The franchise went through a plethora of owners throughout its existence. First, George W. Trendle continued to own the intellectual property for The Lone Ranger until 1954, when he sold the company who administered the property to Jack Wrather. After his death, the property then went to his widow, then Southbrook International Television, then Lorne Michaels, Golden Books, Classic Media, and ultimately DreamWorks Animation (along with its parent company Universal Studios since August 2016).
The two Lone Ranger films of the 1950's, the first titled simply The Lone Ranger and the sequel titled The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, were originally distributed by Warner Bros. and United Artists, respectively, but their rights later reverted to Wrather Productions. Universal (through DreamWorks) now owns and distributes the films.
1981's The Legend Of The Lone Ranger was first distributed theatrically by Universal through its deal with co-producer ITC Entertainment. Following the end of its theatrical run, ITC reclaimed distribution rights and licensed them to Magnetic Video, then CBS/Fox Video. ITV Global Entertainment, ITC's successor-in-interest, currently licenses the film to Lionsgate, but Universal's purchase of DreamWorks Animation gave them a portion of the copyright to the movie (the film was copyrighted by both ITC and Wrather Productions, the latter of which is now part of Universal/DreamWorks) and still collects royalties for any release of the film.
Dub Name Change: A few Brazilian versions called him Zorro, who has similarities (to the point they had concurrent shows, animations◊, and comics◊, with even the occasional◊ crossover◊ in the last one) but is another character entirely, leading to some confusion. Not helping is how 'Zorro and Tonto' sounds like an actual pair.
The Radio Series:
Acting for Two: John Todd, who voiced Tonto in the radio series, was an accomplished Shakespearean actor. He was often drafted to play several roles (usually the bad guys) in any given episode.
Actor Existence Limbo: After Earle Graser's fatal car accident, the writers of the radio serial had to quickly do revisions to the show's storyline in order to avert The Character Died with Him (some newspapers treated Graser as inseparable from the Lone Ranger, so much so that their headlines implied it was the death of the character. note This was largely the producers' own fault, as they never credited the actors for playing the roles, and they contractually forbade Graser and his successors from either pursuing other roles while playing the Lone Ranger or from making public appearances without the mask on.) and provide a smooth transition to his new actor, Brace Beemer. This necessitated the Ranger becoming incapacitated and unable to speak for a few weeks. (Graser's "Hi Yo, Silver' continued to be heard long after his death, however, and this extended into television and movies as well.) Beemer's voice was deeper and richer than Graser's, suggesting that the Ranger had got his Heroic Second Wind.
Fake Nationality: Mexicans are played by the usual American voice actors who play all characters in this show.
Missing Episode: Almost all of the episodes prior to January 1938, with a few exceptions, do not exist. Most of these were never recorded since the program went out live, and it was only after the program began to be syndicated that episodes were recorded for distribution to other radio networks. The vast majority of episodes after recording began still exist, with a few gaps here and there. That means there are a few years worth of Earle Graser episodes, so a listener can get a good sampling of his performance. According to historian Martin Grams, as of February 2024, there are 266 missing Lone Ranger episodes out of 2,600 that were recorded.
The Other Darrin: Happened most importantly with the Lone Ranger himself, when Earle Graser died and Brace Beemer was given the title role. Some recurring characters change voice actors as well when the original actor was not available, such as the Padre, Chief Thundercloud or Old Missouri.
Role Reprise: According to Earle Graser's obituary in the April 9, 1941 New York Times, Brace Beemer was one of the actors who played the Lone Ranger before Graser won the role. Beemer would return to it eight years later after Graser's death in an auto accident.
Recycled Script: Unsurprisingly in a show that produced three episodes a week for over twenty years, scripts would sometimes get reused, often with minor changes to reflect the then-current cast. This is occasional thing at best up until about mid-1946 when the instances of reusing old scripts increases considerably.
The Boundary (8-5-49) is a remake of The Border Queen (5-16-41)
What Could Have Been: One of the many actors who auditioned to replace Earle Graser was future 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace.
