Monday, December 28, 2009

The Adventures of Superman (1956)


2 comments:

Steven Lance said...

Glad I found your Blog on the Adventures of Superman. While not official, I think of myself as the series's biggest fan. As the author of Written Out of Television, I was able to interview Jack Larson, Noel Neill and Robert Shayne. There was something very special about Shayne who became, along with his wife, Bette, my adoptive aunt and uncle, as I called them Aunt Bette and Uncle Bob. I've lots of nice stories of things Uncle Bob shared with me that I'll come back here from time to time to post. For now just know that as an entertainment author, I pride myself on writing for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way," --Steven Lance

Steven Lance said...

Glad that I found this Blob on the "Adventures of Superman." That's right. . . the "T" in "The" is not capitalized. Became a big issue with my publisher for my chapter on the Adventures of Superman in by book, WRITTEN OUT OF TELEVISION: A TV Lover's Guide. My editor at Madison Books said, "Well that's the way Earle Marsh" wrote it in his "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present." I explained that though an idol of mine, in this instance Earle Marsh was wrong.
They wanted to charge me for retypesetting the entire chapter because they set "The Adventures of Superman" throughout the entire book. Yes there was only one chapter on "AOS," but since it is my favorite show of all times, I referenced it throughout all 507 pages

To win my point and not have to pay for the typesetting, I sent the publisher a DVD with the opening credits from both the B&W and Color seasons. On both, the announcer does say, "The Adventures of Superman." However, the on-screen title only reads "Adventures of Superman." Compare this to "The Andy Griffith Show" where the word "The" actually is part off the on-screen title of the show. Bottom line. They changed all the uppercase "Ts" back to lowercase "Ts" except if the title came at the beginning of a sentence. A costly lesson for Madison Books, but one I felt strongly enough about to pursue and win. I now share it with you for your thoughts.

All my best from the TV Author who always fights for Truth, Justice and the American Way! --Steven Lance