Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: Tarzan the Hated"

In “Tarzan, the Hated,” the Mangani accuse Tarzan of destroying their food supplies. 

Tarzan claims innocence. When he investigates, he learns that the Bolgani are actually responsible, and are seeking to re-locate their civilization to the geologically unstable region of Opar, which stands above lava pits.

The Bolmangi capture a human female archaeologist, and now Tarzan must rescue her as well as prevent the relocation to the dangerous land.

The final episode of the first season Filmation series, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976) is another pleasant enough time waster, with Tarzan battling intelligent apes.  The episode, like “Tarzan’s Trial” incorporates stock footage into it, and the menace of the Emperor Ape is undercut some by the fact he appears to be wearing a pink gown. It's a strange fashion choice for an ape hoping to intimidate.

Although the last few episodes of the season are not as good as some of the earlier installments, and show signs of being produced in a terrible rush, I still feel that Tarzan is a high-quality show of its era. The formula is repetitive and familiar by this episode, and yet some episodes in the canon offer genuine surprise, adding science fiction concepts to the adventure in stories like “Tarzan’s Rival” or “Tarzan and the Strange Visitors.”

The stories are still entertaining at this point, even if no new ground is being broken. We’ve had a season of lost worlds and high adventure, and for Saturday mornings in the 1970s, it must have felt like a dream come true. At a minimum, Tarzan and his world are treated with respect and dignity here.

For that reason, I would rank this show near other Filmation efforts that I like very much, including Star Trek (1973-1975) and Flash Gordon (1979-1981). I certainly appreciate the attempt on the part of Filmation to tell stories that are faithful to Burroughs’ vision, though there have been some missed opportunities too (see: “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core.”)

Next week, I’m going to leave Filmation behind, and visit the weird and wild world of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Liddsville (1970).

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan's Trial" (December 18, 1976)

In “Tarzan’s Trial” the alien flying saucer that once visited the jungle returns. It sends out air ships piloted by robotic minions to abduct Tarzan.

Tarzan is forced to submit to a memory scan and a dangerous experiment. In particular, a computer probes his memories so that it can transfer his abilities to the new leader of the aliens. The alien believes that Tarzan's physical and mental capacities would endow him with everything he needs to be a great hero.

Fortunately, Tarzan’s memories are returned to him, and he is able to defeat his extra-terrestrial enemies.

“Tarzan’s Trial” is a cartoon clips show! 

Seriously, Tarzan undergoes a memory scan in this episode, and his thoughts -- visualized as clips from earlier shows (such as “Tarzan’s Rival”) -- are displayed on a screen to represent his cleverness, agility and cunning. Only about sixty percent of the material in the episode is new.

Worse, Tarzan doesn’t prove himself victorious in a compelling way. Instead, the alien leader’s body “rejects” the foreign memories, and return, apparently, to Tarzan.  I didn’t realize that memories can leave the brain, fly away and, failing to find a home, fly or migrate back to their original owner.

The message of “Tarzan’s Trial” is simple and straightforward. The alien leader erred when he attempted to become just like Tarzan. Instead, we all must learn to “appreciate our own talents.”

Next week, the final Tarzan episode of season one (and the last episode I’ll cover for the time being): “Tarzan, the Hated.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the Olympiads" (December 11, 1976)

In “Tarzan and the Olympiads,” Tarzan rescues two escaped slaves, Dmitri and Logos, from Roman troops marching in his jungle.

These Roman troops hail from a (lost) city where the physically strong rule the roost, and the losers in athletic games become slaves. The tyrant of Olympus is named Cronos.

Tarzan is captured by the Romans and must fight to regain his freedom, but he must also help bring freedom to the city.

“Tarzan and the Olympiads” is a not-very compelling installment of this 1976 Filmation Saturday morning series. All the elements present here we have seen in episodes before, and handled better, too. We get a lost city, for example, that apes some other famous historical time period in human civilization, (The Roman Empire) and we also get the young people that must be freed from captivity. Finally, we encounter the evil tyrant, Cronos, who resists change.

The only fresh angle is the fact that physical or athletic games form the centerpiece of this particular civilization. Athletes prove their worth by competing in the pole vault, the long jump, spear throwing (!) and foot races. Naturally, Tarzan is well-equipped to win in all those events, and thus challenge Cronos. In fact, he saves Cronos from a crocodile during one athletic event.

What’s weird here is that the city appears to have no women in it all. This fact adds a whole other subtext to the installment. It’s all about half-naked men and their acts of physical prowess. I’m not saying there’s a problem with that, or that this subtext was intentional, just that the total lack of females on screen encourages a different reading of the tale. And it’s a little strange too.  Someone has to be giving birth to the children, right? Wouldn't the women have to compete in games too?

“Tarzan and the Olympiads” ends, naturally, with Tarzan victorious and Cronos changing his ways. “We must stop conquering and staring caring,” is the message for audience at home. 

Of course, the city also needs to find some women…

Next Week: “Tarzan’s Trial.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" (November 27, 1976)

In “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core,” Tarzan rescues a boy from a lion, but the young man is captured by enemy guards, who take him underground, to the “Dark World.”

The boy is a prince, and his father rules a kingdom in conflict with the Dark World.

Tarzan grapples with dinosaurs and other monsters to see to it that peace comes to the two kingdoms.

Well, color me disappointed!

I believed, when seeing the title -- “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core” -- that this episode of Filmation’s Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976) would see the great hero traveling to Pellucidar, the setting for Burroughs’ 1914 novel, At The Earth’s Core.  That was also the plot of the 1930 Tarzan novel, Tarzan at the Earth's Core, from which this episode takes its name.

But the name Pellucidar never comes in this story, and we don't get a great Burroughs crossover.

Instead, Tarzan just visits another lost kingdom accessible from his jungle, this one subterranean. But never actually sees Pellucidar, or the Earth’s core for that matter.  

The title is misleading in a big way, unfortunately. 

Also, I must point out that the opening act, which involves Tarzan saving a boy from a lion, is a repeat of an identical plot device from last week’s entry.  Not very creative. Two weeks in a row, Tarzan discovers a new adventure by saving a child from a dangerous animal.

Still, the episode is a prehistoric-palooza, pitting the lord of the jungle against dinosaurs like Sabor, a T-Rex.  There’s also a scene with a pterodactyl and a dimetrodon.

The message of the week is not expected. Tarzan is saddened that “people cannot learn to live together.” Indeed, he reminds us, “we all have strengths we can share.”

Perhaps because the title led me to have high hopes, I can say that "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" doesn't convey a lot of strengths, especially in a series, overall, that is quite good.

Next week: Tarzan and the Ice Creature.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the City of Sorcery" (November 20, 1976)

In “Tarzan and the City of Sorcery,” Tarzan saves an imperiled boy from a lion, and then learns that his father has been transformed into a baboon by an evil and deceptive queen, Nubia who claims to possess magic powers.

In her city, Nubia’s people worship Tarzan as a 400 year old jungle God, and so Nubia perceives the king of the jungle as a threat to her power.

Despite this fact, Tarzan must convince the people that Nubia possesses no magic and is merely fooling them. He is pitted against the Mighty Luxor, a crocodile, but eventually his wisdom and reason carry the day (along with a bit of help from Tarzan’s animal friends).

“Tarzan and the City of Sorcery” is a middling entry in the series if for no other reason that it features familiar -- or stock -- characters and situations. We have already encountered evil queens aplenty on the series, and Tarzan has come to the aid of many a young stranger. He's also led several insurrections of "the people" against autocratic leaders.

Similarly, Tarzan has already traveled to several intriguing “lost worlds,” and helped set them on a path of freedom and dignity. Already in the series we have seen an underwater kingdom, a Roman kingdom, a Viking kingdom, and now -- this week -- an Egyptian-styled one.

And speaking of familiar or stock material, Filmation’s Flash Gordon (1979) also featured an episode in which the hero (Flash, in that circumstance) traveled to a faraway kingdom, only to learn that his doppelganger is worshiped there, in stone form, as a God.

Still, there are some worthwhile points in this particular episode of Tarzan. It is interesting that Tarzan, a man of nature, is constantly called upon to be the voice of rationality and science, for example. He notes (quite rightly) that “Not being able to explain something does not make it magic.

His final speech to the no-longer cowed populace is also inspiring (if heavy-handed): “The greatest magic of all: intelligence and love for one another.”

Next week: “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan's Rival" (November 13, 1976)

In “Tarzan’s Rival,” an evil scientist wishing to acquire the valuable jewels of Opar creates a robot duplicate of Tarzan to alienate his animal friends in the jungle, including Nakima. Tarzan returns from an expedition to find that all his friends are treating him as an enemy.

Realizing that there is “something evil in the jungle,” Tarzan sets out to discover what has caused him to be viewed as a monster.  He soon confronts his own evil duplicate, a twin with “the heart of a jackal.”

The old “evil twin” trope gets pulled out of mothballs for this episode of Filmation’s 1976 Saturday morning series. Here, Tarzan confronts a perfect duplicate of himself, one who is identical in appearance, but not in behavior or “soul.”  

One does have to wonder however, considering that the animals are fooled so readily: does this Tarzan rival also smell like the original model?  And if so, how did the evil scientist, Santi, manage to duplicate Tarzan’s “scent” as well as his appearance?

I could understand the scientist using personal observation (and perhaps early photography) to make a relatively convincing Tarzan in appearance, but I don’t think animals would be fooled by the doppelganger unless he also carried the same scent as their friend.

Also, how is it that a scientist in the early years of the 20th century creates a perfect robot replica?

After Tarzan rebuilds the trust of his friends in this episode, he must confront the duplicate, stop the evil scientist, and protect the treasures of Opar.  After doing so, he has time -- in perfect 1970s fashion -- to impart a lesson in wisdom.  “If enough energy was spent to build worthwhile things, the world would be a better place.”

In other words, the mad scientist wasted a lot of money, effort and time creating something that was evil; that could not benefit humanity. This is a quality that Tarzan sees in other men of his world. They dedicate themselves to war, or destruction, or weapons, rather than helping one another.  So that’s the sermon of the day (and week).  It's a good message.  A mind so brilliant that it can create a robot like the "rival" shouldn't be brought down by hatred and avarice.

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit, because the idea of Tarzan battling a robot version of himself is fun, if ridiculous.  This episode does feature on intriguing visual problem, which I haven’t noticed in other installment. In particular, Tarzan’s skin color seems to change from frame to frame, between white and brown.

Next Week: “Tarzan and the City of Sorcery”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr"

In “Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr,” Tarzan finds a crashed hot air balloon, and follows the trail of the balloonist, perky journalist Anne Talbert, to the lost city of Nimmr, a realm of Medieval Knights.

There, the people are ruled by Queen Grenalda, a kind and compassionate ruler.  Unfortunately, her brother, Sir. Mallad, covets the throne, and has been slowly poisoning her, so he may assume it.  He wishes to marry Anne, and rule the kingdom.

Tarzan attempts to save Queen Grenalda and Nimmr, and accepts Mallad’s challenge to a joust.

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, visits another “lost world of fantasy” in this story. Tarzan finds a journalist (who wants to write a million dollar book), who has been taken to a kingdom of knights and jousting contests.  He once again brings a sense of (Western) morality to this kingdom. We get a little of the history of the kingdom, too.  The people dwelling there are descendants of an English crusade.

Like so many stories, this Tarzan adventure is one that focuses on simple issues of right and wrong.  Tarzan helps the kind Queen, and his example rubs off on Anne Talbert. She realizes she cannot write her book, because to do so would call attention to Nimmr, and result, probably, in its destruction. She gives up her "fortune" for the freedom of others.

