RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES
(NBC, September 6-November 18, 1975)
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, 20TH Century Fox
MAIN CAST:
Scientists have
always said man was descended from the apes. What they never figured on was
that they would one day rule us.
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The novel that began it all. |
In 1963, French
author Pierre Boulle
released a novel entitled La Planète des Singes after being
inspired by the humanlike expressions of gorillas at a zoo he visited. In it,
French journalist Ulysse Merou journeyed to another planet where animal-like
humans were hunted and enslaved by an advanced society of apes. Humans had once
ruled that world until they grew complacent and allowed the apes to overthrow
them and assume control. The novel was a commentary on the failings of human
nature and the overreliance on technology, stressing the point that human
intelligence needed to be actively maintained. The novel became a hit and was
translated into English. In the United Kingdom, it was retitled as Monkey Planet, while in the United
States it was called Planet of the Apes.
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Planet of the Apes concept art. |
Boulle’s literary
agent, Alain Bernheim, introduced
the novel to American film producer Arthur P. Jacobs. Jacobs had
just begun a new company, APJAC
Productions, and was looking for new properties to adapt. Jacobs took
interest in the novel and acquired the rights immediately. He would spend the
next three years trying to convince filmmakers and studios to take on the
project, as the estimated $10 million price tag to make it scared them off.
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Damn you! Damn you all to hell! |
Jacobs hired Rod Serling to write the script.
Serling introduced Cold War
themes to the story and created the twist ending of the planet actually being a
future Earth after humans destroyed themselves with nuclear warfare. Securing Charlton Heston to star in the
film landed them Franklin J.
Schaffner to direct. After a screen test with Heston, 20th Century Fox was convinced
the film could succeed and took on the picture. However, Fox insisted on
changes to bring the budget down to $5.8 million. Michael Wilson, who had adapted
Boulle’s novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai, was hired to rewrite Serling’s script,
making the ape society more primitive to save on special effects. Serling’s
ending, however, was maintained.
The film featured
Heston as 20th Century American astronaut George Taylor
who wound up on a planet where primitive humans were dominated by intelligent
apes; in particular by the sinister orangutan science minister, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans). Of course, not
all apes were against humanity as they had sympathizers in chimpanzees Zira (Kim Hunter)
and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall). The special ape
make-up effects were produced by John
Chambers. The film was released on February 8, 1968 and became a critical
and commercial success. Two months after its release, a sequel called Beneath the Planet of the Apes entered production, which focused on another astronaut, Brent (played by James Franciscus and whose full
name wasn’t revealed until the movie novelization), following Taylor to the
planet. The sequel was released in May of 1970.
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Beneath's movie poster. |
Despite being poorly
reviewed, Beneath earned almost as
much as the original; leading Fox to request additional sequels. Three more
movies followed: Escape From, Conquest of, and Battle for, each made on a
significantly decreasing budget. The series took the characters of Zira and
Cornelius into the past where they had a child, Caesar (also
McDowell), who would rise up to lead the ape rebellion against oppressive
humans and try to build an integrated society of peace.
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The main characters of Apes: Galen, Burke and Virdon. |
When television
broadcasts of the films earned high ratings, Jacobs planned to produce an hour
long live-action series based on the franchise in 1971 but shelved the project
when Fox requested another film after Conquest.
However, Jacobs died in 1973, leaving Fox executive Stan Hough to take over
production of the series entitled Planet of the Apes. The series focused on astronauts Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Peter Burke (James Naughton) being shunted to
the future roughly 900 years before the events of the first movie. There, they befriended
chimpanzee Galen
(McDowell) and proceeded to aid both humans and apes while avoiding the
authorities led by General Urko (Mark Lenard). The series was
picked up by CBS in 1974, but because they
decided to gear it towards children and due to its repetitive nature, the show
earned poor ratings and was cancelled after 14 episodes.
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Lights! Camera! Ape-tion! |
NBC decided to try and create their own
adaptation of the franchise, but as a cartoon on Saturday mornings. Contracting
DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises to produce the series, they hired Johnny Quest co-creator Doug
Wildey to oversee its development. Wildey served as associate producer,
storyboard director and supervising director while drawing inspiration from
only the first two films to craft the world of the show. That world, without
the limitations of live-action production, became considerably more advanced
akin to what the original book had described. However, Wildey did have to
contend with NBC’s “Emulative Clause,” which stated that the series had to be
devoid of imitable behavior that a kid watching could duplicate and possibly
hurt themselves doing. This restricted the types of weaponry featured on the
show, which Wildey loaded with Howitzers after the network decided they
couldn’t see a six-year-old operate one.
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Bill, Judy and Jeff meeting the future. |
Return to the Planet of the Apes centered on astronauts Bill Hudson
(Tom Williams in early episodes, Richard Blackburn towards the end), Jeff Allen
(Austin Stoker, who played Mr. MacDonald in Battle),
and Judy Franklin (Claudette Nevins) as they ended up shunted forward in time from
1976 to 3979 and stranded in the ape-ruled future. Returning characters from
the franchise included General Urko (Henry Corden) as a sinister gorilla who
wanted to send all humans off-planet; orangutan scientific leader Dr. Zaius (Blackburn);
the primitive human female, Nova (Nevins); chimpanzee human sympathizers Zira
(Philippa Harris) and Cornelius (Corden); and Brent from the
second movie, given the first name “Ronald.”
