December 15, 1978: "Superman: The Movie" Premieres

December 15, 1978: Superman: The Movie premieres. Although there had been a Broadway musical titled It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman! in 1966, and a TV version of it in 1975, neither was well-received or even well-watched. This was the 1st live-action Superman that most people had seen since George Reeves died in 1959.

The film makes a star out of Christopher Reeve. Note there's no S on the end: He was not related to George Reeves, whose real name was George Keefer Brewer.

There were some established stars in the film. Superman's Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara, were played by Marlon Brando and Susannah York. His Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, were played by Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter. Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, who played Superman and Lois Lane in film serials in 1948 and 1950, played Lois' parents in this movie. (Neill also played Lois for most seasons of the 1952-58 series The Adventures of Superman, starring Reeves.)

Jackie Cooper, who had mostly directed since being a child star in the 1930s, played Daily Planet publisher Perry White. The villains were familiar faces. Superman's arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, was played by Gene Hackman. His henchman, Otis (we never found out if this was his first name or his last name), was Ned Beatty. And his gun moll, Eve Teschmacher, was Valerie Perrine.

This film established some things about Superman that have become standard ever since: Krypton as a crystalline planet, his hometown of Smallville is in Kansas, Lois is a brilliant reporter but can't spell, Jimmy Olsen (played here by Marc McClure) is young but not a teenager, and, for all his evil, Luthor can be a bit charming.

I was just short of turning 9 when the movie came out. My father had been a Superman fan since the Alyn serials, had previously shown me the George Reeves show, and took me to see this film 3 times. He didn't fall for the tagline, "You'll believe a man can fly," but he loved it.

Having the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street, which had a big globe in the lobby (and still does, even though the newspaper has moved to new digs), stand in for the Daily Planet Building was a good idea.

But the various New York landmarks, including Grand Central Terminal, the Statue of Liberty, and even the original World Trade Center (the "Twin Towers" were still new structures at that point), made it obvious that Metropolis was a fictional stand-in for New York. And the mixture of the Art Deco buildings with the Disco Era signage and advertising is a little off-putting, especially when you consider that Superman Returns was set 5 years after Superman II -- and the year 2006 was shown in it, more than once.

And one thing that always bothered me is that Hackman, one of the great actors of the last 40 years of the 20th Century, played Luthor with a little too much charm. A little too jokey, even as he's planning the deaths of Superman and millions of other people.

There wasn't much to go on: Lyle Tablot in the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman was the only previous live-action Lex. He seemed to be doing for Luthor what Cesar Romero did for the Joker on the 1966-68 Batman series.

As horrible a person as Kevin Spacey turned out to be, he managed to do for Luthor in Superman Returns what Jack Nicholson did for the Joker in the 1989 Batman film: He reminded us that this guy is supposed to be scary. A man who would think nothing of killing an innocent person, or two, or a dozen, or a million, if he thought it would advance his own cause. Or, as Melissa Benoist said of Jon Cryer's Luthor on a 2020 episode of Supergirl, "Lex is a psychopathic lunatic!"

The Superman movies starring Reeve all made money, but each was less successful than the one before. Superman II, in 1981, was pretty good, but had a little too much silliness put in after Richard Donner, who directed the 1st film, was replaced by Richard Lester, best known for directing The Beatles' film A Hard Days' Night. Superman III, in 1983, was slapstick, and a Superman story shouldn't be slapstick. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, in 1987, was unintentionally ridiculous, and Reeve said that's it.

Reeve was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1994, and died in 2004 from complications of his condition. In 2006, Brandon Routh was cast in Superman Returns, a direct sequel to Superman II that acts as though III and IV never happened. It was the best one since II, its heart was in the right place, but it just missed the mark, and no further movies were made until the start of "The DC Extended Universe" in 2013, when Henry Cavill was cast in Man of Steel, and also played Superman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and Justice League in 2017.

Routh did get to play Superman once more, in The CW's "Arrowverse" series of superhero shows and their production of the 2019-20 crossover miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths. A few years older, and noticeably more thoughtful, he made a better Superman this time around.

Routh became a true successor to Reeve, as Dean Cain sometimes seemed in the 1993-97 ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, as Tom Welling occasionally seemed in the 2001-11 WB Network series Smallville, as Tyler Hoechlin sometimes seems in the Arrowverse, and as Henry Cavill just can't be given the way his part is written.

But Chris Reeve is still the Superman for my generation, and Superman: The Movie set the standard for every superhero movie that followed.

*

December 15, 1978 was a Friday. This was also the day that the City of Cleveland went into economic default. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek, and there were no college football bowl games. There were 9 games played in the NBA that night. None of them were played in Metropolis:

* The New York Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls, 118-94 at the Chicago Stadium. Toby Knight scored 43 points for the Knicks. No, I don't remember him, either.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 121-104 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It was renamed the Louis Brown Athletic Center in 1986, after a generous University donor.)

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Houston Rockets, 91-84 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Boston Celtics, 105-101 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-114 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Indiana Pacers, 125-113 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-106 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets, 116-113 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. David Thompson scored 36 for the Nuggets, but for the Blazers, Maurice Lucas scored 32 with 23 rebounds.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 100-98 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Minnesota North Stars beat the Washington Capitals, 6-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And in this season, which turned out to be the last for the World Hockey Association, a Soviet All-Stars team was a member. And on this night, they played in the only WHA game scheduled, losing 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. 

December 10, 2019: "Crisis On Infinite Earths" Occurs On The CW

Left to right: David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz, the Martin Manhunter;

Ruby Rose as Kate Kane, Batwoman;

Caity Lotz as Sara Lance, the White Canary,

Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers, Supergirl;

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, the Flash,

Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, Black Lightning;

and Tyler Hoechlin as Kal-El/Clark Kent, Superman.

December 10, 2019: Crisis On Infinite Earths occurs on television.

The CW Network, which had been airing the "Arrowverse" series of superhero TV shows since 2012, has its biggest event ever, an adaptation of the 1985 DC Comics series Crisis On Infinite Earths, which consolidated "Earth-One," "Earth-Two," and all the other Earths that had appeared in their stories onto a single Earth.

The TV version did the same. It was a "crossover" between 5 shows, bringing back many actors who had previously played DC superheroes in movies and on TV shows:

* Part 1: Supergirl, airing on December 8. Mar Novu, the Monitor, warns that the Anti-Monitor (both characters played by LaMonica Garrett), is using antimatter waves to destroy the Earth in "parallel universes." He warns that seven "Paragons" must be found, who can save the "Multiverse."

Guest stars include Burt Ward, the Dick Grayson/Robin of the 1966-68 ABC Batman series, said to live, naturally, on Earth-66; and Robert Wuhl, one of the stars of the 1989 Batman film, said to live on Earth-89. Both were shown only briefly. Neither of the Batmen then knew were: 1966's Adam West had died in 2017, and 1989's Michael Keaton was unavailable. He has since filmed a return to the role for the film The Flash, which has been delayed to 2023.

Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), known on her homeworld of Krypton as Kara Zor-El and on Earth-38 as journalist Kara Danvers, is found to be the Paragon of Hope. J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood), known as the Martian Manhunter, is the Paragon of Honor. Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), known as The Flash on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Love.

In this episode, Oliver Queen of Earth-1 (Stephen Amell), known as the Green Arrow, sacrifices his life to evacuate people from the doomed Earth-38. A former girlfriend of his, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), known as the White Canary, and leader of the time-traveling team known as the Legends of Tomorrow, is found to be the Paragon of Destiny.

(For those of you familiar with the comic books but not the shows, Sarah is a character created for Arrow. There have been characters on the show called the Black Canary, who, in the comics, is Dinah Lance, and eventually marries Queen. On the show, his wife was Felicity Smoak; in the comics, Felicity is more identified with the hero Firestorm, who existed on the shows but had no connection to her.)

* Part 2: Batwoman, airing on December 9. It is believed that another Paragon is a version of Batman. For legal reasons, in DC-themed productions outside the DC Extended Universe, Batman can be mentioned, the Batsuit can be shown, and Bruce Wayne can be portrayed out of costume, but Bruce cannot be shown wearing the Batsuit.

Batwoman is Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), Bruce's cousin, who, on Earth-1, took up "the mantle of the Bat" after Bruce disappeared. The show didn't definitively say what happened to Batman, or any version of Robin, or Commissioner Jim Gordon, or his daughter, Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. It did mention that Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler and closest ally in Bat-operating, is alive, but has moved back to London.

Kevin Conroy, who had long voiced Batman in the DC Animated Universe, finally portrays a live-action version of Bruce. But his Earth-99 Bruce is based on the 1986 comic miniseries The Dark Knight Returns, except he took it a step further: He used Kryptonite to not just defeat Superman in a fight, but kill him.

And when Kate and Kara find this out, they confront Bruce. Bruce uses the same Kryptonite in an attempt to kill Kara. (According to comic book canon, this should not work: It has been established that Kryptonite only affects Kryptonians from its own universe, not any other. This carries over into Marvel Comics: Each set of Infinity Stones can only work in its own universe.) Kate defends her, and Bruce, weakened from his decades of combat, loses the fight, and falls onto his Batcomputer, his exoskeleton combining with the computer circuits to electrocute him.

Upon returning to the orbiting Waverider, Kara repeats what she told Kate: "This guy's not a paragon of anything." The Monitor now understands his mistake: No version of Bruce is the Paragon of Courage: Kate is.

This episode also features the Earth-38 versions of Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin), known as Superman; and his wife, Lois Lane (Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch), both reporters for the Metropolis Daily Planet; and the Earth-1 Flash's wife, Iris West Allen (Candice Patton), also a journalist, in the Allens' hometown of Central City. (Apparently, there were no Kryptonians on the Arrowverse's Earth-1.) Clark, Lois and Iris go off to search alternate Earths to find another version of Superman, who would be the Paragon of Truth.

But the Earth-38 Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), Superman's arch-enemy, now has the means to kill not just the Superman he knows, but all Supermen on all Earths. And every time Clark, Lois and Iris get to a new Earth, they're too late to save that Earth's Superman. When they get to Earth-75, the Kents even see a TV screen showing Hoechlin and Tulloch copying the scene, complete with Superman's cape hanging like a flag from a steel pole, from the 1992 comic issue The Death of Superman. (Which turned out to be temporary.)

Finally, they get to another Clark Kent in time, on Earth-167. This one is played by Tom Welling, who played Clark in the 2001-11 WB/CW series Smallville. But they can't recruit him, because Luthor arrives and sends them away.

Turns out, Luthor can't kill this Superman: In this universe, unlike the one that is home to Hoechlin's and Tulloch's counterparts and their infant son Jon, this Superman had to give up his powers to have children with Lois (Erica Durance also reprising her role in Smallville), and Kryptonite has no effect on humans, which this Clark now is. (That's not quite true: In the comics, prolonged exposure to Kryptonite, which is radioactive, can cause cancer.) Clark is still stronger than Lex, though, and manages to deck him, before he escapes to another Earth.

On Earth-96, the main Clark and Lois, and Iris, find a Clark. This one is played by Brandon Routh, who played Clark/Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, and this episode makes canon what that movie had implied: He is the same Superman played by Christopher Reeve in 4 movies from 1978 to 1987.

(How the 2006 film, which definitively displays dates from that year, can take place only 5 years after Superman II, released in 1981, with the scenery definitely showing a late Disco Period aesthetic, is never explained. Nor is the fact that Superman III, released in 1983, definitively states that their Clark and Lana Lang graduated from Smallville High in 1965.)

But he's also based on the 1996 comic miniseries Kingdom Come, in which Superman lost all the people who mattered to him, including his Lois. There's also an element from the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Amongst Us, in that the attack was launched by Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker (who couldn't be named, again for legal reasons, but the reference was clear.) Unlike in Injustice, this Superman didn't take over the world to rid it of crime, but retained his humanity, proving himself to be a paragon (Upper- or lower-case). And he agrees to help.

Luthor intervenes, and turns him against Hoechlin's character, deciding that it would be more fun to watch Superman kill Superman. Iris knocks Luthor out, and Lois reminds the older Superman of all that he stood for, which snaps him out of it. It may be Lois Lane's finest moment, in any medium. He drops a reference to the Clark Kent vs. Superman fight in Superman III: "This is the second time I've gone nuts and fought myself."

* Part 3: The Flash, airing on December 10. Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), known as Black Lightning, is brought into the story, having been saved from the destruction of Earth-4. So is the title character from the 1990-91 CBS series The Flash (John Wesley Shipp). This version of Barry Allen, from Earth-90, much as the comics' Earth-One version did in 1985, sacrifices himself, telling the younger one of Earth-1, "The prophecy said the Flash had to die. It didn't say which one."

(Shipp has also played that Barry's father, Henry Allen; and Jay Garrick, another alternate-Earth Flash, reflective of the original DC Flash, the Earth-Two or "Golden Age" Flash.)

The 7th and last Paragon is identified: Dr. Ryan Choi, a scientist on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Humanity. In the comics, Choi takes over for Dr. Ray Palmer as The Atom. At this point in the Arrowverse, Palmer, of Earth-1, is still The Atom -- and is also played by Routh, causing some confusion within the show, when people who know Ray see the older Superman, especially when the two men are together. Supergirl even tells him he's "looking jacked," while Superman tells him, "That's your cousin, sort of."

But all is lost: The heroes can't stop the antimatter wave from destroying the last Earth, and the Waverider. Just before that can happen, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), a member of the Earth-1 Flash's tech team, and temporarily granted powers, transports the Paragons to the Vanishing Point, which exists outside time and space, where the Anti-Monitor can't reach them, buying them time to come up with a last-ditch plan.

In Part 2, Conroy's Bruce Wayne said there was no hope. But in Part 3, Routh's Superman said, "Even in the darkest times, hope cuts through. Hope is the light that lifts us out of the darkness." Something that DCEU director Zack Snyder, based on the films he's made, cannot possibly understand. Hoechlin's Superman backs this up: Just as the antimatter wave hits the Waverider, he nods to everyone, giving them his quiet confidence that, somehow, in a way that even he cannot yet imagine, everything is going to be okay.

