Return to the Planet of the Apes is an American animated television series of the science fiction & action/adventure genres. It is based on the Planet of the Apes film series and was produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series was developed for television by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng. It ran for thirteen episodes and aired on NBC from September 6th to November 29th, 1975. The premise of the series loosely follows similar plot elements examined in the original film series as well as the 1974Planet of the Apes live-action series. Three Earth astronauts named Bill Hudson, Jeff Allen and Judy Franklin crash-land their spacecraft on Earth of the far-distant future after traveling through some undefined distortion in space. They learn that Earth is now ruled by intelligent talking apes and that humans are now primitive mutes. Allying with two sympathetic chimpanzee scientists named Cornelius and Zira, the astronauts try to avoid detection from the human-hating gorilla army while also trying to survive in a topsy-turvy world.
The Planet of the Apes franchise was first created by French novelist Pierre Boulle, who wrote the novel La Planete des singes in 1963. The concept was retooled by famed science fiction author Rod Serling and brought to life as a feature film in 1968, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and written by Serling and Michael Wilson. This inaugural film spawned four sequels, a live-action TV series, and animated series, and several remakes.
