LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! (A FOLC guide to Metropolis)
1-Daily Planet
-The Pit- Lois and Clark’s desks
-Perry White's office – where he orders L&C to cover a boxing story; busts them when he suspects they are holding back on their story;
2-Metropolis Square Garden- where the fight of the century, “The Ultimate Street Fight” will be held
3-Max Menken’s Gym
-Exterior, ‘Champion Boxing School,’ a long time establishment with an impressive array of championship trophies on display
-Locker Room- where Dr. Lane attends a patient,
-Corridor- where Menken and Garrison experience the ‘earthquake’ caused by Clark
-Dr. Lane’s Office- where Lane and Kent peruse his files and find a hidden room
-Training Area- where Lois and Dr. Lane argue over his refusal to help
4-Street Corner- where Lois witnessed Allie Dinello’s death
5-Lex Luthor’s Penthouse- where Luthor reveals his plan to create an army of supermen using Dr. Lane’s prosthetic limb replacements
6-Boxing Arena- where the ‘Ultimate Street Fight’ is canceled and Garrison challenges Superman to face him
-Back Alley- outside the arena where events culminate

POWERS USED AS SUPERMAN
1-Flight- patrols the city searching for kidnapped Lois
2-Strength- easily subdues three goons who attack him in a dark alley, knocks a boxer across the ring with a tap of his finger
3-Hearing- hears and answers Garrison’s challenge to fight in the arena while in the alley outside the building

POWERS USED AS CLARK
1-Speed- plays a game of baseball with himself,
2-Vision- is tempted to peek at Perry’s poker hand but resists. recognizes a familiar bookshelf style and looks behind it to see a secret work room,
3-Strength- creates a fake earthquake in conjunction with his speed, pulls the knob off a door after Lois fails to jimmy it with a credit card, pushes a man across a boxing ring in a show of anger
4-Hearing- discerns the approaching voices of Menken and Garrison while searching Dr. Lane’s office

HINT, HINT! (for the galactically stupid)
Nothing of note

CLARK’S LAME EXCUSES
More hilarious than lame, when Lois is kidnapped by Max Menken in full view of Clark and Lex Luthor, both men turn to one another and say simultaneously, “I’ll go for help!” They rush away in opposite directions, Clark, of course, to become Superman.

DEVICES
-Battery powered artificial joints and limbs of various kinds developed by Dr. Lane

BEEN THERE (Clark’s travels)
Nothing of note

SAY WHAT? (Clark’s Languages)
Nothing of note

HISTORY, HOBBIES, ALL CHARACTERS

CLARK KENT/SUPERMAN
-is happy to be invited to spend more time with Perry White, but not so happy to learn the time would be spent playing poker
- is tempted to use his vision while playing poker, but resists after Perry expresses his opinion on why Superman wouldn’t
- greets Lois with “Howdy, partner!” and can’t resist teasing her about the order in which their names should go on their byline
- is surprised to discover Lois’ father is Dr. Sam Lane, a well known physician who works with boxers
- requests to talk with the boxers at the gym but is told they are off limits
- lets Lois goad him into the ring after being challenged by Tommy Garrison, who calls his build ‘solid’
- tells Garrison he might be surprised what he, Clark, can do if feeling threatened
- loses his temper after Dinello interrupts and Garrison’s taunting gets more harsh, and shoves the boxer nearly across the ring
- as he and Lois prepare to leave the gym, he can’t resist teasingly calling her “Pumpkin” and enjoying the exasperated look she gives him
- is curious but sympathetic witnessing the estrangement between Lois and her father
- asks if it’s a ‘trick question’ when, later in the evening, she asks him if he knew anybody who was so devoted to their job they thought of nothing or no one else
- goes with Lois to break into her father’s office
- finds a hidden room behind a familiar looking bookcase
- discovers Garrison, and others, had Dr. Lane’s reconstructive surgery and began to “demolish” their opponents
- is sure the Boxing Commission will never allow the fighters into the ring knowing they are part robot
- reluctantly reminds Lois that if they write the story they know, whoever killed Allie Dinello will want her father dead, too
- tells Lois that killing the story means they are not partners anymore, a change which Lois dismisses sarcastically by saying he “doesn’t want to be partners with a hypocritical reporter who backs off a story if it hits too close to home” …”Yes, I do.”
- arrives at the arena after Lois’s kidnapping but is attacked by some of the enhanced fighters who momentarily surprise him
- arrives too late to rescue Lois and save Menken’s life because Luthor has killed Menken and freed Lois
- answers Garrison’s continuous call to join him in the arena to fight and lets the over confident boxer try to fight him before dispatching him with a tap of his finger to the forehead – knock-out
- is bothered, later, by Perry’s questioning where he, Clark, was during the kidnapping and rescue
- turns down Lois’ invitation to get a bite to eat and goes to the gym for a quiet workout alone
- feels better after running through a varied routine, telling himself, “Not bad for a mild-mannered reporter.”