After watching (the generally excellent) Filmation Flash Gordon (1979-1981), I’ve grown a bit tired of stories in which a lovely queen falls for an outsider (a powerful male) who must preserve her kingdom from some internal insurrection.  At least, in this case, Queen Grenalda doesn’t fall in love with Tarzan.

Next week: “Tarzan’s Rival.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the Land of the Giants" (October 30, 1976)

In “Tarzan and the Land of the Giants,” Tarzan and Nakima find strange humanoid footprints in the forest, and follow them into a realm of unusual giants.  They soon learn that the city of giants -- in the trees – is controlled by a despot named Odysseus, who rules by fear.

Right now, the people of the city, Zoran, are afraid of a giant albino rhinoceros, or "great beast." Tarzan rescues the rhino from a tar pit, and demonstrates that it is just an animal.

When a storm hits Zoran, the people again succumb to fear, but Tarzan proves to them that their leader is manipulating them. He also helps them to relocate.

This is another intriguing episode of Filmation’s Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.  It starts with Tarzan and Nakima dealing with a drought, and then continues with the unusual discovery of a giant footprint.  They follow the trail through a hidden jungle, into a realm where everything is giant. In short order, we see giant ants, giant mushrooms, and the albino rhino, too.

Tarzan’s universe is one of amazing fantasy, but one cannot help but notice that this jungle must be huge! It boasts not only Tarzan’s sanctuary (and the nearby graveyard of elephants), but cities like Zandor, and lost realms of Vikings, alien saucers, and more  In weeks ahead, we’ll also see a realm of knights (Nimmr).

In short, it’s one busy jungle.  But, I will admit, I am a sucker for “lost world” stories, and I’ve enjoyed each Tarzan story, even if the lost worlds have been saddled with very human/Western moral stories.  Tarzan is always our avatar for morality, which he teaches to cities in distress and ruled by despots.

Still, “Tarzan and the Land of the Giants” is a fun story, and another worthy addition to the canon.

Next week: “Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the Strange Visitors" (October 23, 1976)

In “Tarzan and the Strange Visitors,” Tarzan awakens one night to a strange sound (actually, the sound effect for Star Trek’s transporter).

He learns the next day that apes appear to have been abducted from the jungle.  He teams with an anthropologist, Jill Eddington, to discover what is happening.

Tarzan and Jill soon encounter a force-field in the jungle, and a robot in the shape of a cheetah. Before long, Tarzan and Jill discover a grounded flying saucer.  It is the size of a city, and travels from world to world.

The aliens in the saucer have come to the jungle to capture specimens and return them to their homework. The leader, Dr. Krolar, wants to take Tarzan back as well. One of his students, Leesa, however, realizes that Tarzan and the other animals should be free.

Tarzan escapes and demonstrates his superior intelligence by saving Krolar from the equivalent of a heart attack, performing CPR on him.

This is a fun episode of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976), introducing alien life forms to Tarzan’s domain.  There are some remarkable moments in the episode, from the discovery of a force field to scenes of Tarzan evading alien vehicles and technology.

Our lesson of the week -- and since this is Filmation, there is always a lesson of the week -- is spoken by Tarzan. He reports that it is wrong to look down on others.  And it is good to have new friends, and freedom, instead of prisoners. 

The lesson is organic to the events of the episode, and fascinating in terms of the franchise history.  More than once in Tarzan’s history, after all, invaders from the outside world have arrived in the jungle to capture animals and bring them back to “civilization.” 

This time, those invaders are literally from an outside world…from another planet all together. 

I also appreciated the mystery aspects of the episode, with Tarzan and Jill investigating an oddity: flashes of light and the disappearance of jungle denizens.  The mystery deepens as Tarzan grapples with an uncooperative animal, a jungle cat, that turns out to be a robot, a creation of the aliens.

This story also is a nice break from last week’s continuity-heavy story, which required us to remember about fifteen names, of cities, people, and so forth. I needed a score card to keep up.

