I Just Bought This On DVD

My friend John Miller used to say that ARK II was about three hippies who drove around the desert in an RV taking soil samples. And I can't say he was completely wrong.

ARK II is about three young people in the future after Earth has been decimated by war and pollution. With their pet monkey, the youths travel around the country (re: Southern California) in a super-cool ground vehicle called Ark II and help solve people's problems. Episodes included robots, time travel, rapid aging, nerve gas, slavery, a wolf boy--science fiction cliches, perhaps, but they weren't cliches to the Saturday-morning TV audience.

ARK II was produced by a company called Filmation that made several animated and live-action kids shows during the '70s. Many of them were quite good, including STAR TREK and FLASH GORDON. They produced only 15 half-hour ARK II episodes that aired on Saturday mornings on CBS off and on during the late 1970s. Many of them were directed by Ted Post, an accomplished television and film director whose credits include two Clint Eastwood films (MAGNUM FORCE and HANG 'EM HIGH).

I don't recall many specifics about ARK II, but when I noticed the Complete Series DVD box set was available at online retailers for under $20, I thought, what the heck? It contains a lot of extras, so the DVD producers obviously took some care with it. And if it sells well, other live-action Filmation shows may appear on DVD, such as JASON OF STAR COMMAND, SHAZAM and ISIS.