By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The ‘90s were a golden age for syndicated fantasy shows; following in the wake of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, audiences made a hit out of Xena: Warrior Princess, and then a series of similar shows, from The New Adventures of Robin Hood and The Adventures of Sinbad to Jack of Hearts soon followed, with seemingly every international production company deciding to make their own show. Lost among its more popular contemporaries was Tarzan: The Epic Adventures, another attempt to adapt Edgar Rice Burrough’s famous creation for the small screen, and it was exactly as low-budget and cheesy as you’d expect, but before Season 2 could enter production, an involuntary bankruptcy shut it down for good.
Pulls From The Classic Novels
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures starred Joe Lara as the King of the Apes for the second time, reprising his role from the made-for-TV movie Tarzan in Manhattan, even though the two adaptations could not be any more different. The syndicated series pulls heavily from the original novels, including the villain, Count Nicholas Rokoff, and the concept of Pellucidar (Burroughs take on the Hollow Earth myth), but doesn’t include Jane. Instead, Tarzan is joined by his old friend Themba, who is on a quest to discover what happened to her tribe.
Filmed in Sun City, the famous South African resort that became a flashpoint during the 80s, Tarzan: The Epic Adventures looks like it takes place in the same stretch of jungle in every episode because it did. Made on a shoestring budget, the show features horrible dialogue, cheesy special effects, and a parade of cheap-looking costumes, but that’s also part of the appeal. To the production team’s credit, they seemed to be in on the joke, with no one taking it all that seriously, and the result was a fun, guilty pleasure that you don’t want anyone to know you’re enjoying.
An Involuntary Bankruptcy
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures may have been made on the cheap, but it wasn’t cheap enough for Seagull Entertainment, the show’s international distributor. Seagull Entertainment was forced into bankruptcy in the summer of 1997, right after the series aired its final episode, after failing to pay 50 employees and multiple creditors, amounting to over $500,000 in debts. Season 2 was already in the planning phases at the time, and it was set to introduce Jane, but because of forces outside the control of the production, it never came to be.
Thanks to the self-destruction of Seagull Entertainment, Tarzan: The Epic Adventures never got a second chance. The show’s production company, Keller Entertainment Group, was also trying to develop a syndicated series for Conan the Barbarian. However, that never made it to television, failing like so many other attempts at Conan before ever leaving pre-production.
Amazingly, Tarzan: The Epic Adventures is one of the most successful adaptations of the classic character since the 1950s, joining Alexander Skarsgard’s The Legend of Tarzan and Disney’s animated Tarzan. Despite being one of the most popular characters throughout the 30s and 50s, Tarzan has been parodied too much in pop culture to have any appeal to a modern audience, except for those who enjoy everything ironically.
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures is available to stream on Tubi and The Roku Channel.
