Development
Originally, Tollin/Robbins Productions wanted to do a series about a young Bruce Wayne. The feature film division of Warner Bros. had decided to develop an origin movie for Batman, and because they did not want to compete with a television series, the series idea was nixed. In 2000, Tollin/Robbins approached Peter Roth, the President of Warner Bros. Television, about developing a series based on a young Superman. That same year, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar developed a pilot based on the film Eraser. After watching the pilot, Roth approached the two men about developing a second pilot, based on the young Superman concept brought to him. After meeting with Roth, Gough and Millar decided they did not want to do a series where there was lots of flying, and a cape. It was here Gough and Millar developed their „no tights, no flights” rule, vowing Clark would not, at any point, fly nor don the Superman suit during the run of the show.
Gough and Millar wanted to strip Superman down to his „bare essence”, and explore the reasons behind Clark Kent becoming Superman. They felt the fact they were not comic book fans played into their favor; not being familiar with the universe would allow them an unbiased approach to the series. However, this did not keep them from learning about the characters, as they both did research on the comics and picked and rearranged what they liked. They returned and pitched their idea to both The WB and FOX on the same day. A bidding war ensued between FOX and The WB; the latter won out with a commitment of thirteen episodes to start.
Roth, Gough, and Millar knew the show was going to be action-oriented, but they wanted to be able to reach „middle America iconography” 7th Heaven had reached. To help create this atmosphere, the team decided the meteor shower bringing Clark to Earth would be the foundation for the franchise of the show. Not only does it act as the primary source behind the creation of the super-powered beings Clark must fight, but it acts as a sense of irony in Clark’s life. The meteor shower would give him a life on Earth, but it would also take away the parents of the girl he loves, and start Lex Luthor down a dark path, thanks to the loss of his hair during the shower. Roth loved the conflict that was created for Clark, in forcing him to deal with the fact his arrival is what caused all the pain.
Another problem the creators had to grapple with was the question of why Lex Luthor would be socializing with teenagers. To address this, they decided to create a sense of loneliness in the character of Lex Luthor, which they felt would require him to reach out to the teens.The loneliness was echoed in Clark and Lana as well. Gough and Millar wanted to provide a parallel to the Kents, so they created Lionel Luthor, Lex’s father, which they saw as the „experiment in extreme parenting.” They wanted a younger Kent couple, because they felt they needed to be able to be involved in Clark’s life, and help him through his journey. Chloe Sullivan, another character created just for the show, was meant to be the „outsider” the show needed. Gough and Millar felt the character was necessary so someone would notice the strange happenings in Smallville. She was not meant to act as a „precursor to Lois Lane„.
The concept of Smallville has been described by Warner Brothers as being a reinterpretation of the Superman mythology from its roots. Since the November 2004 reacquisition of Superboy by the Siegel family, there has arisen contention regarding a possible copyright infringement. The dispute is over ownership of the fictional town of Smallville, title setting of the show, and a claimed similarity between Superboy‘s title character and Smallville‘s Clark Kent. The heirs of Jerry Siegel claim „Smallville is part of the Superboy copyright,” of which the Siegels own the rights.
Crew changes
On April 3, 2008, after seven seasons with the show, Gough and Millar announced they would be leaving Smallville. The developers, after thanking the cast and crew for all their hard work, acknowledged they never stopped fighting for what they saw as „their vision” of the show. A specific reason for their departure was not given. Gough and Millar were replaced as showrunners by Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. All four had joined the crew at the start of the second season as writers and worked their way up to executive producers by the seventh season. On February 6, 2009, after only one season, the L.A. Times confirmed executive producers Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin would not be returning for a ninth season of Smallville; instead, the pair would take over The CW’s new series Melrose Place. The Times also reported Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson would continue on as showrunners when Smallville starts its ninth season. On July 24, 2009, it was announced Tom Welling had become a co-executive producer of the series.On March 26, 2010, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Millar and Gough, alongside co-producer Tollin/Robins Production, had filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. and The CW. The lawsuit contests that Hollywood’s „vertical integration” cost the pair millions of dollars. The suit claims that Warner Bros. failed to „maximize profits” while marketing Smallville, misrepresenting production costs, and selling the show in foreign markets at „well below the value of the series”. At this time, the lawsuit does not specify how much the plaintiffs are looking for in compensation. In a press release by The CW on a May 20, 2010, Tom Welling was credited to have become a full executive producer for the tenth and final season of the series.
