Captain Z-Ro

Watching "Captain Z-Ro" today (65 years down the road) I, personally, found that this well-meaning SyFy TV show for kids really didn't hold up very well at all.

Yes. I do understand that this low-budget production was meant to be viewed as a program that offered straightforward history lessons (which were intended to help educate all of the inquisitive youngsters in the audience).

But, with that said - Unfortunately, "Captain Z-Ro's" decidedly stagy and dull-edged presentation certainly left a whole lot to be desired. And, as a result, it failed to hold my undivided attention for more than just a few brief moments at a time.

I purchased one of those box sets of 150 old science fiction TV episodes. I bought it mainly for the Steve Holland Flash Gordon episodes and Gene Autry's Phantom Empire. I basically wasn't expecting squat from the 24 installments of Captain Z-Ro that were included but I was very pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed them very much indeed. They remind me most of the 1960's series Time Tunnel.

The production values for the show were surprisingly good and the writing was also pretty tight, better than one might reasonably expect. At its core is a spaceship? that is equipped to travel through time as well as space. For various reasons they warp to major historical events that took place on good old earth. As a matter of fact Star Trek did much the same thing as they somehow managed to wind up in numerous very earth like historical adventures. The episode that centered on Revolutionary War heroine Molly Pitcher actually kept my fifteen year old daughter glued to the set...shocking! My personal fav was the one where they explored inside one of the great pyramids in order to find out what happened to the Pharoh's missing mummy. This is actually a better show than the Steve Holland Flash Gordon although I enjoyed that one too.

I'm surprised that I had never heard of Captain Z-Ro because he was a very cool dude and his adventures were nicely done with mostly authentic looking costumes and sets despite traveling somewhere different in time for each episode. Some good acting too. Of particular note is the awesome robot Roger the Robot...he really makes hay in the Egyptian episode. The dude rocked!!! He was superbly written and looked cool too.

Good for the time. Kind of an American version of Dr. Who - not as smart, not as funny, and it's historic facts are straight out of 1950's elementary school textbooks (meaning laughably incorrect).

But a nice peek into what used to pass for special effects and drama. And they took their science technology whiz bangs very seriously! Fun. But a few episodes are enough.

This show was made in 1955, 7 years before Doctor Who made his debut on British TV. This show is clearly a forerunner of that one. It's meant to be educational, Z-RO goes back and forth in time in his time machine, and viewers learn about history.

It was quite enjoyable, and very good for its day. Yes, it was made for kids, but we're not talking about teletubbies or other crap here, we're talking about quality programming, with a hero kids could look up to.

These shows are now available on DVD, as the star is still alive, and had the originals on 16mm film. Why he waited until last year to release them................ that's a mystery!

This low budget SCI-FI time travel series holds up better than most 1950s kiddee space TV shows.

Well scripted and shot, kids from that era were treated not only to the fantastic, but a history lesson to boot.

The Captain's biggest Z-RO was his distribution.

If 1950s kid SC-Fi is your thing, the Captain will send you!