Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Perry White as Depicted on Smallville

OK, this is for all the Smallville fans out there.

Did you happen to catch last night's episode "Perry"? I just thought that they did a fantastic job portraying a Perry White I could totally see becoming the future editor of the Daily Planet. And Michael McKean was cast perfectly - he really did a great job.

I especially loved the little bits that they dropped in that eluded to certain quirks of Perry's - playing the "Walking in Memphis" song at the end, and just the whole way they set up what we all know is to come. Loved the relationship between him and Clark and how they hinted that all along, Perry has suspicions that maybe Clark Kent isn't all that he seems to be.

Any thoughts? Agreements, disagreements.

Lynn

I had mixed feelings about it. At first I was mad at the way they had portrayed him. Not only was he an alcoholic and a tabloid reporter, but he was just a jerk in general. It made me mad that they turned the well-respected Editor-In-Chief of the biggest and best newspaper in the country into a seedy tabloid reporter.

By the end of the ep he was a little closer to respectable, but for most of the ep I was wondering if the writers had ever picked up a comic book or seen the movies or LnC or the George Reeves series.

~Anna

You know, I was surprised by how Perry White was depicted. And I loved that! He was nothing like he's been done, and nothing like I expected he would be done. Just like their Lex Luthor- you can see how he grows into the more familiar character, but his earlier character is just as interesting.

And ending it with 'Walking in Memphis' was just too great. I love when a show thinks that I, the viewer, am smart.

CC- who still just really, really loves Smallville way more than a grown woman should.


edit: hey! I just noticed that according to that thingy in the upper left corner, I'm a Kerth member now. And there you are, Lynn, just a Meriwether member. I thought we were both new here, but you need to get busy, I'm winning!!

Okay...I'm going nuts over here because the very last episode of Smallville I saw had Clark heading out of Smallville on his motorbike, after his actions led Martha to have a miscarriage, which was the end of a Season, and I'll have to wait until the New Year to see what happens next... arrrrrrrrghhhh!!

But it's very interesting to note that Perry turns up I love the way they portrayed all of the familiar characters, like Lex and Lana, Jonathan and Martha, in a new light... so looking forward to seeing that episode!

Sara

Sara,

You are in for some really, really good stuff. I think I've enjoyed this season the most yet. And the two-part premiere was terrific. A much edgier, very confused Clark Kent, and a Lex who moves towards the darkside.

Hooray, Sara likes Smallville!

CC

Oh, yeah, Sara. You're in for some good stuff!

I'm a fairly new Smallville fan - got into it at the end of this last Summer, so there are a bunch of Season 2 epis I've never seen. I've got the Season 1 DVDs so I've seen all of that.

Overall, I agree with CC. The season 3 premiere was awesome. Of coure, I LOVE the dark-side of Clark (ha ha - see my fanfics :-)) and the way they explore that. So seeing him freaked out on Red K was cool. That and I find Tom Welling to be just about the most gorgeous guy when they have him tripped out on Red K.

Anyway, I do now understand why so many people hate Lana. Not so much her character, just that the writers put something about her in every single episode. Like this last one - it was about Perry White and a very neat job they did of it until the end, when Lana shows up whining about her non-relationship with Clark.

I hope you get to see these soon. They are really great.

Lynn

I had mixed feelings about it. I loved the classic Perry elements they added -- "Don't call me Chief!" had me ROTFL and I appreciated "Walking in Memphis" very much, though I had to explain the significance to my husband -- but I was not expecting him to be such a jerk. I did like the way they ended it, though, with him having a new lease on life, and especially telling Clark that he had potential as a reporter and if he's ever in Metropolis looking for a job, to look Perry up. Gee, ya think Clark will take him up on that in a few years? LOL.

I didn't even recognize Michael McKean at first, even though I knew he had the role -- he's gained a lot of weight since I've last seen him, and certainly since his guest spot on L&C. But I agree that acting-wise, he did a nice job. (No scenes with Martha, though, which I guess is a good thing, since I would have been thinking about them being married instead of them as their characters.)

