TV Talk - The Planet of the Apes TV Shows

Well, after some time away from the keyboard, I’m back. I was going to first do a post involving the Planet of the Apes movies, but I’ve decided to make a quick pit-stop. As I said in my look at the POTA short story collection, there were two Planet of the Apes TV shows in the 1970’s. After the last movie, the franchise was far from over. The first three movies were being aired on TV, so the Apes were still kicking in some form of fashion. The rights for the franchise were handed over to 20th Century Fox, so they tried to churn a lot of stuff out.

The first series was the live action show. Planet of the Apes aired between September and December of 1974. Only 14 episodes were produced. Instead of continuing the story from the movies, the series was pretty much a revamp of the concept. Two human astronauts, Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Peter Burke (James Naughton), somehow end up transported from 1980 to 3085. They land on Earth which has been taken over by apes with humans (speaking by the way) being slaves. Luckily, Virdon and Burke have help from a cool chimpanzee named Galen (Roddy McDowell). The series revolves around the three on the run from Doctor Zaius and General Urko (Mark Lenard).

The cartoon series, Return to the Planet of the Apes, aired between 1975 and 1976. 13 episodes were only done for the show. Like the live-action show, this show was pretty much a revamp of the concept. Unlike the other show and the movies, this show immediately went places where the others didn’t. It borrowed elements from the movies and the 1956 novel. On the show, three astronauts (Bill Hudson, Jeff Allen, and Judy Franklin) get transported from 1976 to 3979. The three then have to deal with threats coming from the apes and other forces in the world. Luckily, they have help from kind apes like Cornelius and Zira.

Planet of the Apes (1974)

So, how were “The Adventures of Burke, Virdon, and Galen?” Well, it was alright. It was like someone blended Planet of the Apes with a stereotypical western show, Robin Hood, and the Incredible Hulk TV show. Week after week, those three would get into some trouble. They’d get captured, shot at, injured, trapped, looked at by pretty ladies and pretty apes, and give the apes at Central City a heart attack. Outside of the first episode which was a truncated version of the 1968 movie, that was their formula… unfortunately.

I hate saying that because it wasn’t a bad show. It had its positives. I thought the human astronauts were well acted even though they could get a little interchangeable at times. My favorite of the two was probably Burke. As usual, Roddy McDowell shined in his role as Galen. If there’s anyone who’s the MVP of the franchise, it’s McDowell. Even though he could be chewing the scenery at times, I thought Mark Lenard (Sarek from Star Trek) was fine as the gorilla general.

The stories could be hit or miss. They all had some sort of underlying message to portray. A lot of the topics about race, discrimination, and bigotry were prevalent here. We even got an episode where the heroes had to stop an ape version of the Ku Klux Klan. Yeah, the show went there and it was not too bad. The action was actually quite nice. Just imagine the “James T. Kirk Style” of fighting. I even saw a few guest stars who actually went to do some big things. You might end up seeing a young version of Jackie Earl Haley (Rorschach from Watchmen) if you check this out.

If you want to see some apes get beat up, you'll get that here.

Now, the show did have problems. As I said above, the stories could be hit or miss. Heck, there was one episode revolving around a pregnant cow, so the formula of fixing problems wasn’t always good. The messages could also get pretty watered down from what they could be. Episodes could also get pretty dull, though that’s kind of a staple of this era. The acting and makeup could get a bit wonky from time to time. Also, NASA must have had MacGyver as a teacher because Virdon and Burke know a lot of crap for being astronauts.

A mix of those problems is probably why it was cancelled at 14 episodes. They had more to film but they weren’t able to do that. From what I’ve been able to dig up, Planet of the Apes was cancelled due to low ratings. It was in competition with Sandford and Son and another show. Something tells me I probably would have tuned in to Redd Foxx, but I’m not too sure. Overall, while the show isn’t that good, it does have a leg on a couple of the movies.

Hmm... fire and hoods? This looks familiar!

Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975)

Now, I get to this crazy show. That’s not me saying that this is a bad one since this show actually did some interesting things.  It also more or less did a revamp of the first movie. The three astronauts land and soon run into humans like Nova and the apes. Judy disappears for a few episodes (taken by the Underdwellers) and Bill is taken to Ape City. Luckily, he’s shown favor by Cornelius and Zira. Like the live-action show, the cartoon revolves around the astronauts facing the threat of the apes and running into even more weirdness.

Unlike the movies and other TV show, there are major changes to this world. The technology and world for the apes was pretty advanced liked it was in the novel. They had cars, cannons, and really articulate buildings. They even flew an airplane, though that was a human one. How that plane still worked over a 1,000 years later is anyone’s guess. Zaius here is actually not as bad as he is everywhere else. The bad guy role is for Chief Urko who’s voiced by Fred Flintstone… seriously. That was a shock to learn that.

Oh yeah, we got unicorn bison, an annoying dragon, and later a giant ice ape... this show was weird.

While Bill is our main astronaut, he’s not the only one who has fun. We had a black astronaut (Jeff Allen) and a female astronaut on the team and they got used pretty well. Jeff was even voiced by Austin Stoker, the actor who played MacDonald in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. We even got an analog to Taylor here even though he was named Brent. Cornelius and Zira are still pretty much the same. They show pity on the primitive humans (who can barely speak) and our heroes. We even get toned down versions of the mutants called the Underdwellers. While they don’t sing in hymns, they still got those creepy powers.

Hmm... if only Race Bannon and the Doctor were here...

The story was an interesting one. The 13 episodes were more like a serial than an episodic format. While some of the stories could be similar, certain plot points carried on from episode to episode. Unfortunately, I watched them out of order on YouTube. While the animation itself could be really shaky, it had its moments. It reminded me of the animation from Jonny Quest. I didn’t find out until later that the animators for Jonny Quest were on the show as well. The backgrounds, the designs, and some stills looked good. Lastly, I thought that intro rocked with the visuals and the music.

Even though I had good things to say, this too was a slog to sit through at times. The animation could be pretty bad especially when concerning the apes. The faces just looked weird at times. We’d also get some repeating animation which this era was notorious for. The voice acting from most folk could be pretty bad. All of that adds up to something that’s pretty bland in the end. That’s probably why it only lasted 13 episodes. I’m not sure what led to this show’s end.  Overall, while the cons do hurt those 13 episodes, I could probably watch these over the live-action show. At least it’s shorter.

Uh... heh?

…………………………………………………………………

In the end, these were two, decent, short-lived shows. Had things been different, they could have lasted longer since they weren’t that bad. I really do think the cartoon could have done better if it was released in 1990’s or 2000s’. The concept was right, but the 70’s wasn’t the best time for it. I had thought about including these somewhere in my next post, but I’ll just save that for the movies. All I’ll say is that I could watch most of these episodes over the 2001 remake and a couple of the old movies. Well, that’s all I got for now, so Peace, God Bless, and “Go Ape or Go Home!”