Welcome to our coverage of the fifth season of Adventures of Superman. The penultimate season, like its predecessor, is just 13 episodes long, so we can knock these out in just over a month’s time. Has much changed between seasons four and five? Keep reading to find out!
1. What a weird gag
The first episode of a season is typically a time when a show attracts new viewers, and so often times acts as a sort of faux-pilot, catching viewers up on the world of the series. Well, at least that’s how it has been done since I started watching TV, but back in the 50s, that apparently wasn’t a thing. “Peril in Paris” brings half of its regular cast “to Paris” for an adventure in jewel thievery, but does so with a twist to one of the major characters.
For you see, the episode features Inspector Launay, one of the top policemen in Paris. This character is played by Robert Shayne, who plays Inspector Henderson on the show each week, and is thought to be Inspector Henderson in disguise by Jimmy and Clark. This is a gag that goes nowhere, as there isn’t a payoff of any kind, aside from them being lookalikes. Was it as simple as they didn’t want to pay a new actor, so just had Shayne put on a mustache and adopt a weird French/Italian combo accent? Or did Shayne really want to wear false facial hair? I can’t figure it out, but I guess it is fine?
2. Shiny and new
This episode features some of the best camera work we’ve seen in four + seasons, and is indicative of just how much the show improved, visually, between the fourth and fifth seasons. We get a new, animated effect for bullets bouncing off of Superman’s chest, there’s a fun filter put on the screen for when a bomb explodes, and the framing of the scenes is a little more inventive. It doesn’t appear that these are flourishes by a new director, as George Blair had directed multiple episodes before this. It’s also nice to see the show attempting to improve its visuals, as the series has been lackluster in that department over time.
Side note: is it coincidence that Superman’s costume appears to have multiple stains this week, or is that a product of better filming techniques?
3. Jimmy the liar
In both “Peril in Paris” and “Tin Hero,” Jimmy Olsen is called upon to lie in order to push a scheme forward. Jimmy is the world’s worst liar, but that doesn’t stop literally everyone on the show from asking him to lie for them at some point. in “Tin Hero,” this leads to literally the funniest moment in the series thus far. Jimmy is pretending to be Frank Smullins (more on him in a minute), and so when he shows up at Smullins’s girlfriend’s house and is revealed to not be Smullins, he claims he’s there conducting a survey. He is clearly lying and scared, and he asks the hoods if they prefer a woman’s hair long or short, and the dumber of the two says “Well it depends. On some women…” The way that line is delivered, with total belief in the question asker, is really, really funny. I can’t believe how funny it was, actually. It seems to be lifted from a totally different series.
4. Perry White, piece of shit
In “Tin Hero,” Perry complains about the following:
– the lack of headline worthy news stories
– the lack of hustle his reporters give in getting headlines, despite them being praised by him mere seconds earlier for helping to stop a lot of Metropolis’s crime
– the very concept of him admitting a mistake
– the temerity of Clark Kent to attempt to solve an actual mystery
– the extent to which someone is thankful for something nice he’s done
I know that this series works hard to make Perry the authoritarian figure for the office, but there is often not much for him to be mad about, so he has to invent things to be mad about. This episode is the epitome of that, and really strains credulity at times.
5. A guy with a great hunch and no balls
So “Tin Hero” centers around Frank Smullins, a doofus who walks around doing cat’s cradles with his hands who accidentally nabs a criminal. He’s shown, multiple times, to have a ‘sixth sense’ about being where crime happens. This is never really explained, except that he knows exactly where to go to stop a crime. But once crime happens, he’s a giant baby and passes out. But, because of people around him either seeing things differently or trying to help him, he becomes a minor celebrity and becomes a crime reporter for The Daily Planet. It’s one of the more comedic performances on the show, and while it’s not great, it adds a layer of fun to what is a relatively dull episode.
