MovieChat Forums > Manimal (1983) Discussion > An episode about a girl brought up in th...

An episode about a girl brought up in the wild? (and "The Wizard" show?)

posted 9 years ago by divechaz
2 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone remember the episode where they discover the girl who'd been brought up in the wilderness (she's dressed in rags/cavewoman attire for a lot of the episode?). If I recall (based on 20 year old memory here!) it turned out there was a plane/ boat accident with her parents when she was really young, and her parents died in the crash so she grew up in a jungle on her own. Jonathan of course rescues her, connects / communicates with her with his awesome animal skills and then they all solve the case of her parents murder etc etc.

Strangely enough, I keep thinking there was ALSO a similar episode (pretty much the exact same story about a young girl who's grown up in the jungle and can't communicate except through grunts/sign language) in another 80s show called "The Wizard" starring David Rappaport. In that version, David (who played a genius inventor-and-toymaker who solved a different crime each week in the show) uses all these gadgets to help out the girl and discover the case of her parents' murder (instead of shapeshifting into different animals as in Manimal's case).

The strange thing is, I think there were some scenes that were literally shot for shot remakes too! Again, working off a 20 year old memory here :) - wasn't there a scene in both shows where they try to communicate with her about the plane crash, and the Wizard/Manimal acts out the scene using little toy figurines, placing them in a toy boat and then showing it being smashed/destroyed (with the little girl figurine then floating down to a jungle in a toy river?)

Does anyone remember any of this, or am I just completely a victim of false memory syndrome here? :)

[–] CapnKaos 8 years ago

Oh no, you're not dreaming. That actually happened.

Both episodes had the same story, same setup, same realization that her family had been murdered and the same resolution. It made a bit more sense in Manimal, after all he could turn himself into an animal and had animal "instincts".

As this was made by the same writer it's not surprising but would you be surprised to know that they did the same story on "Thunder in Paradise" but with Hulk Hogan as the hero and the kid in question as a boy.

Manimal Ep 4 - "Female of the Species"
The Wizard Ep 11 - "Endagered Species"
Thunder in Paradise Ep 16 - "Endangered Species"

I'm wondering how many other shows out there used the same story by the same writer?

[–] unicornlady-16658 7 years ago

Although, as I know from what has been written here, I do know that there has been a few episodes and at least one show that have a person who has been raised by, mostly, wolves. I do remember from one episode from the 1970s Six Million Dollar Man "The Wolf Boy" that Steve Austin and Kuroda are tasked to find a boy who has been raised by wolves.

Another series is Lucan, it is about a boy who has been raised by wolves, been civilized and when Lucan wants to find his parents and/or his origins, the institute want to keep Lucan caged, in case his wolfen traits become too strong and he hurts somebody or something like that. It is such a pity that the show only garnered 11 episodes.

As one tries to look to see how many episodes and maybe TV series, you might not find too many, but it is interesting that, at times, some TV shows will show episodes about children raised by wild animals.