Captain Video!

(Art by Will Eisner)

Captain Video and his Video Rangers is a TV show which (for the most part) is lost to the ages. Only a tiny fraction of the actual shows themselves actually survive, a glimpse of what was produced. In a century in which a great deal of human activity found itself recorded, the notion of lost footage seems quaint. But the impact of Captain Video goes well beyond those episodes. While they might not have survived on film, they have thrived in the imaginations of the children and others who saw them, igniting a sense of wonder about our planet and the universe in which it nests.

The first half of the 20th Century was how humanity found a way to work together to accomplish great deeds. The greatest and most dramatic was to send representatives into outer space, off the globe and into brand new environments. To put people in new and terrible circumstances for the sheer glory and adventure of it. Sure space will ultimately be exploited and its resources turned into capitol, but that's not what triggered the desire to get there. It was different, unknown, and we wanted a taste.

Combine that desire with a society which likes its citizens to fit in comfortably beside one another, and you had the makings of a unifying purpose which drove education and morality to seek to make the population buy into the goal. Captain Video is a strange blend of influences which showcase the contradictions in American society, the simultaneous celebration of the individual alongside the call for a shared cultural mission. A sense of adventure teamed up with a craving for financial reward, a calling linked with a career. These inherently divergent notions were bonded in the space race, a drive ever upward which unified a nation and made the folks at once proud of their nation yet suspicious of their neighbors.

And then it stopped. The goal was achieved to a very modest extent when man finally set foot onto the Moon. After that exalting moment the drive disappeared and was replaced by a cry for moderation and the mood shifted from the Moon to our own monotony. Hard economic times and the always ready individual greed got the better of us and the sense of shared mission vanished as malaise spread. We are still there, more fascinated by ourselves than the universe which expands in all directions beyond us.

Perhaps the weirdest legacy Captain Video has given pop culture was unleashed just last year in the Avengers - Age of Ultron movie.

Roy Thomas makes no bones about how Makino from the pages of the comic inspired the creation of Ultron and after reading the complete story there's little doubt. So, one of the more memorable pop culture villains of recent times derives from the pages of Captain Video and we hardly know it. But that's the case with so much of the influence of this not forgotten but little understood old TV show.

(Another juicy Will Eisner bit of artwork)

It showed us the way forward, into space at least in our imaginations. That's not unimportant, we could use some inspirational entertainment like that today. We really could.

For more on the legacy of Captain Video check this out. 

Rip Off

Captain Video - Master Of The Stratosphere!

Captain Video - Master of the Stratosphere is a late entry in Columbia Pictures' movie serial catalogue and not the greatest. But it does have some virtues. The serial is an adaptation of the then successful TV show from the now defunct DuMont TV Network. The show had been thrilling kids on weekday afternoons, so it was logical to assume it might do likewise on Saturday at the local cinema. So the movies embraced in this weird way the very medium which was killing them off.

The story is a very straightforward serial offering up Captain Video and his worldwide network of Video Rangers as the counter to world domination by an alien dictator from the roaming planet Atoma. Vultura (Gene Roth) is the dictator's name and he's less impressive than he ought to be. He is assisted by a turncoat Earth scientist named Tobor (George Eldredge) who is arguably more effective as a villain. One weird feature of this serial is that when Captain Video visits another planet that world gets a specific color tone to indicate it. Atoma gets a red tint and another planet much put upon by Vultura, the planet Theros gets a green tint. The Earth alas gets the default tone of gray. Columbia pictures too used animation to pull off a number of its special effects tricks and after any rocket ship launches it becomes a cartoon and spins through animated space.

This serial has a decent momentum, but does become a bit lackluster if only because the scrapes the Captain and his sidekick only known as Ranger (Larry Stewart) get out of, they rarely accomplish on their own, but instead in true Columbia serial fashion rely on other agents or slick editing to accomplish. Captain Video's talent should be smarts, and there are some, but not always.

One cool thing that does show up in most chapters is the Jetcar, a sleek specially designed roadster that supposedly gets the Captain and his partner around in high-speed fashion. The fact they almost never get this car on any actual asphalt but instead only on mountain roads limits its effectiveness. That's one of the weaknesses of this serial, the sameness of the set. Too much of the story unfolds across the expanse of the country backlot or the spires of the Vasquez Rocks, good enough for a western but oddly limiting for a sci-fi adventure. There needed to be some sense of an urban contrast to break up the visual monotony.

