Television: 'The Adventures Of Superman: Round The World With Superman' (1954) (Episode 2x26)

(The author is in Miami right now. This post was prepared far, far in advance.)

This is a special episode of a great television show. It's cute, awesome, sweet and lovely. There's not a crook in sight, and it's all about the other side of being Superman. The side that almost never gets shown any more, that doesn't involve endless punching and brawling. It's true that there was plenty of beating up of bad guys in this series, but there were also other things. This exemplifies them all.

This was the last episode of the black and white version of 'The Adventures of Superman', and it seems that they wanted to go out on a bang, knowing that they wouldn't be back for a while. When they did return, more than a year later, it would be for four half seasons in colour, and with far more of a focus on pleasing the children than the family as a whole. That refocussing had already begun to happen when we arrived here at the second season finale, but it works perfectly.

The Daily Planet, an icon amongst newspapers, had been running a letter writing contest, for children who wanted to fly around the world with Superman. (At this point, I must confess once again to being more schmaltzy than any five other people put together). The winner turned out to be a blind girl who wanted the trip for her lonely mother, to cheer her up and distract her from her problems. The mother, who wanted nothing to do with the prize, got rid of the gallant Planet's reporters, but Clark was set on fixing the problem. First, he realised that the girl's blindness could be fixed after all (precise x-ray vision), and organised the vital operation. Meanwhile, Lois got to the bottom of the mother's issues, and when Superman returned from flying the girl around the world, her father was there waiting for her.

It sounds sentimental, I know, but it's a perfect encapsulation of a different kind of television and superheroics. Just as Ernie Bilko could be the sharpest card shark, but be knocked over by the smallest tug of his own conscience, Superman spend an episode not fighting criminals or lunatic inventions and instead fix some people's lives. Superheroes can be about helping people; that's not a crime. In fact, many of the most iconic heroes transcended their comic book origins because of their hearts and not their fists. Never forget that the first superhero was Sherlock Holmes, and that he spent more time helping people in his stories than capturing them.

Yes, this is the Quirky Muffin, purveyors of schmaltz since 2012, without shame. We could probably do with more sentimentality in the world.

O.