''The Adventures of Superboy'' is a proposed TV series that was put into production in 1961. It was meant to capitalize on the success of '' Adventures of Superman'', which went out of production in 1958. Only a pilot episode ("Rajah's Ransom") was produced, although 12 additional scripts had been prepared, had the series been picked up. It featured the first non-comic book portrayals ever of Superboy and Lana Lang and stands as a forerunner of the later series '' Superboy'', which lasted four seasons and ''

Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...

'', which lasted ten seasons.

Cast

* Johnny Rockwell as Superboy/Kal-El/Clark Kent * Bunny Henning as Lana Lang * Monty Margetts as Martha Kent

Guest cast

* Ross Elliot as Fred Drake * Charles Maxwell as Gunner Ferde * Robert Williams as

Chief Parker Chief Douglas Parker is a supporting character in stories published by DC Comics featuring Superboy, the younger version of Superman. Publication history Chief Douglas Parker first appeared in '' Adventure Comics'' #225 (June 1956) and was create ...

* Richard Reeves as Shorty Barnes * Yvonne White as Miss Gibbs *

Stacy Harris Stacy Harris (July 26, 1918 – March 13, 1973) was an American actor with hundreds of film and television appearances. His name is sometimes found misspelled Stacey Harris. Early years Harris was an Army pilot whose leg was injured in a ...

as Jake Ferde * Jimmy Bates as Jimmie Drake * Ray Walker as Mr. Edlund * True Ellison as Donna

Home media

The only stand-alone releases so far for ''The Adventures of Superboy'' have been from specialty distributors, such as Video Rarities, which released it on VHS along with ''

The Adventures of Superpup ''The Adventures of Superpup'', a 1958 unaired pilot, was meant to capitalize on the success of '' Adventures of Superman''. Superpup featured the first television portrayal of the Superman characters as humanoid animals. Overview Television prod ...

'' and screen test footage as ''Superboy and Superpup: The Lost Pilots''. This pilot episode has been included in the 62-disc

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

box set of ''

: The Complete Series'', released by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

in November 2011, along with additional bonus features not included in the individual season releases of ''Smallville''.

Other media

A book titled ''Superboy and Superpup: The Lost Videos'', written by Chuck Harter, was published in 1993 by Cult Movies Press. It looked at both ''The Adventures of Superboy'' pilot and ''The Adventures of Superpup'' pilot, as well as the 12 additional ''Superboy'' scripts that were prepared had the ''Superboy'' pilot been picked up as a series. The book also claims that a story in issue #88 of the Superboy comic is based on the pilot script. In September 2022, BearmanorMedia.com republished "Superboy & Superpup The Lost Videos" by Chuck Harter, now with a full color cover. The new edition is available in hardback, paperback and e-book editions.

External links

*
Information from "Superman Through the Ages"
*
Look, Up In The Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
-'' a 2006 documentary containing a clip of the pilot.

References

1961 American television episodes 1960s American television series Superman television series Television pilots not picked up as a series Superboy {{DC-Comics-stub