Hosted by: technogranny Title: TechnoGrannyShow, Twenty TV Heroes of the Fifties |
| Time: 03/31/2015 09:00 AM EDT Episode Notes: TV was a bit different in the fifties, much of it Black and White and TV Heroes were not what they are today. They ranged from caped crusaders to legends of the old West including women, sterotyped supermoms, cowboys, and comediennes and even animals.| They were very young, some very old. One star of a popular Western was already 70 when the series first aired. They had big noses, thin lips and gimpy legs. But Baby Boomers will recognized these heroes from the Golden Age of Television.| Listen in today as TechnoGranny and her frequent sidekick, NannoGranny, the EmpressofBiz, JoAnn Forrester reminisce about a fun era of TV that for the most part did not give you nightmares at night.| We will also give you some trivia that you yungins might not be aware of about what you call Retro TV. |
Trivia Question
The Lone Ranger
Flash Gordon
Captain Midnight
Gene Autry
The answer of course is The Lone Ranger.
The Lone Ranger is an American western drama television series that aired on the ABC Television network from 1949 to 1957, with Clayton Moore in the starring role. Jay Silverheels,
The fictional story line maintains that all of the Texas Rangers, except one, are massacred. The "lone" survivor thereafter disguises himself with a black mask and travels with Tonto throughout Texas and the American West to assist those challenged by the lawless elements. A silver mine supplies The Lone Ranger with the name of his horse as well as the funds and bullets required to finance his wandering life-style.
Trivia Question
Great Caesar's ghost! Can't
this man do anything without first removing those ridiculous glasses of his?
Which 50s hero, after first looking this way and that, yanked off his glasses
before ducking into the nearest closet (or phone booth) to ready himself for
action?
Zorro
Captain Midnight
Batman
Superman
2. It's a bird! It's a plane!
It's Superman. This TV show was syndicated
from a comic series. When he isn't
fighting for truth, justice and the American way, the man in tights poses in a
suit and as mild-mannered, nerdy Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent, who works
alongside friends Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen for a very demanding boss, Perry
White.
Listen to the Show for Additional Nostalgia Comments
September
19, 1952 thru April
28, 1958
3.
4.
 |
| fro capedwonder.com |
The Adventures of Superman
Faster
than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall
buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane.
It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came
to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman -
who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and
who disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan
newspaper, fights a neverending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American
Way.
CAST
Superman/Clark Kent: George Reeves
Lois Lane: (1951) Phyllis Coates; (1953-1957) Noel Neill
Jimmy Olsen: Jack Larson
Perry White: John Hamilton
Inspector Henderson: Robert Shayne
Professor Pepperwinkle: Phillips Tead
Lois Lane: (1951) Phyllis Coates; (1953-1957) Noel Neill
Jimmy Olsen: Jack Larson
Perry White: John Hamilton
Inspector Henderson: Robert Shayne
Professor Pepperwinkle: Phillips Tead
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Trivia Question
One of his sidekicks drove
a jeep named "Nellybelle". His dog's name was bullet and his horse
was the palomino "Trigger". But what distinguished this cowboy from
the other cowboy heroes of the 1950s?
He packed a Buntline special.
He carried a Bowie knife.
He seemed to be sweet on a saloon girl named
"Kitty".
He sang the show's theme with his wife Dale.
3. The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show
1.
The Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans Show is a Western comedy and variety program that ran on ABC
television for 13 episodes from September 29 to December 29, 1962. Wikipedia
 |
| from HappyTrails.org |
The Roy Rogers Show is an
American Western television
series that broadcast one hundred episodes on NBC for six
seasons between December 30, 1951 and June 9, 1957. The show starred Roy Rogers
as a ranch owner, Dale Evans as the
proprietress of the Eureka Cafe in fictional Mineral City, and Pat
Brady as Roy’s sidekick and
Dale's cook. Brady's jeep Nellybelle had a mind of
her own and often sped away driverless with Brady in frantic pursuit on foot.
