The Lone Ranger Week: An Introduction

When I was just a little kid -- five or six, perhaps -- one of the local TV stations in the New York market played an afternoon of unforgettable, heroic programming.  This schedule bloc consisted of the 1960s Batman, the 1950s Adventures of Superman, and last but not least, The Lone Ranger (1949 - 1957).

I still vividly recall hurrying my Mother -- even on fun trips to Brookdale Park -- to get home in time to watch these three delightful, exciting, and very different TV adventures.  Oddly enough given my penchant for superheroes as an adult, as a kid I remember liking The Lone Ranger the best of all those programs.

My appreciation for The Lone Ranger probably makes some sort of sense, since my youthful years bridge the gap between “Western” cowboy kids and the Star Wars generation.  In kindergarten, my friends and I happily played “Cowboys and Indians” as often as we played Batman or Star Trek, and I still remember owning a great collection of Lone Ranger action figures from Gabriel, a gift from my Texan Granny, “Tippie.”

This Friday, the brand new feature-film version of The Lone Ranger goes into wide release across America.  Accordingly, this week I’ll be celebrating the long-lived character’s TV and movie appearances, as well as the memorable toys stemming from those productions.

I’ve discovered, on a re-watch of the original series (1949 – 1957) that The Lone Ranger episodes are just as exciting, dynamic, and action-packed as I remember them.  They are good fun, and yet also feature a hero who lives by a strict (and legal) code of justice.   He is born out of betrayal and tragedy, but he doesn’t use his tragedy to justify atrocities or murder.

There is more, it seems, that it is admirable about The Lone Ranger than I realized as a kid in New Jersey all those years ago.  Let’s hope the movie remembers these qualities…

Return with me to Yesteryear, won’t you?  Hi-yo, Silver, away…