Anyone remember Superboy (88-92)

[Christopher]

I just remember an episode where I guess Superboy was trying to save a space shuttle launch; and while I didn't expect great visual effects, I swear as I watched it I was thinking - "Wow the Superman series from the mid-1950s did better flying visual effects than these... and had more cohesive story plots."

The space shuttle launch was in the pilot episode (which was not the first episode aired, so it had a frame sequence added to make it work as a flashback, although the frame is not included in the version I saw on DC Universe). Weirdly, Superboy didn't actually try to save the launch; it was just something that happened in the background while he was rescuing Lana from gunrunners in a helicopter, who were just at the Cape because they figured nobody'd notice them escaping to a submarine while there was a space shuttle taking off. Did I mention how truly terrible the first 8 or so episodes are?

So yeah, It wasn't until nearly a decade later that I found out this particular series had three separate seasons; although I admit I've never watched anything beyond the two or three first season episodes I saw - and what I related above is about all I can remember of it.

It had four seasons, the latter two of which were almost a totally different, far superior show.

I really wanted Gerard Christopher to appear in the CW's Crisis as Old Superboy.

Me too. Or Stacy Haiduk as Lana, or both. It would've worked so well, since Superboy dealt with the multiverse himself in season 3.

I read the tie-in comic which I enjoyed at the time for what it was. I seem to recall a pseudo-Legion story. Yes, the Mazerunners, the 23rd-century Legion-ish team of teenaged assholes!

Oh, I never knew about that.

 

[JoeZhang]

Yep it's a homage to the first legion story. There is a follow-up where he travels forward to their time and then ends up in 2001 where he meets Superman and Batman IV is on at the cinema...

It's sort of weird because he meet versions of Jimmy, Lois and others as they would be in 2001 (were they in the show? - I read the comic but never saw the show) and Curt Swan draws it but he attempts to draw Superman as he would based on the actor - so it's sort of like Curt Swan classic Superman but not quite...

 

[The Realist]

The space shuttle launch was in the pilot episode (which was not the first episode aired, so it had a frame sequence added to make it work as a flashback, although the frame is not included in the version I saw on DC Universe).

The frame isn't included in the version on the DVDs either. Just as well, since I gather it required edits to the original cut of the episode to make room for it -- though the alternate version of the episode, or even just the frame as a "deleted scenes" kind of presentation, would've been a nice bonus.

Here are low-quality versions of the frame I found on YouTube:

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It's sort of weird because he meet versions of Jimmy, Lois and others as they would be in 2001 (were they in the show? - I read the comic but never saw the show)

No, Lois and Jimmy never appeared on the show. Lana Lang and T. J. White sort of filled those roles for storytelling purposes (though T. J. was in the first season only).

 

[Christopher]

Oh, I meant I never knew there was a comic based on the show. Although it stood to reason, since DC did comics tie-ins to plenty of other DC-based shows.

I wonder how hard it would be to get hold of the comic. It would be a nice addendum to my Patreon review series.

Here are low-quality versions of the frame I found on YouTube:

Cute bit. But wow, it's amazing how terrible Stacy Haiduk's acting was back then, compared to how excellent she became later on. They were all pretty bad to start with, but she started out the worst, yet became the show's greatest asset as it continued.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Jor-El and Lara did "appear" once (though they turned out to be not what they seemed), and they were played by two James Bond veterans, George Lazenby and Britt Ekland.

Man, they do like casting older actors as Jor-el and Lara. Has there ever been a young actor as Jor-el? One that looks like he might be the father of an infant son?
Yes, I know that older men can father children.

 

[Christopher]

Man, they do like casting older actors as Jor-el and Lara. Has there ever been a young actor as Jor-el? One that looks like he might be the father of an infant son?
Yes, I know that older men can father children.

The second screen Jor-El, Robert Rockwell in the 1952 Adventures of Superman: "Superman on Earth," was 31 at the time. The first, Nelson Leigh in the Kirk Alyn serial, was in his early 40s. The rest all seem to be late 40s to 50s.

