Planet of the Apes

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Planet of the Apes
DVD cover art
Format	Science fiction drama
Created by	Anthony Wilson
Starring	Roddy McDowall Ron Harper James Naughton Mark Lenard
Composer(s)	Lalo Schifrin Earle Hagen Richard LaSalle
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	14
Production
Executive producer(s)	Herbert Hirschman
Producer(s)	Stan Hough
Running time	Approx. 47 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	02012-09-13September 13 – December 20, 1974 (1974-12-20)

Planet of the Apes is an American science fiction television series that aired on CBS in 1974. The series stars Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, James Naughton, Mark Lenard and Booth Colman. It is based on the 1968 Planet of the Apes film and its sequels, in which McDowall also starred.

The series ran from September 13, 1974 to December 20, 1974. Although fourteen episodes were produced, only 13 were originally networked; the 14th episode (shown in some markets, but pre-empted in others) was included in the DVD box set.

The show was canceled after half a season because of low ratings, due to direct competition by NBC's Top 10 hits Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man. The series was shown overseas, and was screened in Britain by ITV (the series was later repeated on Channel 4 in 1994). It was later shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel.

Introduction

The series begins with the crash of an Earth spaceship that encountered a time warp while approaching Alpha Centauri on August 19, 1980. The date on the ship's chronometer is given as March 21, 3085 but we are told that it could have simply stopped at that point whilst the ship was still travelling. It could therefore be many thousands of years into the future. The spaceship is manned by three astronauts from ANSA (the original film's version of NASA), one of whom has died in the crash. The other two astronauts are unconscious but are rescued by a human who carries them to an old bomb shelter. After the human opens a book containing historical text and pictures of Earth circa 2500, the two astronauts are convinced that they are indeed on a future Earth.

The crash is also witnessed by a young chimpanzee who tells his father, a village official who alerts the authorities. Ape counselor Zaius (an analog of the Dr. Zaius character from the original movie), notes that another such incident occurred ten years earlier. He orders the head gorilla, General Urko (Mark Lenard), to find the humans and bring them back alive. Zaius wants to find out as much as he can about the humans before they are eventually killed. Zaius doesn't trust General Urko to follow his orders and bring back any surviving humans, so he sends along his newly hired chimpanzee assistant, Galen (Roddy McDowall, who played Cornelius and Caesar in most of the film versions).

The two astronauts, Colonel Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Major Peter J. Burke (James Naughton), go back to their ship to check the ship's chronometer. They are more than 1000 years in the future from when they left Earth. Virdon insists on retrieving the ship's flight log in the hopes that they will be able to analyze it and be able to return to their own time period, but while they are at the ship, they are captured, and the old man is subsequently killed by a group of apes.

Galen finds the human book that the old man had been carrying. He reads parts of the book and begins to doubt the history that he has been told: apes have always been dominant, and humans have always been inferior and subservient. When Galen finds out that Urko has arranged for the two astronauts to escape and be killed in the attempt, he stops the shooter and helps the humans escape.

Galen discusses the book that he found with Zaius, who then accuses him of heresy. Galen is sentenced to death for his crime. The two astronauts find out about his sentence and rescue Galen. They are all then declared enemies of the state and become fugitives. The three fugitives wander around the territory that used to be the western United States having various encounters with apes, humans, and old human civilization ruins.

Episodes

*Though most sources, including the official Fox DVD release, cite "The Liberator" as an unaired episode, it is listed as having aired on December 6, 1974 in Planet of the Apes Revisited by Joe Russo, Larry Landsman and Edward Gross. "Up Above the World So High" is also given a different airdate in this book: December 20, 1974.

Unfilmed episodes

• "Episode One" (written by Rod Serling as pilot episode; radically different from what aired)
• "Episode Two" (written by Rod Serling as follow-up to his version of the pilot)
• "Hostage" (written by Stephen Kandel)
• "A Fallen God" (written by Anthony Lawrence)
• "The Trek" (written by Jim Burnes)
• "Freedom Road" (written by Arthur Rowe)
• "The Mine" (written by Paul Savage)
• "The Trial" (written by Edward J. Lasko)

The scripts for "Episode One", "Episode Two", "Hostage" and "A Fallen God" are available online at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive. Details regarding "The Trek," "Freedom Road," "The Mine" and "The Trial" were provided in issue 12 of Simian Scrolls (a Planet of the Apes-based magazine), reprinted from the TV series writer's bible.

Telefilms

In 1976, several episodes of the series were edited into five made-for-television movies.

