Smallville season 1

Smallville Season 1
Season 1
DVD cover art
No. of episodes	21
Release
Original network	The WB
Original release	October 16, 2001 – May 21, 2002
Season chronology

Season one of Smallville, an American television series, began airing on October 16, 2001 on The WB. The first season concluded on May 21, 2002, after 21 episodes. The series was developed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Season one regular cast members included Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Annette O'Toole, John Schneider, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, and Eric Johnson as Whitney Fordman. The first season centers around Martha and Jonathan Kent (O'Toole and Schneider) trying to help their adopted son, Clark (Welling), cope with his alien origins, and control his developing abilities. Clark has to deal with the meteor infected individuals that begin popping up all over Smallville, his love for Lana Lang (Kreuk), and not being able to tell the two people that mean the most to him, Pete Ross (Jones III) and Chloe Sullivan (Mack), the truth about who he really is. Clark also becomes best friends with Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum).

Smallville is primarily filmed in Vancouver, Canada, with post-production work taking place in Los Angeles. Al Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators of the show, devised several concepts to help establish stories from week to week. Of these concepts, villain of the week storylines were predominantly used for the first season. The effects used became an important component of the first season. Gough and Millar used computer-generated imagery to illustrate the varying degree of Clark's powers, and the effects of kryptonite on Clark and the "villain of the week". This was done to allow viewers, who may not have been familiar with the character, to better understand the physical changes taking place. CGI was not the only effect added to the first season; physical and make-up effects were also used. Quick shooting schedules would sometimes force guest actors to perform their own stunts, and the series regulars were more than willing to do stunt work. The episode budgets had to be kept on a stricter guideline, as the show frequently ran over budget in the first half of the season.

When the season first aired, the pilot broke several WB viewership records, and was nominated for awards. After opening with a record breaking performance by the pilot, the rest of the season finished strongly in the ratings, and went on to win several awards as a whole. The critical reception was generally favorable, although the "villain of the week" storylines were criticized. This was recognized by producers, who asserted that an effort would be made to curve this structure for season two.

