'Smallville': A pre-Metropolis tale
By Chelsea J. Carter
Associated Press
Gone are the tights and the flights.
The cape, glasses and dual identity are gone, too.
"Smallville" offers a new interpretation of "Superman."
There's just a teenage Clark Kent coping with adolescence, his burgeoning superpowers and the occasional villain.
WB's "Smallville," which premieres tonight at 7, is a fun, creative addition to the Superman mythology. Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the duo behind the films "Shanghai Noon" and "Lethal Weapon 4," the new interpretation takes viewers back to where Superman's Earthly life started: Smallville.
"We do not want to do Superboy," Gough said. "We want to tell the story of Clark Kent's journey to adulthood, his journey to superhero."
The series opener begins with a meteor shower that brings death, destruction and a small boy to Smallville. In the aftermath, the youngster is found by the childless Kents and raised as their own. The show jumps forward 12 years; Clark (played by Tom Welling) has grown into an awkward, unpopular teen.
He has friends who make bets on his successes and failures — from talking to girls to catching the bus on time.
'Smallville'
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Tonight, 7, WB (seen on KFVE)
He longs for popular cheerleader Lana Lang (newcomer Kristen Kreuk). But when he tries to talk to her, Clark gets weak-kneed and sick to his stomach. The problem: She wears a Kryptonite necklace.
He also finds an unlikely friend in a twentysomething Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum, the transvestite from "Sweet November") after saving his life in a car accident.
"As much as this is a story about Clark's journey to superhero, it's also the story of Lex's journey to being a villain," Gough said.
The guardians of Clark's identity are his adoptive parents (John Schneider from the old "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" series, and Annette O'Toole, who played Lana Lang in the movie "Superman III").
These parents provide the show's conscience and are very much a part of the story, unlike many teen-oriented shows in which parents are rarely seen and almost never heard.
The show goes beyond a high school rites-of-passage dramedy with such disturbing scenes as a teen being tied to a stake in a cornfield before a meteor shower hits — then returning later to exact revenge on those who tormented him. It's uncomfortable to watch and a reminder that teenagers can be brutal to one another.
Conscious of the Superman legacy and legion of fans, the writers pay their respects.
"To reinvent it, you have to shake it up. We're sort of respectful of the Superman legend without being slavish to it," Gough said.
No one needs to figure out Superman's enduring appeal, though. Dating back to the 1930s, he was a smash in comic books, radio and movies. Television's "The Adventures of Superman" starring George Reeves took off in the 1950s. Saturday morning cartoons followed, as well as the big-budget Superman movies with Christopher Reeve starting in 1978.
