Lois and Clark – 20th Anniversary

[thecolorsblend]

Ahhh, season two. The little season that could. This was about the time I became more active on Prodigy, the old BBS service from the Nineties. It didn't take long for me to find the various sections of Prodigy dedicated to comics, Star Trek, L&C, etc.

Something that history seems to have forgotten is how many spoilers were flying around back in those days. It got worse with the third season. But even season two had a TON of spoilers. The film industry's security measures back in those days revolved around keeping intruders off the set. But there was no infrastructure for information security back in those days. As a result, tons of movies and shows had literally no secrets to them whatsoever. For example, Wizard magazine spoiled tf out of Star Trek Generations from start to finish. I'm amazed they didn't get sued for that, honesty.

Anyway, Prodigy was filled with all kinds of dirty laundry regarding the show. In short, L&C got heavily committee-banged after the first season. By the time Madame Ex was broadcast, L&C had lost John Shea, Tracy Scoggins, Michael Landes, Chris Demetral as well as Elizabeth Barondes from the cast while show creator Deborah Joy-Levine was shown the door mere weeks after The House Of Luthor.

The spoiler stuff notwithstanding, I only found out through an issue of Hero Illustrated (a poor man's Wizard but I still liked it) that Justin Whalin was replacing Landes as Jimmy. I think history has spoken when it comes to that. Landes was first but Whalin was best.

As a result of all of the above, expectations were pretty low among the fans for the second season of the show. Because it was pretty hard to imagine any TV show undergoing that much surgery and living to tell the tale. We all thought it would take a miracle for L&C to not get cancelled by December at latest.

And to be fair, the first several episodes of season two didn't do very much to change anybody's opinion. Still, the established characterizations from the first season (esp between Lois and Clark) carried the show up through Season's Greedings.

In fact, I find it interesting that your list of mandatory season two episodes begins with "Season's Greedings". That's how anemic the first several episodes of the season are to most people, even now. On Prodigy, people called those episodes "Pinky & The Brain shows" because some science nerd (usually with a goofy sidekick) was planning to take over the world.

There were still some good episodes tho.

"Operation Blackout" is a good example. This was an early warning of the perils of the computerization of society. It's not like L&C invented that mousetrap. But I do think they took it the next logical level. Plus, most episodes that delve into Lois's history tended to be memorable. "Operation Blackout" is no exception when it comes to that. It's not the best of that type of episode. I think that honor goes to "The Rival" from season 01. But still, "Operation Blackout" is a fun episode.

Eventually, somebody close to the production decided the show needed a recurring antagonist. And since Lex Luthor is a tough act to follow, Intergang was drafted in to serve as a menace to Metropolis and our heroes. Believe it or not, this was a very clever and effective move. The Intergang-related episodes tended to be the most highly rated this season (although guest appearances from stars like Bruce Campbell and Raquel Welch probably helped too, let's be fair).

Another addition was Mayson Drake. A semi-rival to Lois and a semi-inversion of Lois, Mayson had eyes for Clark while keeping Superman at arm's length (at best). Even better, Mayson is someone that Clark could've realistically fallen for. The Superman angle would've become an issue at some point. But aside from that, Mayson and Clark aren't miles apart in terms of their worldview. It's not science-fiction to think that Clark could've built something with her under other circumstances. I understand that Mayson was meant to serve a specific function in the show. Only this and nothing more. But still, the character's death hit hard precisely because of how well the character worked on the show and, let's face it, what a good match Farrah Forke was for the L&C universe.

Alas...

Anyway, down to business...

SEASON TWO

'Season's Greedings'

I rate this as the best of the L&C Christmas episodes, and the best of the episodes written by Dean Cain. It offers a very nineties take on the comic villain Toyman and ends on a charmingly festive note. Is it sentimental? Sure. But it's a Christmas episode, so a little sentimentality is welcome.

This is a great episode for a ton of reasons. And it's also a good reminder that Dean Cain is an incredibly versatile man.

After graduating from Princeton with a BA in history, his first career choice was the NFL. But then he got injured. His second choice was screenwriting. But that didn't pan out (at least not right away). So, his third career choice was acting. How many people become relatively prominent actors as a THIRD career choice?

Anyway, I love Christmas so I love "Season's Greedings". And it goes to character once again. Clark is a naïve, innocent dreamer. Nobody is surprised to discover that he's outside talking to "Santa". Lois comes from a dysfunctional family, and will always carry those wounds with her.

There's an argument that by the time you get to "Season's Greedings", Lois and Clark were a couple. They just didn't realize it yet. Lois still had a minor chip on her shoulder from getting used by an ex bf, her story stolen and then getting abandoned by him. For his own part, Clark has even less relationship experience. Neither of them really understand the bond that they're building with each other. But when it manifests (as it does when they hold hands in "Season's Greedings"), it hits the same basic emotional beats as a full-on love scene because their progress was so gradual.

Anyway, this episode is another contender for possibly my favorite episode of the whole show.

