The world as we know it has come to an end and two dudes, a young woman and a talking chimp are in a fancy space age bus attempting to re-start the human race.
I watched all 15 episodes as a child in the 1970s and I re-watched all 15 episodes in 2014 (on YouTube). Made by the makers of Shazam! (1974), I still like this show after all these years.
I almost view Ark II as a sister show to Shazam! As both shows deal with a large vehicle, with two or three people inside, driving around helping people in need. However, Shazam! Is set in the 1970s and Ark II is set in earth's distant future.
If you are a fan of the Planet Of The Apes TV series (1974), Star Trek (1966) and Lost In Space (1965) you will get a blast out of Ark II as the series has cross overs to those shows.
Both Shazam! And Ark II also have very good music scores playing over the shows that are so good you end up playing the scores in your head days after watching the episodes.
It is too bad Ark II has only 15 short 23 minute episodes as after watching the whole series back to back...the whole thing sort of comes and goes too fast.
Also, during the whole 15 episodes we never find out anything about the three leads as they never make much small talk, they never talk much about earth's past, they never fall in love, they just follow the storyline of the scripts and never make personal comments. This is not a bad thing as many shows these days have too much characterization but this does give Ark II an empty feeling after watching the whole series.
Ark II might not be perfect and the opening episode with Jonathan Harris is rather poor and empty, but 13 of the 15 tales are very good. Also, unlike many shows of the period, the series survives repeat viewings very well.
And finally, unlike Lost in Space (1965) and Star Trek (1966), we are not stuck in a studio all the time - this has location filming with a great craft (the Ark) seen all the time! This is one of the very best looking shows of the 70s, better looking than related 70s show - Land of the Lost!
Ark ll might not make my top ten TV show list but it makes my top 20 without question.
