he does know he has stayed to long, that he is type cast anyone, he might as well fully embrace it, and get all the work he can from it.
TWO More Seasons of Smallville (At Least)
- Thread starter Frontier
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Interesting hypothesis. I could live with it. Although I'd be happier if they renamed the show Metropolis.
By the way, Lois using "Smallville" as Clark's nickname is something this show lifted from the Bruce Timm Superman: The Animated Series. Just as it lifted Jimmy's use of the "CK" nickname for Clark from Lois & Clark.
it's really time to transition the show from "smallville" to "metropolis" so that it can still remain and still progress.
there are practically no shows left that actually last this long so yes i will still keep watching this if it goes to season 15 or whatnot. >_<
there are practically no shows left that actually last this long so yes i will still keep watching this if it goes to season 15 or whatnot. >_<
he does know he has stayed to long, that he is type cast anyone, he might as well fully embrace it, and get all the work he can from it.
Their unwillingness ot use the costume never really had anything to do with Welling's fear of being typecast but everything to do with the legal issue surrounding the Superboy character, and to a lesser extent Superman.
As it stands, Time Warner can legally claim that the character of Clark Kent in Smallville is not in any way related to the characters of Superman and Superboy but is, in fact, a completely different independent creation who happens to have the same name and similar powers. But the second Clark puts on the costume or someone calls him Superman or Superboy, then they owe Jerry Siegel's estate a shitpot load of money. Superman Returns, they could stand the royalty hit because the movie wouldn't have worked without the name and the costume. For Smallville, not so much. In fact, during the production of Smallville Time Warner lost the rights to Superboy altogether. If they had let him wear the costume, then they'd be forced to give all of the revenues that they earned from the series to Siegel's estate. All of it. Because they didn't have the right to use the character.
Time Warner won their last appeal, but that just means retrial. It's a very messy thing going on right now.
In 2033, however, it becomes much less messy. In 2033 Superman and Superboy both enter into the public domain. At that point anyone can use the characters for anything. And Time Warner will have little choice but to make a series with the character wearing the suit, because if they don't someone else will.
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So no suit EVER on the show? I look forward to when the fans erupt with fury when the series finale doesn't have Welling in the suit.
So no suit EVER on the show? I look forward to when the fans erupt with fury when the series finale doesn't have Welling in the suit.
They don't need Welling, at least not to do any real acting. For once, CGI can do some good. Simply put Welling's head on Chris Reeve's body in that scene from the first film where Superman flies out of the Fortress just before the movie switches to Metropolis. The series can end with that. Welling doesn't have to put on the suit (I still don't know what the hell he's afraid of), we fans get our logical conclusion, everybody wins.
By the time the show ends, their high-priced lawyers will have likely ground Jerry Siegel's family into dust. But they're probably not going to pull out the suit or any name containing the prefix "Super" until all the legal issues are settled. It'll just make an already convoluted legal battle even more complicated.
But don't the opening credits basically admit that it's a Superman show?
I disagree. If anything, I think the situation will become much more messier. Superman is trademarked by DC/Warner/Whoever else and, as far as I know, that trademark won't go away (so no use of the "S" shield, for example). Also, I think the only Superman they would be able to use would be the very early version of him, where he was more violent and more of a public defender fighting corruption and whatnot. Also, I predict that Superboy will be argued to be a separate creation and his copyright won't be expired yet. I could be wrong on some of this, so if I am, please correct me.
Then again, Copyright Law can completely change, so who knows.
how is this show still on the air while other great series get canceled
Because more people are watching this show than watched those other series. Or because this show costs less money to make than those series did. It's a very easy question to answer, for this or any other show. TV is a business. If a show earns more money in ad revenues than it costs to make, it gets renewed. If it doesn't, it usually gets cancelled.
Damn...I'm not sure what to say about this. Many of you are aware of my growing conflicting feelings over the show. I was hesitant about a ninth season, but a tenth as well!!! I've been thinking along the lines of NX that the Red Blue Blurr is the Smallville version of Superman...I'm wondering if the development hell of the Superman film franchise has any bearing on why we haven't had mention of even the word Superman on the series yet. It's all well and good to tell the YOUTHFUL adventures of a YOUNG Clark Kent BEFORE he becomes Superman but sigh...get on with it already. Clark in the show is like 23 or 24 now or something. Damn...
