The Clown Hated Semi-Private Perry the Wrecker Experiment

The brand new year of 1954 will finally have something new to watch other than The Adventures of Superman. But first January brings out five new episodes.

The Clown Who Cried- No clowns cried in the making of this episode. But they were sure hurt. The Daily Planet is holding a telethon for children to raise $500,000. Clark Kent has the idea of getting Rollo the clown from a local circus to perform. Rollo's ex-partner, Crackers, is hard up for money, and sees an opportunity. He knocks out Rollo and impersonates him, fooling Jimmy Olsen long enough to walk into a trap. Jimmy is held by the strong-man, Hercules. Superman saves him and gets to prove who is stronger by wrapping a barbel around the strongman. Even after meeting Crackers dressed like Rollo (he beat the real Rollo in the head, tied him up and stuffed him under a cot), Clark doesn't recognize him. Maybe he stopped relying on voice recognition since he was fooled in The Man with the Lead Mask. Later on the telethon has been hosted by Clark for 22 hours and they haven't raised half the money. They bring out a Chinese magician, Son Lo Tiu (who I'm pretty sure wasn't actually even Asian, but that might have been part of the act), and then sends in the clown, "Rollo". Crackers used to be a clown and the stunt work for the performance was pretty good. Even falling backwards off 20-foot high scaffolding. For some reason all the money being raised was going straight to the studio, which gives him the chance to pull a real gun and steal all the money. By this time Rollo has freed himself (which was supposed to be a painful experience but I laugh at clowns misfortunes) and tangles with Crackers on the streets. The cops who know one of the clowns has a gun back off and Superman enters the scene. I don't think I've ever seen a rooftop fight between clowns, but both fall off and Superman only saves one, letting Crackers die from the impact. I had hoped for a Joker reference, but it was to much to ask. This is an okay episode with a premise that doesn't quite work, and I hate clowns. Rest assured, when Superman shows up at the telethon all the money is raised

The Boy Who Hated Superman- This is an annoying episode. It involves a disillusioned teenager, Frankie (who looks to be in his 20s); the nephew of a gangster, Duke Dillon, recently arrested by Superman while trying to leave the country. The whole thing is based on an article Clark wrote and some evidence he has for the police (who never seem to do their job). On a side note, it must be common knowledge among the criminals that Superman only works in America, unless he helps Scotland Yard. Back to the story. A judge is trying to straighten Frankie's attitude out; he's too used to the gangster life. Clark thinks it would be a good idea for Frankie to live with him for a while. This is odd because Clark is already letting Jimmy room with him (since when?) and hopes Jimmy will be a good influence for Frankie. Frankie wants nothing to do with Clark, but then comes to the conclusion if he gets close enough he can find the evidence from the article and change things. To do this, and bust his uncle out, he needs to raise a bunch of money. He also stupidly tries to get Jimmy in on it. Jimmy agrees and starts overacting to a painful level, until Clark starts yelling at him to cut the crap. By the way, Jimmy has his own office, when did he start sharing with Clark? Anyway, Jimmy says he was pretending so he could figure out Frankie's motives. Eventually a double-cross is exposed and Frankie learns his uncle had no intention of leaving the country with his nephew. This causes an instant change of heart and Superman intervenes to stop the prison break. For the most part there isn't much continuity between episodes, but there is a nice reference in this one to Tony's diner from My Friend Superman.

Semi-Private Eye- It's Jimmy Olsen's turn to act the fool in this episode. Private Eye stories were a much bigger deal back in the '50s, but it just looks antiquated today. But, it did give Jack Larson some range to act by hamming it up way to much as a Private Eye. There is a real PI in the story, Homer Garrity, who is being targeted by the person his client sent him to find. An attempt on Homer's life fails when Superman saves his life from a falling brick chimney. Back to The Daily Planet offices Clark makes a slip during a conversation with Perry, and suddenly Lois and Jimmy have a flash of insight that only Clark must be Superman. The best part of this episode is Lois' plan to catch Clark in his deception. She hollows out a phone book and puts in 50 pounds of lead. Jimmy plants it on Clark's desk, with a lot of effort, than leaves the room. Clark comes in, and not paying any attention to his desk, pulls out his own phone book. He sees the one Jimmy planted and throws it in a corner, leaving the normal one in its place. Lois and Jimmy come in to ask Clark for the phone book. Clark then grabs the real phone book with ease and throws it at Lois, who reacts beautifully. They don't get their proof. Lois is so mad she hires Homer to follow Clark around, but she gets kidnapped by the people that tried to kill the PI earlier. Jimmy decides this is the time to pretend to be a PI and flubs it by getting captured, too. Superman is able to figure out what's going on and saves everyone. He displays a new power by being able to suck poison gas out of the air that was intended to kill Lois, Jimmy and Homer. Actually, if not for Jimmy this would have been a decent episode. I hate when main characters start acting stupidly to further a plot (see Rescue).

