SUPERBOY(1988) SEASON 1
First things first, there are no English subtitles in this!!!! BOOOOOOO!!!!
The only live action TV series about Superboy(as of 1/8/2017)!
Starring no one I've ever heard of, save Stuart Whitman(The Day
The Earth Stood Still, Cimarron Strip, The President's Man) as
Jonathan Kent!!
This is brought to us by the same people who gave us Superman, The
Movie!! Alexander & Ilya Salkind!!
This had no introduction to Superboy, where he came from, no
origin story at all!! Kinda disappointing!!
These are only 22-25 minutes long!! So if it's a bad episode, at least
they're not very long!! LOL!!
EPISODES 1: THE JEWEL OF TECHACAL(Oct. 8, 1988):
This first episode, introduces us to most of the main cast, Clark
Kent/Superboy, Lana Lang, Lana's father & Lex Luthor! I'm really
hoping this gets better as it goes along, as this first one shows some
really bad acting in it, specifically Stacey Haiduk(Lana) and Scott Wells
(Lex Luthor), both REALLY bad!!!!! John Newton is ok, and Jamie Calvert
is actually pretty good! But I think the worst part is the writing!! Pretty
bad, really!! Although the special effects aren't so great either!!
Anyway, the basic story is that Lana's father has brought back an
artifact that's suppose to have a curse on it, and he suddenly ends
up in the hospital!! And Lex decides to steal it, along with others!!
It turns out that the relic is Kryptonite!! B-
EPISODE 2: A KIND OF PRINCESS(Oct. 15, 1988):
Clark sees a man putting a bomb in Mr. Danner's car, the father of a girl
that Clark likes!! He also happens to be a crime boss!! And Superboy
gets in the middle of a crime turf war!!
Guest starring is Edward Winter(Perry Mason movie: The Case Of
The Notorious Nun, M*A*S*H[TV]), B
EPISODE 3: BACK TO OBLIVION(Oct. 22, 1988):
T.J. goes to a scrap yard and the dude who owns it thinks
that he's there up to no good!! So he ends up throwing
T.J. into a compactor!! Superboy saves his butt, but then
Lana goes to the same place! And she gets into more trouble!!
This has a very serious, sad undertone to it!!
This guest stars Abe Vigoda(Barney Miller)! B+(Only because
of the story line)!!
EPISODE 4: THE RUSSIAN EXCHANGE STUDENT(Oct. 29, 1988):
A scientist's computer blows up and he blames his assistant! She
decides to go back to her home of Russia when a friend from there
tells her that she must stay!! Things do not go well for her, and the
scientist is not happy about her staying!! The game here is both
sabotage and frame!!
Guest starring here is the great Ray Walston(My Favorite Martian,
The Sting, Star Trek: TNG episode "The First Duty", Star Trek: Voyager
episodes "In The Flesh" & "The Flight")!!
EPISODE 5: COUNTDOWN TO NOWHERE(Nov. 5, 1988):
While staging a protest at the school, Lana gets duped by
some of the football team and they break into a building
and steal a laser device, as well as kidnap Lana!!
This is really strange, as Superboy, and everyone else, acts
like they've never seen Superboy before!! This is the fifth
episode, and has already been seen several times!! Hmmmm,
what where they thinking?????? B
EPISODE 6: BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE(Nov. 12, 1988):
The editing on this is terrible!! First we see the group at a baseball
game where there's a threat of a bomb!! Clark steps up to the plate
(he's not on the team) and hits a ball out of the park, which blows up!!
Then all of a sudden it cuts to a scene where there's a stage which is
going to be the scene of a concert, with the whole gang there! Then it
cuts back to the ball park, where, again, the whole gang is!! No
explanations, no smooth transitions, no nothing!! Very bad!! Anyway,
the whole show's about the singer who's going to do concert, but his
real plan is to try to take over the park that he wants to make a
something out of!!
Guest starring Leif Garrett(mostly known for his singing!! B-(For the
editing)!!
EPISODE 7: THE BEAST AND BEAUTY(Nov. 19, 1988):
A dude masquerades as Superboy and is gong around pulling
crimes!! Superboy gets arrested & fingerprinted! His buddy and
Lana bail him out, then of course he goes out and catches the real
thieves!!! All this to impress a beauty pageant contestant!! B
EPISODE 8: THE FIXER(Nov. 26, 1988):
Refers to, of course, Lex Luthor, who at this point is not
much more than a punk, going around betting on games
then blackmailing members of the team to throw a game!!
The dude that plays Luthor looks nothing like the character
from the comics!! However, this is the best episode so far!! B+
EPISODE 9: THE ALIEN SOLUTION(Dec. 3, 1988):
I guess it's pretty obvious but Superboy is being observed by
some aliens!! They come to Earth and grab Lana!! A couple of
the guys at the school try to stop him, but he knocks them out!
