Planet of the Apes (1974 Series). Bohemian Ape City and other Simian Similes.

#planetoftheapes #retrotv #vaultofalmost
Stam Fine looks at the short lived 1974 TV adaptation of Planet of the Apes.
Two astronauts from the 1980's crash on a Planet ruled by Simians. Virdon (Ron Harper) and Burke (James Naughton) join forces with cheeky chimpanzee Galen (Roddy McDowall) to find (insert maguffin that will go nowhere here). Also stars Mark Lenard as Urko.
Like the astronauts, the series also crashed and burned as far as its network was concerned, but was the show any good?

[@dfulce]

Met Roddy in March of 1976, he said that series was the most fun he had in his career. ..years later met Urko himself, Mark Leonard at a TREK con, he said the same thing about the joy on the series and the makeup being a challenge to an actor.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

never watched the series LOVE the ORIGINAL movies the remakes suck :(

[@dougreed2257]

@@QuizmasterLaw its very good, you should give it a try😊👍

[@ourladyofguadalupebotanica6732]

@@QuizmasterLaw the series is Sunday afternoon viewing. Laying on the couch not caring about anything. The series will go down quite nicely in that light.

[@voodootrucker1896]

I liked the TV series too

[@tr7198]

@@QuizmasterLaw The remakes suck because way they are filmed. The entire frame is filled from corner to corner.. There is no room for the viewer to step mental foot into. The original movies were cinema releases that left plenty of room for enclusivity for the escapist viewer. The real reason people watch movies to begin with. If the scenes appear mentally prohibiting with no room or space you tend not to pay attention.

[@geebards]

I was a huge fan in the mid-seventies. I still have a significant number of the TV show bubble-gum cards and my brother and I ran around the bush wearing plastic ape masks playing Planet of the Apes. Ah, the memories.

[@Robd07]

I still watch every year the original 70s movies! I wish they continued today that way

[@luketuitea6407]

Awesome 👍😎

[@shallendor]

It was such a fun series! Roddy McDowall tends to steal any show he is in!

[@rogerlynch5279]

Not to forget, s said, the PLANET OF THE APES Series had been a major movie%TV fanchise. In those years in the Seventies as popualre as STAR TREK and STAR ARS also with a sideline of all kinds of merchandise from Comics to nobvells and toys

[@TheNameisPlissken1981]

That episode where Burke and Orco get stuck in an abandon subway station was always my favorite. It was one of the episodes they edited into a TV movie so I saw it a lot growing up in the 1980s.

[@theninthheart4736]

The Trap

[@pauldavis645]

Urko

[@YD-uq5fi]

Orko and Urko are two different individuals. Urko is a gorilla General. Orko is a Trollan who levitates.

[@TheNameisPlissken1981]

@@YD-uq5fi thanks for the spell check.

[@Robd07]

The Legacy was the Best episode from the tv series?

[@evertonporter7887]

Those guys look like Starkey and Hutch LOL. I loved this series when it first came out.

[@fdsuperstar2547]

As a 13 year old kid I was so excited for the series. I remember playing baseball with my friends & running home at 7:55 to catch the first episode. I enjoyed the series & was disappointed it only lasted a year.

[@americarsqueensland1667]

I really liked the TV series, watched it in my early teens.

[@dfulce]

Roddy was very devoted to the series..The only reason he didn't appear in BENEATH was he had committed to directing his one and only feature film TAM LIN. The year he died he did wraparounds for all 5 Ape films on AMC ( American Movie Classics ) cable channel...He was visibly ill but still soldiered through !!

[@PlumbPitiful]

Technically he WAS in Beneath....sort of. Yes, another actor played Cornelius for most of the movie but remember it started with a flashback to the first film which showed McDowell's Cornelius. So if you count that then yes, Roddy McDowell was in all five films and the TV series!

[@eville62]

I watched this back in the 70's i was a kid..........I loved it! Still do.

[@xn0gaming]

I just love weird 1970s television. The mental acrobatics the scriptwriters had to perform to make this work (considering the weird timeline of the movies) must have been considerable. Always a joy to watch Roddy McDowall, even if he simply repeats the Cornelius part with another name.

[@randalcook325]

I have always loved the Planet of the Apes movies tv series, comics and toys. This was something my father and I bonded over. I still have a nice collection of the Ape toys. I really miss watching all of those old movies with dad.

