Yes for a while it looked like they would never get the series on the air. One thing no one has mentioned is that Superman Vs The Mole Men was actually movie made to test the waters (so to speak) as to whether the general public would accept a different person playing Superman. Kirk Allen had played the man of steel in the serials. When it was edited to be The Unknown People (parts 1 and 2) the music was replaced with the MUTEL needle-drops and cues by Herschel Burke Gilbert used in the television series instead of the original music used in the movie produced by Lippert Pictures, Inc. I was surprised they did not include the feature film on one of the DVD sets as a bonus feature. These days the feature film seems to be in the public domain as it has been issued on DVD by by Cheezy Flicks Ent. But the great thing about those first two seasons, the show was produced like the old B movies of the 40s, complete with the same basic supporting cast of villains, town sheriff's etc. Great character actors. Today the feature version is available for streaming on Amazon and other companies.
They were 16 mm prints back in the 60s. At least some 35 mm material still exists. The B&W television series Riverboat was distributed to TV stations on 16mm. I believe it was Universal that used the original 35mm material to edit two episodes together into a TV movie to use in their movie packages. Eventually when television went all color they threw away the 35mm tv movie masters. All they have that remains is 16mm distribution prints. No original source material.
Wonder if the features they made from the series and that Fox distributed exists anywhere?
I'd have to dig into my ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN Season 1 DVD set to confirm, but the inclusion of "Superman And The Mole Men" as a bonus feature on that set correlates with my recall, as well.
) that many of the 35mm masters, especially the B/W ones were too damaged to be used for the DVD set. 16mm fine grain masters transferred to tape were used instead.
I have it backed up to my iTunes library, so I either got it from season one or two which are both in storage, or in this case, dare I say, my fortress of storatude (sorry folks), but I'm pretty sure it was on season one.I'd have to dig into my ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN Season 1 DVD set to confirm, but the inclusion of "Superman Vs The Mole Men" as a bonus feature on that set correlates with my recall, as well.
CHEERS!
It has been a long while since I last viewed them, but I don't recall noticing any tell tale signs of videotape sourcing from any of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN episodes. The ragged looking "The Stolen Costume" episode that was sourced from a 16mm print, I do recall!
Frustrating thing is they did put an effort into the releases with some nice bonus content. The series continues to air on H & I and I love when they do the Decades Binges so the studio is still raking in the moolah.
Yikes did not know that
Same thing happened on the classic Father Knows Best two of the "kids" took part in the special features one did not because they were not to be paid. I suggested to SHOUT to have them sitting on director's chairs on the old Columbia Ranch in front of the house from the show,
Interesting region 2 season 1-4 $39.99 Walmart has season 1 15.99
