Smallville

[watervole]

 I'm currently rewatching the first season of Smallville.

One of the reasons I like Smallville, is the characters of Jonathan and Martha Kent.

 

It's extremely rare on TV to see a happily married middle-aged couple. Not only are they happily married, they're not just wallpaper, there are important characters. We see their marriage portrayed as strong, caring, loving, and that relationship being part of the bedrock that makes Clark what he is.

 

The writers never make the mistake (or at least not in any episode I've seen) of trying to make drama by weakening that relationship. The Kents don't have affairs, they don't have big blowup arguments, they don't do any of the things that married couples in TV dramas so frequently suffer from.

 

They don't even have the film star good looks of most of the cast. They are normal people, and normality in Smallville is a quality greatly to be desired, when half the population appear to have powers derived from kryptonite.

 

It's that very normality, the happy stable relationship between two ordinary people that allows Clark to grow up with the morals and sense of public duty that will eventually characterise Superman.

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

LOL

I wonder if that was one of the reasons why they cast her?

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I vaguely recall an interview where she said the casting team weren't aware of her previous link to the character. That said, it's become a kind of tradition in the various Superman movies and tv series:

Noel Neill (Lois in the 1940s show) played Lois' mother Ella in the 1978 movie (uncredited, but she and Lois are the mom and child on the train the young Clark runs past), and had a cameo in the 2006 reboot.

Phyllis Coates (Lois in the 1951 movie) turned up as Lois' mom Ellen in a 1994 episode of The New Adventures of Superman. 'Her' Superman, Kirk Alyn, played a general in the 1978 movie.

Dean Cain, the 1990s Kal-El, played a villain in Smallville, whilst 'his' Lois, Teri Hatcher, played Ella Lane.

As well as Ms O'Toole, Smallville also featured Terence Stamp (Zod) as the voice of Jor-El, Chrstopher Reeve (Kal-El) as a mysterious scientist and Margot Kidder (Lois) as his assistant.

Pretty sure that's all of them...

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Actually, further checks remind me Cynthia Ettinger was originally cast as Martha, but her scenes were reshot before the pilot aired.