Superman (serial) in the context of "Atom Man vs. Superman"

Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Olsen is most often portrayed as a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane and Clark Kent, and has a good working relationship with his boss Perry White. Olsen looks up to his coworkers as role models and parent figures. From 1954 to 1982, Olsen appeared in 222 issues of the comic series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Superman Family, in addition to the main Superman titles.

The character has appeared in most other media adaptations of Superman. He was portrayed by Tommy Bond in the two Superman film serials, Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950); Jack Larson in Adventures of Superman; Marc McClure in the Superman films of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the 1984 film Supergirl; Michael Landes in the first season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Justin Whalin in the subsequent three seasons; Sam Huntington in the 2006 film Superman Returns; Aaron Ashmore in The CW's Smallville; and Michael Cassidy in the 2016 DC Extended Universe film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In the Arrowverse series Supergirl, he was portrayed by Mehcad Brooks. Douglas Smith portrayed the character in Superman & Lois. In Superman (2025), he was portrayed by Skyler Gisondo.

Perry White is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the editor-in-chief of the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet. The character maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards and is an archetypal image of the tough, irascible, but fair-minded boss.

In film, the character has been portrayed by Pierre Watkin in the Superman serial, Jackie Cooper in Superman (1978) and its sequels, Frank Langella in Superman Returns, Laurence Fishburne in the DC Extended Universe, and Wendell Pierce in the DC Universe (DCU) film Superman (2025). In television, John Hamilton and Lane Smith played the character in Adventures of Superman and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, respectively, Michael McKean in Smallville, and Paul Jarrett in the series Superman & Lois.

Thomas Ross Bond (September 16, 1926 – September 24, 2005) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods in Our Gang (Little Rascals) comedies (first as "Tommy" and later as "Butch"). Also, he is noted for being the first actor to appear onscreen as DC Comics character Jimmy Olsen, in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950).

Adventures of Superman is an American superhero television series based on comic book characters and concepts that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created in 1938. The show was the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California on RKO-Pathé stages and the RKO Forty Acres back lot. Cereal manufacturer Kellogg's sponsored the show. The first and last airdates of the show, which was produced for first-run syndication rather than for a network, are disputed, but they are generally accepted as September 19, 1952, and April 28, 1958. The show's first two seasons (episodes 1–52, 26 titles per season) were filmed in black-and-white; seasons three to six (episodes 53–104, 13 titles per season) were filmed in color, but were originally telecast in black-and-white. Adventures of Superman was not shown in color until 1965, when the series was syndicated to local stations.

George Reeves played Superman, with Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen, John Hamilton as Perry White, and Robert Shayne as Inspector Henderson. Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the first season, with Noel Neill, who had previously played Lois in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), taking over starting with the second season. In the series, Superman battles crooks, gangsters, and other villains in the city of Metropolis while masquerading "off duty" as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. In most of the series' episodes, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Clark's colleagues in the office, find themselves in dangerous situations that only Superman's timely intervention can resolve.

Pierre Frank Watkin (December 29, 1887 – February 3, 1960) was an American character actor best known for playing distinguished authority figures throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is best remembered for his roles of Mr. Skinner the bank president in The Bank Dick (1940); Lou Gehrig's father-in-law Mr. Twitchell in Pride of the Yankees (1942); and the first actor to portray Perry White in the Superman serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950).