Tuesday, October 25, 2011

PLANET OF THE APES (1974) - Roddy McDowell TV Movie Epilogues

When 20th Century Fox television repackaged episodes of the 1974 Planet Of The Apes television series into two-hour TV movies for syndication in 1981, they apparently shot original wraparound footage for each of the new "features" with Roddy McDowell as an aged Galen, who would wrap up the loose ends of the plot and tie the flicks together. According to what I've read, these short bits were only used once, during the original airings of these "movies" and only in the New York market. Here are two of those rare clips from the fifth and final flick, Farewell To The Planet Of The Apes:


7 comments:

  1. LOVE 'EM!

    I'm such an Apes fan (and especially a McDowell fan,) that I want them to release DVDs of the "movieized" versions of the TV series (with remastered/restored epilogues, of course.)

    Tex
    (the last of the above epilogues would be worth the price of admission alone)

    PS--Authorization word "glabrat" = "Galen lab rat," which is what would have happened to him if he HAD gone off with our intrepid heroes.

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  2. Upon cancellation, CBS should have added this epilogue(Old Galen TV Wraps 5B) in 1974 to the last episode of the series that aired.

    SGB

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  3. Very interesting. I like the hint that the Apes were starting to use technology. And Galen seems to have a Mego large scale Buck Rogers (Killer Kane) action figure.

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  4. i recall when the films were shown in a fairly close sequence on cbs, shortly preceding the tv series which (sorry) i didn't like as much as the features.

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  5. These were filmed in March 1976, but they didn't air until November 1980.

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  6. I am fascinated to learn of these epilogues. I remember watching the series, and have the DVD set, but I don't remember ever seeing any of the movie compilations.
    Thanks for sharing this with us.

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