Tales of the Gold Monkey: The Complete Series

When The Tales of The Gold Monkey first aired in 1982 I was in 9th grade. I remember the opening credits very well, especially the clip from the 82 minute pilot where Sarah Stickney White (the very appealing Caitlin O’Heaney) has her hands-tied in complete damsel-in-distress mode, on a tropical island (pretty good stage set, complete with waterfall) turning to scream, afraid of the man sized ape (makeup mask borrowed from a Planet of The Apes sequel extra?) approaching menacingly.At the time, there had been something about Tales of The Gold Monkey that made me want to watch, but for some reason I didn’t continue to watch; and when I heard the show had gone off the air after just the one season (21 episodes including pilot with Ron Moody from musical Oliver) I remember talking to my older brothers; and a friend from school that the show had seemedpretty good.So, 40 years later, with the help of a couple of heartfelt reviews on Amazon convincing me to buy, I can honestly say The Gold Monkey tales were better than I expected (despite the thought of ‘just being another show from the 1980’s…’)That said I will get my one complaint out of the way: despite not being burned discs I was forced to watch another DVD for about 10 minutes (actually, used Barney Miller DVD) so that my player could warmup to ‘read’ The Gold Monkey discs. That’s the only complaint. Once DVD plays I can watch as many of The Tales of The Gold Monkey episodes in a row without flaw.There were 4 episodes (including pilot) that I remembered watching when I was 15: one of the Episodes, The Black Pearl, contains a glowing device that has killed some island natives. No wonder the nazi Germans wish to experiment with ‘the glow’ in their underground chamber circa 1938. This is the episode that truly reminded me of Raiders of The Lost Arc when watching in 1982 (don’t open the canister!).Apparently, it was the famous Indiana Jones movie the tv network wished creator Donald Bellisario would always make Gold Monkey resemble. That and not enough Monkey Island story lines helped to cancel this promising show before its time (a handful of episode commentary and interview extras worth checking out, too, for backstory tidbits).So, I also believe the sometimes pretty involved, fast paced story lines may have lost me a bit back in 1982 (and with no rewind—gasp!) as well as the accent of German Reverend Boom (John Calvin) and the Frenchman played by Roddy McDowell (took over for Ron Moody) as Bon Chance Louie the Magistrate of Boragora also causing me some listening, understanding difficulties. But that is not a flaw of the show. The actors do a good job. It was just me … at 15.But, another episode I remembered was Sarah White’s fear of the Anubis in the Trunk From The Past (Episode 6). There are tombs, a pharaoh’s curse, and particularly the ghostly spectre of Sarah’s, pipe smoking father that I remembered the most from this episode. ‘The Trunk’ story reminded me of a good Hammer (Mummy) production with an ending that appeared to be headed towards an Indians Jones action climax but it instead concluded rather anti-climactically with an intended chuckle led by Jake Cutter’s one-eyed dog Jack. I must add Jack the dog gives a great performance through the 21 episode run. Seriously. It’s impressive just how humorous Jack is with the one bark or two, (no or yes) as well as the occasional barking to simulate dialogue: woof woof = ‘uh oh’, for one example.But, check out extras also. Stephen Collins (Jake Cutter) gives a very good recollection and Caitlin O’Heaney is very bubbly (if not quite as entertaining and informative as Collins). They are not the only two to talk about their experiences on Tales of The Gold Monkey almost 30 years (2010) after the show was cancelled, basically, because Donald Belissario did not wish to copy Raiders anymore than he already had. Plus, budget restrictions.Yes some of the matte work is obvious and cheap and the repetition of fake volcano eruptions super imposed, and yes cheap, but over all the show was well written and generally well done.Other highlights: The best fight scene is in the Boragora or Bust episode Directed by Ivan Dixon.Kim Cattrall pops up as a college friend of Sarah White.Just about anytime Marta Dubois (Euro-Asian princess Koji) appears, looking to get rich(er) or get Jake Cutter into her hot tub (or whatever they called them in 1938) with her relentless, innuendo laden flirtations.Also, that is Apollonia Kotero appearing as an island girl being ‘blessed’ by the German ‘Reverend’ Boom’s running joke. She’s credited as Patty Kotero. This is about 2 years before Prince movie Purple Rain; andNia Peeples (Walker Texas Ranger) passes for an extremely cute, 18 year old native girl in an episode involving a barnstorming, ex New York Yankee who is Babe Ruth except by name, Gamble Rogers, who lives by the motto ‘BB&B’ (Baseball, Bourbon and Broads). He even hit 714 Home Runs in his career.Another episode mixes fact with fiction with an actor appearing as General Douglass McCarthur—complete with corn cob pipe.Jake gets a great piece of historical dialogue in an episode explaining how he not only flew for China against Japan (this explains why he is basically still stuck in South Pacific, still proudly wearing his Flying Tigers jacket) but also fought in Spain’s Civil war against Franco: ‘Republicans’ fought against the fascist Nationalists in 1930’s Spain. My how times change.4.5 stars for an entertaining tv show ride with a mind of its own, even if the Mike Post/Pete Carpenter music is very similar to Tom Selleck’s Magnum P.I (music) which had completed one full season by the time Tales of The Gold Monkey started.21 Episodes are on Six discs and I’m on disc 3, second time around, as I finish this review.Well worth the Gold Monkey experience … brass or no brass? 😀😉

