After nearly 50 years of feature films, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan was adapted for television by independent producer Sy Weintraub, who'd acquired the rights to the character to continue the movie series a few years prior. NBC carried the series for 2 seasons (1966-8), but, sadly, it was lost amidst the campier adventure shows of the period.
Apparently, Weintraub didn't believe that Mike Henry, who was the current movie Tarzan at the time, could make a smooth transition to television. So, he cast another relative unknown, Ron Ely, to play Tarzan. Like Henry, Ely's Tarzan was well spoken and had returned to the jungle after being educated in civilization. Where Weintraub made a fateful mistake was leaving Jane Porter, the jungle lord's wife, out of the series. Also, while there was a juvenile "sidekick", he was christened Jai, rather than the politically incorrect "Boy".
Much like ABC's Green Hornet, Weintraub opted to play it straight with Tarzan, who came across as more of a jungle detective. 8 years after the series ended, Filmation acquired a license to adapt Tarzan in animated form, and it lasted 6 seasons, mostly in reruns after the first 2 years, on CBS (1976-82). There've been three live-action reboots since, the last coming in 2003, as well as a few more movies, including Disney's take, which led to another animated series.
Jimmyredproductions uploaded the extended open, which I think was only used in the series opener.
Ron Ely would later resurface as a game show host, emceeing Face The Music, and even had a turn hosting the Miss America pageant. Tarzan's cable whereabouts are presently unknown, but if someone like, say, Me-TV, can get their hands on it........!
Rating: A.
2 comments:
Another one of those shows Dad & I used to watch back in the day - although by then it was in syndication.
The "Jai" character was sort of the "Boy" expy but "Boy" himself wasn't correct either since Tarzan had a son through normal means - in the books at least. And the kid wasn't named "Boy" either.
The child actor who played "Jai" was also called "Pepe" in an episode in which he played the assistant to a skipper who was a lot like Humphrey Bogart's character in The African Queen"!
Had the show lasted longer, perhaps Jane could have been introduced later. It's obvious the producers wanted to leave potential romantic opportunities open.
While not perfect I preferred this live action show over those that followed in the 90s.
This defininitely would be perfect for the ME-TV lineup!
Jane didn't appear in any of the Mike Henry movies, either.
Your description of Manuel Padilla, Jr. as Pepe sounds like he was Jan Murray's sidekick in the film, "Tarzan & The Great River", one of Henry's films, unless it was before he was introduced as Jai.
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