The Lone Ranger

Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.....

There can be no denying that The Lone Ranger is the quintessential TV Western of the 1950s. It is the one show that has proved, time and again, to be a real favorite of both children and adults alike.

Starring Clayton Moore, as the masked rider, and Jay Silverheels, as Tonto, his ever-loyal sidekick, The Lone Ranger was an action-packed, half-hour program whose episodes always had an interesting and thoughtful story to tell about life in the days of the Old West.

Actor Clayton Moore was the absolute embodiment of this mysterious, masked crime-fighter who would often go to great lengths to see that justice was done and that the criminals paid a dear price for their dishonest deeds.

Clayton Moore was once quoted as saying that he had "fallen in love with being the Lone Ranger character".

The Lone Ranger's story concerns a nameless Texas Ranger who is the sole survivor of a vicious ambush. After he is nursed back to health by his new-found comrade, Tonto, he embarks on a mission to bring justice and peace to the lawlessness of the Old West.

Using the benefits from a secret silver mine, the Lone Ranger rides the West on his magnificent horse, Silver, and dispenses justice in the form of his trademark - The silver bullet.

Following the cancellation of The Lone Ranger in 1957, Clayton Moore then embarked on a 40-year career making personal appearances, TV guest spots, and classic TV commercials dressed up as the legendary masked man.

In 1999 Moore died of a heart attack. He was 85 years old.

The 221 episodes of "The Lone Ranger" were originally broadcast on ABC from 1949 to 1957; and then for many years they played in local syndication. For most of the original broadcast years the series was ABC's most watched piece of programming.

The new DVD set from Pop Flix contains the first 16 episodes (15 Sept-29 Dec 1949) and for some reason unknown to me episode 22 from the fifth season, for a total of 17 episodes (the same 17 available on last year's Mill Creek Entertainment release so these are probably in the public domain). These sets pretty much render "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" movie superfluous as all three episodes that were combined in 1952 to form the movie are included in these releases.

The early episodes hark back to radio as there is considerably more voice-over narration used as an introduction and to introduce key plot moments.

The series itself was pure kiddie western with clear-cut good and evil distinctions and no romance. The title character (played by Clayton Moore) started out Texas Ranger John Reid. The first three episodes provide the background for his transformation to Lone Ranger status, his partnering with the Indian Tonto (Jay Silverheels), and the taming of his horse "Silver".

There is an unambiguous code of positive morality infusing each episode. The Lone Ranger is totally good but he adopts the guise of evil. While a masked man in the west was normally feared by the good citizens and an Indian was distrusted, the Lone Ranger is feared by those who would do evil. One persistent theme is that when the Lone Ranger and Tonto first encounter an average citizen they are greeted with suspicion, and by the end of the episode the citizen has been convinced of their value. The trademark ending was a secondary character asking the question: "who was that masked man?".

To really enjoy the series you must accept it for the simplistic morality tale it was intended to be. If you don't take it seriously and keep wishing for some self-reflexive campy parody elements you will only get frustrated.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

This is a classic television western series. There will be mild spoilers of the basic background for the series ahead:

I suspect that most people reading this will have at least some knowledge of this series, but I'll give a brief synopsis of it anyway. A group of six Texas Rangers go riding after an outlaw gang (the Cavendish Gang). The Rangers are being led into a trap by a scout who is working for the gang and five of them are killed in an ambush. The sixth, a man named Reid, survives, in no small part due to the help of an Indian named Tonto who, in a twist of an improbable nature, met him once before, when Tonto was a boy. Reid helped him then and he returns the favor, calling Reid "Kemo Sabe".

Reid recovers and decides to take up a secret identity to track down and bring to justice bad guys. He dons a black mask and a white hat, calling himself "The Lone Ranger". He saves and then tames a wild white stallion he calls Silver. Having a secret silver mine, he covers his expenses and manufactures silver bullets from the ore taken from the mine. Thus is a hero born.

Clayton Moore played the title character most of the series, though John Hart assumed the role for 52 episodes after the first 78 were produced. When Hart wasn't accepted as the character by audiences, Moore returned. Jay Silverheels played Tonto for the entire run, appearing in virtually every episode. Lots of recognizable faces appeared in the series, most of them before they became famous, like DeForrest Kelly, pre-Star Trek and Victor Sen Yung, pre-Bonanza.

