Apes have long been a favorite trope of comic book companies (DC Comics would throw a gorilla on a cover often because it boosted circulation) and movie studios (witness everything from "Planet of the Apes" to "Going Ape" and "Every Which Way But Loose") and TV networks (the CBS Sat. morning show "Ghostbusters" and "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp").
The strangest concept though, when you think about it, was GRAPE APE, this weird Hanna-Barbara cartoon that ran from '75-78 on ABC about a Kong-sized ape that rode around on top of a van driven by a beagle with a hat. Who the hell pitched this one and how did they get the green light on it? What drove the network to run this cartoon? How does something this slack come to be and then go as far as to undergo months of hard work by animators to completion without anyone second guessing whether it was all worth it?
It ran for three years, which is not the shortest run for a cartoon, so maybe I'm wrong thinking the whole thing was crazy. And yet....it's definitely odd...
So many questions...not enough answers...
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