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Few franchises can claim to be as enduring as that of “Planet of the Apes.” Dating back to the original 1968 sci-fi classic that started it all, a series of sequels, reboots, and adaptations in other mediums followed, continuing into the modern era with movies like “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which moved on from Andy Serkis’ Caesar. Though you’d be forgiven for not knowing about it, the series did infiltrate television at one point as well.
1974’s “Planet of the Apes” TV show aired on CBS and followed “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (which has a shockingly low Rotten Tomatoes score), which concluded the original series of movies. It was a logical place for the franchise to go, as “Battle” had proved well enough that the movies had run out of gas. But the world was still popular. Perhaps another medium would help refresh the property? Unfortunately, critics weren’t terribly kind to it, and it aired just one season. However, fans have a different view of the endeavor.
Created by Pierre Boulle, the series is set 1,100 years in the future and centers on astronauts who find themselves in a society where humans are subservient to super-intelligent apes. Yes, this sounds like the setup to the original movie. Their situation is made better by Galen (played by returning franchise star Roddy McDowall), a sympathetic chimp who questions whether humans are an inferior species.
For context, on the difficult-to-decipher “Planet of the Apes” timeline, the original movie takes place around 2,000 years in the future. So the show takes place hundreds of years before George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his crew arrive on Earth in the far-off ape-filled future.
The Planet of the Apes TV show was a short-lived experiment
The “Planet of the Apes” TV show holds a not-so-great 55% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In stark contrast, the audience rating is at 90%. Granted, that’s with less than 50 ratings, which is a very, very small sample size, particularly by the website’s standards. But what we’ve seen is that hardcore fans of the franchise have rediscovered the series and have come to appreciate what it offered.
“You know, it’s actually pretty cool. I love that we get so much more from Roddy McDowall. He carries the show as he did the original movies,” Reddit user ForbiddenZonner said of the show on the r/PlanetOfTheApes subreddit. “Underrated! Especially for franchise fans,” user ChrisSoll48 said in the same thread.
For certain fans, this is one of the unsung gems of this franchise. I’ve personally argued that “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” is one of the best sci-fi sequels ever, particularly the darker extended version. This franchise has a shockingly high batting average, with only a couple of true stinkers to its name over the years. More modern assessments of the TV show suggest that critics of the day got it wrong. Unfortunately, CBS didn’t even finish airing the full season, per Television Obscurities, with the 14th and final episode later released in syndication and on DVD.
The only real problem for fans is that the show isn’t officially available to stream anywhere as of this writing. It did get a DVD release, which can be found easily enough online, but it’s not terribly cheap in most cases. But highly-motivated “Apes” devotees can track it down.
You can grab the “Planet of the Apes” TV series on DVD from Amazon.
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