I still don't understand how this Clark is ever going to create Superman as a "secret" identity, though. Even if you suspend disbelief about people who knew him in Smallville, the list of people from Metropolis -- people who are clearly not just going to "forget" what they've seen -- who will recognize him immediately is growing and growing.

A few weeks ago, it was Morgan Edge (who you know isn't really dead) who will take one look at Superman and say, "Hey, there's that thug Kal I hired; what was his real name again? Clark Kent?" And now it's going to be Perry White who will hire Clark and a short time later see his paper introduce Superman -- somehow I don't think it will take him more than a second to put it all together. In fact, unless this Superman wears a mask, I don't think anyone is going to be fooled, LOL.

I just hope Lois, whenever they meet, figures it out quickly. I love the idea of her being the only one who knows on L&C, but in Smallville, she'd be the only one who didn't know, and I couldn't stomach that.

Kathy

I'm with you there, Kathy. That is the biggest issue I have, too. It is so obvious to me that when this Superman character shows up with all of these cool abilities, and he looks EXACTLY like Clark Kent from Smallville that everyone in the world is going to know who it is.

I guess the Smallville writers know that they aren't going to take the show that far, so they figure it's not their problem to worry about that.

Overall, though, even though Perry was depicted as kind of a jerk, I got the glimmer that under the booze and the sleazy tabloid stuff he was a good guy who would turn out to be a solid person.

I didn't know Annette O'Toole and Michael MacKean were married. Go figure :rolleyes:

Lynn

Being from a small town myself, this aspect of Clark Kent's story always intrigued me. That the first time Superman was shown on television or in print, Smallville's mayor didn't say, "hey, we know that guy! Let's give him the key to the city."

That's why I've always liked the idea which, I think, is original to L&C, that he traveled the world for a while before moving to Metropolis. Maybe changing a lot physically, though hard to imagine Tom Welling looking any more developed that he already is.....(CC's mind wanders off....) Er...but I was making a point. And giving the people of Smallville, and in this case Metropolis, a time to "forget."

However, in this show all bets are off. This town had seen a lot of really strange things, and at this point they hardly blink!

Also, if you read Shayne Terry's little vingette, 'Gossip', I think, it works off the theory that I've always bought. Smallville knows exactly who CK is, they just don't talk about it to outsiders.

Ok, that was a bit more than my .02

CC

Let us review last week's depiction of Perry. He's a 50-ish award-winning reporter turned tabloid hack. His reputation is shot to shreads, and will take *years* to rebuild. Now he's to become editor of a world-class newspaper and supposed to hire Clark based on meeting him as a teenager? Not bloody likely. Of course, they could easily turn the Daily Planet into another supermarket rag. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me--they've destroyed everything else.

Anyone who knows me knows that, while I liked the *concept* of Smallville, I hate what they've done with it. I've heard over at Kryptonsite that the original concept was for a young Batman, and that makes more sense given the characters and the storyline. UnClark is more like a Bruce Wayne figure than a Clark Kent, anyway.

I'm holding out for Jason Trask to show up and rid the world of the menace that is the felonious UnClark.

Laura

From the episode (which, granted, I only saw once), I gathered that the reason Perry is a tabloid reporter is because of a mistake he made that COULD be rectified if he would swallow his pride and change his lifestyle a bit. If he could only make up his mind to redeem himself, things could improve for him.

And so what if he doesn't remember Clark in 10 years? He still might give him a job... though, like "our" Clark, he may have to prove himself first.

Well, the reason his reputation is shot to shreds is because of Lionel Luthor. He destroyed Perry's career.

In the real world yes. In the magical land of Smallville where Kansas has mountains - who knows?

Is it? We know from Chloe's dealings with Lionel that the Planet is under Luthor's control. Maybe not as much as the Inquisitor but still. Perhaps Perry will be the one to turn it into a more reputable paper and get it out from under Luthor's thumb.

I agree. RedClark makes me

This would make such an interesting L&C fanfic idea! Has it been done yet?