LOIS LANE
- doubts Superman would gamble- is positive he wouldn’t cheat
- not thrilled to be made “occasional” writing partners with Clark, equating partnership with marriage
- objects heatedly to being assigned to cover a sports related story, specifically because it’s boxing
- reveals an encyclopedic knowledge of 70’s era boxing lore
- threatens to go into the sparring ring herself with the arrogant boxer, Garrison, if reluctant Clark won’t accept his invitation to join him
- after seeing that Garrison isn’t joking, she begs Clark to get back out of the ring
- realizes the boxer is not just joking around and demands Clark get out of the ring immediately
- off-handedly introduces Clark to her father only after he begins to introduce himself
- stumbles over the partners part
- rants to Clark late that evening about her relationship with her father, first saying he has no need to know as he partner and then telling him anyway
- does admit she might be as dedicated to her job as her father was to his, but “I don’t have kids”
- though her father may have a been a workaholic like many parents are, she insists most try to spend quality time with their families
- after a call from Allie Dinello, she explains he wants to meet with her, alone, and is surprised by Clark’s understanding
- witnesses Dinello’s death and later assures Perry it was no ordinary hit and run
- reveals to Clark and Perry that Allie was upset when he called her, said he was in trouble, and she is convinced what he wanted to tell her ultimately cost him his life
- argues with her father after telling him she is sure Dinello was murdered and he suddenly questions her back
- questions her father aggressively and accuses him of lying when he refuses to answer directly
- later she and Clark return to the gym to search her father’s office
- inside a concealed room, they find more sophisticated limbs and joints with small, battery powered motors to drive them
- is shocked to realize why Menken’s fighter are invincible and laments she might be “Dr. Frankenstein’s daughter”
- lets Clark leave her inside the room when he hears someone coming and experiences an earthquake there
- stunned by the evidence her father gives her to back up the boxing story, her attitude softens and she embraces her father and tells him to be careful
- kidnapped by Menken she is taken to the fight arena, where Luthor arrives and kills Menken to free her seconds before Superman arrives
- believing Lex has saved her life, she ignores Superman and approaches Luthor to gratefully thank him for intervening and saving her life
- invites Clark to get something to eat after returning to the Daily Planet to write about the events of the evening, but leaves him to sulk


PERRY WHITE
-disagrees that Superman would cheat at poker because it wouldn’t be fairplay and “fairplay is what Superman is all about”
- argues with Lois over why she and Kent would make good partners
- after Dinello’s death, asks Lois if her can help her and if she is going to ask him for help
- is aghast after reading the watered down version of the fight story Lane and Kent turn in
- grills them but they back up one another
- seething, begins to edit their copy, effectively dismissing them without a word
- is elated when Lane and Kent hand in their story, complete with proof, and compares them to great writing teams of the past and yells out big plans to announce their work to the city. The newsroom cheers.
-is suitably impressed with the follow-up story to the scandal
- is puzzled and asks where Clark was during all of the excitement of the kidnapping and other events at the arena

JIMMY OLSEN
- is of the opinion Superman would be a good poker player because of his X ray vision and the temptation to cheat
- overhearing CK teasing Lois, suggests Lane and Kent for their byline because “the straight man always goes first”
- assures Lois there was no earthquake in Metropolis the night before when she laments her boxing story would have been the lead if it wasn’t for the quake
- tells her if the earth moved for her last night, “it must have been something else”

