Title:
PILOT
Production:
Season 01 | Episode 01 | 01
Original air date:
October 16, 2001
series premiere
Writer:
Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
Director:
David Nutter
Series regulars:
 
Tom Welling (Clark Kent)
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Michael Rosenbaum
(Lex Luthor)
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Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang)
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Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan)
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Sam Jones (Pete Ross)
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Eric Johnson
(Whitney Fordman
 
Annette O'Toole
(Martha Kent)
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John Schneider
(Jonathan Kent)
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Guest stars:
John Glover
(Lionel Luthor)
Adrian Mc Morran
(Jeremy Creek)
Sarah-Jane Redmond
(Nell Potter)
Ben Odberg
(Lewis Lang)
Malkolm Alburquenque
(Young Clark Kent)
Matthew Munn
(Young Lex Luthor)
Miranda Cosgrove
(5-Year-Old Lana Lang)
Steve Bacic
(Garage Worker/Former Jock)
Amy Esterle
(Heike, Fencing Instructor)
Next / Previous Episode:
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Ratings:
Viewers:
Overnights:
6.7/10
Adults (18 - 49):
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How the story begins: Oct. 1989: Smallville, Kansas (The creamed corn capital of the world) prepares for homecoming.
The Kents: Martha and Jonathan Kent visit the town's flower shop. Martha
talks to little Lana, playing make-believe. Lana asks Martha to make a wish,
and she grants it with her magic wand. All Martha ever wishes for is a child.
The Kents drive along a country road as the meteors crash down. A small boy
finds them, wandering towards the truck. Martha wraps him up, carries him as
the three investigate the scene.
Lex Luthor: Child Lex is frightened as he and his father land the helicopter
in a cornfield. As he wanders the field, Lex finds a teen boy tied up to posts
like a scarecrow, as the meteors crash down. Mr. Luthor later finds his son
in the flattened cornfield, bald and shaking in fear.
Lana Lang: Outside her aunt's flower shop, young Lana waves to her parents,
who just pulled up across the street. A meteor strikes down Lana's mom & dad
as she cries in horror.
How the story continues The meteor capital of the world, Today
The football team:Clark wants to be on the football team, but his parents
refuse permission, trying to protect him. Clark's friend Pete wants to get on
the team, too. Both want to avoid being chosen as the freshman homecoming scarecrow,
the gruesome prank carried out by the football jocks. Whitney, Lana's boyfriend
is on the football team. (Did you notice the stylized "S" on Whitney's Smallville
High School letter jacket when he kissed Lana at school?)
Lex: is now a rich young man, speeding along in his Porsche 911. He loses
control of the car, hitting Clark, and plunging off a bridge into the water.
Clark rescues him. Lex thanks him for saving his life. He tries to repay Clark
with a new truck. But Mr. Kent won't let Clark keep the truck, due to Lex's
dad, Mr. Luthor's past business dealings. When Clark visits Lex at the estate
to return the truck, Lex tells Clark of his out-of-body experience, how Clark
brought him back after the accident, and their destined friendship.
Whitney: visits Lana on her front porch next door to Clark's barn. Whitney
is hopeful about the weekend football game and being discovered by scouts. Lana
gives Whitney her meteor necklace for good luck. Jeremy the scarecrow kid: The
homecoming scarecrow victim from 12 years ago reappears, looking for revenge.
He now has electrical powers, and is going around town electrocuting the former
jock assailants.
Clark learns of his past: Dad tells Clark his history, giving him a metal
object with writing on it from his home planet. He also shows Clark the spaceship
he arrived in, now hidden in their storm cellar. Clark can't accept the truth.
He meets Lana by chance at the graveyard that night. She's there with flowers
to talk to her parents. She shares her memories of them with Clark, and introduces
them at their graves. Lana shares her loneliness. Clark reassures Lana. After
they walk home, Lana says she'll save him a dance at homecoming, and kisses
him on the cheek goodnight. Whitney sees this, hidden in the darkness of the
porch.
