I have been thinking about this the past few days. Wasnât Superboy a show made by the same people that did the Superman movies? I am not sure that would be a hurdle to get over as they arenât all DC characters, even if they are. Not sure if that makes sense or not. Sort of like why the show is on Tubi and not HBOMax as it seems the DC shows that arenât WB owned end up there.
Shoâ 'nuff, it was a production of the Salkinds.
As I was reading about Gerard Christopherâs secret home video stash, I also read-up on the Salkinds, and the legal uncertainties regarding whether they actually had the rights to produce a Superboy TV series. The legal muckity-muck is what kept the show from reruns and home video in the mid-to-late '90s and early '00s (not counting Mr. Christopher doling out his private stash at cons, of course).
Warner Brothers Television definitely owns The Flash and Birds of Prey, while having acquired Shazam! in their purchase of Filmation years and years ago.
Viacom (the eventual owners of Paramount) originally produced Superboy, but WBTV acquired it years after, much as they acquired Supergirl from TriStar Pictures.
This is to say that the only major DC production thatâs been on Tubi in recent memory that is not owned by WBTV is Swamp Thing, which is currently absent from Tubi, as of this writing.
I kinda-sorta wish WBTV would acquire the rights to the '90s Swamp Thing shows (LA and animated). Then, they could:
A. Clean up both for HD releases.
B. Reissue both for the home video market, as existing home video releases of the Swamp Thing shows are OOP, and hit and miss in quality.
Who wouldnât want to see the live-action Arcaneâs mullet in glorious HD video as only Warner Home Entertainment could remaster it?
Superboy Fun Fact: Sherman Howard and Gilbert Gottfried both got their DC starts with Superboy, before going onto braver and bolder work within the DCAU years later, with Gottfried voicing Mr. Mxyzptlk on STAS and Howard voicing Blight on Batman Beyond.
Another thing I remember about Superboy was itâs amazing take on Bizarro. Both Superboy and Bizarro regarded each other as brothers, so any time he showed up, it was special. And the make up was impressive for the time. I think this may be my favorite live-action Bizarro. You feel for the guy.
QFT. He was played as a sympathetic villain, and I think heâs the best of the Super rogues gallery that made it to the show.
I looked it up, that is the show I was thinking of. Saw it was syndication so apparently I was remembering wrong about it being on USA, but that is definitely what I was thinking of.
Also saw it did in fact come out before X-Files, so yeah as someone else stated X-Files was not the first to do the premise of inverstigating unexplained phenomenon. Although they definitely were the most succesful.
It was on USA for a while. I knew what show you meant but for expediency I looked it up under list of USA Network shows.
I havenât checked for Batman on Tubi in a while but that is owned by Fox if I remember correctly. To make the circle complete, Fox owns Tubi.
If you could recommend someone just one Superboy one shot to get them into this character, which one would it be?
And do you have any favorite comic references that were included in the TV series?
Superboy was one of the first shows I watch on DC Universe and then it was gone!
The only thing Iâve ever like about the show is Lana Lang.
The rights to Batman are complicated and Fox Corporation is basically all the stuff retained by Rupert Murdoch after the sale to Disney.
The last time I saw a clip of batman 66 in another movie the clip was credited to warner bros.
Simply put-- who owns Batman from 1966? Nobody seems to be clear on that. But the movie is probably owned by 20th Century and thereforâŠ
After two seconds of research, 2oth Century now Disney seems to hold television distribution rights, and Warners seems to have home media distribrution rights-- meaning either one could be providing to Tubi, but more likely Warnerâs since they did the remasters being used.
However, it would oddly likely have to be Disney distributing to an internal source, say Disney+ or Max. Since theyâd likely have to kickback for the remasters, its unlikely that Disney+ would ever see batman, and warners is unlikely to pay for a DC property to show up on Max.
Is Hulu possible with a little detante?
Maybe.
Iâd hope it stays on Tubi.
'Tis owned by Fox (with WB overseeing domestic home video releases), which is why I didnât list it, Batman (the '40s movie serial) or The Adventures of Shazam, as theyâre owned by non-WB outlets.
From Superboy: The Comic Book, I recommend this issue:
Superboyâs been pinched by the cops! What happened? Youâll have to read it to find out!
Seriously though, I bought that issue at a gas station when I was a kid, so its largely a nostalgia-backed recommendation.
I wasnât really watching the show when I (my parents technically, as I was very little at the time) nabbed that mag, but seeing Superboy getting pinched by the fuzz caught my eyes then, and I had to know what was going on.

do you have any favorite comic references that were included in the TV series?
Yeah, Lana.
Kidding aside, letâs seeâŠnothing that really stands out, TBH. There are little nods to comic things here and there, but overall, nothing that has stood out in a âNow, that was a cool nod.â fashion.
Of course, I still havenât seen the whole series (yeah, I owned it on DVD for years, but even so, I still didnât watch it all ), so once I do (and Rao knows when that will be), Iâll get back to you, as Iâm sure there are some spiffy references lying in wait in new-to-me episodes that will make me say âNow, that was a cool nod.â

The only thing Iâve ever like about the show is Lana Lang.
She got an action figureâŠin a completely different line based on a completely different TV show:
You know, one wonders how history would have played out if Playmates had made toys for the Superboy TV series in 1988 instead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Playmates honcho: âYou passed on Ninja Turtles for Superboy?!â
Playmates exec: âWell, Abrams passed on Star Wars, soâŠâ
Honcho: âAND?!â
Exec: âIâŠIâm going to go work for Toy Biz. Iâll make a Superman figure with a magnet inside him!â
sits back and imagines Toy Biz-style Superboy figures
Those would be super, indeed.
Fun Fact: Seaquest was filmed on the exact same soundstage as The Phantom Of The Opera 1925), & Jurassic Park. It was in Stage 28 which is now sadly tore down in 2014 in order for Universal Studio make Harry Potter building.
Hope the Harry Potter fans are happy that a piece of history of a 90 year old sound stage being torn down.

Hope the Harry Potter fans are happy that a piece of history of a 90 year old sound stage being torn down.
I bet Voldemort was kicking his heels together, Fred Astaire-style.
âTake that, SeaQuest soundstage! Now, the magic is mine!â
I love SeaQuestâŠseason 1. The rest? Eh, not so much.
SeaQuest is the opposite of Superboy in that its first season was great, while the remaining seasons wereâŠnot so great.
I wonder what the Mxyzptlk episode is like.
The Youtube channel Superboy: The Legacy has been remastering clips in 4K, and I gotta say, theyâre impressive. I found one with Ron Ely.
Thanks!

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Guess I need to read this since you recommended it!

Guess I need to read this since you recommended it!
Flatterer.
Its pretty cheap on eBay right now, so hop to it, fellow last son of an ancient, alien civilization!

so hop to it, fellow last son of an ancient, alien civilization!
Hazzah, omw!