[@daverage4729]

I remember coming home on a Saturday afternoon from getting tutored to watch this, U.F.O., Space 1999 and Dukes of Hazzard. Was always looking forwards to Planet Of The Apes on the bus heading home. Good times. :)

[@battlestarmarc]

Great tv series that should have lasted longer.

[@devilman2465]

I absolutely LOVE this series.

[@tomsenior7405]

Excellent. Cheers Stam. I bloody loved this series when it first appeared on Sunday Evening TV in the 1970s (Give me a break, I was a child). Sadly, the stories became pretty much the same every week. Two Astronauts stumble upon a society with a problem. Astronauts solve problem (with Science and Violence). Astronauts move on... No wonder the show was cancelled early. The two Astronauts are probably still roaming around the Planet with no clear purpose in mind.

[@BellsCuriosityShop]

Great at the time (I was seven or so),.but as I got older I seemed every show was like this (A Team, etc)

[@theninthheart4736]

Give you a break you were a child..? What’re you talking about? I don’t get it

[@PlumbPitiful]

@@theninthheart4736 ... He means if somebody laughs at him for liking such a silly TV show he is pointing out that he was just a kid at the time and kids are much easier to please than adults

[@fazole]

I think at this point McDowell had been relegated to TV. He did Night Gallery and Columbo before this.

[@dfulce]

Roddy was still doing active film work at the time...Poseidon Adventure...Arnold...many more...He had no qualms about doing television....Columbo, Night Gallery, Carol Burnet, I think contain some of his best work...his other 2 series Fantastic Journey and Tales Of The Gold Monkey were entertaining as well.

[@fazole]

@@dfulce That's interesting and unusual because most film actors did not want to do tv, with the Batman TV show being an exception.

[@gozorak]

I was 8 in 1974 and this as well as Kolchak The Night Stalker were my two favorites shows. Only one of the two hold up and that would be The Night Stalker(The first made for TV movie and the four or five best individual episodes that is) In fact it would be awesome if Mr Fine and this Fine KZbin channel would choose the Night Stalker original made for tv movies as well as the series as a subject.

[@daverage4729]

Loved Kolchak. I've a funny feeling Stam will eventually have to cover that one.

[@deborahblackvideoediting8697]

I loved Kolchak! I was eight at the time too, and It scared the living daylights out of me!!!

[@donatist59]

The one Kolchak episode I remember was a line-for-line copy of the Star Trek Horta episode. But I enjoyed the series as a kid.

[@granvillesimmons6033]

Kolchak:TNS is one of the BEST TV series ever made. It is such a crime that they didn't make more episodes. McGavin was SO fantastic as Carl Kolchak.

[@DerekNewtonKeswick]

I remember having the bubblegum trading cards for the series.

[@quietmoments691]

I didn't discover the series until it appeared on ME TV and fell in love. Roddy McDowell is excellent bringing a sense of joy to his character, Galen. Two-time Tony winner James Naughton in an early career role makes Pete Burke a multilayered character with a sarcastic, pragmatic facade but the first to jump to the defense of those being bullied and unable to keep his anger in check when dealing with apes like Urko. Ron Harper as Alan Virdon was the steadying influence that sought to find common ground within the ape culture. The producers truly took a wrong step when they went away from Virdon's obsessive need to find his way home. The relationships shared among these three is a strength of the series. Mark Lenard as Urko was a marvelous villain who saw the humans as a threat to simian society and responded accordingly. Zaius was probably the more dangerous of the two because he sought to understand these humans from the past but made no secret of his determination to destroy them once he no longer had use for them. The series deserved more time to develop, and it is a loss that those stories were never told.

[@ivane5110]

The 70s was a blast to be a kid in. Planet of the Apes, Godzilla movies, Star Trek TAS and so much more. POA was in the theaters, TV, toys (not to the Star Wars level of merchandizing but pretty amazing in those days), comics, records, etc. Lol, the B&W UK comic even ended up involving cyborg Martian apes. Wild to think realize that the astronauts came from 1980. I think the mobies had them be from a few years later. I really wish once shows like this and Logan's Run realized they were likeky to be cancled that they use that to take risks with really creative or impressive last ditch tries. Maybe having a crossover showing that the West World and Apes TV shows took place in Logan's past (and future) with Remy being the result of the robot tech of West World and Logan and crew discovering Apes now intelligent and starting small pockets of society. Another fun video. Thanks. Here's to hoping y'all covet the cartoon series some day.

