The Video Ranger and Captain Video in space suits at the controls of the X-9

Captain Video and His Video Rangers was an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast on the DuMont Television Network, and was the first series of its kind on American television. It aired between June 27, 1949 and April 1, 1955. Image File history File links Earlygalaxy. ... Image File history File links Earlygalaxy. ... A broadcast of the long-running and popular British science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... DuMont Televisions Logo The DuMont Television Network was an American television network, beginning operation in 1946. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Overview

Set in the future, the series followed the adventures of a group of fighters for truth and justice, the Video Rangers, led by Captain Video. The Rangers operated from a secret base on a mountain top. Their uniforms resembled US Army surplus with lightning bolts sewn on. Lightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity, usually, but not always, during a rain storm. ...

The Captain had a teenaged sidekick who was always called only The Video Ranger. A bit like Batman, Captain Video took his orders from the Commissioner of Public Safety, whose responsibilities seemingly took in the entire solar system as well as human colonies around other stars. As his name indicated, the Captain was the very first adventure hero explicitly designed (by DuMont's idea-man Larry Menkin) for early live television. "Tobor" the robot was an important character on the program, and represents the first appearance of a robot in live televised science fiction. Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... ASIMO, a humanoid robot manufactured by Honda. ...

The series was broadcast live five to six days a week and was extremely popular with both children and adults. Because of the large adult audience, the usual network broadcast time of the daily series was 7 to 7:30 p.m. EST, leading off the "prime evening" time-block. The production was always hampered by a very low budget, and the Captain did not originally have a space ship of his own.

Until 1953, Captain Video's live adventures occupied about 15 minutes of each day's 30 minute running time. To fill in the rest, a Video Ranger communications officer, acting as a typical small-town children's show master of ceremonies, showed about 15 minutes of old theatrical films; specifically, old cowboy movies. These were described by the communications officer, Ranger Rogers, as the adventures of Captain Video's "undercover agents" on Earth. During the 1953 - 1954 broadcast season there was in addition a spinoff series, Secret Files of Captain Video (5 September 1953 to 29 May 1954), alternating every other Saturday with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Each of these 30-minute Saturday broadcasts told a story complete in itself. Childrens television shows are television programs designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... i like western films The Western is an American genre in literature and film. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett — Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books, and View-master reels in the 1950s. ...

There were very few special effects seen on the series until the team of Russell and Haberstroh was hired in September of 1952. For the rest of the program's episodes they provided surprisingly effective model and effects work, prefilmed in 16 mm format and cut into the live broadcast as needed.

Captain Video's early opponent was Dr. Pauli, an inventor who wore gangster-style pinstripe suits but who spoke with the snarl of a cinema Nazi or Soviet. Like the last few theatrical serials, the TV series' plots often involved wildly implausible inventions created by scientific genius Captain Video or evil genius Dr. Pauli, but obviously made from hardware store odds and ends, with much circumstantial double talk regarding their use. As the series was originally broadcast from a studio located in the building occupied by the Wanamaker's department store, when props were needed, the crew would simply go downstairs for them, often just minutes before the show went on the air. In the early days of the program, only three Rangers were seen, The Video Ranger, Ranger Rogers the communications officer, and Ranger Gallagher. (These are also the only Rangers who appear in the film serial version of the series.) As the budget slowly increased, a fairly large roster of Rangers was referred to and briefly seen on TV. National Socialism redirects here. ... There are two main meanings to the word soviet: Soviet (council) means a council of workers. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... Double Talk was an American game show seen on the ABC network in 1986. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... The interior of a typical Macys department store. ...

In the early days of the series, scripts tended to be somewhat incoherent, and were often derided by critics of the day, but many of the scripts after 1952 were written by major science fiction writers active at the time, including Damon Knight, James Blish, Jack Vance and Arthur C. Clarke; these displayed rather more intelligence, discipline and imagination than most of the other children's sci-fi series scripts. Other well-known authors who wrote for the program from time to time include Isaac Asimov, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Milt Lesser, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Robert Sheckley, J. T. McIntosh and Dr. Robert S. Richardson. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Damon Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was a science fiction author, editor, and critic. ... James Benjamin Blish (East Orange, New Jersey, May 23, 1921 - Henley-on-Thames, July 29, 1975) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. ... Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (b. ... Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, most famous for his science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... Isaac Asimov, Ph. ... Cyril M. Kornbluth (July 23, 1923–March 21, 1958 — pen-names: Cecil Corwin, S.D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park) was a science fiction author and a notable member of the Futurians. ... Walter Michael Miller, Jr. ... Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 – December 9, 2005) was an American Jewish author. ... J. T. McIntosh is a pseudonym used by Scottish writer and journalist James Murdoch MacGregor (1925—). MacGregor used the pseudonym for all his science fiction work, which was the majority of his output, though he did publish some books under his own name. ...

