The title has triple meanings as it refers not only to Clark's hometown, the only name Lois calls him, and the idea that this is "smalltime" in his career. Therefore, you could think of the title of the show referring to Clark by name.
In each episode, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) can be seen wearing any one of, or a combination of red, yellow, and blue; the colors he will one day don as Superman.
Lasting 10 years, this is the second longest-running superhero TV series ever made after Super Friends, which ran for 13 years. However, this series produced far more episodes - 217, as opposed to Super Friends' 93.
At the start of the series, it was mentioned that Clark Kent is afraid of heights.
Throughout this show there are small innuendos about Clark becoming Superman. For example, at the beginning of season one, episode eleven, "Hug", Clark tells Lana that he doesn't want to dress up in a suit and fly around referencing the fact that he doesn't want to become a pilot in the airforce within the shows context, whilst alluding to his destiny as Superman.
Tom Welling (Clark Kent) and Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan) are the only actors to appear in all ten seasons.
Annette O'Toole (Martha Kent) previously played Lana Lang in Superman III.
Phil Morris portrayed the Martian Manhunter. His father Greg Morris appeared in the first season of Superboy.
When Lois Lane (Erica Durance) first appeared, the producers wanted her to be more visually different from Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), thus had highlights on Durance's hair before she could sport Lois' trademark dark brown hair in later seasons.
Bridgette Crosby (Margot Kidder) was meant to become the primary villain of season four. After Christopher Reeve's death on October 10, 2004, the show's producers decided to incorporate the death of the legendary actor into the plot as his character Dr. Virgil Swann was killed off-screen. Kidder was not happy with this decision, feeling the producers were capitalizing on Reeve's death. Thus, she backed out of her commitments. As a result, the character of Genevieve Teague (Jane Seymour) was created to fill in as the central big bad for the remainder of the season. Christopher Reeve played a romantic love interest opposite Margot Kidder and Jane Seymour; Kidder in Superman and Seymour in Somewhere in Time.
The Smallville High School scenes were filmed at the Vancouver Tech School. The same building is used as Midvale High School in Supergirl.
John Glover has played the father of two television supervillains. He played Lex Luthor's father on Smallville and the father of Sylar on Heroes.
Tom Welling said that his favorite part of season four of Smallville was working on the episode in which Clark and Lionel switch bodies as it allowed him to work closely with John Schneider, whom he greatly admires.
Helen Slater appeared as Clark Kent's biological mother Lara in this series. She played the title role in Supergirl and later played Kara Danvers/Supergirl's adoptive mother Eliza Danvers on Supergirl.
Brandon Routh auditioned for the role of Clark Kent, he was cast as Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns.
John Glover (Lionel Luthor) is a veteran of the DC Universe, he used his voice for Edward Nygma/The Riddler in the DC Animated Universe, which includes Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and The New Batman Adventures). He also played Doctor Jason Woodrue, (the doctor that Poison Ivy kills) in Batman & Robin and Thaddeus Sivana's father in Shazam!.
Michael Rosenbaum was a big practical joker on-set. He would always try to make the other actors and actresses crack up when shooting their scenes.
Lex's last words to his dad Lionel, "No one will remember your name", are a nod to his irrelevant, less prominent role (as Lex's father) in the comics.
Tom Welling and Erica Durance reprised their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane on Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two. That episode established that this show took place on Earth-167.
This show started the concept of Legacy cameos. With Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Terrence Stamp, Lynda Carter, Adrienne Palicki, Helen Slater, Dean Cain, (who were all stars of other iterations of Superman in the DC franchise, or just other DC comic shows first, and then made appearances on Smallville after); the show brings in alumunai and royalty from other shows in the DC franchise and uses them as backup characters to connect with fans and give the show extra resonance.
Christopher Reeve was skeptical of this series' concept when invited to guest star, but had a more favorable approach after watching it, stating that the special effects were "quite remarkable". He also acknowledged that Tom Welling's role of a young Clark Kent was closer to that of Jeff East, who played teenage Clark on Superman. Ironically, Reeve dubbed all of East's dialogue in the 1978 film.
The castle used as the Luthor Mansion is called Hatley Castle, located at the Hatley Park Historical Site in Colwood, British Columbia. It has been used as a backdrop for many TV shows and movies. As previously mentioned, as Xavier's School for the Gifted in X-Men and X2, and in a closer example, as the Queen Mansion in Arrow are just a few.
On their TalkVille podcast, Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling revealed Zachary Levi turned down the role of Lex Luthor. Levy would later go on the play the title character in the film Shazam! in the DC Extended Universe.
Trivia items from IMDB
Listen to my fascinating conversation with Tony Award-winning character actor John Glover by clicking on the links below. Enjoy!
Episode 31 - HERE
Episode 32 - HERE
