CALL OF THE WILD

He could have finished off Xena and Hercules; he loved as viscerally as anyone on Melrose Place--and his skirts were shorter than Heather Locklear's. He is Tarzan, ape-reared jungle king, the subject of more than 90 books, 40 movies and three TV series. Beginning on June 6 with a new documentary, Investigating Tarzan, AMC will showcase 32 of the films for three nonstop days and nights. They range from the 1918 Tarzan of the Apes through the Johnny Weissmuller vehicles of the 1930s and '40s (see our loinclothed hero beat up Nazis!) to the James Bondian takes of the 1960s.

Tarzan's creator, novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, felt that many of the films made a mockery of his books: Burroughs' hero speaks the King's English; the celluloid Tarzan grunts. But the campiness of the movies is, of course, what makes them so much fun. Unless you are Tarzan scholar George McWhorter, who believes Tarzan appeals because he "represents freedom of choice." For TV viewers, this summer at least, Tarzan represents freedom from reruns of Suddenly Susan.