Todd’s Serial Blog

Just a quick announcement to let you know I’m taking some time off from coming up with fictional accounts of serials that were never made but would have been cool if they had.  When I started doing it almost eight months ago it seemed to be a snap to plot out and then write but it was actually more work that I anticipated and am feeling a little burned out, so I’m going to take some time off from doing it and come back a little fresher.  I keep you posted on when that might be.

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A little explanation on the title up there.  Player Knowledge is a term common in role playing games that refers to a player acting on knowledge he has but his character should not.  What this has to do with serials is an interesting minor aspect I have noticed in some serials, mostly westerns, where the hero or sidekick will immediately exhibit animosity toward the villain who is passing themself off as a friend of the hero and no one has reason to suspect that he is really the one behind the trouble. Prime examples include  Lon Chaney, Jr. and Noah Berry, Jr. both being immediately suspicious of Noah Berry, Sr. in Overland Mail (1942), Edgar Kennedy acting antagonistic to both Harry Cording and Martin Kosleck from the get go in The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944), and Raymond Hatton’s immediate dislike of James Craven in White Eagle (1941).  If the villain is supposed to be as clever as he is represented, the heroes shouldn’t have any inkling of his double dealing till towards the end.  Is this bad writing or bad acting?  I don’t think so as the people involved are too talented for such an accusation.  Which means it is intentional.  Why?  The only reason I can think of is that since the audience already knows of the villain’s true intentions, the heroes are a reflection of the viewers own feelings toward the character.   Maybe I’m try to read a little too much into what was essentially considered to be light entertainment, but it is these little things that continue to make serials so fascinating to me.

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I think the internet has been a Godsend for a lot of people, especially for the serial fan. Just from personal experience, it was tough being a serial fan in the early nineties before the internet took off. Finding videos and books on the subject wasn’t difficult, libraries were stocking books by William Cline and Jon Tuska while places like Suncoast and Best Buy were carrying videos of old serials.

All well and good, but every enthusiast needs someone who shares their interest, and I had none. Why wife is patient and understanding about my hobby (computer techie that she is, she helped me set up first my web site and then later this blog), but she doesn’t get into it and so we don’t really talk about it except to mention a recent purchase I have made or an interesting e-mail I have received. I have friends who are into old movies but I have given up trying to interest them in serials, memories of previous disasters cut too close to the bone, they end up either bored or crack jokes and point out technical flaws through the whole thing.

A bright spot in the pre-internet days was when I began corresponding with William Cline, meeting him and other serial fans at a western film fair. But as always happens at such events, you have to go home, back to your solitary existence.

Which is why the internet is so important to our fandom. Thankfully we have the message boards and fan sites to meet and discuss with like minded people who don’t act perplexed or condescending to our choice of entertainment. Sure squabbles erupt between people and flame wars break out with everybody choosing sides. But as irritating as that is, could you imagine how bleak everything would be if we went back to not being able to discuss serials with people around the world. Which is why whenever things turn into a fight between two people I don’t get upset anymore, and complain that they are ruining the message board, or leave the site to never come back. I simple remember what it was like before the internet and wait for it to blow over.

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