Episodes

Title	Writer(s)	Director(s)	Airdate	Ep. #
"Pilot"	Alfred Gough & Miles Millar	David Nutter	October 16, 2001	1
A meteor shower hits in Smallville and with it a little boy. Twelve years later, adopted by Martha and Jonathan Kent, Clark struggles to understand who he is. After saving Lex Luthor from a car crash, the two become quick friends. Jonathan informs Clark he is from another planet, and the revelation causes him to flee his home. After sharing an intimate moment which Lana Lang, Clark is forced into a school hazing ritual. Jeremy Creek, a teenage boy who was left in a coma after the first meteor shower, wakes up and sets out to get revenge on those that hurt him. Afterward, he sets out to do the same to the rest of the Smallville High students, but Clark arrives in time to stop him.
"Metamorphosis"	Alfred Gough & Miles Millar	Michael Watkins & Philip Sgriccia	October 23, 2001	2
Greg Arkin is obsessed with Lana Lang, and his collection of meteor rock-irradiated insects. Greg gets into a car accident with his insects, which get free from their containers and begin stinging and transforming him into a half man/half insect creature. Rapidly going through a metamorphosis, Greg sets his sights on Lana. After attacking Whitney at the horse stables, Greg kidnaps Lana. Chloe and Clark discover the truth about Greg and his intentions with Lana. After talking with Whitney, Clark realizes where Greg has taken Lana and leaves to rescue her. During the fight, Greg indirectly kills himself. Before Clark can get back to Lana, Whitney arrives and gets the credit for saving her life.
"Hothead"	Greg Walker	Greg Beeman	October 30, 2001	3
A meteor rock infused sauna transforms Coach Arnold into a firestarter. After several football players are caught cheating, Chloe discovers that the coach gave them the exam they used to cheat. Coach Arnold asks Clark to join the football, and Clark agrees, against his father's wishes. Jonathan arrives at Clark's football practice, only to make sure his son doesn't hurt anyone with his abilities. After Coach Arnold burns one of the football players, and tries to kill Chloe, Clark confronts him before the football game. The coach's fury gets the better of him as he engulfs himself in flames while battling Clark.
"X-Ray"	Mark Verheiden	James Frawley	November 6, 2001	4
Lex Luthor robs the Smallville bank, and hurls Clark through a store window. As Clark watches Lex, his vision begins to change so that he can see Lex's skeleton, which is glowing green. Lex is cleared of all charges, when it turns out someone was impersonating him. With the help of his "x-ray" vision, Clark discovers that Tina Greer has the ability to morph into anyone she wants. Her obsession with Lana leads Clark right to her, and after a brief battle he is knocks Tina unconscious so the authorities can arrest her. Lex hires Roger Nixon, an Inquisitor reporter, to find out how he survived driving his Porsche off a bridge.
"Cool"	Michael Green	James A. Contner	November 13, 2001	5
During a party at Crater Lake, Sean Kelvin falls into the frozen lake and reemerges with an insatiable hunger for heat, thanks to the meteor rocks on the lake bottom. In an effort to stay warm, Sean must suck the heat from anyone he can. Sean attempts to suck the heat from Chloe, but Clark is there to stop him. The Kents meet with Lex to discuss their financial troubles, to which Lex believes he has the solution. Clark finds Sean, who is headed to Luthor Mansion, but is left frozen when Sean sucks the heat from his body. Clark's body reheats itself and he arrives at the mansion just as Sean is about to attack Martha. During the fight, Clark throws Sean into a lake, which immediately freezes with Sean inside.
"Hourglass"	Doris Egan	Chris Long	November 20, 2001	6
Clark meets an elderly-blind woman named Cassandra Carver. Cassandra receives precognitive visions by touching someone, and when she touches Clark both of them see Clark surrounded by the tombstones of everyone he loves. Lex visits Cassandra, after listening to Clark, and her vision of him entails blood raining from the sky. Harry Bollston, an elderly man at a nursing home, falls into a meteor rock filled pond, which reverses the aging process. Harry uses his new youth to get revenge on the children of the jury that put him away for murder decades earlier, one of which was Jonathan's father. Clark manages to stop Harry before he can kill Martha, who happened to be home when Harry came looking for Jonathan.
"Craving"	Michael Green	Philip Sgriccia	November 27, 2001	7
