Thoughts on Century 66
I was doing my usual surfing of the message boards when I came upon a thread that showed screen shots of all of the Republic serials that were edited into feature films for the TV syndicatd package Century 66. I remember watching many of them like Golden Hands of Kurigal and The Claw Monsters on a local Toledo station late on Saturday nights back in the 90’s. When looking at the full list I have always have always wondered why some titles were left out. Now I understand why the Dick Tracy and Fu Manchu titles were left out, they didn’t have the rights anymore. I also understand why westerns likes Zorro’s Fighting Legion and The Painted Stallion weren’t included. Republic was targeting the package to appeal to the spy and science fiction fans as these genres were the most popular during the sixties, westerns not so much. So in looking at the titles picked, I have to wonder why they didn’t use Radar Patrol vs Spy King or Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion. They certainly fitted in with other titles used like Federal Operator 99 and G-men Never Forget. Most surprising is that SOS Coast Guard wasn’t included, after all it starred Bela Lugosi and all of the old horror stars were enjoying a new popularity in AIP films during the time. I suppose they only had a certain number of titles that could be used for a syndicated package and had to make cuts on which ones to edit into features.
