- Title: Adventures of Superman – Superman on Earth
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to Metropolis and the adventures of a mild-mannered reporter for a great metrolopolitan newspaper who was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. The first episode of the 1950s Adventures of Superman offers an origin story for Superman (George Reeves), with much of the episode dealing with Krypton’s final days where Jor-El (Robert Rockwell) is ridiculed for his predictions about the oncoming disaster (plot pulled directly from the comics) and sends his son to Earth where he is found and raised by the Kents (Tom Fadden and Frances Morris). Though goofy, the sequences are still relevant today. If you pinned “Make America Great Again” on the Kryptonians you might think you were watching Trump supporters ignore science at the cost of their own lives.
The episode also offers a few glimpses of Clark’s life in Smallville before relocating him to Metropolis as the Adventures of Superman crams in Clark getting a job at The Daily Planet and the first appearance of Superman as well. There are some oddities along the way, such as the Kryptonian characters all wearing mismatched costumes from various sci-fi serials and shocking names for the Kents (at the time DC had not settled on Martha and Jonathan). Neither the show’s limited special effects nor the cliched Midwesterners have aged all that well over the years. Because so much of the episode takes place prior to Clark’s arrival in the big city, we don’t get much of Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane, but the show does set-up her suspicions of Clark for beating her to the big story.
