Cliffhangers (TV series)

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Cliffhangers was an American television 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 (after commercials) segments featuring different storylines. During the series' run, three serials were featured - a mystery, a science fiction/western hybrid, and a horror story:

"Stop Susan Williams": Susan Anton stars as a beautiful TV journalist investigating the murder of her brother, and stumbling on a vast international conspiracy.
"The Secret Empire": the adventures of a U.S. marshal in the Old West who stumbles upon a futuristic underground city run by aliens.
"The Curse of Dracula": starring Michael Nouri as Count Dracula, who is living undercover as a college teacher in 1979 San Francisco.

In an effort to recreate the movie serial experience, none of the three serials began with the first chapter. "Stop Susan Williams" began with Chapter II, "The Secret Empire" 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).

"The Secret Empire" was a pastiche of the Gene Autry movie serial The Phantom Empire. Scenes in the underground city were in color, but scenes on the surface were "in glorious black and white".