"My Mother's Tarzan"
continues with page 9

Weintraub was still looking to put Tarzan on television.

He selected Mike Henry, former line-backer with the L.A. Rams,
(7 years in the NFL) with the steam roller abs to play Tarzan.
Mike Henry was a 6 foot-3 inch well chiseled 228 lbs.


Mike Henry about to buzz his co-star.

Henry made three movies,

TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD (1966),
TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967),
and
TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE BOY (1968),

but was too beat up and disgruntled with the role
to take it into television.



Henry had apparently sued Weintraub for the terrible
working conditions he had to endure, because they had
made all three movies, even before the first had been
released to the theatre public. 

Former "Aquanaut" (aka "Malibu Run")
Ron Ely
(6 foot-4 inches and 210 lbs)
was chosen to play Tarzan (1966-69) on television.


This article appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press,
in early September of 1966,
just prior to the television series premiere.



The show was shot on location in Brazil and Mexico and was very
successful initially, but finally ran out of steam in the third year.

Ely, like Henry before him, suffered way too many injuries to carry on.
He had two near death experiences, once with a lion, and the other with
a tiger. Ron had claw marks, broken bones, broken ribs, and a dislocated
shoulder among hundreds of other major and minor injuries.

Ron Ely has gone on to making guest appearances on television
(Tarzan with Wolf Larsen), and has become a celebrated mystery writer
and had his own show again as "Mike Nelson" in a remake of the
SEAHUNT series and for awhile was the host of "Name That Tune".

 
Several two part episodes were released around the world as movies like the
scenes from the one above "Tarzan's Deadly Silence" which co-starred,
Jock Mahoney (Tarzan No. 13) as an evil colonel.
 




 

John and Bo Derek with the help of MGM again remade
TARZAN THE APE MAN (1981).


A relative unknown Miles O'Keeffe was physically adept,
but never spoke a word in the movie.

This movie was R-RATED

The Burrough's Company tried to stop the release of the movie
with several court injunctions, but finally gave in to MGM's
strong hold on the title rights they own. 

GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (1984)
with Christopher Lambert was close, but deviations from the Burrough's
story threw me off. Lambert's square forehead and piercing eyes were good,
but his physique was lacking. The brooding was not how I see Tarzan.
I much prefer the Lambert from THE HIGHLANDER.
This casting surprised me, with Lambert already an established actor.




Casper Van Dien's
TARZAN AND THE LOST CITY (1998)
was critically panned, and at
5'-10" is probably the shortest Tarzan.




Jane March played Jane Porter






Tarzan ran on television as a weekly cartoon series
from 1976 - 1982 in various formats.

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976-1977)
The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour (1977-1978)
Tarzan and the Super 7 (1978-1980)
The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour (1980-1981)
The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1981-1982)

 The voice of Tarzan was that of Robert Ridgely

Disney put TARZAN to animation in 1999.

Tarzan (Disney) (1999)
animation with the voices of
 Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver
Glenn Close.
&
Tarzan and Jane (Disney) (2002)
animation with the voices of
Michael C. Weiss, Olivia d'Albo.

Disney's The Legend of Tarzan (2001),
a weekly 1/2 hour television series, began in 2001
animation with the voices of
Michael C. Weiss, Olivia d'Albo.




here is a portion of an email from Phillip McCormick,
a fellow Canadian, from Toronto
  " ... we got these pictures from Wolf himself,
when we met him in L.A.
Our son Christopher received a wish,
from the Children's Wish Foundation.
Chris's wish was to meet Wolf Larson & Lydie (Jane),
and we met him at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.
He gave Chris, posters, press kits, picture slides,
and a stuffed lion from Lydie ..."
Phill sent me the the Larson-Lara pics
 Thanks Phill
Wolf Larson and Joe Lara and now Travis Fimmel,
have all done a live action Tarzan for TV,
with varying degrees of success.

Lara made TARZAN IN MANHATTAN (1989) (tv movie), with
Kim Crosby as Jane and Tony Curtis as Jane's father, Archimedes.

Larson's "Tarzan" (1991-92) co-starred Lydie Dernier,
as a French accented Jane Porter.

Joe Lara's "Tarzan, The Epic Adventures" (1996),
only lasted one season.


      

Warner Bros. - Tarzan


aired on October 5th, 2003
but after 5 episodes was unable to capture a regular audience.
The remaining 3 episodes were aired in order with the last
being November 23rd, 2003

Cast:

Travis Fimmel as Tarzan         Sarah Wayne Callies as Jane Porter

Mitch Pileggi as Richard Clayton  Lucy Lawless as Kathleen Clayton

Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Detective Sam Sullivan

with Leighton Meester as Nicki Porter  &  Johnny Messner as Detective Michael Foster




The choreography of Fimmel's moves were cool,
but reminded me of the Disney cartoon. 
Click here for a list of the Tarzan Movies and the Tarzan Actors
at the Internet Movie Database (imdB)
Click here to view my Tarzan Movie Guide & Plot Summaries
(only the ones I've seen or have on tape and or dvd)
There are lots of sites dedicated to Tarzan.
Have a look on the web.

The opinions expressed here are my own, and I do
not intend to offend anyone or anyone's own opinion.

Tarzan® is the property of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Tarzana CA

Thanks,
Adios
Bob

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