Thursday, February 23, 2006

Bloopers that aren't

I know, I'm a nerd for even looking at Glass House's The Adventures of Superman Bloopers. I guess, then, that I'm at least a semi-uber-nerd, because I noticed some of them aren't really mistakes.

There's a reference to Superman making a crook's gun too hot to hold with his "x-ray" vision, rather than heat vision. That's correct. At that time, in the comics, Superman had no "heat vision": It was a side-effect of his x-ray vision. Later, when it was discovered just how harmful prolonged exposure to x-rays could be, the creators established heat vision as a power in its own right, rather than suggest he was microwaving his closest friends.

It seems to me that Mr Glass is generous with the definition of "blooper", using it to identify anything that betrays the miniscule budget with which these shows were produced. Re-use of locations and re-dressed sets were and are common in television production: Star Trek's Enterprise set only had one corridor, for example.

Now, pointing out that Perry White is clearly reading his lines from the script in his hand in many of the later episodes...that's a blooper. Disappearing and reappearing hats, ties, and glasses abound. (Clark's glasses in particular change shape: Later seasons used different prop frames from those worn in earlier seasons, stock footage from which was still being used.)

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