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Special Report
From Black List to Green Wood
Written by exiled leftists, the 1950s Robin Hood television series turns out to have been much more freedom loving and suspicious of collectivism than they knew.
(Page 2 of 2)
An episode called “The Minstrel,” also in Season Three, certainly sprang from the deepest hearts of the blacklisted American writers. A minstrel composes a song making fun of the Sheriff. The Sheriff, concerned that the city look good for an upcoming visit by Prince John, outlaws all singing. Obviously this is a poke at the United States, which had imprisoned some of them (though technically they didn’t go to jail for what they’d written, but for refusing to reveal Communist connections).
Yes, yes. I see the point.
And yet, if you were to look for a country that sent people to prison (and even put them to death) for the content of their writings, wouldn’t the most obvious parallel be a certain world power located to the east?
A similar episode, “The Doctor,” from the same season, involves a principled physician who is threatened with a show trial (sentence predetermined) for the crime of treating Little John.
I take the point, of course. Still, it seems to me that while the Hollywood Ten’s treatment by the House Committee on Un-American Activities may not have been the high point of American constitutional jurisprudence, there was another world power whose show trials were far more brutal, and whose victims generally ended up dead, not living comfortably abroad, writing television scripts.
All in all it seems to me that The Adventures of Robin Hood wasn’t nearly the propaganda engine the writers wanted it to be. The reason, I think, is simple. Good writing mirrors real life. And real life is essentially conservative. These writers were too good to really try to impose Marxist principles on their stories.
Another notable element, through the entire run of the series, is its treatment of the Roman Catholic Church.
Although in the ballads Robin Hood was always a faithful Christian, his relationship with churchmen was ambivalent. His alliance with Friar Tuck notwithstanding, “fat abbots,” who were also feudal lords, were frequent victims of the Sherwood robbers.
But in this series, churchmen are always friends to the people, and the church promotes liberty 100% of the time.
No doubt this was due to the broadcast standards of English television in those days. Criticism of Christianity was not permitted, particularly in children’s fare. The Communist, atheist writers must have chafed under that restriction, but they bit their tongues and wrote as they were told.
Because if there’s one thing Communists are good at, it’s obeying government orders.
As long as it isn’t the United States government, under Republicans.
I will admit, though, that my set of DVDs does live up to the standards of the Soviet Union in one important respect.
They’re shoddily manufactured. Half the episodes on the last three discs are garbled and unwatchable.
The spirit of the Revolution lives on.
About the Author
Lars Walker is the author of several published fantasy novels, the latest of which is an e-book, Hailstone Mountain.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
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Robbins Mitchell| 10.25.11 @ 6:31AM
It showed on Friday nights here in the US...on NBC if memory serves...Richard Greene would fire an arrow into a stout English oak and 'The Adventures of Robin Hood" would come spinning out of the tree....then he would fire another arrow and when it hit mark a bottle of Wildroot Cream Oil Hair Tonic came spinning out to announce the sponsor....the episodes always held up law and order and the Crown and the Church and most importantly....the English sense of fair play....Donald Pleasance was excellent as the dastardly Prince John
Herb| 10.25.11 @ 7:29AM
I remember those whirling logos as the arrows struck the tree. And the brass fanfares as one mounted group or another rode out of the forest.
"The Adventures of William Tell" is another medieval TV tale I'd like to see on DVD. It featured improved technology (crossbows) and a Teutonic bad guy (Gessler).
JimH| 10.25.11 @ 8:31AM
Crossbows are not necessarily better. They don't require the training of a longbow but they can't be fired as rapidly. I still remember the William Tell theme. BTW, for old TV fans, my satellite TV has Angel2 and recently they have started showing The Lone Ranger and Sgt Preston. I’ll always remember my father referring to our mutt as Yukon King.
Bill| 10.25.11 @ 9:12AM
"Well King, this case is closed."
Harry the Horrible| 10.25.11 @ 10:14AM
"To train a archer, start with his grandfather."
Crossbows, like muskets, allowed a soldier to be combat effective with minimum training. You could produce effective crossbowmen faster than archers.
