The first of several TV series based on the comic-book character "Superman" created by Joe Siegel and Jerome Schuster in 1938,
The Adventures of Superman was one of the most popular adventure series of the 1950s, and one of a handful of syndicated programs from that era still in active distribution. Production began in 1951 with a 58-minute pilot film, released theatrically as
Superman and the Mole Men.
George Reeves, who had launched his movie career as one of the Tarleton twins in the 1939 blockbuster
Gone With the Wind, starred as Superman, "strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond mortal men." In other words, Superman could fly through the air, could bend metal and other ductile objects in his bare hands, was impervious to bullets and knives, and possessed X-ray vision (he was vulnerable only to Kryptonite, the radioactive element from his home planet Krypton). When not busy fighting crime and rescuing the helpless victims of dastardly villains, Superman assumed the guise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered, bespectacled reporter for "The Daily Planet," the leading newspaper in the city of Metropolis. Also appearing in Superman vs. the Mole Men was
Phyllis Coates as Clark's fellow reporter Lois Lane, who despite her otherwise keen powers of observation never figured out that Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same (nor for that matter did anyone else). Like the pilot film, which was subsequently re-edited into two half hour episodes to be compatible with the series proper, the 24 first-season
Adventures of Superman installments were filmed in black and white; they were also faster paced and more adult-oriented and violent than the series' subsequent seasons. Added to the cast were
John Hamilton as Perry White, irascible editor of "The Daily Planet";
Jack Larson as cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, a character originally created for the radio version of
Superman in the 1940s; and
Robert Shayne as police inspector Bill Henderson, the only character that had not previously appeared in any other
Superman incarnation. From the outset,
The Adventures of Superman cut down production costs by adopting an assembly-line filming method, shooting scenes from several different episodes on the same day, recycling sets (Clark Kent's office was the same as Lois Lane's, albeit with rearranged furniture), utilizing the same costumes in every show, and hiring many of the same supporting actors as often as possible, among them
Herb Vigran, Billy Nelson,
Tris Coffin and especially
Ben Welden. For the series' second season of 26 episodes,
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