ERB and Me: Daily Posting About Epic Adventures

I recently found my white whale, the 1990s TV series The Epic Adventures of Tarzan. For some reason, I missed this completely when it first broadcast. Since then, when seeing pictures in books about Tarzan media adaptations, I thought it looked interesting. Every time that I looked for a DVD, it popped up as not available in US. However, the magic of streaming finally caught up with my obsession with watching all the Tarzan movies (even Greystoke). I amused myself by watching one episode a day and then posting about it on Blue Sky. Now that I've finished, here's a copy of the Blue Sky posts along with my thoughts on how much was derived from the source material. Text in italics are my later thoughts while writing this post. 


February and March 2025
Epic Adventures of Tarzan Episode 1 ends with Tarzan being swallowed by a giant snake. I am assuming he gets out in episode 2. Or this is going to be even weirder than I thought. The special effects are low rent but they are hitting all the tropes. Fingers crossed for a pool of quicksand to show up.

Coffee and blueberry muffin break with Episode 2. Humanely dealing with giant snake, Tarzan plunges in Pellucidar where men may be shaggy but women have access to good hairdressers. Sadly no quicksand yet but dinosaur threats and mystic portals do pop up.

These two episodes formed the pilot for the series. One interesting character who popped up was Paul D'Arnot, a vastly underused Edgar Rice Burroughs character from the first novel and several sequels. Sadly he never appeared again in Epic Adventures. But Paul is why Tarzan spoke perfect French before he learned English -- go look it up!

I was a huge fan of Xena and Hercules back in the day. Epic Adventures of Tarzan belongs to same mid-1990s mixing of sandals with sorcery fables. Have decided it works best to watch an episode a day. I live in hope of an episode where the villain is swallowed by quicksand (please no spoilers).

Lunch with Episode 3 of the Epic Adventures of Tarzan. Leopard men attack! Which ties slightly to the 1932 Tarzan and the Leopard Men by ERB, except we have a were-leopard. No cave collapsing (1946 Weismuller movie about Tarzan and the Leopard Woman had cave collapsing finale). No quicksand.

At this point in the series, Tarzan's best buddy Timba, an African chieftain educated in Europe, loses his entire village. As in they mysteriously vanish during the attack. It turns out the Leopard Men are not responsible. Do Timba and Tarzan immediately set off to find the lost village? Sort of. Mostly the writers forget about it for episodes, bring back brief mentions, and then forget it again. Why? As far as I can tell, this doesn't link to any ERB work. Timba serves as an advocate of modern science and a substitute for several friends of Tarzan from the novels. Also he's somebody to be rescued on a regular basis. It's a fairly thankless role but the actor Aaron Seville plays the character with real charm and makes the most of his scenes.

Joe Lara as Tarzan completely looks the part as described by ERB, tall, dark, handsome, and light eyes (should be grey, his eyes are more blue, but hey he can run beautifully through the jungle! And he sounds good too). His characterization is much closer to the books and later 20th century dramatizations with Tarzan being an educated man able to speak several languages including ape.

Sadness! Episode 4 cut off after 30 minutes so we never see the final gladiator fight. Yes Tarzan has found the "lost legion" and gotten involved with a blonde Roman rebel (beautiful lady, of course!). Also we don't know about quicksand.

Wait! The episode is on the Boomer Channel on YouTube (behold the magic of the internet). Sound is not good but we can see the final gladiator fight. And confirm no quicksand. Also no supernatural in this episode.

I paid $2.99 to watch the entire series without commercials on Cineverse through my Amazon Prime Video/FireTV connection. Then I found out it was free on YouTube. But the rest of the Cineverse episodes worked fine and no commercials. Also I could watch Pinkertons on Cineverse before I turned off the subscription. 

The ERB sources for this episode was Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928) which does have Tarzan finding Roman city Castrum Mare. And yes there are gladiator fights in the book with Tarzan winning (would ERB miss the obvious?).

I am actually a little impressed about how the producers of Epic Adventures at least read a synopsis of the Tarzan books. They pay about as much attention to the detail as Xena or Hercules did to actual Greek mythology (ie when it suits them, it appears). But it's fun to spot the references.

