From the 1910's to the mid to late 1950's,cliff hangers were the stable form of movie entertainment for the American youth. Saturday afternoons meant a trip to the neighborhood theater where the latest chapter of the current "Zorro","Superman","The Adventures of Batman and Robin",or the order of the day was on display. All of the movie serials-whether Westerns,melodramas,science fiction,or Gothic horror stories-had one element in common. At the end of each episode(full serials had a maximum of 10 to 15 episodes)the hero or heroine was in for a perilous,potentially fatal situation facing certain doom or extreme danger. Miraciously,however,the first minutes succeeding episode would show how he or she had escaped,thus avoiding the certain fate that awaited them in the previous episode. The kids at the Saturday matinees knew upfront how their heroes would survive. The only question in this case is how. Not knowing gave them something to talk about all week until they faithfully returned the movie house the following week to find out what happened.More than two decades after the last serial was produced,NBC brought the weekly serial back in 1979 under the format title "Cliffhangers". The series was the midseason replacement in early 1979 for the series "The Adventures of Sheriff Lobo",which NBC moved the show to new time slot. "Cliffhangers" was the umbrella title for three separate serials all sharing the same slot on Tuesday nights. Each week viewers saw the 20-minute chapter of "Stop Susan Williams" starring Susan Anton,and the "The Curse of Dracula"(which was shown in black and white to give it a more 1940's feel),starring Michael Nouri. The following week each serial would picked up a different stage along with the fantasy adventure "The Secret Empire",which was a cross between The Wild,Wild West mixed with Fantasy Island and the Fugitive. Each serial contain two different installments,with one continuing where it left off the following week. "Cliffhangers" was an innovative series for its time with audiences tuning in each week to see their heroes get out of tight situations while handling the unexpected. The idea was fresh and original while others were still in progress. But the ratings that this series got,didn't improved,since "Cliffhangers" lasted no more than three months on the air. The reason? NBC put this show on Tuesday nights at the 8:00pm time slot opposite ABC's powerhouse "Happy Days",which clobbered it in the ratings. The series ran from February 27,1979 until May 1, 1979 and 13 episodes were produced. The series was produced by Glen A. Larson for Universal Television. Comment: Before the series went off the air,only two of the serials concluded their chapters("The Curse of Dracula",and "The Secret Empire"),but the other one,"Stop Susan Williams" did not conclude its last episode. However,in the last chapter and eventually the last episode in the series,audiences got to see Susan Williams in a bland predicament and to find out if she would escape certain doom. The only thing that was to find out that the episode ended up "to be continued". Did Susan escape from their trap of doom? Audiencs never got to find out and the last chapter in the series was never aired since NBC canceled the series right after that in May of 1979. However,the only serial from that "Cliffhangers" series,and for those who never got to see what really happen from the last chapter of "Stop Susan Williams" that never aired during the series run was presented for NBC in a made for TV-movie "The Girl That Saved The World" that premiered later on that year as part of the NBC Movie of the Week.

Cliffhangers was an interesting experiment; an attempt to revive the thrills and drama of the old movie serials. It enjoyed a cult following, but never had the ratings to continue the experiment. It was lacking in budget and the short segments inhibited the development of the story. It was split into three segments: Stop Susan Williams, The Secret Empire, and the Curse of Dracula.Stop Susan Williams features the beautiful (and tall) Susan Anton as the title character, a photojournalist searching for clues to the death of her brother. As the series opens, she finds a small notebook with mysterious notations. Her discovery is interrupted by a dark figure in a trench coat. She finds herself pushed out a window and off a ledge, miraculously escaping harm when she lands in an awning.Susan embarks on a journey around the world to unravel the clues to a conspiracy, something that will result in a spectacular event on May 15. She has three weeks to solve the mystery.Susan meets up with mercenary Jack Schoengard and slowly unravels the mystery, while finding herself pursued by assassins dispatched by the conspirators. She faces deathtrap after deathtrap.There is a germ of an idea here, but it is never fully developed. Susan seems to just stumble into further clues, but never really seems to learn much. The deathtraps are rather mundane and never seem particularly threatening. The conspiracy is eventually explained, but comes across as laughable, as you never quite believe they have the resources to pull it off.The biggest problem here is the acting. Susan Anton was still a neophyte, and she is not particularly good. She has a very limited range and seems to have been hired more for her looks. Her costumes look ridiculous, given the environments she enters. The rest of the cast, with the exception of Ray Walston, are just as forgettable. Only Walston makes an attempt at bringing the weak story alive.The writing was rather shallow, with poor dialogue and gaps in logic. The episodes followed a pattern of resolving the previous cliffhanger, move to a new location and a brief piece of exposition, and the set up for the next cliffhanger. The story never really gets rolling, it just seems to be picked up and moved to the next setting. It is devoid of the great stuntwork that made the old serials thrilling, and the mystery that made them compelling.Stop Susan Willams has a core of an idea that needed greater development. The script should have been developed more and greater care was needed in casting. The story really needed a larger budget, or at least more creative use of the limitations. Given the trend of remaking old TV series, this is a case where a remake could actually be better than the original.The final episode was never broadcast in the US, but here's what happens: Spoilers: Susan, Jack and a scientist are trapped in a cave, while attempting to disarm a nuclear device set to explode. The cave is located near Camp David, where a major summit is occurring. The scientist has been injured and can't continue. Using her flash, Susan is able to find flashlights and radios, which allow her and Jack to remain in contact with the scientist. They locate the bomb and begin disarming it. They succeed in removing the detonator and throw it away before it can trigger the bomb. The resulting detonator explosion opens a shaft, leading to the outside. Everyone is able to get to the outside, before the shaft collapses. Jack has left behind a half million in cash, but they laugh it off. Meanwhile, the leader of the conspiracy escapes, to plot a new attack.

I always knew the Cliffhangers series was a trilogy, but for some reason I can't remember "Susan Williams." Could be that they never showed that series too often on our local station. I'm quite sure, however, if I were to see it again it would all come back to me.Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed "Secret Empire" and the best "Dracula" movie ever, with one of the greatest actors of all times, Michael Nouri. Do you remember him in "The Sands of Time" by Sidney Sheldon? He's just so brilliant!! Talk about nostalgia!! To watch Cliffhangers again would be like a dream come true. My family, particularly my sister and I never missed a beat, especially when "The Curse of Dracula" was showing.If someone, anyone knows where I can find the DVD or VHS for these series/movies, I would be most grateful.

I remember watching this show when I was in the fifth grade and I really enjoyed it. It reminded you like the title of those old fashioned movie serials they used to make where you wondered if the hero or heroine had escaped or how they had escaped. I really enjoyed the Dracula version. Michael Nouri did a great job and I think that Bela Lugosi would have been very proud. Susan Anton did a great job as well in her "Stop Susan Williams" version. I was glad when they made a movie of it called "The Girl Who Saved The World" where they finally let us see what happened to her.