Return to the Planet of the Apes: The Complete Animated Series (1975)'

Return to the Planet of the Apes: The Complete Animated Series (1975)

Running Time: 312 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Region: 1
MSRP: $19.98

Being a child born in the 1970s (1974, to be exact), it was hard not to become a fan of the classic 20th Century Fox Planet of the Apes franchise. Some of my earliest memories of Christmas toys involve MEGO's Ape action figures; the film and its four sequels were a staple of syndicated television packages for years after their theatrical runs. Though I have no memories of watching the live-action television series (aired on CBS in late 1974), I did catch it later when several episodes were edited together as a series of tele-films.
Hell, I can even stomach that thing with Marky Mark pretending like he's smart enough to be an astronaut and "Mr. Orange" dressed like a monkey....

But the one bit of Ape lore that seemed to escape my viewing experience was the short-lived animated series of 1975. This was remedied by my recent purchase of the 2 disc DVD release of the complete series, a release that was snatched up by my dirty ape-lovin' hands as soon as I was able to track down a copy.  I decided on the eve of the summer release of a third film, WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, of the current CGI heavy motion capture suit current incarnation of the Apes franchise, it'd be a cool idea to revisit the past by checking out an old version of what the future may have been.

My first impressions of the series are quite favorable...though stricken with the curse of limited animation (but, name one network Saturday morning cartoon produced during that era that didn't suffer from it), it boasts some great writing. The premise is familiar: Astronauts Bill Hudson, Judy Franklin, and Jeff Allen (voiced by Battle For the Planet of the Apes and Assault on Precinct 13 star Austin Stoker) get zapped by the time-whammy and thrown into Earth's future....a future where man is ruled by apes. There they learn to adapt and survive their new surroundings while trying to get a grasp on what's going on.

What really sets the animated series head and shoulders above other cartoons of it's day is the level of storytelling... each episode runs into the next in a serialized fashion, with plot points from earlier episodes being set up and revisited in later ones. Then there's the overall tone of the show, which is at times incredibly bleak and dark, an oddity for childrens shows of it's day. Then, there's the inclusion of several character that were made popular in the live-action film counterpart, such as the ape scientists Cornelius and Zira and their benefactor Dr. Zaius, as well as General Urko (voiced by Henry "Fred Flintstone" Corden), and the human female Nova.

The animated show also has a slightly different take on the future Ape society, one more in line with the automated one depicted in Pierre Boulle's original novel that inspired this whole mess. All in all, a worthy addition to Ape canon, though one that possesses it's own individual quirks...

The transfer is pretty good, though the show's earth-tone pallet of colors (which mirrors that of the live-action feature films) makes the transition into animation in a fairly rough fashion. Hues tend to look too dark, black line work practically screams out a jagged cry to one's eyes...and after a while, everything sort of starts to..."blend". When asked to describe the look of the show to a friend, my only response was, "Well...there's an awful lot of orange. And brown."

Oh...waitaminnit. Sorry...just had flashbacks to my college art major days...

Anyways, the show looks great on disc.

None to speak of, not even a collection of annoying "sneak peaks" (which generally only have the vaguest connection to the material the disc is devoted to). There is the option, accessible from the menus for each individual episode, that allows the viewer to watch the episode with it's original animated teaser for the next upcoming episode tacked onto the end.

In a world where Saturday morning animated adaptions of film properties tend to be the bastard offspring of the original source material, the one ruled by apes may actually be one of the best...

And, after saying that, I fully expect Chuck Heston to give me a call asking me to turn in my NRA membership card.

Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season (1976)

Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season (1976)

Running Time: 725 minutes

MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: 1
MSRP: $39.98

Gloria Steinem's favorite fictional feminist finally makes it to the digital age, and while I let my subscription to Ms. magazine run out years ago, I couldn't resist picking this 3 disc set up for simple nostalgia value. Being a long-standing comic book fanboy, as well as being a child of the late 1970s/early 1980s, it's needless to say that I had a boyhood crush on Lynda Carter as the leggy Amazon princess...

And, I'm not ashamed to admit that I still do.

Lynda Carter as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman

Making its debut in late 1975, ABC's The New Original Wonder Woman pilot film blended camp sensibilities with good old fashioned Saturday matinee action (with a healthy dose of "subtle" sex appeal), and led to one of the most fondly remembered television shows of the disco era. This set collects what many fans, myself included, consider to be the best of the show's three seasons (ABC airred it during it's inaugrial 14 episodes, and CBS later picked it up for the latter two seasons), which firmly plants Princess Diana in a wartime 1940s setting, reflecting the character's time of conception in her parent medium, comic books.

The quality of the scripts vary during this run of shows, from good clean fun: The pilot and "Formula 407" (episode 11, 1/22/77) to wild, cliffhanger serial-esque hijinx: "Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua" (ep.6, 12/18/76), to downright goofy: "Judgement From Outer Space" (eps. 9 & 10), but likeable, deadpan performances by Carter and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor (a character I used to jokingly refer to as the "male Lois Lane") and several of the celebrity guest-stars (Roy Rogers, Red Buttons, and Cloris Leachman being amongst the best of them) make up for anything lacking in the plot department. Plus, there's the pre-fame Debra Winger as Wonder Girl, a sight that has to be seen to be believed, unintentional humor included.

The show still looks fairly well, even after nearly 30 years and several syndication packages later. I'm sure Warner Bros. probably did some digital clean-up for the transfers, and the Dolby mono mix is surprisingly clean, free of the usual reverb that makes one feel that they're listening the track from a distance while at the bottom of a well.... heh.

Pilot Film Audio Commentary by Lynda Carter and Executive Producer Douglas S. Cramer - Too self complimentary and "cutesy" to be taken as a serious insight into the creation of the show, but it's fun to hear Carter's thoughts on her performance.

Beauty, Brawn and Bulletproof Bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective - Nice documentary featuring interviews with Carter and several of the production team behind the conception of the show, as well as insights from comic book illustrator extraordinaire Alex Ross (the painter behind such works as Marvels, Kingdom Come, and the 2003 Oscars poster, to name a few) and author Les Daniels (who has penned several in-depth books on the history of various comic book publishing entities and their characters) about the history of the amazing Amazon herself in various media venues.

From the incredibly bad faux funk theme song (for some laughs, track down and read a copy of the lyrics to it) to Lynda Carter's patriotic adventures utilizing the "feminist mystique" and a good right hook, all the while dressed in what is essentially a bathing suit, "Wonder Woman- The Complete First Season" is more fun that you could wrangle with a Magic Lasso.

Did I mention the whole "boyhood crush" thing? Lynda Carter could tie me up anytime...hee hee!

Pop Culture Nonsense: Sweet Christmas! A Look at LUKE CAGE

There was a good intentioned effort within the mainstream comics industry at some point in the 1970s to create ethnically, culturally,  and gender diverse heroes in their books that came off like a contradictory cross between a genuine movement towards change and,....well, grindhouse exploitation filmmaking.

The most popular of these characters, it seems, turned out to be Marvel's LUKE CAGE a.k.a. POWER MAN. The product of a fairly decent funnybook anti-hero origin story and the best antics of a Blaxploitation movie, Luke Cage pretty much was the superheroic equivalent of John Shaft.

Cage's debut issue from 1972

 Over course of the character's publication history, he's had his peaks and lows in popularity.   He starred in his own solo title for a little over 6 years, whose fiftieth issue was rebranded as POWER MAN AND IRON FIST in 1978, when he began sharing his book with another product of Marvel's attempts at cashing in on a 70s B-movie craze, this time in the form of Bruceploitation/ the chop-socky kung fu martial arts film fad, Danny Rand's alter ego Iron Fist.  This pairing lasted another 75 issues until cancellation in 1985.

The character then went into relative obscurity for about a half decade, popping up again in his own title, that not only was part of the early 1990s attempt by Marvel during the collectors speculation boom of that decade to oversaturate the market with product (a phenomenon similar to what had happened to the sports card collecting market a few years earlier....everyone became of the opinion that the product had inflated monetary value, which led to a spike in production numbers, and ultimately,  a ton of unsold merchandise) and, hilariously,  had spun out of one of the most fucked up PUNISHER storylines in the history of the character....

No....really.  The Punisher becomes a black guy.

Seriously.  It's one of those stories that needs to be read to be believed.

There was another attempt in the mid-to-late 90s to relaunch HEROES FOR HIRE in it's own title, which while met with critical praise, found itself a victim of the industry level bankruptcy of sales numbers that were the aftermath during  the following few years after the aforementioned speculation "boom" amongst collectors.   So, back into the limbo of obscurity Luke Cage went.