But for the Paragons, who now appear to be the only 7 living things in the entire Multiverse, it's not okay. And, just when you think things literally can't get any worse, Routh's Superman fades away -- replaced by Luthor and his Book of Destiny. Talk about a cliffhanger: Part 4 won't air for another month. Those of us watching it first-run had to go through the rest of the holiday season, including Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day, before finding out what happens.

* Part 4: Arrow, airing on January 14, 2020. There is hope. Oliver Queen comes back, as The Spectre. He shows the Paragons how to build their power. In the process, the Flash meets another Flash, the one played by Ezra Miller in the DCEU, the 1st indication that the Arrowverse acknowledges the DCEU's existence, and vice versa.

Oliver takes the Paragons to "the Dawn of Time" to battle the Anti-Monitor. He tells them, "I'll light the spark, you fan the flames." While they -- 6 heroes and Luthor, who wants to restart the universe so he can rule it -- fight the Anti-Monitor's "parademons," Oliver, as The Spectre, fights the Anti-Monitor himself.

He delivers a variation of his old line to use on criminals in Star City: "You have failed this city!" He tells the Anti-Monitor, "You have failed this universe!" He looks up into the sky, and beams shoot out of his eyes, breaking through the cloud cover. The Anti-Monitor and his parademons disappear, and a new universe is created, at the cost of Oliver's life. (One more episode of Arrow aired, closing the 1st Arrowverse show after 8 seasons, showing Oliver's funeral, and his place in the afterlife.)

* Part 5: DC's Legends of Tomorrow, also airing on January 14. If you've never seen LoT, let me put it this way: It was the silliest show on television, but that made it fun.

Kara wakes up, and the month they spent at Vanishing Point has, well, vanished. It's January 14, 2020, and Earth is back to normal, with no one acting as if anything had ever been wrong. It's as if the Crisis had never happened. At least they got to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

But then Kara sees that Luthor has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Everybody, even her adoptive sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), thinks Luthor is a wonderful guy. Luthor had used his place as "the Paragon of Truth" to change people's perception of him.

And then the Flash shows up, and he and Supergirl each wonder, "What are you doing on my Earth?" Each had assumed that Oliver's act had restored all the Earths. But this is not the case. An old man walks up to them and asks them for their autographs, and he explains that they've always existed on the same Earth. He's played by Marv Wolfman, who, 35 years earlier, had written the original Crisis miniseries. (It was drawn by George Pérez, who was also, referenced, as the site of the final battle was said to be Perez Landing. He died on May 6, 2022, at which point Marv Wolfman was still alive.)

J'onn J'onzz uses his psionic abilities to show every superhero who wasn't a paragon what had happened, because they're still needed: The Anti-Monitor was returning for a rematch. At S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City, the home base for Team Flash, Harrison Wells, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi design a "shrink bomb," based on Palmer's Atom technology, to send the Anti-Monitor to "the microverse," where he can do no harm to the larger multiverse. But the fight starts, and it looks like they won't have time to finish it.

Fortunately, The Flash is the fastest man alive, and a certified scientific genius in his own right. He runs to S.T.A.R. Labs, and is shown the blueprints and the parts for the bomb. He puts it together in 5 seconds. Ray puts on his Atom suit and flies back with him.

In the 1985 comic miniseries, Supergirl was one of the characters who sacrificed their lives to stop the Anti-Monitor. Just as it looks like Kara is in the process of doing it, Ray arrives, gives her the bomb, and says, "Throw it like a girl!" She does, and it hits the Anti-Monitor point-blank, and he and his parademons are now gone -- apparently forever.

The miniseries concludes with Barry using an old S.T.A.R. Labs building as the headquarters for a new team, the Justice League. There is a round table, as in King Arthur's Camelot (and in the DCEU's version of Wayne Manor at the end of the Justice League film). Oliver's costume is set up in a glass case, fronted by an eternal flame, as at President John F. Kennedy's grave, lit by Kara's heat vision. And a seat at the table is kept empty in Oliver's memory.

The 7 founding members are Superman, Supergirl, Batwoman, the Flash, the Martian Manhunter, Black Lightning and the White Canary. Clark, Kara, Kate, Barry, J'onn, Jefferson and Sara. Five of the seven Paragons, all but Ryan and the older Superman, with this Earth's Superman in his place.

A postscript showed that, contrary to what these heroes believe at this point, there are other Earths, including Earth-96, the one on which Routh's Superman lived. He's shown recreating the flying-over-Earth scene at the end of every Superman movie between 1978 and 2006, showing that he's still alive -- but also that the background of his S-crest, black in honor of those he lost, is now yellow again, suggesting that everyone he lost has been restored.

But no mention was made of Earth-66, on which Adam West's Batman and Burt Ward's Robin lived -- Ward wasn't shown in this sequence as he was in the earlier one, and, as I said, West was already dead. 

And nowhere in the miniseries was any mention made of the Earth on which Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman lived in her 1975-79 series (1975-77 on ABC, 1977-79 on CBS). Carter has appeared in the Arrowverse, but not as Princess Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I'd like to believe that Ward's Dick Grayson and Carter's Diana Prince are alive and well. (A non-canon comic book series would combine the stories, titled Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77, suggesting that, in her World War II adventures, Wonder Woman met Bruce as a boy, before his parents were killed.)

In the Arrowverse, hints have been dropped at the existence of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Green Lantern Corps, but none of them have ever appeared. Hawkman and Hawkwoman have, but, unlike in the comics, were not shown with this Justice League.

But while this version of Crisis On Infinite Earths was far from perfect, it was a true gift to so many fans of the DC superheroes, myself included. Something that Snyder and the people working with him refuse to accept.

In hindsight, it is interesting that the greatest crisis in each brand's live-action history was set in 2019: For Marvel, "The Snap" by Thanos in the film Avengers: Infinity War, on May 31 in their continuity, though the film was released on April 27, 2018; and for DC, the titular event in their miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths, on December 10, the day it aired on The CW Network. And, in both cases, the man who was then President in real life, Donald Trump, couldn't save anyone.

In "The Marvel Cinematic Universe," the heroes had to restore half the life in the universe, and they did. In the Arrowverse, the heroes had to restore all the life in all the universes, and they had to do it without a Superman, a Batman or a Wonder Woman. And they did.

DC > Marvel. All day. Any day.

One last note: Whatever the real reason was, Ruby Rose left Batwoman after one season. A new character, Ryan Wilder, played by Javicia Leslie, was given "the mantle of the Bat," and became the new Batwoman. The character of Kate Kane was recast with Wallis Day, and she appeared only briefly, letting Wilder continue as Batman until the show's cancellation.

*

December 10, 2019 was a Tuesday. On our Earth, where a three-game losing streak is considered a "crisis," there were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-87 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 31 points for the Blazers.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 97-92 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 114-107 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Dāvis Bertāns scored 32 for the Wizards, but Devonte' Graham scored 29 for the Hornets.