Jodi Melville is tired of being over-weight, so she creates her own diet, which consists of meteor-rock infected vegetables. The new diet causes her to shed weight faster than she can handle, which forces her to suck human fat to satisfy her ravenous hunger. When Pete arrives to pick her up for the school dance, her hunger gets the better of her and she tries to feast on Pete. Chloe and Clark discover the truth about Jodi's weight loss, and Clark rushes to her house to save Pete. Clark stops Jodi from killing Pete, and gets her the help she needs to maintain a healthy weight. Lex becomes interested in the affects of meteor rocks, and funds a study on the green meteor fragments.
"Jitters"	Cherie Bennett & Jeff Gottesfeld	Greg Beeman & Michael Watkins	December 11, 2001	8
LuthorCorp is experimenting with meteor rocks, and overexposure has caused Earl Jenkins to develop violent seizures. Smallville High sends a group of students to the local LuthorCorp plant on a field trip, and Earl takes them hostage in an effort to get into "Level 3", which Lionel Luthor claims doesn't exist. Clark tries to help Earl, but the meteor rock radiation of his skin is deadly to him. Clark discovers "Level 3", as Lex trades himself for the hostages. Clark reveals "Level 3" to Earl and Lex, when Earl begins having an attack, endangering all three. Clark manages to keep them all alive, and Lex makes a public state that LuthorCorp will find a cure for Earl's condition.
"Rogue"	Mark Verheiden	David Carson	January 15, 2002	9
Sam Phelan, a corrupt Metropolis cop, witnesses Clark using his abilities to stop a bus, and decides to use them to his advantage. Phelan attempts to blackmail Clark, but Clark double crosses him. To teach Clark a lesson, Phelan frames Jonathon for murder, and forces Clark to help him steal a priceless Alexander the Great chest plate. Double crossing him again, Clark alerts the security to the heist. Phelan is gunned down after trying to shoot his way out of trouble, and the charges are dropped against Jonathan when Lex's lawyers arrive. Lex and an old flame, Victoria Hardwick, plot to take over parents' corporations.
"Shimmer"	Mark Verheiden and Michael Green	D.J. Caruso	January 29, 2002	10
Amy Palmer is obsessed with Lex. After discovering that Lex's roses release an invisibility fluid, because of the meteor rocks in the soil, someone sets out to make sure that Lex knows that Victoria is wrong for him. Victoria is forced out of the house after almost being killed by an invisible assailant. Amy is fingered for the attack when a watch Lex's mother gave him turns up in Amy's drawer. Jeff is revealed to be the attacker, and he attempts to kill Lex. Clark manages to confront Jeff in Lex's manor, and using some paint, keeps Jeff visible long enough to be arrested.
"Hug"	Doris Egan	Chris Long	February 5, 2002	11
Bob Rickman has the ability to bend others to his will, because of an incident with the meteor rocks years earlier. Rickman has plans to put a new pesticide plant in Smallville, and he needs the Kent farm to do it. Rickman uses his ability to convince Jonathan to sell the farm. Clark seeks out Kyle Tippet for assistance, after learning the two were salesmen who were both caught in the meteor shower. Rickman uses his ability to convince Lex to kill both Clark and Kyle. While Clark is battling Lex, Kyle, who has more control over the ability, forces Rickman to take his own life.
"Leech"	Timothy Schlattmann	Greg Beeman	February 12, 2002	12
During a class field trip, lightning strikes Clark and a fellow classmate, Eric Summers, while Eric is holding a piece of meteor rock. Clark's powers are transferred to Eric, allowing Clark to finally live a normal life. Eric initially uses the powers for good, but the abilities being to go to his head and he starts to abuse them. After being injured in a fight with Eric, Clark decides to sacrifice the chance at a normal life so that Eric does not hurt anyone else. Hoping he took his weakness along with his strength, Clark confronts Eric at an electrical generator, and uses the electricity, along with a meteor rock, to get his powers back.
"Kinetic"	Philip Levens	Robert Singer	February 26, 2002	13
Whitney, after losing his football scholarship, begins hanging with some ex-jocks. The jocks are using meteor rock saturated tattoos to give themselves the ability to pass through solid objects. The thieves rob Lex's mansion, and Chloe is severely injured when Clark is incapable of getting to her in time, after being weakened by the meteor rock tattoos the thieves wore. The thieves decide to recruit Whitney, but he has second thoughts. Clark helps Whitney and Lex, who is now being blackmailed, fight the thieves. With their powers growing weak, from overuse of the serum, Clark is able to subdue them.
"Zero"	Alfred Gough and Miles Millar	Michael Katleman	March 12, 2002	14
