Ranking the Superman TV shows best to worst

[The Overlord]

How would you rank the Superman TV shows, best to worst?

First some rules, both live action and animation count, characters directly related to Superman count (like Supergirl and Superboy) but no team shows like Justice League.

Second, please state why you chose your rankings.

[phantom1592]

Ohhhh not sure how many I remember... but I'll give it a try.

#1 Ruby Spears Superman. That has always been my favorite Superman animated show ever. The animation designs were crisp and looked great.

#2 This may be a cheat, but I'm going to combine all those multitudes of Filmation/Hanna Barbara cartoons. Superfriends may have been a 'Justice League' show.. but there were quite a few solo incarnations with just Superboy, Superman or Superman/Aquaman hours. Regardless I think this was a LOT of kids first introduction to Superman and a basis for my love the character.

#3 Smallville: It was hit and miss and went on way too long without his costume... but when taken as a whole it was a really solid Superman show. In fact if he'd actually put on the costume in season 6 or 7, we'd have a better Superman show than a lot of the rest... it was just that insistence to go 'blur' that held it back..

#4 Superboy: It's been a long time, but it felt very faithful to the comics... I remember a live action Bizzaro for heaven sakes :P

#5 Lois and CLark: Too much focus on Romance and Lois... but it was still the last live action Superman costume we saw on the airwaves for a long long time.

#6 Superman the Animated Series. I honestly never cared for the 'Timm-verse' blocky animation, and they started the habit of just ignoring the yellow shield on the cape. Seriously... It's a major part of the suit and Ruby Speares was able to do it justice. Anything that cuts out the S shield gets dropped on my list. That noir look may have worked okay for Batman... but once it bled over to Superman and Justice league it just looked lazy and cheap to me. I liked Clark's power level in this show... and bought the first boxed set... but didn't follow it any farther.

#7 Adventures of Superman: It's the original... it's the classic... It's usually Black and white... I remember Superman fighting a lot of loser gangsters who never stood a chance... and the special effects were... Well, to be fair, they were fantastic for 1952. Unfortunately as I was born in 1977 this show never actually connected with me. I'm sure it gets a lot of credit for being accurate to golden age comics.. but it wasn't for me.

#8 1940 Fleischer Superman. NEVER liked these. There wasn't much dialogue, all Superman vs. Robots and laser beams... and the S shield was Black... So not a fan. I give credit for the history of these last two shows... but I still don't personally like them.



Oh yeah, forgot Supergirl. I had a lot of hope for that during season 1. It was such an upbeat happy show about someone who knew her powers and couldn't wait to save people... Then it got WAY too political and emotional and then got darker and darker... and really it isn't any fun at all anymore. I'll stick that in somewhere around 6.5 I think. Maybe a LITTLE higher because their superman was REALLY awesome.... or else he seemed awesome because of so much BAD we've been seeing in recent years.... it's a tough call.

[sunofdarkchild]

1: STAS It was a fantastically written show with great plots and character work. Many of its villains in particular are the definitive versions.

2: Lois and Clark This show had a lot of heart and also had great characters. It could be a little too goofy at times, but overall is the best depiction of Clark and the Daily Planet we've ever gotten, and Jon Shea as Luthor is amazing.

3: The Fleischer cartoons Just classic. amazing animation for the time. not much depth or character work, but that's to be expected given they're cartoons from the 40s.

4: George Reeves Adventures of Superman Haven't seen much of this, but what I've seen was good.

5: Smallville So much of it it terrible, especially the Clark/Lana romance, but it also gets a lot right, like the early Clark-Lex relationship and the later Clark/Lois relationship. So a mixed bag.

Haven't seen anything else - except for Supergirl, which would rank dead last for being a terrible show.

[DragonPiece]

1, Smallville: I go back to the latter seasons of the show much more than the earlier ones though.
2. Lois and Clark: Like sunofadarkchild said, this show had a lot of heart as well as a lot of fun plots.
3. Superman TAS: Comfy adventures of superman, not a fan of clark not getting good spotlight here and some of their takes on villains I'm not a fan of, they did a good job with Darkseid and the new gods though.
4.Supergirl: I like it for the most part, not more than the other shows listed.

