2001 TV News Archives

Smallville Poster

September 27, 2001: "Smallville" in the News

The Chicago Tribune recently published an article about the competition between the TV networks to win over viewers on Tuesday nights.

Written by Steve Johnson, the article, titled "Nine new series mix it up on Tuesday" had this to say about "Smallville"...

"Smallville"

Oct. 16, WB

The idea: Young Superman as a modern-day, high school hunk coming into the discovery of his powers.

The execution: Set in Smallville, Kan., "meteor capital of the world" formerly known as "Creamed corn capital of the world," this promising series imagines a town transformed by a 1989 meteor shower. Not the least of the changes is the arrival of a mysterious naked boy, adopted and named Clark by his folks, the Kents, and now a bumbling freshman who wants to fit in. It's got cleverness in the small details of the plotting, imagining Lex Luthor as a high school friend of Clark's given powers by the radiation, for instance, and the lad's crush as a cheerleader with a kryptonite locket. There's also a bigger-picture intelligence at work: Young Superman's frustrations with his own body and need to fit in serve as metaphor for the high school experience. Clark is forbidden from trying out for football, even if he promises to go at "half-speed."

A question: Will WB stand by the opening scene, in which fiery death from above rains down on ordinary Americans? It probably cost a lot of money to film but could be done less graphically.

The publicist-friendly quote: "Oh, no. Superman has a pimple!"

In other "Smallville" news, Zap2it.com has published an article titled "Networks Execs Cherry Pick from Each Other's Schedules". Here are brief excerpts from the article with the "Smallville" related information:

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Call it program envy. As much as they tout their own fall schedules as the greatest things since chocolate chip cookie dough started coming in rolls, the network honchos are just as likely to cry into their martinis about the show that shines a little brighter over on their competition.

FOX's Entertainment President, Gail Berman, shows her WB roots (she's also an executive producer on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel") when she praises how "Smallville," the saga of a teenage Superman, a.k.a. Clark Kent, makes an old concept work in an effective way.

"I tried to get it myself," she says. "It's good for the times."



2001 Television News

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