Here is an anecdote from the Captain Video show, as told to me by an elderly relative: The Captain Video studio was in a building wherein the legendary Wanamaker department store was also housed. One episode of the series called for a doctor to examine a severely injured astronaut, and due the proximity of the department store and time constraints, at the last minute a hapless staff member was sent to the department store to obtain a prop stethoscope. Unfortunately, the store did not have an actual stethoscope, but the staff member was able to obtain a toy doctor kit as a substitute.
Captain Video was aired live, of course. When the actor portraying the doctor tried to use the toy stethoscope, he found that the instrument was sized for a child's head, and that it could't fit into both ears of an adult. The actor playing the severely injured spaceman looked up and saw his compatriot struggling with the prop, and exploded into laughter for several minutes.
This is the testimony that was given unto me, and though I cannot authenticate it, it seems credible.
It is well known and documented that this program was truly a mass phenomenon, just as it is well known that only a paltry few hours of kine-scope footage remain of it. I personally have seen some of that footage, and I can state for the record that if Captain Video were broadcast today, I would watch it regularly. It was great stuff, and the world needs Captain Video now more than ever.
A former Capt. Video scripter named Carey Wilbur wrote the first draft of the classic Star Trek episode 'Space Seed.' As we know now, that episode, besides being excellent in its own right, was the springboard for 'Star Trek 2, Wrath of Khan,' universally known as the best of all Star Trek films and one of the all time greatest scifi movies.
Carey Wilbur later said that his story for 'Space Seed' was a reworking of a script he wrote for the Captain Video show, but changing a villain with Greek mythological powers into a genetically superior human. So we can see that history traces a line from Capt. Video to the most popular space opera of the 20th century.
Here is what happened to the most of the kinescopes of the show, per Edie Adams (widow of the legendary Ernie Kovacs):
'In the earlier '70's, the DuMont network was being bought by another company, and the lawyers were in heavy negotiation as to who would be responsible for the library of the DuMont shows currently being stored at the facility, who would bear the expense of storing them in a temperature controlled facility, take care of the copyright renewal, et cetera.
'One of the lawyers doing the bargaining said that he could "take care of it" in a "fair manner," and he did take care of it. At 2 a.m. the next morning, he had three huge semis back up to the loading dock at ABC, filled them all with stored kinescopes and 2" videotapes, drove them to a waiting barge in New Jersey, took them out on the water, made a right at the Statue of Liberty and dumped them in the Upper New York Bay. Very neat. No problem.'
Perhaps someday, when mankind has conquered the solar system and our space ships exceed the speed of light, some intrepid astronaut will overtake the old Dumont Network broadcast signals, now many years outside Earth's solar system, and record the good Captain's adventures for posterity.