* And the Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks, 135-121 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Kendrick Nunn scored 36 for the Heat, Duncan Robinson 34, and Bam Adebayo 30.

There were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat their arch-rivals, the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-2 in a shootout at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Arizona Coyotes, 5-2 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-1 at the T-Mobile Arena outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-3 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

December 1, 1986: "The Dark Knight Returns" is Published

December 1, 1986: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #4 is released by DC Comics, written by Frank Miller, drawn by Klaus Janson, and colored by Lynn Varley. It concludes Miller's story of Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement, as his hometown of Gotham City has fallen apart without him to watch over it as the Caped Crusader. As far as I know, this is the first publication to call Batman "the Dark Knight."

DKR (for short) #1, titled "The Dark Knight Returns," tells of Bruce realizing that he has to get back out there, despite being 55 years old and having no Robin: He and his original Dynamic Duo partner, Dick Grayson, are estranged; and Dick's replacement, Jason Todd, had been killed in action some time before, implied to be the reason Bruce hung up the cowl. (Note: This story was published 2 years before DC showed Jason being killed by the Joker in the storyline Batman: A Death in the Family.)

Batman manages to foil a terrorist plot by Harvey Dent, the former District Attorney known as Two-Face: Although his disfigurement has been cured and his face restored, Harvey has totally given in to the bad side of his personality.

DKR #2, "The Dark Knight Triumphant," shows Batman taking on the Mutants, the gang that has taken control of the streets of Gotham, but he's too old, and their gigantic leader kicks his ass. (Note: This story was published 7 years before DC introduced the huge villain Bane, who wore Batman down physically and psychologically, before breaking his back in the storyline Batman: Knightfall.)

He is saved by Carrie Kelley, a 13-year-old girl who idolizes him, and has taken to fighting crime wearing a copy of a Robin costume. Avoiding the Mutants' notice, she drags him back to the Batmobile, and, with a now-elderly butler Alfred Pennyworth guiding her over the phone, gets Bruce back to the Batcave. Bruce recovers, goes out, and wins a rematch. (Batman fans like to say, "Batman always wins." He loses occasionally, but always seems to win the rematches.) Now, predictably, "The Mutants" are "The Sons of the Batman."

DKR #3, "Hunt the Dark Knight," shows that it's now the world that's falling apart. In a story that resembles the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Caribbean island of Corto Maltese is a flashpoint in the Cold War. (Remember: Despite Batman being old, the story is set in what was then the present day, so the Soviet Union is still a threat.) And the President, a thinly-veiled caricature of the real-life President at the time, Ronald Reagan (he keeps a jar of mints on his desk instead of jelly beans), is in over his head.

Fortunately, the U.S. government has an ace in the hole, to protect their interests. At some point in the past, something like the later Marvel Comics' "Superhero Registration Act" had been passed, ordering all costumed crimefighters to either work for the government, retire, or be considered outlaws. Most retired. Only one chose to work for the government: Superman. Batman doesn't like this.

But Batman has a bigger problem: The Joker has broken out of Arkham Asylum, and the final battle he had long feared -- and the Joker seemed to want -- has come: Kill or be killed. Batman breaks the Joker's neck, leaving him paralyzed, but alive. The Joker expresses his disappointment, and twists his head to finish the job, making it look like Batman actually did it. And now, he's on the run.

DKR #4 is titled "The Dark Knight Falls." Miller had said that every hero's journey has an ending, using the examples of medieval figures King Arthur and Beowulf sacrificing themselves in a final battle, and wrote this chapter as a "last Batman story." The police, no longer under the command of the retired Commissioner Jim Gordon, and the federal government both want Batman in custody, and the feds are ready to send Superman after him.

But the Cold War turns hot, and a nuclear missile heads toward America. Superman stops it, but is seriously weakened. Still, the electromagnetic pulse set off by the explosion knocks out America's electricity, and Batman takes Carrie/Robin and the Sons of the Batman to the Wayne Manor stables, and the horses become the new Batmobiles as Bruce leads them in settling things down in Gotham.

The final showdown takes place in Crime Alley, where Batman's parents had been gunned down 46 years earlier. (Bruce's age when Thomas and Martha had been killed had been hinted at before, but, while this story is not canon in the main DC storyline, his age at the time is given in this story as 9.) Bruce has decided to die where "Batman was born." He stands in an armored version of his Batsuit, and attacks Superman with high-voltage electricity. Even against a weakened Superman, this doesn't work, and Superman smashes his helmet, and another punch breaks 3 of his ribs.

Correctly guessing this, Batman is properly prepared. He cheats. He has Green Arrow fire an arrow at Superman. It explodes, spraying him with Kryptonite dust. And Batman beats Superman to a pulp. And he says, "I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember, my hand, at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you."

And then Batman has a heart attack and drops dead. This follows the destruction of Wayne Manor, meant to cover up all his secrets (which doesn't work, as Bruce is exposed as Batman anyway), and the death of Alfred from a stroke, as his boss dies. Alfred's last thought: "Of course, how utterly proper."

Batman wins. Some victory, huh?

As Clark Kent, still with a bruised face, Superman attends the funeral of Bruce Wayne. The body had been claimed by "his one living relative, a cousin." Selina Kyle, the former Catwoman, accuses Clark of killing Bruce, and has to be restrained by Gordon. (Apparently, both Jim and Selina already knew Clark's secret identity, as well as Bruce's.)

Clark starts to walk away, but then, his super-hearing picks up a heartbeat. He turns, and comes face-to-face with the cousin. No, not Kate Kane, a.k.a. Batwoman. (That character wouldn't debut for another 20 years.) But it is a young woman with red hair, wrapped in black. It's no cousin: It's Carrie. He winks at her, to let her know that he knows, and that he's okay with it. We can't tell, but maybe Carrie is smiling under her veil. 

(The wink may also be a nod to a story that had been published earlier in the year: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, the farewell to the pre-Crisis On Infinite Earths Earth-1 Superman, set 10 years after Superman's alleged death, with him having a new identity, married to Lois Lane, and having a son who shows a sign of having superpowers.)

And the last scene is in the Batcave, or what's left of it: Bruce, very much alive, with Carrie by his side, discussing strategy for rebuilding and protecting Gotham with the Sons of the Batman. After a few mentions throughout the story of "This would be a good death... ," he says, "This will be a good life. Good enough."

In other words, after making a big deal of wanting Batman to have a final battle and die, Miller copped out, and kept Batman alive.

And the story has since been ruined by sequels, each installment more ridiculous than the last, betraying the sensibility of this story.

*

DKR is an "Elseworlds" story, taking place outside the official DC Comics canon, although the Elseworlds imprint wouldn't debut until 1989, with Batman: Gotham By Gaslight, showing Batman in 1889, taking on, while being accused of being, Jack the Ripper.

DKR was the story that Batman fans had waited their whole lives for: The story that made Batman, not Superman, the Number 1 superhero. The story that showed that "Batman always wins." The story that proved that Batman could even beat Superman. That Batman was better than Superman, because Superman is a "boy scout" (to use the old insult against him). That Superman, as Batman puts it in this story, "always said yes to anybody with a badge or a flag." That Batman was the ultimate badass.

