The serial format, breaking down a story over multiple, distinct parts, has a very long history. Silent film serials were followed by sound film serials, and up and until the 1950s the genre had fulfilled a need for audiences to be entertained in a weekly format. Television's introduction led to the downfall of serials from Republic Films and other studios that specialized in narratives punctuated by cliffhangers. The format did not generally translate well to television, where people expected a program to begin and end in one viewing. In the 1950s there was no real ability for an average TV viewer to record programming to watch at a later time, you either saw the program or you hoped for a repeat. This suited television broadcasters, who wanted viewers to experience a new story every week.
That was the evolution in the U.S., but the U.K. was not yet ready to abandon the classic serial format. The British Broadcasting Corporation, a publicly-funded TV network, had to fill the same number of hours in a day but with fewer resources that its American commercial televison network counterparts. The serial format had its advantages in cost, sets, costumes, production personnel and actors could be reused for several weeks at a cost significantly less than having to mount brand-new productions every week. Serials were broadcast alongside series not only by the BBC but also the ITV affiliates for a solid three-decade period. Here I am going to offer my thoughts on one of the best of the serials ever produced from this period, Quatermass and the Pit as presented in its November 2018 Blu-ray release.
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