You may be surprised to find this out, but the entire original Planet of the Apes TV series is out on DVD. The people who sold it to me certainly were. They kept saying, “Just so you know, this isn’t the movies. This is the TV series,” over and over, like I didn’t understand what they were saying. Guess they must have had some angry people returning the anthology after realizing what they’d actually paid for.

Which is perhaps understandable, seeing how cheesy this show was. For a season, this show limped through a few episodes and then crashed and burned because of what the network felt were ratings that were too low.
Still, the fun bits are here: lots of chase sequences as astronauts Ron Harper and James Naughton run away from those nasty apes. Roddy McDowall, still apparently unable to shake off all that makeup, returned as Galen, some sort of distant cousin to Cornelius.

And the show catered to those of us who enjoy the riotously bad. The dialogue, in particular, was unbelievably trying. Whatever bind they’re in, our two astronauts always seem to have some groan-worthy one-liner ready. Still, there’s a final creepy shot during the opening credit sequence which still sends chills up my spine, of a mean-looking gorilla holding a rifle over his head. Hey, could that be Charlton Heston? :
-Matthew Hays