The Adventures of Superman: The Complete Second Season [5 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Season two of The Adventures of Superman, which was shot in 1953 and originally aired in 1953-1954, arrives on DVD in an edition every bit as satisfying as the one devoted to the series' first season. The major highlight, apart from the entire array of 26 shows in beautiful condition -- a rich, nicely contrasted black-and-white is the norm throughout the five discs -- are two commentary tracks by series co-stars Jack Larson and Noel Neill, who played Jimmy Olson and Lois Lane. Their remarks on the episode "Panic in the Sky" aren't necessarily shot-specific (one heartily wishes that the two could have done this a decade or more earlier, or that Larson would have been interviewed over an episode such as "The Haunted Lighthouse," which was a memorable life and professional experience for him), but they have a nice enough time talking that it's fun just listening to them -- one just wishes that perhaps a third person, such as a Superman expert, could have been put in with them to prompt them with questions. They are looser and more informative in their commentary on the episode "Semi-Private Eye," which always seemed like one of the most fun shows of this season to watch -- it appears to have been so for the two of them as well, and this factor helps make their discussion on this particular chapter well worth hearing, more than once. The other special features are confined to the last of the five discs. They include a short documentary entitled "The First Lady of Metropolis," devoted to the career of Noel Neill, which is as charming a profile as one could wish for, consisting of interviews with Neill, co-star Jack Larson, and an array of scholars and historians, supported by appropriate clips from the series; her recollections of working with George Reeves are the best part of the interviews, although her account of the methods they employed in shooting the 26 episodes are also fascinating. The final bonus feature is the complete "Stamp Day for Superman," a mini-episode done for the United States Treasury at the end of this season, which includes a new introduction by Jack Larson and Superman scholar Gary Grossman.

This show has been kicking around public-domain lists for decades, but has never looked or sounded as good as it does here, even if it is still somewhat grainy at times (it was never intended to be seen outside of schools, on 16 mm or 8 mm film). Each of the 26 episodes gets a single chapter-marker, and each disc opens with a very easy-to-use multi-layered menu that offers simple access to individual episodes as well as the special features, and a "play all" function that simplifies the viewing. The image throughout is full screen (1.33:1) -- the way it was shot -- and the sound is as crisp as the picture. In contrast to the first-season DVD set, which had some problems with the quality of the materials in some isolated instances, the shows here -- apart from "Stamp Day for Superman" -- all look to have been transferred from near-pristine sources. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 5
• Screen: Black and White
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • cc
  • Documentary "The First Lady of Metropolis" profiling Noel Neill featuring Jack Larson, Leonard Maltin, and others
  • Commentary on two key episodes by Noel Neill and Jack Larson
  • "Stamp Day for Superman": Special episode promoting savings bonds with a new introduction by Jack Larson

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       George Reeves - Clark Kent/Superman
       Noel Neill - Lois Lane
       Jack Larson - Jimmy Olsen
       John Hamilton - Perry White
       Robert Shayne - Insp. Bill Henderson

• Director:

  George Blair, Thomas Carr

• Producer:

  Whitney Ellsworth

• Cinematographer:

  Harold E. Stine

• Editor:

  Harry Gerstad

• Special Effects:

  Thol Simonson

• Production Manager:

  Clem Beauchamp

• Story Editor:

  Mort Weisinger

REVIEW:

• The Adventures of Superman took almost two years to get on the air around the entire country, following the completion of its first season in the fall of 1951 -- but when it did, the ratings were sensational. It was one of the best of a new wave of filmed television dramas, it looked great, it was exciting and entertaining, and although it was generally shown in a prime-time schedule slot and was viewed by the whole family, it had a special appeal to children that made it ideal for a sponsor such as Kellogg's cereals. But that same appeal also created a serious problem. The program's first season had been produced by Robert Maxwell and Bernard Luber, with Maxwell making most of the major creative decisions; he had also done the Superman radio show (whereas Luber had worked on the serials), and had used the latter as his model for the series -- the difficulty lay in the fact that the radio show was part of a tradition of violent crime and mystery shows that were safe enough in the audio medium but, when translated to television, scared children and alarmed their parents with their depictions of criminals, mayhem, and most especially murder. And the parents didn't keep their concerns secret from the stations showing Superman or the sponsor. This was a matter of special concern at the time, because in 1953, comic books and comic book characters had come under attack in print and in legislative hearings for their supposed unsavory and depraved depictions of violence, and neither Kelloggs nor National Periodicals (which owned Superman and produced the series) wanted part of any controversy. Kellogg's wanted a second season, and fast, but Maxwell and his approach to the show had to be replaced. As a result, for the 1953 season and the remainder of the series' run, the makers brought in Whitney Ellsworth. In contrast to Maxwell's radio background, Ellsworth came from National Periodicals. A 13 year veteran of the company, he'd overseen the two Superman serials (starring Kirk Alyn) produced by Columbia Pictures in 1948 and 1950, as well as the same studio's two Batman serials and Republic Pictures' version of his own Congo Bill book. An ex-writer for pulp magazines and paperbacks, he'd joined National in 1940 and knew the Superman comic book and its companion Action Comics, and the character as well as anyone in the business, and he knew what had to be done to make the program more child-friendly. (Ironically, Robert Maxwell landed on his feet producing, of all things, the Lassie television series, as child-friendly a program as there was on television for more than a decade). When Adventures of Superman returned in 1953, there were no more on-screen murders (and, in fact, only two deaths of characters depicted in the entire subsequent 78 episode run of the show); no old ladies in wheelchairs being pushed down flights of steps, and no knives drawn on camera or graphic depictions or descriptions of murder or assault. George Reeves was back in the dual role of Superman and Clark Kent (with a notable third role in one show), and Jack Larson returned as Jimmy Olsen; and John Hamilton did another stint as blustery editor-in-chief Perry White, while Robert Shayne was back as Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis Police Department. But Phyllis Coates, who had played newspaper reporter Lois Lane as a tough-as-nails, sarcastic, and very independent-minded journalist -- practically out of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's The Front Page (or Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday) -- in the first season, was not willing to return to the series. She had an offer of another show, as well as a couple of B-movie and serial roles, and was unhappy with the money she'd received for the first season of Superman (especially considering that she'd literally been knocked cold by accident while shooting one episode), and not even Ellsworth's offer to double the actress's pay could persuade her to stay. Coates' exit resulted in Ellsworth turning to Noel Neill, a young working actress from Minneapolis who'd played Lois Lane in the two late 1940's Superman serials made at Columbia, and appeared in dozens of movies (including John Farrow's The Big Clock and Vincente Minnelli's An American In Paris). Neill was more conventionally attractive than Coates and presented a softer, more vulnerable, and less intense version of Lois Lane, much closer to the character in the comic book. She and Clark Kent were colleagues and, to some extent, still competitors, but not on the fierce level that one saw in the first season shows. There was a professional rivalry between them, but none of the vitriol from Lois Lane's side that one had occasionally seen in Coates' portrayal of the role. She was more tolerant and understanding of Kent's supposedly mild manner, but also less independent in her own right. In the opening episode of the second season, "Five Minutes To Doom", she even expressed her admiration and appreciation for an act of conspicuous bravery by her seemingly meek associate, as Kent leaps from a moving car to dispose of a bomb about to explode, a reaction that one could not possibly imagine coming convincingly from Coates's Lois Lane. The other major change in the second season was in Reeves' portrayal of Superman. During the first season, Superman had been a severe, taciturn, remote, almost totally alien figure, not given to long conversations or close interaction with the people around him, even those to whom he was relatively close, such as Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. In the new season, Reeves presented Superman as slightly gentler, more accessible, and with the merest trace of a sense of humor which would become more pronounced in coming years. He had displayed some gentler attributes in a couple of the scripts from the first season, most notably "The Ghost Wolf", in which Superman is seen taking time to rescue animals from a forest fire; and "The Birthday Letter", in which he reaches out to a crippled little girl to make her life a little brighter. Reeves and the second-season writers expanded on those attributes, and from 1953 onward, Superman became especially connected with children on screen. This was also a reflection of Reeves' awareness, as the series became a hit, of how important the character Superman became in real-life to children. He suddenly found himself moving into the role of screen icon, at least for that segment of the audience. (He also got to do a bit of extra acting in one episode, "The Face And The Voice", portraying a third