by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in association with 20th Century Fox Television,

based upon Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Boulle's novel had previously inspired five films and a TV series,

 beginning with the 1968 film Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston.

Unlike the film, its sequels, and the 1974 live action TV series, which involved a primitive ape civilization,

Return to the Planet of the Apes depicted a technologically advanced society,

complete with automobiles, film, and television;

as such it more closely resembled both Boulle's original novel and early

concepts for the first Apes movie which were changed due to budgetary limitations in the late 1960s.