History of Lois and Clark

Both seaQuest DSV and Lois and Clark were promised a second season, but only if they went through a retooling. "Retooling" is the polite term for "committee banging" a series.

ABC demanded some sweeping changes. Deborah Joy LeVine was out as executive producer and Robert Singer was in. The entire first season writing staff was replaced. ABC wanted a switch in emphasis from romantic comedy to Superman action in hopes of attracting more adult male viewers. There were shakeups in the cast as well.

Actress Tracy Scoggins could already see the handwriting on the wall near the end of first season. Her character, Cat Grant, being something of a nymphomaniac with a yen for anonymous sex and lots of it, was already being downplayed in the family viewing hour slot on Sunday nights.

Singer said that he liked her, but that he never felt she was a good rival for Lois Lane. The truth is, with comic book action being emphasized over romantic interaction, Cat became an extraneous character in more ways than one.

Gone too, at least as a regular member of the cast, was John Shea as Lex Luthor. Brian McAndrews, who was vice president of current series programming for ABC said, "You can't keep bringing back the same villain week after week. At some point, Superman needs to vanquish the villain."

"When we come up with a villain, we want to make him a little more credible," Singer added, "a job for Superman to heighten the action and suspense and provide more jeopardy to the show."

Michael Landes (right photo) would not be returning for Lois and Clark's second season. It was said that some viewers found it difficult to tell him apart from series star Dean Cain (left). While it's true the two actors shared a similar appearance, Landes' dismissal was more a matter of a certain lack of demographic appeal.

Jonathan Brandis (left) of seaQuest DSV, Lois and Clark's chief program rival, became an overnight heartthrob to the 9-15 year-old female demographic. Though not a highly sought after demographic, those young girls did represent ratings numbers that Lois and Clark didn't attract.

Chris Demetral was introduced into the cast of Lois and Clark near the end of its first season in hopes of luring the little girls away, but he too failed. Both Demetral and Landes received their pink slips just two weeks before filming of the second season was to begin

Since Jimmy Olsen was thought to be too important a character to the Superman legend to completely get rid of, Justin Whalin was cast as Landes' replacement.

Younger looking, vulnerable and bedimpled, Whalin was more the type the young girl demographic could warm up to. To Whalin's credit, he had to overcome a lot of initial fan resentment caused by the switch, but eventually he won over the majority of fans and proved to be the more enduring and endearing Jimmy Olsen.

Perhaps the biggest break Lois and Clark received was the fact that NBC had the same shortsighted opinion of male viewers as ABC.

NBC would discover that an increase of cleavage wasn't going to woo males who could see a lot more than that on cable channels and ABC would quickly find out that very few adult males wanted to watch a comic book show.

With the total misfires from ABC and NBC, the way was clear for FOX, who, smelling blood in the water on Sunday, had launched their best shark to take on Spielberg and Superman Part 4