TARZAN, LORD OF THE JUNGLE

 

TARZAN, LORD OF THE JUNGLE
(CBS, September 11, 1976-November 3, 1979)
 
Filmation Associates

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Robert Ridgely  – Tarzan (speaking), various
Danton Burroughs – Tarzan (yell)
Lou Scheimer – N’Kima, various

 

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs had wandered from job to job and one failed enterprise to another, making darkly humorous cartoon sketches and writing fairy tales set on other worlds to amuse himself and distract from his string of bad luck in life. Having indulged in some pulp publications during his downtime, he felt he could write better than what he read and began work on his first pulp story: Under the Moons of Mars, which would become the first entry in his Barsoom series about Confederate Army captain John Carter suddenly finding himself on the planet Mars and embroiled in the conflict between its peoples. After finishing half of it, he submitted it to The All-Story magazine under the pseudonym “Normal Bean” (fearing his reputation would be damaged if connected to the work). Managing editor Thomas Newell Metcalf liked what he read, and after some polish and its completion, he bought the serialization rights from Burroughs for $400 USD (equivalent to $13,283.92 as of this writing). It was first published in the February-July 1912 issues of The All-Story.

Cover to The All-Story magazine's October 1912 edition.

Burroughs took up writing full time. Although initially discouraged when his next story idea was rejected, encouragement to keep at it led him to create the first entry in his most successful series: Tarzan of the Apes. Tarzan was the son of a British Lord and Lady who were marooned on the West coast of Africa before he was born. Neither survived his infancy and he was adopted and raised by Kala, member of the ape tribe known as the Magani. His name, Tarzan, meant “White Skin” in their language. Tarzan would eventually ascend to king of the apes, learned about his past upon discovery of his family’s hut, people in general when another group wound up stranded in the jungle, and eventually of love when he met Jane Porter—who would eventually become his wife. Although his adventures would often take him out of the jungle, it wouldn’t be long before he was drawn back to it.

Front page artwork from the 1914 edition of Tarzan of the Apes.

Tarzan of the Apes was published in The All-Story in October of 1912. After being rejected by several publishers, A.C. McClurg and Co. finally agreed to release it in novel form in 1914, becoming a best-seller. Burroughs would go on to publish 24 books in the Tarzan series—two posthumously after his death in 1950—along with several novellas. Recognizing how popular Tarzan was with his audience, Burroughs went against advice and planned to exploit the character through whatever other media he could: a comic strip that ran from 1929-2002 and continues on in reruns; films beginning with the 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes and still being produced in the present; stage plays starting in 1921; radio shows beginning in 1932 which Burroughs was involved with; and various merchandise. For tax reasons and to maintain control over his works, Burroughs formed Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. which is still run by his family today and continues to license and manage Burroughs’ creations that have not yet fallen into the public domain.

Jane, Tarzan and Cheeta from Tarzan the Ape Man.

The films introduced many of the characteristics most people associate with Tarzan. 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man introduced Tarzan’s sidekick Cheeta; a chimpanzee that provided comic relief and correspondence between Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and his allies, and led other animals to come to Tarzan’s aid. This character replaced Nkima from the books; an African monkey that first appeared in Tarzan and the Lost Empire who exhibited great bravery in Tarzan’s presence but was otherwise cowardly on his own. The film also introduced the version of Tarzan’s yell synonymous with the character (and whose vocal origins have been an ongoing debate). His son with Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan), Jack, that first appeared in The Eternal Lover, was also replaced by an adopted son known only as “Boy” (Johnny Sheffield) in 1939’s Tarzan Finds a Son! The 12 films starring Weissmuller established Tarzan as a noble savage speaking in broken English, rather than the cultured aristocrat he was portrayed as being in the novels. The 1935 serial The New Adventures of Tarzan, which was one of a competing series of films allowed by licensing issues and the only film production with Burroughs’ direct involvement, featured an educated Tarzan. When television emerged as a dominant medium, many of the Tarzan films were brought to Saturday morning television. The character’s first television series, Tarzan starring Ron Ely, aired on NBC between 1966-68 as essentially a continuation of the films made under producer Sy Weintraub that began with 1959’s Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure.

