Cliffhangers (TV series)
| Cliffhangers | |
|---|---|
Title card
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| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Kenneth Johnson |
| Composer(s) | Joe Harnell |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Kenneth Johnson |
| Producer(s) | Richard Milton |
| Running time | 60 min. |
| Production company(s) | Universal Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | February 27 – May 1, 1979 |
Cliffhangers is an American drama series that debuted on February 27, 1979 on NBC.
Cliffhangers attempted to revive the genre of movie serials in a made-for-TV format. Each hour-long episode was divided into three 20-minute (including commercials) segments featuring different storylines. During the series' run, three serials were featured - a mystery, a science fiction/western hybrid, and a horror story:
To add to the "in-progress" feeling of the proceedings, all three series were started with different chapter numbers (although this was the first broadcast for all of them): "Stop Susan Williams" began at Chapter II, "The Secret Empire" started with Chapter III, and "The Curse Of Dracula" with Chapter VI. The series was cancelled after only 10 episodes were aired, by which point only "The Curse Of Dracula" had reached its conclusion. However, one unaired episode (which did air overseas) featured the two concluding chapters of "The Secret Empire" as well as the final part of "Stop Susan Williams." American viewers later got a chance to see the concluding part of "Stop Susan Williams" in the TV-movie The Girl Who Saved The World which re-edited the eleven installments into a single two-hour movie ("Curse Of Dracula" was also re-edited as two TV-movies for later airing).
Cliffhangers was an expensive production due to three simultaneous production units being required. The hope was that if, after 10-12 serial episodes, a serial caught on, that it could be spun off as a series, but the series aired opposite Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, the #1 and #2 most popular shows in television at the time, and was cancelled after 10 episodes.
The series was created by Kenneth Johnson and staffed by many young writers who went on to become quite successful, including, Craig Faustus Buck, Harry Longstreet, Renee Longstreet, Andrew Schneider, Sam Egan, Richard Christian Matheson, and Jeri Taylor.
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