The Krypton Club Newsletter #201!

ISSUE #201
JANUARY 24,
2000

"Supermodel or terrorist? Supermodel or terrorist? I mean, how do you wake up in the morning and decide to be THAT?"
-- Lois Lane, "Super Mann"

OOPS!
I realized after I sent out the Issue #200 newsletters, that I forgot about something! So I decided I'd get an early start and send out issue #201 early -- and early it is!

The Krypton Club Archives now has a bunch of old stuff up, including the first ten newsletters from 1995 and a few other random back issues. You can find them all at http://members.aol.com/planetkrypton/newsletter.htm.

-- Craig

THE LOST JIMMY
From TV Zone Magazine - Special #34 1999
Written by Steven Eramo

Last year, the British magazine TV Zone was able to track down first Jimmy Michael Landes for an interview, where he talked about leaving the show so early in the run. This article is copyrighted to TV Zone magazine. I e-mailed for permission to reprint this but unfortunately heard nothing back, so hopefully no one will have a fit at me for passing this along. If you haven't read TV Zone, it's a great magazine and well designed. You can get it at most major bookstore chains and even sometimes places like Tower Records. Here's the article!

MICHAEL LANDES CUB REPORTER MAKES GOOD
IN 1952 DC COMICS superhero Superman burst onto American television
screens in The Adventures of Superman. The series ran for five seasons
and starred George Reeves as the Man of Steel and, among others, Jack
Larson as the over-eager but good-natured young cub reporter Jimmy
Olsen. After various animated television revivals throughout the sixties
and seventies, the man from Krypton returned to live action in 1978 in
the big-budget feature film Superman starring Christopher Reeve with
Margot Kidder as Lois Lane and Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen.

When the nineties rolled around, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent and
Lois Lane returned to television in an updated version of the comic-book
legend in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Still working
alongside them for The Daily Planet newspaper was Jimmy Olsen, who was
played during the first year of the programme by Michael Landes.
Although the character had already been brought to life by other actors,
Landes put a slightly different spin on his performance as the young cub
reporter/photographer.

Creative Resource

"The original creator and producer of the series, Deborah Joy Levine,
had I think, a great idea," explains Landes. "Whenever you have a story
that's been told a number of times, any chance you have at being
creative and maybe changing things a bit is to your advantage you know?
She made Jimmy Olsen more like a big city kid and less like the, "Golly,
gee, Mister Kent," character that people had seen before and I liked
that.

"Whenever I play a character I try to take on various aspects of who
that person is. I went around with photographers from The Los Angeles
Times for a couple of weeks because I wanted to learn more about
photography. I looked at the work from the standpoint of I was supposed
to be a reporter/photographer as opposed to, "Oh this guy has been
played before." It's funny, you get into the nature of television and
sometimes it's not about reality but, "OK, let's just shoot this thing."
So logic occasionally gets washed away, but I always had my camera with
me and I tried to do justice with my character."

"Lane Smith, who's a dear friend of mine and who played Perry White on
the show once said to me, "Your very good about details relating to your
part," but it was the writing that influenced my interpretation of the
character. I saw Jimmy Olsen as a young struggling journalist who looked
up to both Lois and Clark and, I guess would eventually want to be a
reporter like them."

Landes had already appeared in a pilot for Warner Bros and guest-starred
on several of their television series when he learned about the part on
Lois & Clark. At the same time the company was also at work developing a
new show for him with Beverly Hills 90210 star Tiffani-Amber Thiessen.
"The woman who was working on the series had a friend, Robert Butler,
who became a director and executive producer on Lois & Clark. I also
knew the casting people for Lois & Clark and they brought me in for a
reading."

"So I went through that process and it's usually four or five
auditions," he says, "You meet with the producers and if they like you
then you go before the Warner Bros studio people. If they approve then
you go to ABC and all of their executives and that's called the network
test. That's the big anxiety-filled process that actors have to through
to get cast on any of these shows. I think I was actually the first
person they hired for Lois & Clark. When I was signed they were still
looking for their leading actors."

Given the programme's title it was obvious that most of the action would
centre around Clark Kent/Superman (Dean Cain) and Lois Lane (Teri
Hatcher). On occasion, Jimmy Olsen would scoop his mentors and get his
name on The Daily Planet's front page, surprising everyone including his
editor Perry White (Lane Smith). Landes enjoyed the rapport he shared
with Smith and relished their on-screen time together.

"They developed this nice storyline between Perry White and Jimmy where
he took the young man under his wing. As much as Perry would yell at
Jimmy he really liked him," says Landes. "I loved working with Lane and
he and I became almost the "B" storyline. Naturally, it was always about
Lois and Clark; the programme ultimately came down to being just that,
but they developed my character the best they could. You learn to care
about Jimmy as you se him struggling to be better at his job. I think
audiences would rather watch someone who's on the road to making it as
opposed to someone who's got it all together."

"Lane used to bet me one hundred dollars that he could make me laugh,"
jokes the actor. "He could make you laugh so easy because he's very
serious and stern but he's got this devilish smile underneath it all. I
lost every time; he always had me in stitches."

Fond Memories

Looking back on his work with the rest of the Lois & Clark cast the
actor has nothing but fond memories of his fellow performers. "Dean Cain
is the ultimate guy's guy. He was always in good spirits and never made
anyone feel less than welcome. Teri Hatcher is a very focused actress
and was always nice to me. Tracy [Scoggins], who played gossip columnist
Cat Grant] was great fun. She and I would constantly be joking around on
the set. Even Mom and Pop Kent, who I never worked with, K Callan and
Eddie Jones were lovely. John Shea, who was Lex Luthor, is a friend of
mine. I produced a film in Boston, Massachusetts back in the summer of
1997 called Lost and Found. Lane played my psychiatrist and John Shea
played my father in a short flashback scene, so it was if I'd pulled a
couple of the boys together," he says proudly.