Clark as the scarecrow: Jealous, Whitney and the jocks jump Clark, who
is powerless near Lana's meteor necklace that Whitney has. Whitney unknowingly
puts the necklace around Clark's neck. Jeremy the scarecrow kid finds Clark
in the cornfield. He doesn't help Clark down, saying he's safer in the fields,
as Jeremy plan more revenge at the homecoming dance. Lex recognizes Jeremy from
a flashback, and is led to Clark. Lex frees Clark, and the meteor necklace breaks
free, retrieved by Lex. Clark has his powers back. Clark saves his friends:
Clark finds Jeremy at school plotting to hurt the students at the dance. Clark
is unaffected by the electricity, Jeremy tries to run Clark down, crashing the
truck into him against a wall. Water fills the truck, Jeremy gets short-circuited,
and wakes up, out of his vengeful state. At the dance, Clark sees Lana dancing
with Whitney. Outside, Clark pulls his prank, stacking up two other trucks on
top of Whitney's truck.
How it ends: In the barn, Clark looks at the stars through his telescope.
Dad asks if he's OK. Clark says he's glad the Kents found him. Dad says it was
Clark who found them, and says goodnight. Lana appears at the barn in her gown,
for the last dance...or so Clark imagines.
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| OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION (The WB): |
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A meteor shower in Smallville, Kansas leaves behind a future superhero in the shape of a young boy who is taken in by Jonathan and Martha Kent. As his extraordinary powers begin to emerge, a teenage Clark faces the tribulations of high school and destiny changing relationships with his future nemesis Lex Luthor and first love Lana Lang.
Eric Johnson, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack also star.
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October, 1989: A meteor shower rains down on Smallville, Kansas, wreaking havoc upon the inhabitants. Among those killed are Lewis and Laura Lang. Their three-year-old daughter, Lana, witnesses their tragic death while in her Aunt Nell's arms. Outside of town, nine-year-old Lex Luthor, son of corporate mogul Lionel Luthor, and heir to "LuthorCorp," wanders into a nearby cornfield. There he encounters a teenage boy, Jeremy Creek. Jeremy has been stripped and tied to a stake like a scarecrow - the victim of a traditional high school homecoming game prank. The meteors crash into the field, leaving Jeremy unconscious, and young Lex bald. Jonathan and Martha Kent, a handsome, childless couple, are returning to their farm when their truck is run off the road by falling meteors. They awaken from the crash, and see a small boy peering in through the window at them. The Kents discover the boy's spaceship, which has fallen undetected to earth among the meteors. Unable to have children of their own, they decide to adopt the boy and keep his origins a secret. They name him Clark.
The Present Day: Clark Kent is now in the prime of his adolescence. Incredibly strong and fast, handsome yet awkward, he longs to "get though high school without being a total loser." His parents keep him on a tight leash, excluding him from many activities, for fear that his unique abilities will be discovered or cause an accident. Clark pines for the now grown and beautiful Lana Lang. Lana is the quintessential "popular girl" of Smallville High - smart, pretty, a cheerleader, and dating the school's star quarterback, Whitney Fordman. Clark's friends, Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan, joke that Clark "can't get within five feet of Lana Lang, without turning into a total freak show." Clark's clumsiness around Lana seems to be provoked by the strange green pendant Lana wears around her neck. Chloe is obsessed with folklore about the paranormal activity that pervades Smallville; and Pete has a scheme to join the football team. He wants Clark to join with him, reasoning that membership on the football team will keep them from being chosen as this year's "Scarecrow" - the kid chosen by the football players to be strung up in a corn field. Unfortunately, football is one such activity that Clark's father has forbidden him to engage in. On his way home from school, Clark is hit by a Porsche, driven by Lex Luthor. The car and Clark crash through the side of the bridge, and into the river below. Clark is unscathed, and ripping open the roof of the Porsche, pulls the unconscious Lex from the wreck to shore. Wondering how he survived the crash, Clark revives Lex.
Jeremy Creek, the 1989 "Scarecrow," appears at a auto repair shop one evening, not having aged a day. He attacks a mechanic, who was one of the football players that strung him up in the field. Bolts of lightening shoot out of Jeremy's body, and electrocute the man to death. Meanwhile, at the Kent farm, Clark arrives home from school to find a new pick-up truck in the driveway. It is a gift from Lex Luthor. Clark's father tells him he cannot keep the truck. He reasons that being a hero doesn't require rewards, and besides, much of the Luthors' money was swindled from the residents of Smallville. Clark is very upset by this, compounded with his anxiety about surviving the accident, and having super-human strength. He tells his father, "I'd give anything to be normal!" Jonathan is then motivated to tell Clark of his true origins. He explains how Clark came to earth in a spaceship with the meteor shower. He gives him a strange metal plate they found in his ship, with engravings in an unknown language. Jonathan tells Clark that he is meant for something special, and should look at his abilities as gifts. This doesn't help Clark feel any better, and he runs off to do some thinking. That night, Clark wanders through a quaint local graveyard, where he encounters Lana. Lana goes there to visit her parents' grave, and to speak to them as if they were present. Clark does not feel sick around Lana now, because she has given her necklace to Whitney for luck. Clark and Lana share their angst ("Do you ever feel like your life was supposed to be something else?") and discover that they have a lot in common. Clark walks her home, where Lana kisses him on the cheek. Jealous, Whitney watches them from the shadows.
