The Animated History of Lois Lane
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When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster needed to add a female presence as a love interest for their creation, they hired Joanne Carter to model for the physical form of the character. They decided that she should be a reporter working alongside Superman's alter ego Clark Kent and used a then popular woman reporter's character from a film series, Torchy Blane, as a template for the woman's personality. One of three actresses who portrayed Torchy Blane was named Lola Lane. Siegel tweaked the actress's name to create the name of the new character.
Animated Superman of the 1960's
Superman debuted in a half hour show, The Adventures of Superman in 1966. The half hour of Superman was integrated into the Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure in 1967 and then the Batman/Superman Hour in 1968. After those shows went off the air, Superman was returned to a half hour format show and shown in reruns for the rest of the decade. Joan Alexander, who had played the character on radio and then in the Fleisher Studio short cartoons, reprized her role of Lois Lane whenever the intrepid reporter showed up on the show.
Super Friends
Although Superman was one of the core members of the Super Friends team from its inception in 1973 to its final season in 1986, Lois Lane only made a single appearance on the show in its 1979 season. Shannon Farnon, who also voiced Wonder Woman at the time, provided Lois's voice.
Ruby-Spears
In 1988, Ruby-Spears produced a single season of an animated version of Superman. Ginny McSwain brought Lois to life.
The Dana Delany Decade
In 1996, sadly the same year that Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel died, Superman - The Animated Series debuted. Dana Delany voiced a version of Lois Lane that was so well received by fans and producers alike that she held a monopoly on the character's voice for an entire decade.
Delany played Lois in every appearance she made in Superman - The Animated Series, including the Batman/Superman Movie, in which she had a brief affair with Bruce Wayne and discovered his secret identity of Batman. The show ran until 1999, but Delany and Lois wouldn't be gone long.
In 2002, a Justice League animated series debuted, created in the style of (and following much of the continuity of) Batman - The Animated Series and Superman - The Animated Series. Any time Lois made an appearance, Dana Delany was her voice.
After the final episode of Justice League Unlimited in 2005, Delany returned as Lois in the non-canon direct to DVD film, Brainiac Attacks.
Doomsday
Superman: Doomsday was released direct to DVD in 2007. Although it was similar in style (if darker in tone) to Superman - The Animated Series, it did not share any continuity with the show. Anne Heche portrayed Lois Lane, although many fans felt that Heche's Lois was really little more than an homage to Dana Delany's version of the character.
Delany Returns
Later in 2007, in the final season of The Batman, Superman visits Gotham City and works with Batman for two episodes. Both Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane travel from Metropolis to cover Superman's arrival in Gotham and Lois's voice is once again provided by Dana Delany.
The New Frontier
Most recently, Kyra Sedgwick appears in a few scenes in the direct to DVD feature, Justice League - The New Frontier.
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