Now out as Seasons One and Two DVD Collector's Tin releases by Disney; both a limited series of 30,000. Each contains an individually numbered certificate of authenticity, a 7" x 4.5" black and white publicity still of the title character, a collectible pin, a booklet about the serial, and six disks. The first season release covers the first 39 black and white episodes (there were 78 total) of the series, originally broadcast by ABC during the 1957-58 television season. Also included are two (of four) 60 minute color episodes which were broadcast as part of "Walt Disney Presents" in the fall of 1960. Season Two contains all the remaining episodes.
Made in the style of old Saturday-matinée action-adventure serials; Disney began each episode with a rousing theme song about the adventures of Spanish California's most famous swordsman. Walt's success with Fess Parker's Davy Crockett miniseries paved the way for this relatively ambitious project.
Out of the night, When the full moon is bright, Comes the horseman known as Zorro. This bold renegade Carves a "Z" with his blade, A "Z" that stands for Zorro.
Zorro, Zorro, the fox so cunning and free, Zorro, Zorro, who makes the sign of the Z.
He is polite, But the wicked take flight When they catch the sight of Zorro. He's friend of the weak, And the poor and the meek, This very unique senor Zorro.
Zorro was a 1820's Mission California version of Robin Hood. Although fictional (first appearing in a 1919 five-part pulp magazine serial by Johnston McCulley) he bears a resemblance to Joaquin Murrieta, a semi-legendary outlaw who was either an infamous bandit or a Mexican patriot, depending on one's point of view.
Guy Williams plays young Don Diego, returned to California from several years of university study in Spain with his mute manservant Bernardo (Gene Sheldon) to live with his father Don Alejandro (George J. Lewis). His newly acquired foppish ways are a disappointment to his father. But playing the wimp is simply an act as he quickly becomes the new champion of the oppressed, donning the black outfit and mask of Zorro and carving a "Z" in places that embarrass the corrupt territorial officers and political appointees.
Bernardo and Sergeant Garcia (Henry Calvin) provide comic relief and would be paired a couple years later in Disney's "Toby Tyler". Disney sweetheart Annette Funicello joins the cast for some of the second season episodes.
The film Zorro dates back to Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) in the silent "Mark of Zorro" (1920). After its initial episodes the Disney entry's format becomes more like the 12-episode Republic Pictures cliffhanger serial "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (1939). "Zorro" in total is a little choppy. While many of the episodes are pieces of multi-part tales with a new set of characters; others have no link to the established time-line and are largely independent of what has gone before and what will follow. So there is not the sense of progress that held other serials together. This is more apparent when viewing this collection in broadcast order; something that was not an issue when they were showed in syndication.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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