191 Planet of the Apes

First  watched : 1974

Over  to  ITV  now  for  this  adventure  series  based  on  the  film  franchise  ( probably  the  first  to  enter  my  consciousness ). Discussions  about  a  TV  series  began  in  1971, the  year  of  the  third  film  in  the  franchise  Escape  from  the  Planet  of  the  Apes  but   stalled   as  the  audience  fell  away  with  its  sequels. After  the  pretty  dire  Battle  for  the  Planet  of  the  Apes   premiered  in  1973  the  series'  producer  died  and  his  company  sold all  rights  to  20th  Century  Fox. They sold  TV  rights  to  the  first  three  films  on  to  CBS  who  immediately  broadcast  them  to  high  ratings. This  gave  a  green   light  to  development  of  the  TV  series.

The  premise  of  the  series  goes  back  to  the  first  film  with  two  astronauts  Virdon  and  Burke  crashlanding   on  the  earth  of  the  future  where  apes  rule  the  roost.  The  relatively  liberal  Zaius  - the  only  character  lifted  directly  from  the  films  although  the  bone-headed  general Urko  is  pretty  much  identical  to  Ursus  from  the  second  film -  wants  to  study  them   but  his  acolyte  Galen,  played  by  the  faithful   Roddy  McDowall,  breaks  loose  and  goes  on  the  run  with  the  two  humans.

From  that  point  on  it's  pretty  much  Alias  Smith  and  Jones   accompanied  by  a  man  in  a  monkey  suit   as  the  two  fugitives  roam  around  the  semi-civilised  planet  chased  by  Urko  and  solve  the  problems  posed  by  various  guest  stars  while  trying  to  find  a  way  out  of  their  predicament.

Poor  ratings  in  the  US  put  an  end  to  it  after  13  episodes  although  it  was  very  popular  here  and  gave  rise  to  a  brand  of  crisps  and  a  Marvel  comic  which  I  bought  for  a  while  until  it    interrupted  its  adaptation  of  the  fourth  film  without  warning  in  favour  of  a  densely  written piece  of  fan  fiction  ( and  not  from  the  beginning  either )  and  I  abandoned  it  in  disgust.

Neither  Ron  Harper  nor  James  Naughton  became  household  names  after  the  series  although  the  latter  has  been  notably  more  successful  with  a  couple  of  Tony  Awards  and  character  parts  in  some  big  films  such  as  The  Devil  Wears  Prada.  No  one  from  the  series  was  involved  in  the  2001  film  reboot, McDowall  having  died  three  years  earlier.