''Wild Kingdom'', also known as ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'', is an American documentary

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

that features

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

and

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

. It was originally produced from 1963 until 1988, and it was revived in 2002. The show's second incarnation aired until 2011 on

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

in the United States. A third incarnation streamed webisodes on a dedicated YouTube channel from 2013 to 2018. Starting April 4, 2021, the program is shown in its traditional Sunday timeslot on the cable channel

RFD-TV RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United Sta ...

. Starting in January 2023, a fourth incarnation, ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild'', hosted by Peter Gros will begin airing on RFD-TV and various streaming platforms.

Original show

The original ''Wild Kingdom'' grew from discussions that started in 1962 between

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Marlin Perkins Richard Marlin Perkins (March 28, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was an American zoologist. He was best known as a host of the television program ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'' from 1963 to 1985. Life and career Perkins was born on March 28, ...

and

V. J. Skutt Vestor Joseph Skutt (February 24, 1902 – February 23, 1993) was an American attorney who was president and chairman of Mutual of Omaha for many years. During his tenure the company became the largest individual health insurance provider in the U ...

, the chairman and CEO of insurance company

Mutual of Omaha Mutual of Omaha is a Fortune 500 mutual insurance and financial services company based in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1909 as Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Association, Mutual of Omaha is a financial organization offering a variety of insuranc ...

. The company had been the sponsor of an earlier animal-related show, ''

Zoo Parade ''Zoo Parade'' is an American television program broadcast from 1950 to 1957 that featured animals from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Presented by Marlin Perkins, the show was broadcast on Sunday afternoons on NBC. History The show was first ...

'', that Perkins had hosted from 1952 until 1957. Also intimately involved with the creation of ''Wild Kingdom'' was ''Zoo Parade'' producer Don Meier, who was credited as the program's creator. Mutual of Omaha sponsored and lent its name to the new program. ''Wild Kingdom'' won Emmy Awards for "outstanding program achievement" in 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. Liz and Henk Maartens, from Irene, Pretoria, South Africa, won five Emmy Awards for the documentary program ''Wild Kingdom'' in 1970. One Emmy Award was for camerawork while the other Emmy Awards were for aspects of production. ''Wild Kingdom'' was first broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. The half-hour show aired on Sundays starting January 6, 1963, and continued until 1971, when the program entered

first-run syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

. As a prime-time syndicated program, ''Wild Kingdom'' enjoyed great popularity. Although most of the programs aired after 1971 were repeats, new shows continued to be produced until 1987. Several episodes were filmed by cameraman

Roy Pinney Roy Schiffer Pinney (August 13, 1911August 9, 2010) was a professional photographer, herpetologist, writer, journalist, war correspondent and pilot. Pinney was the former president of the New York Herpetological Society and the author of '' Th ...

. Perkins was the host for most of the show's history until he was forced to retire in 1985 for health reasons, and

Jim Fowler James Mark Fowler (April 9, 1930 – May 8, 2019) was an American professional zoologist and host of the acclaimed wildlife documentary television show Mutual of Omaha's ''Wild Kingdom''. Early years Born in Albany, Georgia, Fowler spent h ...

, Perkins' long-time assistant and

sidekick A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...

, became the host. Perkins died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

one year later at age 81. One of ''Wild Kingdom''s film editors, Bernard Braham, was offered membership with the

American Cinema Editors Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing. Members use the post-nominal ...

in 1979 and won an EDDIE award in Hollywood for best documentary of the year for the episode "Desert Spring". His competition for the award was a National Geographic episode titled "Gold". He was also nominated for several other awards. Perkins often introduced commercial spots by tying them into the subject of the show. For example, at the end of a segment about lions, he might say something like, "Just as the mother lion protects her cubs, you can protect your children with an insurance policy from Mutual of Omaha..." The format of the show often featured Perkins narrating off-camera, describing Fowler's on-camera work with the wild animals. This was commonly parodied as Perkins saying "I'll wait here omeplace safewhile Jim oes something or other with the dangerous animal. However, according to a 1997 interview with Fowler, Perkins never said any such thing: according to Fowler, "

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...

started the jokes about me and Marlin in his monologues". Perkins often featured pet