'The Phoenix'

This dark episode features my favourite live action depiction of Lex Luthor. Stripped of his wealth and social status, Shea's Lex is reduced to a ruthless sewer-dwelling outlaw thirsting for revenge. I like how the kryptonite subplot connects it with the earlier 'Metallo' episode. Probably the best Lex episode outside of season one.

Definitely the best Lex episode after the first season.

I mentioned spoilers on Prodigy before but it's worth getting more into that here.

Nobody ever knew where or from whom the spoilers were coming. But after about the 10 millionth time the spoilers ended up being 100% accurate, you just sort of stop questioning it.

At some point, I guess somebody involved with the production heard about the spoilers being leaked. So, an unknown/unnamed person who claimed to be "close to the production" signed on to Prodigy (and Compuserve and AOL and so forth) in an attempt to take an informal poll.

Ratings were BAD. The show was teetering on the edge. So, The Source asked "What exactly do you people want to see?"

Apparently, the answer was fairly unanimous. "We want Lois and Clark to go on a date!" Several people also mentioned Lex Luthor, more of Bronson Pinchot (Kyle Griffin/The Prankster, one of the more popular "Pinky & The Brain villains") and time travel.

The Source was noncommittal aside from thanking us for sharing while making no promises.

And yet, Lois and Clark went on a date, Lex Luthor came back, Pinchot came back and sure nuff there was a time travel episode.

It was also around October 1994 that an unused publicity photo of Teri Hatcher wrapped in Superman's cape got leaked (somehow) online. In its time, that was THE most downloaded image on the entire Internet. The spoiler-provider on Prodigy eventually revealed that someone "high up in the production" (Robert Singer?) had seen the photo and the reaction to it. Apparently, that played a HUGE role in someone deciding to finally get Lois and Clark romantically involved.

So, between the informal poll and the famous Teri Hatcher cape picture, the direction for the remainder of season two was set. And let's face it, nobody had anything to lose by that point.

Now, we should emphasize that L&C was never a Top 20 show. At no point in its history did it ever compete with The Big Boys like The Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld and other shows. But during (and, God knows, after) "The Phoenix", the ratings started increasing. AT TIMES, the show occasionally scraped into The Top 20. It was rare, it was always short-lived and it was arguably a complete fluke. But it happened a few times, nevertheless.

All of this is a long way of saying that it's sort of impossible to overestimate how important The Phoenix is to L&C as a show. Without this episode, it's VERY likely that the show would've been cancelled.

Something else is the episode itself is so good. When Clark finally makes his move, two things are instantly clear: Lois is flattered and Lois is interested.

Supposedly, the fans played a huge role in this episode's existence. And yet, the writing is still consistent with everything that came before. Lois shot Clark down at the end of season one. But it's easy to see how subsequent events changed her mind about him. Not least was her ultimately abandoning her crush on Superman. It was organic to the story that Lois rejected Clark in the first season but dated him in the second. It absolutely makes sense.

To put it another way, the writers of this show were NEXT LEVEL in their time. They had a new direction forced upon them but found organic ways of making it work with what came before. Total respect to the writers.

'And the Answer Is...'

A villain discovers that Clark is Superman and blackmails him into committing crimes for him. That premise alone makes this a compelling episode, but it also contains several significant events that change the trajectory of the series. Firstly, Lois figures out that Clark is Superman. She doesn't confront him about it until the following episode, but she works it out in this one. This episode also ends with the fan favourite scene where Clark finally proposes to Lois. That cliffhanger drove fans crazy back in the nineties. Another strong finale for another strong season.

This episode is another instance of the fans swaying the direction of the show.

This episode had three separate endings shot when Clark asks Lois to marry him. In the first ending, Lois frowns, cries and says "No". In the second ending, a confused Lois says "Clark..." and the episode ends there. Which is obviously the one used in this episode. The third ending showed Lois taking Clark's glasses off and joyfully saying "Who's asking? Clark or Superman?" Which is obviously the one used at the start of "We Have A Lot To Talk About".

Fans wanted Lois to be brought in on Clark's secret. The characters wanted it. The story organically wanted to go in that direction. Clark had the perfect moment at the end of "And The Answer Is" to tell Lois the truth. And his move is to propose marriage instead???

Well, we can thank the network suits for that move. For whatever reason, the network didn't want Lois to know the secret. And yet, Lois and Clark needed a big emotional payoff with each other at the end of season two. So, a marriage proposal was quickly drafted in.

It... doesn't work. I understand that the actors, producers, writers, directors, et. al., all had their hands tied. And they have my sympathies too. But there's just not a good story-based reason for Clark to propose to Lois when he still has to clear the emotional hurdle of his secret identity first. It simply doesn't add up. Not at all.

But the orders came from on high at the network and the show creators had no choice but to do what they were told.

Still, they shot the ending of Lois gleefully revealing that she knows the truth as an insurance plan. You never know what might change over the summer, right?

