I have yet to see Man of Steel but the movies release did get me thinking on favorite interpretations of the character outside of the comic book world.
Number one for me would be the George Reeves TV version. Before I ever read a comic book I knew all about Superman, Clark Kent, Krypton, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane etc. For me, the show was Superman 101. The Fleisher Studios animated Superman of the Forties rates high on the list as well. After that would be Christoper Reeve in Superman The Movie. Last but not least, even though he never actually suited up, Tom Welling. The Smallville cast and crew did a fine job of developing their own mythos while remaining relatively true to what the character represents.
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Put me down for the "Superman Meets Computer Crook" Viewmaster reel.
"21 Stereo Pictures" ... Awesome!
Reminds me that my introduction to Uncle Scrooge came via Viewmaster.
This is probably not what you had in mind when you said "interpretations," but Viewmaster got me thing about Captain Action dolls.
That Viewmaster looks like it's got to be from an episode of the 1966 Filmation cartoons.
Hey, the Captain Action figure comes with Krypto! Also, a Phantom Zone projector. Yike!
For me, also, George Reeves, then Fleischer. I don't have a single episode of George Reeves on tape, but I do have the entire run of Fleischer cartoons.
I feel sure the WB cartoons (from the same people who did the Batman cartoons) would have been a top contender, but the scheduling of the Batman cartoons got me so frustrated, that by the time the Superman cartoons came along, I'd already given up, and so never saw more than a tiny handful of them. (Maybe one of these days I'll get 'em all on DVD or something...)
I LOVE those Fleischer cartoons!
The Viewmaster reel is an original story featuring a mad-scientist type named “Mikro” (a Lex Luthor lookalike) and his robot. The frame looked like cut-outs of drawings posed in “sets” (or against a backdrop, such as the cover illustration, which doesn’t do it justice) and photographed in 3-D.
Here’s a (very bad) example of what one of the frames looked like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN0W6pBAokk
This close-up image shows the plot of the first reel.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/View-Master-Single-Reel-RP-1080-Superman-/3...
In terms of faithfulness to the source material, the Fleisher cartoons may have been the most accurate of all.
One of my favorite interpretations of Superman is the DJ Superman that appears in Newcleus's 1984 hit, "Jam On It."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaNzrXAUHBk
(Superman shows up around 3:55)
I recently listened to the entire radio serial of Superman vs the clan of the fiery cross. The KKK one. It was very well-written and didn't pussyfoot around the issues for kids. I was mucho impressed. The creators used a very popular platform for very moral ends. In this particular serial Superman himself did less than you'd expect, but then it was the kind of issue that needed to be addressed by normal citizens not fictional superdudes. I also listened to the first one Batman appeared in. It was more daft and rambling...
For me, the Fleischer cartoons were probably the best non-comic Superman. Such a high level of quality. Then Christopher Reeve, but the 2nd half of the movie probably takes too many liberties. If we are talking about music tracks, then the Superman that the Crash Test Dummies sang about was one of the things that made me realise how wonderful Kal-El was as a character. "Superman never made any money, saving the world from Solomon Grundy..."