Also exceedingly strange is the Captain's pistol which is called a "Vibrator" and which despite that unfortunate name afflicts its victims with an unsightly spasmodic response. The Captain and Ranger stick the gun into the guts of their opponent and literally shake them to the ground unconscious. It's oddly violent in a novel way and disturbing when contrasted to tried and true movie fisticuffs. The show does feature some robots, but alas they dusted off the vintage robots from The Phantom Empire, a groundbreaking serial starring Gene Autry from the 30's. These hapless automatons work hard in a few chapters but reek of a simpler time not in keeping with the seemingly high-tech vibe Captain Video attempts to lay down.

Anther odd thing about this movie is the complete lack of women. There's not a dame on three planets who even shows up for a cameo in this movie. Not on Atoma, not on Theros, and nowhere on Earth does any girl or woman break up the masculine dream of sci-fi adventure.

There was never a sequel to Captain Video, at least not officially. But the Columbia serial The Lost Planet was apparently supposed to be. It features Judd Holdren as the hero and this time a girl does show up. There's much of the same planet hopping we're accustomed to, and the villainy is divided up again between an Earth scientist and a alien dictator (Gene Roth again). Similar but not the same.

All in all as a serial Captain Video was entertaining enough. Not great, but certainly diverting with more than a few above average riffs.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

Captain Video - Directly From Television!

The Captain Video comics from Fawcett, the home of the Marvel Family, are tight and detailed sci-fi adventures. In most of the stories, the good Captain and the Ranger are called on to fend off the predations of some scientist who has developed a deadly threat to the world. In one story all mankind loses the ability to walk and a miracle cure appears until Captain Video can get to the bottom of the plot. In another a distant unknown land is invaded to reap high-tech weapons to bring the world to its knees, and again Video saves the day. They travel to other planets, and save the Earth from deadly missiles. My favorite story is about a robot that kills its master and then goes on to match wits with the greatest brains on Earth before killing them. The United Nations itself comes under threat until Video figures out how to render the creature harmless.

The stories are well drawn by George Evans, an underrated veteran of the form who draws the real world with flair and renders action especially high-fling action with grace. In addition to Fawcett Evans drew for Fiction House, EC, DC, Marvel, Warren, Gold Key and so many more. He drew some of the best Classic Illustrated yarns and had stints on comics strips especially Secret Agent Corrigan.  The stories in Captain Video are text heavy (the writer is unknown) but filled with details especially about the boundless gizmos that Video and his men use to thwart the threats they encounter. The series only lasted six issues, but they are hearty morsels for anyone wanting to read a comic which demands attention and time.

Weirdly, in keeping with the TV show, a portion of each comic is taken up by a western adventure, specifically a Rod Cameron story. These are durable no-nonsense oat-burning vignettes with a stylish hand on the art. Cameron held down his own series for Fawcett as well as appearing in the Captain Video comics.

There are handy links below each photo cover, so you can do just that. Enjoy!

To read Captain Video #1 go here.

To read Captain Video #2 go here.

To read Captain Video #3 go here.

To read Captain Video #4 go here.

To read  Captain Video #5 go here.

To read Captain Video #6 go here.

I read the stories in PS Artbooks reprint which I found at my new favorite story Half-Price Books. Roy Thomas serves up a tasty introduction which puts these stories into their historical context and also shows how they influenced him. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

Captain Video And His Video Rangers!

It's somewhat difficult to imagine the massive influence this show had on its audience, a crew new to television and hungry for adventure of a scientific kind. The long defunct Dumont Television Network was the home to Captain Video and his Video Rangers, a live weekday show targeted to kids. There are only a handful of episodes extanct these days and frankly watching them now it's clear that seeing a huge number would grow tiresome. They were like candy, wonderful in the moment, sweet and satisfying, but taken in too large an amount dreadful and likely cause trouble.

Al Hodge takes aim with Don Hastings at his side.