The animated Tarzan and his animal friends.

Eight years later, Filmation co-founder and producer Lou Scheimer decided he wanted to try his hand at producing his own Tarzan series. Scheimer, at this time, resided in Tarzana, California; the town that sprang up when Burroughs gradually sold off portions of his massive 550-acre Tarzana Ranch named after Tarzan. ERB, Inc.’s office was also located in Tarzana just a few minutes away from Scheimer’s house. Scheimer met with the Burroughs estate to convince them that Tarzan would be perfect for animation; starting with a film to explain his origins. Unfortunately, Burroughs’ grandson, Danton, wasn’t thrilled with the changes writer David Gerrold wanted to make for the film to have the story flow better, and the resulting heated exchange between them would be one of the reasons Gerrold left Filmation to work with Krofft Productions. Eventually, a deal was struck and Filmation acquired the rights. They, in turn, sold the show to CBS.

Tarzan gives his traditional call.

The goal was to have the series appear as lush and illustrative as the work of Burne Hogarth, Burroughs’ favorite artist from the Tarzan comic strip that worked on it between 1937 and 1950, while keeping it within the scope of their budget. Knowing how physical a character Tarzan was, and since was meant to be a real man rather than a superhero who could fly like Superman, Filmation decided to make use of rotoscoping for their library of stock footage. They shot a lot of film of a model—who was a bartender from the animators’ favorite nearby hangout called The Dug-Out—walking, running, jumping, diving, swimming and whatever other common movements an ape-man would need to make in the jungle. The animators would then draw off of that footage to perfectly emulate how the human body would move.

Character models for Tarzan's foes from Zandor.

The series featured the smallest cast of any Filmation project; with the main characters only being Tarzan (Robert Ridgley) and his companion N’Kima (Scheimer providing vocal effects). Danton Burroughs himself provided Tarzan’s iconic yell (once; that single recording was reused for each instance in the series). Some of the recurring characters included the Mangani apes that raised him; Jad-bal-ja, the lion he raised and trained; African elephants, called “Tantor” in the Mangani language, that would come to Tarzan’s aid when called; Queen Nemone (Joan Gerber & Hettie Lynne Hurtes), the ruler of Zandor; Tomos (Alan Oppenheimer), Nemone’s prime minister and lackey; Belthar, Nemone’s pet lion; and Phobeg (Ted Cassidy & Oppenheimer), the strongest man in Zandor and one of the royal guards. Jane (Linda Gary) only appeared in one episode, and that was by special request from the Burroughs estate to resecure the character’s rights as she hadn’t appeared in visual media since 1959. The series made heavy use of the Mangani language from the books, having all animals be called by their Mangani names and even making up a few words when none existed, and retained Tarzan’s intellect.

Enter: evil robot Tarzan.

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle debuted on CBS on September 11, 1976 and ran for four seasons; however, only the first was its own separate entity. For the second season, 6 new episodes and reruns were paired with repeats of The New Adventures of Batman to form The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour. They were joined by The Freedom Force, Jason of Star Command, Manta and Moray, Superstretch and Microwoman and Web Woman to form the 90-minute Tarzan and the Super 7 for the next two seasons. Tarzan’s runtime was reduced to 17 and 11 minutes as part of the block, depending on the episode, and longer reruns were trimmed down to run within the allotted time. 6 and 8 new episodes were made for each season, respectively. When the other series—excluding Jason—moved to NBC to air in reruns as Batman and the Super 7, reruns of Tarzan were joined by The New Adventures of The Lone Ranger to form The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour. For the final season, those shows were joined by The New Adventures of Zorro to make The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour.

You encounter all sorts of strange beings in the jungle.

