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Volume 7543
TARZAN TV SERIES ~ 1991-1994
Starring Wolf Larson as Tarzan and Lydie Denier as Jane
Reviews by Charles Mento
SEASON TWO
CONTENTS
38. THE FUGITIVE'S REVENGE
39. THE MUTANT CREATURE
40. RESCUES THE SONGBIRD
38. THE FUGITIVE’S REVENGE
“Tarzan, for what you’ve done you are going to die!”
“This time it’s personal.”Jack’s journal is Tuesday the 4th. 1992 has this in Feb and August. 1993 has May. 1994 has Jan and October. 1997 has Feb, November and March. 1998 has only August.
Jack explains that Tarzan has put away a lot of criminals. Tarzan and a lion walks on a beach. He has no shoes. A headband is on his head. We hear Jack say none of them were as crazy as Bruno Valenti. Tarzan gives his famous yell.
In what is a laughable escape from a prison yard scene, Bruno has help from an African guard in escaping, stealing dynamite, jumping over a wall of what seemed to be barb wire and hiding under a truck while a tower guard shoots at him and totally misses every time. The guard in the meantime is shoving his long nozzle gun into another prisoner’s stomach. No one is shot. It’s a kind of violent non violent scene?
What’s even more laughable is the tower guard puts his hands up as Bruno from another angle tosses a stick of dynamite up at the tower and blow it up but the guard puts his hands up first, and throws himself into the railing, causing the side wall to fall off and he tumbles after it as if jumping, which of course, the stunt man IS. It could have been a good stunt and scene but it is totally beyond the scope of this show to do well. Therefore, it’s a mess. More men get knocked down as Bruno throws more dynamite.
We get the pleasure of seeing another snake, a lovingly long shot of a giant spider, and a sort of gila monster. Bruno has dynamite down his pants and a makeshift raft/boat, heading for revenge on Tarzan.
I don’t know what Jack is saying about the right to bank it for three hours and I can’t keep going to Amazon’s commercial filled, ad filled versions for their sub titles. It seems he and Roger were in Jack’s plane seeing gazelles from the air for good camera shots, which Tarzan didn’t think they’d see from the air, according to Roger.
Jack’s place looks very different (at least to me).
In one of the scariest scenes in the entire series up to know, Bruno’s face rises up from the other side of the refrigerator door as Roger is on the other side of it and Roger starts to realize someone is with them. Bruno quickly ties Roger to the freezer/refrigerator, then surprises Jack from behind. Jack puts up a good fight and almost wins but loses and is tied up to a chair. Bruno kicks Roger. Bruno wants Jack to eventually fly him to Moriches (?) very, very soon. Jack asks, “You’re supposed to be in prison. How’d you get out this time?”
Bruno claims the last time he came to avenge his brother but this time it is personal. They discuss the rhino herd he massacred. Roger tells him he will never hurt Tarzan. Jack tells him that if he kills Roger, he will never fly him out of here.
Bruno says, “I’ll be back,” a few times. He drives Jack’s yellow jeep.
He’s the craziest villain in this series so far. He smokes a cigar.
Jane logs that they have counted 42 gazelles when Bruno sneaks up behind her and grabs her. Jane bites his face, scratches at him and he seems ready to beat her to death. Something seems cut or edited or censored and soon she’s tied up on a post. In an upsetting scene, Bruno calls her a pretty girl, tells her there are no women in the Bengali prison, and after she spits on him, he uses a knife near her chest! He cuts off her necklace. He calls Tarzan a big monkey. Bruno leaves and tosses a stick of dynamite at Jane’s feet. She uses a board on the floor to get the stick of dynamite near her. She kicks it away from her. She seems unconscious after the blast…or worse.
Bruno laughs manically. 11 minutes or so in and we’ve seen very little of Tarzan himself. In fact, if we tuned in, it would feel like a different and more violent show.
Tarzan runs under the rock arch. He has the head band on and boots on. He has fish he’s caught.
Bruno goes through water and gets leeches on him, another horrid first for the show. Ewl. He even is shown burning one off him using his cigar. Jack and Roger get free and go to Jane’s compound and find her alive. She warns them Bruno went to the treehouse. Jack leaves to go there.
For the first time in a long while we see the stunt man swinging and it looks like the stunt man rather than Wolf. It’s possible this time it is two different stunt men.
Tarzan spots Bruno in the water of what seems to be a swamp (?) and instead of being silent, he swings and gives off the Tarzan yell again.
Bruno starts hurling dynamite at Tarzan as he swings by him. Tarzan fires an arrow into one of the sticks and it lands in the water near Bruno and blows up. Wouldn’t the water stop it?
Cheetah shoots himself at Tarzan with a major impact.
