"What kind of planet is this?" - James Naughton as astronaut Pete Burke
Planet of the Apes: The Complete Television Series DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the mid 1960s, French novelist Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge on the River Kwai, published a novel called Planet of the Apes. A Hollywood producer quickly secured the film rights, but the studios all turned the project down, figuring that audiences would never be interested in a movie about a planet run by overgrown monkeys. The project languished for several years, but Twentieth Century Fox relented when a filmed test assured them that the filmmakers would be able to create ape makeup that could be taken seriously by audiences.
Released in 1968, the film version of Planet of the Apes was an unexpected hit. The movie no one wanted to make became the movie everyone wanted to see. Its mix of political allegory, exciting action, stunning imagery, and a childish sense of humor gave it cross generational appeal. Its success led to four sequels over the next five years. The sequels were, unfortunately, a study in the law of diminishing returns. For the most part, Planet's four sequels suffered from their lower budgets and lack of intelligently thought out storylines.
With the release of 1973's Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the producers and the studio agreed that the film franchise had played its course. But with the movies garnering high ratings in their television debut, the Planet of the Apes concept still had life in it. It would now find a home on the small screen as a weekly series.
The Planet of the Apes television series represented a complete re-imagining of the movies' mythology. While exploring space, Pete Burke (James Naughton) and Alan Virdon (Ron Harper), astronauts from the year 1981, encounter a mysterious phenomenon that sends them hurtling into the future. They crash land on Earth in the year 3085, only to discover that humans are dominated by mentally superior apes. Pulled from the wreckage by a friendly human, Virdon and Burke are soon captured by gorilla army leader General Urko (Star Trek's Mark Lenard). It seems that these astronauts were not the first to arrive in this ape-run world, a secret only Urko and Dr. Zaius (Booth Colman) know. Ten years ago, Urko killed three other visitors upon their landing. Urko wants to immediately kill these dangerously advanced humans, too, but Dr. Zaius wants to question them first in order to prevent further breeches of ape security.
The astronauts' presence - and a contraband book he finds - causes Dr. Zaius' assistant, Galen (Roddy McDowall), to question ape history. When Urko arranges for Burke and Virdon to be shot down during an "escape," Galen foils the plot, but accidentally kills an ape in the process. Now all three are fugitives, and together they try to stay one step ahead of Urko while the astronauts search for a way home.
Galen marked the third different chimp character played by actor Roddy McDowall in the various Planet incarnations. McDowall appeared as Cornelius in the first and third films, and as Caesar, Cornelius' son, in the final two films. Although he looks and sounds suspiciously like the other two characters, Galen is completely unrelated to them. Most actors would have resented devoting seven years - practically a lifetime, career-wise - to playing what essentially amounted to the same character. McDowall, however, seemed to relish it. Even saddled with latex appliances that obscured much of his face, McDowall was able to convey intense feelings and emotions as Galen. He brought a deep level of believability to the character, which, even in the face of low production values, greatly added to the integrity of the series.
The show premiered on Friday, September 13, 1974, on CBS. Although it attracted a following with young viewers, it was unable to compete for the older audience against ratings powerhouses Sanford and Son & Chico and the Man on NBC. By December, Planet of the Apes was cancelled. Fourteen episodes had been filmed, and only thirteen made it to the air.
The episodes were eventually reedited into four TV movies: Back to the Planet of the Apes, The Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes, Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes, and Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes. These TV movies were widely syndicated, leaving many people of a certain age more familiar with the television series than the actual feature films.
The fourteen episodes that make up the series are divided onto four DVDs. Each DVD is imprinted with a different image from the series. They are housed in a double keepcase. The accompanying booklet gives a complete episode guide (episode titles, production numbers, air dates, writers/directors, plot synopsis, and chapter stops).
The menu designs are simple yet effective. The main menu screen lists each episode on the DVD in the order of its original airdate. Clicking on an individual title leads to that episode's menu screen. From here, episode options can be chosen (play, scene selection, and language selection). Each episode is divided into sixteen chapters, with the main titles and the closing credits given their own chapters.