[@richardjohnson9543]

This was my introduction to the that franchise and I still have the cup that came with my Planet Of The Apes school lunch box

[@zyral.f.6938]

Love this show still, used to watch the entire season several times when they reran it a few years ago on MeTv @ 4am. A bit before my time as i grew up with A Team, Air Wolf, G.I. Joe. Never got sick of it because of the great character moments with the apes that were missing from the film series. Better than any of the recent sci fi franchise spinoffs too. Despite the miscast bland blonde, Burke, Roddy, Mark Lenard as Urko and criminally underused Booth Colman as Zaius were always great. Favourites episodes are the horse race, malaria outbreak, the flying gadget, the tyrant, and the good seeds.

[@Robd07]

The Apes tv show was better than the new apes movies of today!

[@charlessmith31]

I had the whole Ape City, and most of the “action figures”

[@Thepopcornator]

Gotta say, those are some impressive costumes for '70s TV Sci-Fi.

[@edwardbloecher4563]

I see Urko but hear Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan lol. I watched this series when it originally aired and enjoy rewatching it every couple years.

[@blutey]

I used to watch this as a kid. The TV series and films were based on _La Planète des Singes_ , known in English as _Planet of the Apes_ in the US and _Monkey Planet_ in the UK, a 1963 science fiction novel by French author Pierre Boulle. Still worth reading if you can locate a copy. Thinking about it some more, the chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas in the series with their different personalities and behaviours, were all based on the different human races...

[@Jaysin412]

My dad had all the apes movies and this series on vhs when I was a kid and we'd watch them almost every weekend. Totally loved the movies, and the modern remakes

[@jonhatch3398]

I luved the cartoon as well, I would be beat if caught watching Baptist parents

[@splifftachyon4420]

I was a huge Planet of the Apes fan (still am) and loved this series. I had the action figures, the comics, the magazines (even the issue of some teen idol magazine that actually featured the TV show on its cover!). Thanks for the great overview, this brought back some memories! How about a video on the (very) short lived 1982 show The Phoenix, featuring the adventures of Bennu of the Golden Light? Anyone remember that one?

[@cologne2792]

A brilliant retrospective, as usual. Thank you.

[@tibedog5629]

I bought the dvd set of the tv show and the cartoon when I was younger and they are fantastic. I have always loved Planet of the Apes. Those who can't find the tv show they just recently bundled the novelizations of the episodes on kindle.

[@billybatson22]

Thank you for this video. This aired when I was in 2nd grade. I loved it while at the same time it absolutely scared the shit out of me. I have Virdon and Burke's dolls and autographs now displayed in my office and it brings back such great memories (of 5 year old me puking nervously before bed! LOL!) Thanks again!

[@andyboofon]

I loved this series! Bang on with the analysis! I wish it had gone a little deeper with a story arc

[@simonleib1992]

Remember this series as a kid in the early 70's was really pleased to find it on DvD. Short lived had so much potential

[@ronstewtsaw]

My brothers and I watched this. I even had an action figure - the only doll I ever owned. I seem to remember enjoying it well enough.

[@Cafeman_2D]

Another interesting show recap, thanks! I was about 5 or 6 years old when this came out, I remember watching some of the episodes. The intro and some of the meaner Apes frightened me, I recall.

[@razatlab100]

Wait a minute this is Starski and hutch on an ape planet. 😂😂😂 How do you not have more subscribers your hilarious.

[@granvillesimmons6033]

This was a GREAT series. As a POTA fan I thought this series was a logical continuation of the franchise, given that the timeline had been altered at the end of Battle FTPOTA. Again, this is another series that ended WAY too soon.

[@Alfetta158]

The subway system that is seen in a few episodes is modeled after the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system (aka BART) which always led me to believe that the Central City mentioned in the show was previously San Francisco. The nose the train protruding from the tunnel is similar to the original BART trains. It seemed like an effective technique to show a different ape culture where humans talk but is far enough from the east coast and its Stature of Liberty where travel by horses would make diverse cultural development possible.

