Lone Ranger - S1 & S2 on 11/11/08! (1 Viewer)

[Jeff*H]

Bob, I just watched the "Renegades" episode and in answer to your question it is non-time compressed and generally uncut (running slightly over 25 minutes), with the 2 mid-break wheat field bumpers and the end of story wheat field bumper along with the 'be with us next time' tag. However, the opening has the inserted close-up shot we've been commenting about (prior to Silver rearing up), and comes back from the commercial break with the episode title over the close-up shot again, followed by "This is the story of one of the most mysterious characters to appear in the early days of the West" narration before going into the story. Great-looking print, by the way.

 

[Bob Gu]

Thanks for answering my question,Jeff. There sure are a lot of different configuations of Lone Ranger syndicated openings. The Rhino VHS LR set used the color opening (in B&W) for the first part of the opening and the B&W version for the "..With his faithful...Lone Ranger Rides Again" second part. I only saved a few episodes of the Lone Ranger from an '80's broadcast and some of them had first season episodes with the full length color "rides again" opening in B&W plus the "This is the story.." episode title clip also.

 

[artbloch]

Wonder if it's possible that the lack of the full opening of The Lone Ranger might have something to do with the timing of the 78 episodes on the 12 DVD's. Not knowing for sure what the additional time would be for "With his faithful Indian companion Tonto......." but say that it would add 20-30 seconds for each of the 78 episodes - that would add an additional 39 minutes to the set which might not have fit on the 12 DVD's.

Am out in Los Angeles to visit my son for Thanksgiving, so went out to the Lone Ranger Rock this afternoon. The recent wildfires out in the greater Los Angeles area hit the area around the Rock. Most of the shrubs and grassess around the Lone Ranger Rock have burned and the trail that Clayton Moore rode Silver down after rearing at the Rock shows signs of the fire. The Rock is not charred or anything like that, just the ground and shrubs. And fortunately, no one has put any graffiti on the Rock.

As I am a new member here, I can't post any pics of the Rock to show how it looks today.

Also, went about 5 miles up the road to visit Corriganville. This was the ranch started by Ray "Crash" Corrigan for the filming of Westerns movies in the late 1930's. Jack Wrather purchased the ranch in the mid 1950's and changed the name to The Lone Ranger Ranch. This is so noted in the credits on the later episodes. There used to be a western street set there, and today, there are only foundations of what used to be there.

The very early Lone Ranger episodes were filmed almost entirely on location. Later, they filmed the "B" roll out on location at the Iverson Movie Ranch with mostly the long shots of the Ranger and Tonto riding the trail, but then they would cut to the dialogue shots which were filmed at the General Service Studio at 1040 N. Las Palmas Ave in Hollywood. It was easy to tell when they went from the outdoor scenes to the fake boulders in the interior studio. The color episodes were generally shot at different locations including Kanab Utah.

I don't have the color episodes from the final season and was thinking about getting them as they had a slightly different opening with a more front view of Clayton Moore firing his gun as he rides along the trail. But, am sorry to hear that the color versions don't have the complete opening either. And I wonder why they would only offer 19 episodes and not the full 39 that were filmed.

Well, at least they are available, so something is certainly better than not having them at all.

 

[silverking]

Oddly the Region 2 version here in the UK had the full run but not the extras.

 

[Bob Gu]

I see the UK 5th season release is out of print and available through AmazonUK resellers at a pretty high price even with the pound being down.

I don't think the opening is short because of disc space. There is plenty of room on the 13th extras disc. Maybe it's political correctness.(Is calling Tonto a faithful Indian companion considered demeaning? On the other hand, the phrase is used on the extras in print and on the included radio episode.) It's also possible that the people working on this set were unaware that this fuller opening exists and worked with what was given to them.

Having received my set now, I see what everybody means about that odd insert of Clayton Moore. That is a new addition and does not appear on any of the other Ranger releases I have or remember seeing.

Maybe we have a better chance of seeing the full opening if they release the John Hart episodes. Since Hart's shows were not syndicated much, maybe there are uncut versions in the vault.

 

[artbloch]

Clayton Moore received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987.

Posted on youtube is a video which shows Johnny Grant introducing Clayton Moore. Incidentally, Clayton Moore is the only star on the Walk of Fame which has both the actor's name as well as the character that he portrayed listed on the star.

Don't know if we can post links on the forum - but in case it is allowed, here it is: YouTube - Lone Ranger Gets Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Jay Silverheels also has a star on the Walk of Fame.

 

[artbloch]

Have noticed that there are a couple of sites which offer a set of 25 DVD's which include all 221 episodes of The Lone Ranger for $118.99.

Has anyone any knowledge on the quality or completeness of these episodes? I would assume that these may be DVD-R disks as opposed to professionally made disks.

Bootleg site Removed By Owner

I would just be curious if anyone has any info on these DVD?

