Looking back at Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

[DochaDocha]

Yeah, great scene. Teri was great. She effectively played a smart cookie most of the series, but when the time called for her to seem a little slow on the uptake, she pulled it off.

But dang, those shoulder pads in her jacket.

[The Rocketeer]

Grew up with the 80's Superboy TV series, but this was truly my Superman show. Loved the first two seasons and the H.G. Wells episodes.

[SJNeal]

I loved this show when it was on the air and I was 12/13 yr old that didn't know any better. I caught a couple of reruns recently, and didn't think it held up very well at all. That said, it's the closest thing to a live action Byrne-era we'll ever see...

[sandmountainslim]

Never saw one episode. I am proud to say that I have not watched any Superman tv series except reruns of the G. Reeves original and no Superman movies not starring Christopher Reeve. It's all about the comics to me not Hollywood.

[UltraWoman]

Never saw one episode. I am proud to say that I have not watched any Superman tv series except reruns of the G. Reeves original and no Superman movies not starring Christopher Reeve. It's all about the comics to me not Hollywood.

I'm surprised you decided to chime in on this if you haven't seen over half of the (non-comic) media that has been produced in the 76 years it's come out (I'm assuming for a moment that you haven't watched the Fleischer shorts or the Timm 90s animated as well, BTW). I'm guessing you have a very particular POV when it comes to what you want in a live-action series. I'm not going to push you to tell us here as it's off-topic. It's your call (but I also consider it your loss as there are a LOT of the same beats in the first season that are direct homages to the George Reeves interpretation.) For example the season one episode "All Shook Up" in "Lois and Clark" was directly inspired by an episode of "The Adventures of Superman." In both versions Superman goes to try to stop an asteroid and loses his memories of being Superman before powering through to regain them and save mankind.

I know Cain often said that his Clark was meant to emulate/be similar to a (then modernized) George Reeves interpretation of Clark (not Superman, necessarily).

[UltraWoman]

I always enjoyed it. And it did give me my favourite Superman scene from across any medium he's ever appeared in...

That's been a favorite of a lot of people, it seems to me.

[Lois]

Really, really like the show.
Have it on DVD.
Really enjoyed Teri Hatcher's portrayal of Lois Lane and Dean Cain as Superman.
It's hard for me to decide on which Season I liked the best.

[UltraWoman]

I always had a soft spot for the show, as a Superman fan. While the quality can be debatable, it's held up decently in my eyes. I still watch it on the Hub whenever I can

The quality always was decent for what it was "dramedy" as they call it these days (comedy with a much larger dramatic moments, mostly a romantic tint with this series).

[The Lonely Man]

A similar thread on the old board prompted me to make my very first post on CBR.

I was a big big fan of Lois and Clark back in the day. The first season was far and away the best and it really captured perfectly the tone of the comics at the time. I must have rewatched the pilot episode every night for at least a month.
The series lost something after season 1, hazarding a guess I'd say it was the removal of Deborah and Dan Levine and in my eyes at least, it was never quite the same.

Season 2 was still good with the will they won't they dynamic hanging over pretty much the entire season. The Mason Drake arc was handled very well also, not so keen on the Scardino story though.
Season 3 opens with my favorite scene in the entire series run, the scene with Martha and Lois and Martha telling Lois how hard it was for Clark growing up, having to hide his powers and always fearing he'd be alone.
Even now that scene still bring a tear to me eye.
Season 3 also contains the incredible climax to the clone storyline, Seconds and the electrifying stand off between Superman and Lex still stands up today.

Moving onto season 4 and I can see why viewers were falling week on week, even as a fan of the show I find episodes hard to sit through and some of the dialogue makes hard listening, Clarks insistence on calling Lois 'Honey' at every given opportunity was overdone to an extreme that it started to really grate with me. And I am a fan of the show.
Some of the plot lines were so lazily thrown together that even the most loyal fans must have been rolling their eyes at them.

In summary of the 4 years run though, it had far more highs than lows and even today I would put Dean Cain ahead of everyone else in his portrayal of Clark Kent. I always wondered why Dean wasn't allowed to continue playing Superman in the same style as he did in the pilot episode, he nailed it there and the costume was head and shoulders above the one they would eventually settle on.