Lois and Clark

[Deleted]

Aug 10, 2008 13:20:17 GMT -5 Valentine Smith said:

Gotta disagree with you, Kris. The Reeves costume is an improvement over Alyn's...but the L&C suit had another 40 years to improve on the design, PLUS the great movie and Superboy tv show designs, and gave us something kinda cheap lookin'.

its just my opinion, im not keen on either, but i dunno, i just slightly prefered the L&C one. But as was said, Clark was really the main focus of the show so i wouldnt dwell on it too much.

[Metallo]

Thats still no reason to cheap out. Older shows with lesser budgets did better.

Instead of focusing all their efforts on some of the lamer multi episode story arcs they should have focused on improving what they had.


"Why the heck was the black costume JUST as cheap looking?

[Deleted]

Daaaaah Nolegs, I must've missed that whole Cain part. DAMMIT.

Ah well.

[Valentine Smith]

I'm totally ok with the focus being on Lois, Clark, and the Planet staff, with Superman being secondary. In fact, I'd love for a similar idea to be revisisted in the future if they ever try to do another live action Supes show.

BUT, if you're gonna do that, give me FIVE MINUTES of Superman...but make them an awesome 5 minutes. Even if he's just showing up to tie up the gangsters or whatever, at least have the costume look good!

[Kirok]

About Cain on Smallville:

While he was never actually referred to as Vandal Savage, that's basically who he was and hopefully if he returns next season that will be revealed as his true identity. Cain did well in the role and it was a good episode, one of the season's best.

Now if only they could get John Shea for an episode...

[ye5man]

As bad as Cain's suit was, at least it wasn't padded with ridiculous shoulder pads and had a blue/red look over the shitty SR look

I'm quite suprised (pleasantly) how the first season's relationship between L&C (minus any romantic allusions) was so similiar to Reeves and Coates in the 50s TV show season one. The bickering, professional relationship, etc. I do think Hatcher was good in season one, close to the spirit of Lois; far superior to Bosworth who played someone different entirely.

I haven't watched L&C for bloody years now, except for one episode, the update of "Panic in the Sky" to see how it holds up against the Reeves' version. The Reeves version was superior cos it was so tightly edited. The L&C version had a crappy subplot about Jimmy and Perry visiting a medium!

[Legsy]

Good post, Russ.

The one thing that has irked me about SR is the shoulder pads. You can see the pads through out the movie. Routh was in fantastic shape, I guess the material just took that much away from his definition. Or it could be his frame, he doesn't have the broad shoulders like Reeve or Welling. I hope they do make some modifications to the suit for the MOS, if it ever comes to fruition. Or, Routh needs to hit the gym a little harder this time.

The first two seasons of L&C are the best, from what I can remember. I haven't seen this show in over a decade. But the best Superman show has aways been The Adventures of Superman with Reeves. Even though it's dated, the acting is great, the editing is great and it still holds up.

[ye5man]

The lighting in the first Reeves season is terrific, very film-noir-ish

I must check out L&C again some day. That fucking horrendous season 4 though...

[Jimbo]

Ribbit.

[Metallo]

Pads don't even bother me. Reeves had a padded suit...Shipp had a padded suit. Tobey Maguire had a padded suit as Spider-man and like Shipp he was in good shape. That's the nature of the beast sometimes.

But Superman deserves better than a costume put together by a blind woman. Nobody noticed that Cain's S was crooked and wrinkled. I've been better costumes worn by kids on Halloween.

Worst Superman costume ever.

And I still want to know why Cain's black Superman suit was just as cheap loooking.

[crazy_asian_man]

Because of the context of the timing...

With "STM" being the definitive version of Supes, and having the rather awful "Superboy" tv series afterwards (though I hear it got better after the first season, but not by a whole lot)---

I actually thought the first season of "Lois and Clark" was VERY fresh and entertaining.... because, again, the definitive version already left its' mark, and I thought a tv show version would have no power to ruin a theatrical version, ever.
(Though years later, sad to hear it killed off Superman V's possibilities)

Cain, himself, I thought was fine as Supes for this version, and Teri Hatcher had a role that fit her like a glove.

The second season kinda sucked, with some fresh novelties now and then (the idea of Lois knowing who Clark was and how that would play out I thought was fresh, but they wiped this out for awhile with the godawful 'clone/amnesia' episodes, which killed the show for good)...

