10 Facts About Film serial

Generally, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story, which has been edited into chapters after the fashion of serial fiction and the episodes cannot be shown out of order or as a single or a random collection of short subjects.

The creation of Republic involved the absorption of Mascot Pictures, so that by 1937, Film serial production was now in the hands of three companies only – Universal, Columbia, and Republic, with Republic quickly becoming the acknowledged leader in quality Film serial product.

In 1936 Universal scored a coup by licensing the popular comic-strip character Flash Gordon for the screen; the Film serial was a smash hit, and was even booked into first-run theaters that usually did not bother with chapter plays.

Republic's Film serial scripts were written by teams, usually from three to seven writers.

Republic's last Film serial was King of the Carnival, a reworking of 1939's Daredevils of the Red Circle using some of its footage.

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Best-known fan-made chapter play is the four-chapter, silent 16mm Captain Celluloid vs the Film Pirates, made to resemble Republic and Columbia serials of the 1940s and completed in 1966.

Roles in the serial are played by, among others, film historians and serial fans Alan G Barbour, Al Kilgore, and William K Everson.

Seymour's only daughter, who operated the camera at the age of 8, attests that as of 2008 the serial was indeed filmed but the raw footage remains in cans, unedited.

In 2001, King of the Park Rangers, a one-chapter sound Film serial was released by Cliffhanger Productions on VHS video tape in sepia.

In 2006, Dark Horse Indie films, through Image Entertainment, released a 6-chapter serial parody called Monarch of the Moon, detailing the adventures of a hero named the Yellow Jacket, who could control Yellow Jackets with his voice, battled "Japbots", and traveled to the moon.