Perry White's Scoop- This one makes up for all the other one's I watched today. Perry White is angry that all the news his reporters are investigating always seems to end with Superman saving the day. Back in his day there was no Superman. So when someone wearing a diving gear is shot outside of the Daily Planet Building he takes the assignment himself to show all the younger reporters how to do it. There is a medical facility in the Daily Planet Building where the mystery diver is being treated. He utters the word "Quincy" and promptly dies (he did get shot three times). Perry writes a false front page story to lure the bad guys out. He even goes so far as to get his own diving suit, but Superman takes the suit instead. As soon as he goes outside someone shoots at Superman, who was hired by phone and knows nothing. All four in Perry's office brainstorm what "Quincy" and diving have to do with each other. Lois researches telephone exchanges but Clark hits on the Quincy Gym. Perry and Clark go to the gym. After surviving an encounter with more bad guys (there seems to be two sets of them), both reporters figure there's a water tank on the roof. Perry calls Jimmy to the gym just to have him climb into it. Jimmy finds a goldfish with a message wrapped around its tail. The message leads to a train yard and to car 763792. Little do they know all the bad guys have an apartment across the street watching them. Perry and Jimmy go to the train yard, find the car and discover it is filled with US mint paper. The bad guys are counterfeiters. Perry and Jimmy are caught, some double-crossing happens and all but two crooks are locked in a burning train car. Clark shows up in the nick of time and gets rid of Lois, giving him a chance to turn into Superman. He saves everyone and beats up the bad guys. Even Jimmy gets to knock one out. A really good episode that starts with a strange mystery.

Beware the Wrecker- An even better episode. This is the first time we have a criminal master-mind. He goes by the name Wrecker. A cross-country plane explodes. A steam ship leaving harbor explodes. A train coming into Metropolis explodes. Each time Perry White gets a phone call warning him (and demanding money), while in the background is a strange metal thump followed by a bell. There isn't any mention of casualty figures which could have been in the hundreds. A meeting is called in Perry's office with the owners of the three transportation companies. The fourth attempt is on another steam ship and a dollar amount is demanded. The calls can't be traced because the Wrecker is hacking the phone line with a portable handset. All three owners don't care about catching they guy, they just want their companies running, but Inspector Henderson convinces them to hold off paying anything out. Just before the deadline is up Superman goes into action at the pier (I don't know why he waited this long) and finds a model airplane, with explosives, flying overhead. Everyone puts their heads together and figure the Wrecker must be a guided missile expert. He threatens to launch twelve planes next unless he gets $100,000 dropped of at City Park. All the police stake out the park, but the Wrecker uses an underground passage and gets the money, even out from under Clark. On a whim he takes Lois and Jimmy to a carnival to see the High Striker game. They watch a guy play, use the mallet, whack the lever, ring the bell, and get a Superman sticker. Clark is badgered into playing and immediately breaks it. This is the sound they heard in the phone. Lois and Jimmy run off to find where the phones lines are and track it down to a shack near the carnival. They wait for someone to come home then barge in and capture the guy. Homemade wire going to the phone lines and lots of model aircraft are in evidence. They time him up and run out to find Clark. When they get back they guy is dead. The next day Superman tells Henderson to collect the three owners back in Perry's office. He uses a demonstration of the remote control airplane to scare the real Wrecker (the other guy was Emil Hatch an explosives and aerodynamics expert with a criminal history used to blackmail him), which is revealed to be Crane. He wanted the insurance money. The best episode of the day. Jimmy had his most entertaining moments trying to get Perry to let him in on the case with Lois and Clark. Any scene with Perry and Jimmy is usually a highlight of the show.

I meant to point this out last post: Superman showed off a new power in My Friend Superman. He flew in the supply closet he normal uses at the Daily Plant Building, but there's a typewriter on a desk in there. He Super-speed types out a three page news story. Jimmy meets him in the hall when Clark walks out of the closet, and nobody, including Perry White, thinks it's weird he didn't use his office to write the story.