Captain Video and his Video Rangers- Sci-fi Serial 1950

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Captain Video and His Video Rangers is an American science fiction television series, which was aired on the DuMont Television Network, and was the first series of its kind on American television.

The series aired between June 27, 1949 and April 1, 1955, originally Monday through Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, and then Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET. A separate 30-minute spinoff series, The Secret Files of Captain Video, aired Saturday mornings, alternating with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, from September 5, 1953 to May 29, 1954 for a total of 20 episodes.

Overview
Set in the distant 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 United States Army surplus with lightning bolts sewn on.

The Captain had a teen-age companion who was known only as the Video Ranger. Captain Video received his orders from the Commissioner of Public Safety, whose responsibilities took in the entire solar system as well as human colonies on planets around other stars. Captain Video was the first adventure hero explicitly designed (by DuMont's idea-man Larry Menkin) for early live television. "I TOBOR" the robot was an important, semi-regular character on the program, and represents the first appearance of a robot in live televised science fiction; the character's name was actually supposed to be "ROBOT I", but the stencil with its name was applied to its costume backwards.

The show was broadcast live five to six days a week and was 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. For the last two seasons the show still aired at 7 p.m. ET, but was 15 minutes long. The production was 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 20 minutes of each day's 30-minute program time. About 10 minutes into each episode, a Video Ranger communications officer showed about 7 minutes of old cowboy movies. These were described by the communications officer, Ranger Rogers, as the adventures of Captain Video's "undercover agents" on Earth.

A spinoff series, The Secret Files of Captain Video, ran from September 5, 1953 to May 29, 1954 on alternate Saturdays with Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Each of these 20 30-minute broadcasts told a complete story.

Captain Video's early opponent was Dr. Pauli, played by Hal Conklin, an inventor who wore gangster-style pinstripe suits, but spoke with the snarl of a movie Nazi or Soviet. Like the last few theatrical serials, the television series' plots often involved inventions created by Captain Video or the evil genius, Dr. Pauli, but obviously made from hardware store odds and ends, with much double-talk regarding their fantastic properties. The series was originally broadcast from a studio in the building occupied by Wanamaker's department store, and the production crew would simply go downstairs for props, often just a few minutes before air-time. Originally, only three Rangers were seen on camera: The Video Ranger; Ranger Rogers, the communications officer; and Ranger Gallagher. (These were also the only Rangers seen in the 1951 film serial version of the series.) As the budget increased, a larger roster of Rangers was briefly seen on TV.

Genre: Science fiction
Created by: Lawrence Menkin, James Caddigan,
Written by: Damon Knight, James Blish, Jack Vance, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Milt Lesser, Walter M. Miller, Robert Sheckley, J. T. McIntosh, Robert S. Richardson, Maurice C. Brachhausen (M. C. Brock)
Starring: Richard Coogan (1949-1950), Al Hodge (1950-1955), Don Hastings
Country of origin: United States
Original language(s):English

Production
Camera setup: Multi-camera
Running time: 24 mins. (1949-53), 15 mins. (1953-55), 18 mins. (2005-present)

Release
Original network: DuMont
Picture format: Black-and-white
Audio format: Monaural
Original release: June 27, 1949 – April 1, 1955

Chronology
Related shows: The Secret Files of Captain Video

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