Let's get something straight: Batman can't beat Superman. There is no way in hell that it could ever happen.

Batfans who want their guy to beat Superman always cite the fight scene at the end of DKR. And, I have to admit, the Superman in that story (not the one we know, as things have changed tremendously from canon) is a bit of a jerk, who deserved to be taught a lesson.

But here's how that scene would have played out, if Frank Miller understood Superman:

* Batman fires a laser cannon at Superman. Superman is knocked back, but gets up, and says, "Bruce, is that the best you can do?"

* Batman zaps Superman with millions of volts of electricity. (Ripped off from an early Fantastic Four story where The Thing did it to The Hulk, after The Hulk shoved him down a manhole.) Superman is surprised, but says, "Seriously? I just survived a nuke, Bruce."

* Green Arrow launches his arrow. Superman's super-hearing picks up the sound. His telescopic vision sees the arrow, and his X-ray vision sees what's inside. He can do this faster than a speeding bullet, let alone a speeding arrow, because his senses have the same super-speed as the rest of him. He gets out of the way, the arrow lands harmlessly, and he blows the Kryptonite dust out of the way.

* Batman is screwed. His ace in the hole is completely wasted, and he has no weapons left except his mind and his hand-to-hand combat abilities. Both of which are completely wasted on a Kryptonian.

Batfans believe "Batman always wins." Why? Because he's smarter, and "Because he's the goddamn Batman, that's why."

Except Batman isn't smarter than Superman. The yellow Sun of the Earth, compared with the red sun of Krypton, makes Superman's brain a supercomputer, the likes of which no Batman or Batcomputer can match.

You want to know what would happen if they tried to solve the same crime? Batman would sit on a rooftop, waiting for the bad guys to show up. Except they wouldn't, because Superman has used his super-senses to track them down, and has already taken them to jail.

You want to know what would happen if they played each other in chess? I asked my father this question, not long before he died. He was a comic book fan going back to his youth in the 1950s, had 2 science degrees from the school now known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and (unlike myself, to whom he never seemed to be able to pass on this part of his knowledge) was a decent chess player.

Dad reminded me of Superman's Sun-aided brain, and his super-speed. He said that Batman would be ready to pull all kinds of maneuvers, except that, in the time it took Batman to set up the board, Superman could have read a dozen books on chess strategy, and would know every move that Batman could make.

It's no contest. And even if Batman were smarter than Superman, which he isn't, he still wouldn't win a fight. A big part of Batman's schtick is sneaking up on his opponents. You can't sneak up on someone with super-speed. Or super-hearing, for that matter. And Batman's martial arts expertise is useless against Superman's quickness, and his invulnerability.

Trying to attack Superman from a distance wouldn't help. What's Batman going to do, throw a Batarang at Superman? His speed would allow him to see it, and, whether laced with Kryptonite or anything else, he'd use his heat vision to melt it, or his super breath to freeze it.

And let's be very clear about this: Kryptonite is not an ace in the hole. Superman sometimes faces a guy named Kryptonite Man, and another guy named Metallo, who has a human brain but a robot body powered by Kryptonite. Superman fights these guys, and he still finds a way to win.

And Kryptonite doesn't kill a Kryptonian instantly. It hurts him. It weakens him. But even if Superman had just 1 percent of his strength left, in spite of the pain he would be in, he would still be far stronger than an average human, and Batman would still be pathetically overmatched.

So any Kryptonite that Batman might have only has the power that the writers give it, so it's not a guaranteed knockout. The "ace" can be a higher card than a king, but it could be no better than a one, like every other attack Batman could use.

DKR has been adapted for an animated film. Elements of it were used for the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises (although no other superhero appeared in it), the 2016 film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and The CW's TV adaptation of Crisis On Infinite Earths, showing an alternate Earth where Batman took it one step further, and killed Superman, using the "badge or a flag" line to explain it to Supergirl and Batwoman.

*

December 1, 1986 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. There were no NBA games played that day. Two games were played in the NHL, both in Quebec. The Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum. Alan Haworth scored the winning goal, 1:48 into overtime. And the Quebec Nordiques beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Also in football, DeSean Jackson was born on this day.

November 18, 1992: The (Temporary) Death of Superman

November 18, 1992: DC Comics publishes Superman #75, titled "The Death of Superman." It was a desperate measure to sell more comic books, and it worked: It remains the biggest-selling single issue in comics history.

For the story, a new character was created. This was a creature from ancient times on Superman's home planet of Krypton, who had somehow come to Earth, and had begun wrecking towns across the Midwest, and moves east toward Metropolis. The Justice League -- without Superman -- collectively takes him on, and he knocks them all out.

That catches Superman's attention, and he tries to stop the creature, whom the media had dubbed "Doomsday." There was a final battle between them at the foot of the Daily Planet Building, where Superman, in his civilian identity of Clark Kent, worked. They beat each other senseless and bloody, their respective Kryptonian strengths overwhelming their respective Kryptonian invulnerabilities, until, at last, each lands a blow to the other's head, and they drop dead. Superman dies in the arms of Lois Lane.

Within the DC Universe, everyone mourns. Dignitaries from all over Earth attend his funeral. So do the Green Lantern Corps. So do representatives of many planets whose people Superman had saved. Apparently, despite the release date, his death took place after the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993, because he and First Lady Hillary Clinton were both depicted as speaking at the funeral, rather than the lame-duck President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara. But it must still have been in Winter, because snow was falling.

Of course, no one in the real world believed that DC would let Superman stay dead. After all, there had been Jesus and resurrection metaphors for the character before. And plenty of comic book characters, good and evil alike, had been presumed dead, only to return in one form or another.

Sure enough, after a Reign of the Supermen storyline featuring 4 imposters -- one of which became the superhero Steel and another the Teen Titans member Superboy -- Clark's Earth father, Jonathan Kent, had a heart attack, and met Clark in the afterlife, and they convinced each other to come back.

In The Adventures of Superman #505, published in October 1993 -- coinciding with the premiere of the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman -- it was confirmed that Superman was alive and back.

Of course, Doomsday didn't stay dead, either. And the story has been adapted, in animated form, in the 2016 film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and alluded to in the 2019 CW Arrowverse production of Crisis On Infinite Earths. (UPDATE: In 2024, it was adapted in the 2024 CW Arrowverse show Superman and Lois.)

*

November 18, 1992 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the NBC sitcom Seinfeld aired its most famous (or infamous) episode, "The Contest." I have a separate entry for this event. The fact that Jerry Seinfeld is a major Superman fan, with a Superman magnet visible on his refrigerator and other memorabilia in his apartment, makes it even weirder.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. But there were 3 games played in the NBA. The Orlando Magic beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-110 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Utah Jazz beat the Boston Celtics, 92-91 at the Boston Garden. The Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 127-111 at the new AmericaWest Arena. (It's now named the Mortgage Matchup Center.)

There were 4 games played in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Valeri Zelepukin, Tom Chorske and Alexander Semak scored the goals for New Jersey.

