I never grew up on Superman like so many of my friends did. My initial introduction to him was on the TV show Smallville, and even then Clark Kent was hardly my favorite character. Lois & Clark is the first media format I have seen that makes Clark Kent extremely likable, and a worthy nemesis for the charismatic Lex Luthor.

Metropolis. It's a far cry from the corn fields of Smallville, Kansas, where gifted Clark Kent (Dean Cain) grew up. The busy city is fraught with possibilities, from runaway buses to diabolical villains, and home of Clark's dream job at the Daily Planet, the largest and most thriving newspaper in the surrounding territories. Its overworked editor Perry White (Lane Smith) is attempting to keep his star reporter, Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) under control. Her ambitious tactics often leave coworkers Jimmy (Michael Landes) and Cat (Tracy Scoggins) in the dust. Unimpressed with the charismatic Clark Kent, she is hardly pleased when Perry asks her to take the new journalist beneath her wing and teach him the ropes. Whether it's scooping him or taking his byline, Lois manages to get under his skin and somehow worm her way into his heart.

Clark, in the meanwhile, must contend with city life, a place where people are constantly in need of rescuing but a little too intelligent to not notice the similarities between their rescuer and a local reporter. Enlisting the assistance of his mother (K Callan) to make him a super hero suit, the caped crusader takes to the skies and becomes Metropolis' latest big story -- and even bigger mystery. Multi-billionaire businessman Lex Luthor (John Shea) is particularly intrigued with this super-human that swoops in to save the day. He seems impenetrable to just about everything the playful tycoon and his associates can throw at him. After being rescued by "Superman," Lois too becomes enthralled, so much so that she ignores the shy crush of her coworker, Clark Kent. Fit with a sense of humor and the ability not to take itself too seriously, this series is charming. It seems a bit corny in the beginning and some of the ridiculousness lingers through following episodes, but the charm of the cast, the sweetness of its hero, the positive delight that can be taken in Lex's diabolical nature, and the romance as it builds between Lane and Kent make it marvelous.

The humor involved is often droll and dry to the point of being narcissistic, which is a perfect foil for Lex to work with. One particularly morbid but amusing scene has him musing on how tiring it is to order someone be eliminated, because it is nothing more than proof that you cannot control them any other way, thereby implying he has failed to live up to his full evil potential, and is ashamed of himself. The characters are colorful to the extreme. Audiences will adore Editor in Chief Perry White, who has an Elvis-related story for every situation. (Seeing him dressed up as "The King" is not to be missed.) Many of these episodes inspired adventures for Smallville, but these have less to do with kryptonite-invested bad guys than intelligent villains out to rule the world through science. There is adorable stuff herein... one episode features a stake-out where Clark and Lois must share the same hotel room; another has Lex Luthor gagging in the background while Lois plants a hot kiss on Superman. There also isn't much content to be concerned with. A handful of profanities throughout the entire season, and violence customary to the genre (explosions, people being knocked over the head, fist fights and disarming karate movements; fencing foils are used to draw blood in lovers' quarrels). Jimmy takes Clark to visit a psychic in the hopes of discerning the whereabouts of Superman after he goes missing.

There are sexual implications in some of the episodes. Cat is very interested in Clark Kent right from the beginning, making constant plays for him and progressing to flirtation. She invites him back to her place for "dinner," but he hurries off at the first opportunity. It's implied she's carrying on various sexual relationships with coworkers and friends. In one episode, everyone in the office is sprayed with a love potion. Lois comes on to Clark, Cat gets frisky with a repair man in the office, and a very married Perry White tries to woo the cleaning lady (without success). It's implied Lex has a succession of lovers, but we never see anything intimate. Jonathan Kent (Eddie Jones) is concerned his wife is having an affair, and flirts a female training instructor. Clark briefly spies on Lois changing clothes through a wall (the audience doesn't see anything). Some of the leading ladies' outfits are rather revealing. There's some mild sexual banter on occasion.

From the two-hour premiere episode to the final kryptonite-laced conclusion, the series features a succession of marvelous guest appearances and witty dialogue. My personal favorite appearances were Tony Jay (the voice of the villainous Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame) as Lex's personal butler and all-around bad guy, and Richard Beltzer as the police inspector, preceding his role as Detective Munch on Homicide and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. While it does require a little leniency in terms of the limited production values of the early nineties, and sometimes delightfully corny dialogue, most fans would love to curl up for an afternoon and spend a few hours with The Daily Planet's top reporters, Lois & Clark.