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

s in the studio: one named "W. K." (Wild Kingdom); the other named "Mr. Moke", after the

Mini Moke The Mini Moke (styled "MOKE") is a small, front-wheel-drive utility and recreational convertible, conceived and manufactured as a lightweight military vehicle by British Motor Corporation (BMC), and subsequently marketed for civilian use under ...

vehicle. ''Wild Kingdom'' increased ecological and environmental awareness in the United States. Its exciting footage brought the wilds of Africa, the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

, and other exotic locales into the living rooms of millions of Americans. It created an interest in commercial nature programming that led to several other wildlife documentary programs going on the air, including '' Animal World'', ''

Wild, Wild World of Animals ''Wild, Wild World of Animals'' is a syndicated American television show that features wildlife and nature documentaries. It was originally produced from 1973 until 1978, and was narrated by William Conrad. The soundtrack was composed by Gerhard ...

'' and ''

Lorne Greene's New Wilderness ''Lorne Greene's New Wilderness'' (or just ''New Wilderness'') was a Canadian television nature documentary series debuting 14 September 1982 starring Lorne Greene. The series initially aired on CTV but was syndicated in 80 per cent of the U. ...

'', and in subsequent decades, to entire

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

networks devoted to these topics, such as the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

and

. Many fans of wildlife documentaries still consider ''Wild Kingdom'' the "gold standard" against which other such shows are compared. Mutual of Omaha owns the rights to the program, but several episodes have been released on DVD from BCI Eclipse under license from Mutual of Omaha. Some episodes are also available on an official YouTube channel.

Controversy

The show was criticized in the 1982 investigative piece "Cruel Camera" by '' The Fifth Estate'', a news magazine program on Canada's

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

network, for claims of staging scenes of animal capture or "rescue" simply for dramatic effect or theatrical opportunity, which could thus be construed as cruelty or create undue risk to the creatures. Several interviewees who had worked on ''Wild Kingdom'' confirmed the rumors that many of the sequences were staged, such as in the episode where Perkins and crew captured a bear in the Florida swamps. In fact, the bear had actually been "placed" there by the production. Perkins denied such allegations on camera, and when interviewer

Bob McKeown Robert Duff McKeown, (; born October 10, 1950) is a Canadian investigative reporter and former all-star and championship football player. He has also worked with NBC and CBS. McKeown returned to the CBC in November 2002 to host its investiga ...

pressed him, said, ''I'd like you to stop your camera right now, please.''

Revival

In 2002, a completely new ''Wild Kingdom'', also sponsored by Mutual of Omaha, began airing new ''Wild Kingdom'' specials on

. The specials proved to be so popular that, in 2005, the network began airing new weekly episodes during the original Sunday night timeslot.

Reruns

As of on April 4, 2021, Mutual of Omaha started syndicating the original series to

, airing them in the original Sunday night timeslot. The classic episodes are introduced by new host Peter Gros.

New host and web series

On November 3, 2013, ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'' premiered as a series of webisodes that featured new host Stephanie Arne, a new format, and new stories. # "Reef Madness", featuring

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

s of the Florida Keys. # "Where the Buffalo Roam", featuring

American bison The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the ...

across the South Dakota plains. # "Tegu Invasion", featuring

tegu Tegu is a common name of a number of species of lizards that belong to the families Teiidae and Gymnophthalmidae. Tegus are native to Central and South America. They occupy a variety of habitats and are known for their large size and predator ...

in the Florida Everglades. # "California Condor: Extreme Survival", featuring the

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to nor ...

's conservation success story. A second season of new webisodes began in July 2014, and the third season began in March 2015. The fifth and last season was released in 2018.

Third Revival/Fourth Incarnation

On October 20, 2022, it was announced on the program's website and YouTube Channel that a third regular series revival (fourth incarnation) went into production called ''Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild'' featuring new host, wildlife expert Peter Gros, who was part of the original ''Wild Kingdom'' series. The new series is set to air in January of 2023 on RFD-TV and select digital platforms. Preview of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom's YouTube Channel, October 20, 2022

References

External links

Official website
(site sponsored by Mutual of Omaha)

* * {{YouTube, user=WildKingdomTV
“Zoo Man,”
1994-12-04, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia,

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...

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