Planet of the Apes (1974) (TV)

"These humans are dangerous, don't you understand that?", 1 March 2008

For those familiar with the Planet of the Apes movies, the television series should seem terribly familiar. Alan Virdon (Ron Harper) and Pete Burke (James Naughton) are two astronauts who crash land on Earth some 1,000 years in the future. Centuries previous, man effectively destroyed his civilization allowing intelligent, talking apes to assume control. Now the two astronauts, with the help of a sympathetic chimpanzee named Galen (Roddy McDowell), will have to evade capture if they are to stay alive and find a way back home. Not a whole lot of originality in the series set-up. It effectively plays like a marriage between the Planet of the Apes movies and another TV offering, Land of the Giants, that aired four to five years previous.

Almost everything is a cheap imitation of the movie. Not that the Planet of the Apes movies had extravagant budgets, but the sets, locations, special effects, and make-up are all less expensive versions of what came before. Even the actors were second tier compared with the likes of Charlton Heston, James Whitmore, Maurice Evans, and Kim Hunter. The lone exception is Roddy McDowell. Even though he plays Galen and not the better known Cornelius, he is quite honestly one of the few bright spots. Just watch McDowell in scenes with other apes. He's got the facial movements, the posture, and the walk the others actors don't quite have. Ron Harper and James Naughton are the two main human characters. While nether is particular bad in the series, nether one does anything to distinguish himself either.

It's really not surprising that Planet of the Apes didn't make it on television. Beyond lacking originality, 1974 was a time shows like All in the Family and Maude ruled the airwaves. It was also a time when families like mine only had one television and people like my Dad weren't in the mood for "kid's shows" as he put it. It never had a chance.

5/10