One of
the executive producers and creators of Smallville, Al Gough, has
described Chloe Sullivan as a character specifically created for the
Smallville series. This is true. Indeed, no other
incarnation of Superman, in the 63 years from 1938 when Superman debuted
in Action Comics #1, to October 2001 when Smallville debuted in the
U.S., ever mentioned a cousin of Lois Lane. Lois did have a sister
named Lucy, a version of whom appeared in a Smallville season 4 episode,
but she had no cousin. This is one of many factors that actually
strongly supports Chlois. If Chlois isn't true, then the Chloe
Sullivan character is the Ultimate Contrivance as described in part 3 of
The Chlois File, instead of a great new twist on the story.
What's
more relevant in understanding how the Chloe Sullivan character came
into being though, is that Lois Lane was literally in the
original Smallville series pitch, and in the planning approximately one
year before the series aired. This fact was publicly disclosed in
a trade paper interview. However, by the time the pilot episode
was made several months later, there had been a rethinking of this
element. The Lois character kept her Lois Lane-like nature, but
was given the new name Chloe Sullivan. (Having established this as
a fact, it's overkill to point out, as many do thinking they've
discovered it for the first time, that the replacement name contains the
"LL" within it, and also has Lois
Lane with the following letters left over: C, H, L, U, and V. One
doubts the leftover letters mean anything, but if you're bored with
Sudoku or otherwise have some time on your hands, you might make
something up like "Clark's Her LUV", or Clark's Ultimate Love
Veiled Here or some such. :-)).
So while it's true that Chloe
Sullivan was "created for the series", she was very much intended to be
a kind of proxy for the Lois Lane character. In response to a
question about the similarity to Lois, Gough once said "that's her
function". Before that, in a May, 2002 interview with
eonline, Gough said:
"Chloe
is interesting, because Chloe, in a way, represents the kind of woman
Clark ends up with...
"Allison
[Mack, who plays Chloe Sullivan] has really stepped up, and she's such
a good little actress. She's fun to write for. And she has
a different energy with Tom [Welling, who plays Clark Kent]. So
we're like... we actually have two girls who have chemistry with our
guy! Usually, you can only get one. We're really
fortunate. Now, it's just figuring how to play these cards
out."
The
reasons for backtracking on the use of the character named Lois Lane
were primarily twofold. First, most perceive Lois Lane not ever
meeting Clark until Metropolis. There were perhaps a few
"Imaginary Stories" in the Silver Age comics, or other obscure
examples, where they did meet briefly but these exceptions only
reinforced the perceived "rule". In any case that
"rule" has since been broken to bits in Smallville.
Cousin Lois Lane, played by Erica Durance, was introduced to the series
in the season 4 premiere, had appeared in about 20 episodes through #100
("Reckoning"), and was also in the season 5 opening credits.
An argument that many thought ruled out Chlois is simply no longer
there. Either way, story twist or not, the Lois Lane character has
been a regular one in Smallville.
The
second reason was that it would have been risky to place Lois Lane, and
a new early Ultimate Romance element of the Superman story, on the line
in Smallville. What if the character didn't work, because of the
actress or the chemistry, or because the series itself turned out
to be weak and poorly received? That might damage the Ultimate
Romance and possibly the then
long-planned new Superman movie, which was eventually released on June
28, 2006.
Note
that this second reason has since fallen as well. Chloe Sullivan,
the actress who plays her, and the chemistry all worked (as Gough
pointed out in that interview), and Smallville itself was successful and
well received. In fact, as described in the next section on the
"Ultimate Contrivance", not going the Chlois
route at this point is what would do damage to both the Smallville
series and the Ultimate Romance element in the Superman story.
Effectively, Smallville has become a victim of its own success with its
Lois Lane replacement character. It's too late to turn back or undo
that, without a counterproductive effect.
In any
case, the origin of the Chloe Sullivan character is important to keep in
mind in any discussion of Chlois. Her Lois-like nature was not an
accident. It was intended, and in fact she was literally
Lois Lane in the original planning.
