document_title: Roseanne

question_text: when did roseanne go off the air the first time

question_tokens: when did roseanne go off the air the first time

root

text: Roseanne

text: Production history[edit]

text: In coming up with ideas for new shows, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner of Carsey-Werner Productions decided to look into the concept of the working mother as a central voice.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Up until that point, there had been countless shows with working mothers, but few treated them as anything other than an adjunct to the father in the family. Werner had suggested that they take a chance on Barr whom they had seen on The Tonight Show. This was because he saw the unique "in your face" voice that they were looking for, and he contacted her agent and offered her the role. Barr's act at the time was the persona of the "domestic goddess", but as Carsey and Werner explains, she had the distinctive voice and attitude for the character and she was able to transform herself into the working class heroine they envisioned.[20] Many early scripts were written by women: Grace McKeaney, Lauren Eve Anderson, and Laurie Gelman, and directed by Ellen Gittelsohn.[21]

tag: p

text: Premise[edit]

text: The show is centered on the Conners, an American working-class family struggling to get by on a limited household income in their home at 714 Delaware Street in the drab fictional mid-state exurb of Lanford, Illinois. Although initially nominally located in Fulton County, several hours away from Chicago, later on-air references over the years suggested the town is in the vicinity of Aurora, Elgin, and DeKalb, all of which are much closer to Chicago. (In a 2018 interview, Barr stated that the series setting was based on Elgin.)[22] The family consisted of outspoken Roseanne, married to husband Dan, and their three children: Becky, Darlene, and DJ. Later in the series, Roseanne becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a boy named Jerry Garcia Conner.

text: Many critics considered the show notable as one of the first sitcoms to realistically portray a blue-collar American family with two parents working outside the home, as well as lead characters who were noticeably overweight without their weight being the target of jokes.[23][24]

text: Establishing shots were photographed in Evansville, Indiana, the hometown of first-season producer Matt Williams. Exterior shots of the Conner household were based on a real home located in Evansville, located at 619 S. Runnymeade Avenue, a few blocks from Williams' alma mater, the University of Evansville.[25]

text: Barr's real-life brother and sister are gay, which inspired her to push for introducing gay characters and issues into the show. "My show seeks to portray various slices of real life, and homosexuals are a reality," said Barr.[26] Provocative storylines have been an integral part of the series throughout its existence; Barr has stated that they were issues that working-class Americans experience in their everyday lives and that very few scripted programs ever address them.[22]

text: Cast and characters[edit]

text: This section, contrary to MOS:TV, is in a table format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section, contrary to MOS:TV, to prose. Editing help is available. (March 2018)

tag: table

text:
Actor
Role
Season

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Conner
Main

John Goodman
Dan Conner
Main

Laurie Metcalf
Jackie Harris
Main

Michael Fishman
D.J. Conner
Main

Sara Gilbert
Darlene Conner-Healy
Main

Lecy Goranson
Becky Conner-Healy
Main
Does not appear
Main
Does not appear
Main

Sarah Chalke
Does not appear
Main
Recurring
Main
Does not appear

Andrea
Does not appear
Recurring

Natalie West
Crystal Anderson-Conner
Recurring
Main
Recurring
Guest
Does not appear
Guest
Does not appear
Recurring

George Clooney
Booker Brooks
Recurring
Does not appear
Guest
Does not appear

Estelle Parsons
Beverly Harris
Guest
Recurring

Tom Arnold
Arnie Thomas
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest
Does not appear

Brian Kerwin
Gary Hall
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Glenn Quinn
Mark Healy I
Does not appear
Guest
Recurring
Does not appear

James Pickens Jr.
Chuck Mitchell
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest
Recurring

Adilah Barnes
Anne-Marie Mitchell
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest

Bonnie Bramlett
Bonnie Watkins
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Martin Mull
Leon Carp
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest
Recurring
Does not appear

Shelley Winters
Nana Mary
Does not appear
Guest
Recurring
Guest
Recurring
Does not appear

Johnny Galecki
David Healy
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest

Sandra Bernhard
Nancy Bartlett
Does not appear
Recurring
Guest
Recurring
Guest

Danielle Harris
Molly Tilden
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Mara Hobel
Charlotte Tilden
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Michael O'Keefe
Fred Oakland
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Fred Willard
Scott
Does not appear
Recurring
Does not appear

Emma Kenney
Harris Conner-Healy
Does not appear
Main

Ames McNamara
Mark Conner-Healy
Does not appear
Main

Jayden Rey
Mary Conner

Main

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
Originally aired
Nielsen ratings[27]

First aired
Last aired
Rank
Rating

1
23
October 18, 1988 (1988-10-18)
May 2, 1989 (1989-05-02)
2
23.8[28]

2
24
September 12, 1989 (1989-09-12)
May 8, 1990 (1990-05-08)
1
23.1[29]

3
25
September 18, 1990 (1990-09-18)
May 14, 1991 (1991-05-14)
3
18.3[30]

4
25
September 17, 1991 (1991-09-17)
May 12, 1992 (1992-05-12)
2
21.2[31]

5
25
September 15, 1992 (1992-09-15)
May 11, 1993 (1993-05-11)
2
20.7

6
25
September 14, 1993 (1993-09-14)
May 24, 1994 (1994-05-24)
4
19.3[32]

7
26
September 21, 1994 (1994-09-21)
May 24, 1995 (1995-05-24)
9
15.6[33]

8
25
September 19, 1995 (1995-09-19)
May 21, 1996 (1996-05-21)
16
12.6[34]

9
24
September 17, 1996 (1996-09-17)
May 20, 1997 (1997-05-20)
35
10.1[35]

10
9
March 27, 2018 (2018-03-27)
May 22, 2018 (2018-05-22)
3
17.85

text: Original series[edit]

text: Season 1[edit]

text: Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) is a line worker at Wellman Plastics, along with her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and friend Crystal (Natalie West). Jackie has a brief relationship with Booker (George Clooney), the foreman at Wellman. Dan (John Goodman) finds sporadic work as a construction contractor and faces a strained relationship with his irresponsible and womanizing father (Ned Beatty). Roseanne's parents, Beverly (Estelle Parsons) and Al (John Randolph), consider moving to Lanford, but eventually decide against it.

text: Tomboy Darlene (Sara Gilbert) struggles with her femininity as she enters puberty and gets her first period. Becky (Lecy Goranson) faces dating problems with her first boyfriend Chip (Jared Rushton), who is introduced in the "Lover's Lane" episode. Season one also finds the Conners experiencing, and surviving, a tornado. In the "Death and Stuff" episode a door-to-door salesman dies in the Conners' kitchen, and in the season finale, Roseanne stands up to a new foreman (Fred Thompson), when she leads Jackie, Crystal, and other coworkers as they quit Wellman Plastics. DJ is played by Sal Barone in the pilot episode and by Michael Fishman for the remainder of the series. There is a running gag in this season where they use the word "corn" in every episode.[36][37]

text: Other notable guest stars during the season include Bill Sadler as Dwight, Dan's friend, Robert Harper as Chip's father, Andrea Walters as Chip's mother, and Tony Crane as "The Tongue Bandit", Becky's other boyfriend. Bill Pentland, Roseanne Barr's first husband, made a cameo as one of Dan's friends in the "Saturday" episode.

text: Season 2[edit]

text: Now that they've quit Wellman Plastics, Roseanne and Jackie must find new jobs. Jackie decides to become a police officer. Roseanne cycles through a variety of menial jobs including telemarketer, secretary for Dan's boss, bartender, cashier at a fast-food restaurant, and, finally, sweeping floors at a beauty parlor. At home, Dan's poker buddy Arnie (Tom Arnold) makes a startling debut when he plants a passionate kiss on Roseanne. The Conners celebrate an outrageous Halloween that becomes an annual feature of the series. Roseanne wants 10 minutes to herself in the bathroom; this turns into a bizarre dream sequence which has the entire cast singing parodies of songs from musical comedies. Later, at Thanksgiving dinner, Dan takes wary notice of a growing romance between his father and Crystal. Jackie gets serious with new boyfriend Gary (Brian Kerwin). Becky repeatedly rebels against Roseanne and Dan's parental authority such as staying out late and breaking into the liquor cabinet with her friend Dana and getting drunk when Dan and Roseanne are out of town for the day. The reappearance of old biker buddy Ziggy (Jay O. Sanders) reminds Roseanne and Dan of their own rebellious past. Darlene first proves her talent for writing when she wins recognition for her poetry. Roseanne's own writing talents are given a boost when her family fixes up a basement room to serve as a writer's den. This is the first season where we hear Roseanne thinking out loud.[38]

text: Other notable guest stars during the season include Stephen Dorff as Becky's boyfriend Jimmy, Jenny Lewis as Becky's friend Diane, Stephen Root as Roseanne's lawyer Peter, and Bert Parks as a judge. Ann Wedgeworth played Dan Conner's mother in the Thanksgiving episode.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: The season opens with the Conner women confronting the issue of pregnancy: Roseanne takes a pregnancy test that turns up negative. Roseanne takes on a job as waitress in the restaurant at Rodbell's Department Store, where she meets Leon (Martin Mull) and Bonnie (Bonnie Sheridan). Jackie gets injured on the job, which results in her breaking up with her boyfriend Gary. Becky begins dating Mark Healy (Glenn Quinn); when her parents forbid her to see him, she temporarily moves in with Jackie. Dan is floored to learn his father Ed and Crystal plan to marry; Crystal is pregnant with Ed's baby.

text: Roseanne locks horns with snooty new neighbor Kathy (Meagen Fay). Nana Mary (Shelley Winters) makes her first appearance at a family barbecue. In the season finale, Ziggy reappears, proposing to open a motorcycle repair shop with Dan and Roseanne. While they are in the process of getting the business off the ground, Ziggy decides to leave because he doesn't want to feel responsible if the business fails. However, he leaves enough money for Dan to open it by himself. We never hear about him again.[39]

text: Other notable guest stars during the season include Dann Florek as Principal Hiller, Leonardo DiCaprio as Darlene's classmate, Brad Garrett as Doug, Judy Gold as Amy, Alyson Hannigan as Becky's friend Jan, and Tobey Maguire as Jeff.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: The opening credits of Season 4 change from Season 3 in that the show now stars "Roseanne Arnold" instead of "Roseanne Barr".

text: The season starts with Becky surprising Roseanne by asking for birth-control pills. Dan and Roseanne begin their new motorcycle repair shop business, Lanford Custom Cycle, while Roseanne continues to work at Rodbell's Department Store. Darlene meets David Healy (Johnny Galecki), brother of Mark (in his first appearance, the character was known as Kevin). After a brief stint working at a perfume counter, Jackie decides to become a truck driver. Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) is introduced as Arnie's fiancee. After a night of heavy drinking, Jackie discovers she slept with the newly engaged Arnie. Darlene undergoes a personality shift into a sullen goth teen. Booker makes a surprise appearance at a Halloween party. Roseanne's neighbor Kathy moves back to Chicago. Roseanne gets breast reduction surgery. Crystal gives birth to Dan's new half-brother, "Little Ed". Roseanne and Dan accompany Arnie and Nancy to their wedding in Las Vegas. At the end of the season, Lanford Custom Cycle fails, and Rodbell's Luncheonette closes. Nancy is left alone after Arnie is "abducted by aliens".[40]

text: Notable guest stars during the season include Bob Hope as himself, Jena Malone as little girl on Santa's lap, Wayne Newton as himself, David Crosby as Duke, Bonnie Sheridan as Roseanne's coworker Bonnie, Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Doogie Howser, and Rick Dees as Ken.

text: Season 5[edit]

text: After the bike shop closes, Mark decides to move to Minnesota. Becky decides to go with him, and they elope. Jackie and Roseanne each get a check for $10,000 from their mother after she and their father divorce. They, along with Nancy, decide to open a diner but can only get the money they need after Bev agrees to become a partner as well. Nancy comes out as a lesbian. The Tildens, a single father and his two daughters around Becky and Darlene's ages (Wings Hauser, Mara Hobel, Danielle Harris), move in next door. Jackie dates Fisher (Matt Roth), a much younger man. When Roseanne discovers he is physically abusive, Dan confronts him and beats him up (never shown onscreen), and is arrested. Roseanne and Jackie's father dies, and Roseanne confronts his longtime secret mistress only to find her father blamed his daughters for his abuse towards them. Roseanne's rich, estranged cousin Ronnie (Joan Collins) visits and persuades Darlene to get her GED and apply to art school. David applies as well. Darlene asks her parents if David can move in, because his mother is moving away and they want to stay together. Roseanne and Dan initially refuse, but when Roseanne sees David's mother being verbally and emotionally abusive, she decides to let him stay because it reminded her of her own troubled childhood with her equally abusive father. Roger (Tim Curry) offers Dan a deal to renovate and sell a small fixer-upper house, then runs off before the deal is complete; Jackie decides to buy the house, saving Dan from financial ruin. David gets a rejection letter from art school, while Darlene gets an acceptance. At the end of the season, Roseanne fears Darlene will run away to school, although Darlene has already decided not to go. Realizing she was wrong, Roseanne persuades Darlene to not give up on her goals just to stay with David.[41] During this season, there is a running gag in which each of the Conners (save Becky) appears in a different scene in the same long-sleeved, egg-printed shirt with a large chicken on the front.[citation needed]

text: Notable guest stars during the season include Wings Hauser as Ty Tilden, Danielle Harris as Molly Tilden, Mara Hobel as Charlotte Tilden, Loretta Lynn as herself, Morgan Fairchild as Nancy's girlfriend Marla, Bill Maher as Bob, Ed Begley, Jr. as Principal Alexander, Blake Clark as Vic, Red Buttons as Bev's lover Jake, Sally Kirkland as Mark and David's mother Barbara, Tim Curry as Nancy's lover Roger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as DJ's annoying wannabe friend George, Joan Collins as Roseanne and Jackie's cousin Ronnie, Matt Roth as Jackie's boyfriend Fisher, Steve Jones as a threatening diner patron, and in a very brief cameo, Chris Farley as a customer trying on a too-small leather jacket.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: Under pressure from Roseanne to leave the Lanford Lunch Box, Bev sells her share in the restaurant to Leon to get back at them. David proposes marriage to Darlene, but she refuses. Dan and Roseanne discover an old stash of marijuana and smoke it in their bathroom. Roseanne's past as an abuse victim arises when she reacts violently to DJ after he joyrides and wrecks her car, leading her to worry she may be continuing the cycle. Becky (now played by Sarah Chalke) and Mark return home and move into the Conners' house. Mark goes to trade school but drops out. Jackie gets pregnant as a result of a one-night stand and later develops a relationship with the baby's father, Fred (Michael O'Keefe). Roseanne and Dan discover David secretly moved in with Darlene at school and throw him out, but take him back soon after. Roseanne visits a gay bar with Nancy, where she receives a surprise kiss from Nancy's girlfriend. Jackie gives birth to a son, Andy. Dan confronts his mother's history of mental illness. The season concludes with Fred and Jackie's wedding.[42]

text: Notable guest stars during the season include Michael O'Keefe as Fred, the father of Jackie's baby; Sandra Bernhard as Nancy, Roseanne and Jackie's co-worker; Mariel Hemingway as Sharon, Nancy's girlfriend; Vicki Lawrence as Phyllis, Dan's old flame; Florence Henderson as Flo, a woman with whom Roseanne networks at a women's business club meeting; Genie Francis and Anthony Geary as General Hospital's Luke and Laura Spencer; Ahmet Zappa as Roy, Mark's handsome laconic roommate; and Fabio as himself.

text: Season 7[edit]

text: The opening credits of Season 7 change from previous seasons in that the show now stars "Roseanne" instead of "Roseanne Arnold". On the September 21, 1994 Season 7 premiere; In celebrating Roseanne's divorce and dropping her last name... All credits (Opening and closing) included the cast and crew's first names only. This was the only time this occurred in an episode during its run.

text: Season seven begins with Roseanne's pregnancy and goes on to tackle such issues as abortion, alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual dysfunction, and racial prejudice. Darlene and David break up after briefly maintaining an open relationship, leading to some awkwardness for Roseanne and Dan as they try to deal living with their daughter's ex-boyfriend. David and Darlene both date other people, but eventually, they reunite. Due to tension in the household, Mark and Becky move into a trailer. DJ plays a bigger role this season, most notably in an episode wherein he refuses to kiss a black girl in his school play.[43] Episode 19 is a special 45-minute show that recounts all the previous seasons with Roseanne being "welcomed" by other sitcom moms.[citation needed]

text: Notable guest stars during the season include Sharon Stone as a trailer-park resident, Ellen DeGeneres as Jackie and Fred's psychologist, Danny Masterson as Darlene's boyfriend Jimmy, and Traci Lords as Lanford Lunch Box busperson Stacy. In the season finale, a tribute is made to Sherwood Schwartz. Uncredited appearances at the end of the episode have Gilligan's Island cast members playing Roseanne characters. These include Dawn Wells, Bob Denver, Tina Louise, and Russell Johnson, as well as Sherwood Schwartz. Also, Isabel Sanford, Alley Mills, Barbara Billingsley, June Lockhart, and Pat Crowley appear as themselves in another episode.

text: Season 8[edit]

text: Season eight addresses Roseanne's baby shower and the subsequent arrival of her son, Jerry Garcia Conner. (In a continuity error, the baby had been revealed to be a girl in season seven. Roseanne, in an after-credits out of character scene, explains that after she fell pregnant she wished the Conners' baby to be the same gender as hers). The season starts when Dan decides to leave the security of his city job to help build the new prison being constructed outside of Lanford. With the pension, final check, and retirement money he receives for leaving his job he decides to give his family the vacation they never had and takes everyone, including Mark, David, and Roseanne's mother, along to Walt Disney World.

text: It is later revealed that one of the nights the clan was at Disney was also the night Darlene got pregnant. Darlene quickly decides she and David want to have the baby and the two get engaged. The season climaxes with a very rushed wedding for Darlene. Immediately after the ceremony, realizing how much has been changing, Dan suffers a heart attack. In the next episode it is revealed that he survives, as DJ saved his life. The season concludes with Dan and Roseanne having a bitter fight after Dan refuses to stick to his diet and exercise plan, rehashing many of the buried personality clashes of the entire series. They end up wrecking their living room in the process. The credits fade as Roseanne walks out on Dan. Other subjects are DJ's Thanksgiving pageant, Darlene's wedding, and Dan's heart attack.[44]

text: Notable guest stars during the season include Fred Willard as Leon's husband Scott, Ed McMahon as himself, John Popper (with Blues Traveler) as an old friend of Dan's, Pat Harrington Jr. as himself, Jenna Elfman as hitchhiker Garland, Shecky Greene as Bar Mitzvah guest Uncle Saul, Norm Crosby as Reverend Crosley, June Lockhart as Leon's mother, the cast of Stomp as Lanford Lunch Box patrons, Eric Dane as a Disney World bellhop, and Tony Curtis as ballroom-dance instructor Hal.

text: Season 9[edit]

text: The opening titles of Season 9 still say the show stars "Roseanne", but the first episode credits her as "Roseanne Barr Pentland Arnold Thomas".

text: The ninth season features many changes. In previous seasons, the original theme song was played on saxophone, accompanied by drums and other instruments. For this final season, the theme was re-recorded and performed by Blues Traveler with a distorted harmonica—one of the band's staples—playing in place of the saxophone. Lyrics were also added and sung into the theme by the band's lead vocalist, John Popper. Episodes in this season exhibit a much more surreal style. Additionally, the 'daily struggle' theme of previous episodes is abandoned, and the season focuses primarily on bringing the characters full circle emotionally.

text: The Conners win the state lottery jackpot of $108 million; Dan ponders the meaning of life, Jackie meets her prince, DJ finds love, and Darlene, after some trouble, gives birth. John Goodman is absent for most of the season, as he was busy filming The Big Lebowski; in later episodes, Goodman resembles his "Lebowski" character Walter Sobchak.

text: In the season's final episode, Roseanne reveals the entire series itself is actually a story written by Roseanne Conner about her life. To cope, Roseanne twisted major elements of her life for the story, which the audience does not discover until the final moments of the season. In reality, Dan's heart attack near the end of Season 8 was fatal and the Conner family did not win the lottery. A story arc running through the final season, that Dan betrayed Roseanne by having an affair, is revealed to be false. We learn that Dan's betrayal wasn't having an affair, but dying.

text: Tough Roseanne, who could always take the worst life could throw at her with a laugh, could not handle Dan's death. Also, Jackie is a lesbian and Beverly is straight. Scott is a probate lawyer whom Roseanne befriended, and set up with Leon—who she claims isn't very hip the way she had written him to be; this seems a tad tongue in cheek.[45] Becky is dating David and Darlene is with Mark.

text: Guest stars during the season include Edward Asner as Lou Grant, Heather Matarazzo as D.J.’s girlfriend, Dann Florek as Doctor Rudmen, Jim Varney as Jackie's boyfriend Prince Carlos, Tammy Faye Bakker as Roseanne's makeup consultant, Dina Merrill as Doris, Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone and Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon (reprising their roles from Absolutely Fabulous), Arianna Huffington as Estree, Marlo Thomas as Tina, James Brolin as Roseanne's business partner/love interest Edgar Wellman, Jr., and Ann Wedgeworth and Debbie Reynolds as Dan's mother Audrey, as well as Hugh Hefner, Milton Berle, Robin Leach, Todd Oldham, Moon Unit and Ahmet Zappa, Tony Robbins, Kathleen Sullivan, Steven Seagal, and Jerry Springer as themselves.

text: Revival[edit]

text: During the show's final season, Barr was in negotiations with Carsey-Werner Productions and ABC executives to continue playing Roseanne Conner in a spin-off.[46] However, ABC withdrew from negotiations with Carsey-Werner and Barr after failed discussions with CBS and Fox. Barr and Carsey-Werner agreed to discontinue the negotiations.[47]

text: In the fall of 2008, Barr commented on what the current whereabouts of the Conners would be. "I've always said now that if they were on TV, DJ would have been killed in Iraq and [the Conners] would have lost their house". When asked for more details on where the rest of the Conners (Dan, Jackie, Becky, Darlene, David, and Mark) would be, Barr responded: "Your question is intellectual property that may be developed later, so I don't want to get into that". She added, "No preview, absolutely not".[48]

text: On December 20, 2009, Barr posted an entry on her website regarding what a possible Roseanne reunion would be like, which includes: DJ being published, Mark dying in Iraq; David leaving Darlene for a woman half his age, Darlene coming out of the closet and meeting a woman and having a test tube baby with her, Becky working at Walmart, Roseanne and Jackie opening the first medical marijuana dispensary in Lanford, Arnie becoming the best friend of the Governor of Illinois and remarrying Nancy, Bev selling a painting for $10,000, Jerry and the grandsons forming a music group similar to the Jonas Brothers, Dan reappearing alive after faking his death, and Bonnie being arrested for selling crack.[49]

text: Season 10[edit]

text: On April 28, 2017, television trade publications reported an 8-episode revival of the series, being shopped to multiple networks including ABC and Netflix.[50][51] Barr, Goodman, and Gilbert were attached to reprise their roles, while Metcalf was considered likely to return.[50][52]

text: Barr, Tom Werner, Bruce Helford will produce the series, alongside Gilbert, who will serve as an executive producer while Helford and Whitney Cummings will be handling day-to-day oversight of the show.[53][52] Original writer Norm Macdonald has stated he has written for eight of the episodes.[54]

text: In May 2017, it was announced the series was greenlit and would air on ABC mid–season in 2018.[55] Metcalf, Fishman, Goranson, and Chalke were all announced to return. Chalke, who played the character Becky in later seasons, will appear as Andrea, a married woman who hires Becky to be her surrogate.[56] Glenn Quinn, who played Becky's husband, Mark, died in December 2002 of a heroin overdose at the age of 32.[57] On December 1, 2017, it was announced that Johnny Galecki would be reprising his role of David Healy for one episode.[58]

text: Production of nine new episodes began in the fall of 2017 and wrapped in mid-December. The revival features the original cast from the previous nine seasons. New characters include David and Darlene's two children as well as D.J.'s daughter. Sarah Chalke also appears as a new character, Andrea. The sets of the Conner house were replicated at the same studio where the show was filmed for its original run. Season 10 was scheduled as a mid-season replacement to premiere on March 27, 2018.

text: On September 21, 2017, it was revealed that Emma Kenney would be portraying Harris Conner Healy, Darlene's eldest child who was born in Season 9.[59]

text: On December 7, 2017, it was confirmed that Estelle Parsons and Sandra Bernhard would return to the series. Parsons will appear in two episodes while Bernhard will appear in one.[60]

text: On February 25, 2018, it was revealed on the show's official Twitter account that the trailer for the revival season would premiere during the 90th Academy Awards on March 4, 2018.[61] To promote the show, ABC sponsored the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Auto Club Speedway by naming it the Roseanne 300.[62]

text: On March 26, 2018, Sara Gilbert revealed on Good Morning America that her sketch with John Goodman on The Talk (which Gilbert created and co-hosts) as their Roseanne characters, and Goodman's willingness to do a reboot, inspired Gilbert to reach out to her cast mates to revive the show.[63]

text: On March 28, 2018, Roseanne Barr echoed Gilbert's statements on The Wendy Williams Show and also confirmed that Gilbert's sketch on The Talk went viral on the internet citing a demand for a reboot.[64]

text: Roseanne's tenth season premiered on March 27, 2018, with two back-to-back episodes on ABC. The premiere begins 20 years after the previous episode, with Season 9 and the final episode being almost completely retconned out of existence as both a dream of and a story by Roseanne; namely Dan's death, when he is actually alive. A now separated and unemployed Darlene moves back into the Conner household with her two children Harris (whose existence is the only surviving element from Season 9, although the character is several years younger) and Mark (whose gender presentation is cause for conflict).

text: Roseanne and Dan have lost weight but are now on medication. DJ has served a tour in the Army and now has a daughter named Mary (with DJ's wife still serving abroad) and Jerry is away in Alaska on a fishing boat. When the first episode begins, Roseanne and Jackie haven't spoken since the 2016 presidential election (Roseanne having voted for Donald Trump while Jackie voted for Jill Stein despite her having no idea who Stein was, describing her as "some doctor"), although the two are reconciled after intervention by Darlene. Meanwhile, desperate for money, Becky, who has been struggling to make ends meet after the death of her husband Mark, agrees to act as a surrogate mother for a woman named Andrea (Sarah Chalke) which is opposed by Roseanne and Dan since Becky's eggs will be used for the pregnancy.

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, season 10 holds an approval rating of 75% based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 6.74/10. The website consensus reads: "Roseanne's return finds the show's classic format, original cast, and timely humor intact, even if the latest batch of episodes suffers from sporadically uneven execution."[65] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 69 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[66] Actor Tom Arnold reviewed the revival positively, specifically praising Metcalf's performance.[67]

text: U.S. president Donald Trump, whom Roseanne Barr has publicly supported, phoned to congratulate her on the success of the premiere. Barr described the call as being "pretty exciting", stating in an interview on Good Morning America that Trump "really knows ratings and how they measure things". She commented that the show would continue to address current U.S. issues, hoping that it would "[open] up civil conversation between people instead of just mudslinging."[68][69]

text: Cancellation[edit]

text:
Wanda Sykes, Head Writer of Roseanne✓
via Twitter

@iamwandasykes

text: I will not be returning to @RoseanneOnABC.

text: May 30, 2018[70]

text: On March 30, 2018, Roseanne was renewed for an eleventh season of 13 episodes, following the success of the revival's premiere night.[71]

text: On May 29, 2018, Barr posted a message on Twitter reading "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." The tweet referred to Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian-born African-American who served as Senior Advisor to former U.S. president Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. The "ape" tweet was widely criticized as racism, including by series executive producer/showrunner Bruce Helford (who said he was "personally horrified and saddened" by Barr's remarks) and the show's co-star Sara Gilbert (who called them "abhorrent" and "[not reflective of] the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show").[72][73][74] During the 19th and early 20th century, comparing apes to African Americans was widely used among American white supremacists to justify slavery and racial segregation.[75]

text: Barr's behavior on Twitter had been considered a concern among ABC executives during the lead-up to the revival's premiere, as she had a history of posting about debunked conspiracy theories – mainly those heavily circulated among the hard-right and far-right – such as QAnon and Pizzagate, along with other controversial topics on her account, with a particular focus on content that would appeal to supporters of Donald Trump.[10][76][77][78] The Jarrett posting was the culmination of several controversial tweets she also made that morning, mainly involving false conspiracy theories about George Soros, claiming that Chelsea Clinton was married to one of his nephews, Soros was wanting to "[overthrow the] U.S. constitutional republic" by backing district attorney candidates that would "ignore US law & favor 'feelings' instead-and call everyone who is alarmed by that 'racist'", and falsely accusing Soros of being a Nazi during his youth.[79] In commending ABC's decision to cancel the revival, Barr's ex-husband and original series recurring cast member Tom Arnold claimed that he had notified ABC of Barr's frequent tweets concerning false claims similar to those she had made during the morning of May 29 that led to the network's reversing its decision to renew the show.[73]

text: In the wake of the posting, consulting producer/writer Wanda Sykes announced that she would no longer be involved with the program.[80] Barr defended the tweet as being a "joke", and stated in a subsequent post, "ISLAM is not a RACE, lefties. Islam includes EVERY RACE of people". Barr later deleted the "ape" tweet and posted an apology, stating that she was "truly sorry for making a bad joke about [Jarrett's] politics and her looks."[8][10][79] ABC ultimately announced later in the day that it had reversed the renewal decision and canceled Roseanne; network president Channing Dungey stated that Barr's remarks were "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values."[81][82] ABC pulled a rerun that was scheduled to air that night, replacing it with an episode of The Middle (which had ended its nine-season run the week prior, and which ABC had already scheduled a rerun to air immediately following Roseanne that evening), and suspended its campaign for the series to be considered for nomination at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards.[83] Hulu also announced it would remove all episodes of the original and revival series from its library; Viacom-owned cable channels Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT dropped the series from their lineups effective the following day, while digital multicast network Laff pulled reruns from its schedule effective immediately.[84][79][85][86] In a tweet she later deleted, co-star Emma Kenney revealed that she was contacting her agent asking to quit the revival when she heard about the show's cancellation, remarking that she felt "empowered by [Sykes, Dungey and ABC for] standing up against abuse of power and lack of values. Bullies do not win. Ever."[73]

text: ABC had heavily emphasized the success of Roseanne during its upfront presentations for the 2018–19 television season, leading to questions over possible repercussions for the network due to the loss of potential advertising revenue, and its plans for what would have been Roseanne's time slot on the fall schedule.[87][88]

text: Shortly before the cancellation was announced by ABC, Barr – who attributed the tweet about Jarrett and others made earlier that day to side effects from the sleep aid Ambien, a claim derided by many critics – apologized for the remarks, saying, "I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me – my joke was in bad taste." Hours after the cancellation announcement, BuzzFeed later released a longer apology to Jarrett, the network and her show's cast and crew: "I deeply regret my comments from late last night on Twitter. Above all, I want to apologize to Valerie Jarrett, as well as to ABC and the cast and crew of the Roseanne show. I am sorry for making a thoughtless joke that does not reflect my values — I love all people and am very sorry. Today my words caused hundreds of hardworking people to lose their jobs. I also sincerely apologize to the audience that has embraced my work for decades. I apologize from the bottom of my heart and hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me." However, she would later retweet posts defending her, as well as a another concerning the conspiracy theory of Soros being a Nazi collaborator.[72]

text: Ratings[edit]

text: Roseanne was successful from its beginning, ranking #1 in the Nielsen ratings its second season, becoming the most watched television program in the United States from 1989 to 1990, and spending its first six seasons among the Nielsen ratings' top five highest-rated shows; the finale attracted 16 million viewers.[citation needed]

text: Roseanne consistently ranked in the top four of the Nielsen for its first six seasons. The series reached #1 in its second season, becoming the most watched television show in the United States, narrowly beating out The Cosby Show.[89][90][91] Ratings slowly started slipping after season six, though the show stayed within the top 10 through season seven, and the top 20 during season eight. It dropped to 35th place during the ninth and final season of its original run.

text: The premiere of season 10 set records for Nielsen's delayed viewing metrics; it was seen by 18.45 million live and same day viewers, but gained an additional 6.59 viewers via Live+3 metrics—the largest-ever increase in total viewership from three days of delayed viewing since the 2014 premiere of fellow ABC series How to Get Away with Murder. 2.2 million additional viewers were added over the following four days (totalling 27.26 million viewers overall), resulting in a net increase of 8.81 million viewers in the week since the premiere broadcast. This broke a record for the largest ratings gain from Live+7 viewership, previously set by the premiere of fellow ABC series The Good Doctor in September 2017.[92][93][94][95]

text:
Season
Time slot (ET)
Episodes
Premiered
Ended
TV season
Season averages

Date
Viewers
(millions)
Date
Viewers
(millions)
Rank
Viewers
(millions)

1
Tuesday 9:00 pm
23
October 18, 1988
21.00[96]
May 2, 1989
Unknown
1988–89
2[97]
N/A

2
24
September 12, 1989
Unknown
May 8, 1990
27.80[98]
1989–90
1[99]
N/A

3
25
September 18, 1990
29.80[100]
May 14, 1991
21.90[101]
1990–91
3[102]
N/A

4
25
September 17, 1991
28.50[103]
May 12, 1992
32.70[104]
1991–92
2[105]
N/A

5
25
September 15, 1992
36.70[104]
May 18, 1993
28.80[106]
1992–93
2[107]
N/A

6
25
September 14, 1993
30.10[108]
May 24, 1994
28.10[109]
1993–94
4[110]
N/A

7
Wednesday 9:00 pm
26
September 21, 1994
28.90[111]
May 24, 1995
16.30[112]
1994–95
9[113]
N/A

8
Tuesday 8:00 pm
25
September 19, 1995
22.50[114]
May 21, 1996
18.80[115]
1995–96
16[116]
N/A

9
24
September 17, 1996
18.90[117]
May 20, 1997
16.60[118]
1996–97
35[119]
N/A

10
9
March 27, 2018
18.44[120]
May 22, 2018
10.58[121]
2017–18
3[122]
17.85[122]

text: Syndication[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Roseanne was put into off-network syndication beginning in September 1992.

text: TBS aired reruns of Roseanne from 1996 through 2004. Cable channel Nick at Nite aired reruns of the show from the fall of 2003 until 2009; it has since moved to TV Land's "TV Land Prime" schedule. Oxygen aired reruns for several years under the ownership of Carsey-Werner before its 2007 acquisition by NBCUniversal. The show returned to Nick at Nite's lineup on October 5, 2009, replacing Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in its late-night timeslot. As of January 2010, Nick at Nite has once again taken Roseanne from its time slot. In Australia, the show is seen on the channel 111 Hits and Eleven. In the UK, it aired in reruns on Channel 4.

text: WE tv and CMT both began airing the series in September 2012.[123][124] The show also was carried by Nick at Nite/CMT sister network Logo TV, and over-the-air on Laff.

text: Viacom pulled the series from its networks in May 2018, concurrently with ABC's cancellation, along with Laff.[84][125]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: In 1993, Roseanne Barr and Laurie Metcalf both won Emmy Awards for their performances in the series, Barr for Outstanding Lead Actress and Metcalf for Outstanding Supporting Actress. Metcalf also won in 1992 and 1994.[citation needed]

text: In 1993, Roseanne Barr and John Goodman both won Golden Globe Awards, Barr for Best Actress and Goodman for Best Actor. The series won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.[citation needed]

text: The series won a Peabody Award in 1992 and a People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy Program in 1989. Barr won five additional People's Choice Awards for Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Program (1989), Favorite Female All Around Entertainer (1990), and Favorite Female TV Performer (1990, 1994, and 1995).[citation needed]

text: In 2008, the entire cast (except for Metcalf) reunited at the TV Land Awards to receive the Innovator Award. In their acceptance speech, they honored late cast member Glenn Quinn.[126]

text: Peabody Award[edit]

text: 1992 Excellence in Television Broadcasting (won)

text: Emmy Awards[edit]

text:
1989 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1990 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1991 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1992 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1992 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Roseanne Barr)
1992 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Laurie Metcalf, won)
1993 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1993 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Roseanne Barr, won)
1993 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Sara Gilbert)
1993 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Laurie Metcalf, won)
1994 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1994 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Roseanne Barr)
1994 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Sara Gilbert)
1994 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Laurie Metcalf, won)
1995 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1995 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Roseanne Barr)
1995 Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Laurie Metcalf)

text: The show also received several nominations in Editing, Art Direction, Music, Lighting Direction, Writing and Hairstyling.

text: Golden Globe Awards[edit]

text:
1989 Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy
1989 Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (John Goodman)
1989 Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Roseanne Barr)
1990 Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (John Goodman)
1991 Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (John Goodman)
1991 Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Roseanne Barr)
1992 Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Roseanne Barr)
1993 Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy (won)
1993 Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (John Goodman, won)
1993 Best Actress Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Roseanne Barr, won)
1993 Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Laurie Metcalf)
1994 Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy
1994 Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Roseanne Barr)
1995 Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Laurie Metcalf)

text: Screen Actors Guild Awards[edit]

text:
1994 Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series (John Goodman)
1994 Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series (Roseanne Barr)

text: People's Choice Awards[edit]

text:
1989 Favorite New Television Comedy Program (won)
1989 Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Program (Roseanne Barr, won)
1990 Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer (Roseanne Barr, won)
1990 Favorite Female TV Performer (Roseanne Barr, won)
1994 Favorite Female TV Performer (Roseanne Barr, won)
1995 Favorite Female TV Performer (Roseanne Barr, won)

text: TV Land Award[edit]

text: 2008 Innovator Award (won)

text: American Comedy Awards[edit]

text:
1989 Funniest Male Leading Performer in a Television Series (John Goodman, won)
1989 Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series (Roseanne Barr, won)
1990 Funniest Male Leading Performer in a Television Series (John Goodman, won)
1993 Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series (Roseanne Barr, won)
1996 Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series (Roseanne Barr)

text: Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards[edit]

text:
1992 Favorite Television Actress (Roseanne Barr, won)
1995 Favorite Television Actress (Roseanne Barr)
1996 Favorite Television Actress (Roseanne Barr)
1997 Favorite Television Actress (Roseanne Barr)

text: Home media releases[edit]

text: Anchor Bay Entertainment (quietly named Starz Home Entertainment resulting in some DVD packaging bearing this name) released all nine seasons on DVD in Region 1 (2005–2007) and Region 2. The first season was issued with shorter, syndicated versions of the episodes because Anchor Bay was unable to obtain permission to release the original broadcasts. In the company's eighth and ninth season DVDs, some scenes have been altered to avoid disputes over music rights, including substituting some closing credit scenes with a black screen. Including the Patty Duke parody from Season 8, Episode 1. As of 2010, the Region 1 releases have been discontinued and are out of print.

text: On May 4, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that they had acquired the rights to re-release the series uncut on DVD in Region 1. They have subsequently re-released all nine seasons and a complete series set with the first seven seasons in their uncut form.[127][128][129][130][131] Seasons 8 and 9 are still edited, while most of the music references were retained, some of the credit scenes are still missing.[132][133]

text: In Germany, Universum Film has released the entire series on DVD, and released a complete series box set on July 3, 2009.[134] Unlike the Anchor Bay releases, these were mostly unedited. Footage from Some Like It Hot is excluded from an eighth season episode, for unknown reasons.

text: In Australia and New Zealand, Magna Pacific has released all nine seasons on DVD in Region 4. Unlike the Anchor Bay releases, Magna Pacific's first season DVDs include the full-length original broadcast episodes.

text:
Season
Ep#
Release dates
Special features

Region 1
Region 2
Region 4

1
23
August 30, 2005
September 13, 2011 (re-release)
September 19, 2005
June 7, 2006
Roseanne-on-Roseanne candid interview, bloopers, season one highlights, Interview: "John Goodman Takes a Look Back", "Wisdom from the Domestic Goddess".

2
24
December 6, 2005
September 13, 2011 (re-release)
February 6, 2006
October 4, 2006
John Goodman: "A Candid Interview", Best of Season Two, "Wacky Jackie", "Roseanne Untied: Season 1 Launch Party", John Goodman's audition.

3
25
March 21, 2006
April 3, 2012 (re-release)
May 15, 2006
February 7, 2007
Laurie Metcalf Interview: "The Sister that Never Leaves", Lecy Goranson Interview: "I Was a Teenage Becky", Best of Season Three.

4
25
June 27, 2006
April 3, 2012 (re-release)
March 17, 2007
June 6, 2007
Interview with Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman, Roseanne Interview: "Life Imitating Art, Imitating Roseanne", audio commentary with Roseanne on select episodes.

5
25
September 12, 2006
September 4, 2012 (re-release)
September 9, 2009
November 7, 2007
Video commentaries with Roseanne, Roseanne answers eight fan questions, an exclusive interview with Roseanne.

6
25
December 5, 2006
September 4, 2012 (re-release)
September 9, 2009
March 18, 2008
No Special Features

7
26
April 3, 2007
March 19, 2013 (re-release)
October 12, 2009
July 9, 2008

8
25
August 7, 2007
March 19, 2013 (re-release)
October 12, 2009
January 13, 2010
Video commentaries with Roseanne, "Roseanne: Working-Class Actress" Interview

9
24
October 16, 2007
May 14, 2013 (re-release)
November 16, 2009
January 13, 2010
Two new exclusive interviews: "Legacy of Class" and "Breaking the Sitcom Mold". Video commentary with Roseanne & Michael Fishman

The Complete Series
222
May 14, 2013
July 3, 2009
N/A
Interviews with Cast and Crew, Blooper and Highlight Reels, Video Commentary, Fans Top Questions, A Candid Interview with Roseanne


document_title: Lone Ranger

question_text: why did the lone ranger wear a mask

question_tokens: why did the lone ranger wear a mask

text: Lone Ranger

text: Origin[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger was named so because the character is the only survivor of a group of six Texas Rangers.[11] While details differ, the basic story of the origin of the Lone Ranger is the same in most versions of the franchise.[8] A posse of six members of the Texas Ranger Division pursuing a band of outlaws led by Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish is betrayed by a civilian guide named Collins and is ambushed in a canyon named Bryant's Gap.[12] Later, an Indian named Tonto stumbles onto the scene and discovers one ranger is barely alive, and he nurses the man back to health. In some versions, Tonto recognizes the lone survivor as the man who saved his life when they both were children. According to the television series, when Tonto left the Reid place with a horse given him by the boy Reid, he gave Reid a ring and the name Kemo Sabe, which he said means "trusty scout".[13] Among the Rangers killed was the survivor's older brother, Daniel Reid, who was a captain in the Texas Rangers and the leader of the ambushed group. To conceal his identity and honor his fallen brother, Reid fashions a black domino mask from the material of his brother's vest. To aid in the deception, Tonto digs a sixth grave and places at its head a cross bearing Reid's name so that Cavendish and his gang would believe that all of the Rangers had been killed.

text: In many versions Reid continues fighting for justice as The Lone Ranger even after the Cavendish gang is captured.

text: Characters[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger[edit]

text: As generally depicted, the Lone Ranger conducts himself by a strict moral code based on that put in place by Striker at the inception of the character. It read:

text: I believe...

text:
That to have a friend, a man must be one.
That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for what is right.
That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
That 'this government of the people, by the people, and for the people' shall live always.
That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
That sooner or later...somewhere...somehow...we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.
In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.[14]

tag: ul

text: In addition, Fran Striker and George W. Trendle drew up the following guidelines that embody who and what the Lone Ranger is:[15]

text:
The Lone Ranger was never seen without his mask or some sort of disguise.
He was never captured or held for any length of time by lawmen, avoiding his being unmasked.
He always used perfect grammar and precise speech devoid of slang and colloquialisms.
Whenever he was forced to use guns, he never shot to kill, but instead tried to disarm his opponent as painlessly as possible.
He was never put in a hopeless situation; e.g., he was never seen escaping from a barrage of gunfire merely by fleeing toward the horizon.
He rarely referred to himself as the Lone Ranger. If someone's suspicion were aroused, the Lone Ranger would present one of his silver bullets to confirm his identity; but many times someone else would attest on his behalf. The origin of this name was, following the Bryant's Gap ambush, Tonto observed him to be the only ranger left—the "lone ranger"; Tonto's choice of words inspired him to call himself "The Lone Ranger".
Even though The Lone Ranger offered his aid to individuals or small groups facing powerful adversaries, the ultimate objective of his story always implied that their benefit was only a by-product of the development of the West or the country.
Adversaries were rarely other than American, to avoid criticism from minority groups. There were some exceptions to this rule. He sometimes battled foreign agents, though their nation of origin was generally not named. An exception was his having helped the Mexican Benito Juárez against French troops of Emperor Maximilian, as occurred in the radio episodes "Supplies for Juarez" (18 September 1939), "Hunted by Legionnaires" (20 September 1939) and "Lafitte's Reinforcements" (22 September 1939).
The names of unsympathetic characters were carefully chosen so that they never consisted of two names if it could be avoided. More often than not, a single nickname was selected.
The Lone Ranger never drank or smoked; and saloon scenes were usually shown as cafes, with waiters and food instead of bartenders and liquor.
Criminals were never shown in enviable positions of wealth or power, and they were never successful or glamorous.

text: The Lone Ranger's first name[edit]

text: Although the Lone Ranger's last name in the radio shows was given as Reid, his first name was never specified in any of the radio or television shows. Various radio reference books, beginning with Radio's Golden Age (Eastern Valley Press, 1966), give the Lone Ranger's first name as John.[16] Some cite the 20th anniversary radio program in 1953 as the source of the name, but the Lone Ranger's first name is never mentioned in that episode.[17]

text: In the final chapter of the 1938 Republic The Lone Ranger movie serial, he is revealed to be Texas Ranger Allen King. In the second serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again, he identifies himself as "Bill Andrews".

text: The Lone Ranger's first name is also thought not to have been mentioned in contemporary Lone Ranger newspaper comics, comic books, and tie-in premiums, though some have stated that the name John Reid was used in an illustration of the grave marker made by Tonto which appeared in either a comic book version of the character's origin story or in a children's record set.

text: The name John Reid is used in a scene in the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger, in which the surviving Reid digs an extra grave for himself. The Lone Ranger is also John Reid in Dynamite Entertainment's licensed Lone Ranger comic book series that began in 2006 and in the 2013 Disney film The Lone Ranger.

text: The name "Luke Hartman" was used in the 2003 TV-movie/unsold series pilot.

text: Tonto[edit]

text: The character made his initial appearance in the 11th episode of the radio show. Fran Striker told his son that Tonto was added so the Lone Ranger would have someone to talk to.[14] He was named by James Jewell, who also came up with the term "Kemosabe" based on the name of a summer camp owned by his father-in-law in upstate Michigan. In the local Native American language, "Tonto" meant "wild one."[18]

text: The character spoke in broken English that emphasized Tonto had learned it as a second language.

text: Because Tonto means "stupid" or "ignorant" in Spanish, the character is renamed "Toro" (Spanish for "bull") or "Ponto" in Spanish-speaking countries.[18]

text: Dan Reid Jr.[edit]

text: The name of Captain Reid's son, the Lone Ranger's nephew, a character introduced in the radio series in 1942, who became a juvenile sidekick to the Masked Man, is Dan Reid. When Trendle and Striker later created The Green Hornet in 1936, they made this Dan Reid the father of Britt Reid, alias the Green Hornet, thereby making the Lone Ranger the Green Hornet's great-uncle.[19] Throughout The Lone Ranger radio series, Dan was played by Ernest Winstanley, Bob Martin, Clarence Weitzel, James Lipton and Dick Beals.

text: The Lone Ranger's nephew made his first appearance in "Heading North" (December 14, 1942) under the name "Dan Frisby", the grandson of Grandma Frisby. The two lived in an area described as "the high border country of the northwest" near the town of Martinsville close to the Canada–US border. This and the following four episodes ("Design for Murder", December 16, 1942; "Rope's End", December 18, 1942; "Law of the Apex", December 21, 1942; and "Dan's Strange Behavior", December 23, 1942) centred on a plot to steal the valuable Martin Copper Mine and Dan's being fooled by a Lone Ranger impostor into helping him steal it. The Lone Ranger and the Mounties foil the plot and capture the impostor and his gang.

text: In the final episode of the arc, "A Nephew is Found" (December 25, 1942), the dying Grandma Frisby reveals to The Lone Ranger Dan's true identity and how he came to be with her. Fifteen years previously, Grandma Frisby had been part of a wagon train travelling to Fort Laramie. Also on that wagon train had been Linda Reid, wife of Texas Ranger Captain Dan Reid, and her six-month-old son Dan Jr., who were travelling from their home in Virginia to join her husband. Before the wagon train could reach Fort Laramie, Indians attacked it and Linda Reid was among those killed. Grandma Frisby took charge and care of Dan Jr., but upon reaching Fort Laramie found two messages waiting: one that Captain Reid (voiced in this story by Al Hodge) had been killed in an ambush at Bryant's Gap and the other that her own husband had been killed in an explosion. Taking Dan and certain items concerning his identity (including a small gold locket containing a picture of Dan's parents and a picture of Captain Reid's brother), Grandma Frisby travelled to Martinsville and raised Dan as her grandson.

text: On hearing this story, The Lone Ranger reveals his true identity and his own story to Grandma Frisby and promises that he will care for Dan like his own son. Before Grandma Frisby passes away, The Lone Ranger removes his mask and lets her see his face. Her last words are "Ride on, Lone Ranger ... ride on forever ... with Danny at your side." The Lone Ranger takes the grieving Dan outside the cabin, gives him the locket and reveals their true relationship. Dan Reid Jr. would go on to be a recurring character throughout the remainder of the series, riding with The Lone Ranger and Tonto on his own horse Victor.

text: Eventually, Dan Reid Jr. would be sent East to gain an education, making infrequent appearances on the series whenever Fran Striker wanted to remind the audience of the family connection, and would later become part of The Green Hornet radio series, first appearing on October 22, 1936, establishing the connection between The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet in the episode "Too Hot to Handle" (November 11, 1947) and being played throughout the series by John Todd, who played "Tonto" on The Lone Ranger radio series.

text: Their horses[edit]

text: According to the episode "The Legend of Silver" (September 30, 1938), before acquiring Silver, the Lone Ranger rode a chestnut mare called Dusty. The Lone Ranger saves Silver's life from an enraged buffalo and, in gratitude, Silver chooses to give up his wild life to carry him.

text: The origin of Tonto's horse, Scout, is less clear. For a long time, Tonto rides a white horse called White Feller. In "Four Day Ride" (August 5, 1938), Tonto is given a paint horse by his friend Chief Thundercloud, who then takes White Feller. Tonto rides this horse and refers to him simply as "Paint Horse" for several episodes. The horse is finally named Scout in "Border Dope Smuggling" (September 2, 1938). In another episode, however, the Lone Ranger, in a surge of conscience, releases Silver back to the wild. The episode ends with Silver returning, bringing along a companion who becomes Tonto's horse Scout.

text: In an echo of the Lone Ranger's line, Tonto frequently says, "Git-um up, Scout!" (The phrase became so well embedded in the Lone Ranger mythos that International Harvester used it as an advertising line to promote their Scout utility vehicle in the 1970s.) In the Format Films animated cartoon which ran from 1966 to 1968, Tonto also had an eagle he called Taka, and installments that focused exclusively on him or had him team up with the Lone Ranger ended with his saying, "Fly, Taka! On, Scout!" (Those where he teamed with the Lone Ranger had the Ranger following this up with the customary "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!")

text: Original radio series[edit]

text: Premiere[edit]

text: The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ, a radio station serving Detroit, Michigan, on January 30, 1933[20] or January 31, 1933.[21] As Dunning writes in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio:

text: There may have been a few late-night on-air shakedown shows prior to the official January 31, 1933 premiere date. Lacking concrete evidence, [Lone Ranger authority Terry] Salomonson is inclined to doubt it. "There is nothing in any of the Detroit papers to indicate this, but that in itself doesn't mean much. The papers didn't even list the show in their radio logs at first."[21]

text: In any case, the show was an immediate success.[4] Though it was aimed at children, adults made up at least half the audience.[4][8][22] It became so popular, it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System and, on May 2, 1942,[23] by NBC's Blue Network, which in time became ABC.[24]

text: Introductions[edit]

text: An announcer introduced each episode with the following, which was sometimes changed to reflect the storyline of the episode:

text: In the early days of the western United States, a masked man and an Indian rode the plains, searching for truth and justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when from out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!

text: By the time it was on ABC at 7:30 pm Eastern Time, the introduction, voiced by Fred Foy, had become "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear", followed by, "From out of the west with the speed of light and a hearty 'Hi-yo, Silver!'" The intro was later changed to:

text: A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger! ... With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States! Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice! Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!

text: This was followed by Brace Beemer's voice, declaring, "Come on, Silver! Let's go, big fellow! Hi-yo, Silver! Away!"

text: Cast[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger was played by several actors:

text:
John L. Barrett, on test broadcasts on WEBR in January 1933;
George Seaton (under the name George Stenius) (January 31–May 9, 1933);
Series director James Jewell, for one episode;
An actor known only by the pseudonym "Jack Deeds", for one episode;
Earle Graser (May 16, 1933 – April 7, 1941). On April 8, Graser died in a car accident; and, for five episodes, the Lone Ranger was unable to speak beyond a whisper, with Tonto carrying the action. In addition, six episodes broadcast in August 1938 did not include the Lone Ranger's voice other than an occasional "Hi-Yo Silver!" in the background.[25] In those episodes, Tonto carried the dialog;
Brace Beemer (April 18, 1941 to the end), who had been the show's deep-voiced announcer for several years;
Fred Foy (March 29, 1954), also an announcer on the show, took over the role for one broadcast when Beemer had laryngitis.

text: Tonto was played throughout the run by actor John Todd (although there were a few isolated occasions when he was replaced by Roland Parker, better known as Kato for much of the run of sister series The Green Hornet). Other supporting players were selected from Detroit area actors and studio staff. These included Jay Michael (who also played the lead on Challenge of the Yukon, a.k.a. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon), Bill Saunders (as various villains, including Butch Cavendish), Paul Hughes (as the Ranger's friend Thunder Martin and as various army colonels and badmen), future movie star John Hodiak, Janka Fasciszewska (under the name Jane Fae), and Rube and Liz Weiss (a married couple, both actors in several radio and television programs in Detroit, Rube usually taking on villain roles on the "Ranger", and Liz playing damsels in distress). The part of nephew Dan Reid was played by various child actors, including Bob Martin, James Lipton and Dick Beals.

text: Music[edit]

text: The theme music was primarily taken from the "March of the Swiss Soldiers" finale of Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, which thus came to be inseparably associated with the series. The theme was conducted by Daniel Pérez Castañeda,[26] with the softer parts excerpted from Die Moldau, composed by Bedřich Smetana.

text: Many other classical selections were used as incidental music, including Wagner's Flying Dutchman Overture, Bizet's Symphony in C, Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave Overture, Emil von Řezníček's Donna Diana Overture, Liszt's Les préludes, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and music by Schubert.[27] Classical music was originally used because it was in the public domain, thus allowing production costs to be kept low while providing a wide range of music as needed without the cost of a composer. Interestingly, the incidental music from Liszt's Les Preludes was being used in the 1940s by Germany's Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, as a theme in German weekly news announcements, particularly to dramatize German victories in WWII.

text: In the late 1930s, Trendle acquired the rights to use incidental music from Republic Pictures motion picture serials as part of a deal for Republic to produce a serial based (loosely) on the Lone Ranger. This music was then modified by NBC radio arranger Ben Bonnell and recorded in Mexico to avoid American union rules. This music was used in both the radio and later television shows.[26]

text: Possible inspirations[edit]

text: The character was originally believed to be inspired by Texas Ranger Captain John R. Hughes, to whom the book The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey was dedicated in 1915.[28] A debunked myth was the possible historical inspiration of Bass Reeves, the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River.[29] Other suggested inspirations were Zorro and Robin Hood.[30]

text: The Green Hornet[edit]

text: The radio series inspired a spinoff called The Green Hornet, which depicts the son of the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan,[31] Britt Reid, originally played by Al Hodge, who in contemporary times, fights crime with a similar secret identity and a sidekick, Kato. In the Green Hornet comic book series published by NOW Comics, the Lone Ranger makes a cameo appearance by being in a portrait in the Reid home. Contrary to most visual media depictions, and acknowledged by developer/original script writer Ron Fortier to be the result of legal complications,[32] his mask covers all of his face, as it did in the two serials from Republic Pictures (see below). However, rights to The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet have been acquired by separate owners and the familial link has been ignored in the Western character's various incarnations. The Lone Ranger – Green Hornet connection is part of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, which connects disparate fictional characters.

text: Film serials[edit]

text: Republic Pictures released two serials starring the Lone Ranger. The first, released in 1938, utilized several actors playing different men portraying the masked hero, with the true Lone Ranger unknown to the audience until the conclusion; the character played by Lee Powell is ultimately revealed to be the Lone Ranger. The second serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again, was released in 1939 and starred Robert Livingston. Tonto was played in both by Victor Daniels, billed as Chief Thundercloud.

text: Television series[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger was a TV show that aired for eight seasons, from 1949 to 1957, and starred Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. Only five of the eight seasons had new episodes. It was the ABC television network's first big hit of the early 1950s.[20] Moore's tenure as the Ranger is probably the best-known treatment of the franchise.[33] Moore was replaced in the third season by John Hart,[34][35] but he returned for the final two seasons. The fifth and final season was the only one shot in color. A total of 221 episodes were made.

