Why did George Reeves have such an impact as Superman?
There are a bunch of reasons. Going back to the original show, this was the first time when a super hero, in this case not just A super hero but THE super hero, was coming into your home. That was unique in the early days of TV. As a child you dont distinguish much between reality and what you see on TV and for that half hour once a week something happened that had never happened in the history of mankind….a human being came into your house and he is the most all powerful being. And this man is kind and charming and does the ultimate father thing that any child would hope for – he lets you in on the secret that only you and he know. There was a wink that every child thought was just for them. Even though Reeves was unhappy doing this part I think his ironic detachment was two fold…he was laughing up his sleeve at the part, but what a child saw was him saying he was not Clark Kent and only he and the child knew that. So that natural ironic distance that Reeves had to the part had a
