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A Love Triangle - Between Two People!
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
premiered ten years ago, on September 12, 1993, on the
ABC television network.
 Originally conceived as Lois Lane's
Daily Planet, the show originally took a more mature look
at the Superman story, with more of a focus on the "love
triangle" between Lois, Clark, and Superman. The show was
developed by Deborah Joy LeVine and started off with an excellent
pilot.
Appearing in
the first season of Lois & Clark were newcomer
Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman, Teri Hatcher (who had done
a real and spectacular performance on an episode of Seinfeld
and also appeared in movies such as "Soapdish"
and "Tango & Cash") as Lois Lane, Michael Landes
as enthusiastic Jimmy Olsen, and Lane Smith as an Elvis-loving
Perry White. The show also starred Tracy Scoggins (Babylon
5) as gossip columnist Catherine "Cat" Grant,
Eddie Jones and K Callan as Clark's parents Jonathan and Martha
Kent, and John Shea as what may very well have been the most
cunning Lex Luthor in television or movie history.
The show started
off head-to-head with NBC's sci-fi offering SeaQuest.
Eventually Lois & Clark was the victor, but Murder,
She Wrote still owned the Sunday-at-8pm timeslot. Those
old people just have to have their Jessica Fletcher.
The first season
ended with a spectacular 2-part finale where Lois Lane almost
married Lex Luthor. The episode's guests included model Beverly
Johnson, Chris (The Adventures of Jules Verne) Demetral,
James Earl Jones, and even Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane
in the 1950's Adventures of Superman!
Unfortunately
that was not enough. When the second season came along, some
changes were made. Series creator Deborah Joy LeVine was gone;
as were Michael Landes, Tracy Scoggins, and John Shea. Landes
was replaced as Jimmy Olsen with the younger Justin Whalin.
The focus went more towards action/adventure type stories and
there was less of a look at the romance. This plan flopped.
Luckily the producers realized their mistake and started commissioning
more "romantic" stories such as "Season's Greedings."
Lois & Clark had a large female fan base, but also
wanted to cater to the males, so the producers did have their
work cut out for them.
Eventually Lois
and Clark started dating. This led eventually to the revelation
that Clark was Superman, which coincided with Clark's proposal
to Lois. The time between Lois and Clark's dating and the "phony
clone fake-out" wedding got the highest ratings in Lois
& Clark's history.
Then the ball
was dropped. Some critics claim that getting the two leads married
killed the show. Some think it was Lois learning the "secret."
Actually, the blame might very likely go to the "bait and
switch" tactic used by ABC in February 1996.
Lois and Clark's
wedding, to air on February 11, 1996, was to be a *very* big
deal. Lots of promotion, even online in the infancy of the medium,
was all around. Millions tuned in to see what happened. And
in what may be one of the *dumbest* ideas ever conceived for
television, we found out in the episode's final moments that
Clark did not marry Lois -- but instead, a frog-eating *clone!*
To make matters worse, Lex Luthor had kidnapped the real Lois
who bumped her head and thought she was a lounge singer named
Wanda Detroit! (No we aren't making this up!) This "arc
from hell," as the fans called it, lasted for 5 EPISODES
and by the time it was finished, most viewers were unforgiving.
To try and get
everyone back, Lois and Clark were married for real in the episode
"Swear To God, This Time We're Not Kidding," but in
that case, campy villains and heavenly angels would have scared
the viewers away all over again. The show never recovered. By
the end of the fourth season the show was moved to the "Saturday
at 8 death slot," where it fared badly (but not as badly
as things that air in that timeslot these days). ABC had made
a deal with Warner Bros. to order a fifth season of the show;
but after the ratings were so low and unrecoverable, they instead
made a deal so the fifth season did not have to go through.
Because of this Lois & Clark never did have a genuine
"final episode."
 Because
of all of the projects involving the Superman character (Smallville as well as a possible new movie),
it is unlikely we will ever see Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher together
again as Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Smallville's producers
also want to keep away from Lois & Clark cameos
for the time being because the show (cancelled in 1997) is just
too recent.
To celebrate
the 10 year anniversary of Lois & Clark's premiere,
KryptonSite decided to take a return to its roots and presenting
to you a trip back to a place where Smallville was a place where
Lois "couldn't even make that name up" and there really
was no such word as chumpy.
You see, before
there was a KryptonSite, there was the Krypton Club - a fan
club/newsletter formed in 1995. It morphed into Planet Krypton,
a website/newsletter about L&C even years after the show's
cancellation, and a Smallville page on that site led to what
eventually became KryptonSite. This was a "return to the
past" for us as well as it hopefully will be for you. Please
let us know what you think.
Lois &
Clark fandom still thrives. Some fans still gather annually
for "FoLC Fests," other people met and had relationships
blossom as a result of the show. There's still fanfiction being
written, still message board posts being typed.
The show's first
two seasons are now available on DVD. Click the links below
to order your copies!
Season
1 - Season
2
Thanks to everyone
who came to visit L&C KryptonSite. Hope you had fun. And
special thanks to the folks who helped make this happen (Not
naming names, in case anyone was forgotten!)
THE
LOIS & CLARK CAST, BY SEASON
(Seasons 1-4 unless noted)
Dean Cain........................................Clark
Kent/Superman
Teri Hatcher....................................................Lois
Lane
Lane Smith...................................................Perry
White
Michael Landes.......................Jimmy
Olsen (Season 1 only)
Justin Whalin............................Jimmy
Olsen (Seasons 2-4)
Tracy Scoggins..........................Cat
Grant (Season 1 only)
K Callan.......................................................Martha
Kent
Eddie Jones...............................................Jonathan
Kent
John Shea...............................Lex
Luthor (Season 1 only*)
* = Made guest appearances in several later episodes
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