[jimmy]

The Adventures of Superma (TV) - Solid acting from the cast, "Film Noir" stories of mystery. George Reeves, he was eptiome of Superman in looks and mannerisms, he'll always be the "Man of Tomorrow" and how Superman should be protrayed utlimately!

The Adventures of Superman (radio) - The definitive voice of Superman - "The Master" Bud Collyer

Superman Serials 1948, 1950 - Action and Adventure here keep me on the edge of my seat going to the matinee when I was a kid.

The New Adventure of Superman 1966 - Voiced by Bud Collyer. This series needed Max Fleishcher, but Superman's power-level is good to go!

Superman The Max Fleischer 1941 - Beautifully rendered, smooth movement.

Superman (Ruby-Spears) - 1988 The Animation is very good superior to Timm's Work too bad this only lasted a year!

Superboy - 1988, 92 Wildly inconsistent from season to seaon.

Lois and Clark - 1993 - 97 - it had it moments.

Smallville - 2001 - 2011 A Superboy, without being Superboy, pretty good trick. Erica Durance was the best part of the show, best Lois Lane since Phyllis Coates!

Supergirl -2014 - Supergirl's hair needs to be blonde, power level and mental acuity need to be increased (she can't fly into space) I'd make her boots like more like Superman's.

Superman The Animated Series - 1992 Superman comes off far too weak, but take away that element and the stories are very good animations on background objects okay, on people animations, eh, not so much! Ruby-Spears, Fleischer, Filmation all better.

[JBatmanFan05]

1. The Adventures of Superman (Reeves)

2. Lois and Clark - pulpy-embracing well toned fun

3. Smallville - LEX!

4. Superman The Animated Series


The Fleischer/Famous shorts aren't a "TV show" so I won't even list them though they are the best Superman multimedia ever made.

[jimmy]

1. The Adventures of Superman (Reeves)

2. Lois and Clark - pulpy-embracing fun

3. Smallville - LEX!

4. Superman The Animated Series


The Fleischer/Famous shorts aren't a "TV show" so I won't even list them though they are the best Superman multimedia ever made.

Why did you change your list, I didn't mind - thought it was great!!

[superduperman]

Ruby Spears Superman: This will forever be my Superman. Probably because I was a kid when it came out. The dialogue was a little hoacky but overall it was a classic Superman in every real sense. The Family Album segments are his origin IMO! Always will be!

Fleischer Superman: Best. Animation. Ever. Full stop. No cartoon has ever topped this in the animation department even after nearly 80 years. Classic GA Superman. Yes, it was light on the dialogue but it was still a fantastic series.

Adventures of Superman: If I got to write for the comics, these are the kinds of stories I'd like to do. I'd love to see George Reeves Clark be represented more in the comics. More of an action reporter with connections all over the place. This was an incredibly sophisticated show for a supposed "kids" show back in the 1950s. Especially considering how little they had to work with.

Smallville: Current news aside, this was a fun precursor to Superman and had a lot of great elements to it. It combined all the best elements of the pre-and post-Crisis Superman. Making him and Lex friends, making Smallville a suburb of Metropolis again, having him be a "super-boy" but not Superboy. Yes, it had it's more ridiculous moments but the good outweighed the bad. It was also the first time we got to see a lot of live action versions of DC heroes. Like the JSA. I still love their Dr. Fate!

Supergirl: This is a good, classic, Superman show...just without Superman. She does good. My only real quibble, and probably the reason it's not higher on the list, is their treatment of Superman himself. He's a good guy, and I'd love to see him get his own show. But a lot of what they do seems to involve lifting her up at his expense. He seems to get mind controlled a lot. Most of which is understandable given that it's her show but that scene at the end of season two where he says he didn't known if he'd be able to make the same sacrifice she did really seemed like a put down to lift her up. Maybe I read it wrong but that's how it came across.

