Superhero Sizzle Romantic Chemistry Between Title Characters Of ‘Lois And Clark’ Keeps Viewers Coming Back For More
In the cliffhanger episode that ended the second season of ABC’s “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” Clark Kent (Dean Cain) came right out and popped the question.
“Lois, will you marry me?” he asked and Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) opened her mouth to say something and then some network clown put a sign saying, “To Be Continued” across her lovely lips.
“Actually, we shot three different endings,” said Hatcher, who insists she didn’t know where the Lane-Kent relationship was going this season until she started working on the new episodes coming this fall.
As for prying the secret out of her, forget it. She’s like a real reporter, invoking the California shield law.
“They’ve had me brainwashed,” said Hatcher.
Executive Producer Robert Singer, who took over for the show’s creator, Deborah Joy LeVine, toward the end of the first season, is well aware of the risks in painting such characters into this kind of romantic corner. Everyone remembers how the “Rhoda” ratings slipped once the perennial bachelor girl got married and how fast “Cheers” had to back away from marrying off Sam Malone to Diane Chambers when it looked as if public interest was waning.
But most objective analysts of the show now believe its growing popularity last season was almost entirely because of the romantic buildup between Lois and Clark.
“We felt that the chemistry between Teri and Dean would certainly support this kind of romance,” said Singer, “and I think it has.”
Ironically, the playful Hatcher has been quoted saying she can’t understand where their marvelous chemistry comes from since “we’re just not attracted to each other at all in real life.”
When Hatcher and Cain met with TV critics recently to hype the new season, Hatcher was trying to dig herself out of that particular hole, saying, “How could anybody be attracted to me if they had to be with me 15 hours a day?”
Cain said, diplomatically, that the chemistry works because Hatcher is such a fine actress. She “sort of causes a lot of turmoil,” he said, and “for me, it’s a lot easier to react off of that.”
Cain said Hatcher’s first expressed opinion of him was, “He’s a pretty package, but there’s nothing going on upstairs.” Hatcher disputes part of that quote. She denies ever calling him a “pretty package,” but concedes she may have said something about nothing going on upstairs.
“I was still picturing you with your shirt off, so I don’t remember what I said,” she quipped.
In real life, of course, Hatcher is a married woman and Cain is a single guy, so perhaps it’s just as well the on-screen chemistry doesn’t bubble over after the director tells them to call it a day.
I think Hatcher’s Lois Lane has mellowed out a good deal over the past two seasons and isn’t quite the pushy person she was in the early days of the show. As soon as she started taking a deep breath now and then and coming out with a smile or two, the romance with Clark seemed to click.
When I asked her about it, Hatcher said, “Rather than her really becoming less assertive, I think what’s happened is that, through the relationship with Clark, you’ve begun to see more of a vulnerable side to her that I think always existed.”
Though “Lois & Clark” finally has won its two-year battle with rival “seaQuest DSV” NBC moves “seaQuest” to Wednesday nights this fall - it now has even more formidable competition for the young adults and teens it’s trying to attract.
NBC has moved its hit comedy “Mad About You” to Sundays at the same time period as “Lois” and CBS has moved its comedy hit “Cybill” into the same period. Fox’s “The Simpsons” will also be on then.
“I’m hopeful the core audience will stay with us,” said Singer. “It’s a tough time period, but we’re the only drama there now. We can just do the best show we can and if it works out in the ratings, that’s great.”
By the end of the second season, the show was solidly attracting kids, teens, females between ages 18-49 and doing very well with almost all demographic groups except older viewers, especially older men.
“Across the board, we’re good,” said Singer. “But we’re strongest with kids.”
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SUPERHERO SCENARIOS Just for fun, here are 10 possible story lines for this season’s “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” that might be used if Clark Kent and Lois Lane really decide to get married: 1. Jimmy Olson throws a bachelor party for Clark, who gets stewed and shocks the other revelers by collecting all the lampshades in Metropolis in less than an hour and trying them on his head. 2. Lois grows concerned when the family doctor breaks 14 consecutive needles trying to give Clark his premarital blood test. 3. Perry White is offended when Clark tells him they already have a fondue set before Lois even opens Perry’s gift. 4. When Lex Luthor exchanges the diamond in Lois’ wedding ring for a tiny chip of Kryptonite, Clark is unable to carry his bride over the threshold of their honeymoon suite. 5. On their wedding night, Lois complains that being “faster than a speeding bullet” is fine for Superman, but she expects Clark to take a little more time. 6. Lois fears Clark may be a secret cross-dresser when she discovers him hand-laundering what appears to be a pair of fancy blue tights in the middle of the night. 7. Lois and Clark’s mom get into a serious argument when Mrs. Kent refuses to let Lois see any of her son’s baby pictures. 8. Clark offends Lois when he rejects her decorating ideas for their new apartment and insists on something called the “fortress of solitude” look. 9. Lois is infuriated when Clark insists their firstborn son must be named Jor-El instead of Kevin and he doesn’t even blink when she whacks him on the head with a rolling pin. 10. Six weeks after their wedding, Lois tires of telling her insatiable husband she has a headache and starts slipping powdered Kryptonite into his bedtime glass of warm milk. -Ron Miller