THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509140070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
LOIS AND CLARK man and wife? No way, say the readers of this column.
Seventy-six percent of the callers who responded to my Infoline poll want Lois Lane to reject Clark Kent's proposal of marriage.
As ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' wound up the season on ABC last May, Dean Cain as Clark was on bended knee in the rain, asking Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) to marry him.
Come Sunday at 8, you'll learn if Lois accepts the proposal.
When I was in Los Angeles recently, schmoozing with Cain and Hatcher, who looked bushed after shooting a film (``Two Days in the Valley'') in desert heat with James Spader, I tried my best to pry the answer out of them.
Does Lois say yes, I asked Hatcher?
Does Lois say no?
Does she say maybe?
Hatcher answered, ``Yes, yes, yes.''
It was her cute little way of saying that executive producer Robert Singer taped a yes, no and maybe scene to open Sunday night's episode as the series begins its third season. Singer has told no one, including the cast, which of Lois' answers will be beamed out to viewers on ABC Sunday night.
``I'll know when the rest of the country knows,'' the very, very thin Hatcher told members of the Television Critics Association.
Let's hope she says no, said Gloria Query of Chesapeake, Stephanie Kuhlmeyer of Norfolk, Michelle Spruill of Virginia Beach and about 50 other readers who voted in the ``Should Lois Say Yes Poll'' on Infoline. (My number is 640-5555, Category 3333.)
If they wed, said Query, interest in the series would melt as if zapped by Superman's X-ray vision. ``Why take away the sexual tension between these two that has been there for 50 years? If they married, it would ruin the series. A self-centered bitchy woman like Lois doesn't deserve a nice guy like Clark Kent.''
Same opinion expressed by Spruill. ``We've waited 50 years to see if these two would ever get together. We can wait another 50 years.''
Kuhlmeyer believes that Lois should not accept Clark's proposal under any circumstances. ``It's more fun to watch Lois trying to figure out if Clark is Superman. If they married, she'd know for sure. Where's the fun in that?''
And if Lois accepts Clark's proposal, what then? asks 17-year-old Eric in Suffolk. ``Will they have super sons and super daughters?''
Of course.
Forget the bus. They'll fly to school.
I'm betting that Lois gives Clark a ``maybe'' when the series picks up with the proposal scene on Sunday. Singer, who last season took over as the show's producer from Deborah Joy Levine, hinted as much when he talked to the TV press. ``Our ratings tell us that the viewers like it when we pursue their romance.'' Translation: We're going to milk this thing for all it's worth.
It was around the middle of last season's run when Singer decided it was time for Lois to recognize Clark for the hunk he is. She started to hit on him. And how did the Man of Steel respond?
He'd dash off to save the world just as Lois got into some serious smooching. The big dope.
``The thing with Clark heated up quickly,'' said Hatcher - as quickly as the ratings rose.
In real life, they've never been more than colleagues, even before Hatcher married recently.
``How could anyone be attracted to me after spending 15 hours a day with me? Dean knows every little thing about me. He has seen every little pimple. What is attractive about that?'' asked Hatcher.
Cain replied: ``We may not have a tremendous attraction to one another in real life, but on screen, the chemistry is fantastic.'' The producers considered 100 actors before Cain was chosen.
Lois and Clark man and wife? I don't think so.
The people who created the characters in comic books, on the movie screen with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and even in the old TV series with George Reeves and Noel Neill, hinted that Lois and Clark would wed one day. They've even been in the honeymoon suite on the big screen.
Now it's happened again. I say it's time to stop the teasing. If Superman marries an earthling, there goes the series. We all know that.
ABC will do nothing to weaken this franchise, which enters a Nielsen battleground at 8 this season against ``Mad About You'' and ``Cybill.''
Superman playing a husband on TV? A ``Honey, I'm home'' kind of a guy? Never happen. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Would marriage end the chemistry between Teri hatcher and Dean
Cain?
by CNB