[@Monkofmagnesia]

I watched this when it first aired when I was eleven. I now have the DVD Box set.

[@everfreebrumby8385]

I used to love that show.

[@pauldavis645]

I adored Sundays in England watching the planet of the apes followed by upstairs downstairs later on in the day just wonderful escapism got them on dvd now I wish they were on Blu-ray it is about time

[@richardcoleman3425]

Listening to a fool, indeed... Interesting perspective you have on this show... As an 11yr old when it aired in the UK, I thought this series was amazing. Exciting, serious sci-fi, full of action and pathos - I would watch this every Sunday with my Dad. I had the MEGO action figures (Burke was always my favourite), I collected the trading cards, the UK Marvel comic was delivered every week, and I was always allowed to stay up late if one of the films aired late at night. The TV series does get a deal of criticism, but for me it was, is and always will be, a great tv show. It should not have been cancelled - and I'm confused and disappointed that some comic book writer didn't continue the adventures of Virdon, Burke and Galen... But even that's too late now, as the modern comic writers and artists are mostly just pale imitations of those who have gone before... I enjoyed the modern series of films, but would have preferred more from the world created in the original movies and the TV show. :(

[@voodootrucker1896]

I agree

[@carlrood4457]

I wonder how many people got the "Viewmaster" reference?

[@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812]

🙋

[@jaydavis8394]

Being a nerd of sorts and living before VCRs I only saw one full episode of Planet of the Apes. It was a Friday night and I'd feigned illness to get out of a ballgame so I could stay home and watch. I don't recall the episode but I do remember it being enjoyable. Good times.

[@axab4333]

I loved this series and still do. It gets unfair criticism. The characters all had great chemistry, actually. Virdon and Burke worked really well together. You have to understand the characters to understand the chemisty and the trouble is, a lot of reviewers do not take the time to understand the characters, so dismiss them. Roddy McDowall loved this series and was very disappointed it did not go on. He said Galen, the lead ape, was his favourite character to play in all of the "Planet of the Apes" franchise. The storylines would have evolved given time, and there were so many different episodes with many different themes shown already. The reason it was cancelled was because it was put up against the most popular shows of the time, under which conditions any show would have struggled. Given a different time slot or a different day, things could have been very different. (It was a massive hit in the UK and the series repeated often.)

[@theninthheart4736]

...what..? No one criticizes this series, save for its abrupt ending (they were expecting a second & third season). It’s widely considered to be one of the best written & most heavily-funded in the entire Apes franchise. Weird comment. The lone qualm anyone has with it is the abrupt ending in addition to the abandoned central theme in favour of a ‘story of the week’ type deal. which is understandable. It wasn’t renewed because the Apes franchise fell off a cliff in terms of mainstream name value around 1972.

[@BrianRPaterson]

Excellent! I loved the Apes TV show too. But I'd have given my eye teeth for a Genesis II series starring Alex Cord and the great (in every respect) Ted Cassidy. The pilot made a very vivid impression the first time I saw it. I wasn't sold on the second pilot, and even less impressed by the few episodes they shot as Brave New World. But the original Genesis II was a joy and a delight. I still watch it once or twice a year. Cheers

[@nunyabizness6595]

Roddenberry was totally pigeonholed into being the guy who just does Star Trek despite all the TV movies he did. So much so that he went back to the well for TNG. A shame. The 70s was weird. The only 3 American series with a slight SF premise were the bionic shows, wonder woman and the hulk as far as seasons longevity. Everything else lasted like 14 eps or so from apes to logans run to Battlestar Galactica. OH and the two season space 1999 which was British.

[@theninthheart4736]

@@nunyabizness6595 umm, the 70s was freaking teeming with murican sci-fi television series lol...

[@alesaenz]

Excellent review 👏👏👏👏

[@beandude99]

Glad I found your channel. Very entertaining. I am, however, trying to decide what’s the most one should pay for a good condition copy of this series on dvd.

[@stebaer]

Yes, it's fun for Nostalgia's sake in the sense that somethings can be more popular in reruns and this one good example as to in agreement with the Book Harry and Wally's Favorite TV Shows how The Movies had already been sequeled to death.

[@myalfie]

Remember this being shown on a Sunday nights in the uk.

[@mrblobby7864]

Thumbs up for that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia reference! A sadly underrated masterpiece!