Next week: “Tarzan and the Land of the Giants.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan's Return to the City of Gold" (October 16, 1976)

In “Tarzan’s Return to the City of Gold,” Tarzan rescues a young man, Orando, from a wild rhinoceros. 

He soon learns that Orando is attempting to prove himself a man, and undergoing a rite of passage.

Tarzan also learns that Orando is the brother of Thia, from the city of Athne.  He resolves to return the thirteen year old boy home.

Before that can happen, however, Tomos -- the major domo of  despotic Queen Nemone -- captures Orando and takes him back to the city of Gold: Zandor.

Now Tarzan must travel to Zandor and seek the help of his friend in Nemone’s guard, Phobec.  But Nemone is bound and determined to get her hands on Tarzan.

This sequel to Filmation’s first Tarzan episode of the season is not as strong or as involving as some of the other recent episodes I’ve written about, in part because it feels like a rehash. It may be a little bias on my part too. I will readily admit I have a hard time staying tuned to all the politics between Athne and Zandor, and with names like Phobec and Tomos and Orando.

Also, I don't typically like stories of this type, where villainous but beautiful princesses continually lust after a man.  I've seen it too often, on Filmation's Flash Gordon for instance.  I find it outdated and sexist, for sure.  

Still, there is an attempt to move the story of Zandor forward a bit in "Tarzan's Return to the City of Gold," and I do credit the episode with that feat. Here, by the end of the show, Nemone promises to change her behavior, and be a more just queen.  She amends her tyrannical ways, and seems to take to heart Tarzan’s counsel.

But otherwise, the story seems like a whole lot of running around, getting captured and held in dungeons, and more running around.  The episode’s final (moral) statement involves Orando’s journey.  By realizing your mistakes you go a long way towards growing up.

Next week’s episode is an improvement: “Tarzan and the Strange Visitors.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle: "Tarzan and the Graveyard of the Elephants" (October 9, 1976)

In “Tarzan and the Graveyard of the Elephants” a greedy king named Aga -- of the distant city Navordia -- captures Tarzan to learn of the secret location of the legendary graveyard of the elephants.

Tarzan refuses to divulge the information, and bears witness to a city obscenely rich with ivory. 

The evil king then makes Tarzan fight a “great beast:” a woolly mammoth called Bentor. Tarzan recognizes the beast as an “animal who belongs to an earlier time,” and seeks the help of lions, apes and elephants to protect the graveyard.

King Aga responds violently, burning the jungle to terrify the animals and make them retreat. Tarzan will not back down, however. He fights the mammoth and defeats the evil king.  His elephants reclaim the tusks stolen to decorate the city, and return them to the graveyard, which remains “the greatest secret in the jungle.”

The graveyard of the elephants, a key element in the early Weismuller Tarzan films, recurs in this episode of Filmation’s Legend of Tarzan series.  As before, Tarzan is a zealous protector of the graveyard’s location, and proves once more that he is a friend of the animal kingdom.

Much of the story’s theme is transmitted through the visuals.  Aga’s city is a decadent, terrible place, where elephant tusks – ivory – are everywhere. There are ivory towers at the entrance, and dotting the roads. Aga wears tusks on his helmet. We see that the motif of the city is over-used, and unnecessary.  They are a sign of extravagant wealth, a decoration or affection.

The wrong they represent is undone in the episode’s denouement, as the elephants storm the city and show the (missing) respect for the dead.  They take the tusks from the city, one at a time, and transport them...home.

It’s fascinating too, that the monster of the episode is a Mammoth, another creature with tusks that many people associate with elephants. Aga worships it as a God, but Tarzan sees it for what it is: an angry animal.  He talks respectfully to Bentor, and does not kill him or harm him. He collapses a bridge so the animal can no longer terrorize the innocent.  In other words, Tarzan even shows his enemies respect, a characteristic which makes him a true hero (and role model).

Next Week: “Tarzan’s Return to the City of Gold.”