Tarzan tells Cheetah he is safe now, “Bruno is gone.”
But somehow he’s survived and surfaces in the gross green water.
Bruno jumps Tarzan and they have a huge fight around and under the waterfall. When it’s over, after Tarzan knocks Bruno against the rock wall, Wolf yells and it’s his own yell and it feels savage. BTW Wolf did a great job in TARZAN MEETS JANE, too where he had to be sort of nasty against Jane. In any case, he feels like Tarzan here in his most savage state, with the water still raining down on him.
Bruno seems down for good but…after his victory yell, Tarzan…swings away from Bruno and goes to the treehouse. Huh? He tells Cheetah that Bruno has nine lives like the leopard. What? Bruno then shows up ready to destroy the treehouse. What just happened?
Tarzan seems untouched by the major fight. He even laughs and shakes his head when Cheetah hides in the basket.
Bruno taunts Tarzan with Jane’s necklace and tells him she and his other friends are dead. Tarzan challenges him to a fight without weapons but Bruno cheats and brings a knife to the fight in the treehouse but the fight moves onto the bridge eventually. Tarzan almost goes over the edge and does go over the rope rail but manages to knock Bruno back long enough to quickly jump back onto it and then do an incredible backflip, traps Bruno between his legs and then flip him over his own head! Bruno falls over the edge and holds on. Tarzan hesitates but pulls him up, the ranting villain asking where he is and asking to be pulled up. This guy’s insane. BUT Tarzan growls at him like a savage.
Jack finally arrives.
Bruno pulls one last stick of dynamite out after the fight is over.
Jack gets a well placed shot of a melon into Bruno’s head and the evil man falls off the bridge into the water. A croc is seen headed at him. We don’t see him eaten but we can guess that he is definitely killed (?). Tarzan stamps out the dynamite fuse.
Tarzan asks about Jane (but not about Roger). “Bruno has taken from the jungle, now the jungle has taken Bruno.” Jack calls Bruno an animal. Tarzan translates Cheetah’s retort to that, “Animals do not seek revenge. Only humans do that.”
Tarzan slaps Jack’s shoulder in friendship and thanks. Jack thinks the throw fixed his crinked neck (something that might have happened when he and Roger were in the plane, he flying and Roger photographing gazelles). “No matter how strong the enemy, he is no match for a man with friends.” What?
Roger says even Cheetah helped but…no, he didn’t.
Cheetah has a stick of dynamite. Tarzan has to get it from the chimp who put it on the grill. Tarzan puts it out on the sauce. Jack’s sauce, “Jack said it was hot sauce.” Everyone seems to think this is hilarious.
This is production 213.
I’m not sure because as I did not realize, I haven’t actually seen these episodes, despite having had them for years and years (even on UK region VIDEO TAPES!), but I think this is as gritty as the show will ever get and…it IS gritty. The fights are really one extended fight scene and the stunts, while the stunt men are obvious (though the man playing Bruno seems to have done ALL of his stunts or at least most of them), it is a really exciting and unexpected surprise and episode. It’s a good episode but once more, it seems sloppy writing or editing has let it down somewhat.
First, Tarzan beats Bruno into a rock and somehow lets him get away. Then, Jack takes forever to get to the treehouse (though it’s possible all the other times were on Tantor or his jeep). But the real problem is the theme of the story: no man can be beaten who has friends? It seems Tarzan did the entire fight except the very end on his own. I guess that one move saved Tarzan and that was by Jack. It hardly means that the others helped and then to top it all off Roger claims Cheetah helped? He didn’t, he was hiding in a basket. Or was Cheetah telling Tarzan where Bruno was? It is very unclear.
It’s also odd to NOT see Tarzan and Jane together for a large part of the episode. In fact, Tarzan is not with Roger much in this either and only with Jack at the very end. Jack and Tarzan seem to have a really good friendship going, too. Tarzan puts a hand on his shoulder in thanks and thanks him verbally, too.
At times, some of the shots remind me of the Ely Show. The darkness, the grittiness, and the danger remind of the Ely Show, too. One shot of Wolf from below standing tall against Bruno as he challenges Bruno to a weaponless fight, totally brought Ely’s Tarzan to mind. The fight on the bridge, while very creative and original, also reminded me of an Ely episode or two as he fought on a bridge at least once, maybe more. All in all, a shocking episode for a number of reasons and despite flaws, an entertaining one.
I can’t say this enough: Wolf is a great Tarzan and does extremely well here.
39. THE MUTANT CREATURE
“Look, Tarzan, you know when I’m making things up, how about now?”
“Come on, Roger, you know Tarzan will never accuse you of lying.”“Are all Presidents known for their honesty?”
“That’s a can of worms I think we better not open.”“Do not worry, Jane. Tarzan is always careful.”
