Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman Page #9

Lester brought his trademark wit

and comic flair to the project...

,,,and delighted moviegoers

with dynamic action scenes.

Superman?

But some fans and critics voiced

concern that the Man of Steel...

... was beginning to get lost

in the mayhem.

Audiences were also divided

over the choice to have Clark Kent...

...reveal his true identity to Lois Lane.

Clark?

-No, no, no. It's okay.

-Let me see your hand. Give it to me.

-No, no. It's all right, Lois.

-Let me Look at it.

-You are Superman.

-Lois, come on, don't be s--

Even more outrageous

was the sight of Superman...

...enjoying a sexy sleepover

with Lois in the Fortress of Solitude.

I'm going to go change into something

more comfortable.

I think people were horrified.

I think, were I

to revisit that process now. . .

. . .I would think,

''You know what?

She wasn't supposed to sleep

with Superman. ''

I would come down

with the prudes on that one.

Superman II

was another box-office triumph...

...earning over 120 million

dollars worldwide.

The Salkinds quickly prepared

another sequel.

Once again,

with Richard Lester at the helm.

Instead of helping others, all the four

of you want to do is help yourselves.

Superman III co-starred Hollywood's

reigning comic actor, Richard Pryor...

...as Gus Gorman,

a bumbling computer programmer--

Wait, wait a minute.

--who is forced against his will to build

a machine to destroy the Man of Steel.

Superman, no!

It works, so real.

It works.

Most of the film's emotion

came from its subplot,,,

...in which Clark Kent makes a nostalgic

pilgrimage back to Smallville.

There he rekindles his boyhood crush

on local girl Lana Lang...

...played by Annette O'Toole.

Do you know how lucky you are

to live in Metropolis? The Big Apricot.

-well, Lana you could--

-That's easy to say. But how? What about Ricky?

-Ricky?

-My Little boy.

-You? Oh, that's great.

-Yeah.

I was big into Superman,

Betty and Veronica and Archie.

Those were my favorites.

And I loved Lana Lang.

I was like Betty more than Veronica

and Lana more than Lois.

I don't know why. Because

they were underdogs, I guess.

So when I got to play Lana,

it was like. . .it was huge.

It was such a big deal to me.

This is nice.

For most of the production, O'Toole

did her scenes with Christopher Reeve...

... when he was portraying Clark Kent.

Something that made her first sight

of the actor in his Superman costume,,,

...all the more astonishing.

Lana, I think I'll just go see

if Ricky is all right.

-Are you okay?

-Yeah.

I worked with him quite a while

as Clark Kent. . .

. . .and I was on the set one day. . .

...and he was doing another scene

as Superman.

And I hear this voice say,

''Hello, Annette. ''

-There you go.

-Ricky.

He's all right, but you should have

him checked by a doctor.

And I turned around and it seemed

to me as if I looked up at a mountain.

I looked up at this man and it was him.

I get chills thinking about it.

-Oh, I'm Lana Lang and this is Ricky.

-Nice to meet you.

Because this was the Superman

of my youth, of my childhood.

He wasn't Clark Kent, he wasn't Chris.

He was Superman.

Written to showcase Richard Pryor's

unique comedic abilities--

Watch the trees.

--Superman III

was ultimately a disappointment...

...for fans of the first two films.

-Gesundheit.

-Thank you.

And although it opened to strong

box office, reviews were often harsh.

Faring worse was the Salkinds's next

foray into the comic-book universe...

...Supergirl starred Helen Slater

as Kal-El's Kryptonian cousin.

The movie crashed at the box office.

I said,

''I don't want to do Superman IV. ''

So then, we were able to sell the rights

for an option to Cannon (Group Inc.). . .

. . .and Chris Reeve had the original idea

for the story and came back.

Directed by Sidney J. Furies,

Superman IV:
The Quest for peace. . .

...showed the Man of Steel...

... tackling the real-world problem

of nuclear disarmament.

Effective immediately, I'm going to rid

our planet of all nuclear weapons.

But despite the best of intentions,

Superman IV delivered a bomb,,,

,,,in more ways than one.

Many critics thought the film

was more tiresome than topical.

And for the first time...

...a Christopher Reeve Superman movie

failed both critically and commercially.

You can't make a good movie out of

a bad script and it simply didn't work. . .

. . .and fly flat on its face,

but I thought its ambitions were good.

I would say that if there's one film. . .

. . .that killed Superman at that point

it was Superman IV.

Superman III

made 100 million dollars. . .

...Superman IV

killed the franchise, sadly enough.

I never saw Superman--

Was there a Superman IV?

I didn't even see that one.

Superman IV marked the final time

that Christopher Reeve...

,,,appeared as the Man of Steel.

What began as one of the hottest movie

series of all had now simply burned out.

By the mid- 1980s it was obvious

that Superman was in desperate need...

...of a makeover.

Comic-book readers

weren't just kids anymore.

Many were now adults and for them

Superman seemed too clean-cut.

They demanded their heroes

have dimension...

...depth and decidedly

human problems.

In 1986, DC Comics hired

writer-artist John Byrne...

... to reinvigorate their franchise.

Byrne purged the Superman universe

of its more outlandish elements.

Kal-El was once more the last survivor

of a lost world.

His costume

was no longer indestructible.

Our idea of what a strong man

was at that point. . .

. . .was no longer the circus acrobats.

before he was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

well, Byrne gave Superman

that bulked-up physique.

In this new reality,

Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor...

... was no longer a mad scientist

but an evil billionaire.

That was definitely a reaction

to what was going on. . .

. . .in Corporate America in the '80s.

Lex Luthor's personality

is basically the same. . .

. . .but you can identify with

a businessman type screwing you. . .

. . .or your favorite character, as opposed

to a mad scientist, which really was. . .

. . .by the '80s

a little bit of a hackneyed idea.

But when Byrne left the Superman

books, sales declined once again.

By the end of the decade...

...DC's Batman had eclipsed

the Man of Steel in popularity.

Superman's stories say the world

will get to be a better piece.

It can happen, we have it within us.

Batman's is more of an unending

struggle to just stay in the same piece.

Although Superman's 50th birthday

was celebrated in the media...

...Batman was now considered

the coolest crime fighter in comics...

...and at the movies...

... thanks to Tim Burton's

Dark Knight-inspired film.

Once again, Superman had been left

behind in a changing culture.

The Man of Tomorrow

now seemed like yesterday's news.

In 1988, Alexander and Ilya Salkind...

...brought their troubled

film franchise to television.

In the form of

The Adventures of Superboy.

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