ZORRO TV SERIES

Zorro was created by Johnston McCulley in 1919. The pulp fiction hero, Don Diego de la Vega, lived in the Spanish colonies in California. Don Diego was a nobleman with the secret identity of Zorro, which means Fox in Spanish. Don Diego disguises himself with a mask and dressing all in black and goes out into the night to defend the downtrodden from various villains. During the day, Don Diego presented himself as a Dandy and a coward so he would not be associated with Zorro.

In all there were more than 60 stories published by McCulley, which were very popular. The first Zorro film was made in 1920, starring Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro. Zorro is very athletic and skilled with a blade, knife and whip, so he was a good part for the athletic Fairbanks. There were several Zorro films before the character got the Disney treatment in 1957.

The series premiered in October, 1957 and ran until July, 1959. There were 78 ½ hour episodes. In the 1960-1961 season there were also 4 hour long episodes on Walt Disney Presents. Guy Williams, who is perhaps better known for his role on Lost In Space, performed the dual role of Don Diego de la Vega and Zorro. Gene Sheldon played Diego’s servant Bernardo. Bernardo is sometimes just comic relief but he is also an able spy. Bernardo is mute but can communicate very well with gestures.

Also in the cast is Don Diego’s father, played by George J. Lewis, who only learns later in the show that his son is Zorro. Rounding out the cast was Henry Calvin who played Sergeant Garcia, the local law enforcement. He tries to catch Zorro but is pretty ineffectual and doesn’t come close to catching him.

The show was quite popular but there was a dispute between Disney and ABC about ownership of the series. The actors went onto other projects and Disney retained ownership of the series, which is still broadcast once in awhile.