Is this one of those times we’re supposed to suspend disbelief and believe that that rubber suited man IS really a mutant sea man monster like the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON? Or is it the SCOOBY DO factor where a man is masquerading as a monster in a real rubber suit? Either way, the suit (in long shots it is very creepy and underwater looks slightly different from above water) is one of the more effective ones as monster fish men go on TV and movies.
Speaking of outfits, Jane’s seems rather inappropriate to be wearing around Roger (and probably Jack and Tarzan, too) as it consists of just a fringe top and tight denim cut off shorts!? What is she thinking?
It is Jack’s journal Tuesday the 14th. In 1992 this is in Jan, April, and July. In 1993 this is Sept and December. It is the 14th episode made, possibly. The production number is 114 so almost the middle of the season, though shown second in air order.
On the beach of a lagoon that Jack later tells Roger has been closed off to the ocean now that a storm caused a sand bar is in the way but was once open to the ocean, a mine goes off (roger threw a rock at it!?) and knocks Roger down.
It also brings a man monster mutant amphibian to the surface and it comes at Roger. Cheetah is also there. Jane is skeptical but Tarzan tells of a Somali tribe that spoke of a man fish that swims in the ocean. It chewed through their nets and escaped when they tried to catch it. This is the only legend Tarzan heard of a man fish monster.
Jack had a drawing that kind of looks like the man fish a while ago. Jack thinks the mine floated in there from WW2 and was hidden under some roots.
Roger knows Tarzan always knows when he’s exaggerating or making things up. Jane knows Tarzan would never accuse Roger of lying. Jane apologizes to Roger. Tarzan swims underwater extensively for the first time in beautiful photography. Once more, it looks like they are filming away from wherever the first season was filming. Tarzan just saw some fish and turtles.
In the first part of this episode, Roger’s hair is the neatest it has ever been in any episode before.
Roger seems to talk to Cheetah and Cheetah seems to fully understand him, too.
Roger mentions National Geographic again. Wouldn’t a story on Tarzan just be as good as any for him? Then again we don’t know a thing about Tarzan’s total past here. The DVD box sets say “Discouraged by civilization, Tarzan returns to the jungle where he grew up.” So far in this series, 27 episodes in we have NO proof he ever left this jungle at all. In fact, if he did, it must have been a VERY SHORT time because he knows little of conventional talk and modern day expressions and devices as well as history.
As usual, Tarzan is barefoot for the scenes in the water and when he comes out of the water.
A large lizard scares Jane and she falls (once again) into the water where a croc comes at her. Avoiding expectation, the mutant creature, NOT Tarzan saves her from it. She doesn’t see this!
In an odd moment, Tarzan surfaces on the lagoon and she calls him but stops as he dives right back down. He does not hear her.
The monster mask, if not the suit, looks VERY familiar to me. I would not be surprised if it were used before and/or after this episode in some other show or movie.
When the thing sneaks up behind Jane and grabs her, Roger pursues. She yells from its arms for him to get Tarzan but bravely, Roger dives into the water to follow them when it takes her underwater!
It brings her to an underwater grotto (yes, just like in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON). She calls for it not to leave her alone when it goes and she does not want to be left alone by it. WHAT?
Roger seems a lot braver in this season and a lot less goofier, too. He actually starts to take his shirt off to help Tarzan search for Jane underwater but Tarzan tells him to go back to Jane’s compound. He says he will be back as soon as he can but later tells Cheetah that Tarzan told him to stay? He didn’t.
For whatever reason, the creature has brought two impact mines to the opening of the grotto underwater. Jane cannot swim out that way because of that. She sees the mines when she tries. Tarzan does too but he just brings them to the surface. What? How?
Roger figures the thing is a mutant cross between a lizard reptile and a prehistoric fish. It needs water because it has gills, he figures.
Tarzan gets Jane out but the monster almost intercepts them. Tarzan fights it as Jane, shoeless, swims to the shore. The mines explode near a log but Tarzan resurfaces, apparently affected. On shore, Jane has her shoes back on. Tarzan is not sure about ears. His ears, to make that clear.
They see the creature stumble and fall, out of the water. Tarzan tells Jane to “stay here” but she does not listen and goes to help him help the creature. When Jane arrives at Tarzan and the monster, we see the shadow of someone in the foreground. Roger arrives and helps lift the thing onto Tarzan’s shoulders. Tarzan brings it back to the ocean and it swims.
“The man fish is not bad, just wild like Numar.”
Jane locks arms with Tarzan and holds his hand as they go home. Tarzan pats Roger on the back and around the shoulder, “Roger did well.”
Ornithopods are open in the book Roger is referring to. These are dinosaurs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopoda
What those have to do with the creature and/or salmanders is anyone’s guess!?
