Poster of the 1914 "Perils of Pauline" from which the term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated

A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in which a movie, novel, or other work of fiction contains an abrupt ending, often leaving the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation, or with a sudden shock revelation. The Perils of Pauline was a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring Pearl White as the title character A plot device is an element introduced into a story solely to advance or resolve the plot of the story A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story This type of ending is used to ensure that, if a next installment is made, audiences will return to find out how the cliffhanger is resolved. The phrase comes from the classical end-of-episode situation in silent film days, with the protagonist left hanging from the edge of a cliff. Some serials end with the caveat "To be continued", or "The End?" (the series finales for Duckman, and Clone High parodied this caveat). Duckman is an animated sitcom created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Clone High (occasionally referred to in the US as Clone High U In television series, the following episode usually begins with a recap (AKA a "previously"). A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U "Previously", also sometimes referred to as "recaps" are Narrative devices used by many Television series to bring the viewer up to date with

History

The idea of ending a tale at a point where the audience is left in suspense as to its conclusion (which is then given at another time) has been a staple part of storytelling for almost as long as the idea of stories have existed. It is a central theme and framing device of the collection of stories known as the One Thousand And One Nights, wherein the queen Scheherazade, who is facing a morning execution on the orders of her husband King Shahryar, devises the solution of telling him a story but leaving it at a cliffhanger, thus forcing the king to postpone her execution in order to hear the rest of the tale. Scheherazade (ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd -ˈzɑːdə sometimes Scheherazadea, Persian transliteration Shahrazad or Shahrzād (شهرزاد Šahrzād This is a list of characters within the Medieval collection of Middle Eastern Folk tales One Thousand and One Nights.

The term 'cliffhanger' is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel "A Pair of Blue Eyes" in 1873. Thomas Hardy OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928 was an English novelist Short story writer and poet of the naturalist movement though he saw A Pair of Blue Eyes is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873. Year 1873 ( MDCCCLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common At the time newspapers published novels in a serial format with one chapter appearing every month. The term " serial " refers to the intrinsic property of a series &mdash namely its order. In order to ensure continued interest in the story many authors employed different authorial techniques; in the aforementioned novel Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. Trilobites ("three-lobes" are extinct Arthropods that form the class Trilobita. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.

Once Hardy created it, all serial writers used the cliff-hanger even though Trollope felt that the use of suspense violated "all proper confidence between the author and his reader. The name Trollope is derived from the place-name Troughburn in Northumberland. Suspense is the Feeling of uncertainty and Anxiety about the outcome of certain actions most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work " Basically, the reader would expect "delightful horrors" only to feel betrayed with a much less exciting ending. Despite the rhetorical distaste all serial authors used the cliffhanger and Wilkie Collins is famous for saying about the technique: "Make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em wait – exactly in that order. William Wilkie Collins ( 8 January 1824 &ndash 23 September 1889) was an English Novelist, Playwright, and "

Collins is famous for the Sensation Novel which heavily relied upon the cliffhanger. Some examples of his endings include:

"The next witnesses called were witnesses concerned with the question that now followed--the obscure and terrible question: Who Poisoned Her? (The Law and the Lady) "Why are we to stop her, sir? What has she done?" "Done! She has escaped from my Asylum. The Law and the Lady was published in 1875, by Wilkie Collins, although still in print is largely forgotten now Don't forget; a woman in white. Drive on. " (The Woman in White) "You can marry me privately today," she answered. "Listen--and I will tell you how!" (Man and Wife)"

This anticipation and conversation inducing authorial technique would often be very contrived as the only purpose was to maintain interest in the monthly serial. William Wilkie Collins ( 8 January 1824 &ndash 23 September 1889) was an English Novelist, Playwright, and Therefore, these were regularly removed from the plot when the serial was published as a full novel.

The cliff-hanger was converted into film and is best known from the very popular silent film series The Perils of Pauline (1914), shown in weekly instalments and featuring Pearl White as the title character, a perpetual damsel in distress who was menaced by assorted villains, with each installment ending with her placed in a situation that looked sure to result in her imminent death – to escape at the beginning of the next instalment only to get into fresh danger at its end. The Perils of Pauline was a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring Pearl White as the title character Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Pearl Fay White, ( March 4, 1889, Green Ridge Missouri - August 4, 1938, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was an The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden is a classic theme in world literature art and film Specifically, an episode filmed around the New Jersey Palisades ended with her literally left hanging over a cliff and seeming about to fall. The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson Palisades (some portions are also referred to as Bergen Hill) are a line of steep

