Smallville: You survived this change that the chain wanted to impose

It’s been eleven years since Smallville aired. For ten seasons, the series, created by showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, marked the birth of Clark Kent, aka Superman, on the small screen.

Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, who played Clark Kent and Lex Luthor in the series, continue to keep the fire burning. Last June, they announced the launch of a series rewatch podcast called Talkville.

in Episode 3 of the podcast, HotheadThe creators of the series are invited to present their memories and anecdotes about the production. They thus lead to pressure from Warner Bros. executives. TV at the time about the spring of a very important script: the adoptive parents of Clark Kent, Jonathan and Martha Kent.

In the series, the future Superman’s adoptive and especially earthly parents were one of the most important aspects of the character’s formation. The farmer, Jonathan (John Schneider) was a caring but firm father with high moral values, very influential on Clarke to help him adapt to his abilities, as well as help him make informed and responsible choices. The relationship between them was very close. In short, caring parents.

This clearly didn’t sit well with Warner executives, who instead wanted a much more antagonistic relationship between Clarke and her parents. “At the beginning of production, before it aired, we had these meetings with them and some people said, ‘These parents should be more antagonistic, he should hate his parents!’ It was just another cliche teenage drama and we really struggled with that idea. “ says Miles Millar.

Thus, Warner leaders wanted to stay in the movement of series of the time, such as Dawson, That ’70 Show, The Brothers Scott or Newport Beach, which presented characters who maintained a conflicted relationship with their parents. Thank the participants of the show Smallville that they were able to defend their position.