Lois & Clark revisited

[selenak]

Talking to bohemiancachet the other day had reminded me of this, and so I went and rented the first season of Lois & Clark. I hadn't seen those episodes since they were originally broadcast, but I was always fond of the show, and I think it's probably my favourite incarnation of the Superman myth in terms of sheer fun and relaxation. Not the most fascinating or interesting: that would be what JMS did in Supreme Power, with Mark Milton/Hyperion as his version of Superman in a truly chilling take on what it would be actually like if a superpowered alien baby ended up on Earth. But Lois & Clark uses the screwball comedy narrative of the 30s and 40s in an inspired way, and it still holds up very well compared to what came after. Teri Hatcher is probably my favourite screen Lois (sorry, Margot Kidder fans); she and Dean Cain as Clark come across as an updated version of your basic Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy or Jimmy Stewart pairing. Superman expert searose would know, but I think Lois & Clark was probably the first to interpret Clark as the genuine self and Superman as the mask, whereas comicverse and to some degree the movies had it the other way around - Superman as the real self and Clark as the mask. Anyway, the Lois & Clark interpretation allowed for Lois' swooning about Superman not to feel sexist today, because the narrative itself presents it as misguided; in the tradition of romantic comedy, the being-swept-of-her-feet relationship is wrong way for the heroine to go, whereas the relationship that consists of banter and an equal partnership is the one to ultimately win out. It's just the twist of this particular narrative that both male rivals are the same man.

His wish for Lois to love him as Clark, not as Superman aside, what strikes one when watching this incarnation of Clark/Superman in the post-Jossverse, post-Smallville etc. world is how utterly angst-free he is. As I said, he's very much the bemused hero of a screwball comedy, with a deadpan sense of humour ("I get it; you like to be on top"), playing straight man to the energetic, high strung heroine, but basically at peace with what he is. One can't imagine him being written this way today, and certainly by and large, I prefer my superheroes angsting, but not here. The very relaxedness of Clark and the traditional Superman wink has its charm, and looking at all the gloom and doom elsewhere (i.e. any incarnation of the Batman myth, page or screen), it seems almost necessary.

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I love Lois and Clark. It has a lovely gentle touch that I find charming on days when I don't want loads of angst.

I particuarly love K Callan as Martha Kent.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Kent parents are adorable, and the scene where Martha makes Clark his various customs until she hits on the definite one is one of my favourites.

"Gentle charm" is exactly the word I was looking for.

[alicamel.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think everyone on my flist is reminicising about Lois & Clark today!

[kathyh]

Teri Hatcher is probably my favourite screen Lois (sorry, Margot Kidder fans);

Yes, mine too. The first series of Lois and Clark was just a delight to watch and the screwball comedy element worked wonderfully. I can't remember the exact line but I always liked the moment when someone said to Lois that she must be the dumbest woman on the planet for not realising that Clark and Superman were one and the same. It acknowledged something that it was impossible not to think *g*.

[enname.livejournal.com]

I am not, and never have been a superman fan, but Lois & Clark will always have a soft spot in my heart. It was sweet, easy going and quite charming. Also the closest I have come to liking the whole Superman thing.

With you on the Teri Hatcher as well.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Season 3 has been out on DVD for a few weeks now, and the fans (myself included) have been re-visiting favourite episodes (shame that so much of S3 sucked, of course, but there's some gold amongst the dross).

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Lois and Clark nostalgia! I agree with your assessment, maybe the biggest reason why I really can't get into Smallville is the way Clark is always angsting over his powers and he never seem to be enjoying it not like Dean Cain's Clark is, or toon!Superman or even Clark from the Superman movies.

I have to confess I love almost all incarnations of Lois, with the possible exception of Bosworth!Lois. She seemed too young for the role. Or maybe a better actress could have pulled it off better...

And I really love how the show emphasized that Lois and Clark are partners.

[alicamel.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've been rewatching it on ITV2. I don't know what season it is though. I suspect it's Season 1.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Bosworth's Lois yet - the movie doesn't start here in Germany until a week from now, I think - but I hear ominous rumblings.

Anyway, yes, the partnership is a big part of the appeal. I watched some more s1 episodes, and there is one where he temporarily leaves, which makes her say "why is everyone looking at me as if I just lost my best friend?", and that is really what they become to each other, long before they get to be lovers. Best friends who bicker, and partners.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*makes not to check out your flist*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the exact line but I always liked the moment when someone said to Lois that she must be the dumbest woman on the planet for not realising that Clark and Superman were one and the same. It acknowledged something that it was impossible not to think

I think that's in the second season, by the villain with all the letters as his name, and yes, meta acknowledgment. Which reminds me that someone - I think Yahtzee - once wrote a great story about Joyce (Summers) called "Being Lois Lane". Pity the loved ones of superheroes saddled by the narrative in not realizing the obvious!

(In Supreme Power, JMS goes meta too by letting Mark suggest to the goverment people he could have a normal job under another identity, disguising himself by wearing glasses. They just give him a look and say "no".)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It's just what one needs between inhaling the darker side of tv.*g*

[enname.livejournal.com]

*g* Clears the cobwebs from the lungs.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

that is really what they become to each other, long before they get to be lovers. Best friends who bicker, and partners.

Damn you, Selena, you're appealing right to my kinks, once again. *makes note to check out the show*

I have seen episodes and can picture the actors in my head, but don't remember much else about it.

[adn-heming.livejournal.com]

maybe the biggest reason why I really can't get into Smallville is the way Clark is always angsting over his powers and he never seem to be enjoying it

IMO, Smallville has the most negative outlook on power and the extraordinary among all the media incarnations of Superman. Which, I find odd: it's a show about the coming of age of a character who began the superhero genre, and it's a genre that celebrates the extraordinary, and believes responsibility and power can go hand in hand.

