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Superboy

Entry updated 19 November 2023. Tagged: TV.

US tv series (1988-1992). An Alexander and Ilya Salkind Production, for syndication. Executive producer Ilya Salkind, producer Robert Simmonds. Directors included Reza S Badiyi, Colin Chilvers, Peter Kiwitt, David Grossman, David Nutter, Richard J Lewis. Writers included Fred Freiberger, Cary Bates, Mark Jones, Toby Martin, Michael Carlin and Andrew Helfer, David Gerrold. Three seasons, 78 25-minute episodes in all. Colour.

The Salkinds, who made three of the Superman movies, here returned with a brisk, not very expensive series based on the teenage years of Clark Kent at Shuster University (Joe Shuster [1914-1991] was co-creator of Superman), where he is studying with his childhood friend, glamorous Lana Lang. The time is, anachronistically, the present. Cast changes were confusing: John Haymes Newton played Superboy (woodenly) in season 1, then was replaced by Gerard Christopher; Scott Wells played Lex Luthor in season 1, then was replaced by Sherman Howard. Lana Lang was played by Stacy Haiduk, and cub reporter T J White (son of Daily Planet editor Perry White) by Jim Calvert. At only half an hour per episode there was not much room for complex plotting. There was a laudable variety of Villains (Golems, Werewolves, other-dimensional imps, Androids, Aliens and succubi among them), but the treatment was mostly routine. In season 3 Lana and Clark go to work for the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters. [PN]

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