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Lone Ranger Do's and Dont's - 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.
- 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.
- At the end of each episode 'good' must triumph over 'evil.'

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