He's trying to make Lana tell him where Superboy is so he can
prove he's better than him! He kills Lana, but she's not really
dead, and he takes over her body!! B
EPISODE 10: TROUBLED WATERS(Dec. 10, 1988):
Someone's in town trying to buy up all the farm land around!
Jonathan Kent tells everyone to hold on a bit and he'll check
with the capital to see if there's any kind of anything that would
make the land worth enough to start making trouble for all the
farm owners! An accident with Jonathan brings Clark/Superboy
home to find out what's going on!! B+
EPISODE 11: THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE(Jan. 21, 1989):
The invisible people are those who are homeless and living on
the beach! They were promised jobs and all of them moved
from their homes to Florida, only to have the promises of jobs
pulled out from under them, leaving them all homeless and
penniless!! And the dude that promised them jobs is doing
anything and everything he needs to to get rid of them,
permanently!!
Guest starring Greg Morris(Mission: Impossible)!! A-
EPISODE 12: KRYPTONITE KILLS(Jan. 28, 1989):
Bet cher wondrin' what this is about!?!? LOL!! Anyway, back to
Kryptonite! A meteorite falls to Earth, and of course it's Kryptonite!
And, of course, what's Kryptonite without Lex Luthor stealing it
and using it against Clark!! B
EPISODE 13: REVENGE OF THE ALIEN: PART ONE(Feb.4, 1989):
The alien returns from episode 9! And it's back to get revenge in
this first part of a two part episode!! It gets released by a petty
thief who accidentally steals it along with a bunch of other chemicals
in the lab!! When it escapes, it takes over another human and
he immediately goes out after Superboy! After failing to kill him,
the entity takes over Pa Kent's body to exact his revenge!! B+
EPISODE 14: REVENGE OF THE ALIEN: PART TWO(Feb. 11, 1989):
Continuing from the previous episode, Pa Kent spirits away Lana in
hopes of getting to Superboy!! It becomes obvious to Superboy that
something isn't right with Jonathan! B+
EPISODE 15: STAND UP AND GET KNOCKED DOWN(Feb. 18, 1989):
A friend of CJs gets killed, and the last thing CJ knew he was doing
comedy at a local club!! So he and Clark go there to investigate!
Guest starring Gary Lockwood(Star Trek: TOS episode "Where
No Man Has Gone Before", 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek:
Equinox episode "The Night Of Time", Four episodes of Murder
She Wrote, The Lieutenant, It Happened At The World's Fair)! A
EPISODE 16: MEET MR. MXYZPTLK(Feb. 25, 1989):
Mr. Mxyzptlk is a dude from another dimension whose favorite
thing in life is to drive people nuts with his pranks!! And his
favorite target is Clark Kent/Superboy!! He makes a bet with
Superboy that he can make Lana fall in love with him! If he
loses, he'll go back home to the fifth dimension! If he wins,
Superboy has to go back with him!!
Star Trek: TOS's Michael J. Polard who was in the episode "Miri"
as Mr. Mxyzptlk!! B
EPISODE 17: BIRDWOMAN OF THE SWAMPS(Mar. 4, 1989):
So there's a construction site that's on some wetlands and an old
gypsy who wants it stopped!!! She's using voodoo to stop it!! And
the dude who's doing the construction is bound determined to
get the job done no matter who it hurts!!
Guest starring here is James MacArthur(Hawaii Five-O, Swiss Family
Robinson)!! A
EPISODE 18: TERROR FROM THE BLUE(Mar. 11, 1989):
"The Blue" refers to cops!! Lana witnesses a cop shooting another
cop, and she accidentally lets the the wrong cop know what she saw!
Stacy Haiduk is getting better and better in her role as Lana Lang!!
Another of the really good episodes, perhaps the best of this season!!
Gust starring Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa(Babylon 5 episode "Convictions",
License To Kill, Star Trek: TNG episode "Encounter At Farpoint", Big
Trouble In Little China)!! A
EPISODE 19: WAR OF THE SPECIES(Mar. 18, 1989):
At a research institute for the military the group are all there covering
a story about AI, they discover a bigger robot that's apparently killed
a dude!! But they all get gagged by the military and the film they shot
destroyed by the same guy!! This doesn't set well with any of the group,
and they decide to take matters further!!
Guest starring here is John Matuszak(A football player[Defensive
End for the Oakland Raiders, also played for both the Houston Oilers
and Texans who ended up having a legal debate over who had legal
rights to his services] who went into acting, Ice Pirates, North Dallas
Forty)! B+
EPISODE 20: LITTLE HERCULES(Apr. 15, 1989):
A boy genius is wanted by many people, both for the good and
the bad!! And the target of many bullies in the school!!
