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planet of the apes
who didn’t necessarily visit the cinema much at all. The book’s adaptation to the big screen five years later was certainly a cut above science fiction movies, which, up until that celebrated Charlton Heston vehicle and the same year’s
2001: A Space Odyssey, had tended to be rather schlocky. Even so, its audience was a very different demographic to Boulle’s. The generation who saw its famous ending (the remnants of the Statue of Liberty waist deep in sand) when it still had its shock-factor intact
The Complete History
(i.e., because knowledge of it hadn’t leaked out) were pretty much the same people who attended the four sequels that followed over the next five years. However, by the time a Planet of
the Apes TV series began appearing on screens in 1974, much of its viewership comprised a new cohort who were completely unaware that
Planet of the Apes: The Complete History
it had any kind of precedent. In fact, some of
(Applause, February 2022) explores every aspect
the kids of the era only became cognisant that
of this phenomenon—from books to films,
their favourite telly programme was not a
comic books to television shows, and video
wholly original idea when they purchased the
games to merchandise—providing an overview
contemporaneous Planet of the Apes Marvel
that is truly definitive. Author Sean Egan
comic and found to their bewilderment that
argues that the series has always been marked
the TV show’s starring trio – human astronauts
by thoughtfulness, exploring serious themes
Burke and Virdon and chimpanzee ally Galen
alien to most big budget films.
– were nowhere to be seen: the publication contained adaptations of the movies. What we
In this exclusive article, Egan explains how
now call reboots have occurred in the franchise
and why he set out to write a comprehensive
in 2001 with Tim Burton’s film and from 2011-17
snapshot of the iconic franchise.
with the motion-picture trilogy (Rise of/Dawn
____________________________
Peter Chernin: the parents of the young people
of/War for the Planet of the Apes) produced by who consisted of much of those films’ audiences Everybody knows Planet of the Apes – or thinks
had been the child TV viewers of yore.
they do. But Planet of the Apes is an intellectual
All of this means that a complete history takes
property-cum-franchise that has now been
in a lot of artistic talent and vision. It was
around for six decades and different age-
fascinating to research and write about how
groups have very different first experiences of
so many different people have brought their
it.
individual and idiosyncratic approaches to the
Frenchman Pierre (Bridge on the River Kwai)
Apes concept. Writing a book in the middle of a
Boulle kicked it all off with his 1963 novel
pandemic, though, posed challenges.
La Planète des Singes, setting the stage for
It adversely affected to some degree the
endless permutations of the conceit of humans
procurement of interviews, which are always
who wind up in conflict with preternaturally
an important feature of a work of this kind.
intelligent simians. This inaugural take was
Some people on my interview wish-list declined
quite a highfalutin’ affair that was as much
to participate on the understandable grounds
philosophy and satire as science fiction. As
that they wanted to focus on their families at
such, it would have been read largely by people
this unsettled time. However, I was privileged
30
Facing: Prosthetic makeup design for Roddy McDowell in Planet of the Apes TV series (1974)
