Superboy

In 1988 DC Comics entered into the syndicated television world again with the adventures of Superman when he was known as Superboy. The same people who produced the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve produced this TV series so it looked pretty good. In the series Clark (Superboy) Kent, played by John Haymes Newton, was a journalism major at Shuster University. Also, attending was his high school girlfriend Lana Lang who was played by Stacy Haiduk. Also, hanging around on his way to being a criminal genius was Lex Luthor played by Scott Wells.
In 1989 at the beginning of the second season there were some cast changes. During the hiatus John Haymes Newton was stopped by police and found him under the influence of either drugs or alcohol (I forget which one right now.) I heard that he tried to play the star treatment by repeatedly asking the police “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” Wanting to nip any future problems in the bud the producers quickly recast the Superboy part with Gerard Christopher who stayed with the series till the end. Officially I have read that John Haymes Newton quit in a contract dispute. Scott Wells had played Luthor as a 19 year old genius in the first year. The second season the part was recast with an older actor, Sherman Howard. It was explained that Luthor had undergone surgery that made him look older so he could be hidden from his arch-enemy Superboy. Where in the Adventures of Superman he only fought bank robbers, in Superboy the villains kept more in line with the comic book. On Superboy he fought aliens, vampires and even Mr. Mxyzptlk who was in the comic books. In 1990, I suppose in honor of the George Reeves series, the show changed its name to The Adventures of Superboy. Lana and Clark had now graduated and in a departure from the comic book instead of working for the Daily Planet they worked as Government Agents. This enabled them to come into contact with even more strange villains.
The series ended its run in 1991. A few years later when they were casting for Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman, Gerard Christopher tried out for the part of Clark. He almost got it till the producers found out that he had already played the part in The Adventures of Superboy. I guess they didn’t want anyone thinking that Lois and Clark was a spin-off of the show. I would say that Mr. Christopher was lucky as it may have typed cast him. However, when was the last time that you saw Gerard Christopher on TV or in the movies? I don’t mean that to be cruel. I met Mr. Christopher when he was in town for a convention. He was very nice man and if he is reading this I hope he isn’t offended.
For fans of the series or if you are curious what the series was like you can click on the Amazon link on the left to order the DVD set of season one. The photo of the comic book above is from this site.