Changes Ahead

Several changes were made to Lois & Clark when the series returned for a
second season. Deborah Joy Levine's involvement was reduced and John
Shea's villainous Lex Luthor was slowly replaced by a revolving door of
different adversaries for Superman to face. Gone also was Tracy Scoggins
and, much to his disappointment, Landes contract was not renewed.
"Apparently, the powers that be at ABC felt that I looked too much like
Dean Cain, so they recast me with a younger actor."

"I was 21, I think, and it was the first time I'd ever been let go from
a job. I bled a little," he recalls, "It was like, "Wow, what just
happened?" Luckily I was smart enough where I didn't think, "Hey, I've
got a regular job on a weekly series. I think I'll go out and buy
everything I want." So I wasn't in debt or anything like that. I was on
vacation when I received the news. It was a big shock but I survived. I
immediately began working on a television movie-of-the-week in Canada
and then I did an independent film."

"Once you are working again you tend to forget about your last job. It's
just those couple of months when you're down and think, "What a bummer,"
but when I look back over the last four years I couldn't imagine things
being different. I had a great time doing Lois & Clark but since then
I've made so many other relationships that I probably wouldn't have
discovered had things not happened the way they did."

Further Work

Landes can also be seen on the big screen in Dream for an Insomniac, in
which he plays a gay Italian who pretends to be involved with Jennifer
Aniston's character. One of the projects he is most proud of, however is
his work on the independent film Lost and Found.

"It's a romantic comedy featuring myself, Hedy Buress, who starred on
the television series Boston Common, and Dina Spybey, who also starred
on Men Behaving Badly [the American version]. These two girls rent a
summerhouse in Scituate, Massachusetts; I stumble across the house, meet
them, and fall in love with Hedy's character. We shot it on location in
Scituate and Boston and it was truly the best experience of my whole
life," says Landes happily.

"Making that movie was a goal of mine," he continues, "When you achieve
a goal, and it's true of anything in life it fills you up so much. If I
set out to do something as an actor and then I accomplish it that's so
rewarding. I think the fun in acting sometimes comes in retrospect. I
remember when we were filming Lost and Found. I kept thinking, "Now are
we spending to much money? Did I do that right? Gezz, I'm worried about
my performance." I look back on it now, though, and I realise we had a
terrific time. The more I do it [acting and producing], the more excited
I get, so I can't wait for my next job!"

DISSED!
By Craig Byrne

Despite his bad experience of being let go after one year, Michael Landes still seemed to have fond memories of the show. Sadly things apparently aren't the same for former "L&C" star Teri Hatcher.

In an interview with Bill Zwecker regarding "Cabaret," Teri offered her opinions on appearing in a network TV series as compared to doing theater. "Television, with a very few exceptions, does not bring out the truest artist in you," she said. "You're dealing with so much... so many egos, producers who have an agenda, a network who has an agenda, publicists who have agendas, other actors who have agendas and big egos. It's truly not about a true art form like the theater. [The theater] really is. Let's face it, people are not doing this for the money. This is about people working their ----- off to make something really great and special."

Teri then talked about Lois & Clark, and made some very disparaging remarks. "The disappointing thing is the scripts [for 'Lois & Clark'] never reached the creative level of the pilot episode," she says. "We spent four years doing dumb shows. It was a constant battle over lack of creativity, and when you're spending 17 hours a day killing yourself for something you don't feel is so good--that's terrible." She then went on to say "What really killed me was the potential not reached. I really believed in that show and felt it had the potential to be smart and edgy and funny, but then it just became a stupid 5-year-old's show."

It's sad to see that Teri feels this way about having done the series. Even if *some* episodes did come out fairly badly, she should have realized that she had millions of fans who still appreciated the effort she had put forth. Teri might also think "I was on the breast episode of Seinfeld, so I can put down anything I want" -- keep in mind that's an opinion by this writer, NOT a quote--but when you really get down to it, "Lois & Clark" is what put her name out there. In about ten years or so, don't be surprised if her opinion starts to change.

There COULD be the slight chance that Teri's quotes were misappropriated; and if we hear otherwise, it will be passed along because I do NOT want this newsletter to become a "witch hunt" for "L&C"-dissing. It is news though, and I felt all right passing it along. I hope no one is offended!

Oh... and the article also quoted that Teri hasn't talked to Dean "since the day we left the show," but it was not "like we didn't get along or anything like what the tabloids would lead you to believe. We were just different people who went our separate ways."

Look for the answer in the next newsletter. The answer to last issue's trivia: What century did Tempus come from? The copy of the script here says the 22nd; if this happens to be wrong someone please send through a correction.

Editor/Krypton Club President: Craig Byrne
Special Thanks To: Donna Burton and Anne Hoijer

THE KRYPTON CLUB NEWSLETTER, Volume 1, Issue 201, January 24, 2000. Published online monthly sometimes, quarterly some other time, and whenever I darn please the rest of the time. Copyright (c) 2000 The Lois & Clark Krypton Club. All rights reserved. Any material within is property of the Krypton Club and/or respective individuals unless otherwise noted as coming from elsewhere. Any opinions within belong solely to the individuals who express them. Copying or any unauthorized publication of material from this newsletter without permission is illegal. The Michael Landes article came from TV Zone magazine... please don't sue us! So obviously that's not copyrighted to us in any way, and hopefully we won't get into any trouble. 99 ISSUES UNTIL ISSUE #300!