And bonus points if you actually saw on or more in the theater instead of on television.
I have seen so many over the years, but I think my favorite was Blackhawk starring Kirk Alyn (who I think was better in this than he was in the Superman serial. What were your favorites"
Here is a list: List of film serials - Wikipedia
My dad made me watch all the Buck Rogers serials with him when they aired on a UHF station when I was about 8. Which is weird because he was just a baby when they ran in theaters. My dad was a lifeguard and wouldn’t shut up about how Buster Crabbe was an Olympic swimmer. He was also enthusiastic about Johnny Weissmuller for, I guess, the same reason. I much preferred the Tarzan movies. Even as an 8 year old, the sparks coming out of the back of the spaceships looked ridiculous.
The same station ran a serial about a Rocketeer type character that I watched and enjoyed on my own initiative.
Oh hell yeah. There was always a serial that played prior to the Saturday matinee. The only one I remember now is “The Master Key”, but they all followed a pattern of having a cliff-hanger at the end to make you want to come back the next week.
I looked at the OP’s link and found a “Master Key” listed, but it was a silent version from the early days, not the series I recall from my yute.
Could you be remembering a chapter title instead of a series title?
Nevermind-I think I found it. The Master Key (1945 serial) - Wikipedia
Ah yes, the “Kiddie Matinee” at National City’s (San Diego) Bay Theater. The two serials I remember were “Captain Marvel” and the execrable “Batman.”
The plot synopsis in your link looks familiar. We didn’t get that serial in Alaska until late 50s/early 60s, and we mostly made fun of it, as I recall.
There were some television programs that occasionally showed serials in the 1980s. I remember Commander Cody, but that one is controversial because it started life as a television series and was later put into theaters as a serial. It’s hard to keep track of which ones I might have seen because the serials reused footage so often. I think the stopped making serials in the 1950s, shortly after my mother was born, so I never saw them in the theater.
I watched the MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN serial because I was intrigued by the trivia; the story goes that it was meant to be a Superman serial, but things fell through, and so they had the secret-identity hero (a) shrug off a bullet and rescue his reporter girlfriend Lois from the mad scientist’s killer robot, but (b) as an orphan from Krypton, uh, Arizona?
Had to see it for myself; actually found it pretty enjoyable.
Yeah, when i was very young, my parents took me to the big theatre - There was a Main feature, a second feature, a cartoon, a newsreel, a prize drawing, and yes, a serial- something about a guy with a rocket pack? Two shows a day, IIRC, and you came whenever, which is why ushers- if you came in the middle of the Main feature , you just sat until it played again. All day entertainment.
I remember watching the 1930s Flash Gordon serials on TV while on summer vacation in 1965. I don’t remember what the station was, but it was definitely out of Parkersburg, WVa. The episodes were on back-to-back, so you could waste an entire afternoon in front of the tube instead of going swimming or playing Army.
KSTP (Channel 5 in MPS/StP) used to have all-night showings of old serials (Flash Gordon, inter alia) from the private collection of the relatively young guy who hosted them. He would come on in a suit and tie during station breaks to present trivia about each feature. This would be followed by commercials for the local takeaway that sponsored the broadcasts, in which the host had switched to sweats and was shown stuffing his face with spaghetti, ribs, and other foods you could have delivered (“Pizza—the best in town!”)
These marathons were aired every long weekend (e.g., that of Labor Day).
TCM sometimes runs some of those, too.
I don’t want to imply that the actor who played Robin, the Boy Wonder, was too old for the role but they had to cut one adventure short because he was late for a prostate exam.
I’ve seen them on TV or the internet (like the original Batman serial), but the list on Wikipedia shows that the most recent one was in theaters 20 years before I was born.
I particularly liked watching the Rifftrax version:
They have Captain Marvel serials on Rifftrax as well (but I never saw them).
A very enjoyable reediting and redubbing by Firesign Theater of some of the best movie serials ever made.
Nitpick: Commando Cody was the serial character. Commander Cody was a rock band in the 1960s.
Both Commando Cody and King of the Rocket Men had rocket powered flying suits. In fact, the same costume was used in both serials.
Yeah, it was Commando Cody I saw, thanks.
There’s a channel (I don’t remember which) I used to watch when I lived in Toronto that showed old serials on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. These included Westerns, 1940s Batman, and The Saint with George Sanders.
I remember seeing serials at a theater when I was a kid in the 50s, but I can’t recall any specific serial or name of a hero that I actually saw. This was the Saturday afternoon movie show at our neighborhood theater (30th Ave and Alberta, I think), I don’t remember how much it was to get in (25 cents?) but a little bag of popcorn was a dime. There was, I think, one main movie, the serial, something like an Our Gang short, and one or maybe two cartoons. I wasn’t very interested in the serials, they seemed formulaic and dumb even to my immature mind. I don’t remember any specifics about the movies either. I think the cartoons were my favorite parts.
eta: holy crap, I just looked on Google street view, and the theater is still there! It looks like it might be a live theater now, but that entrance is exactly as I remember it. I can’t believe it survived all those years of kiddie movies!
I saw several of the serials on WPIX (channel 11 in New York) as a kid. They also ran some, IIRC on Wonderama o Sunday mornings on WNEW channel 5. I seem to recall seeing a couple of episodes in our theater downtown, but I might be mistaken.
I have several on DVD. In fact, I have a box set of several courtesy of Exapno Mapcase.
I’m glad I saw them, if only because they made me realize that the Indiana Jones movies are basically the old movie serials without the “tune in next week” parts.
