''Zorro'' (also known as ''The New Zorro,'' ''New World Zorro,'' and ''Zorro 1990'') is an American action- adventure drama series featuring Duncan Regehr as the character of Zorro. Regehr portrayed the fearless Spanish hero and fencer on The Family Channel from 1990 to 1993. The series was shot entirely in Madrid, Spain and produced by New World Television (U.S.), The Family Channel (U.S.), Ellipse Programme of

Canal Plus Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

(France), Beta TV (Germany), and RAI (Italy). 88 episodes of the series were produced, Raymond Austin directed 55 episodes and produced 37. There were 10 more episodes made than the first ''Zorro'' television series, which was produced by Disney in the late 1950s. Since 2011, the series is airing in the United States on Retro Television Network as ''The New Zorro''. Sony Pictures is the distributor for this version of ''Zorro''.

Synopsis

The series is set in early 19th-century Spanish California. When the commandant of Los Angeles,

Alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...

Luis Ramone, terrorizes the people of the pueblo and oppresses them, Don Alejandro de la Vega summons home from Spain his son Diego to fight the alcalde and his men. When Diego arrives, he finds his town in a sorry state, and while pretending to have little interest in anything but books and his experiments, he creates the secret identity of ''El Zorro:'' The Fox. He and his mute servant, the teenage Felipe, battle the alcalde's tyranny.

Cast and characters

Main

* Duncan Regehr as Don Diego de la Vega / Zorro * Patrice Martinez as Victoria Escalante (credited as "Patrice Camhi" Seasons 1–2) * Juan Diego Botto as Felipe * James Victor as Sgt. Jaime Mendoza * Michael Tylo as Alcalde Luis Ramone (Seasons 1–2) * J. G. Hertzler as Alcalde Ignacio de Soto (Seasons 3–4) * Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Don Alejandro de la Vega (Season 1) * Henry Darrow as Don Alejandro de la Vega (Seasons 2–4) * Tabare Carballo as Sepulveda (Seasons 3–4) (Cpl. in Season 3 / Pvt. in Season 4)

Guest stars

A * Adam West * André the Giant B * Bernard Kay * Benito Martinez *

Ben Miles Benjamin Charles Miles (born 29 September 1966) is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy ''Coupling'', from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in ''The Forsyte Saga'', from 2002 to 2003, as ...

D * Daniel Craig * Doug McClure * Dougray Scott F *

Faith Brook Faith Brook (16 February 1922 – 11 March 2012) was an English actress who appeared on stage, in films and on television, generally in upper-class roles. She was the daughter of actor Clive Brook. Early years Although she was born in York ...

G * Garfield Morgan H * Hilton McRae * Hunter Tylo J * James Horan * Jesse Ventura * Jim Carter * John Hallam *

Julie T. Wallace Julie Therese Wallace (born 28 May 1961) is a British actress. Biography Julie T. Wallace is the daughter of Scottish actor Andrew Keir and his first wife, Julia Wallace. She is the sister of actors Sean Keir and Deirdre Keir. She stands tal ...

K * Kevin Brophy M * Michael Culver N * Nicholas Clay * Nigel Terry O * Oliver Haden * Oliver Cotton * Omri Katz P * Patrick Drury * Patsy Rowlands * Peter Guinness * Peter Diamond * Pete Postlethwaite * Philip Michael Thomas R * Robert Hoy * Roger Lloyd-Pack *

Roddy Piper Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for hi ...

S * Soon-Tek Oh T *

Terry Richards David Terence Richards (2 November 1932 – 14 June 2014) was a British actor and stuntman, best known for his appearance as the Arabian swordsman in the 1981 Indiana Jones film ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''. During his career, Richards worked on o ...

* Timothy Bateson * Tim Reid V * Valentine Pelka * Vernon Dobtcheff * Vincenzo Nicoli W * Warwick Davis

Episodes

Production

Out of the 88 produced episodes directer Raymond Austin directed 55 and directed and produced 37. He also camera operated 83 episodes. The title sequence of the first episode differs from the one used in the rest of the series. The rest of the episodes' openings use the same opening theme, but different clips, and the song is performed by Cathi Campo (

Rosemary Clooney Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano", ...

's niece), rather than a male singer. Patrice Martinez is credited as "Patrice Camhi" in the first two seasons of the series. She was married to producer-director Daniel Camhi during that time. (He did not work on this series.) Zorro's horse is usually named Tornado, but in this series he has been renamed Toronado. The

bridle A bridle is a piece of equipment used to direct a horse. As defined in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the "bridle" includes both the that holds a bit that goes in the mouth of a horse, and the reins that are attached to the bit. Headgear w ...

and breastplate worn by Toronado in this series are identical to the one worn by Zorro's horse in the

Alain Delon Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...

film '' Zorro'' (1975) and by Chico, the Queen's horse, in the syndicated television series '' Queen of Swords'' (2000-2001). Both this series and ''Queen of Swords'' were filmed in Spain. ''Zorro'' was shot at studios outside of Madrid in 1990, and filming for ''Queen of Swords'' took place at the Texas Hollywood Studios in Southern Spain in 2000. Henry Darrow is the first? Latino actor to play the role of Zorro's father on television. (Armando Joseph Catalano, aka Guy Williams, who portrayed the character in Disney’s series, was Sicilian). He was the first actor to work in three different ''Zorro'' television series. He was the voice of Zorro in the animated series '' The New Adventures of Zorro'' (1981), and played the older Zorro in the short-lived CBS series '' Zorro and Son'' (1983) and Zorro's father in this series. The original pilot (as included in the DVD boxed set ''Zorro: The Complete Series'') focuses on a young man named Antonio de la Cruz, played by Patrick James, who is told by a mortally wounded Don Diego de la Vega to take on the mantle of Zorro. In this pilot Felipe is able to speak. Only Patrice Martinez albeit as a different character survived to the actual series. The pilot was filmed at Texas Hollywood.

Music

The Complete Zorro Soundtrack was released in 2012. It includes 25 tracks composed by Jay Asher and is available in CD and MP3 formats.

Release

VHS

Two tapes of episodes from this series were released to the United States home video market in 1996. The first tape contains Parts 1–4 of "The Legend Begins" from the first season (which originally aired as a made-for-cable movie based on the series, and was released on VHS in that format), and the second tape contains the final four episodes of the series under the name ''A Conspiracy of Blood.'' Each tape's four episodes are presented as a 90-minute movie, with at least one scene in each movie that is not in the regular episodes.

DVD

Two separate DVD boxed sets are available in France. The episodes are dubbed in French and subtitled. In 2009, the German company Kinowelt Home Entertainment released the complete first season of the series, dubbed in German. The entire series is available on DVD in Region 1. In this set, the unique opening theme used in the series premiere is replaced by Campo's version, which was used in the rest of the series. Also, some of the episodes use the abbreviated version of the opening credits that appeared in reruns on The Family Channel. "The Legend Begins" is included in its episodic version, rather than as the expanded movie that was originally aired and later released on VHS. Other episodes that originally aired as one hour specials ("The Devil's Fortress" and "One for All") are split in to separate episodes (as they were for reruns) on the DVD set.