Lone Ranger Do's and Don'ts, The - The frontier vigilante The Lone Ranger was created in 1933 by Fran Striker and George Trendle. Trendle established a list of do's and don'ts for his radio and TV writers to assist them when preparing scripts for the successful radio show (ran 16 years) and the TV version THE LONE RANGER/ABC/1949-57 starring Clayton Moore/John Hart. They included

• "The Lone Ranger believes that our sacred American heritage provides that every individual has the right to worship God as he desires;

• The Lone Ranger never makes love on radio, television, in movies, or in cartoons;

• The Lone Ranger is a man who can fight great odds, yet take time to treat a bird with a broken wing;

• The Lone Ranger never smokes, never uses profanity, and never uses intoxicating beverages;

• The Lone Ranger at all times uses precise speech, without slang or dialect. His grammar must be pure. He must make proper use of 'who' and 'whom,' 'shall' and 'will,' 'I' and 'me', etc.;

• The Lone Ranger never shoots to kill. When he has to use guns, he aims to maim as painlessly as possible;

• Play down gambling and drinking scenes as far as possible, and keep the Lone Ranger out of saloons. When this cannot be avoided, try to make the saloon a café-and deal with waiters and food instead of bartenders and liquor."

According to the book Who Was That Masked Man? by David Rothel, scriptwriters for the program were given the Writer's Guide to The Lone Ranger Program which included such additional suggestions as the program should not preach nor deal with controversial topics; the program should be written with an adult rather than a juvenile viewpoint; Action should not be written into the script unless it has a purpose; Writer's should not resort to phony heroics to carry out the storyline; Stories should be written about people and their problems, (stolen gold claims, mortgaged ranches, water rights, etc.); the Lone Ranger must never be tied up or knocked out; and finally at the end of each episode 'good' must triumph over 'evil.'" 

Paladin's Rule - Fast gun-for-hire known as Paladin (Richard Boone) on the western adventure HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL/CBS/CBS/1957-62 had one basic rule in life "Never to go anyplace without my gun." Paladin rarely draws his gun "But when I do I aim to use it." Facing down a villain, Paladin once said "I told a friend I wear this gun for survival. As bad as you need killing, I'd prefer to live by that conviction." Of course, the bad guy pulled his gun and Paladin shot him down. Paladin lived at Hotel Carlton and charged $1000 for his services. His calling card read "Have Gun-Will Travel. Wire Paladin, San Francisco.   

Rango's Rules - Tim Conway played the dim-witted Texas Ranger Rango ("Rango, just Rango") on the western adventure RANGO/ABC/1967. In an attempt to keep the citizens of Gopher Gulch, Texas in line he established a list of 84 regulations that included Rule 1. "No Guns Allowed in Town"; and Rule 84. "No Whistling at Girls in the Streets." Rango's Indian assistant Pink Cloud (Guy Marks) helps Rango enforce the Rules. 

See also -  Oaths & Pledges - Westerns

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