Flames of Doom.

Hey kids (of all ages), it's Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Spoiler Warnings for this half-century old franchise!!!

In 1968, 20th Century had a big hit film in PLANET OF THE APES. So they slapped-together a sequel to capitalize on the momentum. They went-ahead and killed all the stars in the final reel, then went one better and blew-up the whole damned world!

But the low-budget sequel actually did big box office. So they had to fall back on science fiction's favorite Deus Ex Machina: Time Travel, to enable a second sequel. This apparently fractured the timeline to create a multiverse of ape-world futures.

After five feature films, the Apes fad was fizzling, so they tried taking the franchise to prime-time TV, where the live-action series failed after a short season. Only screen left to exploit was Saturday Morning cartoons.

Surprisingly from DePatie-Freleng (PINK PANTHER) rather than the adaptation go-to studio Filmation, the animated Apes series was a mixed bag. Unusually dark, complex, and dramatic writing for 1970s cartoon fare, with striking illustration and character design that resembled comic book art in a good way. But very limited animation, and some lackluster voice work.

This version of Apeworld borrowed elements from the movies, TV series, and even the original novel. (Such as depicting the Ape Civilization as having 20th Century level development, rather than being more primitive, as in previous adaptations.)

Moderately successful Saturday Morning shows often got a short second production season to add a handful of episodes to freshen the series for continued reruns. The producers were apparently planning on this, so they could wrap-up the story arcs they'd started. But the ratings were weak, so the thirteen episodes of the initial order are all that got made.

Here, from September 1975, is the first broadcast episode of RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES.

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