Superman’s Bizarre Appearance on ‘I Love Lucy’ Was TV’s First Crossover

Superman has fought Muhammad Ali, hung out with Bugs Bunny and attended lavish Broadway musicals with Jerry Seinfeld…

…but before all of those weird-as-hell pop-culture encounters, the Man of Steel popped by a beloved sitcom for what is generally considered to be the first example of a TV crossover. That’s right, Superman pioneered the trend that gave us the recent Abbott Elementary-It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia collaboration and the episode where black magic appeared in the Boy Meets World-verse.

George Reeves, the star of TV’s The Adventures of Superman, guest-starred in a Season Six episode of I Love Lucy. But weirdly, Reeves wasn’t playing himself, he was still “Superman.” Apparently, in the world of the show, Superman is the star of his own TV series, who also occasionally makes personal appearances?

In any case, Lucy tries to get the costumed hero to show up at Little Ricky’s birthday party, purely in order to stick it to another kid’s competing party. She enlists her husband to help make it happen, because Ricky Sr. once partied with Supes in Hollywood. At first it seems as though the celebrity hero is a no-show, inspiring Lucy to don a Superman costume and a football helmet and climb onto the ledge of her apartment building. 

Since the episode is titled “Lucy Meets Superman” and not “Lucy Falls to Her Death and Tramatizes An Entire Birthday Party Full of Children for Life,” Superman eventually shows up. After inviting the kids to wrestle him for some reason, Kal-El then confidently hops onto the ledge to help Lucy, who’s caught on a drainpipe.

“And they call me Superman!” Reeves jokes after confirming that Ricky has been married to Lucy for 15 years.

The fact that Reeves is seemingly playing the real Superman has baffled fans for decades, prompting some to question whether or not this episode means that other DC characters exist in the world of the classic sitcom. Like, while Lucy was scarfing down conveyer belt chocolates, was Wonder Woman fighting crime somewhere else in the world? Was there even a slight chance that Fred and Ethel Mertz could have been murdered by the Joker?

The somewhat confusing premise was seemingly hatched because Ball didn’t want to dispel young viewers’ belief in Superman. She even insisted that Reeves not be credited in the show, so any kids watching wouldn’t find out that there wasn’t really a Kryptonian vigilante protecting Earth from unconvincing robots.

Despite the odd combo, the show worked for fans of both Lucy and Superman. As Geoffrey Mark, the author of The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television, told Woman’s World, “The script was so brilliantly written with DC looking over their shoulders to make sure that they didn’t do anything to tarnish the character. And because Lucy Ricardo believes he’s Superman, we believe it.”

So if the new version of Superman is a hit, who knows, maybe he’ll show up on Hacks or The Bear in a few years’ time.