[@theninthheart4736]

...how is that movie underrated..?

[@mrblobby7864]

@@theninthheart4736 I just think it's a really great movie that doesn't get talked about as much as it deserves. It's got a powerful performance from Warren Oates, a beautiful, haunting atmosphere and a gut punch of an ending!

[@cyberfrank-bx2nv]

ah, man! I think Urko alone is worth looking for episodes, ha, ha! so primitive and naively predictable, I miss that! just like the Thunderbirds s naive characters, it s now the fun of these shows. they were simple then, but such a fun blast now! good show!

[@Scimarad]

I've got to say I like (and miss) this old formula for a TV show.

[@Yxalitis]

I'm guessing Land of the Giants is on your radar too?

[@robd1329]

I Love Classic Apes! I have this 70s series on dvd. Their is 1 episode that Everyone must see called "The Legacy'! Its unbelievably great! I wish Netflix had made a return to classic apes series...a continuation of what happened to these 2 astronauts!

[@robertridley-fj8zz]

Nine years old, Sunday night routine, bath then Planet of the Apes on ITV (Tyne Tees), then bed. Seamed like that pattern went on for years, but I must be mistaken. Memory does play some funny tricks on you, including the fact I can't remember a single plot point, but remember loving the series.

[@donovandelaney3171]

A live action Planet of the Apes TV Series would do well today. They'd be using modern silicone masks.

[@grahamturner1290]

Grew up watching this show. I remember the comic!

[@markpostgate2551]

Zaius is a very common orangutan name, clearly. It's the orangutan equivalent of John.

[@kennethmanning6958]

And the white horse in "The Trap" episode, looks like it's thinking: "Why am I STILL a beast of burden for anthropoids? First humans, now apes...when does MY species get to rule?"

[@whitleybayman123]

I loved this series when it came out first time around. I always thought it had more seasons until I got it on DVD boxset. I have the Annual that goes with the series.

[@jollyjakelovell6822]

James Naughton's brother David was a Pepper and a London Werewolf.

[@cliffhughes8658]

Force 10 from Love Actually!!!!!! Priceless 😂👌

[@kimberlywiederhold627]

I kept waiting for James Naughton to show up in a series that would be successful. Every once in a while he would try but nothing seemed to click. I would wonder what he was doing. Then one year I saw him win a Tony. (Chicago, Billy Flynn)

[@christopherengel7436]

Excellent as always Mr. Fine. I agree that Grape Ape is the goat & I don't even like the color purple. I remember watching his show in my youth but for some reason I remembered it as Caesar with Starsky & Hutch. Which now that I write that down I think that may have been a pretty interesting show.

[@l.a.gothro3999]

Maurice Evans had been a teacher of Booth Colman's - fascinating!

[@jamesmurray8558]

This was a good show.Came on Friday nights 1974. I like it.

[@joec1576]

I enjoyed this series. Have it on DVD. You are correct that Roddy McDowell made this show. Yes, it was extremely formula-matic in it's storytelling. But so was Logan's Run, Fantastic Journey, and the original Battlestar Galactica. There was also a credo of non-violence on network TV in the 70's, bowing to some overdone political pressure. These shows were hampered to some extent by it. They were somewhat of a relief from the plethora of sit coms that littered TV back then. Those were non-violent, just full of sexual innuendo.

[@ventues9751]

I really liked the TV Series !!!

[@FidelCastro128]

Escaping the planet with a hand glider? May have been a way to finish the episodes.

[@mikepastor.k6233]

ABC Friday night line-up 1973 7;30 Kung Fu 8;00 The Six Million Dollar Man 9;00 Planet of the Apes 9;30 The Night Stalker

[@PlumbPitiful]

Couple of problems. First, it would be 1974, not '73. Second, POTA as well as Kung Fu were hour long shows, not 30 minutes.

[@zpy-nq7wv]

AS A KID I LOVED THIS SHOW ,AS WELL AS ALL OF THE FILMS . WHEN I BECAME OLDER I THOUGHT THAT 20TH CENTURY FOX SHOULD HAVE STOPPED WITH THE 1968 ORIGINAL. IT STANDS OUT AS " THE " BEST SCIENCE FICTION FILM EVER MADE .

