# Tarzan (1966 TV series)

Tarzan is a series that aired on NBC from 1966 to 1968. The series portrayed Tarzan (played by Ron Ely) as a well-educated character who had grown tired of civilization, and returned to the jungle where he had been raised. The first five episodes (1–4 and 7 in transmission order) were filmed in Brazil; the production then relocated to Mexico. The series was set in a fictional newly independent African nation.
This series retained many of the trappings of the film series, included the "Tarzan yell" and Cheeta, but excluded Jane as part of the "new look" for the fabled apeman that executive producer Sy Weintraub had introduced in previous motion pictures starring Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, and Mike Henry. CBS aired repeat episodes of the program during the summer of 1969.

## Cast

* Ron Ely as Tarzan
* Manuel Padilla Jr. as Jai
* Alan Caillou as Jason Flood (episodes 1–4, 7)
* Rockne Tarkington as Rao (episodes 1–4, 7)

### Recurring appearances

Maurice Evans guest-starred as retired Brigadier Sir Basil Bertram, hero of the Battle of the Bulge, in four episodes. Julie Harris guest starred as missionary Charity Jones in four episodes. Chips Rafferty appeared as Dutch Jensen in two episodes.

## Episode list
### Season 1: 1966–67

| Nº | Ep | Title | Directed by: | Written by: | Original air date |
| 1 | 1 | "Eyes of the Lion" | Charles S. Dubin | George F. Slavin | September 8, 1966 (1966-09-08) |
| When a beautiful blind girl's seeing eye lion, Sultan, is mistaken for a rogue, Tarzan must prove the beast's innocence. Guest starring Laurie Sibbald as Nara, and Ned Romero as Oringa. ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "The Ultimate Weapon" | Paul Stanley | Don Brinkley, John Hawkins, Ward Hawkins | September 16, 1966 (1966-09-16) |
| The vengeful son of an ivory poacher swears revenge on Tarzan. ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Leopard on the Loose" | Paul Stanley | Oliver Crawford | September 23, 1966 (1966-09-23) |
| A post worker desperate for money abducts Jai's pet leopard. ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "A Life for a Life" | Robert Day | Don Brinkley | September 30, 1966 (1966-09-30) |
| The Lord of Jungle must race against time when Jai is bitten by a poisonous spider. (In production order "A Life for a Life" was the first episode of the series.) ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "The Prisoner" | George Marshall | Don Brinkley | October 7, 1966 (1966-10-07) |
| After a police officer is injured by a diamond thief, Tarzan must prevent the officer's tribe from exacting vigilante justice. ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "The Three Faces of Death" | Earl Bellamy | S.J. Loy | October 14, 1966 (1966-10-14) |
| Tarzan helps out a woman seeking to retain leadership of her tribe. ||||||
| 7 | 7 | "The Prodigal Puma" | Paul Stanley | Robert Sabaroff | October 21, 1966 (1966-10-21) |
| A big game hunter targets a puma Tarzan has captured. ||||||
| 8 | 8 | "The Deadly Silence: Part 1" | Robert L. Friend | Lee Erwin, Jack H. Robinson | October 28, 1966 (1966-10-28) |
| The jungle lord tries to stop a bloodthirsty Colonel from taking over an African village with his soldiers of fortune. However, Tarzan has been rendered temporarily deaf by an exploding hand grenade, effectively limiting one of his keen senses, so he must rely on his near-telepathic ability to communicate with a lion. ||||||
| 9 | 9 | "The Deadly Silence: Part 2" | Lawrence Dobkin | John Considine, Tim Considine | November 4, 1966 (1966-11-04) |
| Rendered deaf by an explosion, the jungle lord still tries to stop a colonel from taking over a village. National General Pictures released this two-parter theatrically in 1970 as Tarzan's Deadly Silence. ||||||
| 10 | 10 | "The Figurehead" | Alan Crosland Jr. | Samuel Roeca, George F. Slavin | November 11, 1966 (1966-11-11) |
| Tarzan and Jai protect a young prince. ||||||
| 11 | 11 | "Village of Fire" | Hollingsworth Morse | Jack Gross, James Leighton, Michael Stein | November 18, 1966 (1966-11-18) |
| After Jai is bitten by a leopard, Tarzan must recover a special serum that can save the boy. ||||||
| 12 | 12 | "The Day of the Golden Lion" | Anton Leader | Robert Goodwin | December 2, 1966 (1966-12-02) |
| Tarzan joins an athletic championship, but an attempt to steal the prize happens. ||||||
