Smallville Takes Flight: An Oral History

To commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Smallville's debut, TVLine re-upped this oral history which was first compiled by Matt Webb Mitovich for the June 2011 issue of CBS' Watch! Magazine. Also: Check out our super-fun anniversary catch-up with Smallville frontman Tom Welling.

With those words, spoken by Jonathan Kent in the Smallville pilot, a new take on the superman saga found a home that would last for 10 years.

Developed for TV by Al Gough and Miles Millar, Smallville— which followed the adventures of Clark Kent in the fictional town
 of Smallville, Kan., before he becomes Superman — made its debut Oct. 16, 2001,
 on The WB. Fronted by Tom Welling and 
also starring Kristin Kreuk (as Lana Lang), Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor), Allison Mack (Clark's BFF Chloe Sullivan), and John Schneider and Annette O'Toole (as Clark's parents, Jonathan and Martha), the first episode drew 8.4 million viewers — breaking the record for a bow on the six-year-old netlet and proving that no amount of previous adaptations had quelled our fascination with Clark's story.

"It's wish fulfillment for every 'kid' out there," offers Kelly Souders, who starting with Season 8 served as showrunner with fellow executive producer Brian Peterson. (Both joined Smallville as writers in Season 2.) "So many heroes in mythology are gods or characters that are hard for the everyday person to connect with, but Clark is someone we can all relate to. We want to believe that heroes are made out of people like us."

As Smallville ended its decade-long journey, we spoke with many of those involved in getting the young man-who-would-be-Superman off the ground. Herewith, our kryptonite-free tribute to one of the greatest superhero series.

PETER ROTH, president of Warner Bros. TV | The first time I heard the idea of a live-action story about Clark Kent coming of age, I thought, "Absolutely. We're doing it." Having been a fan of the comic books and the original TV series (the 1950s' Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves), I loved it.

DAVID NUTTER, director of pilot | Bringing to this show a sense of reality was the most important thing for me. Too many times shows are so fantastical there's no bedrock of believability.

TOM WELLING, played Clark Kent/Season 10 executive producer | What the show had going for it was that it was going to take liberties as it explored an area [of Clark's life] that nobody knew much about. That allowed us some wiggle room.

Of the original young ensemble, Kristin Kreuk was the first to be cast (as Lana), while Sam Jones III (Pete Ross) was the last. Allison Mack auditioned twice for Chloe, a character created for the series, while Michael Rosenbaum was cast as Lex. It would take months — and some coaxing — to find and sign Tom Welling.

WELLING | I took a call from David Nutter, who told me it was going to be about Clark Kent before he became Superman, and I found that to be a lot more interesting [than a Superman series]. Everything happened extremely fast after that.

NUTTER | I knew Tom was the perfect guy when Clark runs into Lana Lang for the first time. Lana had a kryptonite necklace on her neck, so Clark tumbled onto the ground, dropping his books. I said to myself, "That's him."

KRISTIN KREUK, played Lana Lang | I tested with Tom, and 
he was great, really lovely. He was perfect for the role.

KELLY SOUDERS, executive producer | Tom is very down-to-earth and straightforward, and a lot of that honesty you see in Clark is Tom. Tom was not somebody who got into this because he wanted to be famous, and that really adds to him being Clark Kent. There are obviously some real differences between them, but there are definitely similarities.

ALLISON MACK, played Chloe Sullivan | I was 18, recently in love and getting ready to go to theater school in London, so my life was going in a very specific direction — and it wasn't a TV show that filmed in Vancouver [Smallville casting director] DeeDee Bradley, a friend of mine since I was 7, said, "I'm casting this amazing show, but there really isn't a part for you" — they wanted someone African-American or Latina for Chloe. A week later I got a call [to read for the role] and sure enough, I was the only white girl in the room. Every time they called me in, I was like, "I don't think I'm what you're looking for." It turns out I was.

KREUK | I was just out of high school when I auditioned for Lana, and since I had so little experience in the business I had no understanding of how lucky I was.

MICHAEL ROSENBAUM, played Lex Luthor | I was doing a lot of comedies at the time, so when my agent approached me about Lex, I wasn't really interested. It was The WB and I thought it would be a teen soap opera; I had no idea the kind of money they were going to put behind it and how smart the concept would be. Supposedly they went through hundreds of actors and still couldn't find their guy so they asked me again to read. They said they wanted someone who had comedic timing, charisma and a sense of danger, and I think I still have the [audition] pages where I marked, "Be charming here," "Be funny here" and "Ooh, be dangerous here."