TAS: I give this show a lot of grief for a number of reasons. Especially when they put him and Batman in the same scene. It's obvious that DC was pulling the strings here and not in a good way. He was too de-powered for my tastes. But the stories were good. Really good. It just had too many restrictions. They should have just let Dini and company do what they wanted like they did with Batman.

Lois & Clark: This show. Where to begin? First of all, I liked it at first. But it's obvious to me that it was meant to be a tongue in cheek joke at Superman's expense. I see it the same way I see the sixties Batman show. "Isn't it ridiculous how this entire concept is!" It also went off the rails fairly easily. The frog eating clones killed it. It's obvious they were running out of ideas by the end of the second season. The gimmick got old quickly.

I didn't include the Superboy show or the sixties cartoons because I haven't seen enough episodes of them to make a fair determination of their status. Super Friends is more of a Justice League type show so it's not included either. Haven't seen the Legion cartoon either and the Justice League Action show looks cute but I don't know that I'd put it on the list.

[jimmy]

#6 Superman the Animated Series. I honestly never cared for the 'Timm-verse' blocky animation, and they started the habit of just ignoring the yellow shield on the cape. Seriously... It's a major part of the suit and Ruby Speares was able to do it justice. Anything that cuts out the S shield gets dropped on my list.
.

Totally agree with this, never really bought the excuse for the lack "S" on the back of the red cape either!
What amazes me that other's productions companies started the lack of "S" on he cape in true, copy-cat fashion, even-though, the book characters uniform had not change!

Go Figure?

[Sacred Knight]

The Adventures of Superma (TV) - Solid acting from the cast, "Film Noir" stories of mystery. George Reeves, he was eptiome of Superman in looks and mannerisms, he'll always be the "Man of Tomorrow" and how Superman should be protrayed utlimately!

The Adventures of Superman (radio) - The definitive voice of Superman - "The Master" Bud Collyer

Superman Serials 1948, 1950 - Action and Adventure here keep me on the edge of my seat going to the matinee when I was a kid.

The New Adventure of Superman 1966 - Voiced by Bud Collyer. This series needed Max Fleishcher, but Superman's power-level is good to go!

Superman The Max Fleischer 1941 - Beautifully rendered, smooth movement.

Superman (Ruby-Spears) - 1988 The Animation is very good superior to Timm's Work too bad this only lasted a year!

Superboy - 1988, 92 Wildly inconsistent from season to seaon.

Lois and Clark - 1993 - 97 - it had it moments.

Smallville - 2001 - 2011 A Superboy, without being Superboy, pretty good trick. Erica Durance was the best part of the show, best Lois Lane since Phyllis Coates!

Supergirl -2014 - Supergirl's hair needs to be blonde, power level and mental acuity need to be increased (she can't fly into space) I'd make her boots like more like Superman's.

Superman The Animated Series - 1992 Superman comes off far too weak, but take away that element and the stories are very good animations on background objects okay, on people animations, eh, not so much! Ruby-Spears, Fleischer, Filmation all better.

Your ideas intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Mostly agree. Only things a bit different for me is that in regards to appearance its still Reeve over Reeves for me, so I can't say George is who I think of when I visually picture Superman; and that along with Erica Durance, Rosenbaum is a standout for also portraying the best live-action incarnation of his character in Lex.

[jimmy]

Your ideas intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Mostly agree. Only things a bit different for me is that in regards to appearance its still Reeve over Reeves for me, so I can't say George is who I think of when I visually picture Superman; and that along with Erica Durance, Rosenbaum is a standout for also portraying the best live-action incarnation of his character in Lex.

I'm honored, as someone once said, "just give an honset response, and you'll always have people thinking!"

In the Chris/George debate - With a 30 year differnce (and better technology, doesn't hurt), I totally understand the preference of one over the other. Superman the Motion Picture with Christopher Reeve, which came out in 1978 as Chris, much like George previoulsy with his portrayal - resonated and defined the live action version of Superman for next 30 plus years, up until Cavill, and the jury is still out on Henry.