This series is available on DVD, most notably the Classic Media The Lone Ranger: Collector's Edition, a 30 disc release containing all 221 episodes. The set is excellent and well worth having if you're a fan. Recommended.

There was a time, from my childhood up until the mid-1980's, when shows such as the Lone Ranger and The Little Rascals filled week-day afternoon and Saturday morning TV slots. Old movies could be readily found on TV late at night and on Sunday afternoons. Ever since TV stations began filling every extra additional minute with infomercials and their own first-run productions and reality shows, as well as the beginning of the continuous news cycle, these old classics have not seen the light of day. This shows early years are on DVD, and if you ever get the chance to view the show, do understand that the TV show, at least at first, borrowed heavily from its radio roots.

Also note that some of the first episodes are very short - in some cases only 11 or 12 minutes long. That is because sometimes the sponsor would put two short serials in the same half hour slot. The time really belonged to the sponsor back in those days, and thus early TV schedules looked a lot like radio at first.

One of my favorite episodes was "The Silent Voice" towards the end of season two. The witness to a crime is a stroke victim who is completely paralyzed. The Lone Ranger comes up with a way for the woman to communicate by blinking in response to letters of the alphabet.

The other episode from this early part of the series that sticks out is one in which the wife in a husband/wife crime team betrays the husband and shoots him. He is presumed dead and taken to the undertaker's. The Lone Ranger discovers that the husband is not dead, and the husband makes a confession as to what is going on before he dies as he lies on a slab about to buried - alive. The Lone Ranger tricks the wife by claiming that her husband is still alive. That's what I liked about the Lone Ranger - it really could be very dark. There would always be the happy ending with the criminals rounded up and jailed, but that didn't mean that some good people didn't fall along the way or that something really creepy or cringe-worthy wasn't part of the plot.

Highly recommended if you ever get the chance.

Iam not sure if discussing the television series is exactly where the comments should be drawn to,however it is on the television where the The Lone Ranger really made a name for himself. Iam not even referring to the original radio broadcasts of this masked rider of the plains,Iam though referring to a point where in a little boy, about 9 or 10 years old,I was to see the movie,"The Lone Ranger"and never forgot it. I can recall that I was on a line or we were moving toward the Paramount Theater-the theater was located in the theater district,if I remember correctly. It was directly across,going East to West from the building that has the ball that drops on New Years Eve-This is of course if anybody doesn't know, New York City. High Above the street on the roof tops there was a time and maybe even still today huge billboards would advertise what was being shown and so on. It was at that point in time that I looked up and was never more impressed as I was when I looked at that billboard to see The Lone Ranger across the roof tops-It was great-It made an impression and was never forgotten. That day we went to see The Lone Ranger-It was the story of how the Lone Ranger was born-The terrible ambush that the Texas Rangers rode into and the subsequent rebirth of one of its fallen heroes. It was in this film we learn that The Lone Ranger will not shoot to kill but to injure so as to let the law be the judge. That type of thinking is so worthwhile that we might be good to learn something from history. This is where we learn that Tonto discovers the fallen Ranger and upon seeing the symbol of the boyhood friendship that The Lone Ranger established years earlier when he as a younger person came to the aide of a injured young person in Tonto-For the aide given, Tonto gave to his faithful friend, a symbol of his thanks which now was part of a necklace that Tonto recognized. Tonto said,"you are Kemosabe". The Lone Ranger said,"kemo-sabe,that is familiar? Then Tonto tells the story of this "trusty scout"(the meaning of Kemosabe)I think the Lone Ranger is one of the true heroes of the silver screen and one of the great heroes of television. It should also be stated that these very respected individuals Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels sought to live there lives according to the legend of The Lone Ranger-It may very well be that there is an inspiring story in the story of the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion Tonto. I myself was so pleased by the ability to find and buy the DVDs, that I stayed up all a Saturday morning and watched The many episodes now available. Long Live The Lone Ranger and His faithful companion Tonto-Hi-Ho Silver-