The Minnesota North Stars beat the Washington Capitals, 5-4 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Hartford Whalers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Hartford Civic Center. (It's now named the PeoplesBank Arena.) The Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

None of these games held a moment of silence in memory of Superman before they started.

October 10, 2004: The Death of Christopher Reeve

October 10, 2004: Actor Christopher Reeve dies, from complications from his 1995 horseback-riding accident and subsequent paralysis. He was 52.

He was born on September 25, 1952 in Manhattan, and grew up in nearby Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. He had the same birthday as another movie hero of my youth, born 1 year to the day after Mark Hamill, Star Wars' Luke Skywalker. Although born in a town with an Ivy League school, he attended a different one, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He attended the Julliard School for the performing arts, where he became a close friend of comedian Robin Williams.

After debuting on Broadway in 1976, his acting ability, his lack of reception for it, and his physicality made him ideal for director Richard Donner to cast him in Superman: The Movie, which premiered in 1978. He was the first live-action Superman that most people had seen other than George Reeves in the 1952-58 TV series The Adventures of Superman, which was still seen in reruns. But this movie's special effects -- the tagline was, "You'll believe a man can fly" -- made the earlier show's effects look ridiculous. (Of course, new advances in special effects are frequent, so even the Reeve films look not quite right now.)

Superman II came out in 1981, and was also a smash. Superman III came in 1983, and the intentional attempt at comedy fell flat, except for a scene where improperly-synthesized Kryptonite -- perhaps a nod to the comics' Red Kryptonite -- let Superman's dark side out, climaxing in a scene where Reeve had to play both Superman and Clark Kent, representing the light side of the character, trying to steer him back, and ultimately winning.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace came in 1987, and was a great idea, ridiculously executed. Reeve wouldn't do a Superman V after that. Which was too bad, because Batman, with Michael Keaton, was released in 1989, with a sequel, Batman Returns, in 1992; and CBS aired The Flash, starring John Wesley Shipp, in the 1990-91 season. With Lynda Carter still young enough to have played Wonder Woman, we could have gotten a Justice League movie during the George H.W. Bush Administration, maybe in the 1st Bill Clinton term. (We didn't get one with Reeve, Carter, and the Batman and Robin of 1960s TV, Adam West and Burt Ward, either.)

In 1993, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman premiered on ABC. Dean Cain was cast as Superman, and Reeve never appeared in the series. Cain had a very tough act to follow, but did well in the role.

Reeve didn't want to be typecast, so, aside from Superman, he chose non-action roles, including the mystery Deathtrap and the time-travel story Time After Time.

He also participated in equestrian competitions, and was in one in Culpeper, Virginia, about 80 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., on May 27, 1995, when he was thrown from his horse. His landing broke his neck, paralyzing him from the shoulders down. For the rest of his life, he had to use a ventilator, and a wheelchair he operated by blowing into a tube.

It didn't stop him from raising money for spinal cord research, in the hopes of helping millions like him live better lives. Even as a quadriplegic, he was a hero. It didn't stop him from acting, either: He starred in a remake of Rear Window, the Alfred Hitchcock film starring James Stewart as a man with a broken leg who sees a murder from his wheelchair; and appeared in a supporting role in Smallville, The WB's 2000s re-imagining of the Superman mythos.

On June 29, 2002, I was at Yankee Stadium for one of the Yankee-Met Interleague games, and waited for the players to arrive, when a van pulled up at the media entrance. Suddenly, somebody yelled out, "It's Superman! It's Superman!" Not seeing Derek Jeter anywhere, I became confused. Then I stood on my toes and saw… Chris Reeve, in his motorized wheelchair, having been lowered out of his handicap-access van.

He was completely bald, due to alopecia, which I didn't know he had until doing the research for this post. I thought he'd had his head shaven to alleviate what the headpiece of his chair was doing to his hair. I hate to say this, but he looked more like Superman's arch-enemy Lex Luthor than the Man of Steel himself.

But, even though he couldn't turn his head to see us, and had to work hard just to breathe air into the tube that operated the chair, he still had more charisma than most of us will ever have. And, apparently, he was a Yankee Fan. Well, of course: He knew heroes when he saw them. (The Yankees could have used a hero that day: The Mets beat them 11-2.)

It had been 15 years since he last put on the Superman costume for a movie (and 23 years since he did so for a good one), but, to those of us who were kids when he made those movies, he will forever be Superman – with all due respect to Bud Collyer, Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin.

His death is believed to have been caused by an adverse reaction to a drug he was prescribed. In the days after Reeve's death, a cartoon would appear in the New York Daily News, showing an empty wheelchair, and Superman flying away from it.

On March 6, 2006, his wife Dana Reeve died from breast cancer. Later that year, the film Superman Returns was dedicated to both their memories. They were survived by 2 sons and a daughter.

*

October 10, 2004 was a Sunday. Also dying on this day was former major league 3rd baseman Ken Caminiti, of a drug overdose, after injuries (related to his steroid use) had ended his career in 2001. The 1996 National League Most Valuable Player, a 3-time All-Star who hit 239 home runs, was just 41.

Baseball was between rounds of the Playoffs. The NHL team owners had locked out the players, so there were no games. The NBA season didn't begin for another 23 days. But there were NFL games:

* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 26-10 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 16-14 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The Jets led 13-0 at the half, and blew the lead, but got a game-winning 38-yard field goal from Doug Brien with 58 seconds left.

* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-10 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Washington Redskins, 17-10 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Atlanta Falcons, 17-10 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the New Orleans Saints, 20-17 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Houston Texans, 34-28 at Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) in Houston. Daunte Culpepper threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Robinson with 7:05 left in overtime.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 34-23 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Oakland Athletics, 35-14 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers, 20-17 at Invesco Field (now Empower Field) at Mile High in Denver.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-21 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 31-28 at Candlestick Park (then named Monster Park) in San Francisco. Todd Peterson won it with a 32-yard field goal with 11:37 left in overtime.

* The St. Louis Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks, 33-27 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle. Marc Bulger threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Shaun McDonald with 11:58 left in overtime.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Tennessee Titans beat the Green Bay Packers, 48-27 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* And the Chicago Bears, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles each had a bye week.

September 19, 1952: "The Adventures of Superman" Premieres

September 19, 1952: The Adventures of Superman premieres in syndication. It stars George Reeves, who had previously starred in the film Superman and the Mole Men. That film was recut and used as a two-part episode of the series.

Jack Narz, later known as a game-show host, narrated the opening, which was adapted from a previous radio show about the character:

Narrator: Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Onlooker 1: Look! Up in the sky!

Onlooker 2: It's a bird!

Onlooker 3: It's a plane!

Onlooker 4: It's Superman!

Narrator: Yes, it's Superman: Strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!

Film of downtown Los Angeles was used to stand in for Superman's fictional adopted hometown of Metropolis, and L.A.'s City Hall was focused on as the home of the Daily Planet, where Clark Kent worked. According to the comic books, Clark wanted to become a journalist so that he could hear news reports of disasters as they were happening, so he could then help out as Superman.