The Jeep was first called LuLubelle in the 1952 series. Animal stars were Roy's Palomino horse,Trigger, and his German Shepherd wonder
dog, Bullet.
Trivia Question
" And then I saw
it..." Lloyd Bridges played Mike Nelson, perhaps the only TV sleuth whose
thoughts provided a running commentary on his search for clues and culprits.
However, the unique setting in which he pursued evildoers rendered this device
a dramatic necessity. For in which special locale did we see Mike Nelson hunt
wrongdoers?
In convents
In libraries
In outer space
Underwater
1.
For those of you too
young to remember, SEA HUNT was a syndicated TV adventure series that was
originally broadcast between 1958 and 1961. Mike
Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridges, is a Scuba Diver fighting crime underwater in
the days when recreational Scuba Diving and TV were still in their infancy.
Nelson (Bridges) is a
free-lance scuba diver
who has various adventures. Nelson, a former U.S. Navy frogman (having left the
service about four years before the series began), is a well-known expert on
diving who is often called on for difficult or dangerous projects. Traveling on
his boat the Argonaut,
Nelson outmaneuvers villains, salvages everything from a bicycle to a nuclear
missile, rescues children trapped in a flooded cave, and even a dog.
Sea Hunt TV Series (24 Hour Marathon) Starring Lloyd Bridges, Jeff Bridges, Beau Bridges Get it here:
Please note, TechnoGranny did not make up the imaginative trivia questions they came from this site.
5. The
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The first of its
kind...the father of adult westerns. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the first in a wave of new TV
westerns aimed at adults (previous entries, such as The
Cisco Kid and The
Lone Ranger, were considered fodder for the after-school crowd).
The
would see up to 28 new westerns premiering during the 1958 primetime
TV season. But only a handful of them were able to dominate a few of the top 10
spots in the network ratings and Wyatt Earp was one of them. Wyatt
Earp was inspired by
the legendary events of the real life Frontier Marshal who lived from 1848 to
1929. The show starred Hugh O'Brien.
The show portrayed Earp
from his days as a Marshal in Ellsworth and then later
Dodge City (this caused some confusion amongst viewers since Matt Dillion was
the Marshal of Dodge City inGunsmoke) and finally to the infamous
Tombstone, Arizona. Along the way Wyatt would encounter such figures as John
Wesley Hardin, the Thompson Brothers, Doc Holliday and Earp's brothers Virgil
and Morgan. Bat Masterson would also appear before getting his own series
(where he would be played a different actor).
6. The Cisco Kid
Cisco Kid and his
English-mangling sidekick Pancho travel the old west in the grand tradition of
the Lone Ranger, righting wrongs and
fighting injustice wherever they find it.
 |
| Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo From the Doug Abbott Collection |
The Cisco Kid was a half-hour American Western television
series starring Duncan
Renaldo in the title role, The
Cisco Kid, and Leo Carrillo as the jovial sidekick, Pancho. Cisco and
Pancho were technically desperados wanted for unspecified crimes but instead viewed by the poor as Robin
Hood figures
who assisted the downtrodden when law enforcement officers proved corrupt or
unwilling to help.
The Cisco character was created by the American short story
author O. Henry in
"The Caballero's Way", published in 1907 in the collection Heart
of the West. Radio, television, and films have depicted the Cisco Kid as a
heroic Mexican caballero, but in the original story, the Kid
is non-Hispanic and a real, unusually vicious outlaw.The
character was adapted as the radio drama The
Cisco Kid in 1942–1955.
