I'm talking about the late, great GEORGE REEVES, who played SUPERMAN and CLARK KENT on television for six seasons, from 1953 through 1957 (following the theatrical feature SUPERMAN & THE MOLE MEN in 1951) , and would have played the characters for another season if he was not the victim of an apparent murder plot that ended the actor/director's career in 1959.
Reevs portrayed THE MAN OF STEEL and his be-spectacled alter ego with a great spark of humanity, good-natured humor, and dramatic grit that is absent in the portrayals of most of today's film heroes, even those going as far back as the early 1960's.
The episodes of this series that are the best are often the earliest ones, made in black & white, and these are imbued with dark, mysterious "film noir" type detective plots. This crop of episodes, made by producers Bob Maxwell and Bernard Luber, were thought to be "too violent" by the show's sponsor, Kellogg's Cereals, so Maxwell and Luber were replaced by the well-intentioned Whitney Ellsworth, who had edoted the SUPERMAN family of comic books for some time prior to his entrance into the television industry.
The later episodes of the series still have some wonderful stories, but these, some of which were made in color, were definitely "dumbed down", not showing the show's intended, younger, audience, the respect they deserved.
I love all the shows in the series nonetheless, with the tough as nails Phyllis Coates playing Lois Lane in the first batch, then Coates is replaced by Noel Neill in the subsequent seasons as Coates left to star in a pilot for her own show, which, sadly failed to become a series. The great character actor, John Hamilton, who was seen in many old Warner Bros. films, was wonderful as Perry White, and young Jack Larson made a believable Jimmy Olsen. The character of Police Inspector William J. Henderson was a joy, as played by Robert Shayne, and numerous familiar faces from many years of television programs and movies, including Hugh Beaumont (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER), John Banner (HOGAN'S HEROES) , Chuck Connors (THE RIFLEMAN, BRANDED) and Dabbs Greer (THE GREEN MILE and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE) were among the guest stars, with Greer playing a different character in five episodes.
To get back to George Reeves, his SUPERMAN and CLARK KENT were not all that different from each other, both full of nerve and drive to get to the goal of bringing the unjust to justice.
and always with a "wink to the audience" at the close of the show.
Sadly, Reeves was having difficulty late in his life, due to his being "typecast" as SUPERMAN, and, despite his show of promise as a director, after performing that task for THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, he was still unable to get other work.
Reeves had played one of The Tarleton Twins in GONE WITH THE WIND, and had acted with the great Claudette Colbert in SO PROUDLY WE HAIL, but had lost any kind of following after his service in World War II.
It is a tragedy that the greatest hero the world has ever known lost that "never ending battle" and is not still with us today.
I Miss You, George.
