Awesome Show!

[HulkSmashNow]

Hey fellas,

Great episode! It's always great to hear Michael Bailey, as well. The Ruby-Spears Superman cartoon has long been one of my favorites. I remember getting up at seven o'clock on Saturday mornings, before anyone else, to watch this show. Thank the Maker it's finally on DVD.

Can't wait for the second part, guys. Keep up the great work! And thank you Derrick for the warm welcome over the QT thread.

Also, Farrah Forke, Mayson Drake in Lois & Clark, voiced Big Barda in both Batman Beyond and Justice League.

[james]

You guys mentioned one of my favorite episodes of Superman: the Animated Series, "The Late Mr. Kent." It has one of the darkest endings I've ever seen in an episode of a show made for children (though you could argue that any Timm animated show isn't only created for kids).

My favorite moment of the first episode with Mr. Myxplyx? "Not one word! Not! One! Word!"

[drewshi]

Great show and I'm looking forward to part two. I thought it was interesting that you didn't do this retrospective in time order, but rather saving the movies for the next episode.

I'm a huge fan of the Ruby-Spears Superman and am glad to see it on DVD. I was having a discussion with Bob Greenberger about it. He recently reviewed the set for ComicMix and tore it apart. He found it lacking in all areas. I do have to agree about his comments about the Superman Family bits. They served no real purpose. While they avoided the obvious Superman origin story, they gave us no hint of Superman becoming a hero today. They just showed a kid who used his powers to get what he wanted. In some respects, Smallville does a better job there. (At least, of the episodes from the first two seasons I watched, that is.)

But I loved the villains they used. The Zod episode was one of my favorites. I thought Michael Bell was wrong for Luthor, but only after hearing Clancy Brown in the next series. The animation was crisp and I really felt that Superman was flying (I know that sounds weird as he flies in every cartoon, but here he was not just moving in a straight line like he was in previous incarnations.)

I also maintain that this, and certain episodes of the final season of the Super Friends (the Super Powers Team) were the impetus for taking super hero cartoons in a more serious direction. The first Batman movie cemented it bringing about the debut of Batman: The Animated Series.

[tombitd]

Nov 16, 2009 5:34:17 GMT -5 drewshi said:

Great show and I'm looking forward to part two. I thought it was interesting that you didn't do this retrospective in time order, but rather saving the movies for the next episode.

The reason we divided the show into one about television and one about film is that it gave us a natural way to divide the two parts. It's as simple as that.

[Dino]

Got to this pretty late but great episode. I agree with you guys just about 100% on Superman: TAS, Lois & Clark and Smallville. My biggest gripe with TAS was that it borrowed very heavily from the Byrne reboot, which I am most-definitely not a fan of (other than Luthor as a businessman).

With Lois & Clark, I dug Dean Cain's Clark but his Superman was just too cheeseball. Shea was awesome as Lex in the first season but when they brought him back, he was completely wasted with his Lois obsession. And the less said about Hatcher's Lois, the better. Also, I couldn't agree more with Michael -- Lane Smith was also my favorite Perry White (the exception being the constant Elvis references).

And Smallville...ugh. I loved the first three years. After that, it just kept going downhill and by the eighth season, the big draw for me was counting how many times the show could jump the shark in a given season. Now you've got Clark running around as the Blur, you've introduced just about everyone in the Superman mythos (and the greater DCU), he's in Metropolis (which is apparently right next door to Smallville), and it's just getting ridiculous. You know it's bad when the show's original producers bailed.