Saturday Night Showcase> Superman: The Radio Drama

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What held the most influence over the path Superman would take and how we would come to know him? You’d be amazed (unless you already knew) to learn that it was the radio dramas that helped make Superman what his is today.

For you young pups, there was a time when there was no television. Outside of serials, the only non-paper form of storytelling (outside of people sitting around telling each other stories, duh) were radio shows. Yes, at one point radio stations played more than songs and phone pranks.

Tonight I bring you the first three episodes of The Adventures of Superman, the radio drama series (not to be confused with the later George Reeves TV series) that helped boost the Man of Steel’s presence in pop culture. You won’t see the big influences yet, but look at some of the changes they made.

The first three episodes are what we’re going for here. In episode one it’s all Krypton all the time, with Jor-El’s story and the launching of the rocket. This part of the story is iconic, but there are a few builds the writers added here.

In episode two, Superman arrives on Earth, and oh did this go off the rails. If you thought messing with the source material was something new to adaptations, get a load of this.

My question is that if Superman arrives as a full adult, how did he learn English, or what a “newspaper reporter” is? Well, in part 3 it’s more important that he knows what a locomotive is, and that he’s faster than it.

I’m not going to post the entire series (you can find it on CD or through the Internet Archive) and the first arc is 19 episodes long, but even here there are things of note. Early Superman comics also had Superman trying to stay out of the papers, but here he’s trying to not even be seen. Not exactly the “Blur” of Smallville, but an interesting turn. I would like to go further into the series to see if the professor and his son (the only people who even know of Superman’s existence at this point) ever return to see how the man they named is getting along.

Also on display is the early influence that actor Bud Collyer brought to Superman and his alter ego. As “Clark” he alters his voice and mannerisms, something every actor playing Kal-El has to do, since contrary to the big joke (I’m surprised Jim Lee and the boys didn’t ditch that along with the classic costume), it is more than a pair of glasses and a nifty hat that separates Clark and Superman. Coyer would go on to play the role for Fleischer/Famous Studios and for Filmation. However, his identity was kept a secret during much of the show’s run, to give kids the impression that this was in fact Superman. (Despite not even using the original orphanage upbringing, never mind the Kent family. I guess they wanted to speed things along.)

To give Collyer time off (since any of the other supporting cast could easily visit relatives or be off on a “hot scoop”), the writers invented Kryptonite, a substance that weakened Superman and took him and Clark out of action for a story or two. (No clue if they had heard about the mysterious rocks from Krypton in the unpublished Superman comic.) There were no reruns back then, and there was a new episode every week. If Metropolis needed a superhero, Batman and Robin would step in. In fact the radio drama is the first true meeting of the future “World’s Finest” team.

The radio plays would also introduce Inspector Henderson, who was a prominent character in the later TV series although he doesn’t show up a lot in the comics (pre-New 52) these days. Then you have a certain copy boy, later photographer, named Jimmy Olsen. I hear he’s a bit important to the Superman mythos. This was also the birth (although you don’t hear it here) of the famous opening that most people think started with the TV series.

Nope, predates the TV show.

While the Internet Archive is a good resource, I really want to get my hands on the CD box set. This was the first time Superman and the rest of the Daily Planet crew stepped out of the comic books and newspaper strips and any Superfan should check them out.

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• My Favorite Intros: The New Batman/Superman Adventures (bwmedia.wordpress.com)