For many boomers George Reeves IS "Superman" and everyone else is just a pretender. "The Adventures of Superman" premiered in a much more innocent time when visual effects took second place to exciting action. I hadn't seen this show since I was a kid when I occasionally caught in syndication. I have to be honest--I thought it was hokey then but was impressed with Reeves' portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent. Like Christopher Reeve (who will always be Superman to me) Reeves brought his unique personality and a breezy style to his portrayal that made it work even when the stories were pretty poor and the acting just a step above high school drama. The second season has some truly outstanding episodes and some pretty poor ones as well with the quality varying pretty wildly from one to the next. Jack Larson as Jimmy Olson and Noel Neill (who repaced Phyllis Coates after the first season of "Superman") as Lois Lane do a terrific job nailing their roles head on and help sell the show along with Reeves. Neill's approach is different than Coates. Personally, I preferred Coates portrayal of Lois Lane. Coates performance from the first season was much more feisty and has aged better than Neill's but both do a great job--it's just a matter of interpretation and preference as to which you feel is better. Boomers will also notice that the stories, direction and visual effects are a lot creakier than they recall. It's clear that the show as produced on the cheap but, again, what makes the series work are the performances from all the actors. Even if we don't believe everything in the episode or the cheap effects the actors inhabit their roles so well that they force us to suspend disbelief.

Image & Sound:

The show was shot and broadcast in black & white for its first two seasons. The images are occasionally soft but they've been cleaned up quite a bit for their DVD premiere. The prints used here aren't pristine, however, and do show their age and wear and tear on more than one occasion. The mono soundtrack is fine with nice sound. Noise reduction has been used well here to improve and clean up the audio so that the dialogue is clear. I haven no idea if these are the original uncut versions or if any of these episodes are syndicated cuts but given the time of most of the episodes I believe the former to be true. ---

Final Words: