It had been nearly a decade since the likes of Animal World and Wild Kingdom had moved to syndication. Buoyed by the early success of That's Incredible!, producer Alan Landsburg gifted ABC with a 2nd reality series at the end of the summer of 1980.
Those Amazing Animals premiered in August of 1980, with Burgess Meredith (ex-Batman, Search, Korg: 70,000 BC), in between "Rocky" movies at the time, singer Jim Stafford, and Priscilla Presley as hosts. It seems so fitting that the opening segment in the following episode has Stafford, who scored a big hit a few years earlier with "Spiders & Snakes", stepping aside for a rattlesnake handler.
The series ran 1 calendar year before being cancelled, caught in the usual Sunday night ratings wasteland. After it ended, Presley moved on to Dallas, and Meredith landed another series gig opposite Sally Struthers in Gloria. Stafford didn't get another series, and went back on tour.
Rating: B.
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