 

[Jeff*H]

Unfortunately if something is too good to be true, it usually is, and in the case of THE LONE RANGER, there is no legitimate complete series set being offered, it's a bootleg. If you're not sure if something's an official release or not, you can always check TVShowsOnDVD.com and it will list all the official releases for a show. HTF rules forbid discussions of bootleg collections.
In the case of THE LONE RANGER, I can understand where it might be confusing as there have been a number of public domain releases over the years, usually featuring the first 17 shows or so.

BTW, I have the Season 5 half-season set from Rhino and I recommend it with reservations: the episodes are not time compressed from what I can tell, but they are cut severely, running around 22 minutes. Prints look nice however, and they have a very nice collector's booklet with episode guide that goes into great detail about the show's history.

 

[artbloch]

I always loved the Lone Ranger episodes where Clayton Moore got into a disguise. He did this is both the b&w episodes and the color ones. Clayton was so talented with the disguises both with his acting ability and his range of character voices.

In the 52 episodes where John Hart portrayed the Ranger, he also got into a disguise in just a very few episodes - but these in no way compared to the CM episodes.

BTW, just prior to John Hart taking over the lead role, he appeared as a supporting actor in a LR episode as a soldier. It was interesting to see him one week without the mask and then several weeks later, he was masked playing the Lone Ranger.

I've just ordered the Rhino set of Lone Ranger color episodes from Amazon. Will look forward to receiving them after I get back home from LA.

 

[Bryan^H]

I finally picked this up. Wow, what a fantastic set.

Beautiful packaging, and so many goodies inside. The picture quality is much better than I expected. It looks worlds better than what my local tv station plays.

I'll post more later when I have some time to see a few more episodes

 

[Bob Hug]

Stuart Galbraith IV has posted a terrific review of the box set at DVD Talk>

The Lone Ranger - 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Seasons 1 and 2) : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video

 

[Gary OS]

Another great review. Thanks for sharing the link, Bob. I continue to be thankful for the DVD Talk folks. They do a great job with the vintage material they are reviewing.

Gary "Stuart did a nice job with 'The Lone Ranger' and, of course, we can always count on Paul Mavis for a great review of classic releases" O.

 

[John Sparks]

Was watching an episode from "Sergeant Preston" and noticed a tall, blondish good looking guy in one of the episodes. I wonder why he was just a bit player. I asked one of my pals who's an expert on old westerns and he said it was John Hart.

My wife has started watching these old shows with me (Honey West of course) and commented about him too. Well, I said he did go on to become the Lone Ranger for a year and then disappeared...good old Hollywood!

 

[Bob Hug]

Actually, Hart didn't disappear after his stint as "The Lone Ranger," he just went to Canada for a year to film the syndicated series "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" which was broadcast during the 1957-58 season. While the complete series has yet to surface on DVD, you can find about a dozen plus episodes from the series on labels like Alpha Video, Timeless Media, and Echo Bridge. Apparently some of the episodes are in the public domain. Lon Chaney, Jr. co-stars as Chingachgook. Here's the link to the Timeless Media set which shows the series' opening credits.

Hawkeye and the LAST of the MOHICANS

 

[Bob Gu]

John Hart and Clayton Moore pic:Two Kemosabes

 

[Jeff Willis]

I'm early into the Lone Ranger set and had a question for Bob and others here about the John Hart episodes. Were the Hart eps syndicated as much as the Clayton Moore eps? The only ones that I remember from watching the show after school in the early 60's were the Moore eps. I can't seem to "place" the Hart character in memory so far.

This set is a real gem. I just watched the 1st ep where the Lone Ranger uses one of those disguises, an "old-timer" who was trying to buy that ranch.

I noticed that the 1st couple of episodes in the set resembled the western "serials" with a "cliffhanger" ending that concluded the "next week" and then the next episode ended in the same way. That format seemed to have been dropped early in the show. Just me, but I much preferred the "non-serial" format where the episodes usually ended by the guest character asking "Who was that masked man?" [reply] "Don't you know? Why, that's the Lone Ranger"

 

[Bob Gu]

Jeff, I don't remember seeing the John Hart episodes until the mid 1980's. So I suspect that after their initial network primetime run and possible rerun on the network and the rehiring of Clayton Moore they went back into the vault.

The Hart episodes seemed, to me, to have less Lone Ranger in the stories, like they were trying to minimize Hart. Tonto seemed to be more involved in the stories while the Ranger waited back at the camp for Tonto's intel.

 

[Bob Hug]

A little more on John Hart as "The Lone Ranger" . . . . .

John Hart as the Lone Ranger

 

[docdoowop]

The mcarver oop or discontinued thread over at dvdtalk lists this set on the January 25th update. Can't image why, unless it's going to be packaged differently.

Out-Of-Print Titles (recently discovered) [2nd thread] - Page 7 - DVD Talk Forum

 

[Bob Hug]

Just my two cents, but a repackaging of the set wouldn't be out of the question. Perhaps they'll repackage the set with just the DVDs and omit the bonus items which would be nice for those who bought the set in the first place . . . . the bonus items will become collectible. Of course, that's pure speculation on my part.