While Superboy technically featured a man, none of the classic Superman supporting cast were present. So, once this series debuted it was the first time in my life that Superman had a regular rotation on TV. And while not every episode is great, the series has its own charm. As implied by the title, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman took the spotlight somewhat off the Man of Steel in favor of the relationship between Daily Planet Co-workers Lois and CK.
Over four seasons along with romantic teases and love triangles, Lois and Clark offered plenty of comic book action hitting on many of the genre cliches including amnesia subplots, swapping powers resulting in Lois as Ultra Woman, shrinking, and of course CLONES! More on that later.
Many of Superman's classic rogues made showings including Mr. Mxyzptlk, Metallo, Toyman, the Prankster, and of course Lex Luthor who served initially as the romantic foil to CK seeking the hand of Lois Lane. Lex was a mainstay of the first season, though an untimely death and resurrection led to diminished screen time over the last three seasons.
The series also introduced some "original" villains. The first season featured more realistic thugs and criminals, but by the end all bets were off with characters like the time traveling Tempus whom L&C battled with the help of none other than H.G. Wells.
As the series progressed, Superman learned more about his origins eventually teaming with the founders of New Krypton.
One of the big gimmicks of the series was the opportunity to show Lois and Clark finally get married. The first two seasons build up the two's relationship and in the third had them tie the knot in a highly publicized event...
... and then this happened. It turned out Lois was a frog eating clone. Seriously. As if that wasn't enough the real Lois came down with amnesia! Audiences were none to happy and the series had lost its momentum. Although the duo did finally get married in the fourth seasons, it was too little too late to win enough fans for a fifth season leading to an unresolved series ending cliffhanger. Superman had been grounded...
Check back next week for another chapter in The Super History of Superman.
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