That's how it is with George Reeve and me, although, Kirk Alyn techinically was the first Superman I saw at the movies, he didn't resonate me like George did, seeing him week to week on TV, but mainly I thought Kirk was George, cause they looked the same, at least through the eyes of a five / seven year old at the time they did.

It's like if I say: James Bond, what actor do you think of first?

Michael Rosebaum - of him, I'll say this I wanted his Lex, to break the mold and become Clark's Brother becuase of the way he portrayed Lex Luthor he showed the complextiy of the character, that was bourn out of his top shelf acting, as Lex, who really straddled the two paths of left and right, as there is no such thing as good or, evil - just choices we make, or are persuaded to make and all have consequences!

[Conch22]

1. The 90s Animated Series: Humanized Clark & Superman well, utilized his mythos and supporting cast very well. Created new villains like Mercy Graves, Livewire & Volcana, that I'd like to see successfully carried over into the books. Voice acting and animation were also top notch.

Smallville: Great Imagining of the origins, stretched out and adhering to the "no tights, no flights" rule for longer than I'd have preferred, the Luthors steal the show, Jonathan and Martha Kent are also enjoyable versions of the characters. Liked their version of Mxzylplk, favorite versions of Brainiac and Bizarro.

Supergirl: Had some eyeroll heavy moments (like Supergirls sister accusing Martian Manhunter of being a misogynist for NO REASON, during the pilot) , some annoying changes like Kara's eyebeams being blue now (why?), Kara being given the same work environment as Clark, because she's a strong, independent woman!, Jimmy Olsen being tall, muscular and good looking and resembling the Obama inspired alt. Earth Superman Calvin Ellis moreso than Jimmy, frail, dorky "Supermans pal" Olsen.

The good? The show, to its credit, improves every season, Melissa Benoist is a great lead actress, most issues I have with the show have been improved on over time (Win acts like/ resembles comics Jimmy, ShowJimmy is an unforeseen NightThrasher/ Green Horner hybrid character I like), casting on the show is terrific, from former Martian Manhunter voice actor Carl Lumbly as the father of the shows version of J'onn Jonz to Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor. The network change has made Supergirl super, slowly but surely and despite typical CW issues, like bloating the cast size too much

[My Two Cents]

#1 first season of Adventures Of Superman (George Reeves) after that the show got colorized and campy.

#2 New Adventures Of Superman (1966 cartoon) These and the 1950's television show is what cemented me as a Superman fan forever and ever and ever.

#3 Superman: The Movie (1978 Christopher Reeves) The first modern super hero movie to both get the character right and be fun and thrilling to watch.

There have been and continue to be plenty of good Superman projects that I enjoyed while watching and looked forward to the next episode,
but none of them managed to move up to the mantle I place the three above on when it comes to best depictions of Superman in Television, Cartoons, and Movies.

[Miles To Go]

1. Superman: TAS: The definitive show in my estimation, I grew up on the magic of the DCAU. Fantastic chemistry between Lois and Clark, a great version of Lana Lang, Clancy Brown is a solid Lex, the Batman team-ups were seminal, and it has my favorite version of Brainiac. Also has the best Krypton destruction story in the medium.
2. Smallville- It becomes a real treat once it evolves more into a familiar Superman-esque series, compelling performances with arguably the definitive live-action Lois and Clark relationship.
3. Supergirl: Love it a lot, very conventional Superman-esque stories, but the Kara/Mon-El drama tends to drag on a lot and benefits nobody.
4. Lois and Clark- Childhood memories, fun plots, my only niggle was Lois could whine a hell of a lot and then there's the frog clone pilavah. Kind of liked the Lord Nor saga even if he was a cheap stand-in for Zod...and hey, we got the black suit in this series!

[Osiris-Rex]

Never watched any of the animated shows so can't judged them. Never watched Superboy either. But of the live action TV shows I have watched I liked them in general. So my favorite to not as much.

1. Supergirl - Like watching a comic book
2. Lois and Clark - Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher were just so gosh darn cute.
3. Adventures of Superman - Man what this show could have been like if it had a budget.
4. Smallville - It was okay for its time but hasn't aged well.