The next day, Clark returns the new pick-up to Lex at his mansion. Lex knows that Jonathan doesn't like him, but he hopes that he and Clark can still be friends. Meanwhile, Chloe and Pete are at a crime scene, taking photos for the school paper, "The Torch." Another ex-football star has been electrocuted. They notice Jeremy, a strange face in the crowd, and snap his photo. At school, they find Jeremy's photo in the 1989 yearbook, and learn that he was that year's "Scarecrow." They tell Clark that since the meteor shower, Jeremy has been in a coma. An electrical storm came through a few days ago, and all the power went out at the hospital. When it came back on, Jeremy had disappeared. Now he is seeking revenge on the football players who strung him up. Chloe surmises that the meteor strike must have somehow altered Jeremy's body, causing it to have not aged and all, and giving it the capacity to store and control electricity. Clark finds Chloe's theory far-fetched, so she shows him the "Wall of Weird." - a huge collection of articles on the strange occurrences in Smallville since the meteor shower. Clark sees a picture of the young orphan Lana, and suddenly believes that his arrival with the meteor shower makes him complicit in her parents' deaths, as well as all the other unnatural incidents in town. Clark runs from the school, riddled with guilt. He's stopped by Whitney and some of his football buddies. In a rage of jealousy, Whitney grabs Clark. Clark moves to defend himself but Whitney is wearing Lana's necklace, and Clark is weak with pain. Whitney sees Clark looking at the necklace and puts it around Clark's neck. They throw Clark in the back of a truck and drive off.
Night. Clark is stripped to his boxer shorts and hung on a pole in a cornfield, a red "S" painted on his chest. Lana's necklace still dangles from his neck, causing Clark great pain. Jeremy arrives and tells Clark this has to end. Clark warns Jeremy to stay away from his friends, but Jeremy refuses and leaves for the homecoming dance. Lex sees Jeremy leaving the field and goes to investigate. Finding Clark, Lex frees him and the necklace falls off. Instantly revived, Clark quickly dresses and takes off, leaving Lex to examine Lana's necklace. At Smallville High, the homecoming dance is in full swing while Jeremy is outside preparing his revenge. Clark arrives and again asks Jeremy to stop. Jeremy tries to use his electrocution power on Clark, but Clark is unharmed and hurls Jeremy across the alley. Jeremy then drives a truck into Clark, carrying them both through a brick wall and smashing open a water main. The truck begins to fill with water and Jeremy's electricity power rages out of control. Jeremy shocks himself into unconsciousness. As he comes to, he has no memory of what he's done or what has gone on. As the dance ends, Whitney and Lana, the homecoming king and queen, exit only to find that Whitney and buddies' trucks have been stacked one on top of the other. Later, in his loft, Clark tells Jonathan he's glad it was Martha and he who found him. Then Lana arrives. She's come to collect her dance. Clark and she share a special moment as they dance gently, but Clark's reverie is broken by the sound of horns honking. Lana is gone - Clark was daydreaming. "Thanks for the dance, Lana."
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Meteors float through space, turn at a moon and begin heading toward...Earth.
It is October, 1989 in Smallville, population 25,001 and corn capital of the world. Martha and Jonathan Kent, a young married but childless couple, come into a florist shop. They chat with the owner, Nell, and her young niece Lana, whose parents are in town for homecoming.
Meanwhile, Lionel Luther, a rich businessman, and his red-headed son Lex are flying in their helicopter to a Smallville factory/plant. Lionel chastises his son for being scared and keeping his eyes closed. After they land, as Lionel signs the deal, Lex wanders into a nearby cornfield. He hears someone whisper, "Help me." Frightened, he begins to run and sees a young man with an "S" on his chest tied to a cross.
Meteors begin falling through the sky, and one hits the cornfield. It causes a huge shockwave that engulfs the crucified young man. Lex tries to outrun it. In town, Lana watches as a meteor hits and kills her parents. The Kents, driving back home, flip over in their car.