[@Turboy65]

While it's totally fair to say that POTA was at its best in the original movie and it never again approached that level of quality, it was ALWAYS worth watching to see Roddy McDowall in it. No matter which ape he portrayed. To me he's always been the REAL star of the series. Charlton Heston only made one movie plus a few more minutes in a second. Roddy got a lot more screen time in total.

[@carlrood4457]

I watched the show as a kid and didn't remember much about it. When I was in my 20's, a cable station (I think WGN) did about a week of compilation episodes in 2 hour blocks. They had someone, possibly McDowell as Galen, in "host segments". It was pretty formlaic, but when thinking about the concept of the show you have realize the protagonists were counting on the human race mastering time travel in their absence. That begs the question: "Why didn't they learn about the ape future and change it?" To the shows credit it comparison to the movies, there was a bit more variety in attitude on both the ape and human side. It wasn't just 2 or 3 "good" ones with everyone else as an antagonist. Outside Zaius and Urko, many apes actually have attitude changes.

[@theninthheart4736]

The series was the best entity in the entire series behind the original & *Beyond*, and followed closely by the animated series. The primary gripe is the abrupt ending, as well as the abounding of the initial narrative in favour of a ‘story of the week’ thing. Apparently, they were expecting a second & third season, wherein they would’ve circled back to the initial premise...

[@QuorkEx]

I think the series lacked variety. Are there any mutant humans in this world? What goes on outside the ape territory, what is the rest of the United States like in this future?

[@voodootrucker1896]

I'd have preferred a rebellion by the Humans

[@joekingsley7642]

I love anything with uncle Jack from Land of the Lost, my favorite show of all time.

[@rogerbell8429]

I also loved the series when I saw it in the mid-70s. I bought the DVD about 15 years ago and I binge-watched all the episodes over a single weekend. Good things first - the opening titles and music are superb, very eerie, off kilter and atmospheric. It promised a show however that never really delivered. There is zero chemistry between the two human leads - at times they don't seem to even react to each others sentences. It's the worst I've ever seen on screen. Virden is serious with no sense of humour whereas Burke is constantly wisecracking. Burke does have good chemistry with Galen thankfully with plenty of repartee to keep things watchable. At the start of the series there seemed to be two background issues which were propelling the plots of each episode - the astronauts were trying to get home, and they were being hunted by Urko and his apes. A couple of the early episodes did show them deliberately trying to make progress in getting home, in particular the episode in the ruined city. But after that it just became a stock thing for them to say without showing them doing anything about it. The other background plot point was them being hunted by Urko but even that seemed a bit arbitrary. They could ramble openly from village to village and only hid when ape soldiers appeared but there seemed to be no deliberate, concerted effort to search for them by the apes. The stories themselves were a bit dull with our two heroes teaching the local humans or chimpanzees how to become better people/monkeys??!! The best character in the series overall I thought was Urko. Mark Lenard really brought this character to life. He seemed to put more effort into his acting than anyone else. He was angry, brutal, scary, clever and you knew he was a formidable adversary. Without him the series would have been really poor. It was probably a blessing that the show got cancelled mid-series. It needed better stories and better lead characters. Lost opportunity I think.

[@robd1329]

Same here....The Legacy was the best episode ever!

[@LSPalm]

Urko needed his own show. The Misadventures of Sheriff Urko . After he leaves the army. He harasses a chimp. That drives freight on a big wagon. Named Bear.

[@axab4333]

Could not disagree more. The two human leads had great chemistry and reacted together really well. I have been a fan since 1974. Such comments as yours miss the bond between the two male human leads and dismiss them with no real evidence, because you have probably only given the series one brief glance and do not know the characters or the premise behind the series very well. Also most of the episodes were excellent. As good as any other fugitive tv series on at the time. Such episodes as The Legacy, The Trap, The Deception, The Gladiators. All excellent as well as many more. Only a few fell short which it does with every series.

[@theninthheart4736]

Lmao you’ve got to be joking. Worst chemistry you’ve ever seen....? Watch more movies & tv 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣🤣 the series was excellent, minus the abandoned central narrative in favour of a ‘story of the wk’ aesthetic. However, they were planning to circle back to the central arc in the second season. Otherwise, the casting, set pieces, cinematography, acting, writing etc etc was all peak POTA, and stands right alongside the original, *Beyond*, and the animated series. It had an enormous budget & it really showed in the presentation. The show getting cancelled was a travesty & stands as one of 70s television’s greatest ‘what ifs?’ The cancellation shocked everyone involved

[@richardhart9204]

To me, as a child at the time, Urko always seemed like a character plucked from a serious movie who had no business being in this lightweight TV show.

