Smallville is looking up!

OSCK’s speculations over news that Smallville Show Runners are Leaving

Op/ED by Kate Blake
Admin OSCK

Today was a day full of controversy and some surprises. First- the article posted yesterday that ran on SCIFI Wire was revised after the news that season 8 would be the year of Lois and Clark coming into their own on Smallville. Executive Producer Brian Peterson must have gotten excited and ahead of himself because today the listing was revised and the LNC spoilers were removed- otherwise the post is pretty much the same.

Apparently things got so heated on the Television Without Pity forums yesterday they had to shut down the Smallville spoiler boards for a few hours. TWOP is home to Chloisers- fans of Smallville who cling to the belief that Chloe Sullivan is the real Lois Lane and one day she will magically step into Lois’s shoes even though Lois Lane was brought onto the series in Season 4 and is now a well established character well on her way to becoming the iconic Lois Lane fearless reporter that she has been in the comics for 70 years.

To stir the pot sources today posted an open letter from Smallville creators Millar and Gough stating they are leaving the show and will not be involved with season 8. You can go over to Mania.com and read the letter- it is also reprinted in this blog in the post just previous to this one.

What does this mean? It means your OSCK admins can laugh and strut a little bit and look to the sky for maybe there is hope that our superheroe’s destiny just became a lot closer.

Reviewing Smallville over the past 18 months:

Fall 2006 Season 6 premieres. Clark defeats Zod in the opening episode after escaping the Phantom Zone. The Green Arrow comes to town and Lex has someone new to expend his energy on in an enemy capacity as Oliver Queen is keeping him busy disrupting his plans. Lex is with Lana and Lana and Clark are seldom together. Clark spends time with Chloe, Oliver, Lois and his mom. He spends most of his time tracking down the criminals who escaped the Phantom Zone with him.

This exciting action packed story arc laid out by Steven DeKnight culminated in Hydro with Lois and Clark having their first kiss and it looking like Clark and Lana were done for good as a pregnant Lana got ready to marry Lex. Then came the highest rated episode in Smallville in years- Justice where the Smallville Justice League took down one of Lex’s big 33.1 facilities in Metropolis. We thought that Labyrinth with Clark in a mental hell where Lana was his world was just a nightmare induced by a Phantom when the next week brought us Crimson. Again big iconic action with Clark jumping Lois over Metropolis and having a wild romantic time while appearing very super. And then there was the party- Clark crashed Lex and Lana’s engagement party and became nasty Clark and had to try to punish everyone for his inner turmoil.

From here on out the season and storyline went downhill. Read Erika’s essay about season 7 being Labyrinth revisited for more.

Suffice to say by the time Comic Con came around in July , 2007 Millar and Gough who had taken over the plotting for the back half of season 6 and gave us the return of Lana and Clark and their dysfunctional relationship as the central plot- had a lot to make up for to fans at the event. The fact that were even at the event was unusual- they had not personally attended Comic Con since the first couple of seasons. Comic Con was a huge showcase for the Warner Brothers release of the DVD movie DOOMSDAY and they wanted all of their Superman branded products on display and displayed to their best. I don’t think it is speculation to say that Millar and Gough were told they were attending Comic Con and they better put on a good show for the fanboys and fangirls who would be attending. They came into San Diego and all they did was talk up how Supergirl was joining the show ( she did), that Lois would be working toward her destiny and we would see Clark and Lois getting closer, Martian Manhunter was going to on the show and we would see the Green Arrow again. NO MENTION was made of Lana. Of course not- you see she was supposed to be dead at the end of season 6 even though it was no secret she would be back - in the first episode no less. What these cowards did not share came out shortly thereafter in their interviews with Voices From Krypton when they spilled that the show would have a big part of it be Clark and Lana having a shot at a real relationship. What was neglected was they didn’t tell people that every single episode she was in for the first half of the season would revolve around Lana one way or another- never mind that Smallville is supposed to be about Clark Kent.

