Wikipedia

Cliffhanger

For other uses, seeCliffhanger (disambiguation).
"To be continued" redirects here. For other uses, seeTo Be Continued.

Acliffhangerorcliffhanger endingis aplot deviceinfictionwhich features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or before acommercial breakin a television programme. A cliffhanger is intended to incentivize the audience to return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.

The 1914 film serialPerils of Paulinewas shown in bi-weekly installments and ended with a cliffhanger.

Some serials end with the caveat, "To Be Continued" or "The End?" Inserial filmsandtelevision series,the following episode sometimes begins with arecap sequence.

Cliffhangers were used as literary devices in several works of theMiddle AgeswithOne Thousand and One Nightsending on a cliffhanger each night.[1]Cliffhangers appeared as an element of theVictorian eraserial novelthat emerged in the 1840s, with many associating the form withCharles Dickens,a pioneer of the serial publication of narrative fiction.[2][3]Following the enormous success of Dickens, by the 1860s cliffhanger endings had become a staple part of the sensation serials.[4]

History

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Cliffhangers were used as literary devices in several works of theMiddle Ages.TheArabic literaryworkOne Thousand and One NightsinvolvesScheherazadenarrating aseries of storiesto KingShahryārfor 1,001 nights, with each night ending on a cliffhanger in order to save herself from execution.[1][5]Some medieval Chinese ballads like theLiu chih-yuan chu-kung-tiaoended each chapter on a cliffhanger to keep the audience in suspense.[6]

The Scottish comic magazineThe Glasgow Looking Glass,founded by English artistWilliam Heath,pioneered the use of the phrase 'To Be Continued' in its serials in 1825.[7]

Victorian serials

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Dickens and Little Nellstatue inPhiladelphia

Cliffhangers became prominent with the serial publication of narrative fiction, pioneered byCharles Dickens.[2][3][8]Printed episodically in magazines, Dickens's cliffhangers triggered desperation in his readers. Writing in theNew Yorker,Emily Nussbaum captured the anticipation of those waiting for the next installment of Dickens'The Old Curiosity Shop;

In 1841, Dickens fanboys rioted on the dock of New York Harbor, as they waited for a British ship carrying the next installment, screaming, "Is little Nell dead?"[2]

Advertisement forGreat Expectationsserialised in the British weekly magazineAll the Year Round,1860. The advert displays the plot device "to be continued".

On Dickens' instalment format and cliffhangers—first seen withThe Pickwick Papersin 1836—Leslie Howsam inThe Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book(2015) writes, "It inspired a narrative that Dickens would explore and develop throughout his career. The instalments would typically culminate at a point in the plot that created reader anticipation and thus reader demand."[9]

With each new instalment widely anticipated with its cliffhanger ending, Dickens' audience was enormous; his instalment format was also much more affordable and accessible to the masses, with the audience more evenly distributed across income levels than previous.[9]The popularity of Dickens's serial publications saw the cliffhanger become a staple part of the sensation serials by the 1860s.[4]His influence can also be seen in television soap operas and film series, withThe Guardianstating "the DNA of Dickens's busy, episodic storytelling, delivered in instalments and rife with cliffhangers and diversions, is traceable in everything."[10]

Etymology

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The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version ofThomas Hardy'sA Pair of Blue Eyes(which was published inTinsley's Magazinebetween September 1872 and July 1873) in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left hanging off acliff.[11][12]According to the Random HouseHistorical Dictionary of American Slang,the term's first use in print was in 1937.[13]

Serial media

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Early film

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Cliffhangers were especially popular from the 1910s through to the 1930sserialswhennickelodeonsandmovie theatersfilled the culturalnichelater primarily occupied bytelevision.The first film serial designed around the cliffhanger device was 1913'sThe Adventures of KathlynfromSelig Polyscope.[14][15]

During the 1910s, whenFort Lee, New Jerseywas a center of film production, thecliffsfacing New York and theHudson Riverwere frequently used as film locations.[16]The most notable of these films wasThe Perils of Pauline,a serial which helped popularize the term "cliffhanger". In them, the serial would often end suddenly leaving actressPearl White's Pauline character hanging from a cliff.[17]

Modern usage

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Cliffhangers are often used intelevision series,especiallysoap operasandgame shows.

Several Australiansoap operas,which went off air over summer, such asNumber 96,The Restless Years,andPrisoner,ended each year with a major and much publicized catastrophe, such as a character being shot in the final seconds of the year's closing episode.