[@dfulce]

Urko was basically Ursus from Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.

[@theninthheart4736]

Umm, how was this tv show ‘lightweight’...? It had an enormous budget & was arguably the third best entry in the entire series behind the original & *Beyond*. Urko fit in fine.

[@alanhouston5874]

Please tell me Carl Weathers was written in to “Force 10 from Love Actually”

[@CaptNRetro]

I could listen to you read the ingredients of a shampoo bottle and be happy

[@stephenpalmer9375]

I have memories of this as part of some Saturday morning block here in the UK. I loved it, although was unaware of the movies at the time! Is it available on physical media at all?

[@henriklarsson6870]

Yes all the episodes where realesed years ago on a complete dvd set.

[@stephenpalmer9375]

@@henriklarsson6870 I’ll have to have an eBay hunt!!

[@jeffreykalb9752]

"From Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Z..."

[@deathlokprime2645]

You need to do Babylon 5

[@esmith6656]

i heard at the last minute they put it in a killer time slot friday at 8am against Sanford and Son the number two show at that time. it was supposed to be on Tuesdays , not sure why they switched.

[@paulclow3398]

I was 5 in 1974 and I was ape crazy I had the mego figures, marvel comics and books, and I loved this show it was my first exposure to the apes even before the films and I still think some of the episodes hold up today, now Disneyhold the rights it will be interesting to see where they go with it.

[@theninthheart4736]

The entire series “holds up”. What do you mean by “holds up” anyways...? 🤨

[@chrisdelisle3954]

I was a huge fan of the show. The merchandising went well because I think I got an ape action figure from everyone I knew one Christmas. (I'm sure I'm not the only one.) But if this came out in 1974, I would have only been 2 years old at the time. Is it possible this went into syndication or anything a couple of years later? I don't remember any of the episodes off hand, but I DO remember being a huge fan at the time.

[@millerscuba1]

Same here. I would've been 2 also when the show originally aired. However I have memories of watching it and loving it. It must have been in reruns like the Batman or Wonder Woman series, though those two shows had many more episodes. I always assumed (though I can't say it's something I put a great deal of thought into) that the Planet of the Apes series came out in the early 80's.

[@theninthheart4736]

@@millerscuba1 Beyond Westworld was in the early 80s. Both POTA live action & animated series debuted in the 70s

[@Anthony-ik2dw]

I'd be down for a series on that the originals are awesome even the cartoon was pretty good

[@vickilanger1228]

The cartoon is on KZbin full episodes and Playlists too☺️☺️

[@FatNorthernBigot]

I can't be the only one who paused on the "Love Actually 2" poster.

[@andrewwitty6116]

I could look this up but this is easier Which came first, this or Starsky and Hutch?

[@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812]

This came out in 74. Starsky and Hutch were 75

[@samholden4171]

The blonde guy was gorgeous ❤️

[@shaggycan]

The one dark haired guy looks like Jaimie Gillis lol.

[@PastAff4irs]

WHERE DO I WATCH THIS

[@fmsyntheses]

I didn't know there was a series. Looks expensive.

[@theninthheart4736]

It was very well-funded & spectacular. The animated series was as well.

[@battlestarmarc]

lol 5:34. Urko was cool.

[@ken_tiki5241]

Finally! 🐵👍

[@Cmdr1962]

I would go Lancelot Link Secret Chimp as GOAT.

[@madmanmark8387]

It was a decent show for its time,unfortunately the ratings is what helps or kills shows. I enjoyed seeing this as a boy back in the day and had the 2 main characters mego action figures and some years back a friend gave me the DVD set. It has been several years since I have watched it though. I even watched the animated series as a boy and later saw it again several years ago.

[@colormedubious4747]

I would watch "Force 10 from Love, Actually." Get moving on that script!

[@noneofurbusiness5223]

I had a crush on Peter Berg. Loved episode where blind chimp was in love with him.

[@samholden4171]

Had a crush on alan

[@Staceyatkinson4496]

You forgot mojojo from powder puff girls