Roger thinks, specifically, a salamander, is what he believes are the mutant creature’s ancestors. These only return to the water to breed so…they are more terrestrial.
He starts talking about this: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_diluvii_testis_et_theoskopos
…and this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A86nXjR4y8w
Roger says it was a fossil found in 1726 but it was, as stated elsewhere 1725?
It was originally thought to be a man drowned in Noah’s flood.
Roger’s book says PRE-HISTORIC LIFE on the cover. He, Jane, Cheetah and Jack as sitting on the same dock from last episode.
Most unlike Tarzan, even this Tarzan, Tarzan comes up behind Roger with moss and greens on him to scare Roger.
The new theme might be growing on me but it’s no where near as great as the first season theme. Is it just the undertone to the old theme without the faster stuff?
Okay about this episode: Judging from this episode, the show seems to be dropping the environmental issues almost totally, though the mines are sort of a statement against man polluting and against war, sort of. This is a straight forward adventure in which there are no heavy handed messages or even light messages about the issues. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean the issues should be addressed some of the time and some of the time I’d like a straight forward action adventure which this is.
BUT yet again, we get no info about what will happen. Will Roger try to make a story about the monster? What will that mean for the area? For the monster? For the others? For the entire premise? Will monster hunters come? Will this endanger the monster? We also never get any definite info on WHAT the monster is or was. Clearly if its ancestors are as Roger claims (his theories only), it’s NOT a mutant. Thus, the ep title is wrong (and not for the first time in this series).
Wouldn’t Jane or Roger or even Jack want to find more evidence of this monster? Aren’t they interested in discovering more about it or capturing it? Or studying it? None of them, beyond Roger’s fascination with National Geographic, seem to be. Maybe that is for the best. I mean other Tarzan all of them, even Cheetah seem to be accident prone and always in need of rescuing.
On the other hand, there are a few unexpected things here: Jane is captured by A REAL MONSTER and not some man in a suit criminal pretending. I do respect the show for trying something totally different for itself: a science fiction story. Tarzan doesn’t seem to be bothered very long by after effects of the mine blowing up.
So if this exists in this Tarzan show/universe what else does? IT is the only sea monster he’s ever heard of so this Tarzan hasn’t even had any other encounters with one though he is tight lipped and doesn’t tell them until AFTER at least one long conversation and doesn’t tell them until directly asked about the knowledge he has OF a sea monster man. You would think Tarzan would have brought this info up immediately when Roger told him about a sea fish man.
I suspect with titles ahead like Amazon Woman (the title on the DVD says “Woman” but it’s probably Women), Karate Warriors, Death Spiders, The Stone Man, and Sixth Sense we might get more far out, farfetched wild adventures that move more toward fantasy and science fiction. I’m not complaining.
At the same time, that, plus Jack, plus Roger’s newfound bravery and less comedic personality (he’s growing up?), plus Jane starting to have a perchance to wear more jungle “Jane of the 1940s” revealing outfits, plus what looks like a totally different jungle, plus a new theme song, ALL combine to make this feel like a totally different universe. Hinting at aliens in the first season is nothing like having an amphibian man/monster and this season seems like a totally different universe than the last season! Maybe that’s just me.
Again, not a bad episode but while there’s some action, it feels…too little compared to almost EVERY Ron Ely episode. Ely’s show almost never went to sci fi and supernatural (maybe ONE episode and that is suspect as a natural cause).
Wolf Larson’s TARZAN-40-RESCUES THE SONGBIRD
“…whoa…hello, tall, tan and, mmmmhh, practically naked…”
“Jane can talk but Jack will not listen.”
“Your pipes aren’t so bad either.”
Jack’s journal is Monday the 4th. 1992 has May. 1993 has Jan and October. 1997 has August. 1998 has May. This is production 115 but aired LAST in season two (1993?).
We do not see it but either the jeep (yellow) has crashed into a tree or the tree fell into the jeep but from the talk it sounds like the first event rather than the second. Tarzan lifts the tree branch off the jeep and determined the tree will not survive. Jack knows when to reach into his wallet for replacing the brake pads. It sounds like Jack calls himself Jack Benton. Roger has his shirt unbuttoned again (at least most of it until the bottom button). When we see him later, at the compound sweeping up, readying for Roxanne’s guest visit, his shirt is totally unbuttoned.
Tarzan has on a headband.
When the foursome and Cheetah in the jeep arrive at Jack’s plane area, they find the occupant of a plane that landed, Jack thinking it some tourist off course, is Roxy.
Roxy has a smaller boom box tape deck with her.
Jane say something that sounds like, “Roxanne Elliot, the Song of Love,” and “Confess for Two,” but ? Like Roger, I say, “Huh?” Roxy says double platinum, 1975.
Jane’s top is…uhm, very revealing and showing a lot of flesh. Roxy is known to Jack.
Tarzan gets Jane and Roger to leave Jack and Roxy alone by declaring they have many things to do. Is this the first time Tarzan came up with a soft lie?
Roger will fix Roxy’s tape deck while Jane offers her to stay at her compound.
Roxy’s start is refreshing as she doesn’t seem to have a chip on her shoulder, at least to start, and she’s warm and friendly to all.
It’s been ten years, five months and four days since Roxy and Jack have seen each other. From the dialog, we might think that Roxy has NEVER met Tarzan before this episode takes place.
Tarzan, at Roger’s insistence, tells Jane and Roger that many years ago Jack loved Roxanne. A “broken heart” made him stay in the jungle. First, not sure I like this as Jack’s background as to why he’s in the jungle and second, I…uhm…I thought Roxy might have been young enough to be his niece or something?
She had been the toast of the town and Jack was a lonely young man with ten dollars to his name and a head full of hope.
At dinner, Roxy tells a requesting Jane that she would rather not sing one song for them. Roxy leaves the table. Jack follows; Tarzan stops Jane from going to Roxy. Roxy tells Jack she left him without saying goodbye and felt she had to choose between Jack and her career. Jack feels she never gave him a chance.
Jack tells her she broke his heart and she…oddly, tells him there have been men since (!) but she never loved any of them the way she loved Jack. She wants Jack back and they hug. They kiss! On the lips!
In long shot after a shot of the moon, we see Tarzan on a dock feeding Cheetah. It must be Wolf but in long shot, it looks like a teenager!?
Jack goes to Tarzan at the treehouse and dock and tells Tarzan, who understands without talk, that he is going to ask Roxy to marry him. Tarzan asks if Roxanne can be happy in the jungle. Jack tells him he will make her happy.
It seemed to be morning.
Later that morning (?) or another morning (?), Jack brings mail to Jane’s compound. Roger and Jane rush out to get it. Roger has his Entertainment Weekly. Jane tells Roxy this is what happens when you get mail once a week.
We learn from Roxy that she is a soul singer. Roger reads an article that Roxy underwent vocal surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital. Doctors declared the surgery 100 percent a success but Roxy cancelled her tours and failed to complete vocal sweetening (?) on her new album. When Jack comes to the conclusion that Roxy is using him to run away Roxy tells him to blame himself for running away when he did. She storms off, takes the jeep, and head for the old bridge road. Jack tells Tarzan who immediately sets out after her.
In a series of amazing stunts, Tarzan runs and then swings toward Roxy but as her brakes fail near a cliff side, she jumps out of the truck and rolls down a hill, not touching it. It looks fabulous. Then she rolls down another hill or the bottom half and ends up on a rocky cliff side, holding onto it. Tarzan saves her from falling onto huge rocky boulders underneath. She hugs him. And he her.
Roxy’s mom told her that her temper was going to be the end of her. Jack yells at her. He asks her to marry him.
Roger did some research. In 1972 Roxy toured with Harry Belafonte. He asks Jane, “Who’s Harry Belafonte?” Jane rolls her eyes.
Roxy is going to ship things from NY. Roger asks to send bagels. She will have eight chairs for her dining room table. She also wants buildings for closet space and will have to change the address on all her catalogs. Jane tells her she cannot bring a domestic animal into the jungle. Roxy wants to bring her female cat Salomay, who has been with her since Elvis was King, to the jungle. There is no quarantine.
Jane talks to Tarzan to figure out what to do about talking to Jack or not. Tantor is behind them washing herself. Tarzan tells Jane, “Welcome Jack’s friend. Let her find out that a tree does not lay roots in the wrong soil.”
Roger fixed the tape deck and plays the background music to STRUMMING MY FACE WITH HIS FINGERS and she sings along to it. The song might be called KILLING ME SOFTLY. This scene, indeed, this whole episode, is expertly shot (the others are too but here there’s a special accent on angles and camera moves), this time with a camera spin on the table.
Then, when Jack leaves the area and Tarzan follows, following the song which is over, the angle includes the fan and netting above them.
“A man who takes a fish from the ocean and puts it into the river, makes sure that fish will die.”
Tarzan, please, stop acting like Caine from KUNG FU and say what you mean plainly like you did in 39 episodes before this one! It’s an okay move to make Tarzan like this but after a bit it starts to get annoying.
Jack knows she will never be happy in the jungle. He asks Tarzan to talk to her, calling him old friend. What gets me is that there is NO talk of him going to NY to live with her THERE?! Today, that’s all that would be talked about.
A nice pan shot shows the waterfall and arch area. Roxy thinks she will have a lots of time to see the sights once she’s settled in. Tarzan tells her to come to follow him.
Jack is at the plane area shirtless (?). Roger tries to cheer him up with the “last of his stash.” It appears to be chocolate candy? Or is it something else? In what might be an uncomfortable talk by today’s standards, Jack tells Roger there is something about your first love, “She may not be the prettiest, she may not be the smartest, she may not even be the nicest but she’s YOURS.” He goes on to tell her that deep down you know no one will ever look at you with that much love, no one will ever make you feel like such a man.
Sheesh. Just when this episode might have been winning me over…it’s very unconventional for this show, a romance like this…If that is what this is.
Tarzan tells Roxy, “Music only comes from the heart when the heart is home.” Something looks different about his loin cloth, the edge looks dipped or something at the hip.
When Roxanne tells him back home people like she are called gypsies, they carry their homes on their backs. Tarzan tells her she is not a turtle. She resists what he is saying. Roxy tells him not to judge her when he tells her she will never be happy in the jungle. She storms off…into a giant hippo. Tarzan gets her away but faces the hippo himself (not in the same frame and the hippo looks separately filmed or even stock footage). Tarzan does the Tarzan yell. We see all Wolf’s veins on his arms and lower stomach. His body is still impressive. The shots (with leaves and other flora in the way as both Tarzan and Roxy are approached by the hippo and later with Tarzan alone watching it and Roxy alone watching him) are once more, untraditional and welcome.
Roxy tells Tarzan, “Your pipes aren’t so bad either.”
FINALLY, within the last four minutes or so, Roxy asks Jack if she can convince him to come with her. Jack asks her what difference does it make if he goes or she stays. He’s meant to be here. She reproclaims her love for him and he kisses her.
“Y’all take good care of my man, ya hear,” Roxy tells Jane and Roger.
On departing, Roxy gives Roger a cassette tape of Harry Belafonte. In another unusual shot, Tarzan watches from far behind Roger. The others laugh when Roger asks if someone is going to tell them who Harry Belafonte is. This is where most eps would end but…not this one.
Mail arrives. Jack has a large box which contains a small postcard (?) from Roxy. Her tour is a sell out. Jack relates what Tarzan told him, Jack may have come here because his heart was broken but he stayed because it is home. “I can’t even spell the words New York without getting all clamey.” Hey! The box also contains a freight pass (?). It has the B side of her new album on tape. Roger plays it. Roger btw has many outfit changes in this episode. Not sure Jane and Jack have as many. WHAT is on the green chalk board behind Roger?
It is the sounds of the jungle. Cheetah tells them something is missing. We see Tarzan swinging and giving his Tarzan yell. Another unusual and creative move in this episode: the ending has the Tarzan yell as he swings. So is this on the tape? We never find out but innovatively we hear ONLY the Tarzan yell and no one laughing and no background music, only the yell and it ends in…complete silence, even the jungle sounds have stopped. Effective.
Unfortunately on the copy on the DVD, we DO hear, very faintly, the actor playing Jack says, “NEXT ON TAR-ZAAN!”
As this is the last episode aired, it’s the last time we see Jack as an audience. That might depend on which country we are in when we watch it but maybe not? Anyway, one might think Jack changes his mind and goes to NY to be with Roxanne. In air order, this is not the case, though his vanishing from all of season THREE might make one believe the same thing: that he left the jungle to be with Roxanne. In any case, the real intention of the writers is for Jack to stay for good. AND…the third season with Jack vanishing is just like this season with Simon vanishing (I think) in that it’s almost as if there were no Simon and NO Jack ever and this is some alternate universe where they never were here or never existed!
In season three, Dan just simply is there, no explanation but when I get to those eps we will find out more.
In fact, when Simon’s god son from the first season reappears in one of the last episodes of the entire series (actually the LAST in production order), they act as if he WAS ALWAYS DAN’S GOD SON!!! And not Simon’s. This indicates that seasons one, two and three ALL take place in totally alternate universes which might explain some of the cosmetic changes to Jane’s compound, the airplane strip and base, and Tarzan’s treehouse both inside and out.
40. RESCUES THE SONGBIRD
“…whoa…hello, tall, tan and, mmmmhh, practically naked…”
“Jane can talk but Jack will not listen.”
“Your pipes aren’t so bad either.”Jack’s journal is Monday the 4th. 1992 has May. 1993 has Jan and October. 1997 has August. 1998 has May. This is production 115 but aired LAST in season two (1993?).
We do not see it but either the jeep (yellow) has crashed into a tree or the tree fell into the jeep but from the talk it sounds like the first event rather than the second. Tarzan lifts the tree branch off the jeep and determined the tree will not survive. Jack knows when to reach into his wallet for replacing the brake pads. It sounds like Jack calls himself Jack Benton. Roger has his shirt unbuttoned again (at least most of it until the bottom button). When we see him later, at the compound sweeping up, readying for Roxanne’s guest visit, his shirt is totally unbuttoned.
Tarzan has on a headband.
When the foursome and Cheetah in the jeep arrive at Jack’s plane area, they find the occupant of a plane that landed, Jack thinking it some tourist off course, is Roxy.
Roxy has a smaller boom box tape deck with her.
Jane say something that sounds like, “Roxanne Elliot, the Song of Love,” and “Confess for Two,” but ? Like Roger, I say, “Huh?” Roxy says double platinum, 1975.
Jane’s top is…uhm, very revealing and showing a lot of flesh. Roxy is known to Jack.
Tarzan gets Jane and Roger to leave Jack and Roxy alone by declaring they have many things to do. Is this the first time Tarzan came up with a soft lie?
Roger will fix Roxy’s tape deck while Jane offers her to stay at her compound.
Roxy’s start is refreshing as she doesn’t seem to have a chip on her shoulder, at least to start, and she’s warm and friendly to all.
It’s been ten years, five months and four days since Roxy and Jack have seen each other. From the dialog, we might think that Roxy has NEVER met Tarzan before this episode takes place.
Tarzan, at Roger’s insistence, tells Jane and Roger that many years ago Jack loved Roxanne. A “broken heart” made him stay in the jungle. First, not sure I like this as Jack’s background as to why he’s in the jungle and second, I…uhm…I thought Roxy might have been young enough to be his niece or something?
She had been the toast of the town and Jack was a lonely young man with ten dollars to his name and a head full of hope.
At dinner, Roxy tells a requesting Jane that she would rather not sing one song for them. Roxy leaves the table. Jack follows; Tarzan stops Jane from going to Roxy. Roxy tells Jack she left him without saying goodbye and felt she had to choose between Jack and her career. Jack feels she never gave him a chance.
Jack tells her she broke his heart and she…oddly, tells him there have been men since (!) but she never loved any of them the way she loved Jack. She wants Jack back and they hug. They kiss! On the lips!
In long shot after a shot of the moon, we see Tarzan on a dock feeding Cheetah. It must be Wolf but in long shot, it looks like a teenager!?
Jack goes to Tarzan at the treehouse and dock and tells Tarzan, who understands without talk, that he is going to ask Roxy to marry him. Tarzan asks if Roxanne can be happy in the jungle. Jack tells him he will make her happy.
It seemed to be morning.
Later that morning (?) or another morning (?), Jack brings mail to Jane’s compound. Roger and Jane rush out to get it. Roger has his Entertainment Weekly. Jane tells Roxy this is what happens when you get mail once a week.
We learn from Roxy that she is a soul singer. Roger reads an article that Roxy underwent vocal surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital. Doctors declared the surgery 100 percent a success but Roxy cancelled her tours and failed to complete vocal sweetening (?) on her new album. When Jack comes to the conclusion that Roxy is using him to run away Roxy tells him to blame himself for running away when he did. She storms off, takes the jeep, and head for the old bridge road. Jack tells Tarzan who immediately sets out after her.
In a series of amazing stunts, Tarzan runs and then swings toward Roxy but as her brakes fail near a cliff side, she jumps out of the truck and rolls down a hill, not touching it. It looks fabulous. Then she rolls down another hill or the bottom half and ends up on a rocky cliff side, holding onto it. Tarzan saves her from falling onto huge rocky boulders underneath. She hugs him. And he her.
Roxy’s mom told her that her temper was going to be the end of her. Jack yells at her. He asks her to marry him.
Roger did some research. In 1972 Roxy toured with Harry Belafonte. He asks Jane, “Who’s Harry Belafonte?” Jane rolls her eyes.
Roxy is going to ship things from NY. Roger asks to send bagels. She will have eight chairs for her dining room table. She also wants buildings for closet space and will have to change the address on all her catalogs. Jane tells her she cannot bring a domestic animal into the jungle. Roxy wants to bring her female cat Salomay, who has been with her since Elvis was King, to the jungle. There is no quarantine.
Jane talks to Tarzan to figure out what to do about talking to Jack or not. Tantor is behind them washing herself. Tarzan tells Jane, “Welcome Jack’s friend. Let her find out that a tree does not lay roots in the wrong soil.”
Roger fixed the tape deck and plays the background music to STRUMMING MY FACE WITH HIS FINGERS and she sings along to it. The song might be called KILLING ME SOFTLY. This scene, indeed, this whole episode, is expertly shot (the others are too but here there’s a special accent on angles and camera moves), this time with a camera spin on the table.
Then, when Jack leaves the area and Tarzan follows, following the song which is over, the angle includes the fan and netting above them.
“A man who takes a fish from the ocean and puts it into the river, makes sure that fish will die.”
Tarzan, please, stop acting like Caine from KUNG FU and say what you mean plainly like you did in 39 episodes before this one! It’s an okay move to make Tarzan like this but after a bit it starts to get annoying.
Jack knows she will never be happy in the jungle. He asks Tarzan to talk to her, calling him old friend. What gets me is that there is NO talk of him going to NY to live with her THERE?! Today, that’s all that would be talked about.
A nice pan shot shows the waterfall and arch area. Roxy thinks she will have a lots of time to see the sights once she’s settled in. Tarzan tells her to come to follow him.
Jack is at the plane area shirtless (?). Roger tries to cheer him up with the “last of his stash.” It appears to be chocolate candy? Or is it something else? In what might be an uncomfortable talk by today’s standards, Jack tells Roger there is something about your first love, “She may not be the prettiest, she may not be the smartest, she may not even be the nicest but she’s YOURS.” He goes on to tell her that deep down you know no one will ever look at you with that much love, no one will ever make you feel like such a man.
Sheesh. Just when this episode might have been winning me over…it’s very unconventional for this show, a romance like this…If that is what this is.
Tarzan tells Roxy, “Music only comes from the heart when the heart is home.” Something looks different about his loin cloth, the edge looks dipped or something at the hip.
When Roxanne tells him back home people like she are called gypsies, they carry their homes on their backs. Tarzan tells her she is not a turtle. She resists what he is saying. Roxy tells him not to judge her when he tells her she will never be happy in the jungle. She storms off…into a giant hippo. Tarzan gets her away but faces the hippo himself (not in the same frame and the hippo looks separately filmed or even stock footage). Tarzan does the Tarzan yell. We see all Wolf’s veins on his arms and lower stomach. His body is still impressive. The shots (with leaves and other flora in the way as both Tarzan and Roxy are approached by the hippo and later with Tarzan alone watching it and Roxy alone watching him) are once more, untraditional and welcome.
Roxy tells Tarzan, “Your pipes aren’t so bad either.”
FINALLY, within the last four minutes or so, Roxy asks Jack if she can convince him to come with her. Jack asks her what difference does it make if he goes or she stays. He’s meant to be here. She reproclaims her love for him and he kisses her.
“Y’all take good care of my man, ya hear,” Roxy tells Jane and Roger.
On departing, Roxy gives Roger a cassette tape of Harry Belafonte. In another unusual shot, Tarzan watches from far behind Roger. The others laugh when Roger asks if someone is going to tell them who Harry Belafonte is. This is where most eps would end but…not this one.
Mail arrives. Jack has a large box which contains a small postcard (?) from Roxy. Her tour is a sell out. Jack relates what Tarzan told him, Jack may have come here because his heart was broken but he stayed because it is home. “I can’t even spell the words New York without getting all clamey.” Hey! The box also contains a freight pass (?). It has the B side of her new album on tape. Roger plays it. Roger btw has many outfit changes in this episode. Not sure Jane and Jack have as many. WHAT is on the green chalk board behind Roger?
It is the sounds of the jungle. Cheetah tells them something is missing. We see Tarzan swinging and giving his Tarzan yell. Another unusual and creative move in this episode: the ending has the Tarzan yell as he swings. So is this on the tape? We never find out but innovatively we hear ONLY the Tarzan yell and no one laughing and no background music, only the yell and it ends in…complete silence, even the jungle sounds have stopped. Effective.
Unfortunately on the copy on the DVD, we DO hear, very faintly, the actor playing Jack says, “NEXT ON TAR-ZAAN!”
As this is the last episode aired, it’s the last time we see Jack as an audience. That might depend on which country we are in when we watch it but maybe not? Anyway, one might think Jack changes his mind and goes to NY to be with Roxanne. In air order, this is not the case, though his vanishing from all of season THREE might make one believe the same thing: that he left the jungle to be with Roxanne. In any case, the real intention of the writers is for Jack to stay for good. AND…the third season with Jack vanishing is just like this season with Simon vanishing (I think) in that it’s almost as if there were no Simon and NO Jack ever and this is some alternate universe where they never were here or never existed!
In season three, Dan just simply is there, no explanation but when I get to those eps we will find out more.
In fact, when Simon’s god son from the first season reappears in one of the last episodes of the entire series (actually the LAST in production order), they act as if he WAS ALWAYS DAN’S GOD SON!!! And not Simon’s. This indicates that seasons one, two and three ALL take place in totally alternate universes which might explain some of the cosmetic changes to Jane’s compound, the airplane strip and base, and Tarzan’s treehouse both inside and out.
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