Return to the Planet of the Apes

Title: Return to the Planet of the Apes
Year: 1975
Network: NBC
Creator: David H. DePatie & Friz Freleng (developers); Pierre Boulle (characters)
Director: Doug Wildey
Writers: Larry Spiegel (6 episodes), Jack Kaplan (3), John Barrett (3), J.C. Strong (2), Bruce Shelly (2)
Starring: Austin Stoker, Philippa Harris, Henry Corden, Richard Blackburn, Edwin Mills, Claudette Nevins, Tom Williams
Music: Dean Elliott
Episodes: 13, at c. 24 minutes
Synopsis: three astronauts crash on the Planet of the Apes and defend its human population from a mad gorilla general
How I saw it: on video (have on DVD), over the past few days
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 3/10 (gets points for concept, music and subjective rating) c. 1.6/4 (Eh).

Terrible acting. Terrible animation. Terrible writing - although the overall story arc is actually pretty good, enough so that I enjoyed the show. Check out the deceptively fun theme music sequence:



We also recently tried watching the 1974 live action TV series. Couldn't get past the first disc (four episodes), it's just too awful. I have never seen a TV show that's more insulting to its audience. Compared to that, the cartoon seems great.