The Adventures Of Superman

Not going to lie, I'd been in somewhat of a depressive funk over the last few weeks. Probably from lack of sleep but just being in my head too much lately regarding life and where I'm going in it. Stuff ranging from should I go back to school and actually learn something for a career (rather than have a degree for what is a glorified hobby at this point) or should I pack up and leave for newer vistas and surroundings and just start all over again. 

That said, this was a simple idea a friend gave me as a suggestion since they know how much I like the classic superhero TV shows. The 1950s Superman TV show starring George Reeves used to come on way early on weekends when I was a kid, right around the hour when Nick At Nite was just about ending and rolling over into Nickelodeon's regular programming. And getting up that early, I got a chance to watch that show and be immersed in the experience. The show never had the biggest of budgets--the effect of simulating George Reeves flying is flimsy and laughable when compared to today's big CGI epics--and the acting was nearly straight out of the Columbia/RKO/Monogram mold of B-movie serials, but there was a fun playfulness that played true to the character. Although the tone was inconsistent in how Superman was depicted (early episodes treated him as an urban legend, a myth, similar to how he was in the earliest Siegel and Shuster comics while later episodes were more up to date with the comics of that time in having him be a known threat to the criminal threat), but its Reeves who steals the show, giving his Clark Kent the same sort of commanding presence that he brought to Superman. Its also where Jimmy Olsen, long a supporting player in the comics, was finally given some elevation thanks to Jack Larson's ebuillient acting (so much so that Jimmy was given a bigger role to play in the comics, and remains a substantial element of Superman's cast to this very day). And while Phyllis Coates may have been the first in the part, its the film serial Lois Lane Noell Neil who helped define the role for that generation, keeping her Lois tough but still well within the Lois of the comics as a heroine in need of rescue (controversial in these times, but that's just how she was back then).

The hardest part of this picture was the post-processing, in getting the right hues to match what everything would have looked like on those 1950s TV screens, including the Reeves costume (a switch to color for the third season saw Reeves in the usual blue and red, but the actual one for the black and white screens was far more muted and more brown than anything).

There's a hopeful, uplifting aside to this picture that fills me with the courage to keep going. I didn't realize it til after I'd finished that as tough as things get, they eventually get better. I just have to believe and find that inner strength against whatever is my kryptonite at the moment.

Much like Superman.