Ramblings of a Closet Geek: Super Sundays!

When I was a kid, this was Superman. This is what he really looked like...in real life. George Reeves.
Until "Superman the Movie" in 1978, this is the face I thought of when I pictured Superman. As an adult, it is still 50/50 between George Reeves and Christopher Reeve on who I think of as Superman.

When I was a kid we lived on an acreage just outside of town. Subsequently we had CBC as our only TV channel with CTV sometimes on a good day if the weather was clear and the planets aligned with the antenna properly. So, one of the highlights of the week as a kid, was on Saturday. My mom would go shopping in town, and drop my brother and I off at our Grandparents place in town. They had cable, so...Saturday morning cartoons! Around 11am, the cartoons would end. Some channels would turn to sports, some to news, but one would run old episodes of TV shows from the 50's including "The Adventures of Superman". As a boy, this was my favorite part of the day, even better than the cartoons and everything else. Also, as a bonus, the local theater would run a kids matinee on Saturday afternoon, So my brother and I would often spend part of our money from mowing the lawn on the movies. Because they were for kids, they often ran cartoons at the beginning like back in the day, but on occasion they would run a old Flash Gordon or Buck Rodgers serial, or a episode of The Adventures of Superman.

The show itself was ahead of its time. The first two seasons where shot in black and white, but they switched to colour in year three till the end of the series (1954-1958). A bold move, as it drove up the costs to produce the show, and it was never aired during its original run in colour. The fact that so many episodes are in colour is one of the reasons it held up well and found a home in syndication in the 1960's and 1970's.

George Reeves himself was a fantastic actor that brought a great deal to the character of Superman/Clark Kent. While at times feeling a little type cast because of the fame that came with the show being such a hit, George Reeves always took his responsibilities as a "role-model" very seriously. He was always careful of never letting his fans (the kids) see him do anything "un-Superman" like. Sadly, His death in 1959 by apparent suicide, is still one of Hollywood's great mysteries

Still after all these years, along with the 1940's Max Fleischer cartoons, still some of the best Superman stories you will ever find.