Jeeps From Daktari

Just a few updates on Sunday

Prod DB © Ivan Tors Films - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / DR DAKTARI (CLARENCE, LE LION QUI LOUCHAIT/CLARENCE, THE CROSS-EYED LION) de Andrew Marton 1965 USA avec Richard Haydn et Marshall Thompson afrique, safari, jeep, animal sauvage, casque colonial, fauve, rugir — How Daktari began ... it was an offshoot of a 1965 movies called Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion. I believe this image is from that show.

Mike mentioned the TV series Daktari in an earlier post, indicating that he thought one of the earliest episodes used a Willys Wagon. For those that don't know, Daktari was a show in the late 1960s lasting four seasons that was set in East Africa. Full disclosure, I have never seen the series...

Well, the internet refused to yield a photo of a wagon, but I did find some other jeeps, along with a Daktari fan site. To give you a taste of the show, here's a video of the opening and closing credits:

My search for photos was hardly exhaustive, but I did find a few jeep pics. The most difficult part was sorting the non-Daktari photos from the actual series photos (Google was lumping Daktari and non-Daktari photos together). Perhaps readers who watched the show remember other jeeps??

The first jeep I encountered was an MB. These two photos may have been from the same photoshoot:

Here's a CJ-6:

I only found one photo showing a CJ-5:

The Gladiator made multiple appearances. It is the only zebra striped vehicle photo that I could confirm came from the show.

The Land Rover may have made the most appearances?

This blooper shot shows a telephone pole in the background. The modified Landrover below seemed like a neat customization.

I thought I would seem more Zebra paint jobs on the jeeps, but I had little luck finding them on the web. There were lots of photos of tribute jeeps and models, like this one.

4 Comments

MikeAugust 12, 2018 at 1:18 PM
Thanks Dave for researching this subject, back then, viewing the Jeep Vehicles was the only reason I watched this TV show. I had a 1960 Willys wagon and a 1967 Jeepster commando during that time period. Everyone else was driving muscle cars of era, not me. I was odd man out owning Jeeps, that changed with the premiere of Daktari, I got noticed, and everyone would comment, oh, you should paint zebra stripes on your Jeeps. Actually, there was a Esso gas station in town, (Montcliff Esso Service Center) that painted their 1951 CJ3A with tiger stripes, (black with orange stripes) that became an attraction in Clifton. Just another story from the Trivia Vault, my vast base of little known knowledge, now and then has some positive effect in today's world.
Bob in ncAugust 12, 2018 at 4:03 PM
Back in the mid 60's you didn't have much choice what to watch. You simply watched what was on. It hadn't changed much by the late60's. I used to watch this show like everyone else. But I hardly remember it. It was poorly written without much dialog. Now the show rat patroil was cool.
Robert MoolerAugust 12, 2018 at 8:39 PM
do a feature on HATARI --- mo betta --- duke wayne , red buttons --- fc-170 , cj-6's
David EilersAugust 12, 2018 at 11:07 PM
I looked and don't see that I've ever done anything on Hatari. So, good idea. I'll put something together in the next few days..