Cliffhangers are commonly used in Japanesemangaandanime.In contrast to Americansuperhero comics,Japanese manga are much more frequently written with cliffhangers, often with each volume or issue. This is particularly the case withshōnen manga,especially those published byWeekly Shōnen Jump,such asDragon Ball,Shaman King,One Pieceand the origin show of theTo be continuedInternet meme,JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.[18][19]

During its original run,Doctor Whowas written in a serialised format that usually ended each episode within a serial on a cliffhanger. In the first few years of the show, the final episodes of each serial would have a cliffhanger that would lead into the next serial. The programme's cliffhangers sometimes caused controversy, most notably Part Three ofThe Deadly Assassin(1976), which was altered for future broadcasts following a complaint from campaignerMary Whitehouse.[20][21][22]Whitehouse objected to the violence of the scene (the Doctor's head is held underwater in an attempt to drown him). She often cited it in interviews as one of the most frightening scenes inDoctor Who,her reasoning being that children would not know if the Doctor survived until the following week and that they would "have this strong image in their minds" during all that time.[23]The producer ofDoctor Whoat the time,Philip Hinchcliffe,cited the 1950s radio serialJourney into Spaceas an influence for its use of cliffhangers.[24]A later serial,Dragonfire(1987), is notable for having a cliffhanger that involved theSeventh Doctorliterally hanging from a cliff, seemingly by choice, which has been described as "the most ludicrous ever presented inDoctor Who".[25]Another British science fiction series,Blake's 7(1978–1981), employed end-of-season cliffhangers for each of the four seasons the series was on air, most notably for its final episode in 1981 in which the whole of the main cast are seemingly killed. The final cliffhanger was never resolved.

From 1966 to 1968 and inbroadcast syndication,"Same bat-time, same bat-channel" encouraged viewers to tune in the next night for 120 episodes ofBatman.[citation needed][26]The next episode quickly resolved the heroes from each supervillain's trap. A few triple episodes had double cliffhangers.[27]The 1969 British filmThe Italian Job,starringMichael CaineandNoël Coward,ended literally in a cliffhanger, with the villains' coach hanging precariously over a cliff.

Cliffhangers were rare on American primetime television before 1980, as television networks preferred the flexibility of airing episodes in any order. ThesitcomSoapwas the first US primetime television programme to utilise the end-of-season cliffhanger, at the end of its first season in 1978. Cliffhangers then went on to become a staple of American primetime soap operas; the phenomenal success of the 1980 "Who shot J.R.?"third season-ending cliffhanger ofDallas,and the "Who Done It"fourth-season episode that finally solved the mystery, contributed to the cliffhanger becoming a common storytelling device on American television.[28]Another notable cliffhanger was the "Moldavian Massacre" onDynastyin 1985, which fueled speculation throughout the summer months regarding who lived or died when almost all the characters attended a wedding in the country of Moldavia, only to have revolutionaries topple the government and machine-gun the entire wedding party. Other primetime soap operas, such asFalcon CrestandKnots Landing,also employed dramatic end-of-season cliffhangers on an annual basis. Sitcoms also utilised the cliffhanger device. As well as the aforementionedSoap,the long-running sitcomCheerswould often incorporate cliffhanger season endings, largely (in its earlier years) to increase interest in the on-and-off relationship between its two lead characters,Sam Malone and Diane Chambers.These cliffhangers did not place the characters in peril of any kind, but rather left their relationship (which was at the core of the show) hanging in the balance.

Cliffhanger endings in films date back to the early 20th century, and were prominently used in theserial filmsof the 1930s (such asFlash GordonandBuck Rogers), though these tended to be resolved with the next installment the following week. A longer term cliffhanger was employed in theStar Warsfilm series, inThe Empire Strikes Back(1980) in whichDarth Vadermade a shock revelation toLuke Skywalker,andHan Solo's life was left in jeopardy after he was frozen and taken away by a bounty hunter.[29][30]These plotlines were left unresolved until the next film in the series, which was released three years later.[30]The first two films in theBack to the Futureseries end in cliffhangers, with the first displaying the "to be continued" title card.[31]Thefilm adaptationof the musicalWickedis split into two parts, with the first film ending on a cliffhanger with the first act closer "Defying Gravity,"making the second filmWicked Part Twobegin at the top of the musical's second act.[32]

The two main ways for cliffhangers to keep readers/viewers coming back is to either involve characters in a suspenseful, possibly life-threatening situation, or to feature a sudden shocking revelation. Cliffhangers are also used to leave open the possibility of a character being killed off due to the actor not continuing to play the role.