The 1997 attempted relaunch

That is, until about a decade later, when in the midway part of the first decade of this century, superstar comics writer (and self proclaimed massive Luke Cage fan) Brian Michael Bendis began utilizing Cage as a supporting character in his Marvel mature readers title ALIAS, featuring super powered private detective Jessica Jones.   You may have heard of her.... she was the focus of last year's Marvel Netflix critical darling TV show entitled (naturally) JESSICA JONES, in which we were first treated to Mike Colter as Luke Cage in a supporting role. 

Bendis' critically acclaimed ALIAS, starring Jessica Jones

 Around the time that ALIAS was popping big on comic store shelves, writer Bendis was also then handed the keys to Marvel's flagship superhero team title, THE AVENGERS,  and began featuring Cage as a member of their roster,  boosting the character's popularity into heights he hadn't seen since the heyday of his 1970s solo title.

Luke during his Avengers heyday

LUKE CAGE, the Netflix series, is good.  Allow me to repeat that:  it's really good.  Marvel seems to be knocking it out of the park with these Netflix efforts,  offering a grittier, slightly more mature themed alternative to the glitzy CGI filled big screen extravaganzas such as THE AVENGERS, THOR, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY,  while doing it in a way that feels as if they take place in the same universe (which they do....there's tons of references to the events of the New York alien invasion depicted in AVENGERS as well as other nice nods to Marvel properties).

What really shines is the superb casting, that presents us with an ensemble of well rounded characters that are incredibly touching and cringe inducing (in the case of the bad guys) that makes you want to continue watching their stories.

Mike Colter is great as Cage, the no nonsense, damaged yet noble, hero of the piece. He's exactly what you'd imagine and want Luke Cage to be.   Plus, the effortless fight scenes between a bulletproof man with incredible strength don't come off as boring, because you literally want to see how he lays waste to the next round of bad guys.

  Plus,  there are moments of subtle humor, such as his interaction with the character of Pop (portrayed by Frankie Faison) which is heart warming.  Be on the lookout for one moment,  in episode 4, for Cage's reaction his classic 1970 yellow shirt and tiara look that's a short but priceless nod to Marvel Comics canon and fanboys alike.

Alfre Woodard and Mahershala Ali are the villainous duo of Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes and his cousin, city councilwoman "Black Mariah" Dillard, who both as characters pleasantly possess more depth than expected, almost to the point where one sympathizes with their motivations.

Also, a shout out to two actors who I'm personally a fan of: Frank Whaley, who shows up as police detective Rafael Scarfe and Ron Cephas Jones as chess playing friend of Cage, Bobby Fish.  Those two dudes have matured into excellent character actors, IMO.

LUKE CAGE is yet another stellar television effort out of Marvel Studios,  on par in terms of quality with their past efforts (DAREDEVIL Seasons 1 & 2 and JESSICA JONES) which makes me excited to see their upcoming stuff (IRON FIST, apparently third and second seasons for DAREDEVIL and JONES, respectively. ...and the upcoming crossover miniseries,  THE DEFENDERS).  Highly recommended.

The What, When, and Why of Who? Part 1: The Classic American DOCTOR WHO Experience

I'm a longtime fan of that staple of the BBC, DOCTOR WHO.  I'm also kind of obsessive about another BBC product,  ARE YOU BEING SERVED? (1974-85)....and I don't know what being a fan of cheeky half hours filled with an impossible amount of rapid fire sexual innuendo has to do with Time Lords or Daleks...or what it says about my personal character, but I do know that there's one thing I can blame my interest in both on: the Public Broadcasting Service, or simply, PBS.

Now, if you are amongst the multitude of readers of my blog....of which I'm sure numbers in at least a dozen, and are somehow unfamiliar with the free American educational television broadcasting network known as the PBS (potentially you are foreigners,  like the savage yet noble Canadians or residents of the state of Kentucky....or, you belong to some Jesus cult that lives underground), here's the lowdown: some hippies in the late 1960s, who were probably broadcasting and theater majors, decided it'd be cool if there was a TV channel that was commercial free, funded by corporate and government grants, as well as by viewers....that presented educational programming.  This idea seemed to catch on with college broadcasting programs, because it appears that every PBS station I've ever encountered transmits out of a local  campus (or at least that's the case here in my native gateway to the Midwest state, Ohio).

The biggest and most recognizable success experienced by PBS is probably the foundation of the Children's Television Workshop and the various educational programs it's produced over it's nearly half century existence.   Two words:  SESAME STREET. Y'know....the one with the loveable Jim Henson puppets and 46 continuous seasons on air under it's belt.  The one with the big goofy yellow bird and his buddy, the (formerly) invisible wooly mammoth only he could see?   Yeah.  That one.

Giant talking birds and invisible fuzzy elephants.  Again,  I say:  Hippies.

Somewhere along the way, the brains behind PBS decided that foreign television, especially stuff produced in the UK, was somehow more cultured, classy and sophisticated than American programming.  That totally explains why they'd start running BENNY HILL and the aforementioned ARE YOU BEING SERVED?.

To be fair, PBS's predecessor NET (National Educational Television, 1954-1970) experimented with BBC programming,  and the syndicated packages of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, THE AVENGERS (Steed and Peel, not Cap and Iron Man) and UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS did break up the monotonous atmosphere generated by nature documentaries hosted by bearded dudes from Montana and Gram Parkeresque country rock concerts that seemed to define PBS of the 1970s.

Now, I've spoken to fellow Whovians from the U.K. and Canada in the past about how the perspective of "Classic" WHO differs amongst American fandom from those outside our borders,  and it all can be attributed to how and (more importantly) when we were introduced to it.

I tend to fall within the oldest demographic of fans here in the U.S., folks  who were primarily children when PBS began airing their initial acquisition of syndication packages of the show in 1978.  I've heard of an earlier attempt at syndication to independent TV stations that happened about a year prior that was only moderately successful,  at best.  I can't really comment on that, because in my headspace,  DOCTOR WHO was always a PBS thing creeping into my childhood memories.

Now, the significance of having been introduced to the property in this way tends to play out like this:

First off.....we ugly Americans love us some Tom Baker.  The Fourth Doctor continues to be the primary face of the franchise here, due a lot to the oddball timing and circumstances involved in his participation with the role.  You see, we were introduced to the The Doctor and his antics a full 15 years into the show 's history...and even then, we were still around 4 to 5 years behind in canon , due to the BBC 's insistence on pushing Baker's first few seasons (1974-76) as part of their initial syndication offerings to PBS. This caused us, especially in those early, uninformed years of American fandom, to formulate a few inaccurate assumptions.

I've theorized that those first American audiences, especially prior to witnessing our first Regeneration,  regarded Baker much like how those first, early British audiences who experienced William Hartnell firsthand did :  Baker was our first and only Doctor, what the hell is "Regeneration" , and "There were other Doctors prior to this one?"....

I mean,....I didn't see my first Regeneration  until about three years later....and it was confusing as hell because it was the wrong one.  Around the summer of 1982, during one of the local PBS affiliate's summer pledge drives (WOSU, Channel 41, Columbus,  Ohio...remember. .."funded by viewers...just like you"), they ran a Saturday night Doctor Who marathon that started with "Planet of the Spiders", the previous Doctor's final serial,  and then continued straight into Baker's first few serials.  My 8 year old mind being baffled, I can remember,  at first, thinking,  "These must be newer episodes...and Tom Baker's hair has gotten gray...or maybe his brain got switched into another body and I've missed the episode it happened in...."
It didn't help matters much that due to the shows we were watching were still about two years behind chronologically in canon, so we still had around a two year wait to get to Peter Davidson's Fifth Doctor.

As a matter of fact,  I wouldn't see The next Regeneration until about the summer of 1984, when during another pledge marathon Who marathon, WOSU aired the following in conjunction with WHO'S 20th anniversary:  The Third Doctor serial "The Three Doctors", followed by Baker's final serial, "Logopolis", then Davidson's introduction as the Fifth Doctor,  "Castrovalva", and wrapping up the night with "The Five Doctors", the twentieth anniversary special.

That night not only was I introduced to a new Doctor,  but it was also the first time I ever encountered any of the previous Doctors,  But there's also the fact that, practically,  I never saw any Fifth Doctor stuff until Davidson had left the role in the U.K., and Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor was the current incarnation.

Oh, Colin Baker.    How I disliked your Sixth Doctor.  How I disliked you, so much so that your manic exploits caused me to stop watching the show....but, was back in the fold in high school for Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor.

To compound our confusion,  during the weird lengthy hiatus between Colin Baker's adventures,  we started getting syndication packages of John Pertwee's Third Doctor, which we were finally seeing nearly 15 years after the fact.

So, to summarize: we Americans in early fandom think of Tom Baker as the penultimate Doctor,  Regeneration baffled and shocked the shit out of us, nobody took readily to the Sixth Doctor (which is a shame, because Colin Baker is actually a lovely human being), and nobody actually saw any of the first two Doctors' work outside of the anniversary specials until VHS and DVD releases about a decade and a half later.

What a delightfully wonderful mess....