R.I.P. Noel Neill, the original Lois Lane

Wikipedia: Noel Neill

Right now she's haranguing George Reeves somewhere up in the sky ...

One of the obvious bits of the old Superman Stuff was-well he was boring. A kind smling lump of potattos.

She wasn't. A lot of the humor and a lot of the fun of the old serials and shows was just what an entertaining spitfire Lois Lane could be. Oblivious yes, But clever. In a materials that couldn't really you know do much special effects wise other then ocasional limp flying shots or guys shooting blanks, it fell a lot on her to sell the concept that he was super-which she did, sometimes by its absence, sometimes with shock. Its a tricky job. But sometimes the more important role in something super isn't the person in the suit but theperson looking up in the sky.

castor wrote: One of the obvious bits of the old Superman Stuff was-well he was boring. A kind smling lump of potattos.

She wasn't. A lot of the humor and a lot of the fun of the old serials and shows was just what an entertaining spitfire Lois Lane could be. Oblivious yes, But clever. In a materials that couldn't really you know do much special effects wise other then ocasional limp flying shots or guys shooting blanks, it fell a lot on her to sell the concept that he was super-which she did, sometimes by its absence, sometimes with shock. Its a tricky job. But sometimes the more important role in something super isn't the person in the suit but theperson looking up in the sky.

It's really interesting (and sometimes challenging) to go back and watch the original George Reeves Superman TV show. To watch it enough to fully get all the nuances of the characters. Part of that is hard because we get blinded by the TV style of the time makes it seem as if they don't have nuances. Feels just like very bad acting at first, especially the early episodes. But if you watch several, it seeps in. At least for me, but I watched the show when it was originally on the air. My earliest brain was partially molded by that show. (Which possiblyl explains my insanity.)

George's Superman was on the opposite side of the universe as compared to Henry's.

I suppose in many ways, this is a reflection of how we think of ourselves, then versus now. One could probably write a book on that basis.

But if you look at TV shows, I think you have to compare George's Superman and Melissa's Supergirl. Production values and presentation have obviously dramatically changed, along with the low level links to a changing culture, but when it comes to the Kryptonians themselves, to their hearts, to what they represent... not so much.