The very popular film "Planet of the Aoes", (1968) was adapted to a television series format by Anthony Wilson in 1974. Under the executive leadership of Howard Dimsdale, more than a dozen episodes were produced. The show was canceled before its producers had completed a season's worth of episodes; it has since become one of the most-highly-regarded of all one-hour television series, sci-fi or otherwise. I suggest this is because all but one of the original series' episodes, which was rather good, are even better-than-good. The idea level of the scripts, the actors employed and the story-lines were all quite unusually strong. The premise of the series as developed involved three astronauts on a mission to Earth's nearest stellar neighbor Alpha Centauri. Encountering an anomaly in space, their chronometers told them when they awakened that they had arrived in the year 3085; the planet they found themselves arriving upon was a vastly-changed Earth. One of their number was dead, but the others, played by Ron Harper and James Naughton, were captured by the rulers of the strange future civilization--apes. In that society, orangutans were administrators, chimpanzees scientists and gorillas the police and armed forces, all intelligent species who kept humans as slaves. After they had been assigned to the care of Dr. Zaius and his assistant Galen, it was Galen who discovered that other astronauts had found the new world; Galen and Zaius opposed General Urko's attempts to do away with the pair. And when Galen killed one of their guards accidentally, who was to execute the pair for having tried to escape, the three had to flee, and search for two things--the other astronauts who might still be on that strange world, and some way to try to reverse the time effect and get home.. This brilliant series was directed by such TV veterans as Alf Kjellin, Ralph Senensky, Bernard McEveety, John Meredyth Lucas, Arnold Laven, Jack Starrett and Don Weis. Writers for the series included Howard Dimsdale, Walter Black, Robert Hamner of "Star Trek" fame, Arthur Browne Jr., Edward J. Lakso, Robert W. Lenski, David P. Lewis, actor Booker T. Bradshaw, Art Wallace, S. Bar-David, Barry Oringer, Joe Ruby, Richard Collins, Anthony Lawrnece, and Ken Spears. Among the continuing cast, Mark Lenard was towering and powerful as General Urko; Roddy Macdowall and James Naughton, noted supporting actors, were very fine as Galen and astronaut Pete Burke. Booth Coleman, a classically-trained actor, brought Dr. Zaius to life; Ron Harper was very touching as astronaut Alan Virdon except for his lack of a classical accent. The show's theme was written by Lalo Schiffrin, with music composed by Earle Hagen and Richard LaSalle. "Star Trek" cinematographer Gerald Finnerman provided the lucid work for this series; the complex art direction for a strange civilization was the work of Arch Bacon; Stuart A. Reiss did the imaginative sets, and a team of makeup experts headed by Al Schultz and Dan Striepke did the complex ape makeup and more. Every week, guest stars were employed to play human serfs and apes; the list included Percy Rodrigues, Normal Alden, John Ireland, Zina Bethune, William Smith, Joanna Barnes, Sondra Locke, John Milford, Mikel Conrad, Joseph Ruskin, Beveryly Garland, Anne Seymour, Richard Devon, John Hoyt, Jane Actman, Jacqueline Scott, Roscoe Lee Browne, Jay Robinson, Lonny Chapman, Jerome Thor, Woodrow Parfey, Morgan Woodward and Royal Dano. This was a very fine production, with many values worthy of a feature film; a true collector's item.
Review of Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes
(1974)
Classic Sci-Fi Series; Idea-Level, Scripts, Fine Acting and Production
6 September 2005