Yuku free message boards

There may be some potentially interesting news re:King of the Park Rangers in the next few weeks. Watch this thread for developments.

Summer brings news from Cliffhanger Productions.

1) Blake of the FBI has been formally cancelled. I do not expect it to ever rear it's ugly head up again.

2) KING OF THE PARK RANGERS is indeed going to be re-edited. Instead of removing the dog, we're re-dubbing its name. The dog isn't even Rin Tin Tin after all. The film will also be around 30 minutes shorter, going from about 3 hours and 5 minutes running time to about 2 hours and thirty minutes.

3) The chats have long since been dissolved. Those who participated in the chats seemed far more interested in griping about another website and far less interested in actually chatting about serials, so I closed that feature down for good.

4) I am formally announcing that King of the Park Rangers will be the one and ONLY serial production from Cliffhanger Productions. The company may go on to produce a few b-features, but I plan to never again produce another serial. The reasons for this are legion, but let us just say that a good part of the decision comes from the ingrateful attitude that certain "serial fans" exhibited--a couple went so far as to judge the quality of Blake of the FBI (for which they hadn't even seen the script) based on the hero's footwear! So, with attitudes like that being expressed, I am formally picking up my ball and going elsewhere with it. No, I don't refer to anyone on this particular board and I'm not leaving this board. However, I am leaving the serial genre where it was five years ago prior to my making KOTPR: dead.

Hi Kevin, and thanks for the words.

Frankly, I'm kinda torn here between a love of the genre and a hatred of the more selfish fans. A part of me would love to do another serial simply because I love the genre so damn much but another part of me thinks that with the abuse and defamatory fabrications that have been printed about me that the ingrates really don't deserve it.

Blake is definitely dead. I never cared for the script much anyhow. In essence, it was a G-Man serial with KOTPR in-jokes (including a funny proposed cameo by Patricia King in Chapter . It may or may not have made for a decent serial depending on the cast, but it lacked the creative spark of KOTPR. And frankly, the viewpoint that people expressed--going so far as to say that the decision to buy it would be based on what Blake's footwear was--plain out disgusted me. It's not like there's 100 guys out there making new serials, after all. And at the risk of sounding egotistical, in the year and a half since KOTPR came out, nobody has duplicated the feat of producing a full length (10-15 chapters) serial. In case you're wondering what the exact brouhaha was, due to various factors (which I won't get into here--though God knows I should) Mike Tait, the actor who played Alan Blake, wore sneakers in certain scenes of KOTPR. Note I said certain scenes. He doesn't wear sneaks throughout the serial and you really have to pay attention to catch his footwear. He also had a fairly ratty looking trenchcoat. In essence, he looked like a Columbo instead of a straight out traditional G-Man. Me, I thought it helped make Blake a somewhat quirky character (Mulder on the X Files isn't the snappiest dresser, either). Certain "serial fans" took umbrage at the costume. Tait at one point was going to do BLAKE and the brouhaha was that these serial fans demanded he get a better costume while I wanted to go for the continuity. One fan was quoted as saying "You're not William Witney out to make Drums of Fu Manchu. You're James Horne out to make Terry and the Pirates!" Maybe it was Spider's Return--I forget at this point except that it was one of the Horne serials that is least respected. Personally, I liked both of those Horne serials. But I digress.

At any rate, the answer to that statement is that I'm neither Bill Witney out to make Fu Manchu or Horne out to make Terry. Nor am I Ray Taylor out to make Return of Chandu, Breezy Eason out to make Undersea Kingdom, Ford Beebe out to make The Green Hornet, Fred Brannon out to make King of the Rocket Men, Franklyn Adreon out to make Panther Girl of the Kongo, John English out to make Daredevils of the West, or Spencer Gordon Bennett out to make The Masked Marvel. I am TJ Moore, out to make my own serials and put my own stamp on the genre. I was never interested in doing serials precisely as they were done in the 30s and 40s, but rather taking many elements/styles of the genre and mixing them up with my own elements. Anyone who has seen KOTPR knows--or should realize--that it's not exactly like any other KING serial done.

1)King is a woman in this one--Patricia King specifically. When has the titular KING been a woman??

2)There's a whole Jersey Devil subplot going on. The Jersey Devil is actually used in the film and treated as though it was a real Monster. In fact, KOTPR is one part serial, one part Universal/Val Lewton Horror movie! And, KOTPR has pretty much every Jersey Devil legend discussed in it!

3)There's a scene in chapter three where King talks about the night her mother died and why she believes in the Jersey Devil. In fact, she's more or less obsessed with the creature. When did you ever see THAT in a serial?

4)There's several plot twists I won't give away here that you usually didn't find in the old chapterplays.

On top of all of this, people may have missed that KOTPR was in essence a joke on serials. It pretty much announces as much through some of its dialogue. Look for another speech by King in Chapter Three to figure out what I'm talking about.

KOTPR is something of a blueprint of the type of thing I want to do. More interesting characters, more interesting plots, a wicked sense of humour--straight out DIFFERENT. It's a shame that isn't good enough for people who merely want cardboard cut-out characters and paper thin plotlines. If that's what they really want, they can go watch their Undersea Kingdom for the 967th time. Just don't cry to me that the genre is dead.

I have considered going back on my decision. The idea of Dark Avenger serials being done amuses me. And I have another script called The Adventures of Nick Rockwell that vaguely interests me. Nick Rockwell is a Horne inspired serial if ever there was one--a parody of wartime serials and Juvenile Hero serials. Rockwell is the Hero of Frankford High (my alma matter) and the Captain of the Football team. His girlfriend's father is a fairly famous scientist who is working on a Toxic Gas for use in the War on Terrorism. An Al Qaeda agent wants to get hold of the Gas to bring the Jihad to America. But Nick--and not always by Nick's choice--keeps on getting in the way and spoiling the villain's plans. All of the true Horne devices are present--sarcastic narrator, gangsters playing a child's game in one scene, the head villain constantly fuming and screaming "idiots! Morons!", Nick Rockwell beating up five guys all at once, wild gestures and general overacting.

As I say, I've considered doing it, but I don't know if I should bother. Anyone have any thoughts?