Lex's past comes back to haunt him, when Jude Royce, a man presumed to be dead, resurfaces after three years and kidnaps Lex. He tortures him in an attempt to get Lex to reveal the truth about the cover up of Jude's death. Jude's ex-financé's brother is revealed to be the true orchestrater, having found someone willing to undergo surgery to look like Jude. Angered over his sister's suicide, which he believes is the fault of Lex; he wants Lex to pay for her death. Clark saves Lex's life, but is worried about Lex's past. During a class project, Chloe discovers inconsistency in Clark's adoption and it puts strain on their friendship.
"Nicodemus"	Michael Green	James Marshall	March 19, 2002	15
Dr. Hamilton uses the meteor rocks to resurrect a toxic flower, Nicodemus, which has been extinct for 100 years. The flower causes whoever it sprays to lose all inhibitions. Jonathan, Lana and Pete are all infected with the flower's toxins, and begin to act out of character. Clark manages to prevent them all from harming themselves or someone else. After awhile, the flower's toxins cause the victim to fall into a coma and eventually die. Lex, unhappy that Dr. Hamilton has spent his time resurrecting dangerous flowers, dispatches a team of specialists to create a cure for the poisoning. The cure is created in time to save Jonathan, Lana and Pete.
"Stray"	Philip Levens	Paul Shapiro	April 16, 2002	16
Ryan Kelley, a young boy who can read minds, is exploited by his step-parents, who use his gift for criminal activities. Ryan escapes and goes on the run. Martha hits him with her car, as he runs across a road in the dark. The Kents decide to take Ryan home, where he immediately bonds with Clark. Ryan's step-father finds him in Smallville, and kidnaps Ryan. He attempts to use Ryan's abilities to steal Lex's trust fund. Clark comes to Ryan's aid, before his step-father can kill him. Ryan's aunt is located and she agrees to take custody of him.
"Reaper"	Cameron Litvack	Terrence O'Hara	April 23, 2002	17
Tyler Randall, while trying to assist the suicide of his ailing mother, accidentally falls out of a window and a piece of meteor rock becomes embedded in his wrist as he dies. When the coroner removes the rock from his wrist, Tyler becomes reanimated. Whenever Tyler touches someone, or something, they instantly incinerate and die. Believing he is helping, Tyler tries easing the pain of Whitney's dying father. Clark arrives in time to stop him, and inform him that his mother is still alive. Thinking his mother could not accept the monster he had become, Tyler takes his own life.
"Drone"	Michael Green & Philip Levens	Michael Katleman	April 30, 2002	18
Class elections are being held, and Pete nominates Clark. Apprehensive at first, he soon takes to the idea. A rival candidate, Sasha Woodman, doesn't appreciate the competition and sends out swarms of bees to take care of the other competitors. The bees soon become dissatisfied with Sasha and turn on her. Lionel has a journalist write a scathing expose on Lex, but Lex has it buried when he has the journalist promoted to editor. Lana gets cut-throat with the Talon, and reports the rival coffee shop, The Beanery, to the health board.
"Crush"	Alfred Gough & Miles Millar	James Marshall	May 7, 2002	19
After a hit-and-run accident destroys his drawing hand, Justin Gaines is left with an unexpected gift of telekinesis. Justin uses his new gift to exact revenge of those that wronged him. Justin uses Chloe to discover the identity of the hit-and-run driver, and the two become close. Justin kills Principal Kwan, believing he was the driver who hit him, and turns on Chloe when she discovers what he's been killing people. Clark knocks Justin unconscious before he can kill Chloe. Whitney's father, who has been battling heart problems, dies.
"Obscura"	Mark Verheiden & Michael Green	Terrence O'Hara	May 14, 2002	20
An explosion near meteor rocks gives Lana the ability to see through another person's eyes. Lana watches through the stranger's eyes as they kidnap Chloe. Lana and Clark attempt to use her gift to help locate Chloe. The kidnapper turns out to be a cop looking for an easy promotion. Whitney finds some military medals his father earned, and takes it as a sign he should do something else with his life. Lex learns of a ship that crashed during the meteor shower, and discovers an octagonal disc made of an alloy not found on Earth.
"Tempest"	Philip Levens & Alfred Gough	Greg Beeman	May 21, 2002	21
Lionel Luthor closes the Smallville plant and blames it on Lex; Lex decides to initiate an employee buyout of the local plant to save everyone's jobs and forge his own future with LexCorp. Whitney decides to join the Marines and leaves Smallville. Roger Nixon learns the truth about Clark and decides to expose his secret to the world. As Lana drives home from dropping Whitney off at the bus station, three tornadoes touch down, forcing her off the road. When the news is announced at the school dance, Clark rushes off to make sure Lana is ok. Clark finds Lana just as she is sucked up into a tornado, and he speeds in after her.

