to after the war.

This one is sort of like "Flight to the North" in being an idiot premise episode. Jimmy is outspoken in trying to tell everyone that he's not the prince, but the bad guys never consider the possibility that he might not be.

Well, this is basically a sitcom by this point, at least when Jimmy's the focus. So character realism isn't really a priority. Look at how casually the princess transferred her affections to the real prince at the end.

And what's with all the bent knives and swords in this show? If a blade were stabbed into Superman's body -- or his hand, as with the sword here -- wouldn't it actually break?

"Joey"

I had a hard time focusing on this one...had to rewind several times to catch what I'd missed when my attention wandered to something else. But I caught a few things.

Lois comments on Clark's cowardice...a trait that he doesn't actually tend to exhibit on the show.

Well, it's based on the way he tends to disappear when there's trouble. Although you're right that he does act pretty fearless most of the time. The radio show did the same thing -- occasionally they had Clark pull a Don Diego and insist he had to leave because he was too afraid, but often they had him act quite bold and fearless as Clark, and often they had him do superhuman feats as Clark and then try to pass it off as dumb luck -- like, say, the bad guy knocking himself out! I think they had Lois comment on Clark's contradictions a number of times, how he could be intrepid one moment and timid the next.

If the farmer had a phone, why didn't they call ahead in the first place before going to get the girl? You'd think they'd want to give some warning, especially as they were on such a tight schedule.

Yeah, that bugged me too. Although I was wondering more why Lois didn't stop at the nearest phone after being turned away and try to confirm the recurring thug's story. She is supposed to be a reporter, after all.

And in contrast to the recurring thug knocking himself out again, Superman used rather excessive force with the two baddies at the end, didn't he? They hadn't committed a violent crime (except animal cruelty) and weren't threatening anyone, just trying to escape, and yet he karate-chopped them unconscious without any provocation.

And man, that girl had an unhealthy relationship with that horse. Although it's not as bad as Supergirl's relationship with Comet the Wonder Horse, who was actually a centaur who was cursed into the form of a horse but who sometimes could transform into a man who was a romantic interest for Supergirl. She didn't know the guy she was in love with was the same entity as her horse, but still...

 

[The Old Mixer]

Well, it's based on the way he tends to disappear when there's trouble.

But he has an excuse, though he doesn't use it...on the show, it's usually common knowledge that Clark is the only one who can contact Superman.

I think they had Lois comment on Clark's contradictions a number of times, how he could be intrepid one moment and timid the next.

If only the TV show were that smart about it. Lois's behavior towards Clark often seems unjustified compared to what he actually says and does.


*******

"The Unlucky Number"

HUGE coincidence that one of the thugs who was rigging the contest just happened to be boarding with the woman whom Clark randomly helped win it.

The bit with the kid thinking that the thug was Superman was kind of cute for gimmicky filler. Again they have a twenty-something actor playing a kid.

Noteworthy cameo: I spotted Superman, Superboy, and Batman comics at that newsstand.

*******

"The Big Freeze"

That scientist's speech pattern got old very fast, that scientist's speech pattern. Reminded me of Yoda it did, reminded me of Yoda.

I can't believe that freezing Superman actually worked, I can't believe.

So much for the theory that Superman's gotten rid of all major crime in Metropolis, so much for the theory. They can't run an honest election without Superman patrolling the polling places, can't run an honest election.

Stop talking like this I must, stop talking.

*******

"The Big Freeze" aired on Mar. 3, 1956.

Ladies and gentlemen, The King has entered the building....

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4euyTDhFnk[/yt]

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

It's still weird to me watching a superhero show were we get stories about people fixing raffles and jelly bean counting contests. It's just so mundane compared to the kinds of stories we get in modern superhero shows.

That's exactly why most superhero adaptations in TV and movies tend not to interest me.

What do you think of the Marvel movies?

 

[Christopher]

"The Unlucky Number"

HUGE coincidence that one of the thugs who was rigging the contest just happened to be boarding with the woman whom Clark randomly helped win it.

