History Series / CaptainVideo

* SplashOfColor: In the serial, Captain Video and his Video Ranger often visit the planets of Atoma and Theros. Since the scenes for both were filmed at Bronson Canyon, they were distinguished by color tinting in the original prints: the Atoma scenes were pink and the Theros scenes were green. The rest of the scenes were in black-and-white.

* SdrawkcabName: It featured a robot named Tobor.

* StockFootage: Probably the most bizarre part of each episode was the Video Ranger Broadcast, a ShowWithinAShow in which viewers saw some of Captain Video's agents at work on various parts of Earth. While a necessity (the footage ran for several minutes, allowing the actors to change outfits and/or get to another set), it wouldn't have been nearly as bizarre had the footage not always come from '''[[TheWestern cowboy films]]'''.

* BreakoutCharacter: Tobor was a recurring character in the series but free in popularity as he was the first robot on television and he soon had to own film and unproduced tv series.

* TheFilmOfTheSeries: More specifically, a [[FilmSerial serial]]. Creator/ColumbiaPictures did a 15-chapter serial called ''Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere'' in 1951. Despite a larger budget, it looked as cheap as the TV series.

* SpaceCadet: A forerunner and pace-setter for the standard, ''Captain Video'' featured some scenes that were, in fact, supposed to be in space ships, in which the characters would wear crash helmets and goggles...since that's apparently all you need to survive in the depths of space [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace if you have some kind of accident]].

* FishbowlHelmet: The spacemen's helmets looked like inverted fishbowls.

Live-action TV show (full title ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'') produced and aired on {{DuMont}} from 1949-55. Due to the limitations of technology at the time, ''Captain Video'', like most shows of TheFifties, was done live (i.e. what the cameras saw went out to the viewers).

It was the first science-fiction TV show, something that was perpetually at odds with its strapped production budget. It's still occasionally mentioned by humor writer Dave Barry (see above), who was a huge fan as a kid, and especially loves to bring up the Captain's communicator just being a regular phone, which he attempted to disguise by talking into the listening end like a microphone. In fact, many of the Captain's things were simply whatever was handy. In ''The Forgotten Network,'' a book about {{DuMont}}, it's mentioned that the uniform Captain Video wears is modified Army surplus, and one of his weapons (a rather fearsome-looking gun) was made from a car muffler.

!!This show provides examples of:
* AluminumChristmasTrees: The series' props, despite being comically mundane for their time and place, are all now antique, adding a second layer of removal for modern audiences.

->"Even outer space had maniacs. I learned this from a show called ''Captain Video'', featuring a man named, oddly, Captain Video, a space pioneer in charge of an extremely low-budget spaceship that appeared to be made from materials that you might find around a TV studio. For example, the device he used for communicating back to the Earth was obviously a regular telephone; Captain Video held the handset as though it were a microphone and talked into the listening end."

* TheFilmOfTheSeries: More specifically, a [[FilmSerial serial]]. While ''Captain Video, Master of the Stratosphere'' is available on DVD, the color tinting was lost and had to be recreated...except they messed up and used color for all the other planet scenes instead of just for the outdoor scenes.

* IAmNotSpock: While testifying on the subject of television violence, the congressmen addressed actor Al Hodge as 'Captain'.

* MissingEpisode: Most of the episodes are gone, since the kinescopes were lost, destroyed or reprocessed to save money. Some of the surviving ones can be seen at the Internet Archive.

* TheOtherDarrin: The Captain was played by two actors during the run of the series, and a third for the film (see above).

Live-action TV show (full title ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'') produced and aired on {{DuMont}} from 1949--55. Due to the limitations of technology at the time, ''Captain Video'', like most shows of TheFifties, was done live (i.e. what the cameras saw went out to the viewers).

The list of writers for the show is pretty much a who's who of classic sci-fi.

* KidSidekick: The Video Ranger.

* LostEpisode: Actually, most of the series is lost.

* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Captain Video himself.

Live-action TV show (full title ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'') produced and aired on {{DuMont}} from 1949-55. Due to the limitations of technology at the time, ''Captain Video'', like most shows of TheFifties, was done live (e.g, what the cameras saw went out to the viewers).

Live-action TV show (full title ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'') produced and aired on {{DuMont}} from 1949-55. Due to the limitations of technology at the time, ''Captain Video'' like most shows of TheFifties was done live (e.g, what the cameras saw went out to the viewers).

It was the first science-fiction TV show, something that was perpetually at odds with its strapped production budget. It's still occasionally mentioned by humor writer Dave Barry, who was a huge fan as a kid, and especially loves to bring up the Captain's communicator just being a regular phone, which he attempted to disguise by talking into the listening end like a microphone.

* KidSidekick: The video Ranger.

* ''TheHoneymooners'': Ed Norton was one of the biggest fans of the show, as seen in the episode "TV or Not TV".