1 9 4 9 – 1 9 5 5 (USA)
Fighting for law and order, Captain Video operated from a “private mountain hideaway, sometime in the 21st or 22nd century” with secret agents at all points of the globe.
Captain Video – “The Guardian of the Safety of the World” – worked for the Solar Council of the Interplanetary Alliance. Possessing scientific secrets and scientific weapons, he asked no quarter and gave none to the forces of evil.
He invented futuristic weapons to battle his nemeses, Nargola, Mook the Moon Man and Dr Clysmok.
The weapons had names like Discatron, Radio Scillograph, Astra-Viewer and the Cosmic Ray Vibrator that countered the evil Trisonic Compensator (owned by evil Dr Pauli).
The initial prop budget was $25 per show and many items were made from off-the-shelf automobile parts.
The programme serialised 51 stories of derring-do and adventure, heavily interspersed with advertisements starring uniformed Video Rangers endorsing products such as Sugar Crisp breakfast cereal and PowerHouse candy bars.
Would-be Junior Video Rangers could send off for a Captain Video picture ring by collecting wrappers from “Swell tasting long-lasting PowerHouse candy bars” (and adding “10 cents in coin”) and sending them to PowerHouse at Box 95, New York 46, NY.
When the series left the air in 1955, Al Hodge continued to work as a voice-over performer for documentaries, foreign film dubbing and cartoons, but never again achieved the success or attention he had enjoyed as Captain Video.
Hodge died an alcoholic, alone and forgotten, in 1979. At the time of his death, he was living on his $63-a-week Social Security payment.
Captain Video
Richard Coogan (1)
Al Hodge (2)
Video Ranger
Don Hastings
Dr Pauli
Hal Conklin
Dr Tobor
Dave Ballard
Agent Carter
Nat Polen
Announcer
Fred Scott
