"Tarzan and the Trading Post" is the second episode of The Legend of Tarzan. It originally aired on UPN on September 4, 2001.
Synopsis[]
While Professor Porter tries to fit in with the gorilla troop in order to study them, Tarzan and Jane look into a new trading post established by a French trader named Renard Dumont. After a brief scuffle with his men, Tarzan decides to allow them to stay as long as they don't interfere with the gorillas. After Jane does some shopping, Terk realizes that the trading post was constructed on the site of the local black rhino group's traditional drinking/bathing spot, and wonders where they went. The rhinos, displaced by the construction work, commandeer the gorilla's watering place, and Tarzan must find a new home for them or be forced to move the gorilla troop elsewhere. After an attempt to reason with the rhinos' leader, Buto, fails, Tarzan ends up turning to Dumont's trading post and purchases some dynamite, which he uses to redirect a stream and create a new watering hole for the rhinos.
Cast[]
- Michael T. Weiss as Tarzan
- Olivia d'Abo as Jane Porter
- Jeff Bennett as Archimedes Q. Porter
- Jim Cummings as Tantor
- April Winchell as Terk
- René Auberjonois as Renard Dumont
- Susanne Blakeslee as Kala
- Frank Welker as Buto, the gorillas, and Buto's herdmates.
Trivia[]
- This would be one of the episodes to appear in a flashback in "The Mysterious Visitor," with Dumont telling the story where he has become impressed with Tarzan's ingenuity.
- When Renard Dumont asks Tarzan on whether he's interested in buying some cages, there is a brief flashback to Tarzan's gorilla family being captured by Clayton and his men.
- Jane's new blue dress from this episode would later resurface in "The Eagle's Feather" as her formal wear during Basuli and Naoh's wedding.
- Buto and his crash represent the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes). In 2011 -- a full decade after the episode first aired -- the subspecies was officially declared extinct, due to habitat loss and hunting for the horn trade.
