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Old Serialisations - King of the Rockemen etc

Opalfruit

07:29 / 13.08.01

Another type of TV I used to watch religiously were the old black and white cliff hanger serials, such as Zorro, King of the Rocketmen, The Flashing Blade, Flash Gordon....

They may look tacky, but they were fantastic... Okay so a washing up liquid with a sparkler on the end wasn't a convincing space ship... but

grant

12:56 / 13.08.01

Flash Gordon and the Mudmen of Mars is one of my favorite movies.

I once wrote a song with "But it's a living death to be a man of clay!" as the first line.

Opalfruit

13:18 / 13.08.01

My favorites are "King of the Rocketmen" and "Planet of the Lost Airmen".

The title King of the Rocketmen used to confuse the hell out of me when I was young - there was only one rocketman.... then it twigged... the heroes surname was King. D'oh!

But the Flash Gordon serials were great too. The big metal tanks that Games Workshop ripped off for APCs and the big bucket robots that later went on to advertise Amplex underarm deoderant with the slogan "Don't get complex, get amplex" and no I don't know what it means either, it's probably got a million subliminal undertones that my weak brain cannot comprehend.

Still.... I wish I could see them again...

moriarty

13:36 / 13.08.01

The first continuing comic character I made was based, and and dedicated to, Buster Crabbe. And ine of the stories was called "God Bless the Clay People." So, yeah, I'm with you. Fucking brilliant entertainment.

Warrington Minge

17:11 / 13.08.01

ahhh...the memories come flooding back.
School holidays, BBC1, about 9.30am just before WHY DONT YOU. I always used to think the rocket ships in FLASH GORDON sounded like my dads electric razor. Perhaps they were.

CHAMPION THE WONDER HORSE was always a fave. Although I got a bit bored after the opening theme.

grant

12:43 / 14.08.01

I should mention here that my friend Chris, the guy behind www.supernaturalcrime.com is getting together with Jon Plante of www.two-headedtales.com (one of the best, weirdest weekly web comics out there) to do a weekly pulp sci-fi strip. I've seen a sample page of art, and it looks fantastic. There's a single frame up at the Two-Headed Tales site.

grant

12:44 / 14.08.01

By the way, did the 80s Flash Gordon movie do it for anyone here?

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:08 / 14.08.01

grant, grant I love it, but we only have 14 hours to save Earth...

Oh, go on then - yes, it's great. Fantastic Sunday afternoon entertainment. Highlights include:

- the start

- the whole "he's dead! no he's not!" thing which was so well-parodied in The Princess Bride...

- Timothy Dalton and Flash doing the sticking-hand-in-tree-with-evil-bug routine.

- Brian Blessed. "MWOO-HA-HA-HARRR!"

- the alien princess who wants Flash for her nefarious ends. I always thought she was much hotter than Dane (what kinda name is that for a girl?)...

- the machine that wipes your brain and reprogrammes you. Strangely... nevermind.

- the end

- the bit after the end!

[ 14-08-2001: Message edited by: The Flyboy ]

Warrington Minge

13:12 / 14.08.01

KLYTUS I'M BORED WHAT PLAYTHING CAN YOU OFFER ME TODAY....

Opalfruit

13:17 / 14.08.01

Ahem.. Oh yes... have the sound track too...

Do You Ming the Merciless take this Woman.

Ming: Yes.

To do with as you wish?

Ming: Most Certainly.

And to not blast her into space.

Ming: raises Eybrow

Until you do see fit...

great stuff....

sleazenation

13:26 / 14.08.01

"GORDON'S ALIVE?"

This only really works if you are brian blessed (who has now got the distinction of appearing on str trek, star wars, Dr. Who and blake's seven… SF whore that he is)

Ellis

13:33 / 14.08.01

I like it when the girls fight

And when Ming's daughter gets whipped

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:36 / 14.08.01

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'FLASH GORDON APPROACHING'???"

Warewullf

13:48 / 14.08.01

quote:Originally posted by welchy:
ahhh...the memories come flooding back.
School holidays, BBC1, about 9.30am just before WHY DONT YOU. I always used to think the rocket ships in FLASH GORDON sounded like my dads electric razor. Perhaps they were.

CHAMPION THE WONDER HORSE was always a fave. Although I got a bit bored after the opening theme.

I feel a very strong connection to you!
My brother is also prone to siging that theme-song when drunk.
'Course, he only knows the one line...

moriarty

14:46 / 14.08.01

I created my serial inspired comic character during a comic jam, where we listened to Flash by Queen (just the one song, not the entire album) for 3 hours on repeat, solely to drive one of the people there out of the room.

grant

12:57 / 15.08.01

Anybody read the Buck Rogers comic strip?
Cuz they were WAY trippier than the Gil Gerard show.

Of course, the serials had their own charm:

Warrington Minge

15:37 / 15.08.01

Only slightly connected this but if you can all remember these serialisations being shown on the TV you might remember this. I can recall as a child every saturday night on BBC2 was old Horror film night. It didnt seem to be a season more like a continuous thing. My personal faves were anything with the RKO radio picture symbol at the start, Night of the Lepus, Night of the Demon and Blood Beach which each seemed to be shown every couple of months. Can any of you recall this?

uncle retrospective

19:58 / 15.08.01

quote:Originally posted by dark welchy:
My personal faves were anything with the RKO radio picture symbol at the start, Night of the Lepus, Night of the Demon and Blood Beach which each seemed to be shown every couple of months. Can any of you recall this?

Blood beach scard the shit out of me. Yet another film that scared me and why watching weird films in the hope of seeing naked women when your 12 is a dangerous thing.
I have a similar love for crappy hammer movies like Captain Kronos and the Countess Dracula.

But that's thread rot I think.

Opalfruit

08:49 / 16.08.01

quote:Originally posted by dark welchy:
Only slightly connected this but if you can all remember these serialisations being shown on the TV you might remember this. I can recall as a child every saturday night on BBC2 was old Horror film night.

Oh yes..... used to watch them religiously. It seemed BBC2 used to have it together.... 6pm every weekday... Swashbuckling, Old Horror, Abbott and Costello, Old Sci-fi, Old Westerns (I didn't watch them... they bored me) and there was once a run of old Monster Rampages through city films... which were excellent.... also it was the first place I saw Village of the Damned as well.... ahhhh. Memories.... it would be far too expensive to hunt them all down on video.... but it would be a challange.....

The Strobe

10:40 / 16.08.01

Brian Blessed... besides dodgy SF movies, a hideous DVD movie/game thing in which he plays King Arthur or something... and, best of all... MacGyver/Lost Treasure of Atlantis thingy.

He was once quite a good actor.
Now... he's an actor.

WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOR EVER?
SECOND WAVE!!!

Saint Keggers

17:21 / 16.08.01

Anyone see Rocket Robin Hood? It was a canadian cartoon in the 70's (or 60's?). Basically it was Robin Hood meet Flash Gordon or Robin Hood in space. Kick ass show.

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