Serials were long gone from the theaters by the time I was born. But I was fortunate enough to see a lot of the old black-and-white movie serials on television when I was growing up. From the silent features of The Perils of Pauline to King of the Rocket Men, serials were part of my generation’s viewing culture. Thus, when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, it was a one-two punch of success. The adults in the audience got a nostalgic flashback to their younger movie-going days. And what the kids had only experienced via the boob tube was spectacularly splashed across the silver screen. I felt that I was watching not only a sterling homage to my Dad’s films, but a movie fashioned specifically for both of us to enjoy on our own levels, and each other’s. Watching Raiders created a reverberating generational bonding moment. Raiders of the Lost Ark did much more than lay a cornerstone to a franchise. It reinvigorated the entire genre of Action Adventure within popular culture—inspiring books, videos, cartoons, comics and movies—all with the goal of recapturing that magical movie moment.