| 13 | 13 | "Pearls of Tanga" | R. G. Springsteen | Sid Saltzman | December 9, 1966 (1966-12-09) |
| A criminal known as the Admiral and his crew poison the waters so they can be the only ones to take pearl oysters. ||||||
| 14 | 14 | "End of the River" | Anton Leader | G. Joshua David | December 16, 1966 (1966-12-16) |
| Tarzan must save a young girl and battle a criminal. One of the criminal's two minions (Robert J. Wilke) ends up being fatally devoured by a crocodile. ||||||
| 15 | 15 | "The Ultimate Duel" | Robert L. Friend | Cornelius Ballard | December 23, 1966 (1966-12-23) |
| A scientist (Henry Silva) pits Tarzan against his computer, which can predict Tarzan's every move. ||||||
| 16 | 16 | "The Fire People" | Earl Bellamy | Wells Root | December 30, 1966 (1966-12-30) |
| Tarzan and Jai must help a chief rescue his superstitious tribe from a volcano that's about to erupt. ||||||
| 17 | 17 | "Track of the Dinosaur" | Lawrence Dobkin | Norman Lessing, Samuel Newman | January 6, 1967 (1967-01-06) |
| A corrupt government official uses a local legend to his advantage to get people away from a mineral deposit. ||||||
| 18 | 18 | "The Day the Earth Trembled" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | January 13, 1967 (1967-01-13) |
| Tarzan reluctantly recruits three escaped convicts to help him get a group of children and their caregiver (Susan Oliver) to safety. ||||||
| 19 | 19 | "Captain Jai" | Anton Leader | James Bonnet, James Leighton | January 20, 1967 (1967-01-20) |
| Jai is held hostage by criminals seeking stolen diamonds. ||||||
| 20 | 20 | "A Pride of Assassins" | Harmon Jones | Samuel Newman, Barry Trivers | January 27, 1967 (1967-01-27) |
| A smuggler sends assassins after Tarzan and a young woman because they threaten to expose a smuggling scheme. ||||||
| 21 | 21 | "The Golden Runaway" | Lawrence Dobkin | Carey Wilber | February 3, 1967 (1967-02-03) |
| Tarzan leads a young woman to a red-headed Irishman who may have a clue to her brother's disappearance. ||||||
| 22 | 22 | "Basil of the Bulge" | Alex Nicol | Samuel Newman | February 10, 1967 (1967-02-10) |
| A native chief and a corrupt government official capture Sir Basil Bertram before he can arrange tribal treaty. ||||||
| 23 | 23 | "Mask of Rona" | James Komack | S.S. Schweitzer | February 17, 1967 (1967-02-17) |
| Tarzan leads a group on the search for missing artist Rona Swann; a group member uses the safari as a cover for a gun-running operation. ||||||
| 24 | 24 | "To Steal the Rising Sun" | William Witney | Jackson Gillis | February 24, 1967 (1967-02-24) |
| An exiled chief plots to steal his tribe's priceless ruby. A con man's minion (Henry Beckman) ends up being fatally devoured by a crocodile. ||||||
| 25 | 25 | "Jungle Dragnet" | William Wiard | Arnold Belgard | March 3, 1967 (1967-03-03) |
| A native revolutionary and a foreign soldier try to prevent a little girl from revealing the location of an oil-rich field. ||||||
| 26 | 26 | "The Perils of Charity Jones: Part 1" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | March 10, 1967 (1967-03-10) |
| An American midwestern missionary enlists Jai's aid to fulfill her father's final wish and deliver an organ to a primitive tribe, but their boat is disabled. ||||||
| 27 | 27 | "The Perils of Charity Jones: Part 2" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | March 17, 1967 (1967-03-17) |
| Tarzan rescues Charity and Jai from hostile natives, but then the trio are pursued by another tribe who are after the guns that Jai hid from them. ||||||
| 28 | 28 | "The Circus" | Harmon Jones | Lawrence Dobkin | March 24, 1967 (1967-03-24) |
| Jai and Dutch encounter a fugitive who makes an attempt to evade a manhunt by joining the circus. ||||||
| 29 | 29 | "The Ultimatum" | Robert L. Friend | James Menzies | March 31, 1967 (1967-03-31) |
| A female criminal and her goons threaten to destroy a native village unless Tarzan submits to being their prisoner. ||||||
| 30 | 30 | "Algie B for Brave" | Alex Nicol | Samuel Newman | April 7, 1967 (1967-04-07) |
| Sir Basil Bertram recruits Tarzan and Jai to assist him in order to discover the location of a Communist country's nuclear detection equipment. ||||||
| 31 | 31 | "Man Killer" | James Komack | Carey Wilber | April 14, 1967 (1967-04-14) |
| Tarzan's search for a murderer is complicated by a village whose natives employ drugs in their ceremonial rituals. ||||||

