If you’re reading this, you probably either just finished the Smallville series finale or saw it a few hours ago. As I write this, it’s been a little over an hour and I’m still not sure what to think. I enjoyed the episode greatly, and three was a whole lot to be excited about, but my immediate feeling right now is as though a friend has died…. a friend I have welcomed into my home and my heart for ten years. So, if you ask me “what did you think?” Let me watch it a few more times and get the emotion out first.
I think it was just luck that KryptonSite came in and somehow became the web resource on record for a lot of things related to Smallville. It was here when the pilot was still in the process was filming, and it was here when it was announced The WB would merge with UPN to become The CW. The site saw some good times – like the announcement that legendary Superman Christopher Reeve would guest star – and some sad, like when the news came in that Jeph Loeb’s son Sam had passed away. Spoilers came and went, with some more warmly received by others, and “shipper wars” often probably caused more anger on the forums than not, but somehow this site made it through.
I know I’ve been very lucky. Meeting cast members and writing the companion books… it really was a dream come true. And I mean that – I never expected that to happen. I’ve made some great friends along the way too, here at KryptonSite, or on Twitter, or other places in the online and real-life Smallville circle. Great fellow webmasters, podcasters, and other TV journalists – very cool people. I know others were also so lucky – just ask original KryptonSite mods Mark and Gemma, who got married a few years back and had their first child last year. (No, it wasn’t a rapidly-aging exploding baby). All of us, really, can probably say our lives have changed in these ten years. When Smallville began, I was 23 years old and working at a newspaper in Maryland. Now I’m 33 and I write about TV in California. Some of the show’s biggest fans weren’t even in high school yet when the show premiered!
There probably won’t be another show like Smallville again – and if there is, it will be an amazing feat. A show that lasts ten years with the same primary lead actor is mostly unheard of. Tom Welling did it, though, and people stayed interested. Big shoutout goes to Tom – who owned the role for 10 years but also became a fantastic director in the process. I know we’ll be seeing more of him, either in front of of behind the cameras.
I think about the people who have been so helpful to me over the years making this site work. Al Gough & Miles Millar led the way, being some of the first showrunners to understand the importance of an online fan base. After they left, Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer and then of course Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson were always supportive as showrunners. Susan and Suzanne (don’t get them confused at a high schol reunion) – thank you for all of your support and putting up with me and forgiving when I’d mess up from time to time. And to the cast. In addition to Tom… Michael, Kristin, Allison, Justin, Cassidy, Eric, John Schneider, Aaron, Erica, and Laura… you are the ones I interacted with the most, which is not to slight anyone else… but you all have been a pleasure to interview and interact with. Special appreciation to John Glover and Annette O’Toole, two of the kindest individuals I’ve ever met in ten years of covering Smallville, for taking me out to dinner when I was in Vancouver for the Season 6 book. That meant to much to me. Even the guest stars I’d talked to and gotten to know have been wonderful people, probably too much to name. And the folks I worked with on the books – Chris Cerasi, Steve Korte, and the revolving door of editors from the Smallville Magazine – THANK YOU for all of your support.
Smallville had one of the best and most hard-working crews in all of television. When the writers’ strike happened during Season 7, Smallville missed only two episodes – a testament to the power and the talent of the creative people there. I’m not listing names there, or among the incredible writers and producers who I’ve talked to who have also been supportive of this site over the years because again, I’d be worried I’d leave someone out by accident – but you are amazing, and I hope to see your names in many projects in the future. One of the saddest things about Smallville ending is knowing that team won’t exist anymore up in Vancouver, or in the production office down here. I still wish there had been a spin-off to keep that “team” together.
The Smallville fan base was so passionate, and I think that’s a big reason the show lasted as long as it did. Sometimes it got mean. But I always have thought that to bring out such emotion from its fans, the show must have done something right. Apathy is the worst feeling a TV show fan can have, and Smallville fans never had that. At the end of the day, we all did have something in common – we loved the show. Even when there was complaining, we complained because we loved. Or at least that’s how I look back at it.
I’d like to call out “Triplet” (aka C.M. Houghton) who worked so hard to bring new Smallville reviews in every week for several years now, and to Russ Dimino whose “Many Faces Of…” and other columns were always a treat. And I’d like to thank the team of KryptonSite mods for doing a great job of keeping the peace. With over 50,000 forum members, it’s not an easy task!
218 episodes is so cool. And the fact that so many people came back for the end… it felt like a reunion. This is the second Superman TV series I actively covered (the first being Lois & Clark) and I hope it’s not the last. When it happens again, I hope as many Smallville people as possible come back in the way that folks like Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Dean Cain, and Teri Hatcher did.
Many people have asked me what I’m going to do now that Smallville is over. Am I closing the site? Of course not! As long as I have a say in it, KryptonSite will exist as an archive for 10 years of Smallville. Now that I have more time on my hands, maybe I can even finally sort out old articles so they’re easier to search, and maybe I can finally fix things like the cast and episode guide pages. The forum will still exist, but don’t be surprised if it moves (keeping all of the old posts, of course) to the KSiteTV domain. So if you’re worried your old posts or fanfiction will disappear… they won’t. KryptonSite will still hopefully be relevant with Man of Steel News, a special sub-section of the site dedicated to news about next year’s Superman movie, The Man Of Steel. This page right here will continue to exist to promote the projects of Smallville alumni as they move forward to the future. Just because their show is over doesn’t mean the whole story is.
I was hoping we’d have new superhero TV with Wonder Woman this Fall, and apparently it’s not happening but that’s probably for the best. If you’ve enjoyed KryptonSite and the kind of thing you’ve seen here, though, I hope you’ll check out KSiteTV – it’s basically a generalized TV website focusing on whatever TV I feel like covering, but in hopefully a KryptonSite-like style. Maybe there will be more individual sites like this one, and there certainly will be more if there are some comic book projects TV on the way. Any individual sites for other upcoming shows and you’d have to make suggestions, though right now I’m leaning toward keeping it all at KSiteTV.
I’d like to build Avengersite and JusticeSite.net as good locations for Marvel and DC movies, respectively, though they’re rather small as it currently stands, and while V and Human Target have recently ended, a site for The Vampire Diaries still exists in the site network at VampireSite.net and you can read updates on all of these things at the KSiteTV/KryptonSite Twitter Feed. (Don’t everybody leave me after tonight!)
And that seems like a novel. Sorry to take up your time, the photos and forums you’re looking for can be found below. :) I just needed to get this out while it was all still in my head.Thank you all for being a part of KryptonSite, and thanks again to Smallville for bringing all of us together. Oh yeah – and this summer we’re doing the KryptonSite Awards again for Season 10… and then Summer 2012, assuming anyone’s still around, we’ll do it all over again for the entire series. Hope to see you!
“Always hold on to Smallville.”
— Craig Byrne
May 13, 2011