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Watching Any Good Serials?
Topic Started: Apr 12 2006, 09:28 AM (88,382 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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I think it's all admirable how everybody has leapt to Grampy's defense. Balconeers... ya can't beat 'em. I am quite certain he's learned his lesson, and Large Marge will let him off on serial probation soon.

Stony, I don't dislike Lugosi at all. I find him very entertaining. As for what I eat, well, all I can tell you is that all those years of eating crap took its toll on me, and I had a myriad of medical problems (or was developing them) and was morbidly obese (high of 326 lbs.) Cutting flour and sugar out of my diet, I lost half of my body weight, all of my medical problems, I'm no longer pre-diabetic (a disease that killed my father and grandfather), and I've never felt better. I eat a LOT of food, and do not gain weight nor do I get hungry. I am eating what the human body was supposed to be eating, quality and quantity wise. So you can have your pizza; I've eaten enough of it over the years to satisfy me. Once I stopped eating flour and sugar, I stopped craving sugar and stopped getting hungry, by the way... unlike a "diet" this was very easy to do and required absolutely no willpower whatsoever. Just the discipline to say, "This is what I'm going to eat, and this is when I'm going to eat it." The same discipline, in fact, that we apply to the watching of our serials. You see how the circle of life connects?

"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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OK. I was sticking up for Grampy, who seemed miffed, as if he needs me or anyone else to stick up for him!

The rest of the shit I wrote was nothing but that! I was having a little fun as I like to do, at the Gravy expense of course. So just calm down, Twiggy!
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Grampy
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Thanks everybody for the input and to those who sent persoinal messages, I appreciate it.

First, I'm an idiot for overreacting.

Second, I'm an idiot because all I had to do was go into my personal profile and change it back, which I just discovered this morning.

I apologize to all of you for the blowup. I guess now Gravy knows how one of Horne's masked villains felt when a henchman went off the deep end.

Which reminds me, watched 4 episodes of Deadwood Dick yesterday and recommend it as classic Western and serial combined.

For now, I got the grandkids coming for an overnight in an hour, so again my apologies to all, especially Gravy, and I'll be back tomorrow after the kids go home.

You're a great bunch!
Still Alive and Well
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mort bakaprevski
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Don't sweat it, Grampy!! Gravy has that effect on a lot of people. He's a firm believer in the old maxim: Different strokes for different folks.... as long as they're MY strokes!!!! :rolleyes:
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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Don Daredevil
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Grampy
Feb 16 2008, 08:22 AM
I'm an idiot because all I had to do was go into my personal profile and change it back, which I just discovered this morning.

I didn't know that! Thanks, I changed mine too.
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Don Daredevil
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Speaking of Gravy being such a nice guy I've got a little story fer y'all.

I was looking for some Cliffhanger Mag front cover images for my collection of serial images and wallpapers I make.
Gravy stepped up and volunteered and sent me about a dozen Issues in the mail at his own expense ... it cost him over 10 bucks to send 'em to me (I looked at the postage).
Now, he didn't have to do that ... he just as well could have kept his mouth shut and I would've never known the difference ... but being as he is, ... kind, considerate, helpful and generous he did it out of the kindness of his heart.

Of course I've since returned them.

Just thought I'd share that.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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What was the title of this thread, oh yeah....

I watched chapter 4 of Phantom Creeps-Invisible Terror. This is picking up a little steam as everyone is trying to get the metrorite. Bela's henchman Monk, gets shot again. Monk has been picked up by the law but escapes, only to go out in sunglasses. The chapter ends in a plane crash. Let's see, tomorrow I'm gonna see how Flash escapes a rocket ship being shot out of the air, Monday I'll see how the hero from Secret Code gets out of a plane being shot down and last week I saw Ace Drummond survive a plane being shot down. Be like Ralph Byrd and take a boat, which can only mean.....

Chapter 4 of SOS Coast Guard-The Fatal Shaft. Byrd gets in a lot of fights but his hat is always on. This one is also picking up steam and I am enjoying both of them more every week. The latter has a little comic relief with good ol' Snapper. The former doesn't have the comic relief, well not intended at least.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Laughing Gravy
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Stony, I know you're not as experienced with th' ol "hats staying on" trick as a lot of us are... That was done to help mask the stuntman. Republic tended to use a thin band to keep the caps on, while Columbia liked to crush the hat down on the head good 'n' tight, making everybody look like Buster Keaton!
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Of all the hats, Crash Corrigan's is my fave. Not the one he has from Annapolis mind ya, but the zany one he picks up in Atlantis!
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Use the freeze frame and check Crash's shoes out, Stony.

I repeat -- if you watch it all the way through the first time you spoil it. Most episodes are a lot like the last. There are exceptions -- CAPTAIN MARVEL and PERILS OF NYOKA stand out -- but most get boring if you try to watch the whole thing -- especially fedora and western serials.

Now if you want to say I have a short attention span, have at it, but we're talking about serials here, not CITIZEN KANE, and the reason they get dull after about twenty minutes is that they are mostly crap. That's what makes them fun.

For me. I know there are people who take 'em seriously and I'm obviously not speaking for them.

But the main thing is we're talking about movies here, not the threat of World War III. I love movies to distraction, but I doubt if I'll ever take them seriously. Ingmar Bergman, Busby Berkeley -- what's the diff? They're all entertainers.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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My old SS review of Undersea Kingdom, just for you, Stony...

