Ernest Borgnine Had A Villainous Role On TV’s First Sci-Fi Show

With over 200 movie and tv credit on his resume, the late Ernest Borgnine has had his justifiable share of memorable TV characters. But there’s an obscure villain function from his early days that by no means reached the heights of characters akin to Commander Quinton McHale from “McHale’s Navy” or Mermaid Man from “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

In 1951, the longer term Hollywood legend was busy terrorizing the cosmos on what’s thought-about to be the very first science-fiction TV sequence: “Captain Video and His Video Rangers.” Debuting on the DuMont Television Network in June 1949, the reside, groundbreaking serial adopted the titular Captain (initially performed by Richard Coogan, and later Al Hodge) and his teenage sidekick (Don Hastings) as they defended mankind from interplanetary threats throughout the photo voltaic system. One of these threats was performed by Borgnine, and it’s his fourth performing credit score.

The then-fledgling actor joined the present’s rogues’ gallery as Nargola, an outer-space tyrant who gave the Captain a run for his cash. Nargola was described as a “power-mad dictator of the planet Heitok” (by way of IMDb). He was keen on utilizing his evil devices towards his opponents, akin to mind-reading machines that allowed him to regulate his captures, even extracting very important secrets and techniques and intelligence.

Borgnine would fill the boots of Nargola for 12 episodes, however he wasn’t the one noteworthy title concerned with the sequence. There was additionally some well-known expertise working behind the digicam. Despite the laughably low manufacturing worth, the present took its sci-fi critically, finally hiring legendary authors like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke to write down scripts. (Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” is now an Apple TV sequence.)

Because the sequence was an early reside TV manufacturing working on a shoestring funds — rumored to be a measly $25 per week for props — the set items have been famously low-cost, using cardboard spaceships and devices constructed from automotive mufflers. To stretch their assets, early episodes even featured jarring cutaways to outdated Western movies, which have been defined away because the adventures of the Captain’s “undercover agents” on Earth.

“Captain Video and His Video Rangers” was an absolute smash hit, charming each youngsters and adults. It aired reside 5 to 6 nights per week, commanding an enormous primetime viewers. Its cultural footprint was enormous; 1952 Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson even delayed a political announcement as a result of he knew he could not compete with the printed. Ultimately, the sequence loved a six-year run, wrapping up its interstellar adventures in April 1955. Though only a few episodes survive right now, you could find some remnants on YouTube, Tubi, and the Internet Archive.