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It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman! (1 Viewer)

Dale_

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Mar 11, 2005
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Does anyone remember the 1975 TV airing of the 1960s Broadway musical "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman"? Lesley Anne Warren as Lois Lane, Allen Ludden as Perry White, Loretta Swit, Kenneth Mars, David Wayne? I would love to see this ultra-rare program on DVD. Maybe as a special "bonus disc" included with another Superman program, like Adventures Of or Lois and Clark?
 

Eric Paddon

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Mar 17, 2001
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I have seen it (VHS copies circulate in the trade market) and while Lesley Ann Warren is quite appealing in the part of Lois Lane (this was how she got to screen-test for the part in the movie and was ultimately the second choice behind Margot Kidder), the production itself is very cheap overall with cardboard sets and backdrops used in what is mostly a very condensed version of the original Broadway show (which had a lot of problems to begin with).
 

Steve...O

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Dec 31, 2003
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Steve
Dale, a million thank yous! I've been trying to think of the title of the show for years. I have a very vague recollection of watching it in a late night slot in the late 1970s. However I couldn't remember much about it until you posted this.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't buy this separately. Music rights may prevent a release as it is.

Steve
 

Eric Paddon

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The original Broadway cast album was released on CD in the early 90s and you can still find it in most stores to get a sense of what the score is like (though a couple songs were dropped from the condensed TV version and some PC alterations were made by changing a group of Chinese acrobat villians who fight Superman into a bunch of conventional Mafia types).

The biggest problem with the musical from a structural standpoint is that it made as its principal character not Superman, but evil Daily Planet columnist Max Menken, giving the actor who played him (Jack Cassidy) top billing and more "star" numbers than Superman himself. Perry White is little more than a walk-on part, and there's no Jimmy Olsen in either version.
 

Dale_

Agent
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Mar 11, 2005
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The TV special was crap, certainly. It made a third-season Batman episode look like Gone With The Wind. But for all that, it was a lot of fun and I'd love to have a DVD version, to replace the grainy VHS bootleg copy I currently have.
 

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