Lois & Clark : Les nouvelles aventures de Superman

Yesterday I watched a VHS released by "Warner do Brasil" with the pilot episode of this TV series. The story begins with Clark Kent (Dean Cain) arriving in Metropolis and being hired by Perry White (Lane Smith) to work in the Daily Planet with Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) and Jimmy Olsen (Michael Landes). Meanwhile, Clark misses his parent Jonathan Kent (Eddie Jones) and Martha Kent (K Callan) and is harassed by his colleague Catherine "Cat" Grant (Tracy Scoggins). However, he has a crush on Lois Lane. Meanwhile, a spacecraft explodes and a scientist, considered mad by his community, advises that there was a sabotage on the launching. Along the story, it is disclosed but never proved that Lex Luthor (John Shea) was the responsible for the explosion. Clark becomes the Superman, and Lex Luthor his greatest enemy. I was not a regular viewer of this series on TV, but I liked most of the episodes that I have seen. This VHS is excellent, introducing the characters of "Superman" in a delightful story. The beauty of Teri Hatcher would be enough to support this movie, but the chemistry between the handsome Dean Cain and the gorgeous Teri Hatcher is also a wonderful attraction. "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" is a great and charming entertainment for children and adults. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Lois & Clark: As Novas Aventuras do Super-Homem" ("Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman")

This is my all time favorite TV show. I first started watching it as a child and even though I didn't get all the plots at the time, I was mesmerized by the superhero in the blue and red suit. As years passed and I watched the show again on reruns, the intensity of the romance between Lois and Clark became what captivated me the most. I believe that this is definitively the best caricature of what would an amorous relationship between Lois and Clark (and not Lois and Superman) be. The idea of Clark being a normal guy (with superpowers, yes, but still trying to pursue a seemingly normal life)and Superman being his cover is a good change. Another good thing is that the show's merit doesn't rely only on the main characters. The supporting characters of Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Martha and Jonathan Kent, Lex Luthor and Cat Grant(this one unfortunately only during the first season) added many of the best moments in the show. Unfortunately, and I guess everyone realizes it, during the third season the show started having some really weird plots with no such thing as coherence. It was still fun but there was something lost along the way. Nevertheless, it's still the best TV show I've ever seen. The only that truly caught my eye from the very first moment. To this day I'm still a fan and it's still magical for me to sit in front of the TV screen and watch another episode of this great show. So, thank you very much Deborah Joy Levine and all the others that wrote all the episodes we watched, to Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher, Lane Smith, John Shea, Michael Landes and Justin Whalin, K Callan, Eddie Jones, Tracy Scoggins and all the other actors who performed such great roles, and at last but not least thanks to rest of the crew for making this Superman fly.

As a loyal fan of L&C, I have to say that I loved most things about the show. Teri Hatcher turned in my favorite portrayal of Lois Lane to date. Lane Smith's attitude as Perry White was usually enjoyable. Most importantly, Eddie Jones and K Callan set a new standard as Jonathan and Martha Kent. Originally billed as recurring characters, their efforts on screen were just too wonderful to be denied and became a staple of the show through its many ups and downs.

Dean Cain was solid as Clark--and the idea that Clark was a person with problems and goals and insecurities of his own and that Superman was the convenient guise he used to help people always appealed to me. I know that most of the die-hard fans are of the opposite opinion, but humanizing Kal-el and focusing on his relationships with his family, his friends, and the love of his life was one of Deb Joy Levine's truly masterful ideas. The ensemble cast of the first season with Michael Landes as Jimmy Olsen and Tracy Scoggins as Cat Grant worked superbly together onscreen. John Shea turned in a respectable performance with a good mix of glitz and sinister ambition for a '90s Lex Luthor. I loved almost all the episodes that first season and one of my abiding regrets is that the show's writing staff and cast changed for the second season. Nonetheless, the first two seasons were both solid (even if the alternating introduction of competing love interests became grating after awhile).

Much as I hate to admit it, the show didn't end too early. The wheels came off in the third season with the much-despised clone-amnesia arc and the disturbing introduction of the concept of New Krypton. By the close of the fourth season, a consistent villain was nowhere to be found and the idea of Lois's possible pregnancy, of a Superfamily, wasn't strong enough to help the show recover from a disastrous newlywed phase.

An adaptation of a feature character like SUPERMAN will have a great deal of variance, not only in the era that it is in, but also the audience (demographics) that is desired to r-r-r-r-reach. This was a point always taken into consideration by National Comics Publications( AKA DC Comics), the Copywright owner of Superman and his friends. Therefore in the 1950's, National/DC published comic magazines such as SUPERBOY and JIMMY OLSEN to appeal to the younger kids,especially boys.And alas, they did the girl's Superman magazine, LOIS LANE.All featured Superman, but with a little different spin or, point of view, if you will.

With the appearance of LOIS & CLARK, they were sort of giving us a girl's version of the Super saga,much like the comic book LOIS LANE.But this telling was a program designed to get the female audience, without alienating the guys.

Much like the BATMAN TV of 1966-68, there was a large cross section of the viewing public who grew up with and were quite familiar with the storyline. The answer to the problem was to add plenty of humor, not of the "Camp" type of the Batman show, but some sort of resembling what has come to be known as "Screwball" comedy. The adventure story line is still there, but the humor allows a wider group of people to view the episodes.

The result was a Superman series with wide appeal that fit very well in with its time slot in history as well as ABC's programing schedule.

This TV Series was simply THE BEST TV Show EVER made, next to Star Trek, Of course, It had romance, action, drama and even emotional moments that make you shed a tear, ABC made a huge mistake by canceling this show, and I shall forever hate them for it (unless they make a movie where it left off)