Offers up the studio: "As a 50th anniversary gift to fans, DC Comics’ Man of Steel was given a brand-new Saturday morning cartoon in 1988. The Ruby-Spears "Superman" series brought back some familiar foes and new unfriendly faces for battles against our favorite hero. In addition to the thrills of Superman’s weekly adventures, each episode includes a mini-segment – a continuing series called Superman Family Album. These featurettes tell the real story of what it was like to grow up as the most powerful boy in Smallville. Watch young Clark Kent deal with not only the normal trials and tribulations of youth and adolescence, but learning to balance them with his new found super powers.
“These celebratory episodes not only take fans through the expected, yet exhilarating, adventures of Superman, but they share the untold story of his youth,” said Amit Desai, WHV Vice President of Family, Animation & Sports Marketing. “Warner Home Video is absolutely thrilled to release Ruby-Spears Superman just in time for the holiday season.”
In the pages of Back Issue magazine, Wolfman penned his reflections of working on the show.
"I suggested the title 'The Adventures of Superman,' based on the original live-action show I had watched as a kid," Wolfman revealed. "That show was the reason I got into comics in the first place. I also suggested using the opening from the TV show (and radio show): 'Look! Up in the sky!' etc... but set to the John Williams Superman movie score. The best of all possible worlds."
To give an idea of the kind of stories he relates, Wolfman discusses the writing of the show's pilot episode. "I had a big scene at the end where Superman, using all his powers, smashes through a series of attacking giant robots, destroying them in a big scene. This was back in '88 or so and unlike these days, fighting on cartoon shows was not permitted by any of the networks. In fact, one character aggressively touching another was forbidden. S&P [Standards & Practices] said we had to change the ending. Superman, they said, can't destroy the robots because, and this is a direct quote, 'Even robots have souls.'" Yeesh!
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