Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp Opening and Closing Theme 1970 - 1971 (With Snippets)
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Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp is an American action/adventure comedy series that originally aired on ABC from September 12, 1970 to January 2, 1971. The Saturday morning live-action film series featured a cast of chimpanzees given apparent speaking roles by overdubbing with human voices. 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 producers/creators were Stan Burns and Mike Marmer, former writers for Get Smart! Both resigned from their jobs as head writers on The Carol Burnett Show to work on Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.
According to The Believer, "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 Goose rhymes just so it would look right. 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 Halloween costumes.
In June 2006, most of the episodes were released on a 2-DVD set by Image Entertainment. On May 29, 2012, SBM Productions and Film Chest released the complete series on a 3-disc collector's edition. The Chimpies skits and Evolution Revolution music videos were included as separate items as well as inside the various episodes.
The documentary I Created Lancelot Link was included in the bonus features, along with an interview with the original producer Allan Sandler, an interview with music composer Bob Emenegger, and an interview with Tongo, the chimp who played Lancelot in the series.