Pop Culture Historians

This week, the Pop Culture Historians dig into THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL! The complicated histories of both the character’s name (who you may recognize today as Shazam) and the production of this Republic serial are discussed. As well, we get concerned by the bloodthirsty nature of Billy Batson’s alter-ego. We ALSO discover the existence of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. We…cover a lot of ground t...

This week, the Pop Culture Historians dive deep into THE GREEN HORNET (1940) and THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (1941)! The iconic theme music! The casting change from Gordon Jones to Warren Hull! The amazing career of Keye Luke! All of this and more this week! Both serials can be watched on YouTube!

Which serial from 1940 starring Victor Jory are the Pop Culture Historians diving into this week? Only THE SHADOW knows! Dazzle at the history of the character Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow! Thrill as Ryan and Jimmy compare this Columbia serial against its predecessors MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN and THE SPIDER’S WEB! Chill as they navigate exactly how to discuss Lamont Cranston’s OTHER alter-ego, the...

This week, the Pop Culture Historians meet MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN! What happens when you take a King Features newspaper strip character with magic powers and just turn him into a parlor magician? The same thing that happens when you really want to cash in on the success of THE SPIDER’S WEB: you get a bad serial! Watch us struggle to come up with anything good to say about this Warren Hull led vehic...

This week, the Pop Culture Historians meet The Spider! Ryan and Jimmy break down 1938’s THE SPIDER’S WEB and 1941’s THE SPIDER RETURNS, a pair of superhero serials that introduce some noir and crime elements to the young genre. We also get introduced to amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth and his insane underworld alter-ego Blinky McQuade! You really, really don’t want to miss this one. Both s...

This week, the Pop Culture Historians follow up their Flash Gordon discussion with a breakdown of the 1939 Buck Rogers film serial. Topics of discussion include whether we liked this one-off adventure better than the Flash trilogy, and why we think this one didn’t seem to catch on as much with audiences at the time. The entire Buck Rogers serial can be found on the LongForgottenVideos YouTube chan...

This week, the Pop Culture Historians start a new series, dedicated to the history of superheroes on film! We go as far as back as we can, to the arguable start of the genre, the Flash Gordon film serials (1936’s FLASH GORDON, 1938’s FLASH GORDON’S TRIP TO MARS and 1940’s FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE)! We discuss what old film serials were like, as well as our thoughts on whether this unoffi...

In their debut episode, the Pop Culture Historians their first, way too ambitious project: deep diving into Classic Doctor Who, starting with the first season all the way back in 1963! Jimmy’s a Doctor Who mega fan, Ryan’s never seen an episode.