Captain Video and His Video Rangers

DuMont Broadcasting's Captain Video - "master of time and space! Guardian of the safety of the world!"

Other than Howdy Doody there wasn't much on TV in the early days. One early adventure series was the live science fiction series Captain Video and His Video Rangers. It had paper and cardboard sets and plenty of miscues that goes with learning how to produce a live program. All that did not matter to us since it was new and exciting to watch. It was the very first science fiction program on TV.

I located a copy of an episode of "Captain Video and His Video Rangers" at archive.org. You can go there and download the copy as a 129MB MPEG4 file. I think somewhere it said it was the first episode.

To view the flash video on the archive site, your browser must have javascript enabled and have the Flash browser plugin, version 7+, from Adobe. So some of you may not be able to view it. If you are unable to view it since computers vary and due to the risk of creating havoc with your system I can not risk giving instructions on how to get the plugin and change your browser settings.

LINK Click this to download a copy to your computer

1949 episode of the TV series "Captain Video"
Rare 1949 episode of the TV series "Captain Video and His Video Rangers", considered by many to be the "Plan 9 from Outer Space" of Classic TV. The show is about a "Space Captain" and his "Video Ranger" who must save the galaxy from the evil Dr. Pauli. Low production values, bad acting and bad writing combine to create a very surreal TV show. The show was live, which would explain the missed cues. It's believed most of the master prints were destroyed after the show was cancelled...