Remembering Guy Williams (1924-1989)

No doubt about it, I'll be catching the new Legend of Zorro in a theater sometime this weekend. And Antonio Banderas -- as proved in 1998's Mask of Zorro -- wears the cape and hat admirably. But when push comes to shove, the Zorro, at least for my generation, remains the late Guy Williams, who donned the black garb for 82 half-hour episodes in the 1957-59 black-and-white Disney TV series. (Two full-length movies were stitched together from episodes of that show: The Sign of Zorro in 1958 and Zorro, the Avenger in 1959.)

Williams went on to play the dad on Lost in Space in the mid-1960s, but I never bought him in that role. I kept expecting him to put on a mask.

The question now is: when will Disney begin releasing the complete Zorro TV series on DVD? Hell, they've released almost everything else in their vault! (Even the controversial, non-PC Song of the South is scheduled for release on DVD next year.)