Trivia / Superman Theatrical Cartoons

• Edited for Syndication: Due to the shorts being Public Domain, they were some of the earliest programming the Disney Channel used to regularly play in its early days from the 80's through the early 90's. Because they would air three shorts together in half-hour blocks, this meant they only played the "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!" crawl and the opening narration explaining Superman's backstory and powers during the first short and removed them from the other two shorts that followed, since it would be redundant to play them for all three shorts in a row.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: In 'The Mad Scientist', after Lois goes off to pursue the story Clark asks Perry "Chief, don't you think that's a... dangerous mission?". On the internet, apocryphal information had sprung up that the line was originally "Chief, don't you think that's a dangerous mission for a woman?". Not only has there been no evidence of this edit across various copies, but every reference of this rumor has been in anecdotes across various comment sections and online forum posts.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: It is because of this show that we picture Superman as being able to fly. In the earliest comics, Superman couldn't fly, he could just jump really high (hence "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"). However, trying to animate Superman jumping into the air proved to be far more of a challenge than simply having him strike a dramatic pose and then levitate into the air. While he could previously fly in the radio serial, the visual image of Superman flying into the air became instantly iconic; the ability thus transferred over to the comic and engrained the visual into the public consciousness, and now flight is tied with his laser eyes for his most iconic superpower.

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