A Live Action History of Superboy

Superman as a Teenager Flies High as a Television Character

Dec 29, 2008

Half a decade after Superman was first published in his own comic, his adventures as a youngster hit newsstands. Since the late 1960's, he's been a regular on television.

Created by Jerry Siegel, one half of the team that created Superman, Superboy has been around almost as long as his grown up counterpart. Originally pitched in 1938, the same year that Superman first was published in Action Comics, the young Man of Steel wouldn't see print until the mid 1940's. A series of unfortunate moves on the part of DC Comics and the family of Jerry Siegel would eventually trap the character in legal limbo in the early part of the Twenty-First Century.

Long before any of that happened though, Superboy had made his mark on television.

Live Action Pilot

In 1961, with the cancellation of Adventures of Superman the year before, the timing seemed right for a series about Superman as a teenager. A live action pilot and twelve additional scripts were created to pitch the show, but it was never picked up. Johnny Rockwell portrayed Superboy/Clark Kent, while Bunny Henning brought Lana Lang alive for the first time outside of the comics. Superboy would not return to television until the late 1960's animated version on CBS.

Superboy

Ilya and Alexander Salkind, the producers of the first three Christopher Reeve Superman films and the Supergirl movie, brought their vision of Superboy to television for four seasons, from 1988 to 1992. Visually, the series is very similar to the movies of the 1970's, while the stories evolved into a darker, more adult version of the character as the show progressed.

Two actors portrayed Superboy during the four years that the show ran. In the first season, John Haymes Newton wore the cape and tights. For creative and financial reasons, he was replaced for the remainder of the series by Gerard Christopher.

Unlike the film versions of Superman, Superboy had to contend with a mulitude of comic book villains, not just Lex Luthor. The Boy of Steel dealt with such evil doers as Bizarro, Mr. Mxyzptlk and Metallo, among others.

Noel Neill and Jack Larson, who had played Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen on Adventures of Superman in the 1950's made a notable guest appearance in the show's fourth season.

Smallville

While the current series, Smallville, never actually calls Clark Kent "Superboy" and generally steers clear of the term "Superman", the show's early years were obviously about Clark Kent when he was a super boy. The only element missing is the cape and tights, but otherwise all the pieces are in place.

In an early episode, Clark's powers are briefly transferred to another teenager. Not surprisingly, this young man is dubbed "Super Boy" by the local press.

The copyright of the article A Live Action History of Superboy in Graphic Novels/Comics is owned by James Richardson. Permission to republish A Live Action History of Superboy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.