Welling turned 32 in late April.
Trust me in the eyes of the CW they see more future in Supernatural then they do with Smallville.
Smallville is currently the highest rated scripted show on the CW, but it is also its most expensive. It's also a show that has been consistently getting lower and lower ratings for the last 4 years (never a good sign for an expensive shows longevity).
Add to this it will be going on Fridays were we can expect it to lose right out of the gate 25% of its audience. And more telling the cw didn't program anything else for that night. If the intent was to aggressively try and get back Friday's (something that the CW was king of with WWE even if the deal prevented them from making money off of it), then they would have put another show in the 9pm hour. As it is they have placed a rerun, a rerun that typically averages between 1.1 and 1.9 million viewers and fares poorly in the demos in that hour.
I think the Cw sees more long term growth with Supernatural ( a show that does have lower demos and viewers but also much cheaper) then Smallville. It had the most growth out of any CW show this season (not only outpacing all but one episode last year in viewers, but outpacing, or tying all of last year in demos) it also in 5 of those weeks outperformed its performance 2 years ago.
And while they have talked about a 5 year plan, the actors and the producers have admitted that isn't set in stone (And remember they originally ad a end date planned on Smallville as well).
Now of course, if Smallville manages to stay above 3 million (which it barely, and I mean barely did this season) then there is a good shot it will stay (of course assuming the CW is still in operation).
And of course if any of the shows do fail (and not just either of thursdays shows), then the CW would be extremely foolish to not slam Smallville in one of those slots. In fact that might be something they have in fact planned on as an sort of mid year replacement without actually being a mid year replacement.
Smallville is currently the highest rated scripted show on the CW, but it is also its most expensive. It's also a show that has been consistently getting lower and lower ratings for the last 4 years (never a good sign for an expensive shows longevity).
Add to this it will be going on Fridays were we can expect it to lose right out of the gate 25% of its audience. And more telling the cw didn't program anything else for that night. If the intent was to aggressively try and get back Friday's (something that the CW was king of with WWE even if the deal prevented them from making money off of it), then they would have put another show in the 9pm hour. As it is they have placed a rerun, a rerun that typically averages between 1.1 and 1.9 million viewers and fares poorly in the demos in that hour.
I think the Cw sees more long term growth with Supernatural ( a show that does have lower demos and viewers but also much cheaper) then Smallville. It had the most growth out of any CW show this season (not only outpacing all but one episode last year in viewers, but outpacing, or tying all of last year in demos) it also in 5 of those weeks outperformed its performance 2 years ago.
And while they have talked about a 5 year plan, the actors and the producers have admitted that isn't set in stone (And remember they originally ad a end date planned on Smallville as well).
Now of course, if Smallville manages to stay above 3 million (which it barely, and I mean barely did this season) then there is a good shot it will stay (of course assuming the CW is still in operation).
And of course if any of the shows do fail (and not just either of thursdays shows), then the CW would be extremely foolish to not slam Smallville in one of those slots. In fact that might be something they have in fact planned on as an sort of mid year replacement without actually being a mid year replacement.
Pushing Daisies had over 2 million viewers per ep, and it wasn't enough to save it. I can't honestly remember now what the last Season of Smallville I watched to the end was....2 or maybe part way through 3? I honestly just got bored with it as it pretty much kept rehashing the same thing over and over and over. It sounds like they're just beating a dead horse, more or less.
But the CW is a considerably smaller network than ABC. 2 million viewers therefore represents a larger percentage of its total potential audience, and is thus a better rating. You can't treat the raw numbers as absolutes. Statistics are only meaningful in the right context. A ratings figure that's disastrously low for ABC or CBS would be comfortable for the CW and downright huge for USA or SciFi, say. (That's why Law & Order: Criminal Intent went from being an NBC show rerun on USA to a USA show rerun on NBC: because its ratings dropped too low for NBC to justify producing it any further, but those same ratings still made it a success by cable standards.)
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