I apologize right away for the cliché subject line, but as Madeline Kahn says in "Young Frankenstein" : "It's true! It's true!" Gold Monkey is pure gold! Like another reviewer said here, I too am a sucker for 1980's TV. Maybe not as fanatical for "short lived" series, but just for the shows of that time. I've noticed in looking at my collection, that most of the things I have bought and reviewed are of that era, and interestingly also, that a lot of the same names both in cast and production come back again and again. Sort of like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, it seems that the good actors, writers, producers, etc., all kind of worked in a great big family. And when I find something I love to watch, you see the same names appear in the credits. A lot has to do with the fact that Universal Studios at the time had a slate of something like twenty hour-long shows they were producing at once, and that allowed them to keep a huge stable of contract talent that they could funnel onto the shows. Both their talent, and all the experience shows. I mean, right now there are about a dozen shows from that era that are either being re-made as TV shows (even Hawaii Five-O, for God sakes!), but as movies (like "The A Team", "Magnum PI", etc.). That says something. Why is Hollywood going back to these shows of twenty to thirty years ago? Because they hold up. Better than most anything these days. I even looked at the few shows I liked in the 1990's and beyond, and sure enough, you will find some of the same people that were active in the 1980's are involved. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that they couldn't rely on computer EFX and new technology, and had to actually depend on story and strong characters. Some people have made note of the less that stellar production values in "Gold Monkey", but in a way, isn't that the point? A stock shot of a China Clipper (in black and white yet!) is almost an after-thought, since the story was more important than the shot itself. I must say that I didn't even notice some of the stock footage until it was pointed out by the commentaries on this DVD set, which are all first rate, and on the "Making of" bonus documentary, which is equally terrific. That says something. Something wonderful. And something wonderful is what "Gold Monkey" is all about. I too had not heard of it when it first came out, but I'm always searching for shows that have some of the same cast and crew as my favorites - since it seems everything now is coming out on DVD. So this came up on my Amazon search. I read the reviews, recognized a lot of familiar creative people, saw that it was 1980's TV, and bought it. I have been glued to my TV ever since. This could be one of the all time best of those 1980's shows. The culmination of what made them so great. An innocents, a desire to entertain, to tell a story, to create strong characters, to involve the audience. You can see that the people both in front and behind the camera love what they are doing, not only from watching the shows, but also from the bonus material on this box set. I can't remember seeing such joy and love and passion for something, especially something that happened so long ago. It has stayed with all these people after all these years. And it shows. Somehow I get the feeling that TV now is more of a meat-market. A chore. A job for job sake. You can feel the stress. A lot of it is phoned in. A lot of it is done only for the money. I know that sounds like a big dose of naïveté, and I know politics and stress were a huge factor back then as well, and in fact, both in the commentaries and in the "Making of", the cast and crew are all very open about that. But there's something different here. When you were working for a studio that had so much work. When there was a sense of family, of everyone helping everyone else out, then you had a different kind of feeling about what you were doing. And it was also a time when the people involved had come from a school of learning that was literate. They grew up on great books, classic movies, art, music, Shakespeare and the like. You know this by the references in the dialogue and in the kind of story-telling. Now, everything is derivative. Almost incestuous. Writers and producers of today grew up watching nothing but other TV, which in turn was derivative of the TV shows before then. The begat begats the begat! Like Royal Cousins in a Russian family tree inter-marrying. And we know what that does to the gene pool! But "Gold Monkey" came from one of the last group of talents who both cared and loved their work. In this case, it seems they cared so much that the Executive Producer of Gold Monkey may have pulled the show rather than let it become less than he wanted. Anyway, for those of you who knew the show and loved it, you won't be disappointed. In fact, I'm sure you will be overjoyed at the look of the show. It's so beautiful to look at, even with the few stock clips!. And for those just discovering Gold Monkey for the first time, you will love the "family" , and the world it creates. We have nothing like this now. How many CSI's are out there to clone? How many dead bodies on a freeway underpass can we look at? How we hunger to be time-machined back to the paradise of Gold Monkey, the island, the people, the sensibility. Some have had problems with sound or picture. As I said before, I find the picture stunning. And the sound, though not like "Avatar" is easy to listen to. Hey, this is a transfer for a TV show in a time when everyone had speakers the size of an Ipod! So I was actually quite pleased with what came out from these new transfers! Bravo to all involved in this show! And for the people who packaged it with such loving care. They had to know that this wasn't going to sell like "Friends" DVD's, and yet, they gave it the Rolls Royce treatment. Like the show itself, it's more about what you love and what you love to do, not what you make doing it! PS: I did some research before publishing this and discovered that actually this Box Set is selling very well and most reviews over the blogosphere are raves!