Although a cliffhanger can be enjoyable as a page turner at the end of a chapter in a novel, a cliffhanger at the very end of a work can be frustrating. Happiness is an Emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to Bliss and intense Joy. Cliffhangers can build anticipation (and, subsequently, profit) for sequels. A sequel is a work in Literature, Film, or other media that portrays events following those of a previous work However, if no sequel follows, effective suspension of disbelief can leave the audience or readership wondering what happened in the work's fictional realm. Suspension of disbelief or "willing suspension of disbelief" is an aesthetic theory intended to characterize people's relationships to art Brooklyn Book Festival crowd by David Shankbonejpg|thumb|An audience at the Brooklyn Book Festival in New York City. A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with unique background elements such as an imaginary history or geography and possibly fantasy or science Sometimes (for example at the end of Blake's 7) that goes so far that people write fan fiction (or even publish a novel) deciding what happens next. Blake's 7 is a British Science fiction television series made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC for their BBC 1 channel Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF or fic) is a broadly defined term for Fiction about characters or settings A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story

Serial media

Cliffhangers were especially popular in 1920s and 1930s serials when movie theaters filled the cultural niche now primarily occupied by television. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials or Film serials, were Short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a Feature Cinemaaustraliajpg|thumb|A movie theater in Australia ]]A movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre or cinema is a venue A niche market is a focused targetable portion (subset of a market Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Cliffhangers are often used in television series, especially soap operas which end each episode on a cliffhanger. A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U A soap opera is an ongoing episodic work of Fiction, usually broadcast on Television or Radio. Prior to the early 1980s, season-ending cliffhangers were rare on U. S. television (the first such season-ender on U. S. TV was in the comedy send-up of soap operas Soap in 1978), although several Australian soap operas which went off air over summer such as Number 96 and Prisoner had ended each year with major and much publicised catastrophes such as characters being shot in the final seconds of the closing episode for the year. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and Soap is an American Sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. A soap opera is an ongoing episodic work of Fiction, usually broadcast on Television or Radio. Number 96 was a revolutionary Australian Soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block Prisoner is an Australian television Soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre a fictional women's Prison

In the US it was the phenomenal success of the "Who shot J.R.?" season ending cliffhanger on Dallas, which closed the show's second season, that led the cliffhanger to become a popular staple on television dramas and later situation comedy series as well. Who shot JR? was an Advertising Catch phrase that American network CBS created in 1980 to promote the television show Dallas. Dallas is a highly popular long-running American prime-time television Soap opera that originally ran from 1978 to 1991 Another notable cliffhanger was the "Moldavian Massacre" on Dynasty in 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. Dynasty is an American Prime time television Soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12 1981 to Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) The "Best of Both Worlds" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1990 is also cited as a reason that season-enders are popular today. " The Best of Both Worlds " is a two-part episode from the third/fourth seasons of the Television series Star Trek The Next Generation. Star Trek The Next Generation ( STTNG or TNG) is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning science fiction television program created by Gene Roddenberry Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar)

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. The 2003 Season Finale of Home and Away features an example of both a shock cliffhanger (in the revelation that Angie Russell was Tasha Andrews' mother) and a suspense cliffhanger (the Sutherland family trapped in a mine shaft). Home and Away (also commonly abbreviated in writing to H&A) is a Logie Award -winning Australian Soap opera that has been Angela "Angie" Russell was a Fictional character on the Australian Soap opera Home and Away, portrayed by Laurie Foell Natasha 'Tasha' Hunter (née Andrews) was a Fictional character on the Australian television soap opera series Home and Away.

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. The aforementioned Star Trek season finale worked around the possibility of Patrick Stewart's contract expiring. Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE (born 13 July 1940 is an English Film, Television and stage Actor. Between seasons, his contract was renewed and as a result, the character of Captain Picard survived the cliffhanger. Jean-Luc Picard is a Star Trek character primarily portrayed by Patrick Stewart.

Cliffhangers are also sometimes deliberately inserted by writers uncertain of 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 of Twin 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 the unresolved ending. Twin Peaks is a Television Serial drama that follows the investigation of the brutal murder of popular respected Teenager and homecoming queen Due to the multi-part storylines becoming the norm in comics (instead of self-contained stories) the cliffhanger has become a genre staple.

Commercial breaks can be a nuisance to script writers because some sort of incompleteness or minor cliffhanger should be provided before each to stop the viewer from changing channels during the commercial break. Commercial break is a period of time when a Television station interrupts a programme to broadcast television commercials. Sometimes a series ends with an unintended cliffhanger caused by a very abrupt ending without a satisfactory dénouement, but merely assuming that the viewer will assume that everything sorted itself out. In Literature, a dénouement ( IPA:/deˈnuːmɑ̃/ consists of a series of events that follow the climax of a drama or narrative and thus serves as the

Sometimes a movie, book, or season of a television show will end with the main villain and a second, evidently more powerful villain makes a brief appearance and becomes the villain of the next film. A good example of this is the TV series version of Viewiful Joe which ends with Captain Blue being defeated and returned to normal and then the episode ends with a large space craft approaching earth.

See also

• List of cliffhanger endings
• Zeigarnik effect

External links

• Word Detective
• To Be DIScontinued! - The Hall of Unresolved TV Cliffhangers
• Mid-Atlantic Nostagia Convention Cliffhanger Film Showings