This is a short version of War Games!!
This one has Joaquiin Phoenix(Walk The Line, Gladiator, Russkies,
Space Camp) B+
EPISODE 21: MUTANT(Apr. 22, 1989):
Shades of Dr. Who, X-Men & several other shows!! Clark witnesses a
professor getting abducted by aliens in a space ship!! (Ok, it looks like
a part of the building really, and the aliens look just like us, to an
extent)!! And the reason is that they are desperate for plutonium
and figure that the professor can get them what they need!! Oh, and
the dudes and dudette are mutants from the 24th century!!!
Some interesting inconsistencies here: this takes place in the 24th
century, Superboy was part of the Legion Of Superheroes which
were in the 30th/31rst centuries, and there was no mention of
any kind of nuclear war during the run of that comic series!! B
EPISODE 22: THE PHANTOM OF THE THIRD DIVISION(Apr. 29, 1989):
An old Army "buddy" of Jonathan's is in town and he wants to
say "hi" to Jonathan!! Only, he's not very friendly, and he's not
there just to say hi!! Clark and the crew are in town for a visit
and soon they get involved with the whole mess!! A+
Another great episode!!
It's too bad that these episodes were only a half hour, as a lot of
them, like this one, could have benefited greatly with a little more
development!!!
Guest starring here is Joseph Campanella(Mannix, The Bold Ones,
Star Trek: Voyager episode "Author, Author", he was also in the
other Superman TV series of the time, Lois And Clark: The New
Adventures Of Superman episode "Strange Visitor[From Another
Planet], as well as being in the Batman: TAS episode "Paging The
Crime Doctor")! A+
EPISODE 23: BLACK FLAMINGO(May 6, 1989):
The Black Flamingo refers to a night club that is responsible for radical
attacks in the area!! TJ and Lana go there to get a story, and end up in
a lot of trouble, leaving Clark/Superboy to clean up the mess! B
EPISODE 24: HOLLYWOOD(May 13, 1989):
In this, a scientist who's having problems, asks Superboy for some help
in an experiment!! When he does as he asks, suddenly he gets transported
to war time Hollywood!!
This is kind of a throwback to the earlier episodes where the editing
is really jumpy!! Which is too bad, because this could have been a lot
better with good editing!! This also suffers from too short of time to
develop the story!!
Guest starring Doug McClure(The Virginian, Checkmate, Maverick[the
movie], The Gambler V: Luck Of The Draw, The People Who Time
Forgot, At The Earth's Core, The Land That Time Forgot, South Pacific)!! B+
EPISODE 25: SUCCUBUS(May 20, 1989):
An author has more to her than meets the eye!! She keeps a young
look by stealing the life force from others!! Her ultimate goal, Superboy,
and she plans to use TJ as an accomplice!!
Another episode that would have benefited from more time for the
episode to develop!! B+
EPISODE 26: LEX LUTHOR UNLEASHED(May 27, 1989):
In this, the final episode of the season, Lex is out stealing Army weapons,
as well as secrets!! This gets our heroes involved, as the thieves were
identified as having worn ROTC uniforms, which their university is the
only local school with an ROTC program!!
This is where Lex becomes the man we all know and hate, BALD!!! And of
course he blames Superboy for it!! And also where Lex gets attracted to
Lana!!
This ends REALLY weird!!!!!!!!
The last episode with John Newton as Superboy! B+
SPECIALS ON DISCS:
SUPERBOY: GETTING OFF THE GROUND:
How the show "got off the ground"! I know, shocking!! Anyway,
with the input from: John Newton(Clark Kent/Superboy), James
Calvert(TJ White), Stacy Haiduk(Lana Lang), Ilya Salkind(Executive
Producer) & David Nutter(Director)!!
JOHN HAYMES NEWTON SCREEN TEST:
Not sure how he got the role!!!!!
LOOK, UP IN THE SKY:
Excerpts from the special!!
From another reviewer at IMDb.com:
Season 1 was quite good and held well to the superhero genre.
Season 2 started well but drifted deeply into interpersonal
drama. Season 3 started the way season 2 ended, with less emphasis
on the superhero and deeply into character emotions/relationships
and social issues. These are important discussions, to be sure,
but I watch superhero shows to see action and fun, not for deep
emotion or for a critical societal exposé.
Frankly I don't care who's straight, gay, engaged, in love,
depressed, happy or psychotic unless it directly relates to
the villain:heroine story line. Supergirl has, seemingly,
fallen to influences (pressures?) far from the original
comic book universe. It has become a soap opera. - ken-1273