Recurring roles

Main article: Smallville characters (season 1)

Character	Actor	Episode(s)
Nell Potter	Sarah-Jane Redmond	"Pilot", "Hothead", "X-Ray", "Shimmer", "Leech", and "Kinetic".
Sheriff Ethan	Mitchell Kosterman	"X-Ray", "Hourglass", "Jitters", "Rogue", "Zero", and "Obscura".
James Kwan	Hiro Kanagawa	"Hothead", "Rogue", "Nicodemus", "Drone", and "Crush".
Lionel Luthor	John Glover	"Stray", "Reaper", "Crush", and "Tempest".
Roger Nixon	Tom O'Brien	"X-Ray", "Leech", "Obscura", and "Tempest".
Dr. Steven Hamilton	Joe Morton	"Craving", "Nicodemus", and "Obscura".
Gabe Sullivan	Robert Wisden	"Jitters", "Obscura", and "Tempest".
Victoria Hardwick	Kelly Brook	Rogue", "Shimmer", "Hug", and "Leech".

Production

Writing

It was decided early on that some ground rules had to be set for the series. One of those, which was part of the marketing pitch, was a "no flights, no tights" rule. The basic idea being that Clark would not wear the Superman costume, nor would he fly. After discussing possible storylines, it was decided that another rule would be that Clark could never directly kill anyone in the series. This created posed a problem, as Clark needed to be able to defeat the "bad guys" from week to week. Answers to this question were created in later episodes, with the introduction of Belle Reve. The problem was not fully solved at the ending for "Cool", as Sean Kelvin (Michael Coristin) is frozen inside of a lake, and his fate is not certain.

After establishing ground rules, Gough and Millar tried to come up with ideas that would make it easier for them to craft a story from week to week. One of those concepts was of kryptonite enhancing the sins of the antagonist. Instead of creating physical monsters, the kryptonite would enhance their personal demons. This was not as literal in the pilot and "Metamorphosis", but later episodes saw the concept become more of a literal transformation. In "Cool", it was "the 'cool' kid literally [becoming] cool, needing human body heat to stay alive". After a several episodes, the writers sat down and tried to come up with a story that would help to establish the show as something more than a "villain of the week" series. The ninth episode, "Rogue", became their first "true crime story", and helped prove the show could be about more than just kryptonite-powered villains. The episode took longer to develop, because it was the first episode the writers crafted that did not follow the kryptonite-mutation format that had become standard to them.

Another concept Gough and Millar came up with was what they referred to as "what if" episodes. These episodes would pose underlying questions about Clark. They would evolve from basic questions like, "what if someone had a crush on Lana, and acted on that obsession"; "what if someone found out Clark's secret"; " what if someone else had Clark's powers". These three ideas developed into the episodes, "Metamorphosis", "Rogue", and "Leech" respectively. "Stray", episode sixteen, was developed to answer the question, "what if Clark had been adopted by the wrong parents and his powers were exploited".

"X-Ray" director Mark Verheiden, and the rest of the crew, realized that storylines which diverged and had no effect on each other, was not the best way to create episodes for Smallville. Verheiden believes "X-Ray" was the first episode that managed to bring all the side-stories together so that they affected characters other than Clark and Lana.

"As [Lex] touches one of the flowers it withers and dies, sending a cancerous wave of death rippling out across the field, laying waste to everything in its path. Suddenly, A BLOOD RED DROP falls from the deep blue sky, stains his suit. Then another falls, and another and another, until the sky is raining red. As he opens his mouth to scream, there's a flash of white."

Vision of Lex's future, as described in the script.

When Gough and Millar were pitching their initial idea to the network, "Hourglass" was one of the stories they used; at the time it was referred to as "Cassandra". "Hourglass" was the first episode to have two separate stories taking place: the vengeful serial killer and the second sighted Cassandra. Two primary storylines forced the writers to spend more time than was normal developing the episode. Cassandra's "visceral vision", as it was referred to in the script, of Lex's future was developed into color storyboards to better illustrate the "blood rain" described in the text to the filmmakers.

Occasionally, the filmmakers were not satisfied with the initial drafts of their episodes, specifically with how characters would turn out. The character of Earl Jenkins (Tony Todd) came across as "completely unlikable", and not the sympathetic character the filmmakers had intended. In the episode, the character suffers from over-exposure to kryptonite, which cause massive seizures, which meant if Jenkins happened to grab someone, they could be shaken to death. In the original draft, the character is first seen banging on the door of LuthorCorp, and killing a security guard during one of his seizure attacks. To help alleviate the problem, a scene involving Earl visiting his infant child was added to show that he was not a "raving maniac". This occurred again with the characters Ryan James (Ryan Kelley) and Tyler Randall (Reynaldo Rosales), in episodes "Stray" and "Reaper" respectively. In the original draft of "Stray", Ryan developed his telepathic abilities from exposure to kryptonite. To try and continue asserting the show was not always about kryptonite-infected villains, a change was made so that Ryan had his ability from birth. Another major change was to the character's personality. The network expressed dissatisfaction with the idea that Ryan would be a murderer, as was originally planned, so the character was rewritten to be the "nice kid". The character of Tyler Randall faced the same problems as Earl Jenkins; he was not sympathetic enough in the eyes of the filmmakers. Intended to be an escaped prisoner, he was rewritten to be "the world's deadliest nice guy." The opening teaser involved Tyler performing an assisted suicide on his bedridden mother, at the Smallville Hospital.

