2024 Snowflake Challenge #6
Sat, Jan. 20th, 2024 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiraliciousChallenge #6
In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.
It was really hard to pick something, but I am going to go with a mystery from the 1950s live action Superman series, Adventures of Superman - Why can’t Jimmy stay home alone?
This is an issue that pops up repeatedly throughout the six seasons of the series. I know that the real reasons are “the plot necessitates it” and that, despite being an adult character, Jimmy Olsen was also a stand in for the children viewers, generally having the same problems and limitations they would have and they would never be allowed to stay home alone. But it’s still kind of fascinating.
They establish from the beginning that Jimmy is, in fact, an adult. His age is a bit in question as continuity was not something this show was particularly concerned with. Most of the time that his age comes into question, its simply left at under 21, (I tend to think of him as 19/20), but there is an episode in the last season that Clark confirms that Jimmy is 22, for at least that episode. He has a full-time job. He travels alone for both pleasure and work. He owns his own car. He goes places like baseball games, nice restaurants, and double features alone. The one time his mother is concerned he stayed out late, wasn’t because he was out late, but because he doesn’t normally stay out that late (after 1am) without checking in. There is even at least one episode (possibly two) where he briefly has his own apartment. Jimmy very much has the social markers and responsibilities of an adult, even with the child stand in coding.
All that being said, he does live with his mother the vast majority of the series, which isn’t unusual (they never establish what happened to Jimmy’s father), but every time his mother goes out of town, Jimmy has to stay with someone. Of the three times this is an important plot point, two of them he stays with Clark and the other, he housesits for an elderly friend of his mother’s who is also out of town at the same time.
These differences are kind of important. When he stays with Clark, he kind of becomes Clarks little temporary “wife” – he does all the cooking and they talk about him doing at least part of the cleaning, on top of just taking care of himself. Now, Jimmy’s cooking skills are pretty basic, but he has them and there are no mishaps regarding anything his domestic endeavors or taking care of himself. More importantly, when he is housesitting, he is completely alone in that apartment. He does not know the neighbors and no one is scheduled to check on him. The only reason anyone does is because Jimmy has been unwittingly placed in the middle of an art theft ring and the noises they make at night freak him out, so he calls Clark to come over.
So, he is in fact capable of taking care of himself, and unless his mother really hates her friend for some reason, trustworthy enough to live alone for at least short periods of time.
Which all begs the question, what exactly did he do? He had to have done something for his mother to not let him stay home alone and knowing Jimmy, it could have really been anything. I mean the man accidentally created an anti-gravity formula while trying to bake a chocolate cake.
It’s one of my favorite fandom mysteries to ponder.
In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.
It was really hard to pick something, but I am going to go with a mystery from the 1950s live action Superman series, Adventures of Superman - Why can’t Jimmy stay home alone?
This is an issue that pops up repeatedly throughout the six seasons of the series. I know that the real reasons are “the plot necessitates it” and that, despite being an adult character, Jimmy Olsen was also a stand in for the children viewers, generally having the same problems and limitations they would have and they would never be allowed to stay home alone. But it’s still kind of fascinating.
They establish from the beginning that Jimmy is, in fact, an adult. His age is a bit in question as continuity was not something this show was particularly concerned with. Most of the time that his age comes into question, its simply left at under 21, (I tend to think of him as 19/20), but there is an episode in the last season that Clark confirms that Jimmy is 22, for at least that episode. He has a full-time job. He travels alone for both pleasure and work. He owns his own car. He goes places like baseball games, nice restaurants, and double features alone. The one time his mother is concerned he stayed out late, wasn’t because he was out late, but because he doesn’t normally stay out that late (after 1am) without checking in. There is even at least one episode (possibly two) where he briefly has his own apartment. Jimmy very much has the social markers and responsibilities of an adult, even with the child stand in coding.
All that being said, he does live with his mother the vast majority of the series, which isn’t unusual (they never establish what happened to Jimmy’s father), but every time his mother goes out of town, Jimmy has to stay with someone. Of the three times this is an important plot point, two of them he stays with Clark and the other, he housesits for an elderly friend of his mother’s who is also out of town at the same time.
These differences are kind of important. When he stays with Clark, he kind of becomes Clarks little temporary “wife” – he does all the cooking and they talk about him doing at least part of the cleaning, on top of just taking care of himself. Now, Jimmy’s cooking skills are pretty basic, but he has them and there are no mishaps regarding anything his domestic endeavors or taking care of himself. More importantly, when he is housesitting, he is completely alone in that apartment. He does not know the neighbors and no one is scheduled to check on him. The only reason anyone does is because Jimmy has been unwittingly placed in the middle of an art theft ring and the noises they make at night freak him out, so he calls Clark to come over.
So, he is in fact capable of taking care of himself, and unless his mother really hates her friend for some reason, trustworthy enough to live alone for at least short periods of time.
Which all begs the question, what exactly did he do? He had to have done something for his mother to not let him stay home alone and knowing Jimmy, it could have really been anything. I mean the man accidentally created an anti-gravity formula while trying to bake a chocolate cake.
It’s one of my favorite fandom mysteries to ponder.
