Ark II

Before Mel Gibson took off for Australia and donned a black leather jacket for a post apocalyptic cult film, a dystopic future had a more "optimistic" future in the form of a Saturday morning kids show.

Having spent time in LA during the time this series was shot, I often wondered why a dystopic world resembled the San Juoquin valley. Somehow I had images the Ark II driving down Sunset Blvd to pull into the La Brea tar-pit's parking lot (which, if memory serves, was next to a Hispanic flea-market... but I digress).

It was a neat little show for kids, but, kid depending, it's another hit-or-miss vehicle for the young ones who like their science fiction with a little more zest. Still, Ark II has a kind of primitive whole-hearted charm to it. There will be many a face from 1960s and 1970s era television on the series, as well as many a location shot in and around Los Angeles.

The stories are pretty basic, and the violence never reaches anything above smoke and mirrors, with the occasional LASER blast striking the ground.

It was an interesting show that gave children of the 60s and 70s something to smile at. A bit of the future, good and bad, was shown to the young ones of the time. Today's kids probably will be a bit more demanding, but maybe your kids might like it. Let them have a chance to sample it. The worst they can do is say it's no good.

For me, I can't say I really liked it a whole lot. It was more or less a break from the awful Sid and Marty Kroft offerings that bracketed Ark II (or maybe they were on another channel... I can't really remember). Compared to the other live action kids fair of the time, Ark II was a cut or two above the rest.

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.

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".

I remember seeing this on repeat in the late 70's, early 80's. I though it was so cool. It is a TV take of the Damnation Ally concept, but I just really love the RV -the ark 2. looks like a Seeker (Space Academy TV Series) on wheels!!! It had everything, including jet packs!!!!!!!!

O.k., so the production values were not brilliant, not bad for the time, but the idea was great and I beleive would be worthy of remaking. Suprisingly, it hasn't seen the light of day for at least 15 years ( and Australia is the world capital on cheap repeats!!!) and it has been very difficult to find any details on it, or prove that the show even actually existed!!!! Definatly worth a look, especially for true sci-fi fans, especially fans of the time period (i.e. Logan's Run (TV) and Planet of the Apes (TV)) Keep an eye out for it!

I saw this series from the age of 8 to nearly eleven years of age. I hated the tortured morality of the dialogue, but loved the 'Logan's Run' aspects.

I left the US before the end of the run, and missed the show on arriving in Australia, as it never screened here. As kid shows go, it didn't have the music of 'Jonny Sokko' or the adventure, dialogue and crisp story lines of the original 'Ultraman.'

The poor production values of the time, poor dialogue, poor action and little adventure was more than made up for by the need to opine for a better world, with better people. It sort of made me want to be a better person.