LEX LUTHOR
- is throwing darts at an unknown target while having a telephone conversation with Max Menken
-is concerned to discover Lois Lane and Allie Dinello have a close relationship
- reveals he suggested the press blackout for the big fight to keep Lois away from it and the fighters.
- tells Menken to take care of Dinello as it is his problem to deal with
- declaring he has no problems of his own, he hangs up the phone and walks to the target for his darts- a life-size cardboard cut-out of Superman
- reveals his ultimate plan is to create an army of supermen completely under his control and stuns Menken
- reads the headlines of the Daily Planet and tells Menken he doesn’t want the scandal to touch him
-assures Menken he needs to do one more favor for him and then he and the fighters will be relocated and paid well
- tells Menken to kill Sam Lane, who has already disappeared, by using his daughter to get to him. Lex has a plan.
- rushes up to Lane and Kent in the lobby of the Daily Planet and tells her he thinks her father was a visionary and offers to help him redirect his energies to help the injured and the handicapped. (Lois is touched. Clark is disgusted.)
- follows Menken after he kidnaps Lois and so arrives in time to save her seconds before Superman arrives
- has a talk about the events of the night, later, while pouring champagne, smugly saying Lois Lane now feels she owes him her life, and how the look on Superman’s face when he arrived too late was a bonus event in the plan
- admires his own ability to profit from setbacks, and shares the bottle of champagne with his dog


DR. SAM LANE
- arrives at the gym by taxi as Lois and Clark are leaving Menken’s gym
- is happy to see Lois until she greets him coldly, then he draws away
- asks her if she will be available for dinner and is disappointed when she turns him down
- sits dejectedly at ringside in the subdued atmosphere of the gym after Allie Dinello dies
- laments that he never thought Allie would be lost to a hit and run accident
- demands to know why Lois was with Dinello when he was killed and whether or not she was seen by the driver, but will not answer her questions
- begs her not to investigate further but won’t tell her why
- admits he was never a perfect father but is hurt when Lois corrects him that he was ‘hardly a father at all’
- ends the conversation by loudly telling her he doesn’t know anything about Allie’s death and miserably watches her as she dismisses him and leaves
- is examining a heavily bandaged patient when she returns the next day
- is not surprised she has discovered how far his work has progressed
- is shocked to learn she has killed the story she was going to write about it out of concern for his life, the father she cares about
- tells her to write the story because it isn’t about caring
- knows she resents him, rightly so, because he let her down but wasn’t because he didn’t care- it was because of his work
- reveals his early desire to help victims of catastrophic injuries by developing artificial limbs to make them whole again – a desire worth sacrificing for because “you think you’ll make it up to (your family) but time slips away, and you never do…”
- does not answer directly when asked if Menken killed Allie, just tells Lois to do what’s right, print her story, and walks away
- appalled at Menken’s plan to turn men into machines, battering rams, he meets with Lois and Clark and gives them a tape recording of his conversation with Menken
- again he tells her to write the story and leave nothing out
- after the meeting he kisses his daughter on the forehead in good-bye and disappears


MAX MENKEN
- owner of a famed establishment that has trained championship boxers for decades
- interrupts the confrontation in the sparring ring between contender Garrison and reporter Kent
- sends Garrison to the showers and closes the entire gym to visitors
- declares Garrison is ‘one’ of the strongest men in the world and goes into a publicity spiel on the upcoming fight, revealing for the first time that the winner will fight Superman
- declares the gym off limits to the reporters
- tells Dinello he should have known better (than to allow Lane and Kent near the fighters)
- later, assures Luthor that Dinello is dead
- cheerfully shows Luthor a copy of the Daily Planet with no mention of the gym, meaning he stopped Dinello before he could talk
- declares all their dreams are coming true, their fighters will dominate the sport
- after learning Luthor’s dreams are much bigger than his, he orders Dr. Lane to make the men stronger, eventually going into mass production, like Detroit makes cars
- tells angry Dr. Lane he has a lifetime contract with Menken and his financial backer, and when asked if he killed Dinello, replies “I’d hate to have to waste you, too.”
- kidnaps Lois at gun point from the lobby of the Daily Planet, taking her to the arena where the fight was to take place
- as he plays out the scheme Luthor has arranged, he realizes Luthor intends to kill him, but too late- he is killed before he can point his gun away from Lois and at Lex

