Why Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman Was Canceled After A Cliffhanger

In theory, Superman is unstoppable. In practice, though, the Man of Steel carries a long resume of canceled or otherwise failed projects that extends well beyond Henry Cavill's strenuous tenure wearing the cape. In 1993, ABC released "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," a superhero drama starring Dean Cain as the last son of Krypton and Teri Hatcher as everyone's favorite reporter Lois Lane. The series, which focuses on their relationship — much like HBO Max's animated "My Adventures with Superman," received four seasons before getting the axe ... on a cliffhanger, no less. So what happened?

Unlike less fortunate DC productions, like the forever unreleased "Batgirl," ABC's "Lois & Clark" suffered a more traditional death. The series' popularity tanked drastically in its 4th season, so much so that Season 4's final episode pulled less than half the audience of Season 4's first. Warning signs were found even earlier in Season 3, where ratings already indicated a decline in public interest. Despite the writing on the proverbial wall, showrunners remained confident that the studio would greenlight a Season 5. Well, that was nearly 30 years ago and it doesn't look like more "Lois & Clark" is ever coming, despite Cain's hints in 2019 that he could reboot the franchise.

That's why the series ended on a cliffhanger. Wishful thinking overpowered pragmatism. That lack of forethought denied any remaining fans the chance to enjoy a satisfying conclusion to "Lois & Clark."

Okay, so the team behind "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" thought that they would get a Season 5, right? We've established that. What we haven't established is how far they got into the process of shaping Season 5 ... and the answer is "not very." Technically speaking, they did create a blueprint. But calling it a "blueprint" is kind of like calling Kon-El "Superman." It's not incorrect, just a little premature.

During a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Executive Producer Eugenie Ross-Leming shared the broad-stroke vision of what Season 5 would entail. "Looking to create obstacles for them [in the Season 4 finale], we ended up saying that carrying a baby to term would kill Lois," explained Ross-Leming. "But as fate — or intergalactic justice — would have it, a baby of Krypton lineage is left at their doorstep. If the show had gone on, we would have seen them figuring out how to raise this child, who would have aged rapidly. He would have become a teenager in months."

Given how similar premises have existed for projects such as the CW's "Superman & Lois," where the couple constantly faced the trials of parenthood, Ross-Leming's plan doesn't seem so bad, but that quote seems to be the extent of her plan because, when asked if the child would also possess superpowers like Clark Kent, she admitted, "We actually hadn't figured it out that far."