The Death of Superboy



The final episode of the 'Superboy'TV Series was meant to be the death of Superboy. Luthor would finally get his wish--he would kill The Boy of Steel! The story would be resolved in the first of a string of Superboy TV movies, mirroring the 'Death of Superman' DC comic book story-line that appeared on the racks only a year after. This was reported as early as 09/91 in the now defunct Comics Buyer's Guide. It was, as such, planned even earlier. USA Today reported in early 92 that the Superboy series would end with the hero's death which would pave the way for several TV movies over which the death would be "resolved". But within days of filming the final Superboy episode in early 1992 (at that time it was "Obituary For A Superhero"), Warner Brothers filed a lien against the series. WB effectively blocked 'Superboy' from being rerun in North America, and from any further plans for occassional TV movies.

The lien, which applied mostly to Northern America, has been resolved to date and you can purchas the first season of the Superboy series at a retail store. Before it was resolved, some fans saw 'Superboy' reruns in Europe, Isreal and in Australia on their local channels during the middle/late 90s. Though it was reported that not all 100 episodes were rerun. In 1999, for example, only a few season 4 episodes were shown in Australia, and a few years back one season 2 episode was shown after the airing of the 'Superman: The Move' extended cut (and another season 2 episode after the airing of 'Superman II'). There were also reports of The Sci-Fi Channel showing interest in picking up the series, but merely declined because it didn't fit the criteria of their programing (a good excuse to stay clear of the legal issues). If and when it ever appears in syndication again, most fans see this as a bleak dream, taking into account the many, many legal issues surrounding the series and their producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind. Of course, things are changing now that DVD collections are coming to light. For the most part, 'Superboy The TV series' was legally banned from future fans and viewers around the world which is why it has never been seen in syndication since. It cost the Salkinds a franchise, and the Superboy stars Gerard Christopher (Superboy) and Stacey Haiduk (Lana Lang) millions in royalties. Yet, despite this, the series is very much alive on the internet today and has spurned a loyal underground cult following.

The reasons for the lien are many. Some of these reasons, to be honest, are quite confusing...and some are not an easy pill to swallow, especially for the actors and everyone else associated with the series (not to mention the fans). It should be noted, however, that the 'Superboy' series was never cancelled because of low ratings. In fact, the series had been doing very well and the Salkinds were in the mist of successfully excising a renewal for a 5th and 6th season. What amazes critics to this day is that the show only got better and better with every new season. The writing, for one, was surperb and strikingly faithful to the pre-crisis Superboy era. After the initial run of the first 13 episodes (the Salkinds weren't exactly sure at that point if the 'Superboy' show was going to fly or not...pardon the pun), the writing staff predominately became top DC comic book writers like Cary Bates and Mike Carlin. That same writing staff eventually developed "Roads Not Taken" Part 1 and 2, easily the greatest Superman story ever told on television. Because of the show's inherent use of film noir (a dark and gothic filmmaking style) the feel of the last two season were similar to the movie 'Batman' or 'The Crow'. The FX were also quite impressive during the 3rd and 4th season, and soon they rivaled the earlier Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Even Gerard Christopher's Superboy costume has often been praised as being the best, and I mean, THE BEST version of the Superman costume to date (Gerard's "S" was smother and vertically longer and his cape was the John Byrne design). To add to all this, 'Superboy' had remained in the top ten mark of syndication up until the lien. Just before the show could become even more impressive, WB took the Salkinds to court and succuessfully blocked the 'Superboy' series from further development. The Boy of Steel would literally die on television, but not by Lex Luthor's hands.

The main problem could have been forseen from the beginning. WB was not affiliated with 'Superboy' and overall, they owned the rights to the Superman character though you could purchase an option/screen rights to produce Superman for film and television. The 'Superboy' series was distributed by Viacom, totally independent of WB. And WB owned DC. Alexander Salkind acquired the screen rights from DC to Superman in 1973 while making his "Three Musketeers" movies. The license also included the screen rights to 'Supergirl', 'Superboy' and 'Superpup'. Apparently, after the disappointing 'Superman III' and the box-office failure 'Supergirl', the Salkind's "sold" their screen rights to Cannon Films (Golan and Globus) which made Superman IV and had an option to make Superman V. According to Ilya Salkind, Cannon had to pick up their on-going option on Superman; Cannon did not own the screen rights to the series outright. The Salkinds retained rights to Supergirl as well as to Superboy and his share of DC Comics' Superman mythos created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (and expanded upon by many others). But it was in the grey whether or not holding the screen rights to Superman also included the rights to produce the other "super" characters, like Supergirl, Superboy, or Superpup. The Salkinds honestly believed, contractually speaking, that they still retained the rights to Supergirl as well as to Superboy and his share of DC Comics' Superman mythos created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The 'Superboy' TV series, in retrospect, could only be based on that specific Superboy portion of the mythos. In this sense, the 'Superboy' series would have it's own continuity, yet still be primarily based on the pre-crisis DC Superboy character/magazine. It would not follow the current Superman DC storyline.

