Buster Crabbe was not actually the first actor to play Buck Rogers physically. That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of that store's regular Santa Claus.
After the serial came out, a second origin appeared in the comic strip in which Buck fell into a crater while looking for a meteor made from impervium, an indestructible metal used in the making of spaceships. Due to having hit the meteor when he fell in, Buck released the gas from inside and it put him to sleep for 500 years, only to be found by scientists and awakened. Again, this origin took place on Earth and not in space. There was a character in the strip who was in stasis in a satellite for 500 years, but his name was Dr. Laika; the story was inspired by the launch of Sputnik II. This is the origin given to Buck for the TV series.
Although Dick Calkins signed the artwork on the art for the Buck Rogers strip, it was always done by his assistants, starting with Russell Keaton and continuing with Richard Henry Yager through 1933.
Chapter Titles:
- 1. Tomorrow's World
- 2. Tragedy on Saturn
- 3. The Enemy's Stronghold
- 4. The Sky Patrol
- 5. The Phantom Plane
- 6. The Unknown Command
- 7. Primitive Urge
- 8. Revolt of the Zuggs
- 9. Bodies Without Minds
- 10. Broken Barriers
- 11. A Prince in Bondage
- 12. War of the Planets
In the original Buck Rogers novelettes, Buck's enemy was the Han; in the comic strip, his enemy was the Mongols and later the Tiger Men of Mars. Neither of these impressive foes appeared in the serial - Kane was made the main villain. Buck's full name - not mentioned in the comic strip - is Anthony Rogers. Nowlan may have ordered it altered for length reasons.
In the original comic strip, Buck Rogers is actually a former World War One pilot who was working as a mine surveyor at the time he came to fall into his long (500 years long) sleep. For some reason, the regulations would not allow the screenwriters to use the comic strip's continuity, so the serial is actually a completely original story with the comic strip characters added.
Much of the background music was originally used in Bride of Frankenstein.
The bullet cars used in the movie were the same ones used in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.
The character of Killer Kane was changed, too: in the original strip, his real name was Oba Kane, he had a twin brother named Nova and a pistol called "Baby". He also had a girlfriend named Ardala Valmar. The regulations would not allow any of this background to be used, either: instead, Oba "Killer" Kane is presented as the despotic ruler of a future Earth.
The first person to actually play the part of Buck Rogers in any medium was John Larkin, who played Buck on the radio show that started in 1934.
This serial is probably based on an unofficial Flash Gordon story in which Flash Gordon travels to Saturn; this story was not and has never been part of the original Flash Gordon universe (it was illegally published in 1936).