I missed the original network run; but, my local station used to run it on Saturday afternoons. I really, really wanted to like it, and did like many episodes; but, I always expected bigger things, more epic stories. That was the problem of a tv series vs movies. Prior to them running that, I had seen a couple of Weismullers and I believe the Filmation cartoon was running.

We also used to get the Jungle Jim tv show, very early in the morning (like 6:00 am, right after the station sign-on), which I wanted to enjoy, but found kind of boring. Tarzan usually had enough to keep me interested, even with some of the more cliched stories or repeated plots; but not so much Jungle Jim.

I always liked Ely in the role and would have liked to have seen him take a crack at the movies; but, it wasn't to be. Also enjoyed Manuel Padilla, who would pop up later, in Happy Days and American Graffiti.

Some years later, Ely starred in a tv movie/series pilot, called The SEAL, that I only ever saw broadcast once, and other than an IMDB listing with little to no information, have never seen a single word written about it. Ely plays an ex-Navy SEAL, who operates as some kind of private eye or government agent (like I said, saw it once and never again) and it was the first time I had ever heard of the SEALs. I enjoyed the movie, but nothing ever came of it. It got me look for info on the teams, which wasn't east to find, until the Gulf War era, as they liked to stay out of the media, until then, even though they put on a public demonstration every 4th of July, at the Coronado Yacht Club, in Coronado, CA.

Of course, Ely made a great Doc Savage, though the film went to far into camp for me to really enjoy it (also thought they didn't really differentiate the assistants very well).

I've been watching the first season of Danger Man, aka The Secret Agent, on disc. It's interesting to see some of the guest actors, who went on to bigger things, within a couple of years. The series began in 1960, so this is before all the big ITV adventure shows (The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions, Department S, Jason King, The Professionals, The Protectors, The Persuaders, etc...) and before the Bond film series began. In one episode I saw Donald Pleasance (future Blofeld) and Lois Maxwell (future Moneypenny). In another was future Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, the first female (regular) co-star on The Avengers. Another episode had Sam Wanamaker and Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor Who. The episodes are much different from the Bond style, with John Drake being more of a thinking man, though he mixes it up frequently, physically. he usually uses his fists, rather than firearms and I haven't seen anything, so far, that is outlandish. Episodes are only a half hour; so, they are tightly plotted and move swiftly, yet never scrimp on character. I've noticed that the writers are all top notch, too, with a lot of people who went on to write for those later ITV show. I'll be interested to compare when I get to the revival of the series, after the Bond craze began and Drake is switched to working for a British spy agency (he's with NATO, in the early show, though often works for a Brit, named Hardy). You can kind of see the basic formula for how all those series were done in terms of establishing exotic locations, introduce the villains, brief the hero, meet people in trouble, cross path with villains, cross swords with villains, happy ending. Also an interesting mix of plots, from setting up the execution of an assassin, exposing corrupt officials in foreign governments, uncovering spy rings, breaking up murder-for-hire syndicates, getting a man falsely accused of espionage out of an embassy, capturing a killer with the aid of a blind woman, rescuing the kidnapped daughter of a millionaire genius, who works in the defense world, locating a slaving operation, bringing out a defector's sister to verify if they are the real person or a plant, and several more imaginative ideas.

Gadgets are mostly nonexistent or related to actual technology. In the episode where he hunts an assassin, he hides a weapon, in sections, in his car, to enter a hostile nation, then retrieves them and assembles it. It was basically a "free rifle," the key components of a rifle, but without the stock and other accessories. What he ends up with is something not terribly different than the free rifle that the Jackal uses, in the film Day of the Jackal (the Edward Fox movie, not that sad remake). That was right up the alley for equipment used in WW2, by the OSS and SOE.

Seen episodes here and there but never sat through as a series from start to finish. I do hope to get around to it at some point and hope one of the classic television stations like Metv or Decades run it, then I could record and watch at my leisure. It has a ding dang dong catchy theme that gets some oldies radio play!

Speaking of Tarzan, local HD free TV low end station has popped in/out depending on signal quality. ACE the American Classic Entertainment is running the 2 season Tarzan the Epic Adventures starring Joe Lara. A more fantasy style show of the ape Lord which isn't great by any means but a guilty pleasure to enjoy, even if Lara the wimp had to wear boots. 🙂 it is filmed well and looks spectacular in color with a good use of practical creature effects before CGI became the answer to everything.

Only problem is ACE is so low end they don't run a schedule on their internet page and is new to broadcasting I haven't been able to find them on any internet station listings yet. So it is catch it at odd times on Saturday so far, never at the same time in the last 3 weeks?!?

That does make for a sweet afternoon when getting home from school. Local station would change it up every 6 months or so as there was a kind of "weekly" schedule starting with Dream of Jeanie, Bewitched, Gilligans Island and Brady Bunch 3p-5p. Then 5p-69 was the adventure portion with 2 episodes Batman then Tarzan then Trek. At 6 months they would stop the current adventure shows and switch to Man from Uncle, the Avengers and Wild Wild West.

Great afternoons until primetime when the parents took over our 1 television.

Similar TV viewing. We had one B&W TV until I was in 7th grade. Then we had one color TV. When I was in 12th grade we got cable and I got a 13" B&W TV for my bedroom although that wasn't hooked up to cable. I kept that TV (until OTA TV went digital) to watch baseball games out on our deck.

Just looked up Ron Ely. He has aged well. Unfortunately his family suffered a major tragedy in 2019.