I think it's reasonable, though; Jor-El isn't just the father of an infant, he's the most accomplished scientist on Krypton and a member of the Kryptonian council. It makes sense that someone of that status would've needed a fair number of years to earn it -- and that his scientific pursuits might have kept him from finding a wife or starting a family until later in life.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Oh, I meant I never knew there was a comic based on the show. Although it stood to reason, since DC did comics tie-ins to plenty of other DC-based shows.

I wonder how hard it would be to get hold of the comic. It would be a nice addendum to my Patreon review series.

There's two complete sets for sale on ebay, both in Canada, for about $65 as I write this. Plus, a bunch of single issues.

I can't imagine that it sold well and, thus, there aren't many copies floating around. Late in the run DC switched it to bimonthly. I can't say for certain, but I'm sure the comic shop I worked for in the 90s wouldn't have ordered more than two or three copies of later issues, and I'd imagine that was probably true elsewhere.

Yep it's a homage to the first legion story. There is a follow-up where he travels forward to their time and then ends up in 2001 where he meets Superman and Batman IV is on at the cinema...

It's sort of weird because he meet versions of Jimmy, Lois and others as they would be in 2001 (were they in the show? - I read the comic but never saw the show) and Curt Swan draws it but he attempts to draw Superman as he would based on the actor - so it's sort of like Curt Swan classic Superman but not quite...

I harbor the suspicion that this series existed pretty much to give Curt Swan regular work.

I also have this memory of Mike Carlin writing in a letter column that the comic wasn't exactly a Superboy tie-in, that it was using the ideas of the television series but could do more because DC had characters and concept that the television series didn't have access to. A tie-in, but not a tie-in, which is the same approach of The Batman Adventures a few years later -- it looked like the animated series, but it wasn't exactly based on it.

 

[FreezeC77]

I remember where I was the channel that aired Superboy aired it in a hour block along with another superpowered show My Secret Identity(Jerry O'Connell pre-sliders as a teen with superpowers)

 

[Christopher]

I also have this memory of Mike Carlin writing in a letter column that the comic wasn't exactly a Superboy tie-in, that it was using the ideas of the television series but could do more because DC had characters and concept that the television series didn't have access to. A tie-in, but not a tie-in, which is the same approach of The Batman Adventures a few years later -- it looked like the animated series, but it wasn't exactly based on it.

That sounds pretty typical of DC's tie-ins -- they tell stories set in a version of the adaptation's continuity but introduce DC characters the adaptation can't use. I have to question Carlin's definitions, though, because that's pretty much what tie-ins do as a matter of course -- use the setting of the series, but do more than it can do within TV constraints.

Although it can vary how well or poorly they fit. I have the Flash TV Special issue that they did to tie into the 1990 series, and it had two stories. One was a John Byrne story that was a very poor fit to the show's continuity, only using two of the main characters and feeling like Byrne just pulled a generic and quite mediocre Flash story out of his inventory and tweaked it a bit. It even depicts Barry Allen as a blonde like in the comics. (Coincidentally, it features a wheelchair-bound villain named Dr. Wells! And he's around the right age to be the Earth-90 doppelganger of Harrison Wells.) But the second story -- by Mark Waid shortly before he began his acclaimed run on The Flash -- meshes very well with the show's continuity and feels tonally and structurally like an episode with a higher-than-usual FX budget. It introduces a version of Kid Flash who's a one-shot delinquent rather than Wally West, probably because they didn't want to steal the show's thunder if it did Wally later on (which it never got the chance to do). I wonder if this story was part of what got Waid hired on the main title.

Looking at the DC Database, it looks like the Superboy comic was largely written by people who'd written for the show, like John Francis Moore and Stan Berkowitz. So it might be a better fit than most.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I have the first season on DVD, and tried watching it as a nostalgia watch. Not even the divine Stacy Haiduk could help me get through the whole first season. Oh. My. God. Bad. It was like some college kids got together and cranked out some halfassed videos for a film class they didn't care about.

Bad as it could be--and it was, it was still superior to so many DC productions of that era, just on a storytelling level.