Filming

Production was setup in Vancouver, Canada, because the creators were looking for a "Middle America landscape", and Vancouver was a good substitute for the crew. David Nutter, the director of the pilot, was given sixteen days for main unit filming, twice that of the normal timeframe. Despite the extended schedule, it was still a short amount of time, and he shot the pilot primarily from the storyboards created by Adrien Van Viersen.

Millar developed most of the look for Smallville, based on his idea that Smallville should be the epitome of "Smalltown, USA". Millar's concept required that several buildings be painted, built, or remodeled. The Kent farm is actually the home of the Andalinis, and their barn was used for the pilot, before a completely new barn was built. The new barn was one of the major additions to the sets for the episode "Metamorphosis". Doug Higgens, and his crew, built a fully functioning, three-story barn for the Kent farm. The barn was built on a converted soundstage in Burnaby. For the pilot, the crew built only a loft, with a set of stairs leading up to it, inside the existing barn on the Andalinis' property. Higgins wanted to match the Andalinis' barn as close as possible, so he had his crew do some research; they found 100 year-old wood to match the original barn. In one instance, the episode "Hourglass" called for several scenes to take place at the White House. Instead of building their own set, the Smallville producers decided to call fellow television producer John Wells, of the political series The West Wing, and requested permission to use The West Wing set to film the vision of Lex's future; Wells agreed.

Swangard stadium was the location of the opening football sequence for "Hothead". The production crew brought in rain towers for the sequence, which called for the game to be played at night in the rain.

If the Smallville crew is not filming on one of the constructed sets like their barn, or a sound stage, then they are shooting on location at the surrounding Vancouver sites. During the filming of "Metamorphosis", Vancouver was holding a Farmers' market, which proved beneficial to the Smallville crew, for the first scenes after the opening teaser. At the time, the market had already been on the verge of closing, so the filmmakers shot what wide-angle scenes they could at the time, and filmed a close up conversation between Whitney and Clark at the Andalinis' farm, weeks after the initial market shooting. Other instances include Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition and Burnaby's Swangard Stadium. The Pacific National Exhibit provided a storage silo for a scene in "Hourglass", which involved Harry Bollston (Eric Christian Olsen) attacking Martha Kent (O'Toole) in the Kents' corn silo. "Hothead" director Greg Beeman, who had previously worked with Gough and Millar on The Strip and Martial Law, used Swangard Stadium as a substitution for Smallville High Stadium, for the opening football scene, which took place at night.

Occasionally, filming would get behind schedule, and another director would need to come in to assist the main unit director in finishing the episode. Greg Beeman assisted director Chris Long for the two "visceral visions of the future" that appeared in the episode "Hourglass". "Jitters" was an episode that had so many changes, that its initial scheduling as the second episode of the season was pushed back to the eight spot. By the time filming for "Jitters" was completed, three different directors worked on the project: Greg Beeman, Phil Sgriccia, and Michael Watkins. Michael Watkins was given sole directing credit for the episode.

Effects

A big part of the Smallville series relies on the effects they deliver, whether they are digital, physical, or special make-up effects. The effects shots, part of the post-production work, are developed and added in Los Angeles. David Nutter had Thomas Special Effects create digital cornfields for the pilot episode. After attempting to grow ten thousand stalks of corn in a greenhouse, which only grew two feet tall, Nutter was forced to rely heavily on digital corn, and faux corn flown in from Arizona. The opening teaser for "Metamorphosis" was heavy on the computer imagery. CG supervisor Bill Millar created digital butterflies for a scene in Lana's bedroom, and all the insects Greg Arkin (Chad Donella) collected were created in the same manner. Greg's insects had to be created digitally, because a green hue was needed to illustrate the kryptonite radiation in the insects. After the opening credits, the next scene involved a first person view of someone, later revealed to be Clark, flying through Lana's open window and into her bedroom. The effect was accomplished with stock footage, a sound stage and some computer generated imagery. Stock footage shot from a helicopter, as it flew over several farms during the day, was used for the first person point of view. It was altered from day to night, and a CGI house was created in an empty field. Lana's bedroom as built on a soundstage and CGI was used to create the illusion of someone traveling through her open window and stopping above her bed.

