O.K., SO THIS TIME HE DIDN'T LEAP TALL ratings obstacles in a single bound. But he kept trying. And now ABC's "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" seems about to prove all over again that the comic-book character created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster is truly indestructible. Once again, the man of steel from another planet is poised to triumph over an opponent, though in this case it could be argued that NBC's "Seaquest DSV" committed suicide.
When the two shows squared off on Sundays at 8 P.M. a season and a half ago, they were battling for a network audience left over from CBS's long-running and still enormously popular "Murder, She Wrote." Older viewers are fiercely loyal to Angela Lansbury. ABC and NBC aimed for a younger market, the 18-to-49 crowd. Although "Lois and Clark," with its sardonic 90's twist on the legendary superhero, generally received the more favorable reviews, "Seaquest" took an early and seemingly insurmountable lead in the ratings.
But then "Seaquest" evidently decided to go after an even younger audience for its underwater capers. Think "Flipper." The tinkering didn't work. Worse, the star, Roy Scheider, began publicly badmouthing the series, describing it to one reporter as "childish trash." Meanwhile, Robert Singer, the executive producer of "Lois and Clark," decided to do little more than fine-tune its original concept. The upshot? On one recent Sunday, "Lois and Clark" not only trounced "Earth 2," which was doing a replacement stint for the ailing "Seaquest," but also moved up vigorously on "Murder, She Wrote," with 19 percent of television sets in use, not much below Jessica Fletcher's 22 percent.
What has kept "Lois and Clark" on its upward curve? Its appealing cast is no doubt essential. Playing the dual role of Clark Kent and Superman, Dean Cain, a former pro-football player for the Buffalo Bills, hits just the right notes of Boy Scout decency and tough law enforcement, managing to be charming even while admitting that he's "just your basic goody two shoes." As Lois Lane, Teri Hatcher can be appropriately bold, headstrong and unpredictable and still flutter over a compliment paid her eyelashes. And in the newsroom of Metropolis's Daily Planet, Lane Smith ("The Final Days") turns the managing editor, Perry White, into a kind of dizzily gruff, lovable Richard M. Nixon, while Justin Whalin makes you root for Jimmy Olsen, the cub reporter and photographer, to get a promotion some day.
The dramatic playing field of the Superman story is astonishingly narrow. For decades, Lois has amazingly failed to notice the resemblance between Clark Kent, her mild-mannered newsroom colleague, and Superman, the true object of her affections. In one recent episode, where she temporarily learns the truth, someone remarks in exasperation that Lois must be "the most galactically stupid woman who ever lived." And just about every episode features a perils-of-Lois rescue. Even the upright defender of truth, justice and the American way tells Lois, with just a whiff of impatience, "People do try to kill you a lot."
But it is precisely this straitjacket format that makes the Superman story fun. How many ingenious ways can be found to devise the utterly predictable? "Lois and Clark," cultivating inventive scripts, has maintained a strong track record as it treads a thin line between family entertainment appealing to children and offbeat humor that will tickle the knowing fancies of young adults (Mr. Singer notes that women have always been more susceptible than men to the Superman story).