I remember watching this back when I was a child I could not wait for the episode, I have been after this set for awhile finally got it as a Christmas present to myself so looking forward to watching instead of the repeats that are constantly put on TV these days,It's funny how most people my age (47) have never seen or even heard of this TV series they don't know what they missed.I would love to see all the old shows from the 80s on TV again as it would be a whole lot better than the crap we we have now.

Blast from the past - I had not watched this from since the time it appeared on UK TV. I remember really enjoying it then & to be honest its still fun to watch now although showing its age in terms of tackiness & '80's style series material. It could of done with a much better clean up with regards to the picture & sound....with today's technology its possible to make '50's films look like they were shot last week so was a tad disappointed from that point of view. I guess the show just didn't warrant that level of attention by the studio or the quality of the film used in the day just doesn't clean up well.The set itself is well up to par & some effort has been made here. Its a 6-disc set with a nice colourful booklet....just a word of warning though the spindles that hold the floating disc trays inside the case are very easily broken as are the lugs of the trays themselves that fit into the spindles. I got my set 2nd hand & they broke in transit (£1.99 to replace & is a 24 mm spine box not the 22 mm I bought which meant I had to shave a mm or so off both the slip cover edges for it to slide in.......).Anyway the stories are still amusing & am currently working my way through the series.....if you were a fan before then its worth having another look - I always liked the little dog! Ahhhhhh....lol

I expected to be disappointed by very B quality viewing. I have often got old DVDs or films only to think...uh...why did I like this the first time round?NOT the case here. The quality is great. They may well be "B" film stories and the fight scenes are definitely "theatrical" as someone else wrote, but it's GREAT. Really Great stuff. If you are a fan of "pulp" type novels and fiction or even the modern equivalent like say Hellboy graphic novels, then get this DVD. It has it all. Evil Nazis up to no good, a "goodish" nazi, a cruel and super sexy evil princess, the various "good girl" hotties and interviews with the cast presently, many years later.Don Bellisario still makes the best stuff, like NCIS and this shows why. Oh and yeah...this Gold Monkey stuff PRE_dated Indiana Jones, so THERE Steven Spielberg!

One of the best tv series ever. Never could understand why it only ever got one season. Remember it on BBC tv as Monday night replacement to Blake's 7. Thought it was impossible to find a show that surpassed that. It did!!

This is a bit dated now, but I still love it. There is some genuinely amusing comedy still, and the melting pot of different nationalities and their different aims reflects the situation in the far east before WWII. Years since I saw this on telly and I was not disappointed with it when I watched it again. Some effects a bit naff by today's standards, but some of the plotlines still pretty good. I'd say the plots are a bit like of the writers of Blakes 7 tried to write Indiana Jones...