Read our review of the Adventures of Superman Season 2 DVD

Read our review of the Adventures of Superman Seasons 3-4 DVD

Imagine This: Television's First Superman Series!
Years before Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk spent angsty evenings in the hay loft, decades before Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher lit up the screen, and before Christopher Reeve ever became immortalized as the movies' first big-budget Superman, George Reeves came before them all and portrayed the Man of Steel for over 100 episodes.

With the recent release of the first four seasons on DVD, and the cameo appearances from actors from the show in this year's Superman Returns, many of you may be wondering what made this original series such an important part of TV history.

The TV Adventures of Superman made its start as a 1951 feature called "Superman and the Mole Men," and starred the cast that we'd eventually see in the TV series - George Reeves as Clark Kent/Superman, Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane, and Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen. The feature was created to promote the eventual TV series, and it was later split into two episodes as "The Unknown People" later in Season 1.

"George Reeves was just so perfect as Superman that to my generation, there was no consideration of anyone else embodying that part," film historian Leonard Maltin said on the Adventures of Superman Season One DVD.

Comic book painter favorite Alex Ross also had great things to say about Reeves' portrayal of the Man of Steel. "George's depiction of Superman had this certain presence and charisma that wasn't equalled by every other actor who would ever play him. Even though he needed a padded costume, he had a certain physical presence and bulk."

"Superman and the Mole Men" was on the shelf for two years, and to many, it may have looked like a TV series would never happen. Then Kellogg's bought all of the half-hours from the first season, which went on the air in 1953. It was a big success. Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the original movie serials, took over the role for the second season. When more episodes were produced for Season Three and beyond, they were now in color - a rarity for the 1950s world where most television sets were only black and white.

More episodes were considered, but sadly, George Reeves died of a gunshot wound in 1959. Some ruled it a suicide; others think that Reeves may have been killed. The death of George Reeves has been the subject of many books and soon will be retold as a major motion picture starring Ben Affleck.

The Adventures of Superman was also remarkable in its offering of a strong-willed Lois Lane. In the 1950s television landscape, women usually were scatterbrained housewives, like Lucy Ricardo, always submitting to the men in their lives. Not Lois. Both Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill did very well with the character. Jack Larson's Jimmy Olsen was so memorable - his performance inspired the Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen comic book series, as the Jimmy character became a franchise to himself.

One of George Reeves' most famous appearances as Superman wasn't even on The Adventures of Superman. Reeves appeared on a sixth season episode of I Love Lucy in character as Superman. This hilarious episode is one of Lucy's best, and Reeves' delivery was perfect.

A TV Guide cover featuring George Reeves as Superman is to this day one of the most valuable of the magazine's 5000+ issues.

The success of The Adventures of Superman paved the way for many other comic book-inspired TV series. An Adventures of Superboy pilot was produced in the early 1960's but never materialized into anything more; a Super-Pup pilot was also proposed but mercifully never happened. Until the release of the Superman film in the late 1970's with Christopher Reeve, to an entire generation, George Reeves was Superman.

The Adventures of Superman, from its second season on, produced by former DC Comics editor Whitney Ellsworth. The name may hold some significance to Smallville fans, as that was originally to be the name of Lana's boyfriend in the series as a tribute. Ellsworth had a more all-ages approach to Superman than his predecessor, Robert Maxwell, had in the show's first year.

Lana Lang was nowhere to be seen in this series, and Jonathan and Martha Kent had their earlier names of Sarah and Eben. Like Smallville and Superman: The Movie before it, Clark Kent's father was the first to die, the cause being a heart attack.

The legacy of The Adventures of Superman still continues. TV's first Lois, Phyllis Coates, appeared as Lois Lane's mother Ellen in the first season finale of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Noel Neill made cameo appearances in the 1978 Superman film, a 1991 episode of Superboy, and 2006's Superman Returns. Jack Larson (Jimmy) appeared on that same episode of Superboy and was in a Lois & Clark episode as an aged version of Justin Whalin's character. Finally, the last role of Robert Shayne (Inspector Henderson) was as a blind news vendor in episodes of the 1990 CBS series The Flash, based on the comic book.

"The Adventures of Superman is the least sci-fi version of Superman. At the time, it was gangsters, corrupt politicians... he was very much fighting crime," Smallville executive producer Alfred Gough said of his TV series predecessor. And without the Adventures, who knows if we would have had such great TV series as Lois & Clark, Smallville, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, or any of the other comic-inspired TV programs.

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