CLIFF HANGERS! {AKA CLIFFHANGERS} {PILOT} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this dramatic television series featuring a trio of ongoing movie serial-esque stories.
The first serial “Stop Susan Williams,” begins in the middle of news photographer Susan Williams’ investigation into her brother Alan’s death, which she believes was the result of murder. While searching through Alan’s apartment for clues, a mysterious figure enters, forcing her to hide in the closet. Susan tries to evade notice by climbing out of the window onto a building ledge, but gets startled by the intruder and falls off; her fall is broken by an awning and she survives. The shadowy figure’s boss discovers that Susan escaped with an address book from the apartment and vows to stop her. Susan believes that the intruder was an assassin trying to murder her, but her editor, Bob Richards, tell her to put the matter aside and that Alan’s death was accidental. She says she wants to go to Morocco to contact a man named Jack Schoengarth who may have interacted with Alan before his demise, and notes the names and addresses of various international figures in Alan’s address book. Before he died, Alan was investigating what he claimed to be a vast international conspiracy to make a fortune from some global catastrophe, and Susan is determined to find out what it is, particularly since Alan’s notes indicate that the incident is to occur on May 15th, in a matter of weeks.
Susan arrives in Marrakesh and wanders around its streets until she finds Schoengarth in a seedy bar. She informs him of Alan’s death and he recounts that he met Alan during his war reporting stint in Algiers and they ended up in the middle of several major battles. She starts talking about the conspiracy and Schoengarth becomes uneasy, asking to meet with her in private in her hotel. He disappears into the crowd; Susan is secretly being watched. A hitman is secretly hired to kill Susan in her hotel and make it appear to be an accident. He decides to dispose of her by releasing a live cobra into her apartment while she is in the bath, and the chapter ends as the cobra appears to move in to bite her.
The second serial, “The Secret Empire,” begins in the 1880’s, where Marshal Jim Donner is being chased by horsemen known as the “Phantom Riders” after investigating a shipment of stolen gold and discovering a mysterious key. He manages to leap into a canyon river to evade his pursuers. He returns to Cheyenne, where his injuries are treated by Millie Thompson, who practices medicine but was not afforded a doctorate because she is a woman. Jim reveals that he has only just been made Marshal after severing as a deputy for some time. She removes a piece of strange metal from Jim’s body, and they realize that it matches the substance that the key is composed of. Billy, a boy from town enters to tell Jim that he has just seen the Phantom Riders in the wilderness outside of town. They search around for them and eventually discover a secret entranceway in a cliff, opened with the use of the key. They explore the cave within and find the missing horses and wagon from one of the Phantom Riders’ gold heists.
Jim accidentally stumbles into a hi-tech elevator and is trapped within. Billy is locked inside the cave as Jim is brought down in the elevator to what appears to be a massive technologically advanced subterranean city. He encounters a woman being accosted by several guards and rushes to intervene, saving the woman and fleeing with her. She informs him that the city is being ruled by a brutal dictator named Thorval, who intends to build weapons with which to conquer the surface world. The chapter ends as they are cornered and Jim is shot with some sort of energy beam which freezes him and sends him hurtling off a balcony.
The third serial, “The Curse of Dracula,” begins as Kurt Von Helsing (grandson of Abraham Von Helsing) and Mary Gibbons track down another of Dracula’s coffins in a barn, containing his native Transylvanian soil. They purify it with holy water to prevent Dracula from resting there, but Dracula finds them there and tries to burn them to death by lighting the barn on fire. They are seemingly trapped inside until Mary gets the idea to use the coffin as a battering ram to break the walls and create an escape route. They manage to escape and return to their work; there are still seven remaining coffins intact, and are attempting to track them down with the aid of a university computer. They come to suspect that a local professor of Eastern European history is actually Dracula in disguise. Mary attends one of his classes, posing as a student, and notes his seemingly intimate familiarity with historical events, describing them as if he were there. He invites several of his students over to his house to stargaze with him, and Mary goes along with them.
Kurt follows behind as Dracula drives Mary and the other students back to his house. Dracula speeds up to try to lose Kurt, and Kurt is forced to pull over to avoid getting into a traffic accident. Dracula takes the students into his opulent mansion and in private reveals to Mary that he knows her true identity. Dracula asks her why she and Kurt relentlessly hunt him, and she reveals that Dracula killed her mother Amanda Gibbons. He claims that Amanda was one of the few women he ever loved, although Mary does not believe him. He laments that he has been unable to go in daylight for over five centuries and has grown weary of his vampiric state. Dracula admits to killing Amanda despite their relationship, claiming that it was spurred by behavior beyond his control. He approaches Mary, telling her he would like to “possess” her, but she burns his skin with a crucifix and runs off. Her escape is stopped by the other students, who have already been bitten by Dracula and turned into his thralls. He reveals that he cut one of the fuel lines in Kurt’s car to prevent him from interfering. Dracula takes Mary up to his bedroom and prepares to bite her neck. The chapter ends as Kurt’s car catches on fire and explodes. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 30, 1977 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:05
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:82509
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1979
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kenneth Johnson … Executive Producer, Director, Developed by, Writer
- Richard Milton … Producer
- Laura R. Rakowitz … Associate Producer
- Joe Harnell … Music by
- For "Stop Susan Williams: Chapter II: The Silent Enemy"
- Susan Anton … Cast, Susan Williams
- Ray Walston … Cast, Bob Richards
- Michael Swan … Cast, Jack Schoengarth
- John Hancock … Cast, Gold Tooth
- H.B. Haggerty … Cast, Bartender
- Santos Morales … Cast, Sleaze
- T. Miratti … Cast, Accomplice
- For "The Secret Empire: Chapter III: Plunge Into Mystery"
- Geoffrey Scott … Cast, Marshal Jim Donner
- Carlene Watkins … Cast, Millie Thompson
- Diane Markoff … Cast, Tara
- Pamela Brull … Cast, The Girl
- Tiger Williams … Cast, Billy
- For "The Curse of Dracula: Chapter VI: Lifeblood"
- Michael Nouri … Cast, Count Dracula
- Carol Baxter … Cast, Mary Gibbons
- Stephen Johnson … Cast, Kurt Von Helsing
- Beuer-Leigh Banfield … Cast, Christine
- Antoinette Stella … Cast, Jill
- Mark Montgomery … Cast, Darryl