Geoffrey Scott Was On Cliffhangers?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Do any of you remember the 1979 NBC show Cliffhangers? I was reading an article today about forgotten TV shows and it popped up as one of them:

Forgotten Shows of the 50s 60s 70s: Cliffhangers

What I recall is that it was an anthology show with three revolving storylines, the most interesting of which was Michael Nouri's The Curse of Dracula. I also recall Stop Susan Williams which featured Susan Anton. And the third was called The Secret Empire, but I remember absolutely nothing about that one. Apparently it starred Geoffrey Scott, which may explain why I don't remember anything about it. Does anyone remember anything about that segment? Or like me, do you tend to put anything and everything about Scott out of your mind? 

(It's definitely questionable as to why some of the shows are on the list, including Kolchak: The Night Stalker.)

[Uncle Roger]

I watched Cliffhangers every week. It was an interesting concept, featuring three very different serials. The stories were picked up in progress, at various chapters. I was annoyed that only the Dracula story actually came to a conclusion.
The western one wasn't my favorite but it was good, campy fun. The scenes set in the underground empire were shown in color but the scenes in the western town were shown in black and white.
It's actually an uncredited remake of an old Gene Autry serial called The Phantom Empire that I saw on PBS. And the nicest thing that I can say about Cliffhangers is that at least Geoffrey Scott didn't sing.

[Josette]

I remember a show named Cliffhangers; I remember 3 different stories and, of course, ending in a cliffhanger each week.  I remember encountering Susan Anton in it.  But, I have absolutely no idea what any of the stories were about!!!!  Maybe I'll look it up on imdb - a synopsis might help me recall a bit about it!

[Gothick]

I remember seeing The Phantom Empire on "Cinema Club 9," a late night weekly movie feature that happened on a Washington DC station, Channel 9, in the early to mid 1970s. It was a cool serial, a crossover between the Western and fantasy/lost civilization genres. I had no idea there was a remake in the late Seventies--I have seen the Dracula episodes from this series, thanks to a friend who sent me copies a few years back.

G.

[Gothick]

Interesting article.

https://chuckthewriter.blog/2018/06/20/nbcs-cliff-hangers-1979-failed-genre-tv-show/

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks so much for posting the link to that article, Gothick. 

Little did I know, until I just watched the trailer, that Geoffrey Scott is in the photo on the page that I linked to in the post that starts this topic. I didn't even recognize him!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Maybe I'll look it up on imdb

If you do end up wanting to check out IMDb, you'll need to look each segment up with its own title. For some reason using Cliffhangers brings up nothing useful.

[Josette]

MB - Thanks for that info - I haven't had a chance to check it out.

[Uncle Roger]

NBC initially had a lot of faith in Cliffhangers. There were tentative plans for further serials once these three reached their conclusions. But scheduling the series opposite Happy Days and Laverne And Shirley, which were at their zenith, pretty much killed Cliffhangers. The series was canceled so abruptly that only the Dracula story had a finale. The episodes that would have brought the other two stories to an end were never shown in this country. NBC never reran the episodes, which might have recouped some of the production costs. Kinda parallels their treatment of Dark Shadows a few years later.

[Gothick]

This playlist seems to have all that was filmed, including at least one unaired installment.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuI2trzZILlvQw8H9PcspYK5cX1yARxmp

I watched the "Secret Empire" segment in the first one. It was entertaining. However, Geoffrey Scott was as wooden as ever. He did have a nice shirtless scene in the story.

G.

[Gothick]

My buddy Curt, who watched this show during its one and only airing, has researched it. He sent me this note last night:

"...that blogger's statement about the chapter numbering in the series is a bit misleading.  He's correct that none of them started with Chapter One (which is very confusing to a new viewer), but it was done intentionally.  The producer thought it would be a good idea to emulate George Lucas' STAR WARS which had been a huge hit a year and a half earlier. Lucas wanted to evoke the feeling of the old Universal serials, so despite being the first film in the series, he opened it with the "Chapter IV: A New Hope."  CLIFFHANGERS did the same thing, giving bogus numbers to their opening segments (supposedly to make viewers feel they had jumped right into the action).  Confusing and, all in all, a bad idea.  Honestly, it's amazing that recordings of CLIFF-HANGERS (rough though they may be) are in circulation these days."

G.