(For full-screen viewing, click here:  “https://www.youtube.com/embed/yS3bGLzy6c8?rel=0“)

I thought I was going crazy. Did I really remember a Saturday morning TV serial that featured Gene Autry, an underground civilization, and couple of kids on horses?

That was the memory that came back to me recently. And I knew – despite my husband telling me that he’d never heard of the show – that I had to have seen it as a kid.

A bit of Internet research proved that I was not going crazy after all. Only the series, which I’d seen in the 1960s, had been made in the ’30s.

The idea for the show, I learned, came to a producer while he was under the influence of “laughing gas” in the dentist’s chair. Maybe I should go under, too. I could use a stroke of genius.

But really, this is great stuff. The Phantom Empire has it all: The first-ever “gold” record (That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, 1931), sung by Gene Autry; and futuristic technology similar to cell phones and Skype – direct from Murania, home of the lovely Queen Tika.

Ride along with Gene and his young heroes, Frankie Darro and World Champion Stunt Rider Betsy King Ross, as the Thunder Riders battle Murania and the evil Professor Beetson – who of course wants the empire’s valuable radium.

The clincher? In every episode, Gene has to get back to Radio Ranch by 2:00 or risk losing his contract – and the ranch!

Did this crazy mix of genres really happen? You betcha, buckaroos! You can find at least some of the series on YouTube, and a link to a company that sells it. Let me know how you like this fun “flash from the past” at www.facebook.com/familyfieldguide.