MovieChat Forums > Zorro (1957) Discussion > It Holds Up/Minimal Cast Credits

It Holds Up/Minimal Cast Credits

posted 10 years ago by LittleBrother55
3 replies | jump to latest

In 1960, I was five years old and my top three TV heroes were Superman, the Lone Ranger, and Zorro-- not in that, or any, order; I worshipped all three with equal passion.

Now that stations like ME-TV and COZI-TV are running them all, it's interesting to see how they hold up.

Without turning this into a book, I'll just say here that "Zorro" is now the most watchable for me. Although all of these series were written for children, "Zorro" has much more polish.

I still enjoy watching LR and Superman for a nostalgia fix, but my adult brain can't help noticing the LR stars' wooden acting and the hokey, cliché-ridden plots in both shows.

"Zorro" also has its corny, superficial characters and plot points written to appeal to a young audience, but the entire production seems to be a notch above the other shows.

I think that the actors in "Zorro"'s core ensemble-- Guy Williams in the title role, Gene Sheldon as Bernardo, and especially Henry Calvin as Sergeant Garcia-- are talented to begin with, and were given better scripts to work with.

But speaking of the ensemble, I notice that "Zorro"'s closing credits are surprisingly stingy. I thought the general rule was that any actor with a speaking part gets a credit, but I've noticed several "name" actors in bit parts along the way who aren't listed in the closing credits.

I paid exactly zero attention to credits as a kid, so now I wonder if they added "voice-over" credits for the supporting roles as was often the case in 1950s-era programs.

[–] vpilutis 10 years ago

For kids?
Well maybe part of the time but today's season 1 ender was a bit more violence then the rest of the season. True we see no blood and they were always very careful
to make sure Zorro never kills anyone.

But anyway W O W what a great action ep

Since I don't remember too many of the eps it like watching it for the first time
ditto for STARGATE SG1 over on THIS TV

on location with SUPERMAN I,& OTHER STARS
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] MrEdnablackadder 9 years ago

Season 1 allowed 6 extra credits after Guy, Season 2 allowed 7 with the possible addition of a special guest star. There are several episodes where George J. Lewis is uncredited as Alejandro! Don Diamond is also occasionally uncredited as Corporal Reyes.

[–] CarolTheDabbler (585) 2 years ago

I notice that "Zorro"'s closing credits are surprisingly stingy. I thought the general rule was that any actor with a speaking part gets a credit, but I've noticed several "name" actors in bit parts along the way who aren't listed in the closing credits.

I paid exactly zero attention to credits as a kid, so now I wonder if they added "voice-over" credits for the supporting roles as was often the case in 1950s-era programs.

My recollection is that voice-over credits mostly appeared on live broadcasts, as a holdover from radio. But Zorro was clearly filmed, so if there had been voice-over credits on the original broadcast, they would almost certainly have been on the film, and would therefore be on the DVDs.

Credit lists tended to be far shorter back then, though. Fortunately for us, there's IMDb.com, which lists a lot of uncredited actors. I've been wondering how they do that -- whether it's up to an actor to say "I was in that!" -- but it occurred to me that if they were able to get hold of the studio's old call sheets for each day's filming, they'd have everybody. So that's my current assumption.