I think that Kidder was a bad choice to play Lois Lane. Karen Allen would of been better. But would she have been old enough in time for the first movie. Of course, Lois Lane seems to always be cast with odd people. See the original TV show, with Noel Neill? She made a great Lois Lane, but not exactly a knockout.
Yes, the Superman series had gone downhill pretty quickly at 3. But my point was one of the major problems (OK, there were plenty of them) was that Christopher Reeve had been given control over it, and he turned it into an anti-nuclear political statement instead of an action/adventure movie. In comparison, Alan Alda's changes in M*A*S*H wasn't anywere near as bad.