SOUDERS | When it comes to playing Lex Luthor, there was something sympathetic about Michael Rosenbaum's version. He brought humanity to it.

WELLING | John Schneider (Jonathan) was a fatherly figure and a mentor, not only to Clark but to me. The first time I met Annette O'Toole (Martha), I walked in and she said, "My son!" and she gave me a hug. Right off the bat, she was "Mom."

ROSENBAUM | I really loved working with John Glover (Lionel Luthor). He's a wonderful human being with a heart of gold. And as an actor, he was always finding different ways to do things in a scene. Many actors come into a scene only prepared to do what they rehearsed over and over at home, but when John and I did a scene, I never knew where it was going to go or what was going to happen. And I loved that.

Smallville was filmed in Vancouver, chosen both for cost savings as well as its ability to pass for both Kansas and Metropolis. Production on the pilot began in March 2001, and shooting lasted for nearly a month — beginning just days after the final role was cast.

NUTTER | We walked blindly into the fire and we had a firm step. We had a great script and some great talent, and I felt really confident in the story we were telling.

WELLING | I didn't have any experience whatsoever, but David created an environment that was very comfortable, very safe. It was a very collaborative process.

MACK | I had been in the business for 14 years already, and I had done four pilots that failed and two TV shows that had been on for only a season, so I was jaded  — "This is lovely, but ... we'll see."

KREUK | It was a long shoot, and I was very scared. We had always wanted this show to be about Clark Kent's very normal struggle as a teenage boy and his journey to become a hero. For the metaphor to work powerfully, there had to be a reality supporting the fantasy. That was a big part of the pilot.

ROSENBAUM | I thought I was going to get fired. Not to sound insecure, but I really thought I wasn't good looking enough for the part, that The WB wanted someone sexier. I also remember being in a giant water tank shooting the scene where Clark rescues me out of the car. They put this weight on my lap to hold me in place and, well, I just freaked the hell out, threw the weight off me and got out of the tank. Tom calmed me down and told me I could do it, and finally, I did. Thanks, Welling — you're a super man. See what I did there?

MACK | It wasn't until David showed us the pilot on a big screen on the Warner Bros. lot that I was like, "Ohhhh. This is different than anything I've seen before."

ROTH | That pilot was magic for us. I remember watching it for the first time in my office, almost weeping. I was so excited.

Though every Clark needs his Lois, Smallville would run for three seasons before introducing the iconic love interest, here positioned as a cousin of Chloe's.

SOUDERS | Lois has to be one of the most difficult characters to play, because she's super-opinionated, extremely bright and a little abrupt, and at the same time she has to be likable.

ERICA DURANCE, played Lois Lane | I was at a point in my life where I was a bit frustrated with the business, so when I learned they were casting Lois Lane, being here in Vancouver, I said to my manager, "I'm sure they'll just cast out of Los Angeles." They had to talk me into going out for it.

BRIAN PETERSON, executive producer | Erica was one of the last people to come in, but the first second we saw her on screen we knew she was the one.

DURANCE | I got it on a Friday evening, and we started on Monday. [Laughs] Sometimes the less time you have to stress about something, the better. I met Tom the Sunday before, when he came in to read some scenes with me. That made me feel a lot more comfortable.

WELLING | I came back a day early from one of our hiatuses, and Erica and I spent four or five hours with Greg Beeman and found the chemistry. That gave us a jump-start.

PETERSON | The fact that we only had the Lois Lane character for a limited number of episodes in those first years was actually helpful in telling that story at the pace it needed to be told.

DURANCE | Originally it was just a four-episode arc, to see if people accepted me or not, and then it ended up being seven, then 13....

Fresh off his run on the NBC soap Passions, Justin Hartley was tapped to headline The WB's untitled Aquaman pilot; when that didn't go, he found a home in Smallville. That same season, Veronica Mars' Aaron Ashmore grabbed a camera as Jimmy Olsen. A year later, Instant Star's Laura Vandervoort was cast as Clark's Krypton cousin Kara (aka Supergirl).

JUSTIN HARTLEY, played Oliver Queen/Green Arrow | I was literally about to pack my bags for a job in Australia when Al Gough called me and said, "Justin, don't go! I think I have something for you." The pitch was really quick: "This guy comes in, he's kind of brash, and he's actually going to be wearing a costume, which we've never done before." So I shot that, came back the next season for one episode, and then came back [in Season 8] as a regular.

PETERSON | Justin has this charisma on screen that you want 
to watch. He popped so much that when we learned he might be available [full-time], we wanted him back.

HARTLEY | Up to that point, Clark had people either telling him, "You have these abilities, so you should do this," or, "You've got to hide them to protect everyone." He never had anyone dress up in the suit and show him what it could be like.

MACK | [Oliver/Green Arrow] brought a maturity, intelligence and danger that our show needed, especially after Michael [Rosenbaum] left.

AARON ASHMORE, played Henry James (and then James Bartholomew) Olsen | The casting process for me was quite bizarre. My brother Shawn had played a villain (Eric Summers) in a few episodes, so I thought it would be pointless to audition for such a large role on a show that my twin brother had already guest-starred on. Because the role was Jimmy Olsen, I decided to put myself on tape, not thinking that I had any shot at it. About a week later, I got a call asking if I wanted to fly to Vancouver. No chemistry read, nothing. It was one of the easiest casting processes I ever had.

LAURA VANDERVOORT, played Kara Zor-El | I self-taped for the role of Supergirl in my hometown of Toronto, and from what I recall I didn't hear anything for over a month, so I'd forgotten about it. Then out of the blue we got a call while up at my family's cottage. I had sprained my ankle while out hiking, so I literally "hopped" in the car and drove back into the city, packed a bag and grabbed a blue dress and red heels — yep, still had to wear the heels. [After testing against three other actresses], someone came out and asked everyone to go home and that I stay. Of course I assumed I was in trouble, but by morning I had the job! A week or so later I was living in Vancouver — my first time living away from home — and doing harness training for flying stunts.

Smallville faced its trickiest transition when Michael Rosenbaum decided to vacate the role of Lex after seven seasons. Though he would ultimately return for the series finale (calling it a favor to "all of the fans who made Smallville the great success it is"), Cassidy Freeman was the one chosen to lord over LuthorCorp and its illicit endeavors during his absence.

ROSENBAUM | Many people still ask, "Why did you leave Smallville?" It's simple: I didn't leave. My contract was for six years; I did seven. Truth is I really wanted to get back into comedy, write my own material, direct, produce and just explore. But I got emotional the day I left. Seven years is a long time to do anything, and I spent 70 months with these folks up in Vancouver. I cried my face off when I left that make up trailer for the last time.

KREUK | Michael is a strong actor and Lex is a strong character, so it was hard not to notice when he left. While I can't speak for others, I think people respected his decision.

WELLING | Rosenbaum is a good friend of mine, so while it was sad, I knew it was the best choice for him. But I didn't know know what to expect after that, how they were going to keep the show going with the villain being gone.

PETERSON | As you can imagine, losing one of he most beloved characters on the show and filling those shoes was — for us and for Cassidy — astronomical.

CASSIDY FREEMAN, played Tess Mercer aka Lutessa Luthor | I didn't know quite the extent that Tess would be filling Lex's shoes. I was told that she was a mixture of Miss Teschmacher [from Christopher Reeve's Superman films] and Mercy Graves from the DC Comics, and that she was going to be a vixen of sorts. Definitely not a good person.

SOUDERS | It's been a lot of fun growing that character, because what Cassidy brings to the show is something none of us expected.

Smallville made a big splash from Season 1, debuting to record viewership and leading then-WB co-chair Jordan Levin to tout it as a "cornerstone" of the network's lineup. Over the years, the show became one of the biggest draws at the San Diego Comic-Con convention, and counts among its celebrity fans everyone from Howard Stern to Justin Bieber. Even big-screen Superman Christopher Reeve gave the show his endorsement, guest-starring on it twice.

KREUK | When Allison and I were in Paris together a few years in, we couldn't walk through a museum without being followed by a swarm of teenagers. It was madness.

MACK | [Laughs] That was crazy. We were at the Pompidou, and that was the first time either of us had ever really experienced "fame."

FREEMAN | The first time I saw people sleeping on the pavement [at Comic-Con] at 2 in the morning, in line for us, touched me a lot.

