Tarzan

This was one of my favorite shows as a kid. It was exciting and suspenseful and had some of the most evil villains on TV every week.

However, when I saw reruns of "Tarzan" in the early 1980s, either I caught a batch of bad episodes or I had evolved because I found 6 episodes in a row to be very poorly written and even boring, so I stopped watching.

Recently, a friend loaned me four episodes and all four were exceptional. So, I saw an additional four episodes and three were quite good. Aside from obviously being an uneven series (although I have read that the show had script problems during the first year), I agree with previous posters that just the fantastic on-location photography puts all of the other Tarzan TV series to shame. Ron Ely was perfectly cast, an honorable and articulate "lawman" who respected the native tribes around him. There's one episode, "Last of the Superman" (which must have been written by an Ayn Rand admirer) where Tarzan philosophically reflects on how humans owe it to themselves to be the best they can be.

The other distinguishing thing was that there was no holds barred when it came to violence - guest star William Smithers frantically firing a revolver as piranha fish devour him, and Bo Hopkins as a no-gooder who is lazing around a lake shore when he's pulled into the lake and killed by a crocodile (one of the goriest TV scenes ever filmed). When bad guy Pat Conway is shot to death as he tries to escape by swimming across a raging river, Tarzan angrily admonishes the shooter with, "He had a right to choose how to die!"

The show was attacked by critics in the 1960s, and yet dig the guest star roster - Helen Hayes, Jimmy MacArthur, James Earl Jones, Michael Dunn, Maurice Evans, Julie Harris, James Whitmore, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman, Diana Ross, the great (if late) Gia Scala, Leslie Parrish, the late Michael Witney, Nichelle Nichols, etc. People like that don't appear on a show if it's bad.

TV Guide reported in June 1968 that the series still had a 31 share and finished in the top 40 during 1967-68, but NBC felt its demographics (too many older women and too many kids) made it unappealing and it was cancelled. Popular demand brought it back for summer reruns in 1969.

A good series.

.... The recent sad death of Ron Ely prompted me to do this tribute... me and my brother absolutely loved this show, the stirring theme is still with us both and we both remember this with great fondness. Mr. Ely, I think was the best Tarzan, certainly on the TV, and up there with the greatest, for me, and the very first, former Olympic athlete Johnny Weissmuller,(... I remember Johnny and his first two films were incredibly violent, I thought, for the times they were made in, but incredible fun as well...). I understand , in an article that I once read that Ron was a very very intelligent man but didn't suffer fools gladly and was not shy of telling people what he thought of them, because of this, I remember reading, that he upset a lot of people in the film business and maybe did not get as many jobs as he should have done. Anyhow, this show was often repeated in the 60s and 70s and we loved it, from The action, excitement and very often superb famous guest stars appearing for instance I remember that Diana Ross the Supremes in an episode, playing nuns if I remember rightly. Great Fun. Rest in peace,Sir. We loved you.

Aside from Johnny Weismuller, Ron Ely is my favorite Tarzan. An unlikely show, in a sense, it played well amidst the superhero genre that was somewhat prevalent at the time - i.e. Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward and The Green Hornet with Van Williams and Bruce Lee. The show was also contemporary with Star Trek.

Unlike campy Batman, the show took itself seriously and yet, Ron Ely running around in a loin cloth week by week on prime time, didn't seem out of place. Ron played Tarzan serious and straight, dealing with poachers and jungle baddies of all sorts as though it were natural for a partially naked man to be a quasi-jungle policeman/detective. Ely's Tarzan was reminiscent of Hawaii Five-O's Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord).

This was no "Me Tarzan" ape-man. Ely's Tarzan was articulate and educated.

Enter Jai (Manuel Padilla Jr. - The Pharoah's Carlos from American Graffiti) and Cheetah the Chimp to provide the less-serious, comedy relief tone to the show. I always wondered how Jai fit in to the cast, as it seemed unusual for a Hispanic boy to be running around in Africa with Tarzan. Was he an orphan or what? Was he a "ward" of Tarzan's, a la Batman's Dick Grayson? Nevertheless, Jai provided an important element to the series - he took the serious edge off of Tarzan and made him compassionate, looking out for a young boy who emulated him (loin cloth and all).

You could always count on Cheetah to bring a smile to Tarzan's face at the end of each show with Jai in hot pursuit shouting, "Cheetah, you come back here," or something of that nature.

Ely had a great physical look for Tarzan. Long and lanky, yet sinewy and strong, he made the physical part of Tarzan's exploits look good. The vine swinging and running through the jungle were performed with style and aplomb.

The introduction always ran with Ely calling out that famous Tarzan yell (Johnny Weismuller's original recorded Tarzan yell - as it was with most Tarzan movies and shows).

The plots were well-contrived and enjoyable. It was one of my favorite series at the time.

Unlike the enjoyable if silly Weissmuller films, someone behind this actually read the books since Tarzan was erudite and intelligent. Protecting modern day Africa from many different threats, the one thing I could have done without was the kid. But this was a family show.

I LOVE Ron Ely and the 66-68 Tarzan series. Watching recently when Tarzan was in a race to find an artifact in the mountains, and beat a tribe leader. As Tarzan and the woman companion with him ran up the mountain, I noticed that Tarzan had on flesh colored tennis shoes. I also recognize other times that he has bandages on his feet. Must have been rough walking and running around that jungle. Still love and am still re-watching the series. Go, Tarzan!