Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp

The earliest kids' show I can recall watching with any regularity, and probably still one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

In the grand tradition of "The Man from Uncle", "Secret Agent", and "The Avengers", comes this late 60s spy series, with a twist.

The twist? It was done ENTIRELY with live chimps acting out the roles of the characters, with voiceover artists providing the dialog. It was incredibly funny watching the chimps talk, brandish weapons, drive cars, ski, and doing just about anything we higher-order primates are capable of... and probably with more sincere acting!

Lancelot Link is a brilliant (though slightly inept) secret agent with the Agency to Prevent Evil (APE) fighting to thwart the evil schemes of CHUMP - a renegade syndicate bent on world domination, run by a vicious Baron, and his horde of evil-doers. Trotting around the globe waging a covert war against CHUMP, Link is aided in his battle against the forces of evil by his trusty lady agent sidekick, Matta Hairy, as they carry out the orders of the venerable Commander Darwin (who usually runs afoul of Link's attempts to be helpful).

The show provides a big tip of the hat to "Get Smart", which it parodies mercilessly (a spoof of a spy spoof!). Veteran character actor Bernie Kopell (Conrad Siegfried on Get Smart, and Doc on The Love Boat) even reads the role of the villainous Baron in all his "Goot Evenink Shmart!" nastiness. The episodes were always filled with simian puns (a rock group called "The Evolution Revolution", etc.) The Baron's Rogues Gallery of Bad Guys included the despicable strong monkey, Creto, the Hong Kong-based Dragon Woman, and the despicable Dr. Strangemind.

The real fun of this piece is that after a few minutes, you get so involved in the plot and the action that you almost forget you are watching a group of live monkeys performing tricks. You really begin to believe that they can talk and do all that other stuff. I loved it as a kid, and years later when a local affiliate ran a few reruns, I loved it as a teenager. I imagine if I see it again on cable, I will love it as an adult.

This series was semi-recreated years later on Fox with a series of bumpers for their Saturday morning series, called "Dynamo Duck" - a secret agent baby duckling thwarting the evil plans of guinea pigs, lab mice, and other small creatures. A little hipper and edgier than Link, but it's Link that everyone remembers.

I absolutely loved this show when it came out in 1970, and I would be thrilled to have the episodes on DVD. It was clever, campy and utterly silly - qualities which some viewers may not fully appreciate. How could you not laugh at Ed Simian and the bad banana jokes? The parody of the spy-show genre was dead-on. Exotic locations (chimps skiing is a sight one never forgets), cool gadgets, villains with accents - this show had it all.

Of course, in today's world the chimps would be computer-generated so as not to upset the animal rights folks, and therefore the charm of the original would be totally lost.

I remember this show. I really do. I was a kid in 1970 when Lance Link: Secret Chimp went on, and sadly, off, the air. Even after it was cancelled, it was still on in reruns on Saturday mornings. Lancelot Link was a pop star by day. He played in a rock band called The Evolution Revolution. (A good question for a JEOPARDY! Rhyme Time category.) He was also a secret agent for a spy agency called APE. (The Agency to Prevent Evil.) Lance's two enemies were Dr. Strangemind and the Dragon Lady. I loved it at first but as the show went on, I didn't buy it. I mean chimps playing musical instruments? Yeah, right! Lance Link, Secret Chimp, whatcha gonna do when that Dr. Strangemind comes after you?

I remember watching this show on Nickelodian, and I loved it. Think "Get Smart" done entirely with chimps. I still every once in a while see the villain character used in a promo for some tv station, I think it may be ESPN, but I'm not certain. Anyway, the stories were always funny to begin with, but made even funnier by using chimps as the actors. They never showed any humans, and you never missed them. If you find this show anywhere, check it out. It's definitely worth it!

I don't know where to begin...

This is welded into my childhood memories, more so even than Thunderbirds (tt0057790). This is pure anarchic, demented children's teevee that simply will never be made again. Ever. As a species, we have become so jaded with multimedia that we forsaken our innocence and no longer play with with wisps of imaginative folly and allow them to run free and unrestrained.

This is another '60s styled espionage show (Man from UNCLE, Avengers et al.) - except with a cast entirely of chimpanzees. That are in a psychedelic band as a cover. This will never happen ever again anywhere in the universe. But it happened then. It brought so much joy to my eight year old mind. And it still does.

Plebs now will watch it and dismiss it with a hipster "meh". Your loss. Contextualize and imagine. This was made in a world on the brink of annihilation. This is how we reacted - absurdist farce delivered with a chimp middle finger salute. Bravo.