2003 TV News Archives

Smallville

September 13, 2003: The Big Secret About “Smallville”

The Austin360 website has an interesting article about writer Tim McCanlies who reportedly came up with the concept for the TV show "Smallville" after initially pitching a young Bruce Wayne TV show to the WB. Here's an excerpt from the very interesting article...

McCanlies wrote a "bible" for a 22-episode season of "Bruce Wayne," including a two-parter titled "Smallville."

In that episode, "There's a newspaper editors convention in Gotham City," he explains, "and this kid Clark Kent shows up. Bruce wants nothing to do with him, but for some reason they're thrown together. He keeps trying to lose this kid but he can't. You have to know who Clark Kent is to get the joke. I never reveal who this guy is. He's just this very surprising 16-year-old from Smallville, Kan."

But then Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Warner Bros. head of production, raised objections to the show, averring it stomps on his lucrative Batman franchise. McCanlies pleaded with him for six months to let the show go on. "I told him I'm never going to put him in a costume. The word Batman will never be uttered. It became this big turf war. Suddenly (di Bonaventura) was putting a new 'Batman' movie in development."

"Bruce Wayne" was shelved, but McCanlies dusted himself off and pitched the "Smallville" episodes as the basis for a new series. It's a go, but McCanlies gave The WB conditions. "This is not going to be 'Dawson's Creek.' We are not going to do preening 25-year-old underwear models pretending they're high school sophomores."

Warner Bros., which owns the rights to Superman, responded: "That's tough. That's exactly what we're going to do," recalls McCanlies, who promptly brought in his lawyers.

"I'm not a writer auditioning for a job," he told them. "This is my series concept."

When the smoke cleared, Warner Bros. granted McCanlies a creator's fee and a "Created by" credit on the show.

"I don't want creator credit," he said. "Just pay me the (expletive) money."

Read the complete article at the Austin360 website.



2003 Television News

Listed below are all the Television News items archived for 2003 organized into 4 categories:

“Smallville” News:

“Justice League” and “Superman” Animated Series News: “Lois & Clark” News: Other Superman Related Television News:

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