8.Gunsmoke
Marshal Matt Dillon
keeps the peace in the rough and tumble Dodge City.
 |
| Gunsmoke Cast |
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9. Rin Tin Tin
Rumored to be America's First RescueDog
TIN TIN
Rescued
from a bombed out World War I German War Dog Kennel near Lorraine, France on
September 15, 1918, this German Shepherd Dog has gone on to become the most
famous canine in the world.
 |
| Rin Tin Tin Main Cast |
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10. Lassie
Lassie follows the adventures of a
female Rough Collie dog
named Lassie and
her companions, human and animal. The show was the
creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12,
1954, to March 25, 1973. The fourth longest-running U.S. primetime television series after The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, and Law & Order, the show chalked up
seventeen seasons on CBS before entering first-run
syndication for its
final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show later transitioned into color.
 |
| Lassie's second family with Timmy, June Lockhart as mother |
The show's first ten seasons portray Lassie's adventures in a
small farming community. Fictional eleven-year-old
Jeff Miller, his mother, and his grandfather are Lassie's first human
companions until seven-year-old Timmy Martin and his adoptive parents take over
in the fourth season. When Lassie's exploits on the farm end in the eleventh
season, she finds new adventures in the wilderness with a succession of United States
Forest Service Rangers.
After traveling without human leads for a year, Lassie finally settles at a
children's home for her final two syndicated seasons.
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1 11. Bonanza
White-haired Ben was the proud patriarch of the Cartwrights, the family at the center of one of TV's most beloved and long-running series. Their ranch, the Ponderosa, was 1,000 square-miles (600,000 acres) in size and sprawled from mountainous shores of Lake Tahoe to the desert terrain near Virginia City in the Nevada Territory. Ben oversaw his frontier empire with the help of his three sons: Adam, Hoss, and Joe. The series was set in 1859 when the series began and would progress through and following the Civil War.
Samuel Clemens worked as a reporter in Virginia City for two years and there selected his pen name of Mark Twain. It was this varied, colorful era and place that producer David Dortort decided would be ideal for the show.
When Bonanza premiered in 1959, mant sitcons depicted fathers as idiots managed by their wives. Dortort insisted that the show be an hour long instead of a half hour in order to ensure that he had time to depict Ben Cartwright as a father figure worthy of respect. It worked, and Lorne Greene received thousands of fan letters from teenage boys who wished that he was their father.
Bonanza was an NBC television western series that ran from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series (behind Gunsmoke), and within the top 10 longest running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication.
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12. HopaLong Cassidy
Hop-along Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and many novels based on the character.
In his early writings, Mulford portrayed the character as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. From 1935, the character—as played by movie actorWilliam Boyd in films adapted from Mulford's books—was transformed into a clean-cut hero. Sixty-six popular films appeared, only a few of which relied on Mulford's stories. Mulford later revised and republished his works to be more consistent with the character's screen persona.
Portrayed on the screen, white-haired Bill "Hopalong" Cassidy was usually clad strikingly in black (including his hat, an exception to the western film stereotype that only villains wore black hats). He was reserved and well spoken,with a sense of fair play. He was often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters took advantage of honest citizens. "Hoppy" and his white horse, Topper, usually traveled through the west with two companions—one young and trouble-prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other older, comically awkward and outspoken.
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13. Annie Oakley
A fictionalized account of the life of legendary Wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Set in the quiet western town of Diablo, Annie and her little brother Tagg made sure that outlaws who moseyed into town kept on going. Often at her side was friend, suitor and deputy sheriff Lofty Craig with whom she often showed off her shooting prowess.
Theshow starred Gail Davis in the title role, and co-starred Brad Johnson as Deputy Sheriff Lofty Craig and Jimmy Hawkins, as Annie's brother, Tagg. In one episode, "Bull's Eye", the role of Tagg was played by Billy Gray, better known as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., on Father Knows Best. In the series, Annie Oakley rode a horse named Target, Tagg's horse was Pixie and Lofty's was named Forest. Annie and Tagg lived in the town of Diablo, Arizona, with their uncle, Sheriff Luke MacTavish, who was usually away whenever trouble started. It would then be up to straight-shooting Annie and her "silent suitor" Lofty Craig to rescue law-abiding neighbors and arrest outlaws. Often Tagg would be told to stay in town and out of the way, but through disobedience, the need to relay important new information, or being captured by outlaws, he would end up in the middle of the adventure.
