Edgar Rice Burroughs’ legendary character Tarzan has been the star of movies, comics, cartoons, and several television series. The first Tarzan television series aired in 1966 and starred Ron Ely in the title role. Thanks to the Warner Archive manufacture on demand program, this first season is now available to buy on DVD.
Despite my familiarity with the character, and my love of old TV, I had actually never seen the Tarzan 1966 series! It may be no surprise, as it only aired for two seasons for a total of 57 episodes. 31 of those episodes are on the first season DVD collections, so that means a majority of the episodes are now on DVD, and hopefully, if this does well, Season 2 will also come. It was fun for me to have some new TV to see, and I had no idea what to expect.
Tarzan is from a different time as far as television production goes. It’s clearly aimed at a younger audience, but it was done so at a time when “younger audience” doesn’t mean “dumb it down.” This was the era of the original Star Trek, and while the stories aren’t as deep as what George Roddenberry would create, it still was a universe with very high production value. That also surprised me, actually: There is no way a show like this could be done on TV today. I’m sure some of the wild animal footage was stock, but beyond that… the permits needed for locations would be impossible, the regulations of what the animals are allowed to do… and star Ely would surely not be insured to swing around and wrestle lions in that way. I was actually a little surprised to see footage of animals fighting. Maybe this wasn’t uncomfortable nearly 50 years ago, but it was awkward to me today. Also awkward was when it appeared that Caucasian actors were made “darker” to play certain characters… that would also not fly today.
The DVD quality is fantastic. Considering most people probably saw this over broadcast, with an antenna if they were lucky, I’m sure this didn’t look this good when it first aired. The picture is clear, the sound is good… it works. I’m still not used to the pronunciation of “Tarzan,” but the more I see, the more I’ll get used to it.
You can get the two volumes of Tarzan Season 1 from the Warner Archive. If you’re a fan of old TV, it’s definitely recommended. I’m actually just surprised that it’s not getting a retail release because I think people would really be into it. And who knows – if this does well, might we get Season 2, or that not-very-good-but-hey-it’s-Kripke WB Tarzan series? More rare TV is always a good thing, so I’ll just say “I hope so.”
