History YMMV / TheAdventuresOfSuperman

* AcceptableTargets: TheKlan, who is, rightly, belittled as an organization of cowardly terrorists being swindled by leaders more interested in money than any kind of ideals.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Most people attribute the [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons the Fleischer cartoons]] as the one who gave Superman the power of flight, but it was actually the radio show that introduced the concept a year or so earlier.

-->'''Jimmy''': Golly, Mr. Kent, you'll never know what it's like to be like Superman.
-->'''Superman''': No, Jimmy, I guess I never will.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Two villains get caught by Superman, who's tracked them down after they kidnapped Jimmy for stumbling on their scheme. One tries to shoot him, to no effect. Superman demands, "What have you done with [[{{Protectorate}} Jim Olsen]]?"\\
'''You'd Expect''': The two cooperate, hoping that this scary invulnerable guy recommends this as grounds for leniency during sentencing.\\
'''Instead''': One tells the other to "[[HighVoltageDeath give [Jim] the current]]".
** Two crooks who have captured Perry and Lois (and who have previously threatened to kill all four members of the ''Planet'' staff) ask Perry how he'd describe the route if he were telling Jimmy how to get to that house.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Perry, a former reporter who's probably had to deal with people trying to kill him before, realizes that the only reason they'd ask this is to record his voice for a trick phone call to Jimmy.\\
'''Instead''': He describes the route. Jimmy is almost killed when his acid-eaten brakes give out.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Creator/GeorgeReeves died less than two months after the series' last episode aired. At the time, almost all his career options involved playing Superman, a role he had come to tire of (he reportedly never liked the job to begin with, seeing as it was the 1950s and neither TV nor comic book superheroes were seen as the potential money makers and career franchise builders they are now). Thus, the exchange between Jimmy and Superman in the show was chillingly prophetic:

** Two villains get caught by Superman. One tries to shoot him, to no effect. Superman demands to know, "What have you done with [[{{Protectorate}} Jim Olsen]]?"\\

** Two crooks who have captured Perry and Lois (and who have previously said that they are going to kill all four members of the ''Planet'' staff) ask Perry how he'd describe the route if he were telling Jimmy how to get to that house.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Perry realizes that the only reason they'd ask this is to record his voice for a trick phone call to Jimmy.\\

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The famous "[[TheKlan Clan of the Fiery Cross]]" storyline perhaps pulled this trope off mores successfully than any other. The story managed to lay out the dangers of the Klu Klux Klan without appearing preachy, emphasized that minorities and immigrants ''were'' trustworthy Americans to the white audience, and even portrayed Klan leaders as conmen more interested in manipulating racists for financial gain, rather than for racist ideals. The result was a show that helped lead to the disbandment of the Klan in the face of overwhelming ridicule from the entire nation.

** The storyline more than once [[NotSoDifferent compares the Klan to]] [[GodwinsLaw the Nazis]]. As Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups have become increasingly tied with the Neo Nazis, this comparison proved highly prophetic.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Superman actor George Reeves died less than two months after the series' last episode aired. At the time, almost all his career options involved playing Superman, a role he had come to tire of (he reportedly never liked the job to begin with, seeing as it was the 1950s and neither TV nor comic book superheroes were seen as the potential money makers and career franchise builders they are now). Thus, the exchange between Jimmy and Superman in the show was chillingly prophetic:

* PlotHole: In the first/pilot episode, the rocket carrying the infant Kal-El explodes and burns after the Kents get him out. While the rocket seems to indicate he is from another world, there is no way and certainly no leftover tech to confirm this, let alone the name of the planet the baby came from. This Superman may never have heard his parents' names, or his own birth name, yet somehow, later on, he seems to know at least about Krypton.