A worthy competitor to Universal's "Flash Gordon", which preceded it in theatres by about two months, "Undersea Kingdom" begins with strange earthquakes on the ocean floor that draw the attention of kindly but doddering old Professor Norton. Norton finds a statue down there and immediately decides that the long-lost continent of Atlantis is to blame for the trouble. He puts together an expedition that consists of himself, a naval officer named "Crash" Corrigan portrayed, interestingly enough, by "Crash" Corrigan in a role he was evidently born to play, and a handsome crew of sailors, misfits, stowaways and ...a liberated lady-type reporter.

Well, to make 12 episodes short, Atlantis is indeed to blame for the seaquakes, as the nefarious Unga Khan seeks to overthrow Sharad, High Priest of the Sacred City. Or something. They all look alike and the only real way to tell the difference between any of them is that ( a ) they all wear different silly hats, and ( b ) one of `em looks just like Lon Chaney, Jr. In fact, it IS Lon Chaney, Jr., who, the narrative would've told us if it had been pertinent, was hiding out at the bottom of the ocean because there's no full moon down there. Although, believe it or not, there's clouds and dust and horses. Don't ask.

Unga Khan is ready for the outside interlopers, however. He unleashes a plethora of perilous devices to entrap/enslave/murder our heroes (depending on the chapter), including a giant magnet to capture the submarine, an army of Volkites,mechanical men who resemble port-o-potties with legs, and a death-ray gun that looks like a vacuum cleaner and probably is. Best of all is a particularly nasty-looking tank, to which Crash finds himself chained and helpless as the machine is about to ram the wall of the Sacred City. In the chapterplay's best moment, Crash stoically shouts, "Go ahead and ram!" rather than divulge whatever bit of information Khan is after... I kind of fell asleep in that chapter.

Well, lots more really exciting stuff happens, although I can't remember what just now. Suffice to say that virtue triumphs in the end. As it always does. Except in politics.

The supporting cast is fine, particularly Monte Blue as Khan and C. Montague Shaw as Norton. As mentioned, the silly hats are delightful; really, no kidding, you are going to come away from this serial remembering the hats which adorn virtually every head. Unless you were admiring all the really muscular guys wearing short skirts, but that's none of my business. Oh, and the shoes are really stylish and snazzy, too.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Flash and Crash Sunday morning again. The only difference today other than the chapters is a percolator of black cherry tea instead of coffee.

Chapter 6 of Flash finds him and the gang enslaved by King Vultan. Flash works in a room chucking a deadly material into a furnace as some guy turns hands on a clock-like device ala Metropolis. That's probably the only thing in common with the serial and Lang's sci-fi masterpiece! Zorkov is once again thrown into the lab, showing kids they need to get a degree, well Flash has a degree doesn't he? Isn't he a scientist? Go figure. King Vultan dines with Dale and Princess Ariola. Once again a strange voice appears trying to sound like the king, just like a few episodes back when the same type of thing happened when the scene did not show Ming. I guess there must not have been enough dialog in the script and some lines were dubbed in using a rather husky yet obviously different voice.

Chapter 4 of Undersea Kingdom-Billy Flies a Volkite. Actually its Revenge of the Volkites. Crash saves King Sherod and is made commander of the troops and receives an even zanier hat. I looked at some of the footgear and they looked like funny painted wrestling boots. One of the things that crack me up in this serial is the robots all ride in a vehicle but the soldiers all ride horses.
These are still my 2 favorites right now.

I know this thread got off track with how a person watches their serials. I watch 9 serials once a week. Make that 8, with my Desert Hawk disc going on the fritz last Tuesday.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Laughing Gravy
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Yes, another serial truism: the guys who edited Flash Gordon, either to cover dialog that didn't record properly or because they felt they needed to add some words to explain the plot, added some words to explain the plot, but used their own voices, apparently, with no attempt to loop the actors.

Still, you're getting off lightly... In the early 1950s, narration was added to the FG serials. That opening scrawl that tells you what happened before? That, for example, was READ by somebody with a very sissy voice. That was all that was available, too, on TV or VHS if you wanted to watch Flash. That DVD you're holdin', there, pal, is the first-ever release of the un-sissified Flash Gordon. Yes, Stony, you are a lucky dude.

Did you get to the "Go ahead and RAM!" portion of Crash Corrigan, yet?

"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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JazzGuyy
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I am six chapters into "Tiger Woman" and I having trouble making sense out of the heroine's title. She's a Tiger Woman who wears what looks like leopard skins over a leotard in a country which appears to be somewhere in Latin America (where everyone speaks English of course) where there are clearly no tigers.

Also, I have never seen a serial where so many henchmen get killed. The good guys and their native helpers are killing off 2 or 3 henchmen every chapter but the bad guys seem to always have more. This must be the biggest gang of henchmen in any serial.

This one does move along nicely and there's plenty of action. The Tiger Woman is sure not reluctant to get in a fight with the bad guys. Anyone know who her stunt double was?
TANSTAAFL!
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Laughing Gravy
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I think that was Babe de Freest doubling Linda.

There's been much speculation, so I'll end that right now, being as much as I'm a quotable EXPERT.

"The Tiger Woman" takes place in South America, where they refer to leopards as tigers.

What even THIS expert can't figure out: why Linda Stirling, who played the title role in this serial and Zorro's Black Whip, didn't get top billing in either of them.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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