Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Timeline: Canon VS Fandom

(Please forgive my rambling post. I'm just really in need of input on this )

I was wondering if in the episode: Green, Green Glow of Home, does it ever say when the events take place?

If so, what are the dates of the corn festival?

In an attempt to work around my brain block on my story "A Dangerous Mind" , I was working on a scene where the corn festival takes place around one of my OC's birthday (Sept 20)

Will anyone be too put out with me if I make the Corn festival happen in September?

I realize that this seems like an odd question to ask. But I've written for fandoms before where the events of the episode are rigidly accepted to be set approximately around the original air date of the episode (and someone will get thoroughly flamed if suggestions are made for a different date). Other fandoms will allow for deviations from dates of events if the proposed date makes sense.

Here's my main reasoning behind the timeline shift:
Growing up in rural Indiana, I know most "crop festivals" typically happen around the first of the harvest. For corn, that would be around mid to late September. GGGoH originally aired on November 14 (my sis's b-day). Corn would have been harvested for several weeks by that time; as the last fields to be harvested are the ones holding corn mazes and those shut down after Halloween so the corn can be harvested before it completely rots.

As far as I remember, without rewatching the episode, they never gave a date. The script doesn't seem to have one either, although I only skimmed it and may have missed it. If you want to check it, it's at GGGOH Script. One caveat is that the online scripts don't always follow the filmed version exactly; some are earlier versions than others.

This fandom is very forgiving, and I doubt you'd get flamed for changing a date if one existed. You could explain your rationale in a note if you're concerned about someone's reaction. You could also up front say that the story doesn't follow canon exactly. Which as far as I'm concerned all fanfic is, otherwise it's plagiarism. Besides, the "what if..." is part of the the fun of fanfic!

Glad to see you're working around your writer's block and hope to read your story soon.

I was just looking up this timeline yesterday for a fic, how coincidental! I ended up researching corn and wheat harvests in Kansas and found a great website about typical corn harvest times. It was suggested that corn is harvested late Sept, into October, weather dependent, and where you are in the state.

https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/m_eu_article.throck?article_id=1152

I had to have a search online as our growing and harvesting season is so short where I am. We're already bringing out the snow shovels in September!

As for fandoms, especially those fans that write themselves, I've found them to be largely forgiving! I'm still new to this particular fandom, but everyone seems fairly chill.

I've personally always thought it was mid-October, just based on the orange and black balloons at the Corn Fest. Seemed very Halloweenish to me. And the fact that it's not cold enough to be in a jacket points to earlier, rather than later, fall. So I would say Sept-Oct would work as a timeline. This fandom, as Cuidadora mentioned, is very forgiving. Heck, Clark is shown to start at the Planet in May (we see a newspaper headline when the Nazis are unfrozen while Superman makes an early rescue) and that episode aired in September. And then there's the Joe Doe election stuff that aired in February, instead of the USA's November election time. Feel free to use whatever timeline you need!

Yeah, take the air dates with a grain of salt. I've noticed that a lot of episodes which aired in winter still seem to show summery weather despite Metropolis supposedly being a Northern state, and then there's the issue of episodes that take place over multiple days...You don't *have* to ignore the dates entirely, but being too strict can only lead to madness.

The fact that LnC was filmed in southern California adds to the confusion. While we do have winter, temperatures are generally in the 60s-70s, and sometimes warmer. It's sunny most of the year (officially, the rainy season is October to April, but rain is often sparse to nonexistent, and unless you're in the mountains, there is no snowy season). Therefore, an episode set in winter can look an awful lot like summer.

Not the first time, either. When I was young I watched the Adam West Batman on TV and it never occurred to me that Gotham was "New York"--I always understood it to be Los Angeles because all the outdoor shots are obviously not northeast or even midwest. Specifically, where the Batmobile goes roaring down what looks like PCH with all the brown cliffs.