Smallville Fans Celebrates The Historic Superman Series On The Show"s 22nd Anniversary

Summary

• Fans are celebrating Smallville on the show's 22nd anniversary.
• Smallville ran for an impressive ten seasons and paved the way for later series, such as those in the Arrowverse.
• Smallville remains popular to this day because of its unique take on the Superman mythos.

DC Universe fans are celebrating Smallville on its 22nd anniversary, with the Superman prequel drama being the longest-running show about the Man of Steel. While the Arrowverse became a massive superhero franchise for The CW, it was Smallville that paved the way for Greg Berlanti's DC TV Universe, with Tom Welling portraying Clark Kent for exactly a decade, telling the story of Superman in his early days. Smallville came during a time when the comic book genre was still not as big as it is today in TV and film, with the current landscape now having more upcoming superhero movies and shows than ever.
On October 16, 2001, Smallville premiered on The WB (years before it merged with UPN to become The CW in 2006), with 8.35 million viewers tuning in to the first episode, making it one of the network's most viewed pilots of all time. Today marks Smallville's 22nd birthday, and fans of the DC TV show are celebrating the show's massive success and reflecting upon its influence in the superhero genre.
@JesseRyan_11E referenced one of the infamous quotes from the Smallville series finale, "Always hold on to Smallville," calling it "the flagship show" before the birth of the Arrowverse.
@SEMScorpio expressed that when "Smallville debuted on The WB network," it changed the mythos of the Man of Steel "forever."
@DiggingForKRPod, which is a Superman fan podcast, reflected how "this show is one of the pillars of my Superman fandom," as they spent a decade "watching the show every week."
@Luly_Ryu didn't grow up watching Smallville, "but this is one of my fave shows," as "entertaining, fun and has really great characters. Also, the quality of the writing is very good. Few shows have lasted 10 seasons with consistent quality and with the last 2 being this great."
@3Freel shared a GIF moment from the Smallville finale with Welling doing the infamous Superman shirt-rip while calling it "the best Superman project."
@AJHJR celebrated Smallville for continuing to hold "the record for the Longest Comic Book Based Superhero TV Show of all time," with a total of 218 episodes in its run.
@GrayzeTV went to the lengths of calling Smallville not just the best live-action Superman TV show of all time but "the greatest comic book show ever made."
@chriwankenobi celebrated Smallville's 22nd anniversary by sourcing the show as the reason for them to "have read my first comic" in their lives.