History Series / TheAdventuresOfSuperboy

If it sounds like ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', well, [[OlderThanTheyThink it is]], just on a much lower budget. At least in the first season. Clark and his future arch-foe ComicBook/LexLuthor attend the same journalism school, and ComicBook/LanaLang appears in a supporting role. The series soon underwent a major retool, owing to a [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] of Superboy; the college setting was dropped in favor of the [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction The Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters]], where Clark and Lana help investigate paranormal and alien activities.

* ThreeAmigos: Clark, Lana, and TJ in the first season. Andy took TJ's place in the second season. Investigator Matt Ritter became a supportive friend and mentor toward Clark and Lana at the Bureau of Extra Normal Matters in Seasons 3 and 4.

** In "Luthor Unleashed", Superboy saves Lex from a lab accident like in the original comics. The next day he wakes up to find he's bald, and like in the comics he blames Superboy for it. He now wears a wig and has a collection of them which he puts on top of his busts, like in the [[Film/{{Superman}} 1978 movie]].
** Speaking of [[Film/{{Superman}} the movie]], Jor-El and Lara show up in a couple of episodes, and they looked like their movie counterparts. Jor-El even mentions the family crest (the "S" logo).

** An early "villain", played by Abe Vigoda, is racked with guilt over losing his daughter to the Nazis. A combination of senility, guilt, and madness leads him to kidnapping Lana, under the delusion that she's his daughter, and he's "protecting" her from the Third Reich.

* {{Succubus}}: One is the villain in the episode of the same name.

* {{Nerd}}: In the first season, Lex Luthor has a group of nerds working for him.
** Actor Gerard Christopher played Clark very nerdy in Season 2, following directions from the Salkinds to be more like Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent in the Superman films. He subsequently toned the character way down in Seasons 3 and 4 when Clark started working at the Bureau of Extra Normal Matters.
** In "Yellow Peri's Spell of Doom" Loretta is a shy, nerdy waitress before she uses Gazook's magic to become the beautiful, Yellow Peri.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Due to rights issues, the producers couldn't call Clark "Superman", despite him being a college-age young adult. [[spoiler:So when his retired older AlternateSelf from another universe appeared later on, he was never called or even credited as "Superman" or even just "Clark" or "older Superboy". His actor Ron Ely[[note]]best known for playing Franchise/{{Tarzan}} and Franchise/DocSavage in the '60s-'70s[[/note]] just got a guest star credit under his own name. Nor did he wear the suit or crest, instead wearing white like Jor-El.]]

** In the episode "Paranoia," A Bureau staff member jumps out the window when she thinks her secret affair is about to be exposed. Superboy saves her.

** [[spoiler: Lena Luthor, to get away from the shame of being Lex' sister.]]

* InSpiteOfANail: Lex Luthor's appearance is different after the first season [[spoiler:because he had plastic surgery to look like Warren Eckworth, a businessman whom he later murdered to take his place]]. Superboy later visits an AlternateUniverse [[spoiler:where the alternate Lex looks like Eckworth, apparently for different reasons]].

** Actor Gerard Christopher played Clark very nerdy in Season 2, following directions from the Salkinds to be more like Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent in the Superman films. He subsequently toned the character way down in seasons 3 and 4 when Clark started working at the Bureau of Extra Normal Matters.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: T.J. White, aka Trevor Jenkins White

** Lex creates a device that gives off ear-splitting and painful high frequencies sounds only Superboy can hear in "Threesome, part 1 and 2".

** Leo was this to Lex Luthor [[spoiler: until Lex kills him in the premiere of the second season]].
** T.J. White was this to Clark in the first season before being PutOnABus.

* ThreeAmigos: Clark, Lana, and TJ in the first season. Andy took TJ's place in the second season. Investigator Matt Ritter became a supportive friend and mentor toward Clark and Lana at the Bureau of Extra Normal Matters in season 3 and 4.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Superboy loses his memory in the third season episode "Superboy...Lost", after flying into and destroying an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. (The exact same plot was used in several Superman media, notably in ''Series/LoisAndClark''.)

** Lex Luthor suffers a heart-wrenching one, when [[spoiler: his sister had faked her death to get away from the Luthor name, and when she confronted Lex, tells him how much she hates him. Lex tries to cover his heartbreak by denying he ever loved Lena, but it's obvious nobody believes him.]]
** The Yellow Peri breaks down after Superboy destroys her magical doll with its own magical fire. She rocks back and forth on her knees, spouting rhymes, while Superboy gently raises her up and leads her away. (Most likely to a Mental Institution)

** In season 2, we meet the Caribbean Sorcerer Brimstone who helps Superboy and Lana defeat the evil Wizard Prodo in "Brimstone". This was confirmed by episode writer Mike Carlin to have been a PoorlyDisguisedPilot (Back Door Pilot) for the character, played by Miami Vice's Phillip Michael Thomas, but it was never made into a series.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: Due to rights issues, the producers couldn't call Clark "Superman", despite him being a college-age young adult. [[spoiler:So when his retired older AlternateSelf from another universe appeared later on, he was never called or even credited as "Superman" or even just "Clark" or "older Superboy". His actor Ron Ely[[note]]best known for playing Franchise/{{Tarzan}} and Franchise/DocSavage in the 60s-70s[[/note]] just got a guest star credit under his own name. Nor did he wear the suit or crest, instead wearing white like Jor-El.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:L-R: Creator/JohnNewton (season 1), Creator/GerardChristopher (seasons 2-4) as Superboy]]

* SocietyMarchesOn: In the episode "Hollywood", while in 1939, Clark gives a newspaper boy a dollar, causing him to exclaim "wow!"

* ShowdownAtHighNoon: In "Threesome, Part 2", Superboy has a Western-style showdown with Luthor, Metallo, and Odessa Vexman on a deserted street in Smallville, complete with an appropriate musical score.

[[caption-width-right:350:L-R: Creator/JohnHaymesNewton (season 1), Creator/GerardChristopher (seasons 2-4) as Superboy]]

[[caption-width-right:350:L-R: John Haymes Newton (season 1), Gerard Christopher (seasons 2-4) as Superboy]]

** In "The Fixer", Clark gets into a PhoneBooth to change into Superboy.