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The book that could change ape history forever. |
The series set itself apart from the live-action one
by having ongoing subplots while each episode’s main plot was relatively
self-contained. For half the series, Judy was a prisoner of the Underdwellers;
a subterranean race of humans that were based on the mutants from the second
movie. Urko was relieved of power by Zaius, although he still spent the
remainder of the series going after the humans. An old airplane was discovered that
the astronauts had to keep out of ape hands lest they learn about air combat. The
astronauts also engaged on a quest to find an ancient children’s book that would
prove the theory of ape archaeologists that man preceded the ape. The series
was written by Larry
Spiegel, John
Barrett, Jack
Kaplan, Bruce
Shelly and John
Strong.
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The astronauts meet Brent and Nova. |
Return to the
Planet of the Apes debuted on NBC on September 6, 1975 with music by Dean Elliott.
The series was praised for its intelligent writing, said to accurately capture
the tone of the film series, as well as its highly detailed background artwork.
Unfortunately, Depatie-Freleng’s cost-cutting measures left viewers
underwhelmed with the series; in particular the constant reusing of footage and
the stiff animation techniques on characters. The often-wooden performance of
the voice actors also worked against the series. Poor ratings led the series to
be cancelled after a single season. NBC briefly considered allowing a second
season of three episodes to wrap up any lingering plot points, but ultimately
the idea was scrapped.
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Despite all my rage I am still just a human in a cage. |
In 1976, Ballantine
Books published three volumes
adapting episodes of the series, written by William Rotsler and Donald J. Pfeil under the
house name of William Arrow. In March of 2006, the complete animated series was
released as part of The
Ultimate DVD Collection. That October, the series was then released on its
own in a complete
collection.
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Jack Kirby's concept sketches. |
Throughout the 1980s, Fox tried to resurrect the
franchise several times without much success. Amongst the many film attempts
was another animated series. Joe
Ruby and Ken Spears,
who had served as producers on the live-action Apes series, had just formed their Ruby-Spears Productions and were
interested in making the new show based on the live series. Comic book legend Jack Kirby worked on concept
sketches for the series proposal, but it never materialized. Finally, Fox
wanted a new film for July, 2001 and was willing to offer considerable creative
control in exchange for the firm release date. The prospect attracted director Tim Burton, but the deadline and $100
million budget meant the script written by William Broyles, Jr. had to be
extensively rewritten and all aspects of production rushed. The film was
successful upon its release, but Burton was disinterested in working on a
sequel and it failed to generate enough interest for Fox to go forward with
plans for a new franchise.
In 2006, Rick
Jaffa and Amanda Silver
took inspiration from stories of apes raised as humans and came up with a new
concept focusing on the story of Caesar. After a
slow development period, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released in 2011 directed by Rupert Wyatt. The film was a
major success, and Fox immediately commissioned a sequel. In 2014, Dawn of
the Planet of the Apes directed
by Matt Reeves was released
and received equal acclaim. Confident in Dawn
before it was even released, Fox greenlit a third movie in the franchise
titled War of the Planet of the Apes.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Flames of Doom” (9/6/75) – Three astronauts are shunted forward in
time and find themselves on the run from a human-like ape civilization.
“Escape from Ape City” (9/13/75) – Urko launches an attack on the
humans, almost killing Jeff in the process.
“The Unearthly Prophecy” (9/20/75) – Escaping Urko leads Bill and Jeff
into the realm of the Underdwellers and the discovery that they have Judy.
“Tunnel of Fear” (9/27/75) – Bill and Jeff enlist Zira and Cornelius’
aid in finding a safe place for the humans, leading to a chase along an
underground river.
“Lagoon of Peril” (10/4/75) – Bill, Jeff and Nova race to retrieve
equipment from the capsule and destroy it before Urko finds it and learns about
their origins.
“Screaming Wings” (10/11/75) – The astronauts hope to steal an old
plane Urko found before he can mass produce it for his war on humans.
“Trail to the Unknown” (10/18/75) – The astronauts lead the humans to
New Valley, where they encounter 22nd century astronaut Ron Brent.
“Attack from the Clouds” (10/25/75) – Judy and Bill try to hide the
plane from Urko while a giant bird monster attacks Ape City and the human
settlement.
“Mission of Mercy” (11/1/75) – Bill and Jeff set out to find more fuel
for the plane while Judy tries to find a cure for Nova’s illness in Ape City.
“Invasion of the Underdwellers” (11/8/75) – Urko and his men attempt
to frame the Underdwellers for thefts around Ape City.
“Battle of the Titans” (11/15/75) – A disgraced Urko launches an
attack on the humans while Bill and Cornelius look for a book to save the
humans from Ape persecution.
“Terror on Ice Mountain” (11/22/75) – Bill and Cornelius try to hide
the book but end up in the land of the peaceful Mountain Apes.
“River of Flames” (11/29/75) – Bill and Jeff agree to save the
Underdwellers from a volcanic eruption in exchange for Judy’s freedom.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
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