Cliffhangers are also sometimes deliberately inserted by writers who are uncertain whether a new series or season will be commissioned, in the hope that viewers will demand to know how the situation is resolved. Such was the case with the second season ofTwin Peaks,which ended in a cliffhanger similar to the first season with a high degree of uncertainty about the fate of the protagonist, but the cliffhanger could not save the show from being canceled, resulting in theunresolvedending. The final episodes of soapsDallasandDynastyalso ended in similar fashion, though all three shows would return years later in some form or other to resolve these storylines. The Australian soap operaReturn To Edenended in 1986 with a dramatic cliffhanger in anticipation of a second season. However, the network chose not to renew the show and so a hastily filmed five-minute "conclusion" was filmed and added on to the end of existing final episode to provide closure. Some shows, however, became known for never being resolved. In addition to the aforementionedBlake's 7,the supernatural seriesAngel,the original 1984 seriesVand its2009 remake,all ended with unresolved cliffhangers. On occasion, TV series are given the opportunity to resolve their end-of-series cliffhangers at a later date; examples include the 1999–2003 series,Farscape,which was cancelled after a cliffhanger ending, but which was able to resolve it in a later follow-up miniseries,Farscape: The Peacekeeper Warsand the aforementionedTwin Peaks1991 cliffhanger, which was resolved 26 years later when a sequel to the series (considered a third season) aired in 2017.

The cliffhanger has become a genre staple (especially in comics, due to the multi-part storylines becoming the norm instead of self-contained stories) to such a degree, in fact, that series writers no longer feel they have to be immediately resolved, or even referenced, when the next episode is shown,[33]variously because the writer didn't feel it was "a strong enough opener,"[34]or simply "couldn't be bothered."[35]The heavily serialized television dramaTrue Bloodhas become notorious for cliffhangers. Not only do the seasons conclude with cliffhangers, but almost every episode finishes at a cliffhanger directly after or during a highly dramatic moment, much like the primetime soap operas of the 1980s and 90s.[36]

Commercial breakscan be a nuisance toscript writersbecause some sort of incompleteness or minor cliffhanger should be provided before each to stop the viewer from changing channels during the commercial break. Sometimes a series ends with an unintended cliffhanger caused by a very abrupt ending without a satisfactorydénouement,but merely assuming that the viewer will assume that everything sorted itself out.

Sometimes a film, book, or season of a television show will end with the defeat of the main villain before a second, evidently more powerful villain makes a brief appearance (becoming the villain of the next film). Occasionally an element other than a villain is also used to tease at a sequel.

Peter Høeg's novelSmilla's Sense of Snowends with a deliberate cliffhanger, with the protagonist and main villain involved in a life-and-death chase on the arctic ice off Greenland – and in this case, the author has no intention of ever writing a sequel, the ambiguous ending being part and parcel of the basic ideas permeating the book's plot. Similarly,Michael Flynn's science fiction noveletteThe Forest of Timeends with a deliberate and permanent cliffhanger: readers are not to be ever told where the protagonist ended up in his wandering the "forest" ofalternate historytimelines and whether he ever got back to his home and his beloved, nor whether the war which takes a large part of the plot ended in victory for the Good Guys or the Bad Guys.

George Cukor,when adapting in 1972Graham Greene'sTravels with My Auntdeliberately introduced a cliffhanger missing from the original. While Greene's book ended with the protagonists definitely choosing the adventurous and rather shady life of smugglers in Paraguay and closing off other options for their future, at the conclusion of the Cukor film a character is seen tossing a coin whose fall would determine their next move, and the film ends on afreeze frame shotas the characters await the fall of the coin.

