The Boys Creator Eric Kripke Made A Tarzan Series You Likely Never Knew Existed

Remember when Ragnar Lothbrok from "Vikings" (Travis Fimmel) teamed up with Sara Tancredi from "Prison Break" (Sarah Wayne Callies) to solve crimes? Also, Blair Waldorf from "Gossip Girl" (Leighton Meester), the warrior princess Xena herself (Lucy Lawless), and, just for giggles, Walter Skinner from "The X-Files" (Mitch Pileggi) were all there as well? I'm not trying to gaslight you: These actors all starred in "Tarzan," a very real 2003 small-screen re-imagining of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories about the titular ape-man, as conceived by "Supernatural" and "The Boys" TV show creator Eric Kripke.

Though it's virtually impossible to watch (legally) nowadays, the internet has prevented Warner Bros.' television division from memory-holing this series entirely. As developed by Kripke for The WB back when he was a relative newcomer, "Tarzan" casts Fimmel as its namesake, aka John Clayton Jr. The long-absent heir to the present-day billion-dollar corporation known as Greystoke Industries, Tarzan has been living in the jungles of Africa for 20 years when he's found by his uncle and Greystoke's CEO, Richard Clayton (Pileggi), and taken to New York City. Naturally, upon his arrival, our animalistic hero proves less than well-suited to running his family's business. He is, however, someone who would be useful if you needed an associate who could stealthily sneak around the Big Apple, as one Detective Jane Porter (Callies) soon realizes.

Narratively, then, "Tarzan" basically turns the Lord of the Jungle into Batman ... though, if you're a child of the 1990s, it may also sound like a live-action riff on Disney's "Gargoyles" that swaps out Keith David's Goliath for another stoic hunk. Either way, if you find yourself doubting that this silly-but-kinda-charming setup could sustain an actual series, then you probably won't be shocked to learn that "Tarzan" was axed after just eight episodes.

He may not be particularly proud of the series, but Eric Kripke seems quite content with what "Tarzan" did for him professionally. In a 2008 interview with Creative Screenwriting (via LiveJournal), he didn't mince words, calling the show "a piece of crap." Nevertheless, Kripke insisted that he would "stand behind the pilot" that he wrote for The WB, itself the predecessor to The CW.

"I was hungry to have anything in production, so I wrote a 50-page story that ended. Then it got made, and I had something in production, and it was all my dreams come true," Kripke explained. It was only when The WB asked him to expand his "Tarzan" pilot into a series that it became "a hell ride in every way," as he described it. But again, his suffering wasn't in vain. Because Kripke and his creative team dutifully gave it the old college try (something he likened to "[standing] proudly on the deck of the Titanic with my violin and just [playing] away"), Warner Bros. heard him out when he pitched his next project.

The resulting series? "Supernatural," a TV juggernaut that, like "The X-Files," was heavily inspired by the 1970s horror cult classic "Kolchak." (Kripke even admitted that the show started out as "a subpar ['Kolchak'] rip-off.") Between that and the way "Tarzan" boosted the careers of its newbie stars and crew (including Leighton Meester, who played Jane's sister Nicki), all while providing work for established folks like Lucy Lawless (who played Tarzan's aunt, Kathleen Clayton), the series ultimately benefited most concerned parties.

More importantly, it gave us this promo full of flashcuts and closeups of Travis Fimmel's Tarzan sexily brooding (frequently while shirtless) — a truly beautiful time capsule of early 2000s network television.