CAPTAIN VIDEO AND HIS VIDEO RANGERS / 1949-55

There's nothing like opening up a can of worms with some of our posts, like today's for example... First there was no title card, I would have had to read story lines from six years of episodes to try and find even the title of this episode that makes very little sense and the audio was bad. I told that idea to go to Hell! So, what we gots is this incoherent selection from that series... This was the very first kid's space adventure show ever on TV!

Here's some info on the show - "Guardian of the Safety of the World", private citizen-scientist Captain Video is assisted by his teenage helper and an army of Video Rangers. Their aim is to preserve the peace on Earth in the far-flung future, fighting the likes of evil Dr. Pauli (of the Astroidal Society) and a pile of other bad guys like Nargola, Mook, Kul, Clysmok! The show appeared nightly Mon-Fri and featured many outlandish weapons and techno-gimmicks.

Al Hodge plays Captain Video, here, he hears a strange story from I think a general, who knows? Anyway, something's rotten in Denmark, and the Rangers need to get on the stick!

Cut to this guy, he a mad scientist building some kind of super plane to screw with you know, people! He's running around his lab muttering to himself about taking over the world and all.

Then, there's this freaking weirdo, another scientist off his rocker, he's talking with some dude from France or something. He's telling him about his new device that can destroy the whole damn universe! Wait a minute, say WHUT!! Man, these guys really ham it up!

Cut to commercial!.. Time to make some money. So, here we have a Video Rangers ring that kids can send in for.

I swear, the guy says something like, kids, if you ever get in a scrape with a cop or someone of authority, well, just show them your Captain Video ring and they will know you're on the right side of crime fighting!

Just mail in two Powerhouse candy wrappers and 10 cents to get your own Video Rangers ring!

Back to the action... the Captain communicates with his Rangers in their plane. They're looking for something but can't seem to locate it... Bor-ing!

I guess this was part of the show when they hit the doldrums, the Cap goes over to his video viewer and turns it on. A western movie comes on the screen...

The star is none other than Buster Crabbe, that guy was my hero in the fifties. To start with, Buster was the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle swimming champion. He played Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan and Billy the Kid, who I believe is him here.

Him and his pal punk the sheriff and help their other buddy escape from jail and then ditch the posse, they play another commercial and that's it. I'm guessing Eegah!! will have something cool for us tomorrow, sees you then.