Back in the previous millennium when I was a kid, there were three television networks; ABC, CBS and NBC. I never knew about the first television network, the
DuMont Television Network, which in 1946 began with two east coast television broadcast stations that were linked by a telecommunications cable. By 1956, the DuMont Television Network was gone, having been unable to compete successfully against CBS and NBC, two television networks that could draw on radio station connections and talent.
Captain Video
The DuMont Television Network had many "firsts" for television, including what evolved into the first
science fiction television show:
Captain Video.
 |
Video Ranger, Captain Video and
video of the future. |
As far as I can tell, it was completely accidental that
Captain Video actually became a science fiction show. Originally (1949),
Captain Video and his young side-kick
Video Ranger were intended to work from their headquarters to direct the actions of squads of cowboys. This was how DuMont Television hoped to monetize some old footage of
Westerns that the company owned. They would splice out action scenes from the Westerns and introduce the action with a quickly improvised frame plot provided by
Captain Video.
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Black Planet script, 1st page
click image to enlarge
source |
However, viewers were apparently more interested in
Captain Video and his evil-fighting Rangers than the old Westerns. Starting in 1951, the show had a sponsor with deeper pockets (General Foods) and
Olga Druce became the producer of the show. Druce had prior experience producing radio programs for children that had tried to adhere to minimal standards of scientific authenticity. Knowing nothing about science fiction, Druce got help from experienced science fiction story writers including
Arthur Clarke,
Isaac Asimov and
Jack Vance.
Apparently Clarke refused to write scripts for the show, but he functioned as a kind of Sci Fi consultant, helping with the design of the show's interstellar cruiser, a spaceship, called
Galaxy.
 |
| Jack Vance and a Captain Video script |
Unable to restrain his cutting humor, avoid violence
and write "appropriately" for a young audience, Vance apparently got himself fired from his job as a writer for
Captain Video. One of the episodes that was written by Vance is "
Black Planet Academy". Here is the IMDb summary for that episode:
"
The Captain and Ranger are summoned by Prince Spartak to the Black Planet to establish a Video Ranger Academy. Soon, however, a Martian research laboratory reports the theft of powerful weapons, and this diverts the Captain's attention to investigate the implications of the crime."
Additional Captain Video episodes attributed to Vance at the IMDb: "
Adventure On Phobos", "Dark Empire", "End of Nowhere" and "Mercury Observatory". See also: "
A Bottle From Space".
"
The Captain's final adventure found him dueling the villainous Murgo of Lyra with swords; the Captain won, of course, thanks to the rigorous training Prince Spartak had given him on the Black Planet!" It is fun to imagine the influence of Jack Vance and other Golden Age science fiction story writers on the young
George Lucas.
Tobor
Asimov is credited at the
IMDb as having written an episode called "I, Tobor". This story includes a robot that was to have been called "Robot-I", but the name tag got reversed. However, I'm skeptical about Asimov's supposed role as a writer for
Captain Video.
"
The giant robot Tobor comes under the control of a young girl who is determined to use the subservient machine against the Video Rangers."
Asimov created "
Lucky Starr" as part of a plan to make another (and hopefully better) science fiction television program. That planned television show never made it on the airwaves, but some of Asimov's stories that I found in book stores when I was in my teens were Lucky Starr adventures in novel format. I must say, I preferred his books that were not written for a juvenile market.
I like to imagine that in another Reality, both Asimov and Vance might have been heavily involved with creating science fiction television programs (see The Phaeton Effect).
In the Ekcolir Reality, the pace of technology development was a little quicker than in our universe. Color television arrived in time for a television program that was based on Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire novels. Kyle MacDonnell began a new phase in her acting career when she was cast in the role of Artemisia. As Artemisia, she helped establish a strong and growing Galactic Empire through three years and a sequence of linked programs that began in 1952 with Battle for the Galactic Empire.
Related:
an episode of Captain Video
Next:
Star Trek in 2017.
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