Herbert Hirschman was executive producer of the Planet of the Apes TV series. Hirschman was active in television since 1948, having directed and produced countless shows in every category of the medium. He had previously produced very many episodes of Perry Mason, Hong Kong, Dr. Kildare, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, Espionage and The Virginian.
Speaking about the Planet of the Apes series, Hirschman predicted “We're not planning this as a comedy. Oh, we'll make a few feeble attempts at humor but for the most part these will be serious 60-minute dramas. We'll be showing the Ape city of the future and it will have the look of the Middle Ages. There'll be no automobiles, no telephones, but unfortunately guns. Not all of the apes will be bad guys. We've got some shows where they will be quite sympathetic to humans.”[1] However, after the show was cancelled a few months later, Hirschman reflected, "My interest was making the show for adults and hopefully the kids would enjoy it too. But the focus changed. Freddy [Silverman, CBS programming chief] was concerned we weren't doing so well. He thought the scripts were too sophisticated. You know how these things go. When he saw the first script, he thought it was absolutely fantastic. When the ratings didn't come in, he started complaining that we were too sophisticated and that the villains should all be black-hats and the heroes should all be white-hats. I think the scripts did become more simple-minded, for lack of another term."[2] After producing Planet of the Apes, Hirschman went on to produce numerous TV movies into the early 1980s.
CBS Planet of the Apes TV Show Promo
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ Problems In Ape City / Turning Roddy Into Chimp Leaves Him Tired, Hungry, by Emery Wister
- ↑ Planet of the Apes on Television, by Joe Russo, Larry Landsman & Edward Gross - 'SFX Magazine' (2001)