• Back to the Planet of the Apes (Escape from Tomorrow & The Trap)^[1]
• Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes
• Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes
• Life, Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes
• Farewell to the Planet of the Apes

Galen's last appearance

When the Planet of the Apes telefilms entered syndication, ABC's owned and operated stations, who picked them up for their afternoon movie programs (under titles such as The 4:30 Movie), called upon Roddy McDowall to re-create his role of Galen in a series of new openings and closings specifically for these stations, billed as "The New Planet of the Apes." The introductions originally created by 20th Century Fox to open each film were replaced by a now-aged Galen (McDowall) looking back on the events of the telefilms. The openings and closings revealed Virdon and Burke's final fates: "They found their computer in another city and disappeared into space as suddenly as they’d arrived." According to "TV Zone Special" (1995 issue) McDowall filmed these "wraparounds" in 1976. The ABC openings and closings of these telefilms were neither aired on other stations nor included on DVD.[1]

Spinoffs

Most of the books and comics based on Planet of the Apes are based on the films, not the TV series. However, there are some titles that do involve the TV show characters:

Novelizations—Four novelizations of episodes, written by George Alec Effinger, were published by Award Books. Their titles are:

• Planet of the Apes #1: Man the Fugitive
• Planet of the Apes #2: Escape From Tomorrow
• Planet of the Apes #3: Journey Into Terror
• Planet of the Apes #4: Lord of the Apes

British Annuals—Brown-Watson Books published three hardcover annuals featuring original stories about Virdon, Burke and Galen. These stories are a combination of comic strips and short fiction.

Audio Adventures—Power Records produced four audio-only adventures based on the TV show. Their titles were:

• Mountain of the Delphi
• Battle of Two Worlds
• Dawn of the Tree People
• Volcano

Argentine Comics—Seven Spanish-language comics were published in Argentina, written by Jorge Claudio Morhain and Richard Barreiro, and illustrated by Sergio Mulko and T. Toledo. Released only in Argentina, they have never been officially published in English. However, PDFs of the comics, translated to English by fans, are available at Kassidy Rae's site. (See link below.)

Filmstrip Story—Chad Valley, a U.K. toy company, produced 32 short film-based comic strips containing an original TV-series-era story, packaged as the Chad Valley Picture Show Planet of the Apes Sliderama Projector (very similar to the many Give-a-Show projector sets of the 1970s). These strips are extremely rare and difficult to come by.

Soundtrack

In 2005, Intrada released an album featuring Lalo Schifrin's opening and closing music along with four of the six original scores composed for the series, including all three of Schifrin's scores and Earle Hagen's "The Legacy" (not included: Hagen's "Tomorrow's Tide" and Richard LaSalle's "The Trap").

1. Main Title 1:15
2. Escape From Tomorrow: The Spaceship 2:38
3. Apes 2:46
4. The Warp 2:03
5. Urko and Galen 4:04
6. Prison Guard 1:58
7. Jail Break 3:29
8. Your World 3:29
9. The Gladiators: Jason 1:53
10. Fighting 2:13
11. Barlow 1:50
12. Trouble 2:25
13. Into the Arena 2:46
14. There Will Be Death 0:53
15. Humans Versus Apes 2:33
16. A Beginning 2:28
17. The Legacy: Into the Ruined City 2:25
18. The Machine 0:50
19. The Soldiers 2:30
20. The Key 1:23
21. Virdon and the Kid 1:10
22. The Family 1:56
23. The Reward 2:23
24. Knowledge Hunts 3:11
25. Farewell 0:35
26. The Good Seeds: Riding for Urko 3:16
27. Travel Without Stars 3:16
28. Attack 3:16
29. Bonded Humans 2:27
30. Next String 2:27
31. End Credits 0:28

The album also includes the logo music for Twentieth Century-Fox Television.

Credits

Starring:

• Roddy McDowall as Galen
• Ron Harper as Colonel Alan Virdon
• James Naughton as Major Peter J. Burke

Frequent guest stars:

• Mark Lenard as General Urko (11 episodes)
• Booth Colman as Councillor Zaius (6 episodes)

Other credits:

• Executive Producer: Herbert Hirschman
• Producer: Stan Hough
• Developed for television by Anthony Wilson
• Based on the book by Pierre Boulle

Location

The series was filmed for the most part on location at what is now Malibu Creek State Park.

References

External links

• Kassidy's Planet of the Apes: The Television Series
• Planet of the Apes at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet of the Apes at TV.com
• Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive – Extensive fan site with information on all original films and series, with full television scripts, comics and other relevant material
• Planet of the Apes Media Archive – Multi-media website
• Planet of the Apes: The Forbidden Zone – One of the oldest and most complete Planet of the Apes sites
• Back to the Planet of the Apes at the Internet Movie Database