** Superman states TheKlan [[NotSoDifferent like]] [[GodwinsLaw the Nazis]]. As Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups have become increasingly tied with the Neo Nazis, his words proved highly prophetic.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The famous "[[TheKlan Clan of the Fiery Cross]]" storyline perhaps pulled this trope off mores successfully than any other. The story managed to lay out the dangers of the UsefulNotes/KluKluxKlan without appearing preachy, emphasized that minorities and immigrants ''were'' trustworthy Americans to the white audience, and even portrayed Klan leaders as conmen more interested in manipulating racists for financial gain, rather than for racist ideals. The result was a show that helped lead to the disbandment of the Klan in the face of overwhelming ridicule from the entire nation.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheDon Lou Cranek]], from season 1's "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS1E8TheMindMachine The Mind Machine]]", is a major crime boss being investigated by a Senate subcommittee for his illegal activities. Cranek kidnaps a scientist named Edward Stanton and steals a device Stanton invented that would use hypnosis to help mental patients. Cranek, who wants Stanton to use the machine as a MindControlDevice, forces Stanton by knife point to force his former accountant to [[JuryAndWitnessTampering change his testimony]] in front of the committee. The accountant then goes insane, hijacks a bus with school children on it and nearly drives it over a cliff. Superman saves the children, but the accountant dies, the machine having destroyed his mind. Cranek uses the machine to silence and kill 2 other witnesses. When confronted with these deaths by Stanton, Cranek states he does not care and will use the machine himself when Stanton refuses to. Cranek plans to kill Stanton after he no longer needs him and plans to use the machine to silence the final witness against him, Lois Lane.

* PlotHole: In the first/pilot episode, the rocket carrying the infant Kal-El explodes and burns after the Kents get him out. While the rocket seems to indicate he is from another world, there is no way and certainly no leftover tech to confirm this, let alone the name of the planet the baby came from. This Superman may never have heard his parents' name, or his own birth name, yet somehow, later on, he seems to know at least about Krypton.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Superman actor George Reeves died less then two months after the series' last episode aired. At the time, almost all his career options involved playing Superman, a role he had come to tire of (he reportedly never liked the job to begin with, seeing as it was the 1950s and neither TV nor comic book superheroes were seen as the potential money makers and career franchise builders they are now). Thus, the exchange between Jimmy and Superman in the show was chillingly prophetic:

* CompleteMonster: [[TheDon Lou Cranek]], from season 1's "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS1E8TheMindMachine The Mind Machine]]", is a major crime boss being investigated by a Senate subcommittee for his illegal activities. Cranek kidnaps a scientist named Edward Stanton and steals a device Stanton invented that would use hypnosis to help mental patients. Cranek, who wants Stanton to use the machine as a MindControlDevice, forces Stanton by knife point to force his former accountant to [[WitnessTampering change his testimony]] in front of the committee. The accountant then goes insane, hijacks a bus with school children on it and nearly drives it over a cliff. Superman saves the children, but the accountant dies, the machine having destroyed his mind. Cranek uses the machine to silence and kill 2 other witnesses. When confronted with these deaths by Stanton, Cranek states he does not care and will use the machine himself when Stanton refuses to. Cranek plans to kill Stanton after he no longer needs him and plans to use the machine to silence the final witness against him, Lois Lane.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** Reeves was trying desperately to avoid this trope, but sadly even his death cemented it.
** To a lesser degree, Jack Larson tried to avoid being known too much as ComicBook/JimmyOlsen, but it didn't work.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:
** An episode is spent trying to prevent crooks from misusing a scientist's new supercomputer (an "electronic brain" in those days) to deduce Superman's secret identity. After they've been stopped, the scientist (played by Sterling Holloway) is alone with the machine and realizes he wants to know the answer himself, so he asks it. Its answer is a strip of ticker tape that says, "[[SnarkyInanimateObject Wouldn't you like to know!]]"
** This moment from "The Mysterious Cube":
-->'''Steve Barton''': [[IHaveYourWife We need to get some insurance [against Superman's interference].]]
-->'''Jody''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Do they sell that kind of stuff?]]

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: An episode is spent trying to prevent crooks from misusing a scientist's new supercomputer (an "electronic brain" in those days) to deduce Superman's secret identity. After they've been stopped, the scientist (played by Sterling Holloway) is alone with the machine and realizes he wants to know the answer himself, so he asks it. Its answer is a strip of ticker tape that says, "[[SnarkyInanimateObject Wouldn't you like to know!]]"

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
** In the above mentioned episode about the gangster and his moll, Clark Kent, not Superman, is shown using his super powers in his civilian guise - breaking down doors, roughing up bad guys, and grinning as bullets bounce off him as Clark.
** The radio series had a meta crowning moment with the Clan of the Fiery Cross arc, where Superman took on the KKK: armed with real KKK secrets obtained from Stetson Kennedy, it did so much to strip the mystique and perceived "respectability" from the Klan that it managed to seriously reduce the organization's recruitment and derail its' then-current rise in popularity.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: In the above mentioned episode about the gangster and his moll, Clark Kent, not Superman, is shown using his super powers in his civilian guise - breaking down doors, roughing up bad guys, and grinning as bullets bounce off him as Clark.