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One of the strangest children's shows ever was "Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp," offering a live-action mixture of spies, rock bands - and monkeys.

Using dubbed in dialogue and a narrator's voice-over, each episode of the 1970s series followed the adventures of a monkey identified as Lancelot Link. A typical episode would begin when the bumbling secret agent would report to his superior - who was also a monkey - where he'd receive a warning about a dangerous spy. (Who was also played by a monkey). In fact, trained monkeys appeared as every character in the spy stories, and when Lancelot wasn't involved in stopping acts of espionage, he would jam with his rock band. (Which, yes, was filled entirely with monkeys.)

The concept brought a lot of attention to the Saturday morning show, even earning it a full article in the "Weekly Reader" distributed to elementary students. The show drew enough interest to survive for a second season, and seen today, it's an amazing reflection of its time, combining everything from youth culture to satire and the popularity of cold war spy stories.

Sadly, the show itself wasn't very entertaining. It couldn't be filmed in front of a live audience, so "canned laughter" was added later, and it was never clear which part of the monkeys' antics should be synchronized with the laugh. The show's scripts included many chimp-related puns - for example, identifying Lancelot's organization as the Agency to Prevent Evil (or "APE"). But most of these went over the heads of its young viewers.

Lancelot's rock band was introduced each week, not by Ed Sullivan but by "Ed Simian." (Unfortunately, the show re-used the same footage of his introduction every single week, so the joke eventually wore thin.) And Lancelot's music was surprisingly good, recorded by members of "The Grass Roots," a genuine 60s rock band who'd achieved over 13 gold records.

But ultimately the show's greatest strength was also its weakness. Despite the band's credibility, younger viewers had to wonder what was so entertaining about their arch rock lyrics - or the fact that they monkeys were dressed in long-haired hippy clothes. The "Evolution Revolution" created some great music, and the all-monkey spy satire was a brave attempt at original programming.

Once the novelty wore off, audiences realized the show was more weird than entertaining.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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