WELLING | When I went to Comic-Con for the first time [prior to Season 9] and walked into that room with, like, 8,000 people, it really hit me. It was a really special, warm and inviting experience to see the look on everyone's faces.

VANDERVOORT | At one of my first comic conventions, a gentleman came up to me with my face tattooed on his calf. That was pretty shocking as I've never seen anything like that before. At another convention, a gentleman asked me to sign his arm; he came back a several hours later with it tattooed. It's a little intense but at the same time you have to really appreciate that sort of fan, the diehards that will be with you throughout your career.

DURANCE | The things I find most touching are the little girls who come up to you and say how much they love Lois and actually think you're Lois. But the moment that stands out for me was when I was at a convention and somebody grabbed me from behind, put their hands over my eyes and said, "You hit it outta the park, kid." I turned around and it was Margot Kidder [Lois from the Christopher Reeve Superman films]. That I will never forget.

On May 18, 2010, Welling wowed a portion of the fandom by letting slip at an Upfronts Week party that "Season 10 will be
 the last." The CW confirmed the news 36 hours later, promising viewers a final run full of nostalgia and returning faces, as Clark "overcomes his final trials and forges the iconic identity that will be known for all time."

WELLING | Is that how the news broke? I honestly don't remember saying that — and no one ever scolded me!

HARTLEY | I thought Season 8 was going to be our final season! And then I thought Season 9....

ROTH | Tom claimed at Comic-Con that I told him the show would go 10 years. I don't remember saying that, but he swears it happened.

SOUDERS | Every year for the last few years, there's been a question as to whether or not we'd return. It's only because of the fans' dedication to the show that we kept coming back.

DURANCE | Ten is a nice number to end it on, but it's very bittersweet. It'll be tough to say goodbye to Lois.

FREEMAN | When we found out that Season 10 was the final one, I was super-excited that A) we got it, and B) that we had the opportunity to craft something special instead of leaving anyone hanging.

MACK | I was pleased for the people that were going to stick around, but I did know that I didn't want to be there for the whole season. I was flattered that they were able to work me in for the episodes I was able to go back and do.

ASHMORE | I was very excited to get to come back for the finale — it meant that I actually got to play Smallville's "real" Jimmy Olsen. They could have cast anyone, but it was flattering that they thought of me for the cameo. It was really nice to say goodbye to the show and all the cast and crew properly.

WELLING | I thank the studio and the network for allowing us that opportunity [to plan a final season]. It would have been a real shame to just sort of find out I didn't have a job — and it'd be a shame for the fans.

There's one thing every cast member, past and present, can agree on — Smallville was a super experience.

WELLING | I am really thankful for the past 10 years, and I have so much respect for all of the people who have taught me along the way and given me the opportunities to direct and produce and develop other shows [including the CW's Hellcats].

MACK | The most overwhelming element that I have come away from this experience with is the amount of friendships that I built, and the family I created there. I left with a lot of love. [In September 2021, Mack began serving a three-year prison sentence for her role in the NXIVM sex cult.]

ROSENBAUM | I really loved working on Smallville and those times with the cast and crew will always be with me. When I landed my new show Impastor, I immediately called up my old friends from Smallville in costumes, props and the production designer and got them to come play with me again. That's what it's all about. Connections. Friendships.

FREEMAN | I often equate my experience on Smallville to one of grad school. The amount that I learned, in a really safe environment, is paramount for me and my career as an actor. In a time when TV shows are lucky to last 13 episodes, I feel like I was part of something special.

HARTLEY | I got the opportunity to write an episode, and [in Season 10] I got to direct. But most importantly, I don't recall one moment – aside from injuries, which are never any fun – when I've heard someone complain. It'll be cold and raining and 4 in the morning, and everyone's laughing.... I'm excited to see how they end it. Knowing the writers, I have a strong suspicion that when it's over you're going to go, "That's exactly how it should have been."

WELLING | People are going to really like what we did [with the series finale]. The last image ... for me, it gave me goosebumps.

SOUDERS | I'd describe the final episode as "monumental"...

PETERSON | ...and "romantic." What's been great about Smallville is that from the first frame we all know how this story turns out. These last 10 years have been about taking that journey.

Years later, how do you now regard Smallville, in a TV world that is now populated by oh-so-many comic book-/superhero-inspired series?