Much of the series was written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville, who also served as associate producers, with additional scripts from Paul Dini, Kathleen Barnes, David Wise, Tom Ruegger, Dale Kirby, Don Heckman, Michael Reaves and Fred Ladd. Many episodes were based off of Burrough’s books and tried to remain as faithful to them as possible; however, tempered for a more modern audience and infused with pro-social messages about preservation and treating animals and other cultures properly. Topping that off was Filmation’s customary coda at the end where Tarzan would relay a moral message to the viewers. Notably, Tarzan’s adventures seemed to be set in the present day with the appearance of robots, satellites and airplanes rather than the late 19^th and early 20^th Century of the books. Additionally, there were strong science fiction elements through the presence of mad scientists and extra-terrestrials. Lacking their desired film, storyboard director Bob Kline was able to provide at least a glimpse of Tarzan’s origins in the series’ opening sequence, supported by narration from Ridgely. Horta-Mahana Corp. was responsible for the music and sound effects used, with background music provided by Ray Ellis (as Yvette Blais) and producer Norm Prescott (as Jeff Michael).

The DVD cover.

Following the last run of episodes in the Adventure Hour, Tarzan took a two-year hiatus from the network before returning for a brief seven month run in February of 1984. The series largely disappeared, with Scheimer stating in his book, Creating the Filmation Generation, that he was often asked about when it would be released to home media. Warner Bros. eventually released the episode “Tarzan and the Colossus of Zome” as part of their compilation DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s Volume 1; itself collected with other entries in that series in 2018. The complete first season was released to DVD in 2016 by Studio Distribution Services in time for its 40^th anniversary; just weeks before Warner Bros.’ (a part owner of SDS with Universal Pictures) new film, The Legend of Tarzan, hit theaters. It was also made available for purchase to stream on Prime Video.

 

EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“Tarzan and the City of Gold” (9/11/76) – Tarzan ends up a prisoner of Zandor when he attempts to help Athne of the City of Ivory return home after Zandorians drove her off.
 
“Tarzan and the Vikings” (9/18/76) – Tarzan is captured by jungle Vikings to be a slave to the chieftain’s daughter and ends up discovering a plot to overthrow the chieftain.
 
“Tarzan and the Golden Lion” (9/25/76) – Tarzan comes to the aid of the Monkey People being enslaved by the Bolmangani and teaches them how to stand up for themselves.
 
“Tarzan and the Forbidden City” (10/2/76) – Tarzan must rescue two groups of visitors seeking the Forbidden City for different reasons after they’re captured by the soldiers living there.
 
“Tarzan and the Graveyard of Elephants” (10/9/76) – The Novardians demand Tarzan’s aid in finding the Graveyard of the Elephants so that they may harvest the tusks from their bones.
 
“Tarzan’s Return to the City of Gold” (10/16/76) – Tarzan ends up saving Athen’s brother and attempts to get him home, but Queen Nemone has ordered her soldiers to capture Tarzan.
 
“Tarzan and the Strange Visitors” (10/23/76) – Tarzan meets an anthropologist as aliens arrive in the jungle to capture animal specimens to bring back to their planet.
 
“Tarzan and the Land of Giants” (10/30/76) – Tarzan discovers a hidden valley full of giants being terrorized by tyrant King Odysseus and Buto, the latter whom they believe is a god.
 
“Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr” (11/6/76) – Tracking the occupant of a crashed balloon leads Tarzan to be captured by knights and stumbling upon a plot to rob the queen.
 
“Tarzan’s Rival” (11/13/76) – Tarzan is villainized by a robot duplicate so that Mr. Senti can steal the Jewels of Opa.
 
“Tarzan and the City of Sorcery” (11/20/76) – Tarzan meets a boy who claims his father has been transformed by a sorceress queen, and Tarzan travels to the city of Rashid to confront her.
 
“Tarzan at the Earth’s Core” (11/27/76) – Tarzan journeys to the prehistoric land of Pellucidar in order to help unite two kingdoms.
 
“Tarzan and the Ice Creature” (12/4/76) – A volcano eruption frees the gigantic ice creature Glakor from his slumber.
 
