Ape Chronicles #040 - Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive

the Apes
• In 1974, a television series based on the series
amassed fourteen one-hour episodes, several of
which were subsequently turned into TV movies
• In 1975, an animated television series, Return to
the Planet of the Apes , ran to thirteen half-hour
episodes before being cancelled
• In 2001, Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Estella
Warren were among the stars of a big-budget “reimagining”
of Planet of the Apes , directed by Tim
Burton
• Two scenes were almost cut prior to release:
Heston's nude scene, and a shot of three apes in
the courtroom arranging their hands in a parody of
the ‘three wise monkeys' image (hear no evil, see
no evil, speak no evil)
• A scene which revealed that Nova was pregnant
with Taylor 's child was allegedly cut because one
of the studio executives found the idea of sexual
relations between a civilised and a primitive human
distasteful
• Released on 8 February 1968 , Planet of the Apes
grossed $26 million at the box office – more than
four times its production budget of $5.8 million,
making it one of the biggest hits of the year
• Breaking box office records in New York , Los
Angeles and London , Planet of the Apes was 20th
Century Fox's highest-grossing and most profitable
film of 1968
• The original Planet of the Apes continues to be
referenced in shows ranging from The Simpsons to
Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and in films from Mrs
Doubtfire to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged
Me
• An episode of the comedy show Saturday Night
Live featured Charlton Heston falling asleep in his
dressing room and awaking to find the show being
run by apes
• Planet of the Apes is also the subject of the most
popular joke in Internet history, as veteran astronaut
John Glenn's return to space in 1998, provoking the
suggestion that everyone should dress in ape
costumes when he returned to Earth
• A line from Planet of the Apes – “Get your stinking
paws off me, you damn dirty ape” – was recently
voted the most memorable movie dialogue line of
all time
• The film was widely acclaimed by critics, with
Variety setting the tone on 1 February 1968 with a
long review which began with the words ‘ Planet of
the Apes is an amazing film”
• As with the same year's other science fiction
masterpiece, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space
Odyssey , even the critics who derided the film on
first viewing subsequently admitted they had misread,
underestimated or made errors of judgment in
their initial reviews
• Planet of the Apes received two Academy Award
nominations, for costume design and original
music; although it won neither, the film won a
special Oscar for John Chambers' make-up
• Four theatrically-released sequels were made
between 1970 and 1974: Beneath the Planet of the
Apes (once again starring Charlton Heston),
Escape from the Planet of the Apes , Conquest of
the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of