Word of God: George Trendle's conception of the Lone Ranger: "The Lone Ranger always uses perfect English, no accent. Don't ever cast aspersions at any race or religious group. Be fair. Make him more serious. Don't let your scripts get far-fetched; keep 'em logical. Remember, the Lone Ranger never shoots to kill. He is a somber-minded man with a righteous purpose. Make the kids look up to him. Make him their idol."
You Sound Familiar: Before taking over for Earle Graser, Brace Beemer served as one of the show's announcers. He also played the Ranger in public appearances, as his 6-foot-3 and thin frame and expert horse riding and marksman skills made him feel more like the Ranger than the shorter, chubbier Graser, who had never ridden horses and had only shot a pistol once in his life. The horse who played Silver in these events really belonged to him, and was in a stable near his house when Beemer died. He was 27 years old, and Mrs. Beemer took care of him for the rest of his life.
The TV Series:
I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Clayton Moore absolutely loved the part and so fully embraced the role of the Lone Ranger that he did his best to live up to the Lone Ranger Creed and spent the rest of his life visiting fairs and hospitals to encourage young children to do the same, which endeared him to the public. When film producers tried to get him to stop in The '80s, public backlash against them was so great that it played a sizeable part in their film reboot tanking, as seen below in Executive Meddling.
The Other Darrin: Clayton Moore was temporarily replaced on the TV Series by John Hart due to a dispute over either salary or creative differences.
Sequel in Another Medium: Two theatrical films followed the series. The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958).
The Legend of the Lone Ranger
Box Office Bomb: Budget, $18 million. Box office, $12.6 million. The film's bad reputation and legal issues put a dent in any possible success.
Creator Killer: William A. Fraker hadn't directed a movie for eight years. After this movie flopped, he moved to television, but continued to work as a Director of Photography on feature films until the Turn of the Millennium.
Executive Meddling: When Jack Wrather bought the rights to the property in 1978, he sued Clayton Moore to stop him from appearing in public as the character, hoping to establish a new actor in the role for an upcoming movie. It ended up being an enormous PR disaster resulting in a successful countersuit and the film itself becoming a Franchise Killer. Indeed, if there was a Razzie award for "Worst Publicity", The Legend of the Lone Ranger would've been the first recipient, by a unanimous vote.
Follow the Leader: The film was greenlit after The Magic of Lassie brought Lassie back to the big screen, and the producers also used Superman: The Movie as a role model.
Looping Lines: Klinton Spilsbury played the Lone Ranger on-set, then James Keach re-recorded his dialogue during post-production.
Star-Derailing Role: Klinton Spilsbury made his film debut and film farewell here. It didn't help that his voice was dubbed by James Keach. Not helping matters was the decision by ITC to sue Clayton Moore (who had played the character on the TV series and related films, and to many, was the Lone Ranger) for making public appearances as the character, something he had done for decades. The suit greatly offended the American public, who rallied around Moore and stayed away from the film. Moore won the suit, but the film was irreparably damaged from the bad press and negative reviews, resulting in an all-around disaster.
Troubled Production: As detailed in this article. For starters, the producers hired Klinton Spilsbury, a male model with minimal acting experience, for the lead, hoping that casting an unknown would pay off like it had with Christopher Reeve. But even before filming began the production became a PR disaster when the producers sued Clayton Moore, the star of the 1950s TV adaptation, for making in-character personal appearances. Once filming started, Spilsbury exhibited Small Name, Big Ego tendencies, stunt man Terry Leonard suffered a near-fatal injury, respected cinematographer William Fraker proved to be too inexperienced as a director, post-production issues pushed the film's release date back six months, and concern over Spilsbury's lackluster performance led the studio to hire James Keach to loop all of his dialogue in post-production. The film died at the box office in a summer dominated by Raiders of the Lost Ark, gaining a reputation as Franchise Killer. Spilsbury left Hollywood and has never appeared in another movie.
Wag the Director: According to cast and crew, Klinton Spilsbury demanded script changes because he had trouble delivering his lines. Spilsbury also demanded that this movie be shot in sequential order so he could better portray his character's arc.
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