Well, things certainly changed. The fans cried foul that Clark proposed instead of revealing his secret. If you believe what the spoiler-reporter says, some producer or another involved with the show used online fan reaction as leverage to force ABC to change their collective mind.

It worked.

So, when "We Have A Lot To Talk About" premiered, it kicks off with Lois's gleeful announcement that she knows the truth... which instantly clashes with the rest of the episode. Because Lois is NOT amused by the deception.

Anyway, there's more to say about season three. But I'll save that for later.

Point is that the second season is good. And its quality primarily comes from The Phoenix and the aftermath thereof. The road getting to that point was rocky. But we got there in the end. Which is what counts, I suppose.

[Silver Nemesis]

Eventually, somebody close to the production decided the show needed a recurring antagonist. And since Lex Luthor is a tough act to follow, Intergang was drafted in to serve as a menace to Metropolis and our heroes. Believe it or not, this was a very clever and effective move. The Intergang-related episodes tended to be the most highly rated this season (although guest appearances from stars like Bruce Campbell and Raquel Welch probably helped too, let's be fair).

I suppose the tradition of a having a 'big bad' each season didn't come along until Buffy, but I always saw Intergang as an attempt to fill the recurring villain role that Lex occupied in the first season. It's a pity they didn't tie Intergang into the plot of the season finale, perhaps having Bill Church Jr. being the one to discover Tempus's journal and blackmail Clark.

Then Nor could've been the big bad of season 3. They could have hinted at his existence earlier in the season. 'Contact' dealt with fake alien abductions. There could have been a scene at the end of that episode where it's revealed real aliens are monitoring Earth, thus foreshadowing the invasion to come.

Another addition was Mayson Drake. A semi-rival to Lois and a semi-inversion of Lois, Mayson had eyes for Clark while keeping Superman at arm's length (at best). Even better, Mayson is someone that Clark could've realistically fallen for. The Superman angle would've become an issue at some point. But aside from that, Mayson and Clark aren't miles apart in terms of their worldview. It's not science-fiction to think that Clark could've built something with her under other circumstances. I understand that Mayson was meant to serve a specific function in the show. Only this and nothing more. But still, the character's death hit hard precisely because of how well the character worked on the show and, let's face it, what a good match Farrah Forke was for the L&C universe.

Mayson's a likeable character, but I was less keen on Dan Scardino. He always struck me as a bargain basement Martin Riggs, and his insertion into the show at that point felt like a transparent delaying tactic to stop Lois and Clark from getting together.

Ratings were BAD. The show was teetering on the edge. So, The Source asked "What exactly do you people want to see?"

Apparently, the answer was fairly unanimous. "We want Lois and Clark to go on a date!" Several people also mentioned Lex Luthor, more of Bronson Pinchot (Kyle Griffin/The Prankster, one of the more popular "Pinky & The Brain villains") and time travel.

The Source was noncommittal aside from thanking us for sharing while making no promises.

And yet, Lois and Clark went on a date, Lex Luthor came back, Pinchot came back and sure nuff there was a time travel episode.

This sounds like the complete opposite of the situation we have now. Modern WB: "We cooouuuld give the fans the live-action Batman Beyond they've been asking for... Nah, let's give 'em Creature Commandoes instead. They'll love that."

It's strange to think there was a time when studios might have been receptive to fan suggestions. I remember back around 2010, after Schwarzenegger made a cameo in The Expendables, there was talk of him making his comeback as an action star. A thread appeared on the IMDb in which the OP asked fans what kind of movie they'd like to see Arnold star in as his comeback vehicle – a sci-fi movie, a war film, a cop thriller, a western, a fantasy epic? The overwhelming consensus was that he should make a western. About a year later it was announced that his first leading role upon his return to acting would be in The Last Stand (2013), which was a western.

It might've been a coincidence, but I've always wondered if Arnold's management had read or perhaps even created that IMDb thread.

Now, we should emphasize that L&C was never a Top 20 show. At no point in its history did it ever compete with The Big Boys like The Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld and other shows.

If Wikipedia's sources are accurate then it looks to me as though L&C was averaging more viewers during its third (1995-96) season than the seventh season of The Simpsons was at the same time. The following LA Times article reports that L&C s3 averaged 18.4 million viewers: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-14-ca-3130-story.html

The highest rated episode was 'Ultra Woman', which attracted 22.3 million viewers. The highest rated episode of The Simpsons s7 was 'Who Shot Mr Burns? – Part II', which had 22.6 million viewers. I don't know the average for the whole of The Simpsons s7, but Wikipedia lists most of the episodes as garnering around 14-17 million, which is less than L&C was averaging at the time. L&C's ratings started to decline during the last four episodes of the season, but prior to that it was almost consistently getting 18-20 million viewers throughout its third year.

According to the following site, L&C s3 ranked 44th overall for that season, while The Simpsons s7 ranked 77th: http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1995-96-ratings-history.html

L&C s3 also beat The X-Files that year. It had a degree of mainstream popularity back then which no other superhero show has achieved since. Sadly the viewership more or less halved the following season.