Tales of the Gold Monkey: Part 1

1982 was a good year for TV. Magnum, Fall Guy, and The Golden Monkey. The Golden Monkey was a well crafted hour.... something you just can't find on the tube nowadays other than syndicated re-runs. Magnum was tops but The Monkey was special and I was stumped when the next year came and it didn't. Perhaps I'm old school and like the simplicity of family view type shows. They just don't do the Magnums and Monkeys like they used to. Foolsihly lost in nostalgia is where I belong as my little children that used to watch these old shows are now watching what I used to. They also agree that the best stuff to watch is the old stuff. Now where's that cold beer and chili dog... Magnums on at 7:00 and maybe just maybe, The Golden Monkey will pop up.

Raids 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' in nearly every way imaginable, from the time period and search for a mysterious artifact (the titular Gold Monkey) to the two-fisted, leather jacket wearing hero battling Nazi bad guys. It's not like Indy is exactly %100 original, but coming right on the heels of 'ROTLA', 'Tales' does seem like it's definitely raiding Raiders.

Stephen Collins (yeah, I know, me too) is reasonably effective as Wannabe Jones, and a few "Oh, yeah. Him/her!" types round out the cast. The script features the occasional bit of wit, and the production values are above average. The show only ran for one season, but it has developed a bit of a cult following over the years (current IMDb rating is a more than respectable 8.2). The components for a reasonably fun bit of weekly escapism are here in this pilot episode, though I don't quite see it as being a, well, lost treasure.

I remember my buddy Mike in particular hooked me and my buddies onto this series. And of course we were all instantly hooked. What's not to love about an adventure series with a flying plan, a dog with an eye-patch, and a bunch of evil Nazis. Did I mention the beautiful women and the sly Frenchman? Mike already had a fixation with planes and this set him off as a fan of those old flying boats (or was it floating plane?) This was a great movie at a great time. Computer games were a wonderous and exciting things (Defender and and Battlezone were at the local pub we had the occasional Saturday night dinner at.) Indiana Jones was thrilling us. Our local town cinema was even running the 20's (30s?) version of Buck Rogers on Saturday afternoons as a preview to the feature movie.

This TV series was a classic example of the innocence of those times and the adventures we dreamed about.

I have watched the episodes many times and considered them excellent, shame they are getting old now and need replacing. Hopefully the series will be available on tape or preferably on DVD. Then people to young to see them at the original airing can see the show!!

I remember when this came out and it blew me away. I had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and this was in the same genre. A former American Volunteer Group (aka "Flying Tigers") fighter pilot in the late 1930's has his own Grumman Goose flying boat and sets up shop on a fictional south Pacific island run by a cool Franch magistrate. He has a mechanic named Corky and a great sidekick, a one-eyed dog named Jack. His love-interest is a woman named Sarah, who is a covert spy for the American government. Surrounded by the Japanese military and their nazi allies, as well as remote islands full of lost treasure, it's a dangerous and exotic location and every "milk run" job Jake flies turns into a swashbuckling adventure (of course!).

The pilot was especially good, with lots of action, lovable good guys and a great twist at the end. In fact, with a bigger budget it could've been a fine theatrical film.

And if you love old airplanes, there's no question what the draw to this show was.

A final note: Bellisario concocted this show in the late 1970s, prior to the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the networks suits wouldn't bite until they saw how well Spielberg's film did, so it's not fair to call this a ripoff. Spielberg wasn't the only film maker or writer rediscovering the magic of 1930s-era adventure stories.

And this was one of the best.