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Author Topic: Atom Man Vs Superman  (Read 10877 times)
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Aldous
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« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2006, 11:28:31 AM »

Personally, I think the fact that Reeves didn't look like Superman (I always thought he was to thin) .....

It's funny, because I have the opposite view. Not only did George Reeves look like Superman, he had the right build.

P.S. Look more closely and you can see what a strong man George was in real life.
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nightwing
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« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2006, 06:39:08 PM »

Aldous writes:

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Personally, I'm glad they never did this. I think they got it right. The re-use of actors notwithstanding, it would have detracted from the show to have a villian as part of the regular ensemble. This is one thing that doesn't translate well from comic books to the screen... Why would Superman tangle with the same man every other week?

Well it wouldn't have to be every other week.  Repetition is the Achilles Heel of any TV show (and "Adventures" was certainly guilty of it!) so some effort would have to have been made to parse out Luthor's appearances a bit. 

Certainly I wouldn't want him done in the Byrne/Wolfman/"Lois and Clark" style of the untouchable crime kingpin who constantly reminds us of all the things Superman CAN'T do (though at least on L&C he had the decency to die and stay dead). What I was thinking of was more in the mode of Dr. Lovelace on "The Wild Wild West," a character who appeared about 9 or 10 times in the course of four years, popping up between other menaces who came and went and usually were killed.  Every hero needs an "arch nemesis," and you can do that without over-using him (as even the comics have done).  After all, Professor Moriarty only appeared in one Holmes story and look at the shadow he cast.  Less can be more.

davidelliott writes:

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Personally, I think the fact that Reeves didn't look like Superman (I always thought he was to thin), but was an awesome Clark was the reason why "The Adventures of Superman" was more "The Adventures of Clark Kent with 2 Minutes of Superman".  Alyn may have meant more Superman airtime.

Well, first of all, you may be the first person to ever criticize George Reeves for being too THIN!  Cheesy  Usually it's the other way around.

I think there's one reason why Superman didn't get more air time, and it comes down to money.  The show never had much of a budget and as time went on it had less and less.  Even a serial by the notoriously cheap Sam Katzman must have had a bigger budget than the average kid's show in 1951, and when you try to do super-heroics on the cheap that's just how they come out looking.

In the second season, writer Jackson Gillis gave us some neat, Superman-centered and fairly effects-heavy classics like "Superman In Exile," "Panic in the Sky" and even the low-on-effects-but-big-on-Supes "Defeat of Superman."  But overall I think the show started as a crime drama, veered briefly into sci-fi and finally settled down as a light-hearted kid's show.  In the last few years, I think the last thing they wanted to do was get their young viewers' heart rates up, so even with Kirk in the role he probably would have been stuck squeezing charcoal briquettes into diamonds and occasionally busting through a wall, just like George.  But I would argue that with his over-the-top, chest-puffed out posing and prancing, Kirk would have spun the show into "kiddie" mode even faster than it actually happened.

Having said all that, it's interesting to imagine how different things might have been.  I see Kirk Alyn's Superman as the Joe and Jerry version; the laughing daredevil, giddily thrilled with his powers and prone to sudden fits of righteous indignation and swift retribution.  On the other hand, George's Superman was more the all-knowing, paternalistic, patient and calmly noble figure that came to typify the Wiesinger era.  I believe the comics were written to reflect the TV show (Mort and Whit Ellsworth edited both), and if Kirk's version had been the one millions met through TV, maybe Superman would have remained more like his Golden Age self a lot longer.

Something to ponder.
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davidelliott
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« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2006, 06:58:58 PM »

No one else thinks Reeves was SKINNY??? OMG!!!  Even as a tiny tyke, I would look at him and think he didn't look like Superman!!!

But you're right on the characterization... Reeves had that fatherly protector personality and Alyn was that big brother Superman.  Yeah and Alyn's "prancing"... well...

I have to agree with your summation, Aldous!
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Permanus
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« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2006, 11:00:25 PM »

On film, he always looks a bit thin no matter who portrays him, because a guy in tights always looks a bit thin somehow. Alyn, with his dancer's build, was always thought of as too thin, rather than Reeves. Personally, I've always thought Superman is more effective when he is portrayed as a fellow of average build and height, which Swan suggested in the comics.
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MatterEaterLad
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« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2006, 11:14:36 PM »

Alyn may have had a more of a "v" shaped torso, but no, I never thought of Reeves as skinny in the least...
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Aldous
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« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2006, 06:59:17 AM »

For all the talk of Superman's moral fibre and manly virtues (of which there are plenty), when you boil him down he's a physical hero, a man of strength.

Likewise, George Reeves was a man of strength. I just don't understand how anyone can look at him and think he was skinny. He was a big man, and strong. He was naturally athletic. Watch some of his fighting moves, especially from the first season; he knew how to use his fists in real life. He makes a great Superman because he is not merely a "bodybuilder" with a "V-shaped torso"... And when you add his physical presence to the charisma and character he brought to the screen, well: in terms of a portrayal, he was the closest real-life man to Superman I have seen.
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nightwing
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« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2006, 02:12:33 PM »

Well, there was a reason George was good with his fists.  He started off (under his real name, George Bessolo) as a professional boxer.  That broken nose is a dead giveaway. 

However, George did not have very impressive shoulders, which is why as Clark he's never seen without the suit jacket (luckily shoulder pads were "in" anyway in that time period)...okay, except for "Perry White's Scoop," where he's shown in a sweatsuit...with shoulder pads!  Cheesy  In the super-suit, he's also got pads, and not just on his shoulders...his biceps are padded, too.  My impression is this is not because he had "weak" arms, but rather to help disguise the shoulder pads.

Over the years, some folks have figured that the use of padding was proof George didn't have a great build.  I think it goes back to the notion people had back then that Superman should be a Charles Atlas-type with huge, rippling muscles.  Hence all the stories of casting calls where bodybuilders and weight-lifters were auditioned.  Using the pads on George may have been a concession to that expectation of Superman as muscleman.

Anyway, Kirk Alyn was a dancer, and there's no way I consider him more muscular than George.  But he does have great poise and obvious strength, as any good dancer would.  And in my mind, Superman would have more "organic" muscles (as we used to say about Bruce Lee) anyway.  After all, when you can lift a mountain over your head with no effort, there's no way to bulk up to the ridiculous extremes of a bodybuilder in the first place.  Superman should have functional muscles, not "show" muscles. (Hello, McGuinness?)

Anyway, when I said you were the first to complain George was too thin, I was referring to the usual complaint that he was too FAT.



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davidelliott
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« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2006, 11:00:23 PM »

TOO FAT???

See, not knowing any other movies Reeves was in (The only other one was Gone With The Wind) I'm basing my opinion on Superman... yep, he was physical and everything, he was tall, but I never saw him with a Superman type of body.  Maybe I'm seeing him in relation to the Wayne Boring/Al Plastino barrel chested Superman... I guess in relation to the early Shuster Superman, he's spot on...

It actually does work for me in a way... a guy of average build with Super powers.

Jack Larson, to me, looked huskier than Reeves, though... but he was a great Jimmy!
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