Guest Who: Daddy's Boy

I must have actually had a life in 1988 because I never, ever watched Superboy, though I'd been a childhood and teenage comic book fan and Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes was my very favorite title. The series Superboy premiered in '88 (on the heels of four Superman movies and one Supergirl one.)  The initial order of 13 episodes were not very ambitious or particularly well made, but once the show was picked up, the quality allegedly increased (though the cast and concept would be tinkered with repeatedly across the four seasons it ran before some legal entanglements with regard to the rights led to its demise.) 

Relax, fellas! That's an athletic cup that's turning this promotional photo into almost a 3-D event. Ha!

 

The title character was essayed by a pretty young man named John Haymes Newton (at a time when three-name actors were a big "thing.") In truth, the show focused in the early days more on college student Clark Kent who would only become Superboy for a certain period of time within the 30-minute series. After season one, Haymes was let go (either because of a DUI that violated his morals clause or just plain dissatisfaction from the producers in his performance.) He did continue working after that career ding with a role in the movie Alive (1993) and on shows like The Untouchables and Melrose Place.  He has since receded from on-screen work since 2016.

Also on hand several times that first season was Scott Wells as Superboy's nemesis Lex Luthor. This was prior to the character being adversely affected by an accident involving the boy of steel and his growing up to be a master criminal. Here, he was a rich kid with toys like (gasp!) a cordless phone.

When school newspaper reporter Newton goes to meet up with Wells, this is the location we find him in!

 

He's soaking in the hot tub with a quartet of Aussie-Spritz-abusing tarts.

As he exits the water, there's an attendant (Michael Manno) sporting a zebra-striped Speedo (!) whose job is to get dry him off!

 

You know I was all over this, as a "Speed(o) Freak" from way back. Of course, by 1988, the suit was generally used for comic or character effect rather than as the suit of choice it had been a decade or so prior.

Curiously, as the men go to sit down at a nearby table, the screen is completely filled by a close-up of Manno's frontage until his slinks into his seat!

Regardless of the music-video-esque chicks in the hot tub, there is a homoerotic aura to this sequence. Only thing is, Manno ought to have been downing a banana instead of an apple...! Ha ha!

When Wells gets up to take another call on that portable phone (!), Manno is tasked with following him around with an umbrella to protect his boss from the sun. Apart from one appearance on Burt Reynold's B.L. Stryker, Manno only ever did several episodes of Superboy on screen.

The semi self-conscious actor held this umbrella in front of his crotch for most of this sequence, but I did the best I could to catch a shot of him.

Wells (of Dayton, Ohio) had been a male stripper in San Antonio, Texas who segued into modeling and then bit part TV work. This ought to have represented a break for him.

However, after not being asked back for the second season, he faded from view and, sadly, entered a rehab center for substance abuse. (Even more sadly, he died in 2015 at only 54, long out of the biz and back home in Dayton.)

By now you may rightly be asking, "What the hell does any of this have to do with the title of this post?!" Well, I wanted to offer up an appetizer of a little beauty, a little beefcake and a little bump or bulge before serving up the main course. In this shot, we see Newton (along with his regular cohorts at school on the far left and far right) chatting with a young man in jeans.

Anyone know who he is?

The young actor is the son of a very famous television icon, who enjoyed longstanding success on the tube. This fellow, however, only made this sole appearance in a project that didn't somehow involve his father. He plays a character named "Stretch" who is the star of the basketball team.

I do not know how tall he was, but he is just about the shortest person on the team, so (even though it's not meant to be) the nickname "Stretch" is ironic!

If the blond is "Stretch," then what is the other guy's nickname on the far left?!

Ah... "Shirts 'n Skins" - those words that could make me run from gym class to, well, anywhere else on Earth! But I should mention... This young man really does not look any thing like his father. He mostly took after his mother. But... it's on the basketball court that a certain family resemblance begins to rear its, er, head.

This is one Michael Landon Jr.! All of his other acting work had been on either Little House on the Prairie or in projects stemming from Bonanza.

His father was a world-famous television personality, but he mostly took after his mother, Lynn.

The tow-headed youth is seen here just above his mother's hair.

Speaking of hair, this episode (which concerns Wells blackmailing Landon into throwing the big game) is chock full of every example of late-'80s mall hair. In the top-left corner is a cone-shaped accessory while the infamous banana-clip can he seen in the lower-right corner. And Manno's de rigueur bi-level/mullet is right at home here, too.

Ultimately, Superboy has to step in to save the win and even winds up refereeing the match!

Marvel as the Boy of Steel flies from one end of the court to another as he officiates the game!

Anyhoo... back to the thrust of this post.

Young Landon never made a fraction of the impression as an actor that his papa did, but he does leave one in his basketball shorts. (And it would take uniforms like these to make a comeback in order for me to watch a basketball game today...!) Fortunately, Landon Jr. proceeded to a very successful and award-winning career in inspirational programming (with titles like Love's Enduring Promise, Love's Unfolding Dream, When Hope Calls and When Calls the Heart.)

The End!