Flash Gordon

The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon was a 15-minute science fiction serial of 26 episodes based on the Flash Gordon comic strip, which had been created by King Features to complete with the popular Buck Rogers comics. The series aired in 1935 and closely paralleled the comic strip each week. Each episode is full of rock 'em sock 'em action in which fiction seriously outweighs science. The comic strip itself ran for almost eight decades. This series was but the first of many radio and television shows and motion pictures inspired by Flash Gordon.

In the series, Flash; his girlfriend Dale Arden; and the slightly touched, if not actually mad, scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov find themselves on the planet Mongo, which is ruled by the evil Ming the Merciless, who immediate decides to destroy Flash and take Dale for yet another wife. In trying to escape from Ming, the protagonists have one narrow escape after another while encountering many wierd and fanciful creatures, such as the hostile Hawkmen and friendly Lion Men.

Flash is portrayed by the marvelously versatile actor, Gale Gordon, who went on to a long and varied career in radio and television. As an aside, in the character of Ming the Merciless, you will see many of the negative stereotypes of persons of Asia that were strong at the time and continue to this day.

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.