''The Lone Ranger'' is an American animated television series that ran 26 episodes Saturday mornings on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

from September 10, 1966, to September 6, 1969. The series was produced by Herb Klynn and

Jules Engel Jules Engel (born Gyula Engel, March 11, 1909 – September 6, 2003) was an American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher. He was the founding director of the experimental animation ...

Format Films Format Films was a television animation studio which was founded by Herbert Klynn in 1959 with Jules Engel as vice president, Bob McIntosh and Joseph Mugnaini, all of whom were animators. It was most active during the 1960s, producing episodes o ...

, Hollywood, and designed and made at the

Halas and Batchelor Halas and Batchelor was a British animation company founded by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor. Halas was a Hungarian émigré to the United Kingdom. The company had studios in London and Cainscross, in the Stroud District of Glouces ...

Cartoon Film studios in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

& Artransa Park Studios in Australia. In 1980,

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...

produced another ''Lone Ranger'' cartoon series.

Overview

The adventures in this ''Lone Ranger'' series were similar in tone and nature to CBS' prime-time

Weird West Weird West (aka Weird Western) is a term used for the hybrid genres of fantasy Western, horror Western and science fiction Western. The term originated with DC's ''Weird Western Tales'' in 1972, but the idea is older as the genres have been b ...

ern, ''

The Wild Wild West ''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...

'', in that some of the plots were bizarre and had elements of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

technology included in the story. One of the Lone Ranger's archenemies in the animated series was a dwarf named Tiny Tom and his giant henchman named Goliath; an analogue to ''The Wild Wild West'''s Dr. Miguelito Loveless and his giant companion Voltaire. Other supervillain-style foes in the series included the Fly, the Frog People, the Black Widow, the Queen Bee, the Iron Giant, Mephisto, Mr. Happy, Mr. Midas, the Rainmaker and Shandarr the Puppetmaster.

Cast

Michael Rye Michael Rye (born John Michael Riorden Billsbury; March 2, 1918 – September 20, 2012) was an American actor. His decades-long career spanned radio, television, animated cartoons and video games. Aside from his voice over work, Rye also acted in ...

—

Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

Shepard Menken Shepard Menken (November 2, 1921 – January 2, 1999) was an American film, television, voice, radio character actor. Early life Menken began his career at the age of 11, when he started appearing on children's radio programs. After high school, ...

—

Tonto Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and tele ...

Dick Beals Richard Beals (March 16, 1927 – May 29, 2012) was an American actor, who performed many voices in his career, which spanned the period from the early 1950s into the 21st century. Beals voiced both male and female children. Perhaps his most reco ...

— Tiny Tom *

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...

— The Black Widow *

Hans Conried Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's ''Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ''Dudle ...

— Mephisto *

Paul Winchell Paul Winchell (''né'' Wilchinsky; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, humanitarian, inventor and ventriloquist whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted ''The Paul Winchell S ...

— The Rainmaker

Production

The Lone Ranger's voice was provided by

, and

provided that of Tonto. The narrator in the opening titles was

Marvin Miller Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American baseball executive who served as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players ...

, whose narration ran: Other guest voices were provided by

, and

. The animation was limited. But the backgrounds had a dark style, with blocks of color

elided In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

from the line, which visually set the show apart from many other cartoon TV series of the time. The distinct atmospheric music was composed by

Vic Schoen Victor Schoen (March 26, 1916 – January 5, 2000) was an American bandleader, arranger, and composer whose career spanned from the 1930s until his death in 2000. He furnished music for some of the most successful persons in show business inclu ...

, who also provided the powerful arrangement of

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

's ''

William Tell Overture The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera ''William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, af ...

'' for the show's memorable opening sequence. Along with the Halas and Batchelor animators, the background department, led by Tom Bailey, Ted Petengel and designer Chris Miles, were responsible for setting the graphic style. The drawings were produced by chinagraph pencil on cell. Colored papers were cut or torn under or against the lines of the background, producing a dramatic and rich textural effect.

List of episodes

Home media

The 1960s animated cartoon TV series version of ''The Lone Ranger'' was not available on home media as of the middle of January 2017. This was partially explainable as a result of confusion over the ownership of the copyright to it. However, Universal Television, which had been partially responsible for the show's production in the sense of having commissioned Format Films and Halas and Batchelor Animation to work on it with the permission of

Jack Wrather John Devereaux Wrather Jr. (May 24, 1918 – November 12, 1984), was an entrepreneur and petroleum businessman who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties. He is best known for p ...

Productions, then owners of the Lone Ranger copyright, could be said to have a legitimate copyright-ownership claim.

References

External links

*
Lone Ranger Fanclub

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lone Ranger, The (1966 TV series) 1966 American television series debuts 1969 American television series endings American animated television spin-offs American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series Western (genre) animated television series CBS original programming

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

1960s Western (genre) television series 1960s American animated television series Television series by Format Films Television series by Halas and Batchelor