A green hue and raised veins in Clark's hand, created digitally, were used to help illustrate the effects of kryptonite poisoning

Several new ideas were invented for the show: the effects of kryptonite poisoning for Clark, "Clark time", and the appearance of kryptonite when in the proximity of Clark. Gough and Millar, after doing some research, learned that many times the female audience was not aware of what was happening when Clark was exposed to kryptonite. Beginning with "Metamorphosis", whenever Clark was exposed to kryptonite, his veins would rise up and develop a green hue to illustrate the effect it was having. Generally, close-up shots of Clark's hand were used for these scenes, and it was all created with digital animation. Gough and Millar developed the idea that kryptonite would only glow when it was around Clark, as it was meant to demonstrate it was draining his powers. "Clark time", the same idea behind bullet time, was created because previous incarnation had not explained the idea of what the world appears like to Clark when he is using his powers. The first instance of "Clark time" was used in the "Metamorphosis" scene where Greg Arkin attacks Clark and Jonathan in their barn. Jonathan is pushed over a banister and falls in the direction of some dangerous farm equipment. The effect involved slowing time down for everything except Clark, who would be moving at normal pace. When tackling Clark's emerging power of X-ray vision in the episode "X-ray", Gough and Millar wanted it different than the previous incarnations of the ability. Unlike what had been done before, with the ability acting more along the lines of "see-through" vision, Gough and Millar wanted to be able to see skeletons and bones. The recent advances in computer imagery helped them to complete that task.

Occasionally, the digital effects costs would stretch the budget thin. In the episode "Shimmer", Bill Millar, special effects supervisor, was going to create an artificial sunset, for the closing scene of Clark and Lana looking out of the barn at a sunset. The plan was for it to last only a couple of seconds. James Marshall, the second unit director for the episode, decided to shoot the entire scene over the shoulders of Clark and Lana. The scene called for two greenscreen shots, but when Marshall was finished he had created seventeen greenscreen shots. The seventeen shots, which produced the artificial sunset, cost $50,000 to produce. By comparison, the entire effects budget usually costs between $65,000 and $100,000.

Over-spending of that nature became a regular occurrence of the Smallville crew, and it came to an end with "Kinetic", as the studio decided to be stricter with the spending. With the budget on a stiffer guideline, the film makers were forced to cut scenes from "Kinetic", which was caught in the transition to a more budget friendly script. One of the biggest scenes to be cut involved one of the thieves phasing through a safe wall, and acting as a portal for the merchandise to be passed through. When digital effects were not an option, Mike Walls, the physical effects supervisor, who began his Smallville career with "Leech", still tries to provide big effects. Walls used 75 cars for the final action scene of "Kinetic", which were cabled off to protect the actors. Stunt coordinator Lauro Chartrand attempts to make sure the actors are used as much as possible when performing fight scenes, unless the scenes were particularly dangerous. The fast shooting schedule forces Chartrand to rely on the guest stars that can perform more stunts than usual, because of the limited time to find a "good double" for the actor.

Physical effects were usually not an issue for the series regulars. Allison Mack performed her own stunts for the scene in "Hothead" where her character is set on fire, and again in "Kinetic", when she was cabled off, and dangled 50ft above the ground. For "Nicodemus", the stunt coordinator received twice the help. Kristin Kreuk was expected to go only to the tenth rung of a water tower, in a scene which involved her character climbing to the top and falling off. As filming progressed, Kreuk climbed to the top, so the crew cabled her off and dropped her forty feet to the bottom. John Schneider's experience from The Dukes of Hazzard lent to him performing the stunt driving for his character. The scene required Schneider to slide his truck around a corner, while yelling at some pedestrians on the sidewalk. The previous scene had established the driver side window as being completely up, so Schneider improvised and opened the driver's door as he slid ninety degrees around a corner.

