Ark II

I used to watch this! I remember thinking that it coulda been better-as the premise was certainly interesting enough-but being a Filmation production, it hadda be Moralistic and edJooKational too! Seriously, it was fun-had a talking chimp, typical '70's Multicultural/U.N. style cast, Jim Backus and Helen Hunt as cool guest stars, the jet pack and blinding light weapons were neat too. It looked like they shot this in the Mojave too. Pity the poor cast and crew, eh? No big trailers THERE.

I loved this show when I was a kid. Basically the premise was a group of scientists were driving around in the land rover vehicle from "Damnation Alley"(repainted white). They fended off bad guys and post apocalyptic disasters while helping people rebuild after a nuclear holocaust (at least I think it was nuclear).

This show had to have been the inspiration for the Role Playing Game "The Morrow Project", which basically used the same premise.

Filmation Trivia: This was one of many live action Saturday Morning TV shows put out by Filmation in the late 70s. Filmation made a name for itself by making both filmed and animated kid shows. Some of their more famous filmed shows included: Captain Marvel, Isis, Run Joe Run, Space Academy (whose spiffy Star Trek the Motion Picture like costumes were recycled from Ark II) and its spinoff, Jason of Star Command. Filmation is probably most famous for their He-Man & the Masters of the Universe cartoon from the 80s.

This Saturday morning TV series was set in the 25th century of earth.The world has been ravaged by wars & ecological pollution.One group of survivors who were technologically superior wanted to help out the rest of humanity.An immense vehicle called Ark II was constructed to go out into the world with a highly trained team & bring aid,comfort,& education to those less fortunate.Critics have found this show moralistic,preachy,& cornball.It could be those things at times,but I'm a sucker for a show that is about helping other people with no hidden agenda by the good guys.The Ark II group risked their lives each week in a world that could be hostile & unknown.They carried no weapons,tho they had hand held devices that could temporarily blind an opponent.As with many Sat a.m. series we were saddled with a kid sidekick & an animal,Adam the chimp.Neither a plus to the show.The Ark was futuristic & formidable looking,with hi-tech labs & gadgetry onboard.They also had use of a jet-pack.There was plenty of location filming that gave the series a sense of really being out in the world.It was not a perfect show & did not have the mature scripts we would come to see on such later Sat morning shows as Captain Power & Hypernauts.But it was a series that said there is both good & evil within mankind,here was a community that wanted to perform positive,humane works to benefit others.It spoke to our nobler nature,instead of being just another action/adventure program with little thought behind it.Can we ever have too many of these kind of shows?

This is a great 70's classic that everyone should have seen when they were growing up at that time. If you like futuristic movies, you will love this. Kind of like "Earth 2" and "Damnation Alley".

The world as we know it has come to an end and two dudes, a young woman and a talking chimp are in a fancy space age bus attempting to re-start the human race.

I watched all 15 episodes as a child in the 1970s and I re-watched all 15 episodes in 2014 (on YouTube). Made by the makers of Shazam! (1974), I still like this show after all these years.

I almost view Ark II as a sister show to Shazam! As both shows deal with a large vehicle, with two or three people inside, driving around helping people in need. However, Shazam! Is set in the 1970s and Ark II is set in earth's distant future.

If you are a fan of the Planet Of The Apes TV series (1974), Star Trek (1966) and Lost In Space (1965) you will get a blast out of Ark II as the series has cross overs to those shows.

Both Shazam! And Ark II also have very good music cues playing over the shows that are so good you end up playing the cues in your head days after watching the episodes.

It is too bad Ark II has only 15 short 23 minute episodes as after watching the whole series back to back...the whole thing sort of comes and goes too fast.

13 of the 15 tales are very good. Also, unlike many shows of the period, the series survives repeat viewings very well.

And finally, unlike Lost in Space (1965) and Star Trek (1966), we are not stuck in a studio all the time - this has location filming with a great craft (the Ark) seen all the time! This is one of the very best looking shows of the 70s, better looking than related 70s show - Land of the Lost!