Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic The Kirk Alyn/Noel Neill Superman Serials

I just finished watching the Superman serials with Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill. Being a fan of Superman and also being a fan of old movies from the time period these serials were made, I thought it would be an enjoyable way to spend a few nights. I was right! Now that I’m finished, I thought I’d explain some of my thoughts on the serials and hopefully get a discussion going.

I liked the way Jor-El was portrayed in this version. He saves his son, his planet explodes, and then, he is gone. I love "Smallville" and the Reeve movies, but I prefer Jor-El’s role to end on Krypton. I don’t think Superman should be able to head to the Fortress of Solitude and talk to Jor-El whenever he wants to. I think that that’s part of the tragedy of Krypton's explosion.

However, I am not a huge fan of the Kents dying before Clark becomes Superman. His parents living into his Superman years gives him a couple of people that know his secret and gives him somebody to play off of. Therefore, the early death of his parents was one thing I didn’t like about this version, though I understand that that’s how it was in the older comics.

I liked Kirk Alyn’s portrayal of Clark Kent. I liked that he didn’t play Clark as a bumbling disguise. Clark actually seemed like a competent reporter here. He seemed closer to the portrayals by Dean Cain and George Reeves to me than to the portrayals by Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh. Since I’ve never been a huge fan of making Clark Kent into a complete disguise, that appealed to me.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about these serials was that Superman turns into a cartoon when he flies, but it didn’t bother me. I’m usually very easy to please when it comes to bad special effects.

I also liked Noel Neill’s portrayal as Lois Lane. She kind of reminded me of the way Teri Hatcher was in the first few episodes of “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” She seemed to be willing to do anything to get the story, even if it meant playing dirty to get Clark out of the way. I can see where L&C was influenced a little bit by this Lois when the episode “Neverending Battle” was written.

Both Jimmy Olsen and Perry White worked fine for me. I don’t have a whole lot to say about them, but I liked them.

I liked the use of villains in the serials. I enjoyed the Spider Lady a lot, and it was interesting to see a different portrayal of Lex Luthor. I like the way Lex is played on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" and on "Smallville" the best, but it was fun to see Lex Luthor played as a scientist.

All in all, I had a fun time watching these serials. Next up, I plan on finishing "Adventures of Superman" with George Reeves.

A few odd thoughts about the serial: I didn't mind the cartoon flight, either. Given the state of special effects at the time, I would rather have had the cartoon flight than whatever they could have managed with Kirk Alyn.

I was always amused by Kirk Alyn's almost child-like interpretation of Superman. His expression when he was performing super feats seemed to me to be a mixture of awe, surprise, and delight in his accomplishment, such as I have only seen in RL when a child succeeds at something for the first time. (I saw it on my son's face, for example, the first time he stood up without any support.)

I didn't like this version of Jimmy Olsen at all. I had nothing against Tommy Bond except that he looked way too old for the part. Well, and he seemed to have less of a personality than any other Jimmy I have seen.

Lex was also a scientist in the earlier versions of the comics. He's only been a business tycoon in more recent decades. I don't know when the switch occurred, but I'm inclined to guess around the 1970s. I am sure that someone else on the MB would be able to give a more accurate time frame.

Joy,
Lynn

The change to businessman was part of the big DC reboot after Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-6. For Superman the changes were spelled out in The Man of Steel, which is basically the source for the L&C TV show. This was a series to introduce the new version of Superman, with Lex as a businessman etc. There was even a collected version with the TV Lois and Clark on the cover.

I can't post this as a link, the site won't let me, but if you paste it into a browser it will give you details of the comic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_of_Steel_(comics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_on_Infinite_Earths

Thanks for the information about Lex. I actually had read somewhere before that he was originally a scientist in the comics before becoming a businessman, but not having read a lot of the comics, this was my first exposure to that version of Lex.

I didn't notice that when watching it. Interesting.

I actually love the Kirk Alyn/Noell Neil versions of Lois and Clark! Haven't seen the entire serials, but what I have seen I've enjoyed. I agree that Kirk plays a great Clark Kent, more along the Dean Cain lines where he's not just the idiot portrayed in the movie versions (and I might be biased, but I really dislike the CK depicted by Welling... he's just not Clark). And Noell Neil! I absolutely love her as Lois! Spunky and stubborn and more 'Mad Dog' style.

...Now I'm interested in rewatching/finishing these serials. I'm going to get on that.

The animated series version of Clark is pretty good too.