S1.E7 - "The Birthday Letter"
In this episode a little girl who is forced to stay at home due to a "crippled" leg, and a mother who is a work all day, writes the Daily Planet asking Superman to take her to the fair for her birthday. Lois writes a story about the letter including both the girl's name and address in the story. The girl receives a wrong number call, and some criminals kidnap her to get the message from her. The kidnappers get her address from the DP article, and one of them even dress up as Superman to get to the little girl, since they know about her birthday wish.
*My, have times changed.*
First of all, if the Daily Planet received a letter like that now, Lois would be more likely to write about the neglected child left at home to fend for herself.
Secondly, printing of the unchaperoned child's address in the paper! Perry White is lucky that the girl's mother didn't sue when her daughter got kidnapped.
It was bad enough that the mother blamed Superman when he showed up of kidnapping her daughter, because the daughter left a note, saying that 'Superman had taken her to the fair'. She didn't even give him the benefit of a doubt, but probably that was because he flew in (uninvited) into her living room. I can't imagine a superhero taking a child off to a fair without the permission of the child's parents nowadays.
The man who dressed up as Superman wasn't even wearing a blue suit (note exactly noticable in the B&W show, but please, even I could tell), but in grey sweats with painted on "S" and no red shorts. Also, fake Superman's cape looked more like a curtain than a cape. For a little girl, who read Superman comics, she should have known something was up before he walked her up the fire escape to the kidnappers hideout.
The secondary plot was interesting with the double crossed counterfitters trying to get their French Franc plates back, and the mobster's message going to the wrong number.
This episode seemed more like (seeing it through modern day's prisim) as a commentary on power of the press and the need not to print sensative information for anyone, including the criminals, could read.
The show ends with the shot of Superman flying the little girl to the fair. This is the shot most often shown when talking about this show. The little girl is beaming with excitement and Superman even has a smile on his usually serious face.
My kids decided that after seeing that shot that the fair needed a "Superman ride" in which they installed metal seats on the back of a giant fake Superman who would then fly them around the city, because they said, that looked like fun. (The girl, of course, was being carried in Superman's arms.)