### Season 2: 1967–68

| Nº | Ep | Title | Directed by: | Written by: | Original air date |
| 32 | 1 | "Tiger, Tiger!" | Harmon Jones | Jackson Gillis | September 15, 1967 (1967-09-15) |
| An engineer ignores Tarzan's warning about a tiger on the loose. ||||||
| 33 | 2 | "Voice of the Elephant" | Harmon Jones | Terence Maples, Al Martin | September 22, 1967 (1967-09-22) |
| Jai's pet elephant is blamed for the death of a commissioner. ||||||
| 34 | 3 | "Thief Catcher" | James Komack | Edmund Morris | September 29, 1967 (1967-09-29) |
| The jungle lord must track and capture two escaped convicts before more people are put in danger. ||||||
| 35 | 4 | "The Blue Stone of Heaven: Part 1" | William Witney | Jackson Gillis | October 6, 1967 (1967-10-06) |
| The jungle lord leads an archaeological expedition to a burial ground deep in the jungle in defiance of an ancient taboo. ||||||
| 36 | 5 | "The Blue Stone of Heaven: Part 2" | William Witney | Jackson Gillis | October 13, 1967 (1967-10-13) |
| A power-mad colonel plans to steal the jeweled idol and dynamite the burial ground. ||||||
| 37 | 6 | "The Maguma Curse" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | October 20, 1967 (1967-10-20) |
| The jungle lord battles to save a young woman from a curse of death implemented by a witch doctor. ||||||
| 38 | 7 | "The Fanatics" | William Witney | Lee Loeb | October 27, 1967 (1967-10-27) |
| The jungle lord assists a female journalist expose a rigged tribal election. ||||||
| 39 | 8 | "The Last of the Supermen" | Gerald Mayer | S.S. Schweitzer | November 3, 1967 (1967-11-03) |
| A unrepentant Nazi urges Tarzan to assist him in locating a buried fortune left over from the war. ||||||
| 40 | 9 | "Hotel Hurricane" | Ron Ely | Jackson Gillis | November 10, 1967 (1967-11-10) |
| A mob makes an attempt to fool Tarzan and Jai into assisting them to recover stolen money after a plane crash. ||||||
| 41 | 10 | "The Pride of the Lioness" | Barry Shear | Jerry Adelman, Gerry Day, William Driskill | November 17, 1967 (1967-11-17) |
| A young doctor gets help from Tarzan when he faces to forces opposed to his clinic: a witch doctor who has threatened the young man with death, and the young man's socialite mother, who wants him to return home. ||||||
| 42 | 11 | "Mountains of the Moon: Part 1" | Harmon Jones | Jackson Gillis | November 24, 1967 (1967-11-24) |
| A widow leads a cult of religious pilgrims on a dangerous journey into forbidden land beset by saboteurs as well as hostile natives. ||||||
| 43 | 12 | "Mountains of the Moon: Part 2" | Harmon Jones | Jackson Gillis | December 1, 1967 (1967-12-01) |
| Tarzan aids a religious group on their pilgrimage to an area known as the Mountains of the Moon. ||||||
| 44 | 13 | "Jai’s Amnesia" | Harmon Jones | Jerry Adelman, William Driskill | December 15, 1967 (1967-12-15) |
| Jai suffers a memory loss, but ends up being involved in stealing a sacred ruby. ||||||
| 45 | 14 | "The Professional" | Alex Nicol | Jerry Adelman, William Driskill | January 5, 1968 (1968-01-05) |
| A colonel and his heavily armed troops overrun the land of a peace-loving tribe, but he has reckoned without Tarzan. ||||||
| 46 | 15 | "The Convert" | Harmon Jones | Jo Pagano | January 12, 1968 (1968-01-12) |
| Three nuns become unwitting pawns in a struggle between the village chief and a scheming land developer. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes guest star. ||||||
| 47 | 16 | "The Creeping Giant" | Alex Nicol | Donn Mullally | January 19, 1968 (1968-01-19) |
| Tarzan fights a powerful land owner who has duped an engineer into dynamiting a mountain range, a project that will wipe out several native villages. ||||||
| 48 | 17 | "King of the Dwsari" | William Witney | Esther Shapiro, Richard Alan Shapiro | January 26, 1968 (1968-01-26) |
| Tarzan is imprisoned when he tries to release the Dwsari tribe which has been tricked by a smooth-talking American. ||||||
| 49 | 18 | "A Gun for Jai" | E. Darrell Hallenbeck | Jackson Gillis | February 2, 1968 (1968-02-02) |
| Against the Tarzan's wishes, Jai is given a rifle by one of the local hunters. The jungle lord searches for Cheeta. ||||||
| 50 | 19 | "Trek to Terror" | Barry Shear | Lee Erwin | February 9, 1968 (1968-02-09) |
| The jungle lord is tricked into helping a corrupt police inspector who intends to murder a crusading missionary. ||||||
| 51 | 20 | "End of a Challenge" | Barry Shear | Richard H. Landau | February 16, 1968 (1968-02-16) |
| Tarzan and Chief Bangu are forced to forget their mutual animosity as they team up to search for the chief's son and Jai, who have been kidnaped by a gun-toting thief. ||||||
| 52 | 21 | "Jungle Ransom" | Barry Shear | Esther Shapiro, Richard Alan Shapiro | February 23, 1968 (1968-02-23) |
| As the jungle lord and a bandit engage in a battle of wits, a young woman tries to use both men in an effort to set free her husband, a hostage in the bandit's camp. ||||||
| 53 | 22 | "The Four O’Clock Army: Part 1" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | March 1, 1968 (1968-03-01) |
| General Basil Bertram and missionary Charity Jones return in this two-part story, and this time must ally with the jungle lord against a band of slavers who have been taking people and destroying villages. ||||||
| 54 | 23 | "The Four O’Clock Army: Part 2" | Alex Nicol | Carey Wilber | March 8, 1968 (1968-03-08) |
| The jungle lord goes after the slave traders whose prisoners include Jai. ||||||
| 55 | 24 | "Rendezvous for Revenge" | William Witney | Richard H. Landau | March 15, 1968 (1968-03-15) |
| After a poacher known for his arson escapes from custody, the jungle lord tracks him and his adoring girlfriend to an oceanside cliff, and a fateful encounter. But the poacher's girlfriend and two minions later track Tarzan down and force him to lead them back to the scene. ||||||
| 56 | 25 | "Alex The Great" | Barry Shear | Esther Shapiro, Richard Alan Shapiro | March 22, 1968 (1968-03-22) |
| The task of protecting a village from a man-eating lion is complicated by the arrival of a man determined to prove himself superior to Tarzan - by killing the jungle lord. ||||||
| 57 | 26 | "Trina" | Harmon Jones, Barry Shear | Milton S. Gelman | April 5, 1968 (1968-04-05) |
| A girl requests help from Tarzan to find her long-lost uncle. ||||||

