Superman has faced many great foes over the years.
Brainiac. Lex Luthor. Doomsday. Terra Man.
Perhaps his greatest foe however- sagging Ratings!
Season 4 of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman faced a drop in Ratings as Season 3 came to a close. Its Network lost faith in them and tried it in a few different Time Slots.
In a pre-Streaming Age, if you couldn't find a Show that night, you often didn't seek it out later in the week. That or you just missed it, because it was suddenly on a Tuesday and not a Thursday.
To help the Ratings, a gambit was made- cross the Show over with a popular newcomer in the form of The Drew Carey Show.
In spite of a Season 5 renewal that wasn't made to last, the Show ended that year.
So, let's see how you work in Characters from a Comedy about people in Cleveland when your Show is about Superman...
The first Plot involves the titular newlyweds discovering that one of them can't cook.
Wah wah!
Drew Carey plays a Con Man who works for the Mob. They buy up townhouses and turn them into Malls.
That business plan will always be viable!
He's in the middle of doing this with the people in our Heroes' Building.
The first attempt doesn't work and he's got an angry Mob Enforcer on his butt about it.
He goes all out and buys a magic book about summoning spirits.
As promised, it works, summoning the ghost played by his
Drew Carey Show Co-Star.
She tries to scare Lois, but then feels bad.
She's too nice to scare people, which annoys Drew.
He says that he'll tell her who killed her 10 years ago, thus freeing her from ghostly limbo.
He doesn't actually know, of course.
She manages to possess Lois, which is evident by the Reporter cooking a bunch of food.
Yes, culinary skill is a Plot Point!
She bonds with Lois during this and feels bad again, since she has some of the woman's memories.
While Drew avoids the Enforcer, our Heroes try to solve Mimi's murder.
All signs point to her not seeing the culprit, hence her being stuck.
She might also be repressing some knowledge too though, as shown by her trying to stop them from investigating further.
She finally turns on Drew and scares him, leading the guy to Superman.
They arrive to find Mimi possessing Lois again, this time going full Gatekeeper.
Drew reveals the culprit and she finally accepts this, leaving Lois and moving on.
In the aftermath, Lois can cook...but doesn't want to.
Wah wah!
A very sentimental Episode all told, which is surprising given the whole gimmick of the Guest Stars. It definitely is still comedic, but not silly.
Drew actually plays a very unlikeable guy here, which is a bit surprising.
It was probably fun though.
Kathy Kinney (aka Mimi) does well here too, playing a very sad sack Character in contrast to her brash, super-confident character on the other Show.
We get a little bit of Jimmy Olsen here and our Heroes acquaint themselves alright too.
Dean Cain's Clark is mostly just reacting, which isn't that impressive all considered.
Teri Hatcher as Lois gets to do more here, which is nice.
If you're here for some real Superman action, look elsewhere. He flies like twice, but otherwise all of the big moments are in the Opening Titles.
A weird gimmick of an Episode that actually is way better than you might think, even if there is almost no Perry White...
An Episode that, while not amazing, has more depth and pathos than you'd expect. Don't judge a crossover by its cover, I guess.
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