Lionel looks frantically for Lex in the flattened corn field, and finds him under a bunch of corn stalks. He is horrified to see Lex has lost all his hair.
The Kents crawl out of their car, and Jonathan sees a naked little boy, about age 3, wandering nearby.
Fast forward to the year 2001, Smallville, now population 45,001 and the meteor capital of the world. It's morning and 15-year-old Clark Kent is surfing the internet. He reads a story about a boy who breaks a speed record. At breakfast, he tells his parents he wants to play football but Jonathan says he would hurt the other guys. Clark misses his bus, but outruns it through a cornfield.
Pete and Chloe, Clark's friends, talk about going to the school dance. Chloe insists she doesn't have a crush on Clark. Pete mentions that every year, the football teams picks a freshman to be the "scarecrow."
At school, Clark glimpses Lana Lang, whom he secretly likes. But as he gets near her, he stumbles and drops his books. Lana is wearing a green necklace that glows slightly when he is near.
The young man seen earlier in the episode, the "Scarecrow" Lex saw before the meteor shower, is skulking around school. He gazes at the football trophy case, then breaks it and takes a picture of three smiling football players.
At football practice, Clark watches Lana practicing with the other cheerleaders. He daydreams about being the star quarterback and winning the game. Later, he goes to a bridge to mope.
Lex drives around Smallville very fast, when his cell phone rings. Distracted, he doesn't notice something blocking the road ahead. He swerves and sees Clark moments before the car hits him and goes over the bridge into a river.
Under the water, Lex is unconscious. Clark frees him and swims both of them back to the surface. He gives Lex mouth to mouth, and when Lex revives, he says, "I could've sworn I hit you."
Jonathan arrives at the scene and is not too happy with Lex. Lex thanks Clark for saving his life.
Later that night, Clark peers through a telescope at the starry sky. Then he glimpses Lana on the porch of her house. Whitney surprises her and Lana gives him her necklace for good luck in the homecoming game.
At Frank's auto shop, the "Scarecrow" electrocutes Frank, a former football player.
Clark receives a brand new truck as a gift from Lex for saving his life, but Jonathan won't let him keep it. He tells Clark that Lionel Luther is immoral and ruins people's lives. They fight. Jonathan decides to tell Clark about his origins.
He shows him the spaceship and tells Clark that he arrived in it during the meteor shower. Clark grows angry and says he should've been told before. Clark runs off. He sees Lana at a cemetary. She is there to talk to her parents. They discuss feeling alone and having different lives.
Clark walks Lana home and she asks if he's going to the dance. She says if he does go, she'll save a dance for him, and then kisses him on the cheek. Whitney watches from the shadows.
Clark goes to Lex's mansion and tells Lex he can't keep the truck. Lex realizes it's because Jonathan doesn't like him. Lex says he doesn't want anything to stand in the way of their friendship.
Pete and Chloe are at the scene of a crime. Another former football player has been found dead. They see a strange-looking man and recognize him as the Scarecrow from the year of the meteor shower. Later, they show Clark his photo in the yearbook and tell him that Jeremy has been electrocuting people out of revenge. Chloe shows Clark her "wall of weird" -- things related to the meteor shower -- and Clark thinks everything is his fault.
As he runs out of school, Whitney catches him to be the next Scarecrow. Clark tries to fight back but Whitney is wearing Lana's kryptonite necklace. Clark is strung up on a cross with an "S" on his chest. Jeremy stops by but doesn't help. He's going to the homecoming dance to electrocute everyone there.
Lex drives by and recognizes Jeremy as he walks away. Lex flashes back to the day of the meteor shower. He investigates and finds Clark, who immediately runs away. Lex picks up the kryptonite necklace.
At the dance, Jeremy is about to setoff the sprinkler system when Clark shows up. They tussle. Jeremy tries to run Clark down with a car, when he bashes into a water main. He electrocutes himself until his powers are gone. He is left with no memory of it, and wants to go home.
Clark watches Lana and Whitney dance, and walks out in frustration. He sees Whitney's car and has an idea. Later, after the dance is over, everyone filters out. Whitney and Lana get outside and see his truck stacked on top of other trucks. Whitney is furious. Lana is curious.
Clark is back in the barn with the telescope when Jonathan comes up. Clark says he is glad the Kents found him, but Jonathan says that Clark found them.
