SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Many of you may be into the latest ‘Superman’ TV series called ‘Superman & Lois’, which I saw Season 1 of last year. However, some of you may not be aware that there was a Superman and Lois TV series made before that. That series is of course ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’.

The series lasted for four seasons from 1993 to 1997. My parents and I watched the series on DVD from Christmas 2022 to Easter 2023. I greatly enjoyed watching ‘Lois & Clark’ as a TV series. So did my parents. We religiously saw an episode every night, finding each story compelling and enjoyable.

‘Lois & Clark’ stars Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman and Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane. The series focuses on the relationship and romance between Lois and Clark as well as the adventures of Superman. I found each season well-crafted and very well-put together whilst watching the series. 🙂

In my opinion, I enjoyed ‘Lois & Clark’ more than some of the movie versions of Superman, including the Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill versions of Superman. There are echoes of the Christopher Reeve Superman in this TV show, but there’s a lot more depth in terms of developing the characters.

Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher are what make this show work. Their depictions of Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane are easily likeable and very compelling to watch. I wanted to know what would happen next to these two characters in every episode and how their relationship and romance developed. 🙂

The series also features Lane Smith as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, who I really liked as a character whilst watching the series. There’s also Jimmy Olsen, who is played by two actors in the series. In Season 1, Jimmy was played by Michael Landes, who I found really good and likeable. 🙂

For the rest of the series, Justin Whalin played Jimmy Olsen. Justin Whalin later went on to star in 2000’s ‘Dungeons & Dragons’. I found Justin Whalin equally likeable as Jimmy in the series. I can’t decide whether I like him more than Michael Landes, since the two actors are pretty good as Jimmy.

In Season 1, there was a character called Catherine ‘Cat’ Grant who worked at the Daily Planet, played by Tracy Scoggins. I found Cat quite annoying at times when watching her in Season 1. It was probably best she didn’t appear for the rest of the series, since she didn’t provide much to the plots.

There’s K Callan as Martha Kent and Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent, Clark/Superman’s parents. I was quite surprised to find Jonathan Kent alive in this ‘Superman’ series. Usually, he’s dead in the Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill versions of Superman. I didn’t mind him being alive here though.

In my opinion, it’s better for Superman to have both his parents alive in this series, as he doesn’t need to be Batman who lost both his parents or Spider-Man who lost his uncle. Martha and Jonathan often provide moral support to Clark about him being Superman when he often visits him.

There’s also John Shea as Lex Luthor, Superman’s archnemesis. I like John Shea’s portrayal of Lex Luthor in the series. He’s mostly in every episode in Season 1 and guest stars in Seasons 2 and 3 before he ends up as a guest voice in Season 4. It’s a shame that Lex Luthor wasn’t in every episode. 😦

Then again, this could have easily ended up being like the Master in every story of Season 8 of ‘Doctor Who’ and the series needed to have more variety in terms of villains for Superman to tackle. I don’t know if every villain in this series is a villain from the ‘Superman’ comics, but some are very good.

There is a four-episode storyline from the end of Season 3 leading into Season 4 where Superman deals with Kryptonians and one of them could easily have been General Zod. I know he’s not called General Zod in those episodes (he’s actually Lord Nor, played by Simon Templeman), but it’s surprising the ‘Lois & Clark’ series didn’t go in that direction.

I liked how the series progressed with Lois and Clark eventually getting married in Season 4, especially after a false marriage in Season 3. Apparently, the episode where Lois and Clark do get married in the show tied to the actual comic story published in 1996 where Lois and Clark married. 🙂

Mind you, the thing that annoyed me about the Season 4 wedding episode is when a guardian angel named Mike (played by David Doyle) attended to their wedding. I kept asking who he was and where did he come from whilst watching the episode. It’s one of the weirdest things featured in the story. 😐

There are several recognisable special guest stars in the series who I enjoyed seeing. There’s Phyllis Coates and Beverly Garland as Ellen Lane and Harve Presnell as Sam Lane, Lois’ parents. There’s Lane Davies as Tempus, the notorious and evil time-traveller that always wants to destroy Superman. 😮

There’s Terry Kiser and Hamilton Camp as H.G. Wells – Yes, H.G. Wells is in this series. And he can time-travel too. Huh. I suppose Herbert’s meeting with the Sixth Doctor in ‘Timelash’ did him some good and he found time to build a time machine and helped Lois and Clark to preserve their futures. 😀

Kenneth Kimmins guest stars as Dr. Bernard Klein and there’s Elizabeth Barondes and Roxana Zal as Lucy Lane, Lois’ sister. In one of the Season 1 episodes, David Warner guest stars as Jor-El. Having met David Warner at conventions, it was such a delight to see him as Jor-El in this ‘Superman’ series.

There are guest stars like Peter Boyle, Bruce Campbell, Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar from ‘Star Trek: TNG’), Tony Curtis, Jonathan Frakes (Riker from ‘Star Trek :TNG’), Robert Beltran (Chakotay from ‘Star Trek: Voyager’), Frank Gorshin (the Riddler from 1960’s ‘Batman’), Adam West (Batman from 1960’s ‘Batman’), Harold Gould, James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader from ‘Star Wars’), Shelley Long (Diane from ‘Cheers’), Dwight Schultz (Barclay from ‘Star Trek’) and the late Raquel Welch. Amazing guest stars. 🙂

In Seasons 2, 3 and 4, there are Christmas episodes, which I enjoyed watching. One of them, the Season 2 episode called ‘Season’s Greedings’, is by Clark Kent/Superman star Dean Cain himself. 🙂 I’m sure my parents and I will be seeing the three Christmas episodes again later in December 2023.

Season 4 and the series itself end on a cliffhanger where Lois and Clark receive a baby. This is clearly meant to set up Season 5 of the show, which sadly never happened. Apparently, according to executive producer/writer Brad Buckner, Lois and Clark’s new baby was to be of Kryptoninan royalty.

Lois and Clark were meant to protect the baby from assassins. Sadly, due to low ratings by the time Season 4 came to an end, the series wasn’t renewed for a fifth season. This is a shame, as I found Season 4 very good for the most part. It’s a pity that the low ratings are what finished off the series.

Actually, thinking about it, I wonder if the latest ‘Superman & Lois’ series took their cue from the end of ‘Lois & Clark’, since that series has Lois and Clark having two boys whom they raise up. I wish that ‘Superman & Lois’ was actually a continuation of ‘Lois & Clark’ featuring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher.

To sum up, ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’ is an excellent superhero series. I’m pleased I received it for Christmas last year. I highly recommend ‘Lois & Clark’ to anyone who loves Superman and superheroes in general. I’m certain my parents and I will revisit this series again soon.

It’s fitting that I’ve done a review on ‘Lois & Clark’ on their 30th anniversary, isn’t it? 😀 Incidentally, there are references to Batman like the ‘caped crusader’ and Gotham City in episodes of this series. I’m surprised that Superman and Batman didn’t meet each other, and hopefully without a Doomsday. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