Zorro (TV Series) (DVD)

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Leonard Maltin and I were born the same year and grew up together. Sure, he was raised in New York and I in Chicago, but as he points out in a wonderfully comprehensive introduction to "Zorro: The Complete First Season," we all had shared experiences because of television. Coast to coast, for example, kids were carving Zs where they shouldn't have been, and pretending to be El Zorro, "The Fox."

"Zorro" finally comes to DVD tomorrow as WAVE IX of the limited-edition tin-box Walt Disney Treasures series, along with "Zorro: The Complete Second Season." All the episodes are included in the two six-disc sets, plus any other appearances made by Disney's Zorro--the dapper Guy Williams, who would go on to play the father in another campy series, "Lost in Space." And if that isn't a deal in itself, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has tossed in a collector's pin in each set, one of them small enough to wear as a lapel pin if you're feeling particularly roguish some day at the office.

Disney's "Zorro" debuted on ABC on October 10, 1957, at a time when there were just three networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS). Maltin reminds us that roughly 40 percent of the market watched Zorro every week, for a total of 16.8 million viewers. That's a bigger audience than any of the top shows today draws, because of the more complex TV landscape. As a result, Zorro quickly became a part of American pop culture.

It survives because of the way in which the show was conceived. Disney aimed the series at a younger audience, but in choosing to follow the serial format, he gave parents who were raised with Saturday morning matinees a familiar structure. There was action, serial drama, music, and plenty of humor, because the show never took itself too seriously. And the level of detail and production values rivaled what people saw on the big screen, with each episode costing a then unheard of $78,000. Each episode faithfully recreated Old California in 1840 right down to the hair styles and door hardware, which made you feel as if you were being transported. Then there was the engaging cast, led by the charismatic Williams--all of which explains why entire families watched Zorro defend the downtrodden week after week between 1957 and 1959. So, if it was so good, why did it only run for two seasons? Call it creative differences. As we learn on a bonus feature, the show was so popular it was slated for a third season, but Disney wanted to air "Zorro" in color, and ABC was opposed. While lawyers from both sides went at it, "Zorro" faded into television history, cancelled, finally, along with "The Mickey Mouse Club" because of the feud over color.

All 78 episodes of the black-and-white half-hour show are here, along with three specials that featured Zorro on the old "Disneyland" television show: "Zorro: El Bandido/Adios El Cuchillo" (Pts. 1 & 2, 1960), "Zorro: The Postponed Wedding" (1961), and "Zorro: Auld Acquaintance" (1961). That's close to 40 hours of Zorro, and many of these storylines will be so unfamiliar even to fans who grew up watching the show that it will be like rediscovering "Zorro" all over again.

In his all-black outfit with mask and cape, Zorro cut a dashing figure across our TV screens. In many respects, "Zorro" followed the formula for westerns, even more so in the second season. Halfway between Shane and Robin Hood, he looked out for the rights of those too weak to defend themselves against ambitious comandantes, viceroys, noblemen, and bandits. But Disney went against convention by having him ride a black horse in the first season, while the "bad guy," Captain Enrique Sanchez Monasterio (Britt Lomond), rode the white horse. Zorro was a bit of a bad boy around the same time as James Dean and Marlon Brando were on the big screen, and that too contributed to his popularity.

But it wasn't just Zorro. Almost as appealing was the rotund Sergeant Garcia (Henry Calvin), whose stubble, greasy hair, flat-out-fat frame, and likeable personality made him a fan favorite. "LANCERS! TO ARMS!" And, of course, there's that George Bruns theme song that still sticks in your brain--one of the most popular TV songs ever written, and one which made Billboard's Top-20.

Season One contains several different story arcs, with the first one running for nine episodes. In it, we're introduced to Don Diego de la Vega (Williams), who's returning home to the Los Angeles Pueblo after studying in Spain for many years. En route, he hears that a tyrant has taken over the Pueblo and suspects that is the reason why his father, the rich rancher Don Alejandro de la Vega (George J. Lewis), summoned him home. Right then and there he decides that to tackle such a problem he must devise a secret identity. "Instead of a man of action, I shall become a man of letters," he tells his servant, Bernardo (Gene Sheldon), and so he tosses all of his fencing trophies off the ship and plays the charming but bookish Don Diego. And Bernardo, wanting to also pretend to be something he is not, requests that he pretend to be deaf as well as mute so he can be Zorro's eyes and ears. And here too, the original musical score has a little fun with the game of charades that Don Diego plays with Bernardo, with lilting clarinets cueing the audience to the comedy. Sheldon was a pantomimist and clown in Vaudeville, and the rotund Calvin was an opera singer. Disney made full use of both their talents in the series.