TCM Peaks New Interest in Old Movie Serials

Expect more soon. Sales of Superman Serials triple after TCM put them
on Sat. mornings about 2 months ago.

Nancy2...

Uh, that would be "piques," not "peaks."

BT...

Not necessarily. Maybe it should be piques when taken in context, but possibly
it was an intended play on words. Ratings peak...Interest peaks....

But then, you know it all, don't you?

Russell Watson...

Might that be because a new box set of those same serials came
available along with all the other Superman-ia released in conjunction
with the DVD release of "Superman Returns", which conveniently
coincided with the end of the serials' Saturday morning stretch on
TCM?
In other words, it might be a case of timing being everything. The
number of Superman fans who didn't even know TCM was running it was
pretty high (speaking as the person who originally posted to this
group that they were running them and being surpised at how many
people responded that they didn't know and then seeing the thread
subsequently x-posted across other groups that cater to
Superman/comics fans where it was apparently also not common
knowledge).

Keith Lee...

Sounds great to me. I hope they start playing the "Hopalong Cassidy"
movie serials.

2TheMoon!...

From that same era, let's have Jet Jackson, Commando Cody, Sky King!

Bill Steele...

That era is actually about two decades later, and contains TV
shows--Except for Commando Cody, who moved from serials to TV.

This piqued or peaked interest will probably be short-lived anyway, and
stay in the mainstream. TCM will probably run the Batman serials and
that'll be it. Just possibly Green Hornet. Nobody's going to line up for
Brick Bradford, The Blackhawks, Spy Smasher or Terry and the Pirates.

Anim8rFSK...

The might run Captain Marvel. I'd love to see Blackhawks. And Captain
America.

John Duncan Yoyo...

Pirates have a cache right now if they played it right.

I've seen serials years ago on TCM used a filler. I think that they
are just part of the classic movie package. They should put an hour
or so lump of them together for Saturday morning and late night.

Bill Steele...

Unforunately, Captain Marvel and Captain America were Republic, and what
TCM has right now is a Columbia package. No telling what serials that

Anim8rFSK...

Ah, thanks. I was just thinking 'comics'

might include. Columbia made two Batman serials, which is what I suspect
they'll show next. Also The Shadow and yes, Blackhawk. And then *lots*
of serials with no famous characters. I would love to see them take a
block of Saturday morning and just start running serials, going through
everything whether it's famous or not, but don't hold your breath. It's
certainly in TCM tradition to show the obscure alongside the famous
(though not as often), but the people who make up the package might not
think that way.

Is there a list anywhere of what's in this "package?"

Anim8rFSK...

Here's a list of ALL serials:

Boy howdy, I'd like to see Mysterious Island.

Shadow, Phantom, Terry, Mandrake . . . Captain Video . . . lots of stuff
in there I'd be interested in seeing.

Bill Steele...

You can see all of them now, on DVD from various small outfits like VCI
and The Serial Squadron.

Phantom gets my vote as the serial most faithful to the original.
Mandrake as the one least so. Shadow was a good serial, but in between
on fidelity.

Nancy2...

Spider Woman - remember those serial episodes from the Saturday
afternoon movies.