ABSTRACT
Before they first came to television in the late 1940s, with their spectacular tales of robots, rocket ships, and alien encounters, early science fiction serials had captured the imaginations of theater audiences one thrilling chapter at a time. Each week, futuristic heroes such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Commando Cody championed humanity and democracy against the forces of evil, both earthly and alien, as fans watched in wonder, creating a Saturday morning tradition that would come to define youth entertainment from the 1920s through the 1950s. With their arrival on broadcast television, however, the thrills and chills of sf serials and space operas found another home—in their audience’s homes—opening a new era in sf entertainment. Although only a small number of theatrical sf serials were reproduced on television, their format would provide the template for numerous televised programs that confronted producers, writers, cameramen, and actors with the challenge of adapting fantastic tales of outer space from the formalized, big-picture public screenings of cinema into the new domestic, small-screen experience of the home.