Captain Video's Galaxy II, 1953 - 1955

Captain Video eventually had three different space ships. In the first version, the X-9 (later replaced briefly by the X-10) the crew at takeoff lay upon tilted bunk beds and on their elbows, a posture based perhaps upon some space-travel theories of the time. Later, the V-2 rocket-like Galaxy had an aircraft-style cockpit with reclining seats. The Captain's final craft, after early 1953, was the beautiful Galaxy II. Image File history File linksMetadata Gal2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Gal2. ... A Bunkbed A bunk bed is a type of bed in which one bed is stacked on top of another. ... The A4 (Aggregat 4) alias V-2 rocket or Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Reprisal weapon 2) was an early ballistic missile used by the German Army against mostly Belgian and British targets during the later stages of World War II. The V2 rocket became the first man-made object launched into space...

The other two space-adventure series of the period were Tom Corbett, which was also broadcast live from New York City, and Space Patrol, broadcast live from California. There were some suspicious occasions of plot-similarities between these three programs — indeed, there were times when Space Patrol seemed to be putting on a West-Coast recreation of Captain Video's latest adventure. Tom Corbett Tom Corbett is the current attorney general of the state of Pennsylvania, United States, elected in 2004. ... A number of science fiction works have had the title Space Patrol. ...

Al Hodge, who had created the role of Britt Reid, The Green Hornet on the radio, was the best remembered actor to play Captain Video (1950-55); the Video Ranger was played during the entire (1949-55) run of the series by young Don Hastings, who went on to be a Soap opera star. The first Captain Video was Richard Coogan, who played the exhausting role for 17 months. (For Big Al Hodge, the Cornish rock musician, see Al Hodge. ... The Green Hornet (above) and Kato (below). ... The Green Hornet (above) and Kato (below). ... Don Hastings as Dr. Bob Hughes Donald Francis Hastings (born April 1, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor. ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... Richard Coogan is an American actor born in Short Hills, NJ on April 4, 1914. ...

Many premiums were offered by sponsors of the show, including space helmets, secret code guns, flying saucer rings, decoder badges, photo-printing rings, and Viking rockets complete with launchers.

The show's theme song was Richard Wagner's Overture to The Flying Dutchman (Der Fliegende Hollaender). The theme music of a radio or television program is a melody closely associated with the show, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ... The Flying Dutchman by Albert Pinkham Ryder For other uses, see The Flying Dutchman (disambiguation). ...

Columbia also made a theatrical serial starring Judd Holdren, under the name Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951) and it displayed only marginally better sets and props than its TV inspiration. Though most are lost, some kinescopes of the television show itself survive; a few of these are commercially available. The series is also mentioned in the first episode of the 39 independent episodes of The Honeymooners. Six issues of a Captain Video comic book were published by Fawcett Comics in 1951. The rival space adventure programs Tom Corbett and Space Patrol shortly thereafter had their own comic books as well. Some of these comics were used as the basis for a British TV Annual, a hardcover collection produced in time for Christmas, which made the then-ludicrous claim that man would go into outer space for real in 1970 and would reach the moon by 2000. Tom Corbett also had a syndicated daily newspaper strip, and a set of juvenile series books published by Grossett and Dunlap. Furthermore, Tom Corbett and Space Patrol were also heard on ABC network radio. DuMont, with no radio network, never provided a radio version of Captain Video's adventures. Judd Holdren was an American film actor best known for his starring roles in the serials Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere, Zombies of the Stratosphere, The Lost Planet and the semi-serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe during 1951 - 1953. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The term kinescope originally referred to a type of early Video camera tube. ... For the film, see The Honeymooners (2005 film). ... Whiz Comics #2, the first appearance of Captain Marvel, the companys most popular character. ... Tom Corbett Tom Corbett is the current attorney general of the state of Pennsylvania, United States, elected in 2004. ... Space Patrol was an old-time radio science fiction serial aimed at juvenile audiences. ... DuMont Televisions Logo The DuMont Television Network was an American television network, beginning operation in 1946. ...

