Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Superman Related 75 Years of Superman short

Produced by Bruce Timm and Zach Snyder, this was meant to celebrate and homage a good deal of the Superman mythos and history. I thought it was really well done artistically but was rather iritated by their decision to cut out Dean Cain but leave in the Super Friends cartoon (which was only on for one season.) 75 years of Superman short.

Some of the commenters are claiming the reason Lois and Clark wasn't referenced was that there wasn't a clear iconic moment.

You mean Lois and Clark influencing the comics to finally get them married wasn't iconic? I think they could have worked in a kiss at the alter between Lois and Clark.

Well, Lois only got a brief nod too.

Lois & Clark didn't influence the comics to get them married. It caused Superman to get killed off. The comics writers were going to have them get married in '92, but they were told to scrap their plot plans so that they could get married later at the same time it happened on the show. The writers were upset at having to re-plot everything, and one of them suggested, "Why don't we just kill him?" and no one could think up a better story, so they ran with it.

That's still not a trivial contribution.

There's a lot of stuff that isn't in there - I don't feel that L&C were particularly singled out. They reference the Christopher Reeve version for a few seconds, which is the REALLY iconic live-action version, he can stand in for the rest.

If it had been the only live-action version to be used then I wouldn't have a problem with it. Because both the Adventures of Superman AND Smallville both got references in it that negates that.

Now L&C was NOT the only one to be left out (Superman Returns was also left out/ignored).

Maybe I'll try rewatching it. I watched the first 20 seconds or so and it didn't do anything for me, so I didn't finish (I think it was buffering when I closed or I had something to do). But a lot general Superman fans seem to like it. A shame L&C wasn't there, nor SR, but they aren't the newest or the most fondly remembered iterations. That said, I like some across-the-board-Superman fanvids that I've seen on YouTube better (and am looking forward to ones that use MoS, as well as other versions).

L&C and SR aren't the only things that were left out. The Man of Steel comics reboot from the 80's wasn't there, either, and I think that is much more iconic and influential than either SR or L&C. That story line is where Clark's personality was changed such that he's more Clark dressing up as Superman instead of Superman pretending to be Clark. The Kirk Alyn stuff wasn't there that I noticed, either, nor was the radio show. The only thing I saw that was from the 70's was Superman's fight with Muhammad Ali, and then it skipped the 80's and went to the 90's. There's just so much in the Superman genre that no one could put all of it in a short cartoon like that - it would always leave out something that is someone's favorite. I'm kind of glad that they skipped SR, and as much of a fan as I am, it doesn't bother me that they left out L&C. (Just don't brand me a heretic!) Overall, I think they hit enough of the major highlights of Superman's history to be representative of all of it.

The Atari game came out in the 70s, as did "Superman: The movie and "Superfriends." ALL of those were represented.

::facepalm:: Ok, I guess I was thinking of 70's comics when I wrote that, not the other genres. Nix my stupid comment, but the rest of my opinion stands.

I must have blinked and missed Smallville.

Smallville was the water tower. It's in the background when Kingdom Come Superman descends from the sky holding a villain.

I enjoyed the short a lot. I loved all of the references to the different versions of the character, especially the animated versions of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve.

It would have been nice to have seen some mention of "Lois and Clark," but I don't feel like the show was too snubbed since a lot of things didn't make the cut. If they had wanted a somewhat iconic image from the show, though, I think the perfect shot would have been Teri Hatcher's Lois wrapped in the Superman cape. After all, it was the most downloaded image from the Internet for some time.

I think that's what they were trying to avoid, associating Lois too closely with Superman (not to mention not even from the episode itself, just the promos). It also definitely would have been a jump in tone which it seems like they were trying to avoid. I think the fight with Nor (or Clark sparring with Ching) would have been closer to what they were looking for. I would have been happy with that even though it wouldn't have had Lois in the imagery represented (although I know plenty of people that wouldn't have been satisfied with that.)

Given that Lois and Clark aren't a couple in the comics right now, you may be right that they were trying to avoid associating her too closely with Superman. I guess that that might have been one of the reasons "Lois and Clark" didn't make the cut. To make a reference to the show, you'd almost have to show Teri Hatcher's Lois with Dean Cain's Superman since Lois was much more central to the show than she was to any other adaptation of the comics.

As for which scene they could have used, while I would have enjoyed any reference to the show, I don't think the people behind creating the short would have considered using something like the fight with Nor or Clark sparring with Ching because general Superman fans would have had trouble placing where it was from. I believe the shot of Teri Hatcher in the cape, whether it was only in the promos or not, was the only shot from the show that general Superman fans would be able to immediately place.