Retro Sci Fi TV: A look at shows from the past that may not have stood the test of time and/or that are relegated to their era, but many of us still have fond memories of them.
What Is It? Three astronauts encountered a time warp while approaching Alpha Centauri which results in them crashlanding on what they believe to be an alien planet. Two of the travelers survive and discover that they are on a planet ruled by intelligent apes who treat humans as slaves. Upon closer examination, they realize that they are on Earth one thousand years in the future and the apes have taken control of the planet away from humans. They befriend a chimpanzee named Galen and go on the run while searching for a way to get back to their time.
Aired: CBS, 1974, One Season Totaling 14 Episodes
Starring: Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, Mark Lenard, Booth Colman
Developed By: Anthony Wilson
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi? No. Planet of the Apes completists will definitely want to give this one a look, and it does deliver some good, cheesy ’70s fun, but it is definitely not an essential sci fi TV series.
The Skinny: The Planet of the Apes franchise had proven quite popular on the big screen from the late ’60s into the early ’70s having produced five films from 1968 to 1973. And even though the movies had been producing diminishing returns Box Office-wise, there was still an interest in continuing the franchise after the fifth film Battle for the Planet of the Apes. There were talks of a sixth movie to be titled World of the Apes, but instead the property ended up moving to television with the CBS series that debuted in September 1974. Certainly in the boardroom this seemed like a good idea to the network execs seeing as the show was based on the hit film series that had broad appeal to kids and adults. But the reality of producing a TV show on a weekly basis that involved many actors putting on time-consuming makeup quickly sunk in. It did not help that the show suffered from poor scripts as wells.
The ’70s was not a good time for science fiction on television as the networks did not have much interest in pursuing daring story-telling with their weekly dramas. Much of what aired in Prime Time in that decade was designed to keep the eyes of the average viewer on the set for the duration of the evening without doing much to challenge their brain matter. So Planet of the Apes was not allowed to introduce much in the way of science fiction concepts nor explore some of the social commentary that the films tackled. Instead, the networks wanted action-adventure stories that usually involved the two human leads and their chimpanzee compatriot on the run from the big-bad ape of the week. Rod Serling wrote the script to the original pilot, but that was not used and he quickly backed out when he saw the direction the show was going. The show acted as somewhat of a sequel to the first movie (Serling also wrote the first draft of that script), with Zaius making mention of human astronauts that had arrived previously. But it ignored the events of the first sequel (out of necessity) and portrayed the humans as more intelligent and less savage than the films (pretty much each of the movies had their own continuity issues their predecessors as well).
The highlight of the show is Roddy McDowell’s return to the franchise as Galen. You might have thought that he was tired of donning the monkey makeup after four films (he was not available for the second film Beneath the Planet of the Apes), but he actually lobbied for the role on the TV series. And Star Trek fans may not realize it, but Mark Lenard (who played Spock’s dad Sarek) was under the ape makeup as the series lead antagonist Urko. The two human leads Ron Harper and James Naughton never really rose above the generic action heroes they were cast as, but given time they might have warmed up to the roles. In fact, the series itself had plenty of promise, and it could have hit its stride if given another season and some more leeway from the network. But that did not happen and this one has become more of a curio of its age, mostly remembered because of its link to the larger franchise.
Buy Planet of the Apes The Complete Series on DVD from Amazon.com
Cancelled Too Soon? Yes. The series was expensive to produce because of the ape makeup and location shooting and the ratings did not justify the cost. And airing against ratings juggernauts Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man on NBC (the number two and three top-rated shows on the season respectively) made it that much more difficult for the show to find an audience. CBS decided before the end of Fall that it would not order more episodes and cut the show short at fourteen total.
Should It Be Rebooted? Perhaps. The franchise has already gone through a big-screen reboot with the trilogy of popular films starting with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. A television series might be a welcome continuation of that, and the current technology as well as the money networks are willing to spend on TV productions would make it more viable. This franchise has managed to reinvent itself across multiple mediums throughout the years, so consider a TV reboot to be a distinct possibility.
Interesting Facts: In the late ’70s and into the ’80s, “Go Ape” weeks became popular when a channel would run the five movies across each of the nights of the week. Since those marathons tended to draw good ratings, ten of the episodes from the series were packaged together as five two-hour movies in order to extend the “Go Ape” weeks. ABC-owned stations actually convinced Roddy McDowell to don the ape makeup once again and film new openings and endings for the films which included him revealing the final fate of the human astronauts Virdon and Burke: “They found their computer in another city and disappeared into space as suddenly as they’d arrived”. Sadly those were not included with the syndication of the movies or DVD releases and have not been broadcast since.
CBS chose to greenlight The Planet of The Apes to series over Gene Roddenberry’s Genesis II which had aired as a two-hour movie-of-the-week the prior season (more on that one at this link).
Where Can You Watch It? The entire series has been released on DVD, but has not received the Blu-ray treatment yet. It is not available for streaming on any of the major services, though perhaps Disney+ will add it at some point (they own the rights to the TV series after the purchase of 20th Television and will own you and me soon as well). In the meantime, you can search out episodes on YouTube, and MeTV has aired it from time to time.
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com
More Retro Sci Fi TV at This Link
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