9 Times TV Shows Failed To Hide The Passage Of Time
4. Michael Rosenbaum Wore An Unconvincing Bald Cap For His Series Finale Appearance - Smallville
For Smallville's series finale, the showrunners wanted to get back as many pivotal legacy characters as possible, including Lex Luthor, as was played so brilliantly throughout the show by Michael Rosenbaum.
However, the actor left Smallville at the end of its seventh season, and so when he was called back three years later to shoot his scenes for the series finale, he wasn't much interested in shaving his head as he had done for his original tenure on the show.
Rosenbaum, having long since moved on from Smallville, opted to have a bald cap cover his head instead, given that growing his hair back would take a prohibitive four months. This might seem simple enough in theory, but ultimately the results were easily noticed by fans.
While it's far from the worst fake bald head you'll ever see, when you've seen an actor be legit bald for literally hundreds of episodes, a bald cap becomes infinitely easier to spot.
In the series finale, Lex has a distinctive "egghead" look, if we're being blunt, whereby his bald noggin simply looks too large and layered compared to his real bald head in the first seven seasons.
The producers made a fair attempt to hide it by shooting most of his scenes in low light, but there are many moments where it's startlingly clear we're looking at a man whose hair is being compressed underneath a layer of fake skin.