Editorials
Titan of Television: A History of King Kong on the Small Screen
It’s hard to overstate the impact of Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong. What began as a passion project inspired by tales of real-life encounters with Komodo Dragons ultimately morphed into a cultural sensation worthy of being referred to as The Eighth Wonder of the World.
In fact, the 1933 film would go on to inspire everything from the rise of Kaiju flicks to the effects-driven blockbusters that we still see today – and that’s not even mentioning the immediate sequels and rip-offs that flooded cinema screens in the months and years following the original release.
This legacy is still going strong nearly a century later, with our favorite colossal ape having been featured in several major films, comics, and even video games in just the past couple of years. With the upcoming second season of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters shifting focus from Godzilla to Kong, we thought that this would be the perfect moment to look back on Kong’s previous appearances on the small screen in order to better understand his impact on popular culture.
So ready your sea legs and lock away your blonde scream queens because we’re setting off on an expedition to Skull Island!
Much like the Universal Monsters before him, King Kong had a second shot at success when the original film premiered on American television sets in March of 1956. This major network event reintroduced the character to a whole new generation of cinephiles, with the ensuing buzz from the re-release (and its yearly reruns) leading to renewed interest in stories about the giant ape.
The King Kong Show
Initially, this only led to a new wave of branded toys, clothing, and other assorted merchandise, but 1966 would see the release of Videocraft International and Toei Animation’s The King Kong Show. An animated series produced in Japan but targeted towards the western market, this short-lived series (which was executive produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass) reimagined Kong as more of a lovable pet than a true monster, with the giant ape accompanying the adventurous Bond family as they faced all sorts of sci-fi tropes alongside their furry friend.
While the show was popular enough, fans complained that it only barely resembled the monstrous ape that we know and love, which is likely why production was discontinued after a mere 25 episodes. However, the very same year that the show went off the air, we’d see a copyright-friendly knock-off of Kong in another Rankin/Bass production, namely the TV movie Mad Monster Party. This underrated stop-motion special also got a prequel in 1972, where the off-brand Kong returned as “Modzoola”, proving that the giant ape would forever be synonymous with creature features.
Of course, it was only with the heavily marketed 1976 remake of Kong that the character would become popular enough to re-enter popular culture as more than a stop-motion oddity from the 1930s. While John Guillermin’s disastrous (and oddly ecologically-minded) remake was considered a flop back in the day, it still led to a new wave of Kong cameos and the occasional reference in shows like The Muppets and even Doctor Who, as well as a plethora of cartoon parodies.
Kong: The Animated Series
And yet, we have to skip forward to 2000 to see Kong officially grace television screens again with the release of Kong: The Animated Series, a personal favorite that felt like BKN’s answer to 1998’s popular Godzilla: The Animated Series. While the project was originally meant to be a futuristic re-imagining of Kong, the finished show ended up pivoting to a combination of sci-fi and fantasy as a clone of the original Ape (and his human “little bro” Jason Jenkins) fights against evil gods, mad scientists, and an assortment of giant monsters.
While this action-packed show didn’t exactly become a household name, it was successful enough to warrant a couple of handheld video games as well as two direct-to-video movies meant to capitalize on the success of Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of the original film. Ironically, Legendary’s Monsterverse seems to have inherited many of the same ideas as the animated series, including the re-characterization of Kong as more of a guardian figure than a monster, as well as the inclusion of cryptids and a whole ecosystem of gigantic creatures coexisting with an advanced ancient civilization.
Once the hype surrounding the 2005 remake died down, Kong stepped away from television until resurfacing in 2016 via a bizarre Netflix series targeted towards young children. A futuristic story completely unrelated to the then-budding Monsterverse (as Kong: Skull Island would only release a year later), Kong: King of the Apes followed the titular primate as he joined forces with three kids in order to fight robotic dinosaurs controlled by a vengeful scientist.
Kong: King of the Apes
While the show didn’t leave much of an impression despite lasting two full seasons, it was notable for being Kong’s first foray into 3D animation as well as his first streaming series. By its end in 2018, however, Kong had already re-entered public consciousness as a fully-fledged member of the Monsterverse and Godzilla’s western rival. And with brand synergy becoming all the rage due to the rise of multi-media franchises with expanded universes, it made sense for Legendary to finally bring these titans to the small screen without resorting to barely related spin-offs. That brings us to 2023’s underrated Netflix show Skull Island, a deconstruction of family-friendly adventure cartoons and Kong’s final animated appearance before finally making his live-action debut on TV in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
Though the first season of Monarch focused more on the aftermath of Godzilla’s discovery and ultimate resurgence in 2014, the latest season promises to explore Kong’s place in this post-Titan world as well as secrets of Skull Island that weren’t revealed in the 2017 film – making it a must-watch for fans of Cooper’s iconic creation.
There’s no telling what the future holds for the Eighth Wonder of the World (I personally wouldn’t mind more animated shows like the action-packed Skull Island), but I think it’s safe to say that Kong will continue to roar his way onto TV screens – and many other forms of media – for decades to come.
Skull Island. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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