"Lois and Clark" (90s TV show)--Your Thoughts

Cafe Society
1

So I bought the first two seasons on DVD, mainly because my wife wanted to see them, but God help me, I’m getting sucked into their little romance. Now, I haven’t kept up with the comics since the 70s, but I understand this show is based on the 80s/90s version of Superman.

Some thoughts:

–Teri Hatcher does a great little giggle and helpless shrug/eye roll to get her way, she’s quite cute.

–Dean Cain is pretty good as Clark, but awful, imo, as Supes, but maybe this is his way of playing it “straight arrow.” Plus as Supes he has this continual puffed lip smirk that is annoying. Looks like he is all of seven-years-old.

–Lane Smith acts circles around everybody on the show, even John Shea. Smith’s Perry White is the finest on film, bar none.

–The first season Jimmy was the best, even if he looked way too old to be an office boy/messenger/whatever the hell it is he does/cub reporter.

–H. G. Wells? H. G. F-ing Wells shows up with the 1960 version of the time machine! WTF? Cute, but predictable time travel show.

–K Callan is sorta hot for a 60-70–year-old!

–Tracy Scoggins is not in the second season (or the ones I’ve watched so far). Don’t tell me they dropped Cat Grant.

And they had Phyliss Coates on as Lois’ mom. Way cool. She was the best 50s Lois.

I was vaguely aware that this thing was on a decade ago, but never watched it. Now I’m getting ready to go see if Clark get the nerve to ask Lois out, or pop the question, or…

Sir Rhosis

2

I was a little disappointed by Scoggins’ disappearance because she’s so freakin’ hot, as was her comic-book counterpart (introduced almost immediately post-Crisis as a romantic rival for Lois, in part because of the alterations made to the character of Lana Lang).

I remember the show being amusing, but somehow losing interest later on, likely around the same time I stopped collecting the comics.

3

I enjoyed it when it was convenient to watch it, but never much minded when it wasn’t. (I went off to college during its run, and came home to discover my mother had gotten attached to the show. Funny, because she didn’t watch it before I left . . . )

I did find that it suffered at times from the “How do we top that?” problem common to mostly episodic long running shows. Some of the episodes strained my willingness to suspend disbelief.

4

I am not a fangirl, but I loved that show; I was desolate when it went off the air.

Lane Smith was great. Loved his Elvis tour jacket.

5

Lane Smith was born in Memphis, home to Graceland and a mecca for Elvis-lovers. It was his idea to make Perry an Elvis fan to distinguish him from other portrals of Perry White.

He also played Emmit Seaborn, the Cronkite-type reporter in HBO’s From The Earth To The Moon.

6

The bit in the credits where lois slides down a chute and falls forward, then looks up… that got me through some lonely times, man.

7

Loved this show when it was on, but I was young and it was on Sunday evenings.
Dean Cain was as I always thought Superman should be-- a bit of a prick. Teri Hatcher is pretty much how I picture Lois Lane to be (which is why Erica Durance and Kate Bosworth just seem so utterly wrong). Loved the episode where she figures out Clark is Superman (later reversed through time travel or something) and someone puts on a pair of glasses and goes :“Look, I’m Clark!” then removes them “Now I’m Superman!”

8

Mrs. ddgryphon and I would always watch it while it was on. It isn’t great television, but there were so many things I liked about it (starting with all the performances from Cain, Shea, Hatcher and Smith and moving down). Loved Ma and Pa – nice update of them–Shea was a GREAT Lex–but I don’t think I’ve disliked him in even the worst scripts (-koff–mutantx–Koff-). Also, Cain was big Superman fan and that love of the material always seemed to show through.

Fun stuff. Not great, but great fun.

9

My cousin thought that Lois-and-Clark-era Teri Hatcher was the hottest woman in the universe.

10

For me it’s the credits scene where she’s wearing the party hat. She is just so cute!

Actually, I think she was a pretty good Lois Lane, too: Attractive, spunky, self-absorbed, and occasionally capable of doing a discreditable thing. Pretty well-rounded character.

11

The show is being repeated lately… its amazing to think the sexy woman on screen is the same bag of skin and bones you see on Wysteria Lane.

12

Yeah, but she was hottest in seasons 1 & 2. By season 3 she was getting way too thin. Plus I thought she looked better with longer hair.

I did enjoy the occasional in joke they’d toss away too, like after Lois figured out Clark’s secret and she said it out loud. “A little louder, I don’t think they heard you in Gotham City.”

13

One of my favorite in-jokes from the show was when the Kryptonian baddies took over Smallville, trapping the citizens (and Clark and Lois) inside. Clark was wearing a Buffalo Bills cap in that episode. Dean Cain had been a free safety at Princeton University and signed with the Bills as a free agent. He injured his knee in training camp, and no longer able to play football, he turned to screenwriting, then acting. The rest, as they say, is history.

By the way, Happy Birthday to Dean Cain, 40 years old today.

14

Actually, the more I think about that, the more I think Hatcher and Cain might’ve done better in Superman Returns, since the characters are not supposed to be particularly young, what with it being “five years later” and all.

Assuming, of course, that Cain’s held up as well as Hatcher.

15

In the interviews on the DVDs (filmed in late '05), Cain appears to have put on about fifteen or so pounds–his face is fuller and rounder, though his current closely-cropped hair could make it appear moreso. He is shot in close-up (chest up) for all of the interviews I’ve seen.

Sir Rhosis

16

My thoughts … Teri Hatcher … mmmmmm … what was this thread about?

17

Cain is a semi-regular on Las Vegas. He plays Casey Manning, current owner of the Montecito, and ex-husband of Sam Marquez. He seems to be in pretty good shape on that show.

18

What threw me for a loop was when I learned that she was the same actress who played the incredibly annoying recurring girlfriend Penny on MacGuyver.

19

Funny you should mention this. I’ve been netflixing this lately. I loved this show back when it was on. Rewatching it is fun.