Yes, still shipping them...

[selenak]

Just stumbled acrosst his: first meetings between Lois Lane and Clark Kent in eight versions of the Superman tale across the decades:

Watch on YouTube

The versions these excerpts are from are: Superman (Kirk Alyn & Noel Neill), Adventures of Superman(George Reeves & Phyllis Coates), Superman(Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman(Dean Cain & Teri Hatcher), Smallville(Tom Welling & Erica Durance), Superman Returns(Brandon Routh & Kate Bosworth), Man of Steel(Henry Cavill & Amy Adams), Superman and Lois(Tyler Hoechlin & Elizabeth Tulloch).

I'm not familiar with all of them, but watching this, I find this pairing still almost always works for me. I still have a clear favourite and two least favourites, though. No prices for guessing the later, and it's not the fault of the actors.

Comments

[sovay]

I still have a clear favourite and two least favourites, though. No prices for guessing the later, and it's not the fault of the actors.

I am curious, since of these versions I have really seen only Reeve/Kidder. (I have seen Superman Returns, but have almost no memories of it. I watched one episode of Adventures of Superman for Elisha Cook Jr. and he was worth it.)

[selenak]

Favourite: Lois & Clark, uncontestedly. It has that 1930s/1940s screwball vibe translated into 1990s tv, it is, as I wrote in this old post, perhaps the best tv version of the "falling in love with your best friend" trope that I've seen as well as selling me forever on these two as bickering-yet-deeply-fond partners in journalism. (So any version of Lois isn't the best reporter around and Clark isn't a reporter at all is automatically missing something for me.) And the scriptwriters are usually having fun, helped by the terrific chemistry the actors provide. Have some excerpts:

Lois: And let's get something straight, I did not work my buns off to become an investigative reporter for the Daily Planet just to baby-sit some hack from Nowheresville! And another thing, you are not working with me, you are working for me. I call the shots, I ask the questions. You are low man - I am top banana and that's the way I like it, comprende?
Clark: You like to be on top. Got it.


Lois: Partners?
Perry: You and Kent. The experience of the battle-scarred veteran paired with the hunger of the exciting, fresh talent.
Lois: I am not that scarred, and he is not that exciting.
Perry: Your tenacity. His tact. Believe me, Lois, the two of you, there's chemistry there. It's gonna make for great stories.
Lois: But, Perry, partnership, it's like marriage.
Perry: That's right. You've got to work at it.
Lois: It takes patience and understanding, a willingness to be supportive.
Perry: I know, honey. Fake it.


Lois: Poor woman.
Clark: Who?
Lois: Your wife. She's married to Mr. Right. Mr. Always Right.


Lois: Found? You mean stole, don't you?
Clark: Well, I . . .
Lois: You took advantage of a privileged interview situation to grab
potentially incriminating evidence from an unsuspecting subject. Oh, I love that.


Lois: Superman is in the shower? Did you see him? I mean, does the outfit come off?
Clark: I didn't look.
Lois: Of course not. No, I wouldn't either. Mmm, mmm.


Lois: I only know how to make four things, and this is the only one without chocolate.


Lois: I win, you lose, we're both happy.


Clark: We flip for the bed.
Lois: How about I get the bed, I lend you a pillow?
Clark: How about we alternate nights?
Lois: How about we don't.
Clark: Well, it's a big bed, how about we share?
Lois: How about we alternate nights?
Clark: Deal.


Lois: Kill or be killed.
Clark: Lois you're talking about war... this is journalism.
Lois: See, your problem is you think there's a difference.

Clark: You are really high maintenance, you know that?
Lois: But I'm worth it.


Lois: Tell me the biggest secret you have.
Clark: What?
Lois: Tell me the biggest secret you have. Something you'd never reveal to anyone.
Clark: Why?
Lois: Because I'm about to tell you mine and I need blackmail material.

Here is a fun vid capturing their dynamic very well.

Least favourites: Clear and uncontested winners: Man of Steel and Superman Returns versions. There are elements I like in each - for example, Lois discovering Clark's secret via her reporter skills (in this day and age, the old screwball concept of Lois buying into the double identity for ages really would not fly, no pun intended) in Man of Steel, and the exploration of Clark's alien-ness in Superman Returns, plus Superman Returns makes Lois' alternate love interest and husband Richard White not only an actual good guy but lets her end up with him as opposed to making him a strawman or evil, and since I'm often put out by the way alternate love interests are treated by the narrative, I approve. However: neither movie lets the pair ever enjoy themselves but thinks Batman level angst is a must, and I think that's a quintessential misunderstanding of what makes the Superman corner of the comicverse appealing to begin with. They aren't partners. Superman Returns!Lois does not care about Clark-as-Clark at all (she's also ticked off at Superman for leaving the planet, but that's a different issue). Man of Steel!Clark gets burned with several of Snyder's most ridiculous concepts, such as Jonathan Kent rather dying in front of his son than being rescued in public (like I said, you can tell Snyder has a Batman complex), and fighting in the big climax over Metropolis without even considering taking the fight elsewhere to spare the human population (a key plot point of the Donner Superman II). And there's no shared investigative reporting going on!

[watervole]

Man of Steel... Cauterising a wound that is bleeding internally? That sounds like a very bad idea to me.

To my surprise, I really liked the acting in the very first black and white one.

But 'Lois and Clark' will always be the pairing that clicked for me.

Some of the more modern ones, the drama and special effects start to drown out the actual acting.

[watervole]

Smallville was the series that just didn't work for me - and I gave it a good try.

[selenak]

I never took to Smallville, either, and gave up after several s1 episodes. (So I never made it to the Smallville version of Lois.) However, I did like the excerpt of her we got to see here. Otoh, me not taking to Smallville isn't anywhere near the intense dislike I feel for Zack Snyder's grimdark take on the Superman tale in Man of Steel. And yeah, Lois & Clark is it for me, too.

[watervole]

I adore Lois and Clarke (in spite of the poor writing in season 3). Not just for the leads, but also for Clarke's wonderful parents.

Brilliant characters in their own right. Caring and loving, but also with their own lives and their own skills. They never feel over-shadowed by their son.

And their relationship with Lois is perfect.

[reverancepavane]

I definitely agree with Lois & Clark being the best for the relationship between the two, but that is hardly surprising. That said I am quite enjoying the current Superman and Lois, which is a nice comfortable examination of an established relationship.

There was a really excellent Smallville RPG that convinced me to watch Smallville. However the game most definitely transcended its source material. By a very very very large margin. [Unlike many RPGs the main focus was in your relationships with others and your opinion of yourself. This cleverly allowed superheroes, mutants, aliens, and normal humans to operate equally in the same game, although with at different scales for their actions (when a superhero messes up the consequences are generally much greater in extent).]

And I agree that the Warner Brothers arm of DC seems to have forgotten what a hero is supposed to be. At times I feel that they seems to be fixated on reliving the plaudits DC received for The Killing Joke. Thankfully the CW TV crew seem to remember both what a hero is supposed to be (and more importantly, to have fun making their shows).