VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:28:20 10/06/06 Fri
Author: Traveler
Subject: How did you first discover Flash Gordon?

Hello Everyone:

This was always my favorite Thread back on Tony Lobue's site. It give us a little background of each other and some history of Flash Gordon.

I'll start.

I was six years old back in the mid 1950's when a local Chicago TV station began airing the original Buster Crabbe serials on saturday afternoons. I barely remember the show, but Princess Aura stayed with me. Priscilla Lawson as Princess Aura made a big impression on this six year old. Now I have all three serials of Flash Gordon and I am enjoying them all over again. Ever since I saw the those episodes back in the 50's I've been a science fiction fan. I ahve watched nearly every space travel science fiction program ever produced starting with those Flash Gordon serials.

So that is my story.
Lets hear yours.

Traveler

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Re: How did you first discover Flash Gordon? -- Rick, 05:19:46 10/07/06 Sat [1]


Summer of 1978 in LA. Channel 52 ( UHF ) telecast all four space serials that year. They were on weekdays in the afternoon. They were the original serial films with no alterations and edits to be seen anywhere. Coincidentally, I was going to see the 1978 re-release of "Star Wars" that summer. There were others that year, such as when I first discovered "Star Trek" in reruns on KTLA.

On the major networks was "Battlestar Galactica", that was highly popular, but turned out to be the most expensive TV-series Universal produced. Glen A. Larson had been trying to make this since the late 60's. In the wake of "Star Wars", Universal gave him the green light. Its second year was a major disappointment, with only Lorne Greene ( "Bonanza" ) returning to the fold. In the form of replacement actors were Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke who replaced cast leads Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict.

The studio cut the budget in half and made it a generic TV series. When its second season concluded, ABC and Universal cancelled the series, where NBC renewed "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" for another season. I saw every episode of both series and remember when Buster Crabbe made a special guest appearance on the show.

Some may remember the lawsuit 20th Century Fox launched against Universal Studios. The studio claimed Universal stole 34 distinct ideas for "Galactica", where Universal countersued and claimed Fox stole ideas from "Silent Running" ( 1972 ) and "Buck Rogers" ( 1939 ). It concluded in 1980. It was obvious "Star Wars" inspired things seen in "Galactica", but of poorer quality in the stock shots. Special effects supervisor John Dykstra ( "Star Wars" ) was working on the series and got in big trouble with Fox. George Lucas didn't ask him to return for "The Empire Strikes Back" ( 1980 ).

In the end, the space serials and later works such as "Star Wars" still hold up so strongly than all the similarly styled take-offs. On the science-fiction front, the original "Star Trek" was the best of all the series created, thanks to Roddenberry, Shatner and Nimoy. "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was a fine TV series on NBC and is on DVD ( what isn't these days? :)



Rick


[ Edit | View ]

[> Re: How did you first discover Flash Gordon? -- Glenn, 10:11:42 10/07/06 Sat [1]

In the late 1960s, local channel 11, WPIX in New York, broadcast the Flash Gordon serials. I remember watching them at my grandparents' home on Sunday afternoons before sitting down to family dinner. Grandma came to this country as a domestic, and boy, could she cook!

I think the popularity of the reruns was helped by Buster Crabbe's appearance as a pitchman for an exercise t-shirt that gave you "a real corporation up front." Crabbe would grab the shirt around his midsection and it would snap (loudly!) back into place! Very impressive, and he looked great for his age.


[ Edit | View ]

[> [> Re: How did you first discover Flash Gordon? -- Prince Barin, 17:48:02 10/07/06 Sat [1]

Serials were common daytime fare in the early days of television. In 1952 in New York City there was "Serial Theater" that showed FG, Don Winslow, etc. but best of all Buster Crabbe had his own after school show that featured FG and Buck Rogers and later "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion" in which he also starred.

Buster had a studio audience of kids and from time to time his son Cuffy would appear. He also answered questions that viewers wrote in. I distinctly remember him answering a question on how many FG serials there were. After the show my friends and I would play on a "light bridge" of planks from a construction site and pretend our cap guns were ray guns.

I look back on those long-ago days as an adult and now realize that Flash became a hero to me. Over the years when I would read or hear about Flash, alll those memories would come flooding back. I never thought about the whole thing seriously until these internet forums materialized and realized that Flash for me has always been ideal, an embodiment of what we should strive for. He's always optimistic, resourceful, dedicated to noble goals and the welfare of his friends and society. He also gets the gal, which ain't a bad thing either!

And I certainly remember Buster, still looking good, pitching his exercise shirt on TV in 1969! Too bad I didn't buy one.


[ Edit | View ]

[> Re: How did you first discover Flash Gordon? -- Ray, 10:15:19 10/09/06 Mon [1]

Being a lifelong fan of the comic books,i remember Flash Gordon from years past.I also watched the 1980 film Flash Gordon starring Sam J.Jones.

During this same period, Sam J.Jones also starred in the ABC tv drama 'Code Red',which by the way, also starring on of my all time favorite tv show actors as Battalion Chief Joe Rorchek....Lorne Greene.

Sam Jones also starred in a few Texas,Ranger Walker tv episodes and plays a very convincing bad guy!


[ Edit | View ]

[> Re: How did you first discover Flash Gordon? -- Dan, 14:29:29 10/21/06 Sat [1]

I can't remember actually. Saw so many old movies as a kid it was somewhere in the mix.


[ Edit | View ]


Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.