The Adventures of Superman

Note: This article is about the television series. For the comic book which sometimes, but not usually, has "The" in the tile see Adventures of Superman

Series production

The show was syndicated. A total of 104 half-hour episodes were filmed for television, with the first two seasons (26 episodes apiece) in black and white. The show was one of the first weekly television shows to switch to full color. For the first two seasons, George Reeves' Superman costume was actually colored brown, so that it would show better on black-and-white TV. When the series went to color, a red and blue costume was made to match the look of the comic books. There were 13 color episodes filmed for each of the show's final four seasons.

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The budget for the series was relatively low, with the series' actors paid $200 per episode. TV historians state that the cast had to make repeated requests to the show's producers before they were given a $50 raise. The low budgets of the show were also reflected in the special effects used to simulate Superman's super powers and superhuman feats. Nearly every episode of the show had Clark Kent change into Superman, and run across a room to jump out the window (using a springboard). There would then be repeated stock footage of Superman flying through the sky. Although the use of the same flying footage over and over was obvious even to children watching the show, the footage was effective and well-done for its time, especially the shots used for episodes 27 through 52. Another notable feature of the programs, especially during the final 52 episodes, was that the characters always wore the same outfits, thus allowing filming of multiple episodes at the same time. These apparent limitations were overshadowed by the sincerity and strong personalities of the players.

Related Topics:
Special effect - Stock footage

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