Filming
The show is produced at BB Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia. Initially, production was going to be in Australia, but Vancouver had more of a „Middle America landscape”. The city provided a site for the Kent farm, as well as doubling for Metropolis. It also provided a cheaper shooting location, and was in the same time zone as Los Angeles. „Main street” Smallville is at a combination of two locations. Portions were shot in the town of Merritt, and the rest was shot in Cloverdale. Cloverdale is particularly proud of being a filming site for the show; at its entrance is a sign which reads „Home of Smallville.”
Vancouver Technical School doubled as the exterior for Smallville High, as the film makers believed Van Tech had the „mid-American largess” they wanted. This kept in-line with Millar’s idea Smallville should be the epitome of „Smalltown, USA”. The interiors of Templeton Secondary School were used for Smallville High’s interior. Over the course of season one, the production team repainted most of Templeton in Smallville High’s red and yellow colors, and stuck large Smallville High Crows logos everywhere. The team painted over so much of the school that the school eventually adopted them as their official school colors. The students became so accustomed to the filming crew, which had to shoot during the school semester, that when class was released the filmmakers would stand aside and the students would casually move the filming equipment aside to get to their lockers, and then venture to their next class without paying the crew much attention.
The Kent farm is a real farm located in Aldergrove. Owned by The Anderlinis, the production crew had to paint their home yellow for the show. Exterior shots of Luthor Mansion were filmed at Hatley Castle in Victoria. The interior shots were done at Shannon Mews, in Vancouver, which was also the set for the Dark Angel pilot and Along Came a Spider.Movie house Clova Cinema, in Cloverdale, is used for exterior shots of The Talon, the show’s coffee house.
The show is told from Clark’s point of view, so the color scheme and camera selection of the show is an illustration of Clark’s interpretation of his environment. When he is safe at home the colors used to illustrate the environment are „warm and gentle”, with an earth tone; the camera movement is also „very gentle”. When Clark is keeping his secret, but there is no danger around, the lighting is more neutral and the camera moves around more. When there is danger the lighting becomes colder, and the camera shifts to a handheld to allow for more „extreme angles”. With Metropolis, the crew attempts to instill the image of a „clean, hard-lined architecture”, with blues, purples, and reflective metallics used as the dominating color of the scenery. The same concept is used for the characters. Lex is usually given a „glass, steel background”, while Lionel receives a white or „clinical blue” background. Lex typically wears a lot of black, grey, and „cool tones” like purples and blues. Clark is represented by red, yellow and blue, like the traditional Superman costume. He is also represented by the colors of the „All American”, red, white, and blue.
Music
Composer Mark Snow worked in tandem with producer Ken Horton to create the underscore for the show. Snow created his music on the spot, as he watched the picture, and then tweaked his performance upon reviewing the recordings from his initial play. He then sent the music to the producers, who decided if they liked it or not; if not, then they sent it back and he recomposed. Episodes also feature their own soundtrack, comprising one or more songs by musical bands. Jennifer Pyken and Madonna Wade-Reed of Daisy Music work on finding these songs for the show’s soundtrack. Pyken and Wade-Reed’s choices are then discussed by the producers, who decide which songs they want and organize the process of securing the licensing rights to the songs. Although Snow admits it initially seemed odd to combine the two musical sounds on a „typical action-adventure” television show, he admits „the producers seem to like the contrast of the modern songs and the traditional, orchestral approach to the score”.
