SUPERBOY

   US tv series (1988-91). An Alexander and Ilya Salkind Production, for syndication. Executive prod Ilya Salkind, prod Robert Simmonds. Dirs included Reza S. Badiyi, Colin Chilvers, Peter Kiwitt, David Grossman, David Nutter, Richard J. Lewis. Writers included Fred Freiberger, CaryBates, Mark Jones, Toby Martin, Michael Carlin and Andrew Helfer, David GERROLD. 3 seasons, 78 25min episodes in all. Colour.

   The Salkinds, who made 3 of the SUPERMAN movies, here returned with a brisk, not very expensive series based on the teenage years of Clark Kent at Shuster University (Joe Shuster [1914-1991] was co-creator of Superman), where heis studying with his childhood friend, glamorous Lana Lang. The time is, anachronistically, the present. Cast changes were confusing: John Haymes Newton played Superboy (woodenly) in season 1, then was replaced by GerardChristopher; Scott Wells played Lex Luthor in season 1, then was replaced by Sherman Howard. Lana Lang was played by Stacy Haiduk, and cub reporter T.J. White (son of Daily Planet editor Perry White) by Jim Calvert. Atonly half an hour per episode there was not much room for complex plotting. There was a laudable variety of villains (golems, werewolves, other-dimensional imps, androids, aliens and succubi among them), but the treatment was mostly routine. In season 3 Lana and Clark go to work for the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters.

   PN