Trivia / Superman: The Animated Series

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Tim Daly said the reason he signed on to do Superman's voice in this series was because he thought it would be fun to play a superhero in a superhero cartoon. He later said he underestimated just how difficult voice acting for a superhero, especially one of Superman's stature, would be.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Clancy Brown originally auditioned for the part of Clark Kent. According to Bruce Timm, when he was asked to portray Lex Luthor instead, Brown's initial response was this.
  Brown: Am I EVER going to get a chance to play a good guy?
• Creator Backlash:
  • Although they all praise the performance of the voice-actors (especially Jimmy Olsen's VA, David Kaufman), the production team has a very low opinion of "Superman's Pal", an episode of the third season focusing heavily on Jimmy Olsen.
  • They have a low opinion of "Little Big Head Man", which they felt tried and failed to recapture the success of the earlier Mxyzptlk episode.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Paul Dini named "Mxyzpixilated" as his favourite episode.
• Creator's Pest: Bruce Timm stated in his Modern Masters book that he and the staff never like Professor Hamilton in the first place, which is why they went out of their way to make the audience hate him as much as they did.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The production team wanted Kara to be Kara Zor-El, Superman's actual cousin, but an edict in the comics at the time mandated that Superman was the only survivor of Krypton, hence why she was made a native of Krypton's sister planet instead.
  • Originally, Ma and Pa Kent were supposed to die in "Apokolips... Now", but DC said that if they were killed they would need to be brought back to life later. Unwilling to walk down that path, the target was shifted to a different character.
• Licensed Game: There are a total of four video game tie-ins.
  • A lesser-known Game Boy game.
  • Superman 64, which has a reputation for being one of the worst video games ever.
  • Superman: Shadow of Apokolips
  • Superman: Countdown to Apokolips, a Game Boy Advance prequel to the previous game.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Gspltsnz was voiced by Sandra Bernhard in her first appearance and by Jennifer Hale in her second.
  • Mala was voiced by Leslie Easterbrook in her first appearance and by Sarah Douglas in her second.
  • Olivia Hussey replaces Helen Slater as Talia Al Ghul (who voiced her back in Batman: The Animated Series), which she would continue playing for her appearance in Batman Beyond.
  • Because the Brazilian Portuguese dub was handled in São Paulo by the studio Centauro, none of the Batman characters that appear on the show have their original voice actors, as the dub for Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures was handled in Rio de Janeiro by the studio Herbert Richers:
    • Affonso Amajones voices Batman instead of either Márcio Seixas (TAS) or Maurício Berger (TNBA).
    • Figueira Júnior voices Robin instead of Robson Richers.
    • Carlos Silveira voices the Joker instead of Darcy Pedrosa.
    • Márcia Regina voices Harley Quinn instead of either Iara Riça or Élida L’astorina (who originally voiced Harley in TNBA until Riça came back for the role).
    • Alexandre Marconato voices the Riddler instead of either Élcio Romar (TAS) or Jorge Rosa (TNBA).
    • Ivo Roberto voices the Mad Hatter instead of either Márcio Simões or Sérgio Muniz (who originally voiced the Hatter in TNBA until Simões came back for the role).
    • Bruno Rocha (who would later move to Rio de Janeiro) voices Bane instead of either Ricardo Schnetzer (TAS) or Alfredo Martins (TNBA).
    • Sidney Lilla ("World's Finest") and João Ângelo ("Knight Time") voices Commisioner Gordon instead of either Isaac Bardavid, Roberto Macedo (TAS) or Orlando Drummond (TNBA).
    • Emerson Caperbat voices Harvey Bullock instead of either José Santa Cruz (TAS and one episode of TNBA), André Bellisar or Samir Murad (TNBA).
• The Pete Best: Charlie Schlatter voices the Wally West version of The Flash for his guest appearance in "Speed Demons," as opposed to Michael Rosenbaum for Justice League, who provided Wally's voice for that show's entire five-year run. Schlatter would eventually go on to be better associated voicing the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash, including providing his voice in The Batman, Justice League Action, and the LEGO Batman video games.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Christopher McDonald was long known for villainous roles when he was cast as Jor-El.
  • Robert Patrick, who usually plays tough guys and badasses, played a sleazy Paper Tiger criminal in "Feeding Time".
  • In "Where There's Smoke", William H. Macy, who specializes in playing The Chew Toy, voice a Captain Ersatz of Professor X.
• Promoted Fanboy: Christopher McDonald is a big Superman fan.
• Real-Life Relative: Ma and Pa Kent's voice actors (Mike Farrell and Shelley Fabares) are married in real life.
• Recast as a Regular: Dana Delany provided the voice of Bruce Wayne's love interest Andrea Beaumont in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm before going on to do the voice of Lois Lane for Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League.
• Role Reprise: "Feeding Time" sees Mel Winkler reprise his Lois & Clark role as William Henderson (albeit here, according to the credits, at the character's then-current rank in the comics as Metropolis's police commissioner).
• Screwed by the Network: In the UK, due to ITV not completing its run of the series, and as ITV had the first run rights for the UK, the UK Cartoon Network couldn't pick it up until ITV had shown the remaining episodes. They never did, either on their own, not as part of another show (which was how Batman: The Animated Series was first shown before getting its own slot).
• Technology Marches On: When Clark investigated a murder case in "The Late Mr. Kent", the suspect's alibi was that he was eating pizza at the time of the murder. Clark went to the pizza restaurant and the owner gave him the backup of all his transactions, which was a pile of 3 1/2 floppy disks.
• Unfinished Episode:
  • There were some thoughts of having Captain Marvel appear in the series, possibly in an episode that would also introduce the Justice League, but a combination of rights issues and not wanting to introduce the Justice League out of nowhere put an end to it.
  • A Wonder Woman guest appearance was pitched, but it never materialized.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Word of Gay: Maggie Sawyer was confirmed to be a lesbian, as she is in the comics. Even though the creators knew they could never get away with stating it on the show they managed to slip in a scene where she's visited by her female partner in the hospital.

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