Unlike many (almost all) Tarzan adaptations they have not brought in Cheetah (I was never a fan of the monkey so that's OK) and there's no Jane (this may prove to be a mistake). Instead Tarzan, so far, has saved a lovely lady in each episode, hinted he has a lost love, and keeps moving on.

Episode 5 of Epic Adventures of Tarzan brings bi-plane crash, beautiful aviatrix, and lizard men! Hidden cave behind waterfall. Wing walking fight on bi-plane (be still my heart). More hints that Tarzan left someone behind in Europe and thus cannot invite aviatrix to his jungle. No quicksand.

Horibs (aka reptilian humanoids) do show up in ERB's Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929), which shows ERB wasn't afraid to cross over his series. But ERB's Horibs aren't as nice as the misunderstood Lizard men in this episode. And there's more supernatural going on.

When exactly is this series happening? According to the pilot, it's 1912 (i.e. same year as Tarzan of the Apes was published) when Tarzan leaves Europe for Africa (more about that later). But sometimes the tech looks later as do the costumes. Let's just say vaguely before 1920 and leave it at that.

Episode 6 has lost group of medical researchers (one with beautiful daughter), mystic mists, and Tarzan suffers amnesia! Will he recover his memories in time to save the friend suffering from the mysterious unnamed plague? Do you need to ask? Still no quicksand.

Although ERB did not send Tarzan hunting for a black orchid (as far as I know), he was not above hitting Tarzan on the head and having the ape man suffer amnesia. It was a convenient way to have Tarzan to forget Jane and get distracted (briefly) by other beauties. Or just wander away in the jungle.

Episode 7 of the Epic Adventures of Tarzan unleashes Tarzan's dual nature -- which is what happens when you get zapped repeatedly by various witches good and bad. So will Tarzan be a civilized man or a wild beast? Various battles lead to "but wait, was it a dream?" ending. No quicksand.

Okay we've wandered very far from ERB source material and even the writers don't seem to know how get Tarzan out of this mess. Although the threatening to drop his friend Timba in a pool of lava has a nicely old-fashioned Perils of Pauline serial feel.

Onto Episode 8 and back firmly in the territory of the novels. Tarzan is captured by La of Opar (super gorgeous villainess but Tarzan remains true to Jane). Hints of Jane being held captive in Opar. Secret passages, gold treasure, and big water battle. No quicksand.

Frankly I'd skip episode 7 if I ever watched the series again. But following episode was so ERB that I was willing to keep going.

La and Opar first appear in The Return of Tarzan (1913). ERB and his fans liked the lost city of Opar, colonized by Atlantis, so much that Tarzan revisited it in Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916); Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1923); and Tarzan the Invincible (1930).

Epic Adventures discusses Tarzan leaving Jane behind (correct, that's the end of the first Tarzan novel). However, they also get it wrong. He never left her in England. Tarzan saved Jane from a forest fire in Wisconsin and then left so she could marry Tarzan's cousin William Clayton (it's complicated!).

Just go read a synopsis of The Return of Tarzan. Epic never does get William right but they also never show Jane or William, so it sort of works.

Episode 9 proves you cannot forget La of Opar! She returns to help Tarzan break an evil spell caused by an eclipse. Tarzan MacGyvers himself out of La's trap chamber with exploding powder. Various battles but no quicksand. La gets the last word (as she should!).

As mentioned before, La's pursuit of Tarzan shows up in three books by ERB. In Jewels of Opar, he's struck on the head, so amnesia (of course), but he stays true to Jane and escapes La. He steals her sacrificial knife too. No wonder La is so mad. Wonderful J. Allen St. John cover art (1918).

Tarzan in quicksand! Shown in the preview for Episode 10! Rescued by ape friend, Tarzan has to deal with wicked magician seeking revenge. Sins of the past haunt Tarzan but all is forgiven by the end. Quicksand and crocodile wrestling too. We're back to the classics.

Johnny Weissmuller's 12 Tarzan films set the tropes. Between 1932 and 1948, Weissmuller yelled, swung through trees, and wrestled crocodiles (Olympic champion swimmer so water action was written into his films). Elephant stampedes happened often as the filmmakers recycled footage.

The quicksand first shows up in the Weissmuller film Tarzan Escapes (1936). As explained on Wiki: (the villain) Fry starts to go back, then seizes a heavy branch to attack Tarzan, but before he can exit the cave he falls into a quicksand bog filled with "poisonous" iguanas and is swallowed up.

You gotta love that it's not just quicksand but quicksand and iguanas that take down the villain. Now that's epic!

Episode 11 of the Epic Adventures of Tarzan goes back to magic and mythology with Mayan snake people. Also a letter from Jane indicates she is marrying William Clayton. Tarzan sad but still able to rescue friends from snakebite. No quicksand or elephant stampedes.

Again, we're back to novel Return of Tarzan for the Jane marrying William idea. William Cecil Clayton to give him his full name. Burroughs makes him a milquetoast who genuinely loves the American Jane Porter and nobly confesses his misdeeds eventually.

Jane Porter is often portrayed as British in media adaptations, including in the Epic Adventures, but she's an American young woman in the novels. Professor Archimedes Q. Porter's daughter famously made the accent change and slight name change as Jane Parker in the 1932 movie when portrayed by Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan played Jane six times in the movies and it took a generation or two to lose her characterization. Same as Weismuller's grunts dominated early adaptations because of the famous "Me Tarzan, you Jane" shenigans.

Although I missed it at the time, ERB did have Tarzan mess with Mayans in the short stories collected in Tarzan and the Castaways.

Episode 12 has the ape man once again confronting his past. Kudos to the writers for getting his mother's name right (it's Alice). Tarzan finds the white pebble that the seer requested and has a vision of modern Africa. No quicksand, possible elephant graveyard.

While on his Epic vision quest climbing the mountain, Tarzan confronts himself as old man with long grey hair. BUT would he? Technically he is forever young. In Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947), ERB says Tarzan was granted perpetual youth although not immortality (i.e he can be killed).

The "elephants' graveyard" is where elephants go to die, leaving behind a fortune in ivory tusks. Rider Haggard, not ERB, used it for a Quatermain adventure The Ivory Child. But Hollywood added villains questing for the elephants' graveyard to the Tarzan adventure mix starting in 1932 Weismuller movie.

Pirates appear in Episode 13, randomly costumed pirates like a production of Peter Pan. Lady pirate wears black leather pants in Africa (maybe not the best choice). Golden idol, treasure map, and booby traps. Also interesting connection to first Tarzan book.

The lady pirate turns out to be the daughter of mutineer who stranded Tarzan's parents on the African shore. Which is exactly how Tarzan came to be born in the jungle in the novel. After the mutiny on the Fuwalda (correct, that's the ship name in ERB's first Tarzan story), the Claytons were spared because of kindness to one of the sailors.

No quicksand in this episode but there is a pit trap! Also a swinging rock when pirates disturb treasure chest. All very Indiana Jones (which was inspired by those 1930s quest for lost treasure movies like Weismuller's Tarzan, so full circle and then some).

For Episode 14, we are back in classic territory. Forbidden city, treasure mad trophy hunter, and blondes to be rescued (brother and sister). Villains either stab themselves with spear or drown trying to escape with treasure. No quicksand but you can't have everything.

Plot comes from Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938). Brian is lost hunting for the city and the "Father of Diamonds." His sister shows up to get help finding brother. Various embellishments but the names remain the same. Writers create as many action scenes as possible for Saturday matinee feel.

It's also clear from the "Tarzan's origin" narrated at start of every episode and this episode in particular that Greystoke (1984) had a huge influence on series (the paintings shown in this storybook start sequence look like Greystoke fan art). Repeatedly we are told Tarzan claimed the title of Earl of Greystoke, tried civilization, and then returned to jungle without Jane.

What really happened: Tarzan does not actually claim the title or go to England until after William dies in Africa (sorry for the spoiler) and Jane is free from her engagement to William. See Return of Tarzan (1913) where Tarzan sails back to Africa, strikes it rich in Opar, and reunites with Jane (eventually, it takes most of the book, a fact that had young me skipping ahead every time I read it. Once reassured Tarzan and Jane were together, I'd go back to the adventures).

Greystoke (movie) follows the opening of the first Tarzan novel, uses Paul D'Arnot (one of my favorite Burroughs characters), and then goes completely off into its own fantasy of what happened next. I'm almost but not quite tempted to watch it again just to find the Epic connections. Almost.

Episode 15 brings back Kali, the missionary's daughter possessed by a leopard demon. Tarzan failed to save her once, will he fail again? Chases through jungle include visit to the tree house! Villains eaten by demon. No quicksand.

Kali's name comes from the 1935 novel Tarzan and the Leopard Men. Epic jazzed her up with supernatural possession and made her a were-leopard who ran away from Tarzan. This time around, she's more humanoid in form and turns back into a woman in a nightgown. Which she rips up to bandage Tarzan! Aw.

The tree house makes its first appearance in Epic Adventures in this episode. Up until now, Tarzan has been sleeping rough or in a cave. The tree house appears in most Tarzan media adventures, built by John Clayton to house his pregnant wife after they are marooned on the African coast.

Burroughs probably borrowed the treehouse idea from Swiss Family Robinson (1812), which are part of a genre called "Robinsonade" novels written after the publication of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). Tropes aren't just a 21st century invention to serve as click-bait for ebook readers.

Episode 16  is the flashback episode. Tarzan and friend are buried in cave-in. As Tarzan digs them out, they remember all the great fight scenes from earlier episodes. And Tarzan being swallowed by quicksand. John Clayton's diary misquoted by writers.

John Clayton, Tarzan's father, left behind a diary of his year marooned in Africa. That's from the very first novel. But it doesn't end with wise advice for his son. His last line is "My little son is crying for nourishment—O Alice, Alice, what shall I do?" Right after that, he's killed by the apes.

The death of Tarzan's parents is usually glossed over by most media adaptations. Burroughs devotes the first three chapters of "Tarzan of the Apes" to mutiny, marooning, and wild animal attacks before Alice dies in her sleep and John is killed by Kerchak the ape.

Episode 17 and Nikolas Rokoff is back from the pilot episodes! He's escaped Pellucidar by stealing David Innes' iron mole and tunneling up to Africa. Unfortunately he's brought blood-sucking Mahars with him. Back to Pellucidar, battles, and explosions. Rokoff is killed (maybe). No quicksand.

So many crossovers with ERB's books. Let's start with Pellucidar. It's the third series that ERB starts after Mars and Tarzan, first published in 1915. Innes drives an iron mole machine into the earth and discovers a prehistoric land in the center. Along with a beautiful lady named Dian.

The Pellucidar adventures begin with "At the Earth's Core" first published in the pulp magazine All Story 1914 and released a year later in book form. All ERB books came back into popularity when Ace started reprinting them in the 1960s with great cover art by Roy Krenkel like the copy shown here. 

All this may sound familiar because there was a 1970s movie starring Doug McClure as David Innes and Peter Cushing as his friend Abner Perry, the inventor of the iron mole. Epic grabbed Pellucidar for Tarzan adventures but it was Burroughs' idea first. As in Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929).

But Tarzan did not ride on the iron mole in ERB's story. Tarzan flew to Pellucidar with Jason Gridley via an airship through a "polar opening." Gridley falls for a gal named Jana (Epic uses this name for the blonde in the pilot episode). Gridley stays behind with Jana (okay he's also searching for a lost expedition member but you see the pattern). Tarzan returns home.

Episode 18 takes Tarzan to an alien planet: Amtor aka Venus! You were expecting Barsoom/Mars? Carson Napier telepathically calls for help because Venus is stealing Earth's women. Tarzan arrives to save the ladies and Napier. Ray guns and big insect battle. No quicksand.

Small round of applause to Epic for being the only company (so far) with a dramatized adaptation of Amtor. Venus showed up in the comics (Tarzan/Dark Horse and DC). This was the last series started by Burroughs, appearing in Argosy in the 1930s and then published in book form by ERB Inc.

Epic's plot and general design for Amtor seems more Mad Max than ERB but Carson being able to transmit telepathically to contact people on Earth is ERB lore. They also show Duare, Napier's alien princess. In Epric, Carson rejects a chance to return to Earth to stay with Duare. Of course. ERB would approve.

Episode 19 of Epic Adventures! Tarzan rides into town on a white horse to save the women from the Beast of Dunali. Well he's really there to stop people from blaming the apes and killing his simian friends. It's all frontier town fights and mad science. No quicksand.

Can't find a direct connection to other ERB lore but he wasn't opposed to mad science. My favorite is Monster Men (1913), a gender-flipped Island of Dr Moreau (1896) mad science book with a hero named Number 13.

Episode 20 and Tarzan has a fight with the new schoolmarm. Western ways or the way of the jungle? Battling his own anger (literally due to child shaman hex) Tarzan bungie jumps his way out of this one. No quicksand but there's no real villains either in this one.

Epic likes to mess with Tarzan's mind, which matches how ERB treats his most famous hero. ERB often wallops Tarzan and others with memory loss. Scott Tracy Griffin's great centennial history of Tarzan attributes this to Burroughs' own bouts of mild amnesia caused by a head injury suffered in 1899.

As I thought about it, ERB was very very fond of giving his heroes or heroines amnesia or temporary memory loss. It happens to Number 13, hero of the Monster Men, Michael, the lad in The Lad and the Lion, and Tarzan (many times). Even John Carter of Mars starts his tale with telling the reader that he has no memory of his life before his adulthood. Write what you know! Or use a trope when you need it. Both probably apply to ERB. 

Episode 21! Tarzan rescues a caveman from being taken captive and placed in a circus. And misses an appointment with Jane. Life is hard in the jungle. Death by prehistoric lake serpent. No quicksand.

Vile hunters capturing creatures to exhibit to the Western "civilized" world are always high on Tarzan's list of people to expel from the jungle. The trope turns up more in the movies and TV adaptations than ERB, but it works. Tarzan and the Castaways (1940) has Tarzan captured by animal importer.

Tarzan and the Castaways is very late ERB, a collection of stories published around 1940. In one, Tarzan loses his voice due to head injury (walloped once again!) and thus can be labeled "a wild man" by evil animal importer Fritz Krause.

Jane not appearing in series probably comes from Epic's love of the movie Greystoke (1984) which recast Jane as a socialite left behind by the Tarzan/Greystoke. However ERB frequently sent Tarzan adventuring without Jane after they are married. She appears in less than half the books.

Episode 22 is called Tarzan and the Circus Hunter (I am now convinced somebody working on Epic had read Tarzan and the Castaways at some point). Ape friend kidnapped. Except that's a red herring as there is a murderer on the train and his victim is Tarzan! Shot in the back twice (bullet and poison dart), Tarzan survives. Train fights. Villains arrested. No quicksand.

The big tropes checked off with Tarzan as possibly becoming immortal (was he killed by the bullet and brought back by the shaman?) and definitely a protector of the bush (ERB went with "jungle" but this was filmed in South Africa so "bush"). Cousin William's name changed to Wilhelm by mystery woman (WWI foreshadowing? Or just actress with Afrikaner accent?).

As mentioned before, Tarzan did square off with hunters frequently. He often was injured, left for dead, survived impossible odds, and toward the end of the series claimed a type of immortality granted by African witch doctor (Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, 1947).

Let's stop a moment and reflect that Edgar Rice Burroughs kept the same character going through multiple adventures from 1912 to early 1940s (so Tarzan must have felt immortal to ERB). ERB wrote for more than 30 years about Tarzan adventures. No wonder his own lore became convoluted. Then there were all the movie and comic strip adaptations.

I've always felt ERB would have loved the ebook revolution and created whole new worlds with all the appropriate trope tags. After all he bought back his own stories from other publishers and established his own publishing house, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc, to keep his creations going. And he did it all on a typewriter!

Thus ended Epic Adventures. It definitely had some clunker episodes, but it did swing into the ape man adventures with unusual attention to ERB's work outside of Tarzan. I'm sorry that they went bankrupt before launching a second season with Tarzan journeying to Mars and meeting Dejah Thoris (although they did release the toys for that season!). I have a Tars Tarkas made for Epic Adventures toy line. The green guy occupies a prime space on my Burroughs bookshelf.