## Syndication

After being seen intermittently in syndication and on cable in the years after its network run, as of 2016, the series airs on the Heroes & Icons network Saturday mornings. It lasted until September 2018.
On June 4–5, 2016, the Decades TV network ran a marathon of the series. On September 9, 2016, Decades celebrated Tarzan's fiftieth anniversary repeating a few choice episodes.

## Home media

On March 13, 2012, Warner Bros. released Tarzan: Season 1, Part 1 & Tarzan: Season 1, Part 2 on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection manufacture-on-demand service. The second season was released complete on September 17, 2013.

## Opening scene

* Iguazu Falls, in the opening scene. This series had two separate musical themes as featured in Season One. "Tarzan's March" by far being the overall favorite but was not featured in Season Two for the opening scene or the end credits. Over both seasons, the show had three different theme tunes.
"Tarzan's March" music originally composed by "Sydney Lee & Walter Greene" which gained additional fame and was covered by several artists including "Al Hirt & His Orchestra",
"Marty Manning & The Cheetahs" & even "Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra". The UK group Madness also covered the title song, adding some spoken parts and performing it in a Ska arrangement, this song was included on their first album, One Step Beyond.

## In popular culture

The British company Airfix marketed a series of HO-00 (1/72nd) scale plastic figures of the characters based on the series.