Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

On September 12, 1993 ABC premiered the first live action Superman TV series on network television. It was Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The series was seen as science fiction since Superman was one of the stars but it was really a romantic comedy. It was more like My Girl Friday or Moonlighting since its main focus was on the relationship between Lois Lane and Clark Kent. As a matter of fact that was one way it was sold to the network. They told them it was like Moonlighting only one of them has superpowers. Moonlighting was a hit show in the 1980’s and made a star of Bruce Willis. Can you imagine Bruce as Superman? The part of Lois Lane was played by Terri Hatcher and Clark (Superman) Kent was Dean Cain. Unlike in The Adventures of Superman in the 1950’s where his Dad had died and his Mom was a widow who was not heard from since the pilot episode, this series kept his foster parents alive. They were there to offer advice and support to Lois and Clark. The parts of Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent were played by Eddie Jones and K Callan. Lex Luthor was played by John Shea. In this series he and Lex didn’t meet in high school or college. Luthor never heard of Clark or Superman till he showed up for work at the Daily Planet. In the first year Lois is engaged to Luthor. By the end of the first season Luthor has nearly destroyed the Daily Planet and Lois leaves him at the alter. Luthor is seemingly killed but turns up later in the series bald; John Shea kept his hair early in the series, and ready to get revenge on Superman. DC decided that it was time for Lois to be told that Clark and Superman were the same and to get them married. The TV series thought that was a good idea too and plans were made for the wedding to occur in the comic books and on the show at the same time. Around year three the scripts took a down turn. Lois was replaced by a clone and no one could tell the difference. Even though the clone survived by eating frogs. Ratings dropped and they started to rush to get the scripts up to par. However, the producers must have thought those bad scripts weren’t too bad as they kept making references back to that period. While scripts did improve and the series ended with Clark and Lois finding a baby on their doorstep at the end of the fourth year there would be no season five as the show was canceled. The last show was aired on June 14, 1997.
Terri Hatcher as we all know went on to another hit show with Desperate Housewives. The same year Desperate Housewives appeared Dean Cain appeared in a new baseball drama called Clubhouse. Both shows were good and deserved to be hits but only Miss. Hatcher hit a home run. Ratings wise Clubhouse grounded out.
The above photo of Dean Cain came from this site.