The bit with the kid thinking that the thug was Superman was kind of cute for gimmicky filler. Again they have a twenty-something actor playing a kid.

I thought the kid was really dumb. Hasn't he ever heard of bulletproof vests? And where did he get that whole idea that he was being "tested" for his ability to keep a secret?

But the guy who shot Dex had incredible aim. Imagine -- a drive-by shooting where all the bullets hit the guy being shot at and do no damage to the bystander two feet away from him or the house behind them.

"The Big Freeze"

That scientist's speech pattern got old very fast, that scientist's speech pattern.

It wasn't the speech pattern that bothered me so much as the delivery. The actor did it far too slowly and deliberately for it to feel like a spontaneous verbal tic.

I can't believe that freezing Superman actually worked

I just find it refreshing when someone comes up with a way to hurt Superman other than kryptonite. And I guess the idea is that extreme cold renders strong materials weak and brittle, so there's a certain comic-booky logic to it.

But it was weird that Superman just stepped out of the chamber and said his strength was gone before he'd even tried using it.

So much for the theory that Superman's gotten rid of all major crime in Metropolis, so much for the theory. They can't run an honest election without Superman patrolling the polling places, can't run an honest election.

Maybe it goes in cycles. First Superman cleans up all the serious crime, so Metropolis is peaceful for a while; then he gets complacent from dealing with so many petty crooks and crises, and that gives the serious mobsters and racketeers an opening to move back in. Eternal vigilance, y'know!

And the inability to hold an election without Superman speaks less to me of a glut of organized crime as of a total absence of an effective police force. Maybe they got so used to Superman doing it all that they laid off most of the cops.

Still, I kinda liked this one. It evoked the crusading social-activist spirit of the radio series in the post-WWII years, when Superman and the Planet were battling political corruption on a regular basis (when they weren't fighting racism and hatemongering -- and sometimes the corrupt politicians were the hatemongers, much like today). I kind of wish the script had stuck to its guns with the message that the people shouldn't depend too much on Superman. I was hoping it would end up with Superman helpless to do anything during Election Day but then making the surprise discovery that the ordinary citizens of Metropolis had stood up to the thugs and gone to the polls in droves. Or maybe Superman could've resolved things by making a speech to the populace and telling them to be strong and vote their conscience, leaving it in their hands. There was the token gesture with the ordinary voter punching out the thug, but it still relied too much on Superman.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"The Big Freeze" is also another one that falls under the category of "Coulda Been Luthor".

If only....If only....

 

[Christopher]

The radio series got by fine without Luthor, but then, it introduced its own supervillains (although it was pretty bad at reusing them -- on those occasions when they were brought back, they often lost the traits that made them distinctive or were just there to pass the torch to the new villain).

 

[The Old Mixer]

On an alternate thread-related topic...how the hell did I go 45 years as a comic book geek and 60s aficionado without ever having heard of these...?

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRcIDybVxOg[/yt]
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QHaJokNG10[/yt]

 

[jbny67]

^^
Jan & Dean recorded an entire Batman concept album.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, I saw that.

Meanwhile, back in Metropolis....

*******

"Peril by Sea"

Superman saves scientist Perry White from sub skipper Sheriff Lobo!

So why didn't Clark have his name on the door this time? It seemed like a longer-term gig than before.

Is there any radio show precedent for Perry's amateur scientist bit? It seemed very contrived.

As did Jimmy being able to get a story printed with no supervision....

*******

"Topsy Turvy"

This invention, OTOH, Luthor wouldn't be caught dead with....

 

[RJDiogenes]

It's still weird to me watching a superhero show were we get stories about people fixing raffles and jelly bean counting contests. It's just so mundane compared to the kinds of stories we get in modern superhero shows.

That's exactly why most superhero adaptations in TV and movies tend not to interest me.

What do you think of the Marvel movies?

