I don't know what's more awesome in this clip from the late 1980s Superboy TV show: the amazing special effects, the dialogue ("I stand for truth, justice, uhh... puppies...") or the acting. It's really some combination of the three that makes this feel like a big-budget fan movie. Watching this TV prequel to the Christopher Reeves Superman movies will definitely make you appreciate Smallville more. Click through for an incredibly well acted conversation between Clark and Ma Kent.

I love the way Clark's mom is just a Charlie Brown-esque nagging voice on the phone.

Ilya and Alexander Salkind, producers of the first three Superman movies plus Supergirl, thought the world was ready for a weekly TV show about Superboy at college. Frat parties, mean jocks, bumbling campus administrators, plus energy-sucking "succubi" and teenage Lex Luthor! Unfortunately, Superboy doesn't turn up often enough to relieve the awfulness of the campus dramas.

Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.