Captain Video comes quite close to being a lost series. Only five 30-minute episodes, three featuring Richard Coogan and two featuring Al Hodge, are available to the public in various video compilations. DuMont destroyed almost all of its kinescope (16 mm) and Electronicam (35 mm) library in the late 1950s, thus nearly dooming all its pioneering TV series to oblivion. There are also a very few carbons of Captain Video scripts in various collections. As a result, it is not even clear in what time period the series is supposed to take place. The Fawcett comic adventures evidently are supposed to take place at the time of publication, 1951. The surviving kinescopes could take place in 1950, as when Dr. Pauli plots to rob a bank in Hong Kong, or in the very distant future, as when Captain Video seeks to establish a reliable mail service for far-flung interstellar colonies, or fights to prevent the many space stations circling Pluto from being destroyed by an approaching comet. Richard Coogan is an American actor born in Short Hills, NJ on April 4, 1914. ... (For Big Al Hodge, the Cornish rock musician, see Al Hodge. ... The term kinescope originally referred to a type of early Video camera tube. ... Fawcett may refer to: [edit] People Fawcett, Bill, mystery writer Fawcett, Brian (born 1944), Canadian poet and novelist Fawcett, Charles, British historian Fawcett, David (born 1963), Australian politician Fawcett, Eric (1927-2000), British-Canadian physicist Fawcett, Farrah (born 1947), U.S. actress Fawcett, Henry (1833-1884), British economist and politician... The term kinescope originally referred to a type of early television picture tube. ...

See also

• Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
• Space Patrol
• Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers
• Atom Squad
• Rocky Jones Space Ranger
• Space Cadet, a 1948 novel by Robert A. Heinlein
• List of film serials
• TV or Not TV

Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett — Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books, and View-master reels in the 1950s. ... Clarence Doores cover painting for Space Patrol, a Ziff-Davis comic book tie-in with the radio series Space Patrol was an old-time radio science fiction serial aimed at juvenile audiences. ... Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers was a 30-minute, weekly CBS-TV network outer space adventure series, broadcast live Saturdays from April 18, 1953 to May 29, 1954. ... Atom Squad was a live science-fictional 15-minute TV series broadcast by the NBC network, July 6, 1953 to January 22, 1954, Monday-Friday, 5:00 to 5:15 PM EST. The Atom Squad was a secret government agency which dealt with Cold War threats to US security involving... Secretary Drake briefs Rocky on his next mission in Escape into Space Rocky Jones, Space Ranger was a syndicated science fiction television serial originally broadcast in the early 1950s. ... Space Cadet is a 1948 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about Matt Dodson, who joins the Space Patrol that keeps the peace in the solar system. ... This article is becoming very long. ... // COLUMBIA PICTURES Perils of the Wilderness- western Directed by Spencer Gordon BennetStarring Dennis Moore Blazing the Overland Trail-western Directed by Spencer Gordon BennetStarring Dennis Moore REPUBLIC PICTURES Panther Girl of the Kongo-jungle Directed by Franklin AdreonStarring Phyllis Coates King of the Carnival Directed by Franklin Adreon COLUMBIA PICTURES... TV or Not TV is the 1st episode of the TV series The Honeymooners. ...

External references and links

• Captain Video Fans
• Weinstein, David. The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television. Temple University Press, 2004
• Bergmann, Ted, and Ira Skutch. The DuMont Television Network: What Happened? Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8108-4270-X.
• Kisseloff, Jeff. The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920 - 1961. New York: Viking, 1995. ISBN 0-670-86470-6.
• Hess, Gary Newton. An Historical Study of the DuMont Television Network. New York: Ayer Publishers, 1979. ISBN 0-405-11758-2.
• Glut, Don and Jim Harmon. The Great Television Heroes. New York: Doubleday, 1975. ISBN 0-385-05167-0. Chapters 1 and 5.
• Space Hero Files: Captain Video
• Roaring Rockets: Captain Video
• ATOMX13 Captain Video Pages
• Who Killed Captain Video? How the FCC strangled a TV pioneer. Glenn Garvin, Reason, March 2005.
• imdb Entry on Captain Video
• "Captain Video, Television's First Fantastic Voyage," by David Weinstein, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Fall 2002
• Very incomplete log of daily broadcasts
• Media Reviews of Captain Video
• Captain Video Memories!
• The Fawcett Captain Video comics
• Database and complete cover gallery of the Fawcett Captain Video comics
• Everything2 entry on Captain Video