I haven't seen a lot of them. I liked Captain America, especially because it was a period piece. The Avengers wasn't so bad, but it was long and boring. The story could have been told in an hour. I literally dozed off three times during the climactic battle and had to rewind. I tried to watch Iron Man and couldn't get into it. I didn't care for Fantastic Four. I liked the first Spider-Man movie okay way back when. I liked the first X-Men movie okay, but it didn't sparkle. First Class was better, partially because it was a period piece. I plan to watch Days of Future Past, but I haven't seen it yet.

On an alternate thread-related topic...how the hell did I go 45 years as a comic book geek and 60s aficionado without ever having heard of these...?

Nice.

"Whoooooo are you?"

"I'm the goddamn Batman!"

 

[The Old Mixer]

I read that the Batman album was the last one that Jan & Dean made before Jan's accident...but it makes you wonder why The Who didn't appear on the show. We got Paul Revere & The Raiders, Chad & Jeremy, and Leslie Gore. How about Pete Townshend smashing his guitar on the atomic reactor in the Batcave...?

ETA: Before somebody asks:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYkGimCrcRg[/yt]

Back on "The Big Freeze"...was that the world's smallest polling place? They have no school gymnasiums in Metropolis?

 

[Christopher]

Back on "The Big Freeze"...was that the world's smallest polling place? They have no school gymnasiums in Metropolis?

Yeah, that bugged me too. Since when is voting conducted in someone's living room? I know they only have so many available sets, but they had that big laboratory earlier in the episode. Did they not have enough shooting time to redress that set as a polling place?

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was getting a "reception area of a small doctor's office" vibe from it myself.

There are probably third-world countries with one dictator on the ballot that have bigger polling places than that.

 

[Christopher]

It looked like a redress of the standard living-room set to me. Although they put up a brick wall outside the door to make it look like it was on a city street.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The reception area in some small doctor's offices would have been the living room in a multi-family home, so we can split the difference.

*******

"Jimmy the Kid"

This one was kind of cute as evil twin episodes go...and featured a less contrived reason to have Jack Larson/Jimmy assume another role than some episodes have. Clearly the show-makers were giving Larson lots to do from the get-go. Neill never seems to get stories that center on her.

OMFG, the Planet really does have a city room...with other reporters and everything!

And yet again the hidden closet proves to be a liability. Clark can't find a less conspicuous place to stash his spare costume? Yet the plot point is too-conveniently hand-waved away. I swear, this version of Superman keeps his secret through sheer force of will. It's like the Jedi mind trick--Somebody voices a suspicion that he's Superman, he gives a half-assed excuse, and that's the end of it.

At this point, the show seems to be finding more creative ways of having Superman pop up...from a closet a few episodes back, now from inside a safe.

"Don't shoot, bullets are bouncing all over...not that we're ducking for cover or anything!"

And this time Supes takes out three thugs with one punch...after which Not-Jimmy gets treated to a rare single-thug punch. Such a wasted opportunity...I'm sure Jack Larson could have knocked himself out with the best of them!

This episode aired on Apr. 28, 1956...the debut of the Fat Man's second top 10 hit on the pop charts (and fifth #1 on the R&B charts):

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lqVk5eyMac[/yt]

 

[The Old Mixer]

"The Girl Who Hired Superman"

"Superman's not for sale"...unless you have a pie that needs delivered to Alaska...then you get first-class service!

Turning coal into a diamond is a classic Superman trick, but I've never heard of him turning a (fake) diamond to powder and crushing it back together. I can't buy that his super-pressure would allow him to restore the stone's cut.

Charity or no, Superman putting on a private show for the lady didn't feel right...but it would have been a nice bit if they'd done an episode that had him performing for orphans or children in a hospital. Perhaps a room full of child extras would have been beyond the show's means.

A plot involving a photographic negative and Superman didn't fog it with his X-ray vision...or did he and I missed it?

This episode features classier-than-usual bad guys...but rank amateurs who were far too eager to give away their schemes to anyone who'd listen, whether asked or not.

