We were watching some old Rin Tin Tin movie serials and I wondered if I could write a serial about a goat. Every episode ends with a cliff hanger, so a wild Capri Capers took shape.
Movie Serials
When movies started and were only shown in theaters, the theaters wanted a way to keep people coming back every week. The movie serial was born.
These serials lasted for weeks with a melodrama plot. Each episode was full of action and ended with something dangerous happening leaving the hero or heroine in mortal danger.
The following week the dangerous happening was shown again with changes. Those changes let the hero or heroine survive to continue the plot only to again get into a dangerous situation.
Melodramas
These are simple plays. They normally have three main characters: a hero, a heroine or damsel in distress and a villain. The villain had some dastard scheme to capture the heroine and was foiled by the hero.
My father and his friends made up these plays up every week while he was in high school. They put on the plays for the students during lunch every Friday. My father always played the villain.
Proper protocol had the audience greet the hero with cheers and the villain with hisses and boos. At graduation all the students booed my father in honor of his years playing the villain.
Wild Capri Capers
The original draft of Capri Capers was in true movie serial format. Every chapter ended with a cliff hanger. The next chapter looked at the cliff hanger and solved it before launching the plot into the next cliff hanger.
Every name was chosen like a melodrama name. Dan Janus is after the two faced Roman god. Leroy Rogue and Roscoe Rascal are the villains. Harriet Zeigenhirt’s last name is German for goat.
The final draft changed the cliff hanger repeats into a more familiar novel plot line. However, the cliff hangers are still ending the chapters of a wild Capri Capers tale.
Oh, yes, there is a goat, several goats in the story. Capri is a goat and plays a big part in the story.