Series Description

The Planet of the Apes TV show was a 60 minute sci-fi series on CBS inspired by the classic movies. Three Astronauts took off from Earth in the year 1981. They get caught in a "time warp" and crash back to the Earth in the year 3085. They find a devastated planet that has been taken over by a militaristic civilization run by Apes and Gorillas! They try to find a way to return to their time while being hunted by the Apes!

Planet of the Apes Cast

Roddy McDowall .... Galen
James Naughton .... Pete Burke
Ron Harper .... Alan Virdon
Mark Lenard .... Urko
Booth Colman .... Zaius

Planet of the Apes Trivia

The astronauts wore patches on their uniforms that read "ANSA" rather than "NASA". It was never explained why. Maybe in 1974 when the Planet of the Apes TV show was filmed, they thought another agency of some kind would have taken over by 1981? Or ... maybe they went into an alternate universe at the same time they went through the time warp?

Roddy McDowell appeared in his first film "Murder in the Family" in 1938 at the age of 10 years old! Five years later he starred in the classsic "Lassie Come Home".

Roddy McDowall played three different Chimps in the Planet of the Apes. He played "Cornelius" in the 1st & 3rd movies, "Ceasar" in the 4th movie, and "Galen" in the TV show.

Ron Harper started his TV and film career during the "Western" craze of the late 1950's/early 1960's. He appeared on two hit series: "Wagon Train" and "Laramie" in 1960.

If there's any doubt in your mind why Gorillas, Chimpanzees and Orangutans would want to kill humans, it's probably because we're killing them. They're all on the endangered species list as of the time this page was written. It's not "natural selection" either. The main causes are the destruction of their natural habitat and poaching!

James Naughton is a graduate of Brown University and Yale!

There was a major blooper right away in the series. During the opening segment to each episode, you see the clock on the spacecraft count up to June 14, 3085. Then in the first episode, the clock reads March 21, 3085! Maybe they got partway home before the 1st episode?

Booth Colman served in the Japanese Language Division of U.S. Military Intelligence during World War II.

Did you know that we humans have DNA that is more than 98% identical to Chimpanzees? In fact, Chimps are more closely related to us genetically than they are to Gorillas and Orangutans!