Featured CED VideoDisc No. 11 - Winter 1999

Firesign Theatre Hot Shorts

This CED is a spoof of the classic Saturday Matinee cliffhanger serials by the Firesign Theatre comedy group. This comedy team composed of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, and Philip Proctor took shortened versions of the original serials and turned them into comedies by superimposing voice overs and sound effects. The front cover of the CED shows scenes from four of the represented serials with the three members of the Firesign Theatre troupe pasted into each image. The lower left illustration shows the team flanking the incomparable Irish McCalla who earlier had starred in the 1950's Sheena TV series.

This is a somewhat rare CED, and one of the more collectible titles, but it is not a CED exclusive. Some collectors have been led to that conclusion because the work is an RCA Video Production. The disc consists of nine shorts representing well-known and obscure black & white serials from the 1930's, 40's and 50's. The following table lists the original titles of the nine serials represented, with links to their entries in the Internet Movie Database.

Serial Title	Firesign Theatre Title	Year
Dangers of the Canadian Mounted	Mounties Catch Herpes	1948
The Black Widow	Sperm Bank Holdup	1947
Spy Smasher	Revenge of the Non-Smokers	1942
She Demons	Nazi Diet Doctors	1958
Manhunt of Mystery Island	Toy Wars	1945
Panther Girl of the Kongo	Claws II	1955
Undersea Kingdom	Olympic Confidential	1936
Radar Men From the Moon	The Last Hand Gun on Earth	1952
King of Jungleland	Heaven Is Hell	1936

Firesign Theatre Hot Shorts

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