| Genre: | Western |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Developer: | Format Films |
| Executive Producer: | Arthur A. Jacobs |
| Producer: | Herbert Klynn |
| Narrated: | Marvin Miller |
| Music: | Vic Schoen |
| Country: | United States |
| Company: | Format Films, Halas and Batchelor |
| Network: | CBS |
| Num Episodes: | 26 (78 segments) |
The Lone Ranger is an American animated television series that ran 26 episodes Saturday mornings on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 6, 1969.[1] The series was produced by Herb Klynn and Jules Engel of Format Films, Hollywood, and designed and made at the Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Film studios in London, England & Artransa Park Film Studios in Australia.[2]
In 1980, Filmation produced another Lone Ranger cartoon series.
The adventures in this Lone Ranger series were similar in tone and nature to CBS' prime-time Weird Western, The Wild Wild West, in that some of the plots were bizarre and had elements of science fiction and steampunk technology included in the story.[3] One of the Lone Ranger's archenemies in the animated series was a dwarf named Tiny Tom and his giant henchman named Goliath; an analogue to The Wild Wild West
The Lone Ranger's voice was provided by Michael Rye, and Shepard Menken provided that of Tonto. The narrator in the opening titles was Marvin Miller, whose narration ran:
Other guest voices were provided by Paul Winchell, Agnes Moorehead, and Hans Conried.
The animation was limited. But the backgrounds had a dark style, with blocks of color elided from the line, which visually set the show apart from many other cartoon TV series of the time. The distinct atmospheric music was composed by Vic Schoen, who also provided the powerful arrangement of Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture for the show's memorable opening sequence. Along with the Halas and Batchelor animators, the background department, led by Tom Bailey, Ted Petengel and designer Chris Miles, were responsible for setting the graphic style. The drawings were produced by chinagraph pencil on cell. Colored papers were cut or torn under or against the lines of the background, producing a dramatic and rich textural effect.