Smallville was named after Clark Kent's hometown in Kansas, which worked just fine for a soapy show about Superman's teen years which hoped to appeal to an audience who had little interest in comic books. Unfortunately, Smallville aired for a decade, and inevitably elements of Superman lore seeped in until the show was more or less set in Metropolis with a basic Justice League fighting the likes of Zod and Doomsday. It checked in on Smallville periodically, but the action was in Metropolis, which is Superman's city just as Batman's is Gotham. Amusingly, the title even ran its course as a marketing gimmick, because you can't introduce the Wonder Twins and a costumed Hawkman and expect the unconverted to stick around. By the end, Smallville was a live-action Superman show in all but name.
