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Seasons 5 and 6 mark a subtle but welcome shift away from police procedural towards threats more befitting the attention of a super hero. Though there are still a number of routine episodes centered around garden variety felonies, even something as bland as an arson investigation (Episode 5.7, Money to Burn) is rendered intriguing by the twist: two villains use the cover of a mobile lunch wagon, 'The Fireman's Friend', to steal $12,000 from The Daily Planet payroll. In The Town That Wasn't (Episode 5.3), writer Wilton Schiller constructed a plot device that would have made The Avengers' Brian Clemens green with envy - a mobile town used by crooks as a speed trap - and in the very last episode of them all, All That Glitters, Jimmy and Lois bend steel with their bare hands and leap across tall buildings thanks to some very special 'anti-Kryptonite' tablets!

Considerable - some might say over-effusive - praise has been heaped on the series' beloved cast members over the years, including upon my own personal favorite, John Hamilton (lovable sourpuss editor Perry White). As mentioned above, I prefer the icy Phyllis Coates to Noel Neill as Lois Lane, but you won't hear a word of criticism from me about Jack Larson, perfectly cast as clueless shutterbug Jimmy Olsen. As for Robert Shayne (Inspector Henderson), he must have had a pretty sweet contract deal, as his name appears in every credit crawl, though he only actually appears in 25 of the series' 104 episodes. Some of the other actors who helped make the series a successful one also deserve belated acknowledgement, including plug ugly Ben Welden (eight appearances as thick-skulled but ultimately kindly henchmen), Sterling Holloway (briefly a series regular in Seasons 2 & 3), and dear old Phil Tead (Professor Pepperwinkle in half a dozen Season 5 & 6 outings.)

As far as extras go, they're lean on the Season 1 and 2 set and near non-existent by Season 5 and 6. Commentaries featured on several of the black and white episodes (The Haunted Lighthouse, The Stolen Costume) are provided by super-fans Gary Grossman and Chuck Harter, as well as by Noel Neill and Jack Larson, but there are no commentaries after Season 2. That may be a blessing of sorts, however, as the commentary tracks we DO get are strictly of the fawning variety, and provide very little in the way of interesting production information or backstage tidbits. The Season 3/4 box includes a pair of brief featurettes, Faster Than A Speeding Bullet: The Special Effects, and Adventures of Superman: The Color Era, and the Season 5/6 box includes a short but fairly interesting segment entitled The Boy Who Knew Superman, which focuses on the career of actor Jack Larson. After that, all we get is a teaser for a new videogame, which probably isn't going to interest most of the baby boomers who are the target demographic for these sets.

These attractively packaged discs are sunnily nostalgic tributes to Superman and George Reeves, with nary a hint of the actor's untimely demise and no discussion of interesting if arcane technical quirks such as the tattered and torn intro sequence or the color 'dimming' that marks scene transitions. For fans of Superman, Reeves, or early television in general, however, these discs remain essential purchases. Others, however, will still get a kick out of some of Superman's more outre adventures, and for those folks, a rental will probably suffice.

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