Alternate versions

Home video version features a different ending, showing a defeated George Segal climbing in bed with his mother and telling her: "Here's Poppa!"

The original title was "Where's Poppa?" and featured the "here's poppa" ending. In 1975 United Artists engaged a marketing consultant to re-title and re-release some of their films that had been well-received critically but not commercially. Among them were "Where's Poppa?"/"Going Ape," "Quemada"/"Burn"/"The Mercenary," and "Duck, You Sucker"/"A Fistful of Dynamite."

The old KEY VIDEO release (KEY was a division of CBS/Fox Video) had the theatrical ending, which had been altered before release as being too potent for audiences of 1970. However, the later MGM VHS release had the original ending restored where George Segal climbs into bed with Ruth Gordon at the end while the employee of the senior citizens home looks on in disbelief as the door shuts behind Segal. If you liked the altered theatrical ending find the KEY release from the 1980s, but if you prefer the original ending find the MGM tape. NOTE that I don't know what ending is on the DVD; I don't have it and haven't seen it.