The Canceled '60s Superman Spin-Off That Could Have Become A Classic

Published 1 week ago• 4 minute read

that you might wonder why there haven't been more spinoffs that focus on Superman when it comes to TV. There have been attempts: recent examples include "Supergirl" over on CBS and "Krypton" aired on SyFy about a decade ago, but one earlier live-action adaptation would have been a massive hit if it ever made it to series. "The Adventures of Superboy" was a canceled '60s Superman show that could have been a classic in the genre if it had gotten the push the show needed. Instead, it lives on as a curiosity of a bygone era of TV.

"The Adventures of Superboy" was a TV pilot produced in 1961, fresh off the heels of superhero fever and the personal blessing of DC Comics editor Whitney Ellsworth, which should have spelled success for this adaptation of the popular hero. Instead, "The Adventures of Superboy" stands as a weird appendix, in the anatomical sense, to the "Adventures of Superman" program that had so many audiences loving George Reeves after it aired. John Rockwell would play Clark Kent in his Superboy years. Yes, there is a period in the comics where our Man of Steel was more "Boy of Tomorrow." Superman's mythos is complicated, and shows like this make it easy to see why.

Interestingly enough, the popularity of "Adventures of Superman" was the primary reason that "The Adventures of Superboy" ever even got to the pilot stage, in contrast to our recent entertainment climate, where you might have that spinoff without any real Superman on-screen to anchor it. The reasoning is sound, but things still went a bit awry in that way that Hollywood can produce from time to time, and the result is "The Adventures of Superboy" being more a "Jeopardy!" question than an actual artifact.

Warner Bros. Television

Heading into "The Adventures of Superboy," the series produced a single pilot episode that's floating around disparate parts of the Internet right now, but good luck tracking down a physical copy of the standalone episode, if it even exists anymore. John Rockwell barely got to play the hero because of the canceled series order, and it's a shame because this younger Clark Kent hewed pretty close to the comics, as the pilot episode plays like a live-action adaptation of Superboy #88, where the 1961 story has the hero stopping some diamond themes with the help of some neighbors. (The show smartly decided to omit a time travel plot that would have been a large task with the special effects budget of TV at the time.)

Superman scholar and fan Anthony Desiato's work covering the pilot over at 13th Dimension reveals that "The Adventures of Superboy" likely got the axe because of sponsorship ties, which is basically the most depressing way such a promising show could bite the dust. The original "Adventures of Superman" show was sponsored by Kellogg's, and Wheaties would have been the sponsor of "The Adventures of Superboy," an encroachment that the cereal brand just couldn't have, as people still loved the original Superman show. It just goes to show that corporate meddling is the end of a lot of promising crossovers and projects when the business interests get in the way of storytelling in any time period. This problem feels very modern, but that's an example from what feels like a lifetime ago.

Superboy and Lois Lane on The Adventures of Superboy

Warner Bros. Television

The Adventures of Superboy could have been a nice introduction to the character, but we would have to wait until 1988 when John Haymes Newton would play Clark Kent on "Superboy," which you can now stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. If you're looking to revisit "The Adventures of Superboy," you're in luck, if you can find a copy of "Smallville: The Complete Series" on DVD, and godspeed on that because the resell market is likely out of hand. Superboy, as a concept, is one of those old-timey comics artifacts that sounds like it shouldn't work in the modern world, but every time he shows up, fans are waiting to greet him in cartoons, comics, or live-action.

As the superhero genre moves forward, and creatives in that space become less afraid of embracing the kookier elements of these colorful characters, it wouldn't be that strange to see Superboy and heroes like him get more prominent placement. Everybody has to start somewhere, even The Last Son of Krypton, and portrayals that zoom right in on Clark Kent's essential goodness and down-home charm are a great place for new viewers to begin. "The Adventures of Superboy" might have been the first take on those formative years for Superman, but thankfully, it doesn't seem like that show will be the last either, as the "S" symbol continues to hold potency for viewers all over the world.