Reception

When the pilot aired, it broke the record for highest rated debut for The WB, with 8.4 million viewers tuning in for its pilot. After only airing the first two episodes, which averaged 7.8 million viewers, the WB placed an order for a full season, 21 episodes. The first season averaged 5.9 million viewers weekly, placing #115 in the Nielsen Ratings along with Futurama, The Ellen Show, and Star Trek: Enterprise. The season received generally favorable reviews. Jeremy Conrad, who was initially against the idea of a "reimagining" of the Superman mythology, gave the first season a 7/10 rating. After reviewing the entire season, Conrad changed his initial opinion, stating the first season of Smallville was "a solid start to what will be a great Superman TV series." Entertainment Weekly's Bruce Fretts said, "On the surface, the teenage Superman serial might seem cornier than its titular Kansas hamlet. Scratch below and you'll find a subversively witty spin on comic-book myths." Clint Morris, founder of Moviehole.net, believed the series was "still finding its feet in season one." He commended the acting, citing specifically Michael Rosenbaum's "deliciously wicked but uncontrollably likeable Lex Luthor." Rob Hedelt commended the casting as well, comparing Welling's portrayal of a teenage Clark Kent to that of Christopher Reeve's portrayal in the films. Hedelt considered John Schneider and Annette O'Toole to be ideal picks for Jonathan and Martha Kent, but felt Allison Mack and Sam Jones III, important characters, were the weakest part of the ensemble.

Other critics were less enthusiastic about the season. Peter Bowes of BBC News felt the season was simply "another soap about pretty young people." Bowes believes the season suffered from the "sentimental boy-girl storyline," but that die-hard Superman fans would still be taken in by this incarnation of the character's early years. A common criticism for the first season was the use of "villain of the week" storylines. By the time the first seven episodes aired, at least one journalist had had enough of the villain-of-the-week format. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Rob Owen stated, "Smallville flies high with super character interaction and a nice performance by John Schneider as Pa Kent, but the series needs better plots than the "monster of the week" stories seen so far." Jordan Levin, president of The WB's Entertainment division, recognized the concerns that the show had become a villain-of-the-week series. Levin announced that season 2 would see more "smaller mini-arcs over three to four episodes, to get away from some of the formulaic storytelling structure we were getting ourselves boxed into... We don't want to turn it into a serialized show."

Awards

By 2003, the first season had won or been nominated for several awards. It won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series", and the pilot episode was specifically nominated for "Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series". The pilot was recognized by several other award organizations. It won a Leo Award for "Best Visual Effects" in 2002. Peter Wunstorf was recognized for his work on the pilot with a nomination by the American Society of Cinematographers. Casting directors Deedee Bradley, Coreen Mayrs, and Barbara Miller were nominated for an Artios Award for their work on the pilot. Chiris McGeary was nominated for Golden Reel's Best Sound Editing in Television award, for his music editing on the Smallville pilot. The season one finale, "Tempest", was nominated for Golden Reel's "Best Sound Editing in Television Episodic" in 2003. In 2002, The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers honored the band Remy Zero, who provide the opening theme song for Smallville, and composer Mark Snow for their contributions to the show. The award is given to individuals who wrote the theme, or underscore for the highest rated television series during January 1 - December 31 2001. Several members of the regular cast were nominated for various awards. In 2001, the Rosenbaum, Kreuk, and Welling were nominated for Saturn Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, Best Actress, and Best Actor respectively. Rosenbaum and Kreuk received additional nominations for male and female Cinescape Genre Face of the Future awards, and the entire season was nominated for Best Network Television Series. In the end, Rosenbaum was the only one to win an award, and it was for Best Supporting Actor. Tom Welling won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout TV Star - Male in 2002. Smallville placed sixth on the Parents Television Council's list of the "best shows for families" this season.

External links

• Official website
• IMDb Smallville Season 1
• TV.com Smallville
• Smallville Wiki