"Tarzan: The Epic Adventures" (1996) TV series

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Directors:

John Carl Buechler
Mark Roper

Writers:

Edgar Rice Burroughs (characters)
Christopher A. Roosen (writer) (one episode)

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

16 February 1997 (Portugal)

Plot Keywords:

Tarzan

Cast

Don McLeod

...

Bolgani / ... (8 episodes, 1996-1997)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Australia:PG | Netherlands:6

Company:

Keller Siegel Entertainment

Movie Connections:

Featured in Tarzan: The Legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1996) (TV)

Someone got paid for this?

The good thing about this series is that it didn't last. Considering how bad it was, I'm surprised it got made at all. I saw about 2 maybe 3 episodes (To give it a fair chance) and the trauma hasn't fully left me yet, even some 3 years later.

The one episode I remember the best is the one that convinced me that the writers weren't even really trying. The scene I recall involved some Roman soldiers that had a woman under arrest. Tarzan (As tragically slandered by Joe Lara) spots them and proceeds to make it his business to see to her safety. A fight ensues in which Tarzan kills the soldiers, tosses off a lame platitude that I can't remember (Fortunately), and frees the woman who promptly states that now she can get back to slaughtering Nuns and Orphans again.

OK, she didn't actually say that, she was the daughter of a political prisoner and thus was being taken herself. But Tarzan DID NOT know that until after he minced and diced the soldiers. It would have served his careless ass right if she DID go back to stuffing puppies into blenders and the like. It surely doesn't match up with Johnny Weissmuller's far superior portrayal. IE he stated something like "Other men live to fight, but Tarzan only fights to live" when he refused to fight Germans during "Tarzan Triumphs!", a film made during WWII no less!

The one thing that made me decide to attempt to suffer through more than one episode was the way Tarzan's home was made to look like it was within easy walking distance of some 50 or so 'Lost Civilisations' (Romans, Greeks, Antlantians, maybe Martians would have showed up if the series continued long enough) like the earlier Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan was (Why Tarzan didn't build a tourist trap around this has always eluded me, he coulda made a fortune). I was hoping for a more 'fantastic' (Giant spiders, Lizard Men, ETC) portrayal than most low budget TV series could afford to have, like the 30 minute Tarzan show that lasted in syndication from 1991 to 1993 (Merely boring), or the series about Tarzan with Ron Ely that was produced in the 1960's (The best TV series about Tarzan so far).

There was no Jane in this version, but I recall a contest being offered where the winner would get the role. What can be said about a leading role being given away as a contest prize? I guess no reputable actors wanted to put their names on this thing (At least not after seeing what was being perpetrated) so an act of desperation was called for.

I recommend that you stick to Johnny Weissmuller or Ron Ely if you just plain need a good Tarzan fix.