The main question was...just who owned what? Should a line between the characters be drawn? This lack of resolution has kept 'Superboy' out of the public eye for many years. The rights issue didn't seem to bother anybody at first. WB had owned DC before the Salkinds even thought of purchasing the screen rights to Superman. They could have done a Superboy TV show at any time. Superman (or Superboy) on television just didn't appear lucrative. WB was content, in my honest opinion, with the Salkind's plans for 'Superboy' during the first season, enough to agree with the go-ahead to finish it's original contract with Viacom, which was for 100 episodes of 'Superboy' (and maybe on occasion a possible 'Superboy' TV movie. NOTE: This was before the development of 'The Death Of Superboy' TV mini-series by Viacom). Of course, it would have to be limited to only the Superboy portion of the mythos. 'Superboy' The TV Series would indeed continue and give WB the option to work with the Salkind's in the future. The Salkind's had plans to do 'Superman: The New Movie' (based on a screenplay written by Cary Bates and it would star Gerard Christopher) and WB would, of course, be the Distributor. And as mentioned earlier, according to Ilya Salkind, Cannon had to pick up their on-going option on Superman ('Superman V' was Cannon's project, not the Salkinds); Cannon did not own the rights to the series outright.

Money started to roll in for the Salkinds after the airing of the first initial 13 episodes in 1988. Likewise, the quality of the production started to slowly climb (this could be seen in the FX work alone on the later half of the 1st season). By the second season, there were some major cast changes. 22-year-old John Haymes Newton was replaced by Gerard Christopher, who was 8 years older than Newton and virtually, another unknown actor (for those of you who are old enough to remember, Gerard Christopher co-starred in the movie 'Tomboy' which was a theatrical release in 1984). It is interesting to note that Gerard was 30 years old when he was casted to play Superboy, who is a younger version of Superman. Yet, Christopher Reeve was much younger, only 24 when he was casted to play Superman! But--the average person watching the show didn't know that. Another young actor was replaced with an older one. Scott Wells, the young Lex Luthor, was replaced with 43 year-old Sherman Howard (formerly "Howard Sherman"; he had intensionally reversed his name). And Jim Calvert (T.J. White, Perry White's son) was replaced with a different character all together, Andy McAllister. He was Clark's roomate and was played by IIan Mitchell-Smith (the star of the 1985 movie hit "Weird Science"). Stacy Haiduk (Lana Lang) would remain on the series as the series veteran for all four seasons.

These changes were for the better. Hiring older actors certainly brought more experience to the set. Gerard Christopher had previously obtained a B.A. degree in Business from UCLA, so he added a certain kind of professionalism to the show and eventually became an executive producer and writer during the 3rd and 4th season. John Haymes Newton moved forward and began a career in major motion pictures like ('Alive' and 'Cool As Ice'), and this was a good career move for him. Newton also continued doing guest spots in television ('Tru Calling') as did Gerard Christopher (after the 4th season of Superboy). Gerard had a boyish kind of enthusiasm for the role, which made 'Superboy' a little more exciting to watch. At times, he was also rather cocky in role but brought it out with humor. In turn, along with the increased production value and Gerard's performance, a larger audience was pulled in. WB was in for an eye-openner, the ratings hit the top ten mark of syndication and 'Superboy' became an official hit. The executive offices at WB, of course, realized the potential for Superman on television. Not that this hadn't already been accomplished 30 years before by the George Reeves' series ('The Adventures of Superman'). But that had aired to a previous generation and to an audience not as fickle as the current "Generation X" who had the luxury of Cable TV and Nintendo. The question was...could Superman on television work today? Would "Generation X", the primary target audience at that time, buy into it? The success of 'Superboy' insured a potential cash cow for WB. Superman on modern day television, a market much more competitive than the previous generations, would work. Thus, WB actively began to pursue their own idea for a Superman series. The Salkinds were taken to court for a settlement on the rights issue. WB was able to legally convince that Superman also included "Superboy", "Supergirl" and "Superpup". A lien was placed against the competitive 'Superboy', which posed as unfair competition to WB's Superman chatacter. This lien put a permanent stop to future production, TV movies, and future syndication (re-runs). 'Superboy' was totally eradicated from the viewer's market as WB spurned Superman into development.



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