Robin Hood Comics And The TV Show

Robin Hood 1
The show was on channel 2 on Monday, from crazy about tv

Nearly every show that appeared in the U.S. in the mid 1950s had to have a sponsor that would support the entire show! The Adventures of Robin Hood's sponsor was the "Wild Root Hair Oil Company". The Adventures of Robin Hood had a pretty decent time slot when it premiered in 1955. It began CBS's Monday Night schedule at 7:30PM and was followed by "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" at 8:00, "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" at 8:30, "I Love Lucy" at 9:00, "December Bride" at 9:30, and "Studio One" at 10:00! At the time that this series appeared in the U.S., a Congressional committee was investigating suspected Communists in the entertainment industry. The writers responsible for most of the first season's scripts on the Adventures of Robin Hood TV show were Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McLellan Hunter. They had already been "blacklisted" by that committee and weren't allowed to participate in any project that would air in the U.S. The series' producers were well aware of that fact but refused to participate in the firing of anyone based on their political views. Lardner and McLellan did have to resort to using different pseudonyms every few episodes so that the series would be allowed to air in the U.S.

Robin Hood And The Blacklist

 Robin Hood theme: Words and music by Carl Sigman, sung by Dick James

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!
He called the greatest archers
To a tavern on the green,
They vowed to help the people of the king,
They handled all the trouble
On the English country scene,
And still found plenty of time to sing.
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!

from wikipedia

Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired between 1955 and 1960 on ITV in the UK, and between 1955 and 1959 on CBS in the US. The show followed the legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
The program was produced by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment, was filmed at Nettlefold Studios with some location work, and was the first of many big-budget shows commissioned by Lew Grade, who hoped to make large profits by selling programs to the lucrative American market.[citation needed] The series was shot on 35mm film to provide the best possible picture quality, and had fade-outs where US commercials were intended to slot in. Episodes may be viewed in television reruns and are available on DVD. Some episodes include the commercials for an early sponsor, Wildroot Creme Oil (men's hair cream), with a cartoon archer whose messy hair gets tamed.
Richard Greene stars as Robin Hood, a nobleman forced into the life of an outlaw, dwelling in Sherwood Forest with a band of men who right the wrongs committed by the rich and powerful against the poor and defenseless.
Archie Duncan, Bernadette O'Farrell, Richard Greene, and Richard Coleman
Robin Hood's enemy in the series is the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Wheatley) who, with his cohorts, schemes to capture the outlaw by any means possible. Maid Marian, a young noblewoman and Robin Hood's lover, keeps him informed of the Sheriff of Nottingham's whereabouts and intentions. Episodes are punctuated with manly deeds of derring-do, tense escapes and pursuits, princely tournaments, the thundering hoofbeats of powerful steeds, the clattering of flashing swords, and the whizzing of fatally-placed arrows.
One strong point of the show was the seamless history lessons. The producers hired English historians as consultants, which was a great help in plotting. For example, in "A Year and A Day", a refugee peasant explains that, under English law, a peasant who escapes serfdom and lives in a city for "a year and a day" is a free man, given the man lives openly, not in hiding. When Robin Hood helps the peasant move about the city, the Sheriff invokes "the law of hue and cry", explaining that any man within hearing must drop his chores and help apprehend the felon. In "A Christmas Goose", a boy's goose nips a lord's horse so the lord is thrown. The lord condemns the goose to death - for his Christmas dinner. But Robin Hood counters that under English common law, an accused animal is entitled to a fair trial, the same as a human. While Robin Hood drags out the trial, Friar Tuck gets the cook drunk and switches geese. When the deception is revealed, the lord relents and pardons the goose.
Another strong point were the supporting characters, who were clever and likable. In "The Goldmaker's Return", Robin Hood is away in France on a mission. Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and other Merry Men carry the day without the star of the show ever showing his face.
At least one episode "The Knight who came to Dinner" had two different versions. The basic plotline (Sir Richard of the Lea's castle being subject to forfeit due to a debt; remains the same, however in the Alpha video version the bondholder is a corrupt knight, while in the Mill Creek version of the episode the bondholder is a corrupt Abbot. The shots not directly involving the Abbot or the Knight are identical. The only other difference being that in the Mill creek version Sir Richard refers to Maid Marian by a different surname suggesting that it might have been a pilot. It is noteworthy that both versions have identical credits reflecting the Abbot and not the knight in the cast. The Fact that the Knight is played by a regular member of the troop of actors who appear in the series also suggests it was made later, perhaps for American audiences.
The Adventures of Robin Hood was produced by Hannah Weinstein, who had left-wing political views. Weinstein hired many blacklisted American writers to script episodes of the series: these included Ring Lardner Jr., Waldo Salt, Robert Lees and Adrian Scott. Howard Koch, who was also blacklisted, served for a while as the series' script editor. The blacklisted writers were credited under pseudonyms, to avoid the notice of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
After the blacklist collapsed, Lardner said that the series' format allowed him "plenty of opportunities to comment on issues and institutions in Eisenhower-era America". In addition to the redistributive themes of a hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, many episodes in the programme's first two seasons included the threat that Robin and his band would be betrayed to the authorities by friends or loved ones, much as the blacklisted writers had been.