In the 1970s, serials were rediscovered by the comic and science fiction fans for good reason: you can criticize the budgets, but the stories were pretty nifty and the imagination ran wild. I always liked Buck Rogers more than Flash Gordon, though I found both a lot of fun and exciting. There's just something really cool about a person who wakes up 500 years later than the year he went to sleep in.
ComicRack reader version: Download Buck Rogers Pressbook
Used to have a local tv station that would play all the old RKO and Universal serials on weekends back in thr 80s. Really wish another cable company would do that now.