Lance Link Secret Chimp

1 9 7 0 - 1 9 7 2 (USA)

Real life chimps (with human voices overdubbed) acting out spy spoofs. Lance Link and Mata Hairi (both secret agents working for A.P.E (Agency to Prevent Evil) performed songs at the Coconut Groove nightclub as part of a psychedelic band called The Evolution Revolution. The group would pass on coded information in their songs to other A.P.E agents (all under the guidance of their head, Commander Darwin - "Darwin" geddit?).

Some of the villains were; Dr. Strangemind; negative Asian stereotypes Dragon Woman and Wang  Fu; negative Arab stereotype Ali Assa Seen (who rode around in a dune buggy); negative Spanish stereotype Creto and negative German stereotype Baron von Butcher, the head of C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan).

ABC released an album of The Evolution Revolution and the TV station also realized that the show could be easily re-dubbed and shown in almost any TV market in the world.

In the first season, the show ran for an hour and featured two additional elements: old Daffy Duck cartoons and new musical numbers from Link's chimp rock band, The  Evolution Revolution. The extras were trimmed in the following season, when the show was cut to half an hour. After one more season, the show went off the air completely, leaving a chimp-size void in the TV line-up that wouldn't be filled until BJ and the Bear seven years later.

TRIVIA NOTE
The show did extremely well when it ran in Central Africa, and in 1987 became the number one show in Zaire!