See also

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References

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  1. ^abSnodgrass, Mary Ellen (2009).Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire.New York:Infobase Publishing.p. 292.ISBN978-1438119069.
  2. ^abc"The curious staying power of the cliffhanger".The New Yorker.28 November 2017.Archivedfrom the original on 1 December 2017.
  3. ^abGrossman, Jonathan H. (2012).Charles Dickens's Networks: Public Transport and the Novel.p. 54. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. ^abAllen, Rob (2014).Serialization in Popular Culture.p. 41. Routledge
  5. ^Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (2011).Gender in History: Global Perspectives.John Wiley & Sons. p. 86.ISBN9781444351729.
  6. ^Mair, Victor H. (2001).The Columbia History of Chinese Literature.Columbia University Press. pp.797–798.ISBN9780231109840.
  7. ^"'World's first comic' is up for auction ".The Times.Retrieved19 February2022.William Heath's Glasgow Looking Glass was a pioneering publication which is said to have coined the phrase "... to be continued".
  8. ^"Cliffhangers poised to make Dickens a serial winner again".The Times.Archivedfrom the original on 3 September 2021.Retrieved3 September2021.
  9. ^abHowsam, Leslie (2015).The Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book.Cambridge University Press. p. 85.
  10. ^"Streaming: the best Dickens adaptations".The Guardian.Archivedfrom the original on 3 September 2021.Retrieved3 November2022.
  11. ^Schulz, Kathryn(May 20, 2024)."The Secrets of Suspense".The New Yorker.Archivedfrom the original on May 20, 2024.RetrievedMay 21,2024.This is the plot device known as the cliffhanger, a word whose putative origins lie not in pulp fiction but in a lesser-known Thomas Hardy novel, "A Pair of Blue Eyes". In the relevant scene, a man named Henry Knight is strolling with his love interest along the cliffs of Cornwall when his hat blows off. He chases after it, one thing leads to another, and soon he is dangling from a sheer wall of rock, nothing beneath him but six hundred feet of air terminating in the fanged and foaming surface of the ocean.
  12. ^Diniejko, Andrzej."Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes As a Cliffhanger with a Post-Darwinian Message".The Victorian Web.Archivedfrom the original on 2 February 2017.Retrieved27 January2017.
  13. ^1994 edition, p. 433
  14. ^Stedman, Raymond William (1971)."1. Drama by Instalment".Serials: Suspense and Drama By Installment.University of Oklahoma Press. pp.6–9.ISBN978-0-8061-0927-5.
  15. ^Lahue, Kalten C. "1. A Bolt From The Blue".Continued Next Week.pp. 6–8.
  16. ^Kahn, Eve M"Getting a Close-Up of the Silent-Film Era".The New York Times(August 15, 2013)
  17. ^Verdon, Joan "A hike back in time to era of silent film"Bergen County Record(March 5, 2012)
  18. ^Mylonas, Eric (2004).Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic Warriors.Prima Games.p. 3.ISBN0761546758.
  19. ^"Brandweek, Volume 47".Brandweek.47.Adweek L.P.: 79 January 2006.
  20. ^McNally, Neil (14 October 2013)."Top 10: DOCTOR WHO Cliffhangers".Starburst.Retrieved10 October2020.
  21. ^Jeffery, Morgan (27 June 2018)."Doctor Who producer reveals story behind the show's most controversial cliffhanger".Digital Spy.Retrieved10 October2020.
  22. ^Dave Rolinson (2011).Alan Clarke.Manchester University Press.ISBN978-0719068317.Retrieved10 October2020.
  23. ^Martin, Dan (14 June 2013)."The Deadly Assassin: Doctor Who classic episode #8".The Guardian.
  24. ^Mellor, Louisa (3 September 2013)."Philip Hinchcliffe on producing Doctor Who, Tom Baker, special effects, Russell T Davies, Big Finish audio plays & more…".Den of Geek.Retrieved10 October2020.
  25. ^"Dragonfire".BBC Online.Retrieved10 October2020.
  26. ^In the final season, it was on once a week, so viewers had to wait until the following week.
  27. ^"The Most Horrifying is Yet to Come! 5 Insane Cliffhangers from the 1960's Batman".tor.18 July 2012.Retrieved16 January2023.
  28. ^Meisler, Andy (1995-05-07)."TELEVISION; When J. R. Was Shot The Cliffhanger Was Born".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on May 11, 2013.RetrievedJune 14,2012.
  29. ^Snowden, Scott (June 4, 2020)."The effect ofStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Backcan still be felt after 40 years ".Space.Archivedfrom the original on May 25, 2021.RetrievedMay 26,2021.
  30. ^abSherlock, Ben (June 28, 2021)."The Empire Strikes Back:10 ways it's the perfect sequel to the originalStar Warsmovie ".Screen Rant.Archivedfrom the original on July 11, 2021.RetrievedNovember 18,2021.
  31. ^"Movie Legends Revealed: Was 'Back to the Future' Always 'To Be Continued'?".CBR.Retrieved5 September2021.
  32. ^Willman, Chris (June 28, 2022)."'Wicked' Songwriter Stephen Schwartz on Why the Movie Must Be a Two-Parter: Nothing Can Follow 'Defying Gravity'".Variety.Archivedfrom the original on October 6, 2022.RetrievedJune 28,2022.
  33. ^"The IT Crowd: Tramps Like Us".Noise to Signal.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-03-11.Retrieved2012-11-21.
  34. ^"…and we like tramps! « Why, That\'s Delightful!".Whythatsdelightful.wordpress. 5 December 2008.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-03-24.Retrieved2012-11-21.
  35. ^Ben Falk (2007-08-24)."One of the IT Crowd | Manchester Evening News – menmedia.co.uk".Manchester Evening News.Retrieved2012-11-21.
  36. ^"'True Blood' Finale Sets Up More Cliffhangers ".Buddytv. 2009-09-14.Archivedfrom the original on 2012-10-20.Retrieved2012-11-21.

Books

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  • Vincent Fröhlich: Der Cliffhanger und die serielle Narration. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2015.ISBN978-3837629767.
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