TOMMY GARRISON
- arrogant top boxing contender who shows off in the practice ring by hitting his sparring partner across the ring
- demands to know who Lane and Kent are, then demands they be thrown out of the gym because they are reporters
- throws a towel at Clark and invites him into the ring to learn about boxing first hand
- taunts and threatens Clark, who manages to avoid his more aggressive moves
- is angered when Clark fights back by pushing him away
- stops his aggressive behavior when Menken calls him off, but leaves with a final taunt and blows a kiss at Clark
- is called the strongest man in the world by Clark, and a jerk by Lois, and only one of the strongest men in the world by Menken
- he had an “okay” record as a fighter until undergoing surgery, after which he became “perfect,” according to his medical records
- over-confident because of his limb replacements, wants desperately to fight Superman but is told he isn’t ready yet
- puts his fist through the concrete wall of the arena locker room after shouting “I want Superman!”
- on hearing the fight event has been cancelled, he rushes out of the locker room, screaming threats and the other fighters accompany him
- entering the ring, he again calls for Superman
- gets one lucky punch that floors Superman and is stunned that his next hit has no affect on the Man of Steel


ALLIE DINELLO
- a trainer at the Menken Gym, and long time friend of Lois and Dr. Lane, who greets Lois warmly
- nicknamed Lois “Pumpkin” when she was a child and spent a lot of time with her when she visited the gym
- apologizes for the press blackout of the big fight and says only Max Menken will talk to them
- is nervous in the company of his boss, explaining later that everyone is nervous about the big fight
- calls Lois late in the evening, wanting to talk about fight night
- is killed by a hit and run driver as he crosses a street to meet with Lois

Other Characters

Ian
-Clark’s uncle, mentioned to Lois as they search her father’s office
-unknown which side of the family, Kent or Clark, he is from

Mr. Arthur Chow, of Hong Kong
-the richest person in the world
- mentioned by Lex Luthor

Elena Pappas, of Athens, Greece
-the second richest person in the world
- mentioned by Lex Luthor

Unnammed Copy Boy
-youth who responds to Perry's call of "Copy!"

Wingate
- another reporter at the Daily Planet
- mentioned by Perry when he shouts to him to get sales on the phone to publicize the robotics scandal story

Ringmaster
- announces the cancellation of the big fight in accordance with the commissioner’s office
- further announces all five of the challengers scheduled to appear have been indefinitely suspended pending investigation of misconduct charges

Older Woman at ringside
-worries when Superman is knocked down in the ring
-gives him advice on how to fight Garrison: “Keep your left up.”


PERRY-ISMS
-“The experience of the battle scarred veteran paired with the hunger of the fresh, exciting talent!”- analogy comparing Lois to Clark
-“Your tenacity, his tact!” – Perry’s reply to Lois’ statement that she is not that scarred and he (Kent) is not that exciting
- “Fake it.” -to Lois after she compares partnership to marriage
- Perry’s Dog House, where reporters are sent when he feels they are not doing their best and are basically just asking for it. (Some of the things found in Perry’s dog house: covering the auto show, writing up the police academy graduation. Both, great confidence builders.)
- funning or funnin’ with (you, me,etc.), a term Perry uses from time to time: “I’m just funnin’ with you, Clark.”

NAME THAT TUNE (theme song)


LIFE GOES ON (other news headlines)

Pre-scandal:
ULTIMATE STREET FIGHT TOMORROW!
BOX ‘TILL YOU DROP
JACKIE FRIEDMAN SHOOTS AN 84 TO LEAD BUT RAIN CANCELS MATCH
CHAMPIONS TO (unknown activity) IN STREET!
Post scandal:
BOXING COMMISSION MEETS ON ROBOSCANDAL
CITY FREES $250 MILLION FOR DEFICITS


