Tarzan

Good TV for a slow Saturday afternoon. I was a fan of this show during its original run in the US. Recently I found a video of old episodes and decided to watch my childhood favorite with adult eyes.

To be sure, the writing's not great. For example, there's an episode where Jane, temporarily blinded by an injury, says to Tarzan, "I'm so happy to see you!" SEE him? Umm...she's blind. Bad choice of words on the writer's part. And just about every episode ends with Cheetah the monkey doing something funny and everyone laughing.

So technically speaking, it's not the greatest. But it's a lot of fun. The dialogue, silly as it was, made me laugh out loud a few times, and I was never bored. If nothing else, watch it for Wolf Larson, who's absolutely gorgeous, or for the late Sean Roberge, who turns in a respectable performance as Tarzan's skinny sidekick Roger.

This actually lasted 3 seasons!?!

Maybe I just caught an early episode, but I didn't think it would bode well for the series.Typical generic episode plot: strange illness makes people/animals sick. When Jane teaches Tarzan a new word, "antidote", Wolf Larson delivers what is the funniest line I've ever heard on a unintentional sitcom, in straight 'surfer-dude' monotone (You can almost hear him use the word 'like' at the beginning of the sentence):

"(Like,)Tarzan find antiDOTE." (Emphasis intended on the last syllable)

There, I've said my peace. I hope you found it as amusing as I did! :)

The jungle is awesome in this series as are all the animals. Jane is a gorgeous and Tarzan is a hunk...Action is fun and they even tried to make this a "green" show ahead of its time. Nice messages about not spoiling and polluting our world and a great family series! Guest stars were wonderful and it was especially fun to see Ron Ely, one of the previous television series Tarzan's make a guest star appearance in the series. Also fun to see Adrian Paul (star of the Highlander series)as a villainous guest star in 2 episodes. The young actor who played Roger (Sean Roberge) was very good and his interaction with Tarzan and Jane was terrific. Wish there were more great family series like this one on the air today.

What a big cat that is full of sudden action and yearning ,where in a bit of a mango pickle ... sublimes are a favorite in this series. In an instance of romanticism the region taciturns a porter of witty quips , so says the molecule . The script made a sensationalist upland version full of charisma , the series has brought many century. The actors have built more to it with a commencement of weapon service, to me season three is awesome and willful . The essay they pronounce is well orchestrated and at time in great expectations ... it appears the role of these henchman is to run O ride a Jeep, in Ali the ratings are cool.

I've been a Tarzan fan since I was 11 and leaped out of bed on Sunday mornings to watch Johnny Weissmuller movies on TV. Granted, beefy Wolf Larson is not nearly the Tarzan that Weissmuller was, but let's face it--he's a blonde, 6'5" hunk of muscle with a part that doesn't require a tremendous amount of acting skill. Actually, Larson handled the role pretty well. Strangest to me is why they chose to give the character Jane (Lydie Denier!) such a heavy French accent (I've never heard of a frenchman named "Porter" ...) However, Larson and Denier look great together.

Malick Bowens playing Simon Govier is an excellent actor who is given almost nothing interesting to do (Simon reads from his journal at the opening of every episode, giving the viewer a brief plot summary). Bowens merely exists to put an African in Africa ... there don't seem to be any others around. Roger Taft, the comic relief played by Sean Roberge, is a sweet character with some truly terrible dialogue. Cheta the chimp is amusing, as is to be expected. Ron Ely's cameo, as villain Gordon Shaw, is probably one of the most interesting entries in this series.

Overall, the show was entertaining, even if it won't be consider a masterpiece by die-hard Tarzan fans, or anyone, for that matter. My biggest flaw with it was the lack of an obvious romance between Tarzan and Jane, although I never got to see the 2nd or 3rd seasons, because my local station stopped carrying it. Perhaps things heated up in the following seasons.