text: Hi-Yo Silver!, Kemo sabe, and other cultural tropes[edit]

text: At the beginning of each episode, the magnificent white stallion, Silver, would rear up with the Lone Ranger on his back, then they would dash off, the Ranger encouragingly shouting, "Hi-Yo, Silver!" Tonto could occasionally be heard to urge on his mount by calling out, "Get 'em up, Scout!" At the end of each episode, mission completed, one of the characters would always ask the sheriff or other authority, "Who was that masked man?" When it was explained, "Oh, he's the Lone Ranger!", the Ranger and Tonto would be seen galloping off with the cry, "Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!" catching the attention of one of the townspeople crossing the street.

text: Tonto usually referred to the Lone Ranger as "Kemo sabe", described as meaning either "faithful friend," or "trusty scout".[12][36] It is more likely the word derives from the Anishnaabe language. Gimoozaabi is said to mean "he looks out in secret." [37] These catchphrases, the Ranger's trademark silver bullets, and the theme music from the William Tell Overture have become tropes of popular culture.[citation needed]

text: Moore lawsuits[edit]

text: After the series ended, Moore continued to make public appearances as the Lone Ranger. In 1979, Jack Wrather, then owner of the rights to the character, obtained a restraining order against Moore, enjoining Moore from appearing in public in his mask.[38] The actor began wearing oversized wraparound Foster Grant sunglasses, as a substitute for the mask. Moore later won a countersuit, allowing him to resume his costume.[38]

text: Films[edit]

text: Clayton Moore series:

text: The Lone Ranger (1956)[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958)[edit]

text: Other Lone Rangers:

text: The Return of the Lone Ranger (1961)[edit]

text: In 1961 CBS produced Return of the Lone Ranger, starring Tex Hill, as the pilot episode for a proposed TV series.[citation needed]

text: The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)[edit]

text: At the time of the 1981 release of the film The Legend of the Lone Ranger, the company owning the rights to the character, Wrather Corp., filed a lawsuit and obtained a court injunction to prevent Clayton Moore from appearing as the Lone Ranger,[39] and then gave a cameo to his TV replacement, John Hart. The film itself was a critical and commercial failure. It starred Klinton Spilsbury in his only motion picture appearance. His lines were overdubbed by James Keach.[40] The part of Tonto was played by Michael Horse, a Native American of Yaqui, Mescalero Apache, Zuni, and Latino descent.

text: Moore, who never appeared publicly without his mask, was enjoined in the lawsuit from wearing it and, in protest, he began wearing oversized sunglasses that were the approximate size and shape of the mask.[41] In a sequence in the movie, John Reid, a newly graduated attorney, is travelling west in a stagecoach to meet his brother. Another passenger announces his intent to make his fortune from his invention of sunglasses. The stage is robbed and the inventor killed. As John Reid lays the dead man on the floor with the broken dark glasses, yet another passenger says, "So much for American opportunity."

text: The Lone Ranger (2003)[edit]

text: In 2003, the WB network aired a two-hour Lone Ranger TV movie, starring Chad Michael Murray as the Lone Ranger. The TV movie served as the pilot for a possible new series. However, the movie was greeted unenthusiastically; the name of the secret identity of the Lone Ranger was changed from "John Reid" to "Luke Hartman", and while an empty grave was still alongside those of the five dead Rangers, its supposed occupant was unidentified, and the hero maintained his unmasked identity, as well, becoming a cowboy version of Zorro, as in the first film serial. Ultimately, the project was shelved, with the pilot aired in telefilm form during the summer season due to Murray's popularity with the target audience of the network.

text: The Lone Ranger (2013)[edit]

text: In 2013, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films released The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as Tonto.[42] Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film is an origin story of the two characters and explores the duo's efforts to subdue the immoral actions of the corrupt, and to bring them to justice, in the American Old West. The film, produced with an estimated budget of $225 million, was received negatively by American critics and performed poorly at the box office.[43]

text: Other media[edit]

text: The series also inspired numerous comic books, books, and gramophone records.

text: Novels[edit]

text: The first Lone Ranger novel appeared in 1936, and eventually 18 volumes were published, as listed below. The first book was written by Gaylord Dubois, but the others were written by the character's primary developer, Fran Striker. Striker also re-edited and rewrote parts of later editions of the first novel. First published between 1936 and 1956 in hardback by Grosset and Dunlap, these stories were reprinted in 1978 by Pinnacle Books.

text: In 2012, Moonstone Books published the novel The Lone Ranger: Vendetta, written by Howard Hopkins.

text:
The Lone Ranger (1936)
The Lone Ranger and the Mystery Ranch (1938)
The Lone Ranger and the Gold Robbery (1939)
The Lone Ranger and the Outlaw Stronghold (1939)
The Lone Ranger and Tonto (1940)
The Lone Ranger Rides (1941)
The Lone Ranger at the Haunted Gulch (1941)
The Lone Ranger Traps the Smugglers (1941)
The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1943)
The Lone Ranger Rides North (1943)
The Lone Ranger and the Silver Bullet (1948)
The Lone Ranger on Powderhorn Trail (1949)
The Lone Ranger in Wild Horse Canyon (1950)
The Lone Ranger West of Maverick Pass (1951)
The Lone Ranger on Gunsight Mesa (1952)
The Lone Ranger and the Bitter Spring Feud (1953)
The Lone Ranger and the Code of the West (1954)
The Lone Ranger and Trouble on the Santa Fe (1955)
The Lone Ranger on Red Butte Trail (1956)
The Lone Ranger: Vendetta (2012), ISBN 978-1936814152

text: Big Little Books[edit]

text: From 1935 to 1950, 13 Big Little Books were published.

text:
The Lone Ranger and his Horse Silver (1935)
The Lone Ranger and the Vanishing Herd (1936)
The Lone Ranger and the Secret Killer (1937)
The Lone Ranger and the Menace of Murder Valley (1938)
The Lone Ranger and the Lost Valley (1938)
The Lone Ranger and Dead Men's Mine (1939)
The Lone Ranger and the Black Shirt Highwayman (1939)
The Lone Ranger and the Red Renegades (1939)
The Lone Ranger Follows Through (1941)
The Lone Ranger and the Secret Weapon (1943)
The Lone Ranger on the Barbary Coast (1944)
The Lone Ranger and the Silver Bullets (1946)
The Lone Ranger and the Secret of Somber Cavern (1950)

text: Little Golden Books[edit]

text: Three Little Golden Books were published.

text:
The Lone Ranger (1956)
The Lone Ranger and Tonto (1957)
The Lone Ranger and the Talking Pony (1958)

text: Anthologies[edit]

text: In, 1993, Perennial published the anthology The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a collection of short stories by Sherman Alexie.

text: In 2012, Moonstone Books published the anthology The Lone Ranger Chronicles, edited by Matthew Baugh Starr with stories by Johnny. D Boggs, James Reasoner, Mel Odom, Bill Crider, Matthew Baugh, Tim Lasiuta, Joe Gentile, Paul Kupperberg, Dennis O'Neil, Kent Conwell, David McDonald, Thom Brannon, Troy D. Smith, Chuck Dixon, and Richard Dean Starr, stories incorporating famous characters of the western, such as Cisco Kid, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

text:
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, 1993, Perennial, ISBN 978-0-06-097624-8
The Lone Ranger Chronicles, anthology edited by Matthew Baugh Starr, 2012, Moonstone Books, ISBN 978-1936814237

text: Comic strip[edit]

text: King Features Syndicate distributed a newspaper strip of the Lone Ranger from September 1938 to December 1971. Fran Striker himself initially scripted the feature, but time constraints soon required him to quit, replaced by Bob Green, later followed by Paul S. Newman and others.[44] The original artist was Ed Kressy, but he was replaced in 1939 by Charles Flanders (fr) who drew the strip until its conclusion.[45]

text: In 1981, the New York Times Syndicate launched a second Lone Ranger strip, written by Cary Bates with art by Russ Heath.[46] It ran until 1984. In 1993 Pure Imagination Publishing collected two of the storylines and put them in a comic book.

text: Comic books[edit]

text: In 1948, Western Publishing, with its publishing partner Dell Comics, launched a comic book series which lasted 145 issues. This originally consisted of reprints from the newspaper strips (as had all previous comic book appearances of the character in various titles from David McKay Publications and from Dell). However, new stories by writer Paul S. Newman and artist Tom Gill began with issue #38 (August 1951). Some original content was presented as early as #7 (January 1949), but these were non-Lone Ranger fillers. Newman and Gill produced the series until its final issue, #145 (July 1962).[47]

text: Tonto got his own spin-off title in 1951, which lasted 31 issues. Such was the Ranger's popularity at the time that even his horse Silver had a comic book, The Lone Ranger's Famous Horse Hi-Yo Silver, starting in 1952 and running 34 issues; writer Gaylord DuBois wrote and developed Silver as a hero in his own right. In addition, Dell also published three big Lone Ranger annuals, as well as an adaptation of the 1956 theatrical film.

text: The Dell series came to an end in 1962. Later that same year, Western Publishing ended its publishing partnership with Dell Comics and started up its own comic book imprint, Gold Key Comics. The new imprint launched its own Lone Ranger title in 1964. Initially reprinting material from the Dell run, original content did not begin until issue #22 in 1975, and the magazine itself folded with #28 in 1977.[48] Additionally, Hemmets Journal AB published a three-part Swedish Lone Ranger story the same year.[citation needed]

text: In 1994, Topps Comics produced a four-issue miniseries, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Timothy Truman.[49] One of the major changes in this series was the characterization of Tonto, who was now shown to be a very witty, outspoken, and sarcastic character, even willing to punch the Lone Ranger during a heated argument, and commenting on his past pop-culture depictions with the words, "Of course, quimo sabe. Maybe when we talk I should use that 'me Tonto' stuff, the way they write about me in the dime novels. You'd like that, wouldn't you?".[50]

text: The first issue of a new Lone Ranger series from Dynamite Entertainment by Brett Matthews and Sergio Cariello shipped September 6, 2006. It has started as a six-issue miniseries, but due to its success, it has become an ongoing series by the same team. On September 15, 2006, Dynamite Entertainment announced that The Lone Ranger #1 had sold out of its first printing. A second printing of the first issue was announced; a first for the company.[51][dead link] The series has received an Eisner Awards nomination for best new series in 2007. True West magazine awarded the publication the "Best Western Comic Book of the Year" in their 2009 Best of The West Source Book! And in 2010 Dynamite released "The Lone Ranger Avenges the Death of Zorro".

