Planet of the Apes Tv Series 1974 CBS Box Set

[Fire Marshal Bill]

Yup, i got the boxed set for Christmas last year. Funny thing is, I was a huge ape fan back in the day and i have no recollection of ever seeing the tv series. I remember all the movies though. Anyway, i haven't made it all the way through yet but i'm totally enjoying it so far .

[Nostalgiabuff]

I bought this set the day it was released on DVD. love this series. the trap is my favorite too, probably because Beneath is my favorite of the movies. really wish they would have done this more like the movies though with humans being dumb and such....they really could have explored the planet and differnt tribes of men and apes and maybe other species that would be out there in their own little corners of the world. would have been so cool

[kennermike]

I can't believe this show only lasted 3 months ? thats a crime!

[david_b]

Biggest problem with the TV series is it suffers from the same thing Land of the Giants suffered from.

It's kind of boxed in and really doesn't go anywhere leaving most of the episodes very similar to each other.

Agreed, totally. LOVE both shows, but agreed.

[ironman1188]

I have the series on DVD. My fave eps are The Trap and The Gladiators. You can't beat an episode that has William Smith AND Marc Singer!!

[apes3978]

The Galen bumpers were made specially for ABC affilates who aired the "TV movies"... I'm pretty sure they weren't included because they're probably "owned" by ABC and not FOX... That and/or they didn't want to do the leg work of finding copies...

I agree with you on the interviews/commentaries: They interviewed Naughton for the BEHIND documentary, so they had that, and I'd guess Booth Colman and Ron Harper would have taken part in something (both have appeared at conventions, etc. and they don't seem to "disown" APES like Naughton does...) Plus a lot of the guest stars are still around so they could have possibly got Marc Singer, Martin Brooks, Jackie Earle Haley, Zina Bethune, etc. to do commentaries or mini interviews, etc...

I can't believe this DVD set has NO extras! What a shame. Now I see there were these Galen bumpers done (that i had never even heard of before) for the syndicated edited "movies" they made from these episodes. Why couldn't they have at least added those to this set?? Some interviews, commentary...anything would have been nice.

[toysrus]

I have that! I loved the series as a child and still do. I mentioned this many times on the MM, but what still hurts is they never gave the fans a true finale to the series. I always had my hopes up for a Sci-Fi or somebody to make a finale or a series picking up somewhere after where they left off.

[Action Martin]

I own the DVD set as well. I even watched the premiere episode last Sunday right before watching the original "Planet of the Apes".

[Mikey]

I watched the fishing one last night.

The only thing good about it was Roscoe Lee Brown ... everything else was pretty bad.

[mego73]

I didn't know of the Ape TV show when I was a kid (only the cartoon). In the 80's I was introduced to the TV show via the many showings of the TV movie edits on WTBS ( there was no Galen intros on these though).

Got the earlier DVD releases of the movies and TV show, then got the Caesar bust set and sold off the earlier releases.

The Caesar bust has the cartoons but the majority of them were not restored (the single release of the toons are fully restored). I actually like having them that way because they mirror how I saw and recorded them on WPIX in the late eighties on Saturday Mornings.

My extended play VHS recordings became the basis for a fan made set of the Ape toons before the legit ones came out. They were uncut and despite being in EP, looked fairly good.

WPIX ran all but one of the episodes without opening or closing credits so that's how they added more commercial time.

For me, Planet Of The Apes and I have an unusual history. I loved the Apes but loved Star Trek more. So, my limited toy lobbying power usually went for Star Trek stuff although I would've loved to have Ape stuff too.

One time, I actually saw a Mego Apes figure (I can't remember the exact figure, I only remember it was carded and had a mini catalog) in a drug store nearby the supermarket my folks were shopping in. I went to track them down shopping and finally found them when they were out the door so I never got that Ape figure.

Besides that, compared to Trek, Apes were kept at arms's length. Star Trek was shown every week or daily on TV, Apes movies were shown only once on a while.

So, it's no wonder I have made up for it now. I can now have my Trek and Ape it too.

[Mikey]

I didn't know of the Ape TV show when I was a kid (only the cartoon). .

Same here.

I had no idea who Mego Virdon and Burke were until the 80's when they started showing the TV movies.

[drzaius1]

I bought these on dvd when they first came out years ago, but I also had VHS copies that i bought on ebay in the late nineties. (they were not officially official, of course)

[jessica]

I have these and watch it on occasion. They are my guilty pleasures. My fav. episode is The Deception only because I am a sucker for sad endings. I love how Galen says, "It's tragic!"

You have extreme ends of the acting spectrum from very bad to very good.

[MIB41]

I bought this box set the first day it was commercially available. I was thrilled to see it finally make the light of day when it was released years ago. This was a series I really enjoyed when it was on. Those last four words were the primary problem back in the 70's. The show never seem to find a solid programming slot at the time of it's release. It started having reruns very early on. Was preempted during sports and new events and was generally never given a chance to shine. I just remember really liking it when I could see it on television. And was immensely disappointed, but not surprised, when it was cancelled. I LOVED Urko in that series. He was the ultimate villain on television for kids back in those days. Great show.

[mego73]

I also recorded the TV movie edits from Fox Movie Channel when they had the programming push for the blu ray set. I don't know what if there were substantial differences between the actual episodes used and the TV movies they became.