Saw this tonight on HBO Family and I remembered it as a kid (1981 version with Christopher Lloyd). Any ideas on when it might be out?

Thanks.

This is the film made by the bastards who forced Clayton Moore to stop wearing his mask. It was destroyed at the box office by a talk radio inspired boycott of the film. They forgot that you don't tug the mask of the Lone Ranger. Clayton Moore was the only Lone Ranger. Where on earth did they dig up Clinton Spilsbury? I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to be released. It was a Universal title as I recall.

Yeah, Spilsbury was a terrible actor. They even dubbed his voice over. But, jeez, Clayton Moore was over 70 years old when that came out. People were saying the same thing then. Did they honestly expect a 70+ year old man to still play the LR? Plus, he wasn't the first to even play him.

are the old TV shows out on DVD?

To answer the first question, the 1981 version is out on Region 2 DVD (from Prism Leisure Corporation), and listed on amazon's UK website. There doesn't appear to be an R1 release.

Several of the old TV episodes are out on disc, thanks to public domain loopholes. Including one also titled The Legend of The Lone Ranger (1952), which is actually the first three episodes of the series, which includes the Ranger's origin. There's a four DVD-set availble from GoodTimes which also includes some TV commercials Clayton Moore made as the Lone Ranger in the 60's and 70's, including one for Jeno's Pizza Rolls. And it looks like Rhino Home Video will be putting out authorized DVD's of the series soon, if they haven't already. (see first post in this link)

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...ht=lone+ranger

As a kid, I heard the Lone Ranger's origin in a rerun of one of the radio episodes. What I thought was cool was that when Tonto was nursing him back to health, the Ranger thought the Cavendish gang might track him down and finish him off.

But in the 1981 movie


When the 1981 version was released on VHS, an article in Video Review magazine noted, that through the whole movie, no one refers to The Lone Ranger by name! (although I think Merle Haggard's narration might have)

I kinda met Moore once...really freakin classy guy! He knew his role in the Univerise and embraced it.

"But, jeez, Clayton Moore was over 70 years old when that came out. People were saying the same thing then. Did they honestly expect a 70+ year old man to still play the LR? Plus, he wasn't the first to even play him."

No, he was not the first, but he is the best. Clayton Moore embodied the character of the Lone Ranger. No one expected him to play the role in 1981. They expected the producers to respect Moore. Forcing him not to wear the mask in public appearances was stupid. Instead, they should have used Moore to help sell the new movie. By attacking Moore, the producers doomed the film to failure.

Right, a Clayton Moore cameo (maybe even saying, "Who was that masked man?") is what makes the public respect the new guy. Not acting like an asshat because a 70 year old man pays for his groceries by wearing the Lone Ranger mask at county fairs.

That would have been great! A cameo by Moore in the film in which he could be the first person to refer to the masked man as the Lone Ranger might have worked also.

You would think they would be greatful that he made the character popular enough to even consider a movie.