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14. Perry Mason
 |
| Perry Masson and Distric Attorney Burger |
There are few actors so closely tied to a persona than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. This long-running series was built upon Erle Stanley Gardner´s many novels about a brilliant defense lawyer and his staff, that solved many a crime with surprise witnesses and stern cross-examinations. It was the first mystery series to feature chalk or tape outlines to mark the spots where bodies were found. Filmed almost exclusively in the Los Angeles area, Raymond Burr had Gardner's seal of approval in the role.
The cases were usually won by way of pivotal confessions of witnesses, solicited by Perry Mason (Burr's) surgeon-like examination or with last-minute, key evidence brought into the courtroom by private investigator Paul Drake (William Hopper). Della Street (Barbara Hale), Perry´s faithful secretary, was always at Perry's side in the courtroom where hapless Hamilton Burger (William Tallman) was the Los Angeles District Attorney who never seemed to win.
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14. Have Gun Will Travel
Paladin was not your normal gunfighter. He was an educated and a traveled man. A West Point graduate, he served as a Union officer during the Civil War. After the war, he went west and became a high-priced 'gun for hire.' He was based at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco and enjoyed the finer things in life. He dressed in fancy clothes, enjoyed fine wine, gourmet food, opera, expensive cigars and he could play the piano. He read newspapers from all over the West looking for situations in which he could help, for a fee. Sometimes Hey Boy, the Oriental porter who worked at the Carlton, would bring Paladin a letter or 'wire' asking for his help.
Usually, within the first few minutes, he was dressed for 'business' and on the trail. When working, he dressed completely in black including a black hat with a band of silver conchos and a custom holster with a silver chess knight on it. He carried a custom made pistol which was perfectly balanced and had a rifled barrel. He preferred to settle problems without violence whenever possible, but if forced to fight, he excelled.
Amaster marksman and a quick draw, he was a match for most any man. And for those 'difficult times' he kept a derringer hidden under his belt, which saved his life on many occasions. His rifle, which was rarely used, also had a silver chess knight on the stock. This leads us to believe it was as carefully made as the pistol he carried. Before resorting to violence, Paladin would put his rich education and experience to work to try to find an alternate solution. In spite of his profession, he had a deep respect for the law and would often turn on his employers if he found they were the guilty party.
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15. The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966)
• Another popular 1950's sitcom about a close family. The Stones consist of loving homemaker Donna, her pediatrician husband Alex, and their children Mary and Jeff. Many situations arise like when they found a baby on their doorstep or take in a rebellious youth or when Donna tries to patch up marital spats among friends.
 |
| From DonnaReid.org |
16. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo
Cuban-born bandleader, Ricky Ricardo, and his wife, Lucy, live in a Brownstone apartment building on East 68th Street in New York City.
The beautiful but daffy Lucy has the nasty habit of getting into jams, scrapes, and predicaments of all kinds. The Ricardos' best friends and landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz, frequently find themselves in the middle of Lucy's outlandish escapades, whether she's plotting to land a part in her husband's nightclub act, determined to write her first novel, or concocting yet another sure-fire "get-rich-quick" scheme. Luci was the epitome of contrived feminism, long before it was popular.
 |
| I Love Lucy Cast. |
The I Love Lucy Show was situation comedy at its best. Whether it's stomping grapes in Italy, getting drunk on a vitamin commercial or eating her way through a chocolate assembly line for a part time job, Luci and side-kick Ethel always managed to get into it and make the audience laugh hysterically.
If you are wondering about the final three, well you have heard about them already but they are in supporting roles and strong women at that, Lois Lane, Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke and Della Street of Perry Mason.
Listen to the Archived Show Here
If you are wondering about the final three, well you have heard about them already but they are in supporting roles and strong women at that, Lois Lane, Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke and Della Street of Perry Mason.
Listen to the Archived Show Here
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