Flash Gordon
Title card from episode "Akim the Terrible"
Format	Space opera
Starring	Steve Holland Irene Champlin Joseph Nash
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	39
Production
Running time	0:25
Broadcast
Original channel	DuMont Television Network Syndicated
Original run	October 15, 1954 – July 15, 1955
External links
IMDb profile

Flash Gordon is a science fiction television series based on the characters of the Alex Raymond-created comic strip of the same name. Diverging from the storyline of the comics, the series set Flash, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov in the year 3203. As agents of the Galactic Bureau of Investigation, the team travels the galaxy in their ship the Sky Flash, battling cosmic villains under the order of Commander Paul Richards.

The series was filmed in West Berlin^[1] and Marseille^[2] as a West German, French and American co-production by Intercontinental Television Films and Telediffusion.^[3] The series aired in syndication throughout most of the U.S. but also aired on the east coast on the DuMont Television Network.^[4]

The series proved popular with American audiences and critical response, though sparse, was positive. Flash Gordon has garnered little modern critical attention. What little there is generally dismisses the series, although there has been some critical thought devoted to its presentation of Cold War and capitalist themes.

Cast

• Steve Holland as Flash Gordon
• Irene Champlin as Dale Arden
• Joseph Nash as Hans Zarkov
• Henry Beckman as Commander Richards

Production

Universal Studios had held the production rights to Flash Gordon but allowed them to lapse. Former Universal executives Edward Gruskin and Matty Fox struck a deal with Universal to produce the first 26 episodes of the series.^[5] The series was produced by Gruskin and Wenzel Lüdecke.^[6] Writers for Flash Gordon included Gruskin, Bruce Geller and Earl Markham. Episodes were directed by Wallace Worsley, Jr. and Gunther von Fritsch.^[6] Composers Kurt Heuser and Roger Roger provided much of the original music.

Shooting got underway in May 1953, with an abandoned beer hall in Spandau serving as the principle shooting location.^[2] Each episode was budgeted at USD15,000 per episode^[5] on a three-day-per episode shooting schedule. Citing salary disputes, director Worsley withdrew from the project. Production was moved to Marseille under the direction of Gunther von Fritsch for the 13 final episodes.^[2]

Episode List

Critical response and themes

Variety noted that the series was from a technical standpoint "up to the demands of the script and the average viewer probably won't notice the differences in quality between this and home-grown produce".^[8] Flash Gordon was immediately popular in the United States and continued to run in syndication into the early 1960s.^[9]

Modern critical reaction to the series has been light but largely negative. The production values are frequently derided, with the series described as "bargain-basement."^[10] The televised series suffered in comparison to the earlier film serials with the television incarnation labeled "vastly inferior," lacking "good concepts and scripts" and "most of all, [lacking] Buster Crabbe, who was Flash Gordon."^[11] One positive comment noted Champlin's portrayal of Dale Arden, who was transformed from the typical damsel in distress of the serials into a trained scientist and a "quick thinker who often saved [Flash and Zarkov] from perishing."^[12]

One modern critic, noting the similarities between the ideals espoused by "space operas" like Flash Gordon, Captain Video and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger to American Cold War values, argues that such series were designed to instill those values into their young viewers.^[13] Flash Gordon, with its "copious [use of] stock footage and the numerous exterior sequences shot in the ruins of the bombed-out metropolis give Flash Gordon a distinctly ravaged look."^[14] Flash Gordon along with its fellow space operas, "have a common, unifying theme: peace in the universe can be achieved only by dangerous efforts and the unilateral dominance of the Western powers."^[9]

Footnotes

1. ^ There are sources that incorrectly indicate that the series was broadcast as early as January 1954, c.f. Vernon, Terry (1954-01-11). Tele-Vues. Long Beach (California) Independent, p. 16. "'FLASH GORDON', based on the famous comic strip, comes to TV as a film series on KTLA (5) Jan. 24. STEVE HOLLAND portrays "Flash."; Albuquerque Journal advertisement, p. 24 (1954-03-01). "FOLLOW FLASH GORDON as he rockets to adventure in the first exciting episode of SPACE SOLDIERS". However, the original Universal Studios Flash Gordon series were re-titled Space Soldiers for television syndication, c.f. Shales, Tom (2007-08-10). p. C01. "'Flash Gordon' Is More Comic Than Cosmic on Sci Fi." Washington Post.

Citations

Bibliography

• Bassoir, Jean-Noel (2004). Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786419113.
• Cook, John R. and Peter Wright (2006). British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide. I. B. Taurus. ISBN 1845110471.
• Harmon, Jim and Donald Frank Glut (1973). The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury. Routledge. ISBN 071300097X.
• Dixon, Wheeler Winston. "Tomorrowland TV: The Space Opera and Early Science Fiction Television". collected in Telotte, J.P. (ed.) (2008). The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader, pp. 96–110. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813124921, 9780813124926.
• Terrace, Vincent (2002). Crime Fighting Heroes of Television: Over 10,000 Facts from 151 Shows, 1949-2001. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786413956.

External links

• Flash Gordon at the Internet Movie Database