And in the fourth season with Tim Minear as story editor, there were some great ideas that came back in (some very fresh and touching moments that fit the character- i.e.), but too late at that time, as they had already took a show that was a romantic comedy with some touches of the Superman legend and turned it into a dull ridiculous overly serious soap for four-five episodes with the 'amnesia-clone' arc.

About Cain as Supes.... It's a whole different interpretation...
Reeve was Superman, and Clark was Supes' having fun as a human being.

Cain was Clark, and Superman was not much more than Clark in a suit.... and that's where the metaphor was interesting--- that Lois was INCREDIBLY superficial and couldn't see that there was no difference in an average joe she looked down on and Superman who she worships.

(That does come through in the movies, too, but has much less emphasis than had the tv show)

Also about Cain...


Cain on commentaries, interviews, etc. has actually been very down-to-earth, and I'd heard nothing but stories and positive rumors about the guy (His commentaries on the show I'd agreed with- for what they were doing, they didn't go far enough, and that there should have been other characters as an ensemble at the Planet, rather than just Lois and Clark to keep it more interesting).

Footnote on Cain's appearance in Smallville: It was only the second time that I saw a promo for Chris Reeve's foundation at the end of Smallville-- (the first being when Reeve appeared on the show) I presume that Cain must have made it a point to do for him to appear on Smallville. If so, pretty cool of him.

[Legsy]

What bother me about the padding on Routh was you could see the seams on the shoulder pads. Horrible!

[Deleted]

so the normal suit is cheap looking but you somehow expected the black suit to look great? isnt it logical that if one sucked the other would suck too?

The shoulder pads in SR always bugged me too. It obviously is down to definition as legsy said because if you've watched the special features of SR Routh gained some serious muscle, he was a pretty big guy, had to be for definition.

[Legsy]

Miliskin is an extemely tight fabric, tighter than lycra or spandex. And Routh did put on about 25 pounds of muscle, he was pretty big. Maybe it was his frame or just the actual suit that took away some definition. Who knows. One thing is certain, the MOS needs a better suit.

[crazy_asian_man]

One thing is certain, the MOS needs a better suit.

Agreed....

Though I wonder...
Is it possible the 'S' belt buckle and lack of 'S' on the back were concessions by Singer to have a 'new' suit by WB so they could sell new toys?

Not impossible... (though of course this is just speculation...)

[Deleted]

I'm sure if it was totally up to Singer it would've been a very similar costume to Reeve's.

Nah, I think you're more right than wrong, I bet the suit was changed JUST to be able to sell new toys and such. Marketing. Bah.

[Metallo]

so the normal suit is cheap looking but you somehow expected the black suit to look great? isn't it logical that if one sucked the other would suck too?

The classic suit was made by his mom...the Black suit was made for him to go back to New Krypton...not by his mom...since others wore similar suits. You're telling me they had ALL that money to spend on what was without a doubt the most expensive arc of the show but they couldn't bother to make the suit look better? They didn't fx for multiple characters, spaceship fix, etc but they couldn't do that? You're damn right i expected the suit to look better.

Their costume designer was clearly an EPIC FAIL. Or the producers were looking to piss on Superman further for their long standing joke.

At least Singer made Superman look like some effort went into the costume. instead of the 3 shades of red and crappy day sparkle pajamas Cain wore that looked like it needs a good ironing.

[ye5man]

Aug 11, 2008 13:39:17 GMT -5 Metallo said:

instead of the 3 shades of red and crappy day sparkle pajamas Cain wore that looked like it needs a good ironing.

At least there was red!

[Metallo]

Rouths suit had red. And the blue wasn't PURPLE like Cains. Did they slice up some shower curtains for his costume?

[Metallo]

And even IF you discount Routh, Why does Cain's suit look WORSE than George Reeves, Russ?

[Legsy]

Crimson looks pretty good on Blu-ray.

[Metallo]

Even the often criticized Superman IV suit is better than Cains and SIV had a budget of a buck 50.

www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/pih-18-superman-iv-costume.jpg

[Legsy]

I forgot how bad the thing was.

[Jimbo]

Ugh.

Worst Superman shield ever.

It barely even looks like an S.

[ye5man]

Metallo, I agree Reeve's suit was better. I don't recall saying otherwise.

Though his first season suit looked pretty ragged and stained by the end of the first season

SR suit is the worst ever IMO. Wrong colours, wrong design, wrong shape for goodness sakes! No "S" on the cape either.