Superboy (TV series)

Did You Know?

• DC Comics published a tie-in comic book series during the TV show's run, set in the continuity of the television series rather than the regular DC Universe.
• The series premiered on People's Television Network in the Philippines on September 4, 1989.

Series overview

The series was conceived to utilize a Superman-related license that Alexander and Ilya Salkind had held for over a decade. After the failure of a Supergirl film in the mid-1980s, they developed Superboy for syndication, launching in fall 1988. The first season focused on Clark Kent/Superboy (John Haymes Newton), his childhood friend Lana Lang (Stacy Haiduk), and college roommate T.J. White (Jim Calvert), with Scott James Wells as Lex Luthor. Clark's adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent were played by Stuart Whitman and Salome Jens. Thirteen episodes were initially filmed for season one, beginning with "Countdown to Nowhere," which aired in two versions: an uncut present-day version and a flashback version with additional scenes. That episode was the fifth aired in most markets and appears as the fifth on the season one DVD set. The first season's story editor was Fred Freiberger. The initial thirteen episodes were produced on a tight budget, resulting in rougher special effects and a grittier, more character-driven tone with ordinary villains like drug dealers and crime bosses.

Series end

In 1991, DC Comics and Warner Bros. began developing a new Superman series based on John Byrne's 1986 reboot, which erased Superboy from continuity. That fall, Superboy's fourth season premiered as the intended final season, with the finale "Obituary for a Superhero" planned to depict Superboy's apparent death and lead into made-for-television movies. However, ABC agreed to pick up the new series (later Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), and Warner Bros. informed the Salkinds that their Superman licenses would be cancelled at the end of the 1991–92 season. This forced the writers to create a definitive finale; "Obituary for a Superhero" was rewritten and aired on April 26, 1992. The final episode, "Rites of Passage," aired in two parts on May 10 and 17, 1992, featuring Clark facing the potential loss of his superpowers. The Salkinds challenged Warner Bros. in court over the license termination, reaching a settlement in 2005. Under the settlement, Warner Bros. retained all rights to past and future Superman television and film franchises except Superman IV, while ownership of Superboy was divided three ways: Ilya Salkind and StudioCanal share a stake, and Warner Bros. holds worldwide home media and international television distribution rights.

Production

Executive producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind had produced the first three Superman films and the 1984 Supergirl film. The series coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Superman character and launched a year after DC Comics had erased Superboy from continuity in John Byrne's The Man of Steel reboot. Superboy was the first weekly TV series produced at the then-new Disney/MGM Studios; from the second season onward, production moved to Universal Studios Florida. Exterior scenes at Shuster University were filmed on the main campus of the University of Central Florida, while Siegelville was depicted as a coastal city using imagery of the Sunshine Skyway Bridges in St. Petersburg, Florida. The series was scripted by several comic-book writers, including Superman editors Mike Carlin and Andrew Helfer, as well as Denny O'Neil, Cary Bates, J. M. DeMatteis, and Mark Evanier. Clark Kent attends the Siegel School of Journalism at Shuster University in Shusterville, Florida, names referencing Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Home media

After cancellation, a dispute over rights prevented official home video releases for years. Between 1992 and 2006, the only way to see Superboy in the United States was through bootleg VHS and DVD copies sold on eBay and other websites. In 1999, Gerard Christopher began offering three VHS tapes of selected episodes from seasons 3 and 4, created from his personal master tapes; a fourth VHS tape followed in 2002. In 2004, Christopher released a complete season 2 DVD set, planning sets for seasons 3 and 4, but cancelled those when Warner Home Video announced an official season 1 DVD. The legal battle among Viacom, Warner Bros., and the Salkinds was settled around 2005, allowing official DVD releases. The season 1 DVD includes a behind-the-scenes featurette with interviews, John Haymes Newton's screen test, and audio commentaries on two episodes. After a six-and-a-half-year gap, Warner Bros. released the complete second season on DVD via its Warner Archive Collection on December 11, 2012, as a manufacture-on-demand release available through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.