Gah. I'll stop before I go into a long-winded rant on Smallville.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*tempts*

Oh, I think you'd enjoy it very much - the banter, the partnership, and the whole light hearted charme of it. Also, oddly enough, Tim Minear cut his writing teeth there (after the X-Files) in the later seasons. Though the earlier ones are best.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Personally, I loved Bosworth's Lois, but I went into more depth in that in my big review, which you definitely shouldn't read till after you've seen the movie. ;)

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my main problem with Smallville is that they've made Clark so pro-human and almost racist when it comes to anything having to do with Krypton that I don't have a clue how he's ever actually supposed to develop into Superman. It's one thing to have Clark be the "real deal" and Superman the costume. It's another to have a Clark who loathes the fact that he's different and basically wants nothing to do with his alien heritage.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I've never sene this show, but every time I read a mention of it I have the Long Ryders's country-rock song "Looking For Lewis and Clark" in my head for the rest of the day.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I promise I'll wait, but knowing your well-argued reviews, I'm really looking forward to reading it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*g* Whereas when I first saw Babylon 5's "War without End" and Sinclair had his "we could be Lewis and Clark" exchange with Sheridan, I thought I heard "Lois and Clark" and it took me until the second watching to realize JMS was referencing the American explorers, not the two intrepid reporters from the Daily Planet.

(Second thought: or was he?!?)

[adn-heming.livejournal.com]

OMG, I loved her too! *pounces* Almost everyone I met either said "Eh she was okay" or "EH, she doesn't have Lois' spunk." It's been driving me *batty.* She wasn't Margot, but I totally beleived in her as Lois.

[adn-heming.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's their way of making out that that's reason WHY Clark is deserving of being a hero: he doesn't like the fact that he's extraordinary, loathes his alien heritage so he'll identify with us instead.

Which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Granted, the comics have sometimes been guilty of flirting with this subtext as well (Hi, John Byrne), but it seems to be Smallville's main theme.

[searose.livejournal.com]

I don't know about being an expert on Superman. Being that as it may...

The first season of The Adventures of Superman (1952, B&W syndicated television show, USA) had a Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) team-up that was interesting for its day. Phyllis Coates' Lois was not as sweet as the Lois portrayed by Noel Neill, and there was very, very little suggestion that she had romantic inclinations toward Superman. That first season Lois was all about her job, being the best, and she was shown to work well with Clark Kent who was also portrayed as a great reporter. Superman fans claim she was a bitchy Lois (to Clark), but I've watched the series for myself, and there are too many examples of Coates' Lois relying on Clark Kent to be her competent partner when the going got rough. For instance, when she thinks there's going to be trouble, she calls in to the Daily Planet and requests that Clark join her, insistent on it being Clark more than once as I recall.

The series has a very hard-line stance that none of the other characters could recognize George Reeves' Clark Kent as a glasses-wearing Superman, not even with a load of double-entendre joke lines from Clark for the audience at home, but the first season of The Adventures of Superman was an all-ages program, not a kiddie program. (The sponsor of the syndicated show demanded a change in that, iirc.)

George Reeves' Superman also enjoyed his abilities with zero angst about them. But he also enjoyed his life as Clark Kent in Metropolis, with friends and friendly contacts all over the episodes. That character was an adventurer-type.

Something you probably couldn't get your hands on would be the Ruby Spears cartoons from 1988. (No release yet of those on VHS or DVD, that I know of.) The Spears cartoons were a synthesis of Silver Age and post-COIE Superman, with adult Clark Kent being somewhat mild-mannered but not a doormat. That series also had Smallville-based segment to each show that was the same basic youth-of-Clark premise as Smallville but with 85% less dark childhood angst.

Lois & Clark was fun for the first two seasons in its focus on a budding romance, the first Superman television series to do so to that extent. Late Bronze Age and, of course, post-COIE comics were doing so as well, a break from the notion that such was impossible. Lois & Clark's third and fourth seasons were a mixed bag, but I don't know why. Maybe screenwriterly panic at how to keep a romance fresh to the audience once it was an every episode thing? The plotlines went bizarre, but I saw that happen for about four to five years in the comics when the writers seemed stuck on how to portray a married Superman without repelling readers (no template established and maintained from 1938, maybe).

And I will admit that I have seen and read too much Superman for me to think that Superman Returns is the best version that the year 2006 could produce. It's pretty, though, and does focus on emotion, romantic and paternal.

When you see Superman Returns, please do not try to reconcile it with Richard Donner's two Superman movies, even though the movie relies on at least the first one for an origin up to the debut in Metropolis, with one retcon of Clark's youth. Bryan Singer has already stated when questioned that he went AU on certain key points, even with claims that it is a later-day sequel. (It's a thematic sequel, basically, with the importing in of Marlon Brando as an actor.)

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Bosworth wasn't bad, actually I was mildly surprised that I could stand her but she just wasn't the Lois I know. She lacked the snap and crackle I usually associate with Lois, and yeah, the maturity.

and that is really what they become to each other, long before they get to be lovers. Best friends who bicker, and partners.

Oh, yes, see this is why I love them, they didn't start out as lovers they started out as friends and that's the progression I love.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my main problem with Smallville is that they've made Clark so pro-human and almost racist

That's another thing I have issues with, the show can't seem to stop making Kryptonians teh EVIL! They've even turned Jor-El into this crazy, overlord father. *Gnashes teeth*

Gah. I had such high hopes for this show-- I started re-watching again when they brought in Lois (and wtf is Lois doing in Smallville anyway??) and I liked Erica Durance!Lois until but then, of course, the writers just had to go and ruin her too. [head desk]