Sci-Fi Saturday: Flash Gordon – The Greatest Adventure Of All

The Opening title to the 1979 TV Series
The Opening title to the 1979 TV Series

When Star Wars hit the scene in 1977, it revolutionized the entertainment industry. Suddenly, everybody was enthralled with space opera and the sweeping stories that can be told in outer space. Not only did it inspire several other series and TV shows, it also inspired creators to look to the past and remake sci-fi classics.

One such remake is the 1979 TV series Flash Gordon. Ardent sci-fi fans may know that George Lucas sought to remake Flash Gordon as a film, but failed to get rights. So he made something called Star Wars, which did OK…

Anyway, the TV story of Flash Gordon began in 1978 with the production of an animated movie to be broadcast on NBC. Lou Scheimer was tapped to produced the movie.

The network was so impressed by the project that they greenlit a Saturday Morning cartoon series. For whatever reason, production began on the series, and this movie was shelved for several years. It was finally broadcast in 1982, nearly a year after the series had ended. This means the beginning of the story wasn’t told until after the end. And this was 17 years before The Prequels.

Both the series and the movie became cult classics. Scheimer would become an animated series guru in the 1980s with shows like He-Man and She-Ra.

But enough yapping. Now that you’re informed about this cult classic, watch it below

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