Lois and Jimmy should have called about the film holder, instead of practically turning themselves in to the bad guys.

And one of those bad guys was a bit eager to shoot at Clark instead of just, you know, just holding him at gunpoint....

On the subject of bad film quality...Clark's suit seemed to change color in the middle of one scene, the film was so yellowed.

So did Clark have some way of making the lightning strike the antenna? Otherwise, it seems like he was counting on getting a little too lucky.

Once again sending kids to summer camp comes up as a charity, and this time it's established to be Superman's favorite. He must have wanted to go real bad as a kid but the Kents couldn't afford it.

 

[Greg Cox]

Hmm. I see "House of Horror" with Rondon Hatton is on Svengoolie tonight. Not sure I've ever seen that one . . ..

 

[Morpheus 02]

Kinda sad we don't get to see the 1st Episode of Wonder Woman.But interesting that episodes 2 & 3 feature female villains.

 

[Christopher]

"Peril by Sea"

Superman saves scientist Perry White from sub skipper Sheriff Lobo!
...
Is there any radio show precedent for Perry's amateur scientist bit? It seemed very contrived.

None that I recall, nor any in the comics. It seems like it was probably plotted with a guest scientist in mind but rewritten with Perry for some reason, perhaps not having the budget to hire another guest star.

This one had a lot of weird quirks, though. Not only scientist Perry and Clark not seeing the story before the papers were distributed, but other stuff too. For one thing, uranium-183 is a physical impossibility. It would have one less neutron than it had protons, giving the nucleus a net positive charge that would blow it apart instantly from mutual repulsion. The only element that has an isotope 183 is tungsten.

Then there's the fact that Perry's secret research cottage had the worst security guard ever. Not only did he just take the bad guys' word that they were who they said they were, but he didn't even give Lois a chance to tell him otherwise. And on the way out, Claude Akins was all but twirling his mustache, and the guard still totally bought everything he said. That's what you want in a security guard -- a completely trusting nature.

And while we're at it, how exactly did the hoods hide in the back seat of a convertible? You'd think Lois and Jimmy would've seen them before they got in the car. But I admire the thugs' comic timing -- the way they deliberately waited to show themselves until Jimmy said something that would make a good entrance line.

And since when did Superman's x-ray vision come with alternate angles and audio? I guess he was supposed to be reading their lips, but still. And I guess he was using super-ventriloquism to talk underwater and through the periscope. Interesting, though, that he makes the same whooshing-air sound while "flying" underwater.

 

[The Old Mixer]

None that I recall, nor any in the comics. It seems like it was probably plotted with a guest scientist in mind but rewritten with Perry for some reason, perhaps not having the budget to hire another guest star.

Yeah, it reminded me of the show's oft-used contrivance of pulling out a supporting character's guest relative of the week, but taken to the next level by giving the role to the supporting character himself.

And since when did Superman's x-ray vision come with alternate angles and audio?

The audio's easy enough to explain...he's using his super-hearing at the same time.


*******

"The Wedding of Superman"

And I was just saying that they didn't do any Neill-centric episodes....OTOH, it features Lois sniffling over the lovelorn column. Not exactly the sort of Lois that we've become used to in more recent decades.

I always found this one striking because of the way it brings the romantic angle of Superman's relationship with Lois to the forefront, completely out of the blue, when the show otherwise ignores it entirely. I suppose it can be justified within the context of the show in that...

[cliché]...it was only a dream. *sigh*[/cliché]

It's interesting how Lois subconsciously knows that Clark is Superman....

"Clark, I had a dream last night...and in it, you were Superman!"
"But...I'm not Superman!"
"You. Are. Not. Su-per-man."

Clark's comment about Superman not having time for baseball got a good LOL from me...nice comic delivery.


*******

"Dagger Island"

Hey, hey, there's Lois's office!

I wasn't watching this one very closely, but closely enough to notice that it's chock full of more of those major color/quality shifts. It makes me wonder if they did any remastering/restoration for the DVD releases.