Korg: 70,000 B.C. - The Complete Series!

When I was a lad Saturday morning TV was set apart for the pure joy of my kind, youngsters with a day off after a week of school and with a possible early morning trip to church the following morning. But Saturday for most American families is a day of relaxation and leisure. And nothing entertained me more than entering the cartoon ghetto that the cereal companies and toy companies had bought just for me. Space Ghost, Superman, Birdman, Jonny Quest, and more were cartoons filled with light-hearted adventure. But the small thrills were deemed too intense by our overseers so our say of rest from learning was co-opted by do-gooders who wanted us to be educated as well entertained. I'd be more irritated with these folks if their desires hadn't resulted in some pretty smart television. And top of the heap in my estimation was Korg: 70,000 B. C. 

 

This show put together by Hanna-Barbera was live action and focused its full attention on a family of Neanderthals trying to survive in their most dangerous land. Unlike many cave man movies and shows this one strived to be accurate as narrator Burgess Meredith reminded us at the end of each episode. The shows were speculation about how Neanderthals lived based on the few fragments of their lives found by anthropologists and other scientists. So no dinosaurs in this story, as we all know man and dinosaurs never shared the planet. Korg and his family lived in a world filled with deer, lions, boars, crocodiles and even a random elephant or two, but never a dinosaur. 

The family is led by patriarch Korg (Jim Malinda) and his brother Bok (Bill Ewing) who along with the eldest son Tane (Christopher Man) are often seen hunting. Mara (Naomi Pollack) is Korg's wife and she stays back at the cave tending the fire with the younger kids Tor (Charles Morteo) and Ree (Janelle Pransky). Before the series ends we see Tor become a man and go on his first hunt with the others. They live a hard life indeed and we see them menaced by other people and animals and their own ignorance at times as well. But that ignorance is only limited for a time as Korg and the others come up with ingenious if often dangerous solutions to the problems they face. We see them discover the lever, the wheel and even a makeshift boat. The lessons they learn for us as well hence making this show fit for children, at least in the minds of some critics. 

(Korg:70,000 Lunchbox)

Being an attempt to depict Neanderthals more or less accurately the make-up the actors endure is pretty amazing stuff for a Saturday morning TV project. They are encumbered with large brow ridges and the body make-up is quite impressive giving all the actors a very dingy overall appearance. This attempt to depict the era with some accuracy robs the show of the ability to play with the high fantasy romance of films like One Million B.C., and its kind. The actors must have spent long days shambling around outdoor settings chosen for their lack of modern details like power lines and such. 

(Korg:70,000 Board Game)

Two locations that play an immense role in the film are Bronson Canyon and Vasquez Rocks, both of which have been seen in countless films and TV shows. The show uses the more rugged Eastern Portal of Bronson Canyon as well much of the surrounding territory for the cave in which the Korg family live. When they hunt they often find themselves on some part of Vasquez Rocks. Watching the series through I was much impressed at how the show was able to keep using these locations with great imagination, rarely repeating an angle. 

(Korg:70,000 B.C. View-Master)

Korg: 70,000 B.C. boasted at the end of each episode that both the American Natural History Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History provided expert guidance in making the show as accurate as time and budgets would allow. But even with all this careful planning and attention to detail as well as some cracking dandy stories, the show didn't last more than a single season of only sixteen episodes. There is confusion among some sources about the show because three of the episodes were re-run with different titles, but as far as I can determine only sixteen exist and those shows were gathered together on a DVD some years ago. I snatched up a copy and am glad I did. 

Korg: 70,000 B.C. was a show with a limited legacy given its brief tenure television, but it did inspire a comic book series from Charlton Comics which appeared after the cancellation of the show alas. Charlton at that time in the mid 70's was a fun place to hang out with George Wildman in charge and Nick Cuti doing some of his most memorable work. Artists like Joe Staton and John Byrne among others were cracking open the field with some wild creative stuff. But among Charlton's old guard was one Pat Boyette.

Boyette has always been a fave of mine back when he created Peacemaker for the Action Hero line. He was the perfect artist for gothic horror and did a bunch of it. So Charlton tapped him to provide both the words and pictures for Korg:70,000 B.C. and he did his typical highly distinctive bang-up job on the book. 

At first Boyette cleaved close to the storytelling style of the show, keeping it about the survival of the family but quickly more fantastical elements such as Medusa began to creep into the book to frankly good effect. 

Korg and his family even come up against a dinosaur though admittedly this shown as a weird one-off situation.

Some science fiction elements enter the story in a way of evoking the then wildly popular Chariots of the Gods scenario. 

But regardless, Boyette cracked out nine wonderful issues for the comic which ran much longer than the TV show itself at a year and half on a bi-monthly schedule. 

The Korg family struggle against all kinds of threats during the run of the comic book. 

The civilization of Atlantis shows up in the ninth issue but the storyline is never completed as the cancellation of the comic came in the midst. To read most of these rather curious and interesting comics check out this link. Korg:70,000  was an above average TV show and a well above average comic book by one of the form's masters. 

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