‘Smallville’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ creators know the drill: ‘People tune in to watch you fail’
May 20, 2011 | 5:08 p.m.Al Gough and Miles Millar (Prime PR)
Sentimental fans bade farewell to “Smallville” last week, but Al Gough and Miles Millar, the creators and original executive producers of the show, said goodbye back in 2008 when they exited after seven seasons. That didn’t really sap any of the emotion they felt watching the series finale and Tom Welling’s final performance as Clark Kent after a decade in the role.
“You don’t go into any TV show thinking it’s going to last a decade,” Gough said. “There are so many hurdles to overcome just getting a pilot to air. You’re doing it season to season and it’s hard to see the big picture in a way. I went back to my old high school about two years ago and there were kids there that were 17 and had been watching the show since they were 7 or 8. You realize that for this generation, for many of them, your work is their interpretation of Superman. For young people, you have given them their version of Superman and for some fanboys of the future, this will be the canon, which is funny to think about considering how much heat we got at the beginning.”
From left, "Smallville" stars Erica Durance as Lois Lane, Sam Witwer as Davis Bloome, Aaron Ashmore as Jimmy Olsen, Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan, Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Cassidy Freeman as Tess and Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen. (Frank Ockenfels/The CW)
Millar added that “there was so much hate” in the months leading up to the show’s premiere, most of it aimed at the tone of the series, which some would describe as “Dawson’s Creek” with super powers. The idea that “Smallville” was daring to tinker with — or subvert — the clearly defined mythology of Superman presumes that there is a clearly defined mythology. The truth is that since 1938 every aspect of the hero has been tinkered with month to month in the comics with changes both big and small to the hero’s personality, costume, origin story, supporting cast, career, powers and visage.
“What gave us confidence was reading the history and realizing that Superman has always evolved and sometimes radically so,” Millar said. “And this was just the latest evolution, and one needed to make him credible and relatable to a new generation. The challenge of the show was finding what he would do every week. He’s in h
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