Aventures of Superman The Dog Who Knew Superman Television 

Five Thoughts on Adventures of Superman‘s “The Dog Who Knew Superman” and “The Face and the Voice”

By | June 29th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

There is a really weird thing happening in Adventures of Superman this season. Let’s dig right into it.

1. A theme of this season

Four of the ten first episodes of this season deal directly with people either thinking that Clark is Superman, or with Clark trying to prevent people from finding out about his identity. Now, obviously, there are reasons why he wants to keep his identity secret. I completely understand that part; what I don’t understand is…well, there are a few things.

– I don’t get how people don’t start getting suspicious when the same people, over and over, suspect Clark of being Superman. Lois and Jimmy are always on this tip, and yet, at the end of each episode, they get Men in Black‘d and forget it was ever a thing. You’d think their long-term memory would kick in at some point.

– Why does Clark keep putting himself into these situations? It seems like, with his powers, there are a dozen ways he could avoid all of this.

– Why is Superman’s identity supposed to help all these crooks? Sure, if they know who he is they can expose his identity, but that just means that a) you’re pissing off Superman by threatening to hurt someone he cares about and b) he’ll stop pretending to be Clark Kent, but will just now be a pissed off Superman.

All of this is to say that both of these episodes deal with this exact situation. In “The Dog Who Knew Superman,” my vote for the best title of this series thus far, Superman saves a dog from a well, and the dog gets attached to him. Because of a dropped glove and some serious leaps of logic, the gangster whose wife owns the dog figures out that he can find out who Superman is due to the dog’s love for him.

In “The Face and the Voice” at least there is some logic to the scheme: by making a gangster look and sound like Superman, they can get away with more crime. This makes total crook sense, but Clark seems more concerned about proving his innocence rather than stopping crime.

2. A secondary theme

Incredibly dumb gangsters are another leitmotif of this season, with these episodes featuring possibly the dimmest of the bulbs we’ve encountered thus far. In “Dog,” there’s Louie, a gangster who seemingly spent a few hours sitting in a chair playing with a yo-yo while his boss went off looking for a dog. And then in “Face and Voice,” we meet the amazingly named Boulder and Stinky. We’ll talk about Boulder more later, but Stinky is never once really identified as an olfactory insult, so maybe the name is just short for Stinkfort or whatever.

3. Superman just straight up ruined a family’s life

The inciting event for “Dog” is that the titular canine, Corky, gets stuck in a well, and requires Superman to save him. This well is seemingly in the middle of a rural area (one that Clark just so happens to be driving through), and the locals are trying to get Corky out, without success. When Clark sees this, he darts away to transform into Supes, and returns to save Corky.

But it isn’t that simple.

Because instead of just climbing down the well and getting Corky, Superman flies into the ground at an angle and, seemingly, breaks through the wall of the well to get Corky. Now, I know what you’re thinking: maybe he couldn’t fit in the well? Nope! He eventually climbs up with Corky in tow.

So, to recap, Superman destroys a family’s well to save a dog, when he could’ve just climbed down it. Right.

4. Perry is a poor record collector

In “Face and Voice,” a goon is given plastic surgery and voice lessons to look and sound like Superman. Stinky, the aforementioned gangster, has to steal a vinyl record with Superman’s July 4th speech on it. At first, I was surprised that this was the only way to get Superman’s voice to study, but then I remembered that this show was filmed in 1953, and so there would be limited recordings of Superman, and even fewer ones that would be easily obtained by just anyone to view/listen to at home.

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Of course, that doesn’t explain why Perry White has the seemingly only copy of this speech, or why he keeps it, outside of a slipcase or anything, in a random desk drawer. Perry, you’ve got to care for your belongings!

5. A very weird casting choice

So Boulder, the crook who is given plastic surgery to look like Superman, is played pre-surgery by George Reeves. This is done by slapping some Silly Puddy on his nose, and flattening it out. It’s the worst makeup you can imagine. I understand that, by doing this, you can just have Reeves do the same voice in and out of makeup. But, the show already overdubs sound effects. It already pipes in music. Why not have a totally different actor play the part, and then just have Reeves dub in the dialogue? Or have Reeves mouth his dialogue later, and let the goon actor speak the lines.

Adding to that, it’s never even stated that Boulder sort of looks like Superman with a fucked up nose. He’s treated as if he looks nothing like him. Hell, they don’t say “give him a nose job,” they give him such intense surgery that he’s wrapped up like the Invisible Man. It’s goofy, though Reeves clearly has a lot of fun playing against type and talking like a dummy.


//TAGS | 2019 Summer TV Binge | Adventures of Superman

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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