manuel padilla, jr. played jai in the tarzan tv series.
manuel padilla, jr. played jai in the tarzan tv series.
who played jai in the tarzan tv series?
manuel padilla , jr.
a live action "tarzan" series starring ron ely ran on nbc 1966–1968 (57 hour-long episodes). the executive producer was sy weintraub, and the series was basically a follow-on to weintraub's series of tarzan films that began with "tarzan's greatest adventure" in 1959. weintraub had dispensed with jane and portrayed his ape man as well-spoken and sophisticated. though ely's tarzan did not have jane, he was accompanied by cheeta the chimpanzee from the movies and a child sidekick, the orphan boy jai (manuel padilla, jr.), who also played the similar roles of ramel and pepe in "tarzan and the valley of gold" (1966) and "tarzan and the great river" (1967). the character jai first appeared in the film "tarzan goes to india", played by a young actor of the same name.
tarzan in film and other non-print media
after world war ii service in the us army, he formed flamingo films with david l. wolper, who acquired the television rights to eagle-lion films in 1951. starting in 1958, weintraub took over the tarzan franchise from sol lesser and began producing tarzan films made on actual locations (most previous tarzan films had been shot on studio sets, with stock jungle footage edited in). he decided to drop the character of jane and portray tarzan as a well-spoken lone adventurer, though the title character is allies with jai and the chimpanzee cheeta. weintraub started with "tarzan's greatest adventure" (1959) and its follow-up, "tarzan the magnificent" (1960), both with gordon scott. weintraub then produced "tarzan goes to india" and "tarzan's three challenges" (filmed in thailand), both with jock mahoney. in 1965 weintraub filmed three tarzan films back to back with former los angeles rams football star mike henry: "tarzan and the valley of gold" (mexico), "tarzan and the great river" and "tarzan and the jungle boy" both filmed in brazil. when henry was tired of his grueling tarzan work and refused to do the television series, weintraub hired ron ely for the role.
sy weintraub