MISCELLANEOUS
- 9 pm, when the weekly poker game starts at the Daily Planet
- we learn Perry White’s opinion of Clark/Superman is just as important to Clark as Lois’s opinion is. He resists looking at Perry’s cards when Perry explains about fair play (though we do see that he has at least one ace, ) and he goes to the gym to raise his own spirits when Perry questions where he was while Lex Luthor was saving Lois’s life and Superman was meeting his challenger in the boxing ring
- 10, hours per day the newsroom staff is on duty, according to Clark
- Lois, Jimmy, Perry, the pony-tailed man, and a bearded man who looks like Biederman, are some of the other players in the poker game
- Pretzels, beer, peanuts, potato chips and licorice - some of the snacks at a Daily Planet poker game
- $20, Clark’s bet on his hand of three jacks, an 8 and a 3; $50, Perry’s raise of CK’s bet, and Clark folds and Perry wins the pot
- Lois's deal, done after sipping beer and chewing red licorice, "Seven card stud. High-low. First and last cards down. One-eyed jacks and deuces wild."
- Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello- two comedy teams mentioned by Jimmy
- the episode ends with Clark working out in a gym, showing he was taught the fundamentals of boxing at some time in his past- possibly in high school PE or as an off season way to stay in shape while playing college football
-409, street number of the Menken Gym
- 4, number of fighters going for titles the same night
-98, a math test score Lois recalls getting as a child and showing her father, only to have him reply, “That’s good, Lois. That leaves two points for improvement.”
- $20 billion (‘in excess of’)- Lex’s personal fortune at this time
- $2 billion, Lex’s additional annual income, which he breaks down to ‘approximately’ $200 million a month, $70 million a day, $3 million an hour, $50 thousand a minute…
- TV/Radio spots, skywriting, the whole nine yards: Perry’s orders to publicize not only the teaming up of Lane and Kent, but also their first story
- The fight roster posted at Metropolis Square Garden reveals that Tommy Garrison’s nickname is “The Torturer.”
- World’s Greatest Street Boxing; The Maulings in Metropolis; A Night of Championship Boxing – some of the poster lines advertising the big fight
- A partial roster of events:
Heavyweight – Main Event – 10 rounds
Danny Brown vs. Tommy “The Torturer” Morrison
Middleweight –Main Event – 8 rounds
Pete Bowser vs. Shing “Sing Sing” Carter
Light Heavyweight – Semi-Final – 6 rounds
Tony Morris vs. Sherman “Tank” Biggs
Bantamweight – Preliminaries – 6 rounds
Manny Munoz vs. (unknown)
(Presumably Sing-Sing and Tank are two of the other robotic fighters.)
-Lex’s soliloquy to himself:
It’s always such an embarrassment having to do away with someone. It’s like announcing to the world you lack the savvy and the finesse to deal with the problem more creatively. I mean, there have been times, naturally, when I’ve had to have people eliminated, but it’s always. . .(long pause). . .saddened me. I’ve always felt like I’ve. . .let myself down somehow. As he finishes, we see he is talking to his mirror image which displays a sympathetic reaction.
- Hubcaps, rearview mirrors- some of the items taken in a rash of thefts at the auto show, according to Perry.
- In the end no criminal charges are filed against Dr. Lane and Lex Luthor offers to be a character witness in his defense in front of the Medical Ethics Board.

OBSERVATIONS IN REAL LIFE

- After the simulated earthquake, Lois is let out of the secret room in her father’s office and tells Clark it felt like at least a .5 quake. JMO, but this is something a Metropolis born East Coast native isn’t likely to know right off, but it IS something a West Coast based screenwriter would know.
-Lane and Kent must have been carrying flashlights with cameras built into them because the next day Jimmy delivers to them a stack of snapshots of everything they found while searching Dr. Lane’s office and secret room.
- The robotics enhanced fighters attack Superman in the alley behind the arena and momentarily surprise him, after which he easily subdues them. Later, Superman enters the ring and is knocked down by Tommy Garrison’s first punch. He tells a ringside fan he was unprepared, but was he? Or was he playing to the crowd, and Garrison’s ego, a little bit?
- Jimmy and several other (nosy) staff members gather outside Perry’s office to listen in as he assigns Lois the auto show story and all scatter when Jimmy signals she is coming out.
Just another of the ‘just like real life’ touches that make this series so much fun to watch.
- Fans have wondered what Lois saw in Luthor that made her decide to accept his marriage proposal later in the series. We see in this episode, how he has laid the groundwork to gain her full trust. We also see his motives began as a way to get at her father whom he wants dead because of what he knows about Menken’s involvement with an unknown backer(s) to develop stronger, more machinelike men. Later on, of course, she also becomes Lex’s weapon against Superman. His campaign to win her over started here to get to her father.