The opening of the Jungle Jim TV series takes advantage of Johnny Weissmuller's Olympic swimming prowess by showing him make a long dive off a cliff into a river and swimming to shore. He's in a safari suit, so one can't be sure if it's really Weissmuller who made the dive; at the time of the show he would have been fifty one years old and a bit heavier around the middle compared to his Olympic days of the mid Twenties, or his film career as Tarzan that followed shortly after. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. I used to watch this show as a kid in the Fifties, but for some odd reason I never got a look at any of the actual Jungle Jim movies until I became an adult. Somehow they slipped by me, even though I caught Weissmuller as Tarzan every chance I could. Having just watched four of the TV episodes, there are some general comments I can make to contrast them against the Jungle Jim movies I've seen. For one thing, there seems to be more geographical integrity for the animals that appear on the small screen. In the movies, it wouldn't be unusual to catch a North American mountain lion or a South American toucan in what would ostensibly be an African jungle. And by the time the TV show aired, someone must have figured out that it was kind of silly for Jungle Jim to walk away from his many wild life encounters with lions, leopards and crocodiles with not so much as a scratch. In the episode 'Gift of Evil', Jim tangles with a leopard and comes away with clothes torn and bloody and pretty much the worse for wear. Even so, there's much about the show that's fairly laughable and downright ridiculous if you think about it. In the episode 'The Eyes of Manora', Jim actually fist fights and wrestles with a gorilla before finally stabbing it to death. There's just no way to explain that, except for the fact that the show probably had a young viewing audience in mind when they came up with the story lines. As a kid I watched as many shows as I could that dealt with wild animals, which put Tarzan and Jungle Jim right at the top of the heap, along with shows like 'Ramar of the Jungle' and 'Sheena, Queen of the Jungle'. Now that I've mentioned those, I'll have to look up a few of those episodes as well. Besides Weissmuller, the TV show had a couple of other regular players, with teenage Martin Huston portraying Jim's son Skipper, and Dean Fredericks as Jim's Indian helper Kaseem. If you watch the shows, you'll note that Fredericks is credited as Norman Fredric in the closing credits. Also, can't forget Tamba the Chimp, who also appeared regularly in the Jungle Jim flicks. Always good for comedy relief, Tamba proved to be a welcome addition to the cast. The shows themselves were entertaining enough for the era, along the same lines as 'The Adventures of Superman' or 'The Lone Ranger', which is to say they could be goofy at times but usually carried a good message about loyalty and friendship for the young viewer. That makes them kind of missed today. I guess I'm showing my age when I say that, but The Fifties was a great decade to be a kid in, and I'm kind of glad I was born at just the right time.

As a child of the early Fifties, I caught the last few years of the Saturday matinée double features. I missed Weismuller as Tarzan. Lex Barker had taken over the loin cloth by then. But I knew Weismuller had played Tarzan, based on stories I heard from my father. I knew him as Jungle Jim in the Columbia Pictures series. These were low budget action features, but they had the speed and the excitement of a serial. Lex Barker was more of a jungle lothario, fooling around with Jane or some other actress, only to be interrupted at a crucial moment by Cheeta. Weismuller was usually a no nonsense hero always ready to help out the Commissioner in tracking jungle renegades, hostile natives, or whatever. But when he came on television, the action content slowed down and he became more of a father figure with his son Skipper. While it was enjoyable, the TV version lacked the excitement of the theater versions. When AMC finally got around to re-running them, it was usually on Sunday mornings about 8 a.m. Nevertheless, my VCR was set and ready to go. The Ramar of the Jungle films were exciting, but their stereotyped natives and the overuse of the word "Oomgowa" got more laughs than cheers. Jon Hall, who had been Maria Montez' main squeeze in a long running Universal series in the Forties, played Ramar and I believe, owned half interest in the series. Similar to Weismuller's arrangement. While TV's Jungle Jim could probably be run today and attract some attention, I don't think Ramar of the Jungle and its' image of African natives would get a good reception.

As Johnny Weissmuller got older and a bit flabbier the Tarzan loincloth didn't quite fit his figure any more. Still he was a box office draw, but he knew he couldn't continue in the series. In the late Forties he signed with Columbia Pictures to do a series of films based on the King Features Cartoon character Jungle Jim.In the films Weissmuller's only friend was a chimpanzee named Tamba, shades of Chetah from Tarzan. But when the film series ended, Columbia which had by now gone into the television business, put Weissmuller in a half hour series as the intrepid jungle guide who got into all kinds of adventures.In the Jungle Jim television series Jim got some human co-stars in the persons of Martin Huston as his son Skipper and Dean Fredericks as good friend and assistant Kaseem. Jim was not confined to Africa, some of the shows had Indian, South Sea, and even South American locations, depending on who wanted him to guide. Weissmuller was real particular, no hunting expeditions, no shooting of animals except with a camera. Apparently he was that good a guide, because that sure cut his income considerably. Though there were female guest stars, I never recall any romantic plots in any of the episodes. The show ran for one season, but it was in syndication for several years.My guess is that with all of his marriages, Weissmuller had considerable alimony to pay out to his numerous ex-wives. It's why he took the series. After that he was in demand for a lot of personal appearances, he was still the most well known Tarzan of them all and set the standard for Olympic swimming champions down to today.Jungle Jim was a good kid's show and even as got into his Fifties Weissmuller still looked better than most fifty somethings.

Animals, natives, guns, quicksand, and the inevitable damsel in distress...what else could you want? When I was a kid in the 1960s I thought this show was as exciting as it got. I remember watching it every week, although I was a bit confused about when Tarzan turned into Jungle Jim. (And where were Jane and boy?) Johnny Weissmuller was unshakably cool, whether threatened by poachers, hungry natives or wild animals. Plus, he had a great safari suit and hat. A 70s fashion plate 20 years early.I remember when the series Daktari premiered I got all excited thinking it would be like Jungle Jim, and was really disappointed at how bland the scripts were by comparison. I guess today this series would be viewed as a monument of inaccuracies and racial stereotypes, but I will always remember it as an exciting and exotic escape into wonder for a small boy from Brooklyn.