Ark II

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.

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 remember this show vividity as a kid growing in the late 70's where a band of folks ride around in a Land Rover in the post nuclear age helping out folks who were in dangerous situations(mostly in some episodes themselves from great danger) and this show was one of the half-way best outta the bunch Saturday Morning series that were produced by Filmation Productions the same company that produced shows like Isis,Shazam!,Space Academy,The Adventures of Thunder,Run Joe Run,and Jason Of Star Command (which was also an animation studio). Most recently,these shows are making a comeback and TV Land has them from the LOST archives of the 1970's. I caught an episode of this series one evening during TV Land's "Kitschen" shows with Martin Mull and Fred Willard(who hosted) and believe me the episode they showed from this series was hilarious!

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!

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.