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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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]

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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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]

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.

 

[Dick Whitman]

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.

 

[tomswift2002]

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.

On a couple of later episodes I have noticed a few drop-outs, so even with the film masters still in the Warner Archive's it looks like the masters Warner used are from transfers done either while the show was on the air, or shortly after the series went off the air. But with the original film masters, hopefully someday we'll see a BD-R release in 1080p.

But this series is definitely better than Smallville.

Oh, yeah, one thing that is nice as a bonus is that most of the episodes still have the preview trailers intact, and it's not like the Trek releases where the trailers are a separate option, they are attached to the original episode they aired with.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I Like that! My earliest memory of the whole series is the preview at the end first episode of season 2.

It for the second part of Sherman Howard taking over as Lex Luthor. Like Hackman's Lex he wore wigs. But at 11 I am not sure I got that. So when there was a clip of Lex in a prison uniform sitting in the electric chair, I thought this is how Lex Luthor lost his hair. Which is really strange.... That I would have even know at that age about prisoners getting their head shaved before electrocution. I must of seen it in a movie my parents had seen on cable.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, Sherman Howard was an immeasurably better Lex Luthor than the college-kid version they had in the first season. He was even considered for Luthor on Superman: The Animated Series, and once the role went to Clancy Brown instead, the producers hired Howard to play the Luthoresque Derek Powers in Batman Beyond.

 

[tomswift2002]

I Like that! My earliest memory of the whole series is the preview at the end first episode of season 2.

Unfortunately that's not one of the episodes with it's trailer. The first three episodes don't have their trailers, and then there are like 5 or 6 in a row where the trailer is intact, and then there's one episode that doesn't have the trailer and then another 4 or 5 with their trailers. So, its not every episode. And the trailer for "Brimstone" (which is on "Run, Dracula, Run") looks like it might've come from a VHS tape, or a very poor transfer, since the first part clearly looks VHS quality, but then the rest gets better, but has ghosts of everyone and everything, almost like I was watching a recording that was taken from analog over-the-air broadcast, but the reception was being interfered with by a storm so everyone has ghosts. The actual "Brimstone" episode's quality is very good---it's not from VHS nor does it have the ghosting issue.

 

[davejames]

My favorite part of the show was simply getting to see more of those Reeve-style takeoffs and landings. The flying wasn't quite as smooth as in the movies, but it still looked far cooler and more convincing than any of the CG effects in Smallville.

And they had Christopher flying around a LOT on that show.