<P> The film was released on February 8, 1968, in the United States and was a commercial success, earning a lifetime domestic gross of $32.6 million . The film was groundbreaking for its prosthetic makeup techniques by artist John Chambers and was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise, including four sequels, as well as a short - lived television show, animated series, comic books, and various merchandising . In particular, Roddy McDowall had a long - running relationship with the Apes series, appearing in four of the original five films (absent, apart from a brief voiceover, from the second film of the series, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which he was replaced by David Watson in the role of Cornelius), and also in the television series . </P> <P> The original series was followed by Tim Burton's remake Planet of the Apes in 2001 and the reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 . Also in 2001, Planet of the Apes was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". </P> <P> Astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart are in deep hibernation when their spaceship crashes in a lake on an unknown planet after a long near - light speed voyage, during which, due to time dilation, the crew ages only 18 months . As the ship sinks, Taylor finds Stewart dead and her body desiccated . They throw an inflatable raft from the ship and climb down into it; before departing the ship, Taylor notes that the date is November 25, 3978, approximately two millennia after their departure in 1972 . Once ashore, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life . </P> <P> After abandoning their raft, the astronauts set off through a desolate wasteland in hopes of finding food and water before their provisions run out . Eventually, they encounter plant life . They find an oasis at the edge of the desert and go swimming, ignoring eerie scarecrow - like figures around the edge of the water . While they are swimming, their clothes are stolen . Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes torn to shreds, their supplies pillaged and the perpetrators--a group of humans that are apparently so primitive that they cannot even talk and dressed in torn clothes--raiding a cornfield . Taylor is attracted to one of the humans, whom he later names Nova (Linda Harrison). </P>

What year does the original planet of the apes take place
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