Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp is an American television show that originally aired on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
from September 12, 1970, to September 2, 1972. The
Saturday morningSaturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits is a tribute album of songs from Saturday morning children’s television shows and cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s. The project is a work of love from the producer Ralph Sall, with the songs performed by alternative rock artists...
live-action film series featured a cast of
chimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s given apparent speaking roles by overdubbing with human voices.
Production
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp had a "seven-figure budget" with location filming, props and costumes, and the laborious staging and training of the animals. The filmmakers made the most of the budget, staging multiple episodes with the same settings and wardrobe, occasionally reusing the more elaborate chase footage that sometimes included a Rolls Royce.
Two of the three producer/creators — Stan Burns and Mike Marmer — who had been writers for
Get SmartGet Smart is an American television comedy series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as Thaddeus, the chief of CONTROL, a secret American government...
, quit their jobs as head writers on
The Carol Burnett Show to work on
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.
According to
The Believer-Overview:Published by McSweeney's out of San Francisco, the magazine also covers other artforms, and features articles about authors, artists, and literary issues of the past and present, often relating to politics and popular culture...
, "to make the dialogue fit the chimps’ lip action, Burns and Marmer went to ridiculous lengths. Voiceovers were ad-libbed on the set, giving birth to beautifully absurd moments of the chimps breaking into songs at the end of sentences or spontaneously reciting
Mother GooseMother Goose is a well-known figure in the literature of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. She is often prominent in Mother Goose stories, also more commonly known as "nursery rhymes"...
rhymes just so it would look right."
Plot construction
Owing considerable homage to
Get Smart, the plot was always played for laughs and featured Lancelot Link and his female colleague Mata Hairi in secret agent and spy satires. Link worked for Agency to Prevent Evil (APE) in an ongoing conflict with the evil organization Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan (CHUMP). CHUMP's
monocleA monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing the monocle...
d chief Baron von Butcher inevitably hatched the latest plan to endanger the world. The Baron's network of international fiends included his shifty chauffeur Creto, mad scientist Dr. Strangemind (with an exaggerated
Bela LugosiBéla Lugosi was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen, well known for playing Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version...
dialect), imperious Dragon Woman, drowsy Wang Fu, singing
sheikSheik may refer to:*Sheikh, an honorific term*Sheik, a fictional character from The Legend of Zelda*The Sheik , a silent film*A condom made by Durex*The Original Sheik, a professional wrestler*The Iron Sheik, a professional wrestler...
Ali Assa Seen, and the cultured Duchess. One or more would appear in each episode.
A regular weekly feature was chimp TV host "Ed Simian" introducing a musical number by an all-chimp band, "The Evolution Revolution." An album of these songs was released on the ABC/Dunhill record label. There were also Lancelot Link comic books and other merchandise, including
HalloweenHalloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Gaelic pagan festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones...
costumes.
The characters
The characters of
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp included these.
Heroes of the Agency to Prevent Evil (APE):
- Lancelot Link (played by Tonga, voiced by Dayton Allen
Dayton Allen was a comedian and voice actor. He was one of the "men in the street" on the '"Steve Allen Show."' His catch phrase was "Why not, Bubbe?"...
; his name was most likely inspired by the term "missing linkTransitional fossils are the fossilized remains of intermediary forms of life that illustrate an evolutionary transition. They can be identified by their retention of certain primitive traits in comparison with their more derived relatives, as they are defined in the study of cladistics...
")
- Mata Hairi (played by Debbie, voiced by Joan Gerber
Joan Gerber is an American voice actress for a variety of cartoons.- Filmography :* 1959: Matty's Funday Funnies : Additional Voices...
; her name was a take-off on Mata HariMata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle , a Frisian exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I....
)
- Commander Darwin (voiced by Dayton Allen; named after Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
)
- Bruce (no voice; official APE courier)
Villains of Criminals Headquartered and Underworld Master Planners (CHUMP):
- Baron von Butcher (voiced by Bernie Kopell
Bernard Morton "Bernie" Kopell is an American television actor who portrayed Alan-a-Dale in When Things Were Rotten, Jerry Bauman in That Girl, Siegfried in Get Smart, Louie Pallucci in The Doris Day Show, and Dr...
, formerly SiegfriedSiegfried is a German language male given name, meaning "victory peace".Siegfried may also refer to:*Siegfried , an opera by Richard Wagner...
in Get SmartGet Smart is an American television comedy series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as Thaddeus, the chief of CONTROL, a secret American government...
!)
- Dragon Lady (voiced by Joan Gerber)
- Creto
- Wang Fu
- The Duchess (voiced by Joan Gerber)
- Ali Assa Seen (voiced and sung by Dayton Allen; his name was meant to sound like "assassin")
- Dr. Strangemind (voiced by Dayton Allen; name inspired by Dr. Strangelove)
Additional characters:
- Marty Mandrill
The Mandrill is a primate of the Cercopithecidae family, closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the Drill. Both the Mandrill and the Drill were once classified as baboons in genus Papio, but recent research has determined that they should be separated into their own genus,...