RT| 10.25.11 @ 8:14AM
It sounds like the leftists director/producer were too stupid to realize what they were writing.
Fyi, a series I've seen lately on the retro tv station was Daniel Boone. It proved to be a lot better than I expected.
Moe Blotz| 10.25.11 @ 8:28AM
Robin Hood is on Retro via WFMZ in Allentown, PA as well.
DaveD| 10.25.11 @ 8:49AM
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men
Feared by the bad, loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Bill| 10.25.11 @ 9:11AM
You beat me to it!
JimH| 10.25.11 @ 1:18PM
I’m old enough to remember there was a Robin Hood show, but not much about it. Seeing the words to the song here makes me realize that the Monty Python Dennis Moore sketch must have been a parody of the show; Especially considering the punch line: This redistribution of the wealth is more complicated than I thought.
Herb| 10.25.11 @ 2:55PM
"Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, riding through the night,
"Soon every lupin in the land will be in his mighty hand,
"He steals them from the rich, and gives them to the poor,
"Mr. Moore.....lupin-donor..... extraor.........dinary!"
Joe Redfield| 10.25.11 @ 10:20PM
And don't forget the punch line: "Hmm...This redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought."
Joe Redfield| 10.25.11 @ 10:22PM
One of these days I'm going to start reading previous comments before making one myself.
Ammo Guy| 10.25.11 @ 1:32PM
Man, I loved that theme song and it still runs thru my mind from time to time. I even had the 45 RPM disc when I was a tyke until I broke it thru overuse - it was hard as a rock, not flexible plastic like later LPs. And, apropos of Herb's comment above, I also enjoyed William Tell's theme song, which I think went something like this:
"Marching behind William Tell, we know well our cause it is just"
Then something about fighting to be free, but my memory fails me again…
Frank Drackman| 10.25.11 @ 9:42AM
the "MeTV" network has reruns of the original "Gunsmoke", the 30 minute ones in B&W with Chester instead of that waterhead Festus, and a surprisingly hot Miss Kitty...
Jeez-us, Matt kicks butt, unlike the color hour long episodes where the title sequence was the highpoint...
One episode he thrashes a shady gunman in the first scene and spends the rest of the episode intimidating the poor guy to leave town, almost felt sorry for him...
Frank
Ed| 10.25.11 @ 11:44AM
Another blast from the past is "The Rat Patrol".
It was a 60's TV series about the exploits of a fictional force of American-British desert raiders who were based on the British Army's SAS-Long Range Desert Group in North Africa during WWII.
About half of the plots were absurd, and were written by the generalist scriptwriters at the time who also wrote for Westerns, detective shows, and sci-fi series. But the other half were pretty good, considering that the show had a half-hour format.
Today, Special Forces and SAS troops in Afghanistan and Iraq use modern, open air vehicles that sprout a wide variety of machine guns, grenade launchers, and Javelin missiles. For a kid growing up in the 60's, this show was very cool.
albert constantine jr.| 10.25.11 @ 7:54PM
Troy, Moffitt, Hitchcock and Pettigrew Tully, with the Nazi Dietrich as their adversary, I seem to recall from my lunchbox back in 1967. I seem to also remember that Christopher George's Sgt. Troy must've earned at least 6 Purple Hearts from shoulder wounds.
Deborah| 10.27.11 @ 2:30PM
I loved "The Rat Patrol." The boxed DVD set is available at Amazon (which I keep showing to my husband. If he doesn't get it for me this year, I'm going to buy it myself :)
Petronius| 10.25.11 @ 11:57AM
Haven't I seen you at Pennsic?
No game tonight. My late feature will be The Flame and the Arrow. My book at bedtime is 1636 by Eric Flint.
Lars Walker | 10.25.11 @ 12:50PM
Petronius, whom are you addressing? If it's me, no, I've never been to Pennsic, though my friend Michael Z. Williamson keeps telling me I should go.
Petronius| 10.25.11 @ 7:01PM
Sorry
Do you belong to Vikings NA?