The show's premise was pretty simple really, or perhaps not. Captain Video heads a worldwide organization of Rangers who help police the world with the aid of all sorts of high-tech gadgetry which allow the team to launch into space and fend off villains from this world and beyond. Every day a live presentation would move the story forward incrementally, not unlike a daily comic strip, the momentum only visible after a longer period. The pacing of the show was aided by the addition of relatively random vintage westerns and other adventures which pretended to be other Rangers in remote parts of the world. Shot live, the few episodes that survive show the usual  hit and miss of live TV production and required actors who were nimble.

Richard Coogan in command.

The first Captain Video was Richard Coogan who played the role a few years before being replaced by Al Hodge. Both had a sidekick named merely "Ranger". This duo talked to one another and others and once in a while did something but mostly the static nature of the show shines through. This is the illusion of adventure and motion, hidden behind two-dimensional sets and overwrought dialogue. It's yeoman work to make it work, but somehow they did for six years with all manner of success including spin-offs of all kinds.

To get a look at some of the fragments left from those long ago shows look below.



For another way to watch these episodes follow this link.

Captain Video was a phenomenon, not alone but with the virtue of being the first such adventure character developed just for the new invader of the home, the TV.

For all the touting of bogus and fictional technology which makes the show tick, it's the intimate nature of this very real technology of television which most explains the success of Captain Video and the Video Rangers.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

More Tales Of Time And Space!

I've really had a yen for science fiction lately. Decades ago, I split my time between reading the latest comics and trying to stay current in the science fiction and fantasy fields which were in full bloom at the time. In the 1980's it seemed to me that science fiction took a bit of a hit, especially in the digest magazine arena where I hung out most of the time, so with a family to tend to, I focused on comics. I sometimes wish I'd gone the other direction, but c'est la vie. Anyway, it's sci-fi this month...again! 

The primary mission will be to create and revisit a cavalcade of posts regarding Star Trek. I'm a fan of the franchise, but I mostly love the "The Original Series" or TOS as it's known. As good as the movies have been and the later series too, the magic of the original still speaks to me like nothing else. So I'm taking a wander back through those first three seasons, back when no one knew or much cared about Star Trek save a few devoted souls. I'll also be taking a look at the animated show and the movies which featured the original cast. 

To assist in this effort, I've also picked up some hefty tomes titled These Are The Voyages which give massive behind-the-scenes details about the making of the shows. So, expect a lot of Star Trek stuff on the weekends and later in the weeks. 

Then I want to travel into the distant future and tackle a pretty robust reading assignment and take another look at all the Legion of Superheroes stories contained in the five Showcase Presents volumes which DC published some years ago now. Those delightful Silver Age and Bronze Age stories speak to a population still filled with wonder. It's a series of comic yarns brimming with heroes, both male and female just aching to get the chance to prove themselves and perhaps even save the universe itself. 

As has become custom here at the Dojo, I will be pulling up and revising some vintage posts from years past which fit into the overall monthly theme. I do this because it's pointless to write a review of a movie again and it encourages me to watch some of these vintage beauties all over again. Maybe I'll change my mind about some things. 

The Dojo will also be racing backwards in time to the earliest days of science fiction, before it was even called that. Ralph 124C+ is an oddball but highly successful novel from 1911 by Hugo Gernsback, the man who lent his name to the major awards which are distributed to successful works of sci-fi in any given year. Gernsback was the man who coined the term "science fiction" though apparently he preferred a later term he dreamed up "scientifiction". The latter seems a bit of a mouthful to me. I'm checking out this early novel and will also be looking a wonderful movie from the early 30's called Just Imagine. This is a strange one indeed, just imagine the Jetsons as real-life folks. 

That and whatever else will fit. So I hope you beam up this month as the Dojo goes where many men have gone before, but maybe I'll find something fresh to say about it all. 

Rip Off

Captain Video - The Legacy!

Art by Will Eisner

Captain Video and his Video Rangers is a TV show which (for the most part) is lost to the ages. Only a tiny fraction of the actual shows themselves actually survive, a glimpse of what was produced. In a century in which a great deal of human activity found itself recorded, the notion of lost footage seems quaint. But the impact of Captain Video goes well beyond those episodes. While they might not have survived on film, they have thrived in the imaginations of the children and others who saw them, igniting a sense of wonder about our planet and the universe in which it nests.