text: Comic Book Collections from Dynamite Entertainment:

text:
The Lone Ranger Vol. 1 (160 pages, Collects The Lone Ranger #1–6)
The Lone Ranger Vol. 2 Lines Not Crossed (128 pages, Collects The Lone Ranger #7–11)
The Lone Ranger Vol. 3 Scorched Earth (144 pages, Collects The Lone Ranger #12–16)
The Lone Ranger Vol. 4 Resolve (Collects The Lone Ranger #17–25)
The Lone Ranger Vol. 5 Hard Country (Collects The Lone Ranger Volume 2 #1–6)
The Lone Ranger Vol. 6 Native Ground (Collects The Lone Ranger Volume 2 #7–12)
The Lone Ranger & Tonto (128 pages)
The Lone Ranger: Snake of Iron (92 pages)
The Lone Ranger Omnibus (632 pages)
The Lone Ranger: Vindicated (112 pages)
The Lone Ranger: Death of Zorro (128 pages)

text: The Lone Ranger Magazine[edit]

text: In 1937, eight issues of The Lone Ranger Magazine were published by Trojan Publishing, with stories written by Fran Striker.[52]

text: Animation[edit]

text: In late 1930's Roy Meredith produced the first-known animated film based on Lone Ranger, in this silent film The Lone Ranger and Tonto capture a band of cattle rustlers and save the life of the rancher.[53]

text: Format Films animated cartoon, 1966 to 1968[edit]

text: An animated series of The Lone Ranger ran from 1966 to 1968 on CBS. It was produced by Herbert Klynn and Jules Engel of Format Films, Hollywood, and designed and animated at the Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Film studios in London, England. The show lasted thirty episodes; however, these were invariably split into three separate shorts, with the middle segment being a solo adventure for Tonto, so that there were actually 90 installments in all. The last episode aired on March 9, 1968.

text: These Lone Ranger adventures were similar in tone and nature to CBS's science fiction Western, The Wild Wild West, in that the plots were bizarre and had elements of science-fiction and steampunk technology thrown in. Even the Lone Ranger's greatest enemy in the animated series was a dwarf, similar to James T. West's greatest enemy, Dr. Miguelito Loveless. He was called Tiny Tom, and was voiced by Dick Beals. This animated cartoon was credited as being a Jack Wrather production, and it provided the first exposure many 1960s children had to the characters.

text: The Lone Ranger's voice was provided by Michael Rye, who had portrayed Jack Armstrong: The All-American Boy on radio. Shepard Menken played Tonto. The narrator in the opening title was Marvin Miller. Other "guest voices" were provided by Paul Winchell, Agnes Moorehead and Hans Conried.

text: The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour, early 1980s[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger was featured, along with Zorro and Tarzan, in Adventure Hour cartoon shorts in the early 1980s, produced by Filmation. These episodes featured William Conrad as the voice of the Masked Man, although he was listed in the credits as "J. Darnoc" (Conrad spelled backwards). This series took a more realistic tone with a heavily historical context to include an educational element to the stories, even though there were several episodes that did feature elements of science fiction (much like the earlier cartoons from the 1960s). There were 14 episodes, combining two adventures in each episode, for a total of 28 stories. Though Conrad was the main voice featured, other noted voice actors in the Filmation series include an uncredited Lou Scheimer, Frank Welker, and Michael Bell.

text: The Lone Ranger: The Lost Episodes, 2001[edit]

text: In 2001, GoodTimes Home Video released a videotape called The Lone Ranger: The Lost Episodes. Along with clips from the first 1930s film serial, trailers for the two post-TV series features, commercials with Moore, and sometimes Silverheels, in character, and two complete television episodes, there was a cartoon short, said to date from the late 1930s.[54][55] This cartoon was produced by Pathegrams on 16mm film and sold to the home market and libraries, which often showed cartoons as a prelude to the feature films they would play for children, much as they do videos now. It was a silent film, like most films produced for the home market in those days, and had dialog written on title cards, just as films of the silent era. The DVD also has the approximately eight-minute-long documentary, "The Lone Ranger and the Peace Patrol". Presented and narrated by Clayton Moore, it revolves around purchasing U.S. Savings Stamps, a child's version of Savings Bonds. The main focus is to get children to invest in the stamps. The narrated segment culminates with the inaugural ceremonies on the grounds of the Washington Memorial before a crowd of thousands of children and their parents.

text: Video game[edit]

text: A video game version of The Lone Ranger was released by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1991. It is an action adventure game featuring three different perspectives: side-scrolling, overhead, and first-person exploration. The game loosely follows the plot of the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger, with the ultimate goal being the rescue of the President of the United States, whom the Lone Ranger's nemesis, "Butch" Cavendish, has kidnapped.

text: Premiums[edit]

text: The Lone Ranger program offered many radio premiums, including the Lone Ranger Six-Shooter Ring and the Lone Ranger Deputy Badge. Some used a silver bullet motif. One ring had a miniature of one of his six-guns atop it, with a flint and striking wheel, as used in cigarette lighters, so that "fanning" the miniature pistol would produce a shower of sparks. During World War II, the premiums adapted to the times. In 1942, the program offered the Kix Blackout Kit.

text: Some premiums were rather anachronistic for a 19th-century hero. In 1947, the program offered the Kix Atomic Bomb Ring, also known to collectors as the Lone Ranger Atom Bomb Ring.[56] This ring was a miniature spinthariscope that actually had a small amount of polonium-210 in it, which emitted alpha particles to produce scintillations on the zinc sulfide outer part of the ring. With its tailfin piece removed, though, the "bomb" body looked like a silver bullet.

text: The sponsor was General Mills, with its breakfast-cereal products: Cheerios, Wheaties, and Kix. In 1947, Cheerios produced a line of Frontier Town cereal boxes with the Lone Ranger likeness on the front of the box. Different versions of the boxes would have Frontier Town buildings on their backs to cut out. One could also send in ten cents and a box-top to get each of the four map sections of the town. These, as well as nine different boxes, were needed to complete the cardboard Frontier Town.

text: Toys[edit]

text: Besides the premiums offered in connection with the radio series, there have been many Lone Ranger commercial toys released over the years. One of the most successful was a line of 10-inch action figures and accessories released by Gabriel Toys in 1973.

text: Parodies and spoofs[edit]

text: In the 1939 Looney Tune The Lone Stranger and Porky, supervised by Bob Clampett, the masked man comes to the rescue of stagecoach driver in distress Porky Pig.[57]

text: In 1940, Hugh Harman made a Lone Ranger parody for MGM Cartoons titled The Lonesome Stranger.[58]

text: Jay Silverheels appeared as Tonto on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson in a comedy sketch in which Carson is interviewing Tonto for employment. The audio portion of this sketch was included in the LP Here's Johnny! Magic Moments From The Tonight Show, released by Casablanca Records.

text: Both Clayton Moore and Silverheels appeared as the Lone Ranger and Tonto in a commercial for Jeno's Pizza Rolls produced by ad man/satirist Stan Freberg. The commercial was a spoof of a then-current commercial for Lark cigarettes which also used the William Tell overture theme music.

text: A recorded routine by comic Lenny Bruce formed the basis for the 1971 animated cartoon, Thank You Mask Man, produced by John Magnuson Associates. This was an adult humor routine, comically implying a gay relationship between the Ranger and Tonto.

text: Parody versions of The Lone Ranger (called Lonely Rider) and Tonto appear as main characters in 1971 Finnish western comedy The Unhanged (Hirttämättömät). They were played by Vesa-Matti Loiri and Simo Salminen.

text: The Top Ranger is a movie parody produced by Disney starring Mickey Mouse (Top Ranger) and Goofy (Tonto-lone), with the script and drawing by Marco Gervasio and published in an Italian comic book, Topolino #3005 (July 2, 2013).[59]

text: "The Provolone Ranger", an episode of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, featured Mario donning a mask to fight outlaws alongside of a speedy companion named Pronto. In a spoof of the Lone Ranger's habit of leaving before those whom he has helped can thank him, the episode ends with Mario returning to collect a reward of pasta.

text: In "Wild West Rangers"", a two-part episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart (Amy Jo Johnson) falls backwards through time to the Old West, where she meets look-alike ancestors of her fellow Power Rangers and other characters in the show. A hero called the White Stranger, a mask-less duplicate of Kimberly's boyfriend Tommy Oliver, the White Ranger (played by Jason David Frank) rides to the rescue on more than one occasion when danger threatens.

text: Ownership[edit]

text: From its inception, George W. Trendle had legal ownership of the Lone Ranger and characters associated with the Lone Ranger through his company, The Lone Ranger, Inc. Trendle sold The Lone Ranger, Inc. to oil man and film producer Jack Wrather in 1954 for $3 million. After Wrather died in 1984, his widow, Bonita Granville, sold the Wrather Productions properties to Southbrook International Television Co. in 1985.[60][61] Broadway Video acquired the rights in 1994. Classic Media acquired the rights in 2000. DreamWorks Animation acquired Classic Media in 2012 and renamed the division DreamWorks Classics,[62] which was acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016 for $3.8 billion. Its Universal Pictures unit presently has the rights to the Lone Ranger.[63]