This hour long show had three stories, each about 15 minutes long. The three segments were "Stop Susan Williams" which starred Susan Anton as Susan Williams a reporter who was investigating the death of her brother and ended up discovering an international conspiracy. This segment's ending was finally revealed to those members of the viewing audience who still cared, in the TV movie "The Girl Who Saved the World".
The second was was "The Secret Empire" about a US Marshal, Jim Donner (Geoffrey Scott) who discovered an underground city that was run by space aliens. This story line never had a conclusion as the series was cancelled before one was filmed.
The third and final segment was "The Curse of Dracula" starring Michael Nouri as Dracula who was living in San Francisco and working as a college professor. Out of the 10 aired episodes only the Dracula storyline concluded on the series before being cancelled.
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7 comments:
I was just thinking of this show the other day! How weird! I have such vague memories of it. I watched for the Dracula story and it is just at the fringe of my memory where I can see it but can't draw anything more. Is it available to watch on YouTube?
I remember the Secret Empire because of the Gene Autry serial that I loved. Never missed a good Susan Anton vehicle. I think this didn't last one season.
I wasnt allowed to watch it. I got sent to bed...lol
That was the reason I sold 100 Newspaper subscriptions to win my own 13 inch black and white tv when I was 12. Denying me my TV just wasn't going to happen. One day I will tell you the story of my pink princess phone.
I like the idea of some of these serials, and I thought of Gene Autry's Phantom Empire as well. The Modern Dracula bit feels more than a little cliche though.
I think the flaw here is that they tried to make it a serial and an anthology, because the two elements really are mutually exclusive. If you want the audience's weekly commitment, don't divvy up the hour with two other parts that take away from that attention. Plus the multiple stories set in three very unique and expensive locations is going to a real strain on the budget.
A more successful formula might have been to have hour long weekly show with stories that were completed in two or three part episodes before switching to a new genre story the following week.
Or the way they had a Sunday Mystery Movie that was just old McMillan and Wife, Columbo, or McCloud that they spliced together. It was new to me after not watching the original series.
Hey?...Is that Chris Sarandon playing a vampire? Prior to Fright Night? Cool!!!
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