Lars Walker | 10.25.11 @ 8:22PM
No, an independent group affiliated with the Sons of Norway.
JimH| 10.26.11 @ 10:03AM
As they sang in Bay Ridge.. 10,000 Swedes were chased through the weeds by one sick Norwegian.
Occam's Tool| 10.25.11 @ 9:59PM
The great Michael Z Williamson, military SF writer extraordinaire? (Although Tom Kratman IS better.)
Lars Walker | 10.25.11 @ 10:01PM
Yes. I used to be a Baen author too.
Jim Woodward| 10.25.11 @ 12:19PM
Of couse there was also " Have Gun, Will Travel ".
Paladin, philosophy and poetry.
JimH| 10.25.11 @ 1:22PM
It's on every nigh on Encore Westerns. The original most interesting man in the world.
Resistanceisfutile| 10.25.11 @ 4:49PM
Recall only the opening music and then the arrow whishing thru the air. I want to comment on the Errol Flynn movie tho. As I recall, when Robin first meets Marian, he takes her into the forest and shows her all the poor people; looked like stock footage from some documentary of the depression. I don't know the players, but I trow that the writers were at least pink!
Stan Redmond| 10.25.11 @ 5:22PM
Now we have Robin Fed and Friar Bawney. Stealing from the middle class taxpayer to give to the super politically connected too big to fail friends to save the middle class taxpayer from too big to fail evild-oers.
My how we have evolved.
al bundhii| 10.25.11 @ 6:38PM
I believe that if I think nice thoughts very intensely I will be watching one of those new old-TV channels some night and Sugar Foot--followed by Whirly Birds, and then The Nurses-- will come onscreen. And if The Millionaire would begin to be broadcast I could faint in retrojoy.
Occam's Tool| 10.25.11 @ 10:00PM
I wish the SyFy channel would bring back MST3K...
Lars Walker | 10.25.11 @ 10:02PM
Don't we all.
marshcope| 10.25.11 @ 10:34PM
All the crashing illusions I am being faced with in my old age, and now I find that one of my favorite shows of the (19)50s was written by exiled American Communists. One of the recurring themes of the Robin Hood legend was that when good King Richard would come back to England he was sweep away the evil deeds of Prince John and the mean Sheriff. Were the Reds writing the Robin Hood TV show thinking of some lion hearted hero of the recent past; FDR, Lenin, Henry Wallace?
Lars Walker | 10.25.11 @ 10:56PM
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what they meant.
marshcope| 10.25.11 @ 10:35PM
'was sweep away" should be "would sweep away"
POST American| 10.25.11 @ 10:37PM
-----And speaking of entertainment --media and
Hollywood-----
One and all OBSERVE, Hollywood has NOT ONLY
been obediently producing predictive programming for
cultural destruction, tech worship and EUGENICS
---for 4 decades ----and REFUSED
ANY address of the awesome
HALOCAUST being covered up
across the Pacific ---------------BUT
has 'mysteriously overlooked' the 20th
---30th-------40th-------50th---------and NOW
60th Anniversaries of the awesomely
relevant, yet unfolding, Globalism and
EUGENICS 'unfriendly'
--------------------KOREAN WAR----------------------
Deborah| 10.27.11 @ 2:42PM
I never saw "Robin Hood" the television show. Please, can someone tell me what years it was broadcasted? My family did not get a television set until the late 50s, and my little west Texas town only received signals from two television stations (from Sweetwater and Abilene).
A great article, Lars. It makes me want to buy the collection, even knowing that some of the recordings are messed up.
Lars Walker | 10.29.11 @ 10:39PM
The Adventures of Robin Hood ran in original episodes from 1955 to 1959. And in re-runs long after that.
Vincent Rigdon| 10.27.11 @ 4:10PM
Thanks so much, Lars! I have found that Netflix has LOTS of old series on DVD. (Currently watching my way thru Perry Mason. I, too remember looking forward to "Robin Hood" after grade school. Another show about pirates on another weekday. The most painful of all: "Wildroot Cream Oil!" Would that I had a use for the stuff today!