(former songwriter for The Evolution Revolution, turned CHUMP spy)
- An unnamed orangutan
The orangutans are two endangered species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of other great apes...
(appeared in cameos as a picturesque extra; often referred to by Lance as "that weirdo")
- Blackie (the drummer in The Evolution Revolution)
- Ed Simian (a television MC
A master of ceremonies, microphone controller or MC , sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance. The MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving...
, and a parody of Ed SullivanEdward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of a TV variety show called The Ed Sullivan Show that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s....
)
- Parnelli Smith (auto racing champ and supplier of cars to APE, his name was a takeoff on former Indy 500 champion Parnelli Jones
Rufus Parnell "Parnelli" Jones , is a retired American racing driver and racecar owner. He is most remembered for his 1963 Indianapolis 500 win, and almost winning the 1967 Indy 500 in a turbine car. He is also remembered for bringing the stock block engine to USAC Sprint car racing as one of the...
]
The episodes were all narrated, in a mock-sober delivery, by
Malachi ThroneMalachi Throne is an American actor, most noted for his roles on Star Trek and It Takes a Thief.Throne was born in New York City...
.
The Evolution Revolution
This all-chimp band, dressed in extreme, colorful flower-child wigs and wardrobe, featured Lance Link (played by Tonga) on guitar and Mata Hairi (played by Debbie) on tambourine, with Blackie as "Bananas Marmoset" on the drums. "SweetWater Gibbons" (in fringed vest and granny glasses) was credited for playing Farfisa organ
In episode "The Evolution Revolution", it was established that the band's music was used to communicate coded messages for APE agents.
The songs were usually co-written and always performed by Steve Hoffman, in the "bubblegum" style then in vogue; Hoffman received "voices" credit along with the various character actors. A Lancelot Link record album was released on ABC/Dunhill, as well as a single titled "Sha-La Love You", a song originally intended for
The Grass RootsThe Grass Roots are a U.S. rock and roll band that charted between 1966 and 1975 as the brainchild of songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri....
); the music was almost interchangeable with that of The Grass Roots, who used the same recording facilities and the identical studio musicians. Some songs contained heavy guitar riffs, reflecting the growth of hard rock and
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
.
Episodes
The first season aired hour-long shows that included recent Warner Brothers cartoons. The second season consisted of repeats from the first season with the cartoons removed. The original network broadcast included a laugh track; later syndicated and video versions do not.
Sources vary as to the number of episodes; the following list is taken from
TV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The service was launched on June 1, 2005 and replaced the popular TV Tome website.- Format :...
:
- There's No Business Like Snow Business
- The Lone A.P.E. / Missile Beach Party
- The Mysterious Motorcycle Menace / The Great Beauty Contest
- C.H.U.M.P. Takes A Holiday / To Tell The Tooth
- The Great Brain Drain / The Great Double Double Cross
- Lance Of Arabia / The Doctor Goes A.P.E.
- The Surfin' Spy / The Missing Link
- Bonana / The Greatest Chase In The World
- The Reluctant Robot / The Royal Foil
- The Great Great Race / The Great Plane Plot
- Landlubber Lance / The Temporary Thanksgiving Turkey Truce
- The Dreaded Hong Kong Sneeze / The Great Bank Robbery
- The Sour Taste Of Success / The Baron's Birthday Ball
- The Golden Sword / The Chilling C.H.U.M.P. Chase
- The Spy Who Went Out In The Cold / Too Many C.H.U.M.P.s
- The C.H.U.M.P. Code Caper / Weather Or Not
- The Evolution Revolution / The Great Water Robbery
Since 1980
Each episode was rerun a single time on the
NickelodeonNickelodeon is an American cable television channel owned by Viacom. Since the mid-1990s and early 2000s Nickelodoen as a brand has expanded into other territories including Europe, the Middle-East, Russia and Asia.It is often referred to by its shortened name, Nick, a practice that dates back to...
cable televisionCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
channel during the mid-1980s, and as of 2003 had not been rebroadcast.
A 1999 documentary short,
I Created Lancelot Link was made by Diane Bernard and
Jeff KrulikJeff Krulik is a director of independent films and a former Discovery Channel producer.Krulik's work frequently explores the fringes of popular culture from an enthusiastic and appreciative point of view....
; it includes a reunion between the show’s two creators, and was "shot in shlocky Hi-8 video, and [featuring] an entertaining juxtaposition of anecdotes from Burns and Marmer and some of the show's finest moments."
In June 2006, most of the episodes were released on a 2-
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
set by
Image EntertainmentImage Entertainment, Inc. is a leading independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450 programs internationally via...
.
External links