Clark daydreams that Lana stops by and gives him the saved dance. In reality, he watches as Lana is dropped off by Whitney. She turns, looking as if she knows something is watching her, but doesn't see Clark.
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Clark: What are you trying to tell me, Dad? That I'm from another planet?!? And I suppose you stashed my spaceship in the attic?
Jonathan: Actually, it's in the storm cellar.
Clark: I took a shortcut.
Chloe: Through what, a black hole?
Lana: So which one are you, Clark? Man, or Superman?
Jonathan: Are you okay?
Clark: Can I answer that in about five years?
Lana: Can you keep a secret?
Clark: I'm the Fort Knox of secrets.
Lana: Are you okay?
Clark: I'm hanging out in a graveyard - does that strike you as okay behavior?
Clark: (reading): Dear Clark, drive safely, always in your debt, Maniac in the Porsche.
Lex: You have quite an extraordinary boy there, Mr. Kent, if there's any way I can repay you.
Mr. Kent: Drive slower.
Lana: So what are you? Man or superman?
Chloe: Wait a minute, you two are trying out for the football team? What is this, some sort of teen suicide pact?
Martha: Where'd you learn your manners?
Clark: On a farm?
Jonathan: Who was the maniac who was driving that car?
Lex: That would be me - Lex Luthor.
Lex: Clark...do you believe a man can fly?
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Let it be known that 2001 is the year of re-imaginings. Tim Burton did it with PLANET OF THE APES. Lou Arkoff did it with CREATURE FEATURES. And now Alfred Gogh and Miles Millar do it with Superboy or, as the WB likes to call it, SMALLVILLE. Taking the Superman franchise and its classic characters back to high school, SMALLVILLE explains what happened to Clark Kent during his formative years between the boy he thought he was and the man he is destined to become.
As most comic book scholars can attest to, Clark Kents life in Smallville, Kansas, and the mythology of the town itself, is a bit foggy. Audiences know he fell from the sky, the last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton. They know he has strange and unusual powers the result of Earths yellow sun. And they know he eventually moves to Metropolis, a mild mannered reporter by day and a super-powered crime-fighter by night. However, just what happened to make him a good guy still remains a mystery. Why didnt he flaunt his newfound abilities, using them to lead a life of indulgence? Just how did Lex Luthor and Superman become arch enemies?
Those questions and more are answered in SMALLVILLE. But I digress
The year is 1989. The Smallville high school football team is returning from an unexpected win against its cross-town rivals. The citizens of the Midwestern town are celebrating in the streets all except for Jonathan and Martha Kent. Instead, the childless couple is heading back home, wallowing in the bum hand life has dealt them. Just then, the town is struck by a massive meteor shower. Innocent celebrants are killed, a young Lex Luthor (visiting a neighboring farm with his father, who is in the process of buying it) gets his hair singed off and an unnamed high school student, hung in a corn field like a scarecrow (the result of hazing), is engulfed in an eerie cloud of smoke. Once the chaos settles, Martha and Jonathan find a little boy, his spaceship and the rest is history. (more...)
By ERIC MORO
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Song: "The Way It Is"
Artist: Bruce Hornsby
Album: The Way It Is
Song: "Let's Go"
Artist: Capitol Eye
Album: Mood Swingz 2
Song: "Long Way Around"
Artist: Eagle-Eye Cherry
Album: Present/Future
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Song: "Wonder"
Artist: Embrace
Album: Fireworks
(Singles 1997 - 2002)
Song: "Inside The Memories"
Artist: Fear The Clown
Album: Within
Song: "Everything I Own"
Artist: Jude
Album: King of Yesterday
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Song: "Everything"
Artist: Lifehouse
Album: No Name Face
Song: "Maybe"
Artist: Stereophonics
Album: Just Enough Education to Perform
Song: "Unstoppable"
Artist: The Calling
Album: Camino Palmero
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This episode ran 8:51 minutes over the hour.
While meeting Lana in the graveyard, Clark stands in front of an angel in such a way that the wings appear to be moving from his shoulders. This may be foreshadowing him being able to fly, or emphasizing his whole Christ-like role as savior later on in his life, or the fact that he is a "heavenly" visitor.
The permission slip lists the Kent's address as "Hickory Lane."
There are no "opening credits", but the regular actors are listed followed by a "Special Guest Star" credit for John Glover.
Smallville's population is established as 45,001 as of "Today" and 25,001 when the meteors hit.
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