George of the Jungle
George of the Jungle is a Saturday-morning animated television program originally broadcast on the American TV network ABC from 1967 to 1970. A parody of Tarzan, the series was produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott.
Characters
The title character, voiced by Scott, is a dim-witted but big-hearted "ape man", who lives in the jungle and is called upon each episode to save its inhabitants from various threats. He's famous for not looking where he's swinging and thus slams face-first into trees or other obstacles.
George is supported by his playmate/love interest Ursula (who the simplistic George often refers to as "Fella", and is voiced by June Foray), his sapient gorilla friend Ape (Paul Frees), who is more intelligent than George (and sounds remarkably like Ronald Colman); and his pet elephant, Shep, who acts more like a lap dog, or, as George calls him, "big peanut-eating doggie".
Program format
The television show actually contained three cartoons, of which George of the Jungle was one. The others were Tom Slick, with Jay Scott providing the voice of racecar-driver Tom and June Foray speaking for his girlfriend Marigold; and Super Chicken, again with Scott voicing the titular superhero and Frees providing the voice of his lion sidekick, Fred. The half-hour program show was distributed by CBS Paramount Domestic Television.
Live-action film
George of the Jungle (1997), a live-action film version of the cartoon, stars Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, and John Cleese as the voice of Ape. Ursula was played by Leslie Mann and was much more of a Jane-type girlfriend to George. In fact, many of the situations and actions in this movie were drawn directly from the Tarzan stories and movies, much more than the original animated cartoon show.
Film sequel
A sequel, George of the Jungle 2 (2003), was released direct-to-video with only Church and Cleese reprising their roles.
Theme song
The series theme song is well-known to anyone who grew up during the time the show ran on ABC. Written by Weird Al, [citation needed] and entirely appropriate to the material, it was also used in the movie.