NASA, we love you but if your astronauts keep falling into time warps that take them to ape-dominated planets, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Maybe a couple more thrusters would stop this thing from happening, that's all we're saying.

After a re-release of all five Planet of the Apes movies in 1974 about contemporary astronauts whose travels to the future land them on an Earth ruled by simians, the time was ripe for a TV series further exploring monkey-man relations. Since the movies involved time travel, they eventually formed in big circle of continuity in one of those you're-your-own-grandfather paradoxes. The TV show featured two fresh astronauts (from a technologically advanced 1980s Earth) getting spat out at the chimp end of the time warp, approximately 2000 years into the future.

Astronauts Burke and Virdon lose the third member of their crew crash landing on a strange planet but they are rescued by a local human who takes them underground. The two newcomers discover a book that shows a futuristic Earth which is when the other shoe drops that, yes, this is still Earth, we didn't travel far at all and wow, the monkey that's whipping me can talk. Burke and Virdon are soon captured by order of Dr. Zaius but they find an ally in Galen the ape (played by Roddy McDowall) who begins to doubt the doctrine of simian superiority taught by his society. Burke, Virdon and Galen escape to the countryside and have various adventures, encounters and confrontations with humans and apes.

The series was short-lived. Only 13 episodes aired on CBS but put Roddy McDowall in a monkey suit and it's a party, baby! Planet of the Apes was a cult hit with an already established fanbase so the episodes were re-edited into five made-for-TV movies that aired in the 80s.