December is a time when wishes come true, and my dearest wish has always been to have a Christmas special of my very own. This year, Santa Claus — represented here by Signal Watch host Ryan Steans — has given me a Christmas podcast episode to talk about my very favorite thing, which is ranking Superman actors by hotness.
We’re talking about “Twas the Night Before Mxymas”, from the fourth season of the ’90s TV show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. In this episode, Lois Lane needs to learn how to experience the wonder of Christmas, although she already has pretty much every possible reason to be happy, and should really not be obsessed with how much stuffing she needs to make.
Ryan and I discuss all kinds of festive topics, including why Lois Lane is one of the greatest characters in fiction, how to tell a Superman story with hardly any special effects, and why you should never pay attention to what happens to actors that you have a crush on. Come deck the halls with us!
Next:
4.12: Mission: Smallville
— Danny Horn
Superheroes Every Day 
Yay, looking forward to listening to this.
It’s one of my favorite Christmas episodes.
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“…why you should never pay attention to what happens to actors that you have a crush on”
Not having listened yet, I’m guessing this refers to Dean Cain, on whom I (likewise?) had a huge crush in the ’90s. When I moved into my new house some 20 years ago, a friend gave me a framed shot of him doing the “S” reveal with his shirt, which I hung above my front door in a place of honor. I eventually had to take it down because I couldn’t stand to look at him anymore. I’ve got Stephen and Grant as Ollie and Barry up there now. I hope neither of them turns out to be an awful person….
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I know what you mean, I had a crush on Chloe…
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Oof. Yeah, I feel for you.
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I had forgotten about the frog clone. Oy.
I preferred Christopher Reeve’s Superman to Dean Cain’s, but I preferred Dean Cain’s Clark Kent. Reeve’s Clark was just too bumbling and put-upon and didn’t really seem to have friends at the Daily Planet, while Cain’s was, as y’all say, a real guy who had actual friends.
But it’s hard to remember the joy that Dean Cain brought me in the 90s given who he’s become.
I remember at the time the show was airing, in the early days of the internet, Teri Hatcher was the most downloaded woman. Dean must have been one of the most downloaded men too. The promo pic of them in the white tanktops with the “S” tattoo on her arm was smoking!
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Danny –
I did not watch “Lois & Clark” back in the day. I was just too busy with grad school and working and many other things around that time. I do remember it being on, and I also remember my folks talking about it and liking it.
I listened to your podcast review with interest on Christmas Eve (while our Christmas Eve dinner ham and putting the finishing touches on my homemade pumpkin pie and lemon cream pie).
I was curious enough to see if I could find the Season 4 Christmas ep of L&C on YouTube or Internet Archive. No luck!
What I found instead on Internet Archive was the 12/4/94 (is that season 1?) TV broadcast (!!! It’s like going back in a time machine!) L&C ep!! OMG!!! You would not believe in a million years who the villains are for that episode — George Jefferson (Sherman Helmsley) and Louise (Isabel Sanford) of “The Jeffersons”(?!!) And Dick Van Patten, dad from “Eight is Enough,” played a Santa at an orphanage.
Also, Lois starts out this ep being Scrooge/Grinch-ish, and we’re given a little more of her backstory as to why. Not to give too many details, but Lois’s Christmas issues does harken back to Lois’s issues with her parents and from her childhood. Anyhow, there’s a through-line with Lois’s “bah humbug” attitude that helps make sense of her Season 4 Christmas issues.
Anyhow, the link is at https://archive.org/details/Lois_and_Clark_ABC_WOC_1994-12-04 . Enjoy, all!
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Sherman Helmsley and Isabel Sanford did not play George and Louise Jefferson in this L&C ep. They played different characters in this ep – I only referred to them as George and Louise only because those are the roles they are most famous for, at least among people of a certain generation. I’m sure most of you post-millennials or younger have never heard of “The Jeffersons.”
Helmsley as a villain is somewhat of an extreme extension of his George Jefferson character, but in this ep, his villainy goes beyond what George would ever have ever done.
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During the holidays I decided to watch every Christmas episode of every TV show I’ve ever been a regular viewer of, starting with the oldest, such as the Beverly Hillbillies, the Twilight Zone, Bewitched, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Three’s Company, Mork & Mindy, the Odd Couple, Taxi, Sanford and Son, the Jeffersons, etc. I was limited to a small number of platforms, including a couple of free ones such as YouTube, Tubi, and Freevee, so there were some episodes I couldn’t watch, and this L&C ep was one of them, but now thanks to you I can! I didn’t know you could find stuff like this at archive.org. Incidentally, in one of the Jeffersons Christmas episodes I watched, George Jefferson visits an orphanage dressed as Santa Claus, so at first glance I thought your comment was about that. lol
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