Clark and Superman were played by George Reeves, who may be the only actor to appear in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind but is more famous for another role. In hindsight, his Clark wasn't especially "mild-mannered." If, like the characters, the viewer didn't know he was also Superman, he would appear to be a believable big-city reporter.

At first, Lois Lane, fellow reporter who loved Superman but thought considerably more of Clark as a reporter than she thought of him as a man, though sometimes suspecting his dual identity, was played by Phyllis Coates. But Coates was so heavily in demand as an actress that she was unavailable for the 2nd season, and Noel Neill, who had played Lois in the 1948 and 1950 film serials with Kirk Alyn as Clark/Superman, stepped back into the role.

Jack Larson played young photographer Jimmy Olsen. John Hamilton played Perry White, publisher and editor of the Daily Planet, using all of Perry's attributes from the comics: His gruff demeanor, balanced by his willingness to stand by his reporters no matter what, his cigar-smoking, his devotion to Metropolis (in this TV version, he was said to have once been the city's Mayor), and his angry retort, "Don't call me chief!" Robert Shayne played a character created for the series, Police Inspector Bill Henderson, an ally of the Planet, and thus also of Superman.

Because TV budgets were low, especially then, there were no appearances by the traditional supervillain opponents of Superman: No Lex Luthor, no Brainiac, no Mr. Mxyzptlk. Even less-dangerous foes like the Prankster and the Toyman couldn't be shown, because their gadgets would have cost too much to build and have their use staged for the cameras.

So, for the most part, this version of Superman mainly fought gangsters. Eventually, some of the stories, involving threats from space, got a little silly. But most of the stories have Superman himself as the only fantasy-based thing, and, even after 70 years, they hold up -- better than the budget-restricted special effects do. (Like a lot of shows, even up to the 1970s, they relied heavily on stock footage, to the point where, if Superman was flying from left to right on the screen, instead of his usual right to left, the image was simply reversed, so that his S crest looks backwards, like the one worn by the comic book character Bizarro.)

One thing I never got over: A gunman would fire all six shots at Superman, knowing that the first shot just bounced off him, and then throw the gun at him -- and Superman would duck! If the bullets didn't hurt him, why would the gun? Because Reeves wasn't invulnerable: Unlike the bullets, which weren't actually hitting him, the thrown gun would have, and would have hurt him more than the breakaway chairs that he was sometimes hit with.

In 1955, the show began to be filmed in color, because the producers figured it would be easier to sell once color TV sets became common. They weren’t wrong, they were just premature: Eventually, being in color is what saved the show in reruns.

 

The show ran until 1958. Shortly thereafter, Hamilton died. There was talk of doing another season in 1959, with the White role recast, but the mysterious death of Reeves put a stop to that: Unlike any of the other actors, he was irreplaceable. Shayne died in 1992, Larson in 2015, Neill in 2016. Coates is the last surviving castmember.

There would not be another live-action Superman until the ridiculous 1975 TV broadcast of the 1966 Broadway musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman. Then came the Christopher Reeve movies from 1978 to 1987. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman ran from 1993 to 1997; Smallville on The WB and its replacement network The CW from 2001 to 2011; and Superman & Lois has been running on The CW since 2021.

*

September 19, 1952 was a Friday. This was also the day the New York Post published an article with the headline, "Secret Nixon Fund!" Senator Richard Nixon of California, the Republican nominee for Vice President, would have to address this, and did so 4 days later, in what became known as "The Checkers Speech."

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Philadelphia Athletics, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium. Bobby Shantz outpitched Vic Raschi, allowing only 4 hits, all singles: To Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer and Billy Martin. He advanced to 24-7 on the season, for a 4th place team, and won the American League's Most Valuable Player award. Dave Philley, who was playing for this Philly team and would eventually go on to play for the Philadelphia Phillies, drove in both A's runs with a triple in the 3rd inning.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Del Ennis singled home Richie Ashburn in the 1st inning, and that was the only run of the game. Curt Simmons allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. Willie Mays was serving in the Korean War, and not available for the Giants.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Braves, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston. Jackie Robinson went 0-for-1 with 3 walks, and was actually picked off 1st base by Braves pitcher Max Surkont. Preacher Roe started for the Dodgers, but Jim Hughes ended up as the winning pitcher for him.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Griffth Stadium in Washington. Ted Williams was serving in the Korean War, and not available for the Red Sox.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Larry Doby hit a home run in support of Early Wynn.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Stan Musial went 1-for-4 with an RBI triple. 

* And the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Browns were not scheduled.

One note about sports and comic books: Over the years, various writers have given different names to the fictional cities' sports teams. In Superman stories, Metropolis' baseball teams have been the Meteors and the Monarchs. In the 2006 film Superman Returns, a baseball game is shown, but the teams are not identified: One team wears black and orange and has an R on their caps; while the other wears white with blue trim, and I can't make out the logos on their caps or jerseys, but, since they are wearing white, we can presume that they're Metropolis' home team.

In Batman stories, Gotham City's baseball team has been the Goliaths and the Knights in the comic books, and the Eagles in the 1966-68 TV series. As with Superman Returns, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles stood in for the home team's ballpark.

In either case, it's possible, given how big these cities are supposed to be, that they each have a team in the American League and a team in the National League, like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area do; and Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis used to.

In The CW's Arrowverse, Metropolis has the Monarchs, while the Flash's hometown has the Central City Diamonds. In Arrow, Star City's team was the Sentinels. 

In football, Superman comics have shown Metropolis with the Meteors and the Metros, while the TV series Smallville called the team the Sharks, and the Arrowverse series Supergirl calls them the Metros. Supergirl also had the National City Sharks, possibly as a nod toward Smallville. Batman comics have shown Gotham City with the Giants, the Knights, the Goliaths and the Wildcats; while the film The Dark Knight Rises called their team the Rogues. The Arrowverse series Batwoman also used Goliaths. The Flash used the Central City Sharks -- meaning that, in the Arrowverse, both National City and Central City have pro football teams named the Sharks.

In basketball, the comics had the Metropolis Generals, the Gotham Guardsmen; while the 1966 TV show had the Gotham Gators. As yet, no basketball team has been mentioned in the Arrowverse, while the only hockey team has been the Star City Rockets.

September 12, 1993: “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” Premieres

September 12, 1993: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman premieres on ABC. It's the 1st live-action Superman series since The Adventures of Superman ended 34 years earlier, with the death of George Reeves.

Chicago stands in for Metropolis for skyline shots, as it would later do for Gotham City both in The Dark Knight Trilogy and the Arrowverse's shows Arrow and Batwoman. Dean Cain did a pretty good job as both Clark Kent and Superman, but it bothered me that Clark had the curl and Superman didn't. Sadly, like that other great TV strongman of the 1990s, Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, Cain took a turn to the hard right. Teri Hatcher played the foxiest Lois Lane of all time.

Lane Smith played Perry White, publisher of the Daily Planet, but left his native Southern accent in place. Instead of Metropolis, or Chicago as in some versions, this version of Perry started in Arkansas. And so, instead of Perry's traditional exclamation of, "Great Caesar's ghost!" he yells, "Great shades of Elvis!" He does still say, "Don't call me 'Chief!'"