“Tarzan and the Olympiads” (12/11/76) – After meeting two escaped slaves, Tarzan heads to Olympus to free the remaining slaves and make Emperor Cronus change his ways.
 
“Tarzan’s Trial” (12/18/76) – The aliens return and capture Tarzan so that their commander can learn all of his abilities and use them to become supreme ruler of the space fleet.
 
“Tarzan, the Hated” (12/18/76) – The Bolmangani Emperor plans to turn a tribe of gorillas against Tarzan and rebuild their city in the Opar Region despite an archaeologist’s claims it’s unsafe.
 
Season 2:
“Tarzan and the Sunken City of Atlantis” (9/10/77) – Tarzan seeks to free whales enslaved to power Atlantis, but deny the city power will cause it to flood.
 
“Tarzan and the Bird People” (9/17/77) – Aiding an injured member of the Bird People gets Tarzan involved in the conflict between them and the Land People.
 
“Tarzan and the Colossus of Zome” (9/24/77) – The inches-high people seek to enlist Tarzan in their war against the Zomans, but the Zomans need help as well when their weapon turns against them.
 
“Tarzan and the Beast in the Iron Mask” (10/1/77) – Tarzan must restore Chief Denat after his twin brother has assumed his identity in order to mine for gold in a volcano.
 
“Tarzan and the Amazon Princess” (10/8/77) – Tarzan returns a long-lost Amazon to her home only to learn the captain of the royal guard seeks her extermination to become next in line to rule.
 
“Tarzan and the Conquistadors” (10/15/77) – Tarzan must protect the Donlumangani from Conquistadors searching for their captain’s ancestors’ treasure.
 
Season 3:
“Tarzan and the Spider People” (9/9/78) – Tarzan tracks large spiders abducting elephants to a treetop city where he discovers that the spiders are actually robots under their control.
 
“Tarzan and the Space God” (9/16/78) – Tarzan rescues a professor from a crashed plane who convinces him to lead him to an area where the Mayans are believed to have disappeared.
 
“Tarzan and the Lost World” (9/23/78) – Tarzan must help a scientist retrieve a downed satellite from the Minotaur before it explodes and destroys the valley.
 
“Tarzan and the Monkey God” (9/30/78) – N’Kima winds up in a village being terrorized by a gorilla where he’s believed to be a monkey god.
 
“Tarzan and the Haunted Forest” (10/7/78) – Tarzan partners with the inhabitants of the Haunted Forest in order to stop Queen Tara’s deforestation to power her machines.
 
“Tarzan and the Island of Dr. Morphos” (10/14/78) – Tarzan pursues an abducted N’Kima to an island where a mad scientist plans to perform genetic experiments on Tarzan.
 
Season 4:
“Tarzan and the Sifu” (9/15/79) – Tarzan is captured in Tao Ching when their Sifu is overthrown, and their new leader plans to conquer other cities in the jungle and take control of a dragon.
 
“Tarzan and Jane” (9/22/79) – Tarzan rescues Jane and her father after a mutiny during an archaeological exposition and helps lead them back to civilization.
 
“Tarzan and the Land Beneath the Earth” (9/29/79) – Tarzan and his friends end up in the land of the mole people who have been using Makos Trees to power their furnace.
 
“Tarzan and the Drought” (10/6/79) – Tarzan tries to convince the Monkey People to tear down their dam during a drought.
 
“Tarzan and the Soul Stealer” (10/13/79) – Tarzan learns Zandor and Athne are at war again, and Queen Nemone has acquired magical powers.
 
“Tarzan and the Future King” (10/20/79) – King Torg’s Vizier plans to foil Prince Yaru’s final trial in order to become king of the Red Gorilla Kingdom himself.
 
“Tarzan and the Huntress” (10/27/79) – Tarzan must rescue Fana the Huntress from Kerlock and his men when they believe her to be an ally of Tarzan’s.
 
“Tarzan and the White Elephant” (11/3/79) – Tarzan must convince a kingdom to leave a White Elephant calf with its mother instead of taking it to protect against invading Rhino Riders.