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Captain Video (Al Hodge) and the Video Ranger (Don Hastings) are alerted to a dangerous situation on a distant planet, by one of the Video Rangers stationed all over the galaxy! Leaving their secret mountain headquarters on Earth, Video and the Ranger will rush in the giant space ship Galaxy II to continue their never-ending battle against crime, tyranny, injustice and the unreasoning fury of nature! | |
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The Galaxy II has landed on a massive planet whose surface is wracked by quakes, tremors and constant lava flows! To do their duty, however, Video and the Ranger must leave the relative safety of this gigantic vehicle-- which carries all the wonderful inventions of the Captain, which allow him to meet any emergency or situation-- and in space suits trek across the unimaginably dangerous surface of this hellish planet! (In this production shot, some of the special effects crew are visible on the horizon of the volcanic planet.) | |
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A quake knocks the Ranger and the Captain flat on their sides! The heavy gravity makes it almost impossible to get back on one's feet once down! And isn't that a lava flow coming this way with the speed of an express train??! (Note the bowls of hot water and dry ice which produce the lava fumes in this production shot.) Will the Captain be able to meet this emergency, or is his mission doomed?!? | |
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In the next episode we find that, not only is the Captain equal to the dangers of this dreadful world, but that the real menace was a very human villain, perhaps the warped scientist Dr. Pauli! No matter what fearful weapons Dr. Pauli might have come up with this time, Captain Video and the Ranger don't flinch in the face of blazing ray blasters, and they give it all back in spades! (As a child I was awed by the fact that you actually saw a small explosion when Video was forced to zap a bad guy, thanks to a packet of flash powder taped to the villain's chest, and a hidden battery in his pocket... live on the set. No, I never saw a bad guy catch fire as a result of this dangerous stunt.) | |
| Click here for the Space Hero Files entry on Captain Video. Click here for more CAPTAIN VIDEO! Click here for more on AL HODGE! Click here for more on DON HASTINGS! Learn more about the 6 Fawcett CAPTAIN VIDEO comics here. | For contemporary (1949-53) reviews of CAPTAIN VIDEO, click here and see the future through the eyes of the past! Click here for a rare look at DuMont's The Raster! For more on the CAPTAIN VIDEO serial (1951), click here. David Weinstein now has a web page devoted to his new book on the DuMont network and CAPTAIN VIDEO. Check it out here. |
Space Interviews! For an exclusive interview with CAPTAIN VIDEO's first director, Charles Polacheck, click here.
For an exclusive interview with the sons of Larry Menkin, co-creator of CAPTAIN VIDEO, click here.
For an exclusive interview with the son of James L. Caddigan, co-creator of CAPTAIN VIDEO and DuMont's programming director, click here, and for an exclusive interview with one of his daughters, Zibby, click here.
For an exclusive interview with Harry Persanis, only survivor of the team that did the incredible CAPTAIN VIDEO visual effects, click here.
For an exclusive interview with composer and music director Irving Robbin, who worked with Larry Menkin on many early DuMont programs, click here.
David Weinstein now has a web page devoted to his new book on the DuMont network and CAPTAIN VIDEO. Check it out here.
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