I watched originally because I'm a big fan of Superman. I've watched a lot of incarnations, including the old George Reeves series, the Christopher Reeve movies, the Superboy series, and the Justice League cartoons on Saturday morning. Even Smallville (I sense the cringing out there). So that's why I started watching.
Why I kept watching was because of the chemistry between the two leads. I have to admit Teri's pretty easy on the eyes, though that wasn't necessarily the main ingredient in their combined chemistry. I also chose it for being funny and for the romance. The romance portion is what kept me watching all the way through as the A-plots were rarely worth it. Those got dumber as third and fourth season rolled along.
An example on how NOT to do chemistry is the Christopher Reeve movies. The first two were pretty good because they concentrated on both the Superman mythos and the relationship between Superman and Lois Lane (Back in those days, Clark Kent was the caricature, not the reality). By the time the third movie rolled around, the producers were having problems with Margot Kidder and chopped her down to a bit player. We ended up with the monstrosities that were Superman III the Un-divine Comedy (I felt like I was in Purgatory watching it), where Richard Pryor was the lead (It's nice to have humor in Superman but it shouldn't be a comedy), and Superman IV the Quest for Plot, which concentrated so much on politics as to make me ill. The only watchable moment of "IV" was when Clark surprised Lois by grabbing her and jumping off the balcony and the conversation that ensued, but even that moment ended with another brain-sucking kiss. When the DVD's came out, I bought "I" and "II". There was no way I'd buy "III" and "IV". Ugh.
Though A-plots like Dr. Mensa would have driven me insane if that's all there was, fortunately those weren't the focus so L&C remained a wonderful show to watch all through its run. A primary example is the oft-rewritten TOGOM. By itself, TOGOM has a pretty stupid A-plot. Come on, cloning gangsters? Raise your hands if you watched TOGOM for Prof. Hamilton or Al Capone (though my sister liked the episode because it had three people from Knots Landing but she isn't a FoLC). If Clark hadn't been shot, that episode would have gone completely unnoticed by fandom as just another typical episode. It was the reaction of Lois to Clark's murder and how the incident revealed her feelings for Clark that drove the popularity of that episode (ducking at all the tomatoes being thrown by those who actually liked TOGOM for the A-plot). That the relationship between L&C was made the focus of the series is why it is loved by so many FoLCs. Thank you DJL and RS, despite what the evil Eisner tried to do to you.
[EDIT] For clarification, I chose:
* I like Teri Hatcher (how does "I like Dean Cain" outvote "I like Teri Hatcher" in the men's section of voting by a 3-2 margin?)
* I'm a Superman fan
* It's funny
* It's romantic
I did not vote in the women's section, except for the checkbox for "I'm a man."
Since I am, at this time, the only voting man, you can use my answers here to filter out the votes of women in the men's question.