Operation Save Clark Kent was born in the furor over the interviews that hinted at a soap filled season. Over 100 letters were sent to Warner and DC Comics protesting Clark being portrayed as less than heroic and our voices were very loud in the CW Lounge up until Christmas time. After that I admit we have not been as vocal mainly because we have been in shock. Who would think Clark would want to still be with Lana after she had been with Bizarro? Forgiving may be divine but being blinded by your feelings and ignoring the signs around you is just stupid. Let’s not talk about how irresponsible it is to put your head in the sand and hide away from the world when you have the power to change things.

Ratings - the only thing that the networks care about- had been in free-fall after Crimson as the soapy storyline began to consume the series. What had started as one of the strongest seasons in years in 2006 ended in 2007 with a whimper. The season 7 opener was pretty average ratings wise but the episodes following it have seen a steady decline. The only episode mid-season here to muster much interest was the return of the Green Arrow and the introduction of Black Canary in Siren. The demise of Bizarro in the episode Persona which preceded it was considered by many fan boys - ones who didn’t think Promise was the magic episode - that Persona was the episode where Smallville jumped the shark. How did Millar and Gough do this? They had Bizarro who was a maniacal killer- one so evil Jor-El had stripped away his corporeal self leaving him a phantom wraith- Millar and Gough had him die a pussy whining about his love for Lana.

Now- lets see what else has happened? In August IESB.net reported on Attack of the Show that Tom Welling was Warner Brothers top pick to be Superman in the much hyped JLA movie and it was down to an issue of scheduling. Weeks went by and we finally heard that Millar and Gough had refused to shoot around Tom so he could make the movie claiming their needs took precedence over the studio. Around this time in the fall DC Comics had announced that indeed Chloe would be making her first appearance in Superman comics. She would not be Clark’s BFF from high school but rather a younger version of herself as Lois’s cousin who would be joining the Planet as a cub reporter. I had figured she was going to be a new pal for Jimmy and the younger superheroes in the DC universe. Only weeks later around the time we heard that the JLA movie being put on hold indefinitely and that the studio was out millions of dollars in pre-production costs, around this time we heard that Chloe was not going to be used in the comics.

Why is this important? Millar and Gough by stalling/killing the JLA movie cost the studio untold millions of dollars in immediate costs and tied up their production on what was supposed to be their PREMIERE film for 2009. Warner owns Smallville, Superman ( along with the Siegels) and they own DC Comics. If you ran a business would you reward an employee who cost you a fortune by paying them more money for something you can do without? No- of course you wouldn’t and Warner Brothers is a business. A business entity known for holding fast and holding a grudge. Ask Sean Young about what happened to her when she crossed Warner and how great her career has been since then.

The status as we near the end of the writer’s strike- we have two overpaid executive producers and creators who have run their series ratings into the ground with soapy storylines that are keeping viewers away who also screwed their parent company over in a big movie deal. The studio heads look at the numbers and call them into their offices. Since Warner has made a lot of money on Smallville and will continue to for a long time they don’t fire Millar and Gough- they let them resign like any good corporation allows a valued employee to do when they are done with them but want to maintain the guise of civility for the public.

Back to our SCIFI wire story yesterday- Brian Peterson was pre-emptory in his announcement yesterday but did not speak out of turn. He is now one of the executive producers on the show and it sounds like he is running the show. He certainly spoke as someone who was planning out how to take the threads of where things stand- torn and tattered and see what can be done to weave a solid story that will attract Superman fans back to the franchise and make the show about Clark again. I certainly hope so!

I have been saying since Comic Con 2007 that Millar and Gough were being watched and their performance measured very carefully- it looks like the verdict is in. We shall have to wait and see but I am guessing we will get a solid press release from Warner in the next week or so about who will be officially in charge of Smallville next year. My hope is that it is someone who really knows the Superman mythology especially post-crisis and it is someone more interested in action and character development than keeping Smallville Soapville.

Watch the video from IESB in August 2007 when Tom was being called the Superman of Choice by CLICKING HERE