The world as we know it has come to an end and two duds, a young woman and a talking chimp are in a fancy space age bus attempting to re- start the human race.I watched all 15 episodes as a child in the 1970s and I re-watched all 15 episodes in 2014 (on YouTube). Made by the makers of Shazam! (1974), I still like this show after all these years.I almost view Ark II as a sister show to Shazam! as both shows deal with a large vehicle, with two or three people inside, driving around helping people in need. However, Shazam! is set in the 1970s and Ark II is set in earth's distant future.If you are a fan of the Planet Of The Apes TV series (1974), Star Trek (1966) and Lost In Space (1965) you will get a blast out of Ark II as the series has cross overs to those shows.Both Shazam! and Ark II also have very good music scores playing over the shows that are so good you end up playing the scores in your head days after watching the episodes.It is too bad Ark II has only 15 short 23 minute episodes as after watching the whole series back to back...the whole thing sort of comes and goes too fast.Also, during the whole 15 episodes we never find out anything about the three leads as they never make much small talk, they never talk much about earth's past, they never fall in love, they just follow the storyline of the scripts and never make personal comments. This is not a bad thing as many shows these days have too much characterization but this does give Ark II an empty feeling after watching the whole series.Ark II might not be perfect and the opening episode with Jonathan Harris is rather poor and empty, but the series has some treasures. My favourite episode is called - The Tank - which involves a lad driving around the countryside in a not so deadly tank.

A kind of odd gimmicky show reminding me of congealed oatmeal touted as a continental breakfast. We are given a talking chimp, a flying jet pack, the cumbersome Ark II vehicle (complete with ripped-off Star Trek sound effects), and a multicultural crew lead by a hippie-looking bearded blonde Ubermensch. These elements beg lots of questions that are never answered ever in the show. The stories are barely interesting and the acting is about as expressive as wood paneling. Add the repetitive elevator Muzak meandering in the background and you have an ambient sleeping aid. Tack on a moral for every show and you can't say it stinks without feeling guilty. I say this show stinks. Now I feel guilty. Because of all this awfulness served up as sci-fi slop wrapped in crass, insincere morality, the show has a negative appeal for me. I love hating it. It represents the low end of the 1970's, that I grew up in, with all its pallid leftover hippie "save the world" regurgitation. At least the characters' teeth look white when they fake smile. I think I'll go watch an episode now.

I loved this show when I was a kid. Basically the premise was a group of scientists were driving around in the land rover vehicle from "Damnation Alley"(repainted white). They fended off bad guys and post apocalyptic disasters while helping people rebuild after a nuclear holocaust (at least I think it was nuclear).This show had to have been the inspiration for the Role Playing Game "The Morrow Project", which basically used the same premise.Filmation Trivia: This was one of many live action Saturday Morning TV shows put out by Filmation in the late 70s. Filmation made a name for itself by making both filmed and animated kid shows. Some of their more famous filmed shows included: Captain Marvel, Isis, Run Joe Run, Space Academy (whose spiffy Star Trek the Motion Picture like costumes were recycled from Ark II) and its spinoff, Jason of Star Command. Filmation is probably most famous for their He-Man & the Masters of the Universe cartoon from the 80s.

This is a great 70's classic that everyone should have seen when they were growing up at that time. If you like futuristic movies, you will love this. Kind of like "Earth 2" and "Damnation Alley".