| „I get a locked picture on a videotape which syncs up with all my gear in the studio. I write the music, finish it up, mix it up, send it through the airwaves on the internet, and the music editor puts it in. They call up usually and say, ‘Thank you, well done.’ Sometimes they call and say, ‘Thank you, not so well done—can you change this or that?’ I say ‘Sure,’ make the changes and send it back.” |
| — Mark Snow on creating music for each episode |
The main theme to Smallville is not a score composed by Snow, who is used to composing the opening themes as well, like he did for The X-Files, but the single „Save Me” by Remy Zero. Although Snow did not compose the theme song for the opening credits, he did compose one for the closing credits. The closing credits music is composed based on how it represents the theme of the show. In the first two seasons, the music playing during the closing credits was one of the potential theme songs for the series, before Remy Zero’s „Save Me” was selected. The melody was more „heroic” and „in-your-face”. Mark Snow was told during season two the closing credits needed new music, as they no longer represented where the show had evolved to. Snow created a new score, which was toned down, and featured a more „melodic” tune.Snow has also recomposed music from the previous Superman films. John Williams‘ musical score for the Krypton sequence in the opening credits of Superman was used in both season two’s „Rosetta”, which featured a guest appearance by Christopher Reeve, as well as various times in the season two finale. In order to save money, Mark Snow recorded his own version of John Williams’ score, as using the original version would have required the team to pay Williams’ orchestra as well.
In a May 23, 2008 interview with Randall Larson, Mark Snow revealed he would not be returning to perform the music duties, citing the work load of Smallville and The Ghost Whisperer as being too much for him. Snow did state he would be returning for The Ghost Whisperer. While reminiscing on his work with the show, Snow indicated much of the music had not really changed throughout the series, agreeing with Larson’s description it was „more [about] maintaining the heroic concept and the mythology than progressing through specific changes”.Louis Febre, who worked closely with Snow from the beginning, became the sole composer for Smallville beginning with season seven. Febre commented that since he began composing for Smallville there has been more of a shift to „thematic development” of the score, which would parallel the growth of the characters. Febre stated, „As Clark grew emotionally and intellectually more complex, I found a need to comment musically on his growth, and as he drew closer to his Superman persona, it became obvious that a ‘Superman’ theme would be required.”
At various times the creative team have had the chance to try different musical tones to enhance the story of an episode. In season three’s „Slumber”, producer Ken Horton wondered if they could get a single band to provide all the music for the entire episode. During a breakfast meeting with the music department at Warner Brothers, the topic of band R.E.M. rose up, and Jennifer Pyken and Madonna Wade-Reed immediately saw an opportunity to connect the episode’s featured band with the episode’s story, which happened to revolve around REM sleep. That same season, Al Gough wanted to use Johnny Cash’s „Hurt” for the final scene of „Shattered”—where Lionel Luthor stares at Lex through a one-way mirror at Belle Reve sanitarium—from the moment he first read the script for the episode. As Madonna Wade-Reed was trying to get the song cleared for use Cash died; believing the use of the song for the show would honor his memory, Cash’s heirs cleared the rights for Smallville.
For season three’s „Resurrection” and „Memoria”, songs were chosen particularly to provide symbolism for the characters in the scene. In „Resurrection”, The Rapture’s „Infatuation” was used during a scene involving Lex and Lana; the point of the song was to symbolize the idea of, „Are we ever going to figure out what these two people think of each other?” For „Memoria”, Gough came up with the idea of using Evanescence‘s „My Immortal” for the final scene of the episode. Gough informed Wade-Reed as soon as he began working on the script what song he wanted to use for the closing scene, as he saw the song as being symbolically about mothers, and in that scene Clark is telling Martha his first memory as a child was of his biological mother, Lara.
Season three’s „Velocity” provided the music editors with the opportunity to use a style of music they would normally not use on the show. As the episode was similar to The Fast and the Furious, as well as being primarily focused on the only black character on the show, Pete, Madonna Wade-Reed was able to use a more hip-hop sound, which worked well with the story. Reed had heard of a British hip-hop artist named Dizzee Rascal, and became the first person in the United States to secure the licensing rights to use Rascal’s album. Beeman is known for directing episodes, and sometimes specific scenes, with particular songs in mind. For „Vortex” in season two, it was the Coldplay song for the final scene; Beeman directed the scene where Lana shows up at the Kent barn, just before Lex’s wedding, to the Matthew Good’s „Weapon”. In the song, the lyrics speak of an angel and the Devil by my side, and Beeman had directed Welling and Kreuk in a way timing specific shots with specific moments in the lyrics. When the talents of Pyken and Wade-Reed are not put to use, Mark Snow and Louis Febre supply all of the music for the episodes.
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