A friend lent me his 'every Planet of the Apes ever made' DVD boxed set -- he suggested that I check it out. Apparently, his kids have taken a shine to the 1975 Saturday morning series which is included. I accepted knowing that I would like to see the feature, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It has been more than a few years since seeing this one in the chain.I've checked out one of the animated episodes... it is dark as I remember it being. This version of the franchise was made immediately after the 1974 live action television series was cancelled.
Last night I watched an episode of the live action series and was surprised that it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. The two leads, Ron Harper and James Naughton are quite good; and so is Roddy McDowell, of course, and as always. The background music is outstanding; balls and all. You sure don't get that anymore. (What you do get now is Battlestar Galactica and the crappy electro-symphony special.)
Back in the fall of 1974 I was there with bells on when it premiered. While I did like it I realized even then that the series was not anything special.
Apes fever was very real back then. The feature films were still hot off the presses and the Mego toys were out. But it was obvious that unless the television series was going to push past its format of 'the astronauts always having to evade General Urko and his men', then only so many episodes could be done before it ran its course.
(A big part of the reason CBS cancelled the television series after only half a season, I understand, was due to its great cost... and was not pulling in audience numbers to justify the money being spent week to week.)
History has made its judgement and some of us look back at our childhood memories and can see why there was some excitement. What is interesting is how lame television science fiction/fantasy is today: Perhaps some twelve year old watching these series now will look back in thirty years and reminisce in a similar way.
... Beneath the Planet of the Apes was good.
4 comments:
The First and Beneath are the only good ones. I remember Beneath scared me pretty good as a kid. And don't even get me started about the "reimagined" film by Tim Burton. That one's even worse that Battle For the Planet of the Apes.
I think "Escape" is dynamite... second only to the first one.
Am I the only one who likes "Battle for the Planet of the Apes"? I saw it a couple of times when I was a youngster, and really liked the action-adventure story, and seeing it again last year for the first time in almost 30 years, I still liked it alot. It's still a neat story, and seeing it with adult eyes made me notice and appreciate Severn Darden's existential underground leader more than I surely did the first time around.
As a kid, I loved "Beneath" just as much as the first film-- but seeing it again with more experienced eyes in my 20s wasn't as pleasant an experience, as Ted Post is not a cinematic director-- it really did feel like a theatrical made for TV movie (and I also felt that about "Magnum Force").
I rewatched Magnum Force back in the Spring... had not seen it in decades. Was very impressive. Liked the straitforward and unpretentious aspects of the storytelling. The filmmakers let the story tell itself
While I agree with you about Ted Post -- he was/is known for getting pages shot -- I think his style tended to suit the pictures he was asked to direct. (Which is probably why he was asked to direct certain pictures. His brand of storytelling was of a sure hand.)
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