role as Boulder, a low-level criminal, complete with Damon Runyon-esque diction, and Superman lookalike hired to impersonate the Man of Steel). The stories as well as the scripts changed under Ellsworth's leadership. In place of the 40's style, radio show-derived crime stories that comprised virtually all of the first season, the series' second season was a much more diverse mix that included mysteries, human interest, science fiction tales, along with crime thrillers. The latter were altered, however, in the way that they were done -- the criminals were usually portrayed a little more broadly, and with a slightly over-the-top, comic edge, so that they were less derived from Cornell Woolrich than Damon Runyon, and the more whimsical side of Runyon at that; actors Herb Vigran and Ben Welden, who had played unsettlingly realistic and sadistic thugs in the first season, were both back in the second as a slightly softer, less harsh brand of hood -- they were still threatening, but their characterizations wouldn't linger negatively in the memory after the show was over. There were still intense moments -- the severely injured crash victim in "The Man In The Lead Mask", the effort by the ringleader (Carlton Young) to shoot a henchman (for whom Superman has, fortunately, substituted) in the face in "The Face And The Voice"); the effort by ex-crime kingpin Larry McCoy (Billy Nelson) to kill the eccentric scientist (Sterling Holloway) who might undo his scheme in "The Machine That Could Plot Crimes"; the fatal fall of Peter Brocco in "The Clown Who Cried"; and Superman's and Metropolis's, and even the Earth's near-doom in "Panic In The Sky" and "Superman In Exile" -- but generally the world depicted in the second season of Superman seemed less threatening to young viewers. One other change in the series was the introduction of kryptonite, the one substance in the comic book that was known to endanger Superman's life. The first season had depicted the Man of Steel as impervious to harm, and adding a weakness of some sort helped to humanize the character. Introduced in the episode "The Defeat of Superman", its existence was explained by the criminal scientist Meldini, portrayed by Maurice Cass -- although the reasons for the element's effect on Superman were a little confusing in his account, it made for one of the best and most suspenseful shows of the entire run of the series and also one of two under Ellsworth's regime in which characters died (through their own foolhardiness). Kryptonite stayed as part of the series and, indeed, would reappear in four subsequent episodes, one of which referred back directly to events in "The Defeat of Superman," although it would never acquire the multiple varieties (green kryptonite, red kryptonite etc.) that would be spawned in the comic books. The dramatic highpoint of that particular show also demonstrated the advantage to Neill's being cast as Lois Lane, as it would have been difficult to visualize Coates's Lois convincingly moved to tears in panic over the Man of Steel's stricken form. By 1953, the decision to shoot the first season on film had proved a stroke of genius, an expensive move that was now going to pay off handsomely, as those shows would be available for future airings in the very same quality. Season two would continue on film, in black-and-white (there was no color television available at the time, in any case), but with better personnel behind the camera. The special effects improved, though the shooting became even more rushed, with fewer exterior shots of any kind as the production moved from the RKO lot to rented studio facilities in Hollywood -- but there was a new background score (which included one memorable excerpt of a Miklos Rozsa concert work), which added more richness and occasional majesty to the finished episodes. And Ellsworth was able to shoot for quality, adding top motion picture hands Clem Beauchamp and Harry Gerstad (who won an Oscar for work on High Noon) to the crew, as production manager and editor, respectively. He kept Tommy Carr (now billed as Thomas Carr), the primary director from the first season and a top-notch action shooter, and added George Blair to do half the shows. Virtually all of the writers from the first season were gone, replaced by David Chantler, Jackson Gillis, and a handful of others who could deliver the kind of stories that Ellsworth wanted. Contrary to the popular myth that Ellsworth destroyed the show as an adult series, in its second season, Adventures of Superman was still a show intended for the entire family to watch -- he'd simply defanged it of its most disturbing elements, and added some more sophisticated attributes. A few of the human interest stories were amazingly effective with adult viewers, but none more so that the season's final show, "Around The World". The latter dealt with a family nearly torn apart by a tragic accident and its aftermath, and it seemed aimed as much at parents as kids. Whitney Ellsworth's takeover of the Adventures Of Superman television series was an immense success. The new episodes were in the pipeline by the end of 1953 and the ratings soared -- some adult viewers left, but many times as many children and young teenagers flocked to watch it, and Kellogg's sales skyrocketed as well. The sales of Superman merchandise also escalated, and for the first time the safety issue raised its head -- Reeves, in particular, was concerned that any costumes sold to children include all manner of warnings, in the strongest possible terms, reminding their wearers that no one but Superman could do the things that Superman does, adding (as he did in one episode that year) that this went "especially for flying." Even the federal government wanted in on the action, and got it with a special mini-episode, "Stamp Day For Superman", that never aired with the series but was shown in schools -- it played like a part of the series, with a burglary and the kidnapping of Lois Lane, but managed to hook its plot around school Savings Stamps (the junior version of United States Savings Bonds). Reeves proved so charismatic in the role, that he was in constant demand for personal appearances, and the other actors on the show suddenly found themselves recognized by millions of people for their roles on the show. That recognition would have dire consequences for the later careers of Reeves and Larson, in particular, but at the time it was merely a whirlwind that they and the producers suddenly found themselves riding, wherever it might take them. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi