This used to be an awsome genre dating back to at least the 50s and peaked in the late 70s, early 80s. until PETA emerged in 1982 and appalled at seeing apes give the finger, put an end to the glorifiaction of apes that act like people. They ended other animals' careers as well because humans doing things like putting peanut butter in their mouths to make them appear to talk is "cruel". Now.. do you really think
Benji or
Boomer.. or "the cat from outer space" led good lives after their forced retirement or do you think they got a bullet put in their head? Good fuckin' job PETA, they're so much better off! i am however comforted in knowing that Mantis (A-list orangutan) escaped being put down and still acts today!
Every Which Way but Loose (1978), featured Clint Eastwood as, ex bare-knuckle champ, Philo Beddoehe who had a side-kick orangutan
(Clyde) that smoked cigarettes and drank beer. He'd even steal beer from their friend Orville
(Geoffrey Lewis) and threaten to kill him if he demanded it back. White Trash apes, gotta love 'em. They'd be driving down the road and Philo would say "Left turn Clyde" and the orangatun would punch out someone walking down the sidewalk. comedic brilliance.
Any Which Way You Can( 1980). the sequel, same orangatun shenanigans more or less, only this had "Miss" Julie Brown in it and wasn't as good.
B.J. and The Bear (1978). i used to watch this tv show as a little kid. it had a truckdriver and his sidekick chimpanzee, who wore "people clothes", who would travel around saving people from typical televison people problems. that and the theme song is all i can remember cause i must've been like 4 years old.
Going Ape! (1981). Tony Danza inherites a three member family of orangutan. Danny DeVito also fresh from Taxi, along with Stacey Nelkin
(Halloween 3, Guiding Light) join him. Plenty of orangatun rasberries and slipping on banana peals. which is the only thing that separates this wonderous film from
Home Alone.
Mr. Smith (1983). This one featured an orangutan in people clothes who could talk and was either the president of the U.S. or his aide or something. i vaguely remember this tv show.
i'll add that almost every tv show from 78-83
(ChiPs, Dukes of Hazzard, Taxi, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, A-Team, Knight Rider, Fall Guy, Diff'rent Strokes, etc) had an orangatun episode.. or both an orangutan episode AND a chimpanzee episode.
Link (1986) Elisabeth Shue being stalked by the "missling link" between man and ape
(a killer orangutan) some archeologists probably found. it didn't smoke, drink or blow rassberries.
Project X (1987). Mattew Broderick and Helen Hunt try to save chimps from the military testing their resistance against radiation poisoning. while the film is a clearly advocating the "proper" treatment of apes
(the chimp actors even got top billing!), they still had to teach chimpanzees to smoke cigarettes in order to be examples of exploited apes. which despite not being a funny movie is why i'm classing it here.
Dunston Checks In (1996). i'm only mentioning this as a comparitive example of how far down the food chain orangatuns have sunk.
one of these apes drank beer, smoked cigarettes, was allowed to "trash shit" like a primadona rock star, met lots of people, made lots of friends, starred in many movies/tv shows and even had Eddie Rabbit sing a song about him. the other; spent his life in his natural habitat where he sat in his own feces all day, picking bugs off himself. Tell me PETA, which one was happier?
Note: i didn't mention gorillas or spider-monkies because they are just stupid.