Michael Landes played Jimmy Olsen, but fans thought he looked too old for the part (usually depicted as a teenager) and too much like Cain, so after 1 season, he was replaced by Justin Whalin. Tracy Scoggins played Cat Grant, but also left after 1 season.

Three different actors played Inspector Bill Henderson, a character created for the George Reeves series and later included in the comics, including Richard Belzer, presaging his later role as Detective John Munch in Dick Wolf's shared law-enforcement universe. Singer-turned-actor-turned politician Sonny Bono, by this point the real-life Mayor of Palm Springs, California, appeared in 1 episode as Metropolis' Mayor Frank Berkowitz, a character that had been created for the comic books a few years earlier.

John Shea argued that his version of Lex Luthor shouldn't be bald. He said that if this really is one of the richest men in the world, then he can afford the best hairpiece in the world. Of course, this Luthor was supposedly based on Donald Trump, who has some of the worst hair you'll ever see on a rich guy.

Aside from Luthor, villains from the comics were few and far between: Even in the 1990s, technology and TV budgets didn't allow for the necessarily elaborate special effects. There was no Bizarro, no Brainiac, no Parasite, no Terra-Man. Scott Valentine made one appearance as Metallo, the man with the Kryptonite-powered heart. Bronson Pinchot of Perfect Strangers fame made one appearance as The Prankster, although he looked nothing like the comics' version.

Sherman Hemlsey made one appearance as the Toyman in a Christmas-themed episode, also not looking like the comics' version. His version was a wronged man who was trying to make a point, rather than an out-and-out villain, and by the end of the episode, even found love, his new girlfriend played by Hemsley's Jeffersons co-star, Isabel Sanford.

Lane Davies played Tempus, a villain from the future who traveled back in time to prevent the utopia that Superman's presence on Earth supposedly leads to. In 2 episodes, he was opposed by H.G. Wells and his literary time machine, played first by Terry Kiser as coming from 1899, then by Hamilton Camp as coming from 1916, older and more world-weary. Teri Hatcher's then-husband, Jon Tenney, played a villain named Ching in Season 3. Simon Templeman played Lord Nor, a Kryptonian villain loosely based on General Zod, in a Season 4 episode.

Just as there weren't many of the traditional Superman villains, there were no other superheroes mentioned. Gotham City and Bruce Wayne were mentioned, but Bruce did not make an appearance, either as his civilian identity or as Batman. It would take until Smallville in the next decade for Clark Kent (if not in costume as Superman) to team up with any other superhero.

Beyond treating Clark as more assertive and less "mild-mannered," the best thing the show did was follow the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths canon: Not only did it have Jonathan and Martha Kent still alive (played by Eddie Jones and Katherine "K" Callan, respectively), but it was made clear that Superman was the "mask," that he thought of his real self as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas, U.S.A., Earth, and not as Kal-El of Krypton. As Clark said when Lois discovered his dual identity, "Superman is what I can do. Clark is who I am."

It took 2 years for Lois to find out Clark's secret, and they got married early in the 4th season. Despite ABC putting it on opposite CBS' Murder, She Wrote, the show lasted 4 years, mainly because Superman's fans and Jessica Fletcher's fans didn't have a whole lot of crossover.

Unfortunately, it ended on a "permanent cliffhanger." Not an especially bad one, but an annoying one: After being told that Earth and Krypton DNA don't mix, and they can't have a baby the old-fashioned way, the last minute of the last episode showed the Kents presented with a baby in a basket, in a blanket with the House of El crest (the "Superman S") on it, and it was never explained.

Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident in 1998. Lane Smith died in 2005, Eddie Jones in 2019. As of September 12, 2022, the other actors are still alive. (UPDATE: Richard Belzer died in 2023.)

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On the same day, SeaQuest DSV premiered on NBC. DSV stood for "Deep Sumbergence Vehicle." It was set 25 years in the future: 2018. Starring as Captain Nathan Bridger was Roy Scheider. The easy joke was that the man who played Chief Martin Brody in Jaws finally found a bigger boat.

Despite being reminiscent of the 1960s show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (set in 1983), and having beautiful women like Stephanie Beacham and Stacey Haiduk as the ship's doctor and chief engineer, respectively -- and, oh yeah, a talking dolphin named Lieutenant Darwin (filling in as their "Spock" or "Data") -- the show didn't do well, mainly because NBC put it on opposite Murder, She Wrote and Lois & Clark. Good thing for sci-fi and superhero fans like my father and me that the VCR had been invented.

For the 2nd season, NBC moved production from Los Angeles to Orlando. This angered some of the cast, including Beacham and Hajduk, who did not return. It required almost a complete overhaul of the show, and it sank. It should never have been put on Sunday night.

Jonathan Brandis, as the ship's whiz kid (its "Wesley Crusher"), wore a Florida Marlins jersey that called them 2010 World Champions. They did go on to win 2 World Series in the interim, in 1997 and 2003, but the San Francisco Giants won in 2010. Another crewmember wore a T-shirt proclaiming Florida State college football's 2009 National Champions. FSU have since won 3 National Championships, including in that 1993 season, but it was the University of Alabama who won it in the 2009 season.

*

September 12, 1993 was a Sunday. Country singer Kelsea Ballerini was born.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Kansas City Royals, 10-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Tom Gordon, later to become one of the game's top relievers, pitching a complete-game victory, while Yankee starter Mark Hutton didn't get out of the 5th inning. George Brett, in his last few weeks as an active player, went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. For the Yankees, Paul O'Neill and Jim Leyritz hit home runs, and Don Mattingly went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Shea Stadium. Sid Fernandez pitched a 4-hit shutout. Eddie Murray went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 14-5 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken, Harold Baines, Mike Devereaux, and former Yankee 3rd baseman Mike Pagliarulo hit home runs for the O's. Troy Neel, Kurt Abbott and future Yankee 3rd baseman Scott Brosius hit them for the A's.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the California Angels, 4-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar hit home runs for the Jays. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-4. Future Yankee Chad Curtis homered for the Halos.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Another former Yankee 3rd baseman, Mike Blowers, scored the winning run in the top of the 10th when Omar Vizquel, one of the best-fielding shortstops ever, hit a ground ball to his opposite number, Pat Listach, the previous season's American League Rookie of the Year, who bobbled it. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4 with a walk. Robin Yount in his last few weeks as an active player, went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 4-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Nolan Ryan, 46 years old, started and took the loss. He made 2 more appearances, got hurt, and retired.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pedro Astacio pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Pat Rapp. The only run came in the 6th, when Cory Snyder singled Dave Hansen home.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 1-for-4.

And these NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 23-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-14 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Detroit Lions beat the New England Patriots, 19-16 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Phoenix Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 17-10 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The New Orleans Saints beat their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, 34-31 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 9-6 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-17 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 10-7 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Dallas Cowboys, 13-10 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 30-0 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 34-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Seattle Seahawks, 17-13 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

 

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Cleveland Browns beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-13 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.