Yesterday was the 30th anniversary. And nothing from DC. I understand that Viacom produced the show. But DC writers played a part in the story lines etc. People forget it was popular enough for Entertainment Tonight to do stories on it. And have known guest stars. And people need to remember a lot of what was done on Lois & Clark and yes Smallville was done on Superboy. I saw a recent show were the panelists spoke about the show in a negative way. The show got better each season.
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It definitely would’ve been cool to see some kind of acknowledgement about the anniversary. As far as the panelists go I actually like that they were allowed to express their opinion honestly. I love watching the panelists geek out about stuff I’m passionate about and if they all just liked everything that was on DC Universe I would feel as if I were watching an in-app commercial instead of a talk show
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Agree. It’s just that most times you hear people say it doesn’t hold up. But yet love to 1950’s show. Not saying it was bad. People praise Lois & Clark but diss Superboy.
I suspect a lot of that hate for the show is due to how for a few decades after its release, only season 1 was available on DVD. Harveysuperboy.48848 mentioned that it got better every season: I’d agree with that. Having ‘Season 1’ being the only accessible part of the show for nearly thirty years did little to enhance its legacy. That said, I agree: there are some nice aspects to it.
And the conspiracy theorist in me even thinks ‘Smallville’ heisted certain plots wholesale from its predecessor: What? Lex Luthor and Superboy are locked in a mineshaft littered with Kryptonite, and they have no choice but to talk about their relationship as they wait for Lana Lang to rescue them? That is a really specific setup, and it is done verbatim in both shows. I don’t think it would hurt to tip the hat to the show, campy though it was.
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Superboyo does not hold up as well as LOIS AND CLARK, IMO. The effects are not as good and the acting was cringe worthy at times…
You must have not watched the show. And if you’re really honest about it. Lois & Clark first season is a RIP off of Superboy. Watch season 3 and 4 of Superboy and watch the 1st season of L&C . Season 2 of both went hard on the comic book type stories. Heck Gerard Christopher was cast until Warner Bros casting found out. Gerard even set stories ideals to Smallville I once read. One of the heads of Warner even knew about the show Peter Roth I believe his name is.
Also Superboy had better wire work than L&C and Smallville
Superboy 100 episodes L&C 76 or so.
To be fair the DC Daily crew only watched an episode or so. They were only basing their opinion on a small part of the show and not the entire series. If it got better later, that’s good to hear. I might have to watch it.
Superboy is definitely showing it’s age (although so are pretty much all the shows on DCU, as almost every live action and animated show on here is decades old) but I also think that the bad quality of season 1 has definitely tainted it. The show was not at it’s best in season 1, and improved a lot in season 2 and even more in season 3 and 4. The problem is because rights issues kept it from airing anywhere on TV in the US and most countries after it’s intial airing and to this day it has not aired anywhere on US television after it’s initial run. So most DC fans especially younger ones didn’t even know it existed until the 2011 DVD, and while Amazon had it availiable also for download it was not cheat so few watched it I am sure. So most people who saw it after it aired be it on the DVD’s, Amazon or here made the logical choice to start at the beginning, and well… the first season was not great and the fact it was over 20 years old even by 2011 never mind now and without nostalgia it didn’t hold up. It got better but most never got that far because fans are trained to want to go from beginning to end and a lot never made it past the hard to watch 1st season.
But I think most don’t appreciate the show for what it is. It was a very popular and successful show at the time it aired that introduced a lot of kids and even adults to the Superman mythos. Just the legal problems that kept it from having any kind of life in reruns ensured that until fairly recently it was little more then a forgotten footnote.
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Agree.
I personally thought it hit its stride by the end of Season 1. And then I was getting used to the first actor who played Superboy.
They changed him and Lex Luthor at the start of season 2, but i got used to that too.
I did like the wire work (also used in the movies) and the 30 minute format. And loved the villains taken right from the DC Comics.
Still love T.J. as my favorite secondary character!
Got all the episodes on DVD. I still think it stands up to this day.
Jim
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And if you compare Superboy to TV’s Wonder Woman, Supes definitely surpassed WW in its later seasons. So check it out…
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