The first half of the 20th Century was how humanity found a way to work together to accomplish great deeds. The greatest and most dramatic was to send representatives into outer space, off the globe and into brand new environments. To put people in new and terrible circumstances for the sheer glory and adventure of it. Sure space will ultimately be exploited and its resources turned into capitol, but that's not what triggered the desire to get there. It was different, unknown, and we wanted a taste.

Combine that desire with a society which likes its citizens to fit in comfortably beside one another, and you had the makings of a unifying purpose which drove education and morality to seek to make the population buy into the goal. Captain Video is a strange blend of influences which showcase the contradictions in American society, the simultaneous celebration of the individual alongside the call for a shared cultural mission. A sense of adventure teamed up with a craving for financial reward, a calling linked with a career. These inherently divergent notions were bonded in the space race, a drive ever upward which unified a nation and made the folks at once proud of their nation yet suspicious of their neighbors.

And then it stopped. The goal was achieved to a very modest extent when man finally set foot onto the Moon. After that exalting moment the drive disappeared and was replaced by a cry for moderation and the mood shifted from the Moon to our own monotony. Hard economic times and the always ready individual greed got the better of us and the sense of shared mission vanished as malaise spread. We are still there, more fascinated by ourselves than the universe which expands in all directions beyond us.

Perhaps the weirdest legacy Captain Video has given pop culture was unleashed just last year in the Avengers - Age of Ultron movie.

Roy Thomas makes no bones about how Makino from the pages of the comic inspired the creation of Ultron and after reading the complete story there's little doubt.

So one of the more memorable pop culture villains of recent times derives from the pages of Captain Video and we hardly know it. But that's the case with so much of the influence of this not forgotten but little understood old TV show.

Another juicy Will Eisner bit of artwork.

It showed us the way forward, into space at least in our imaginations. That's not unimportant, we could use some inspirational entertainment like that today. We really could.

For more on the legacy of Captain Video check this out. 

Rip Off

Captain Video - The Comic Book!

The Captain Video comics from Fawcett, the home of the Marvel Family, are tight and detailed sci-fi adventures. In most of the stories, the good Captain and the Ranger are called on to fend off the predations of some scientist who has developed a deadly threat to the world. In one story all mankind loses the ability to walk and a miracle cure appears until Captain Video can get to the bottom of the plot. In another a distant unknown land is invaded to reap high-tech weapons to bring the world to its knees, and again Video saves the day. They travel to other planets, and save the Earth from deadly missiles. My favorite story is about a robot that kills its master and then goes on to match wits with the greatest brains on Earth before killing them. The United Nations itself comes under threat until Video figures out how to render the creature harmless.

The stories are well drawn by George Evans, an underrated veteran of the form who draws the real world with flair and renders action especially high-fling action with grace. In addition to Fawcett Evans drew for Fiction House, EC, DC, Marvel, Warren, Gold Key and so many more. He drew some of the best Classic Illustrated yarns and had stints on comics strips especially Secret Agent Corrigan.  The stories in Captain Video are text heavy (the writer is unknown) but filled with details especially about the boundless gizmos that Video and his men use to thwart the threats they encounter. The series only lasted six issues, but they are hearty morsels for anyone wanting to read a comic which demands attention and time.

Weirdly, in keeping with the TV show, a portion of each comic is taken up by a western adventure, specifically a Rod Cameron story. These are durable no-nonsense oat-burning vignettes with a stylish hand on the art. Cameron held down his own series for Fawcett as well as appearing in the Captain Video comics.

There are handy links below each photo cover, so you can do just that. Enjoy!

To read Captain Video #1 go here.

To read Captain Video #2 go here.

To read Captain Video #3 go here.

To read Captain Video #4 go here.

To read  Captain Video #5 go here.

To read Captain Video #6 go here.

I read the stories in PS Artbooks reprint which I found at my new favorite story Half-Price Books. Roy Thomas serves up a tasty introduction which puts these stories into their historical context and also shows how they influenced him. We'll explore that heritage next time.

More to come next week. 

Rip Off