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Adventures Of Superman Season 1

Superman On Earth

The Adventures Of SupermanJor-El, a member of the ruling council of the distant planet Krypton, warns his fellow councillors that Krypton’s end is near: the planet could break apart at any time. His peers laugh him out of the room, but that doesn’t change the planet’s fate. When Krypton begins to break apart just as Jor-El predicted, he and his wife place their only son in a small spacecraft and send it away to the planet Earth.

The vehicle crashes on Earth, bursting into flames. Farmer Eben Kent and his wife Sarah witness the crash and hear the cries of the infant inside; Eben manages to save the baby before the spacecraft explodes. They raise the child as their own, though young Clark Kent eventually has questions about the fact that he has abilities that no one else seems to have. On Clark’s 25th birthday – or at least the 25th anniversary of his arrival on Earth – Eben suffers a fatal heart attack. Clark eventually leaves his childhood home for the city of Metropolis, where he seeks a job as a report for the Daily Planet. Editor Perry White is less than enthusiastic about his new hire…until Clark somehow scoops the rest of the Planet’s staff, including ace reporter Lois Lane, turning in the first article about an airship crew member who would have fallen to his death if not for a flying man in a cape…

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Richard Fielding
directed by Tommy Carr
music by Leon Klatzkin

Adventures of SupermanCast: George Reeves (Clark Kent / Superman), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), John Hamilton (Perry White), Ross Elliott (Eben Kent), Robert Rockwell (Jor-El), Herbert Rawlinson (Ro-Zon), Stuart Randall (Gogan), Aline Towne (Lara), Frances Morris (Sarah Kent), Dani Nolan (Miss Bachrach)

Adventures of SupermanNotes: Superman’s origin story unfolds here much as it does in other media, though the name “Kal-El” is never spoken here. Sarah Kent is responsible for making Superman’s costume, having sewn it from the blanket in which he was wrapped as an infant on Krypton. (How this fabric can withstand bullets and burns, and yet can still be cut up and sewn, isn’t explained.) Beginning an unfortunate decades-long tradition, Superman’s creators, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, are not credited anywhere in this adaptation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Adventures Of Superman Season 1

The Haunted Lighthouse

The Adventures Of SupermanThe Daily Planet’s junior photographer, Jimmy Olsen, goes to Maine for a vacation at the invitation of his Aunt Louisa. But something is amiss when he arrives: his cousin Chris is hostile almost to the point of violence about Jimmy’s interest in a cave on a coast, the shrill voice of someone claiming to be drowning can be heard at night, and the mute housekeeper keeps delivering handwritten notes from Aunt Louisa, claiming to be in trouble. Sensing a story that’s bigger than he is, Jimmy calls Clark Kent to ask for help, unaware that he’ll be getting a hand from Superman as well.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Eugene Solow
directed by Tommy Carr
music by Leon Klatzkin

Adventures of SupermanCast: George Reeves (Clark Kent / Superman), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), John Hamilton (Perry White), Maude Prickett (Parrot), Jimmy Ogg (Chris), Allene Roberts (Alice), Sarah Padden (Mrs. Carmody), Stephen Carr (Lt. Harris), William Challee (Mack), Effie Laird (Aunt Louisa)

Adventures of SupermanNotes: Just two weeks into the series, Aunt Louisa almost guesses Clark’s other identity in front of a room full of onlookers. Though the actors are credited, neither Lois nor Perry White appear in this episode. Writer Eugene Solow (no relation to future Star Trek production executive Herb Solow) was also responsible for the screenplay of the acclaimed 1939 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.

LogBook entry by Earl Green