I Am, I Am, Superman -- and I Know What's Happening - Sammy

Sammy_Buck — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:57:44 GMT

I love blogging for TV Land because each weekend's programming (my specialty - like Ruth Gordon's chocolate mousse in Rosemary's Baby), brings up so many memories. With this weekend's Superman and Superman II airings, I'm so excited I could just say "Soo-peh-man" and pick up a manhole cover and throw it like a Frisbee.

I am more excited about these two movies than a possible date I might have (OK, time to reassess why I'm single). But when I was 13, winter break of 1982 was all about staying home and watching Superman II. I was addicted. I grew up in Houston, so I went around the house quoting Terence Stamp: "So this is planet Houston?" I told my brother to kneel before Zod, and I even tried staring at a leaf until it would burn. I was either very creative or on my way to a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

I also hearted Sarah Douglas, the androgynous Ursa who performed the aforementioned manhole-discus throw. In an interview once, she said strained her shoulder in the scene when she's lifting a bus because she thought she could do for reals. I also wanted to lift the bus - mainly because I couldn't help but notice the poster of Evita on the side of the bus.

In 2004, I was babysitting for my best friend's two boys. They were 3 and 5 and (as they still are) very smart and very into movies. Their obsession at the time was Superman II, having watched it more than I had in 1982. While watching it one June 2004 evening, I accidentally hit the DVD remote control and reset the language to French. Guess what? It still holds up in a foreign language!

A few years back when the Richard Donner cut came out, I sat and watched the movie with them and they were appalled that "Bye, Bye, Baby" was not uttered by Lois Lane -- nor was there the sequence with the awful accents at the Eiffel Tower. But they did get a good kick out of Perry White's toothpaste going in reverse. I was thrilled that the boys cared and that another generation gets to love Superman II.

As for the other movies in the series:

Superman: The Movie is no slouch, mind you. Reeve is AMAZING -- especially in scenes where he addresses his love for Lois Lane. I was genuinely moved when he screams and flies around the world in reverse (fine, I was ten, but it was cool). When Superman: The Movie was on network TV for the first time, my cousin asked me which of Superman's parents die first. I didn't know off-hand, so I glued myself to the set, and when a Kryptonian set piece fell on Susannah York, I screamed "His mother!" My cousin, however, was referring to the Kents. Come on, everyone knows Glenn Ford has a great heart-attack scene, so I think he was playing a trick on me. Argh. I did throw a clock at him once, but never a bus.

Superman III's bizarre super-computer climax was like War Games meets the Andy Kaufman-Bernadette Peters movie Heartbeeps, and I have one thing to say about Superman IV: The Quest for Plot. OK, two. The first is: Sammy Buck-lookalike Jon Cryer as Lenny Luthor. The second is: after my friends and I saw the movie, and were confused about a weird cut in time when Superman all of a sudden is sick in his apartment, we all concluded the movie MUST have been missing a reel. We ran from the car in the parking lot to the box office at the Meyer Park AMC 14 and demanded to know the movie's running time. When the guy said 90 minutes, we realized there indeed was no reel missing and, sadly, the Superman series had maybe jumped a little shark.

I also realized I was a college freshman, and while the four Superman movies were benchmarks of my adolescence, it was time to move on to more grown-up pursuits.

Like Star Trek: TNG, Batman and Stephen King's It.

And I still wonder why I'm single...

Photo credits: Keystone; Central Press; Keystone

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

Message Edited by Sammy_Buck on 11-21-2008 05:15 PM

Message Edited by Sammy_Buck on 11-21-2008 05:24 PM

Message Edited by TVLTheLink on 04-13-2009 10:47 AM