Tarzan and the City of Gold.

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

Hanna-Barbera was the 900 pound gorilla of TV cartoons, and relied heavily on knock-offs of previously successful characters and concepts. The closest thing to competition they had was Filmation, who also relied on characters who had previous success in other media... But they usually licensed theirs properly.

Considering that this was made for 1970s Saturday Morning TV, which had been mostly neutered by uptight wannabe social-workers, TARZAN, Lord of the Jungle managed to steer amazingly close to the original source material. (Yes, in the original stories, Tarzan was very intelligent and articulate, rather than the simple-minded savage of the movies.) They did have to tone the violence down to judo throws and such. Don't suppose it would have been acceptable for Tarzan to whip out a big knife and gut Lurch (who guest-voices in this episode).

They used rotoscoping to get realistic movement for Tarzan. These elements would be re-used throughout the show's run, then recycled in Filmation's Batman, He-Man, and other cartoons for years to come!

Interesting that this fanciful version of Africa features hidden cities full of white folks, usually in Greek-Roman costumes, not unlike the books... I suppose the classic Tarzan Movie bone-though-the-nose black natives weren't gonna cut it in September of 1976, when this, the first episode of the series was aired!

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