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I have never enjoyed any collection of video's as much as these they are all enjoyable and I can not wait until the next one. I will collect all seasons available.
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The second season was action packed than the first! I remember one of my favorite Superman lines in this DVD collection, "Did You Say Kryptonite"?
I spent a whole weekend watching these action packed episodes of years gone by! Great entertainment for young and old! Glad to have this in my DVD collection!!
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Then buys this before you regret not getting it. Just cause the markets flooded with copies doesn't mean it wont disappear,before you had a chance to reconsider.
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The product consists of five discs inserted into five plastic snap-in holders, where the holders are in a cardboard fold-out box. The holders have an attractive, recessed format, and the plastic is sturdy (not cheap flexible plastic). There are 26 episodes altogether. Each disc is embossed by color printing reading SUPERMAN, and each disc is also imprinted with a black and white photo of one of the five main characters (Superman, Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Perry White). Inside the fold-out box, the name of each story is accompanied by an image, a photograph, from that story, as a reminder of the respective plot. From the packaging alone, one can see that this is an elegant production.
The clarity of each of the episodes is quite good. There very few streaks, scratches, or spots, in the video. The sound is excellent. There are no buzzing noises, as can be found, for example, in the Don Ameche version of Alexander Graham Bell's autobiography, and in other older films.
All of the episodes are entertaining, and nearly all have the same thematic elements. There is always some sort of DANGER, there is some FIST-FIGHTING, most of the time is spent with Clark while less of the time is spent with Superman, and there is always some humor. The humor generally revolves around Lois' attempts to guess Superman's identity, but also there is always some attempt at a humorous CORNY CLOSING LINE.
One excellent surprise is the appearance of Sterling Holloway in the story, THE MACHINE THAT COULD PLOT CRIMES. As we know, Sterling Holloway was the voice of the stork in Dumbo, the voice of Kaa the snake in Jungle Book, and the voice of Winnie the Pooh. THE MACHINE THAT COULD PLOT CRIMES is one of the better plots in this particular compilation. Part of the entertainment derives from the total implausabilty that a machine could plan a crime, and from the fact that all the characters take the machine seriously.
Another amazing surprise is the appearance of Hugh Beaumont in the story, THE BIG SQUEEZE. As all Americans know, Hugh Beaumont is Jerry Mathers' father, in Leave it to Beaver. In THE BIG SQUEEZE, Hugh Beaumont plays a little boy's father, but there is a twist. In THE BIG SQUEEZE, Hugh Beaumont plays an ex-convict who is falsely accused of stealing furs. Faced with the prospect of dying in the locked fur storage vault, Hugh Beaumont adds a touch of humor by asking, in effect, "Should I die while lying on one of the ermine or mink furs?"
THE MAN WITH THE LEAD MASK has a clever plot. A thug gets plastic surgery on his face, and has his fingerprints surgically altered, in order to prevent his detection. The thug is on the most wanted list. But the thug overlooks the fact that he still has his old mannerisms. While sitting in a cafe at lunch, Clark Kent notices the thug, because of his mannerisms, and devises a clever trick to get his fingerprints. But, as the plot unfolds, what actually was the case was that the "thug" was an imposter, where his appearance had been intended to throw everybody off track as to the existance of the real thug (in short, the imposter had been trained to adopt the real thug's mannerisms).
FIVE MINUTES TO DOOM contains a clever nuance. An engineering company decides to use sub-standard steel for one of its projects, in violation of government violations. An inspector, a lowly government employee, hot on the trail of documenting the sub-standard steel, is falsely accused of murder, and he is sent to death row. The Daily Planet gets into the action. Lois Lane invites herself into the office of the president of the engineering company, and is shown the "smoking gun" project report, but the president grabs the report, tears it up, and tosses it into the trash. Then comes the clever nuance--clever, but as usual, totally implausable and silly. Jimmy Olsen poses as a vacuum cleaner salesman also invites himself into the office, tips over the trash can, sucks up the torn-up report, and in this way acquires the smoking gun and saves the accused inspector.
Please don't expect any "must see" episodes in the Superman series. The writing found in the script is, to the large part, appropriate for what it sets out to do, that is, to set forth corny adventures with thugs acting like dumb buffoons. The most buffoonish of thugs are found in the episode, JIMMY OLSON BOY EDITOR, where sleeping gas enters a room from a ventilator, causing three thugs to fall asleep, and where one by one each lambishly falls asleep upon the other, in the manner of a chain of sleeping thugs.
Superman is no Twilight Zone. While some of the Superman episodes show some signs of intelligence, in the spoken narrative or general plot, many of the Twilight Zone episodes are clever where the writing is far beyond the powers and abilities of mortal men.
For example, one can cite the sci-fi or "future shock" stories TO SERVE MAN or STEEL with Lee Marvin, the milquetoast character stories (MR.DINGLE THE STRONG; TIME ENOUGH TO LAST with Burgess Meredith, THE MIND AND THE MATTER with Shelley Berman), and the psycho-dramas (NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET with William Shatner, or NICK OF TIME also with William Shatner; THE FEVER (gambling machine); and LIVING DOLL with Telly Savalas), or the charming nostalgia-dramas of KICK THE CAN or WALKING DISTANCE. Unfortunately, not one single Superman episode has the remotest chance, or the inkling of a possiblity, of matching these particular Twilight Zone episodes, in terms of script-writing or novelty in the plot.
As is the case with Twilight Zone episodes, the Superman series makes for fine family entertainment. The Twilight Zone episodes and Superman stories have at least one thing in common--there is no smooching, no foul language, and no salacious overtones.
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i am so glad i am able to collect this great TV series, for those who love Superman, this is a good way to start collecting. Go for it
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