Tales of the Gold Monkey

Tales of the Gold Monkey
Jake and Sarah in Tales of the Gold Monkey
Format	Action/Adventure
Created by	Donald P. Bellisario
Starring	Stephen Collins Jeff MacKay Caitlin O'Heaney Roddy McDowall
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	21 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	Film
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	September 22, 1982 – June 1, 1983

Tales of the Gold Monkey is a 1982 adventure television show broadcast by ABC.

Most critics saw the program as the network's attempt to capitalize on the success of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, released the previous year. Tales of the Gold Monkey is often thought of in the same vein as the television series Bring 'Em Back Alive, which aired on CBS around the same time. Certain aspects of Tales bear resemblance to the films Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Casablanca (1942), and To Have and Have Not (1944). Series creator Donald P. Bellisario had been trying to get Tales commissioned since the late 1970s, but executives felt that audiences wouldn't be interested in an adventure series set in the 1930s. It was the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark that changed their minds. The series featured the romance of early aviation, exotic locales and cliff-hanging action.

Premise and major characters

Set in the South Pacific in 1938, the series is about an ex-Flying Tigers pilot named Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins). Now the operator of an air cargo delivery service based on the fictional South Seas island Bora Gora, he flies a red and white Grumman Goose called Cutter's Goose. Jake's best friend is his mechanic Corky (Jeff MacKay), a good-hearted alcoholic whose memory is hazy as a result of the quantity of booze he consumes. However, a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier named Jack, who barks once for "no" and twice for "yes" (or the opposite if it suits him) would dispute just who Jake's best friend really is. Jack wears an eye patch, but used to have a false eye made of opal with a star sapphire center that Jake lost in a poker game—and refuses to let Jake forget it.

Jake's love interest/U.S. Government spy contact is Sarah Stickney White (Caitlin O'Heaney). She sings in the Monkey Bar as a cover for her espionage activities. The Reverend Willie Tenboom (John Calvin), a phony man of the cloth who likes to "bless" the female natives in private "prayer", is in actuality a Nazi spy named Willy, with interests in both sides.

"Bon Chance" Louie (played by Ron Moody in the pilot, Roddy McDowall in the series) is the owner of the Monkey Bar and the French magistrate for Bora Gora. Jake's nemesis is the Japanese princess Koji (Marta DuBois), a Dragon Lady type of character who has eyes for Jake. Koji's devoted bodyguard is Todo (John Fujioka), a fierce practitioner of Bushido and loyal to the princess. (Although Calvin, DuBois and Fujioka were billed on the opening credits of each episode, they actually only appeared on a semi-regular basis in a handful of episodes.)

The title is derived from a valuable statue that is the focal point of the pilot episode, that is kept at the Monkey Bar for the rest of the series.

History and context

Originally, the series was to be called "Tales of the Brass Monkey," but that was the name of an alcoholic beverage, so the name was changed to Gold Monkey. At the end of the pilot episode, it is revealed that the statue at the bar was actually brass and not gold. However, unknown to the characters (and revealed to viewers only just before the end credits), the island where the statue was found does contain a massive structure apparently made of solid gold that does resemble a monkey. They spend most of the episode looking at and/or climbing all over this colossal figure, but one thousand years of neglect had left it covered in vegetation and debris, and it is only exposed by the same volcanic eruption that forces the characters off the island.

As with most of creator Donald P. Bellisario's projects, there are links to his other shows. The most notable is of the character Gandy Dancer (played by William Lucking) an ace pilot treasure hunter who appears in the episodes 'Legends Are Forever' and - in flashback form - in 'Honor Thy Brother.' Although Gandy dies in 'Legends Are Forever,' Bellisario liked the character enough to adapt him to the present day. The third season episode 'Two Birds of a Feather' of Bellisario's hit Magnum, P.I. sees Lucking playing the very similar character of Sam Houston Hunter, also an ace pilot. The episode, which noticeably has little appearance of Magnum or any other regular characters, acted as a backdoor pilot for a proposed spin-off series starring Lucking. However, the series was never picked up, although Bellisario stripped down the 'adventures of an ace pilot' concept and worked it into Airwolf (1984–1986). Jeff MacKay had recurring roles on Magnum, P.I., and later JAG (1995–2005), and Marta DuBois played the role of Magnum's estranged wife Michelle, long presumed dead, in a story arc that spanned most of that's show's run. MacKay and Calvin both went on to play several guest roles in Airwolf; and McDowall, MacKay, Calvin (and stock footage of the Goose) all went on to have guest appearances on the Bellisario series Quantum Leap (1989–1993). Stock footage of the Goose was also used in The A-Team episode "The Island" (Season 3, Episode 8). Additionally, Jake's surname, Cutter, was previously an early working title and character name for that of Magnum, and Bellisario later re-used the name "Gushie", who in Gold Monkey was a wheelchair-bound waiter at the Monkey Bar, for a member of the Quantum Leap project team.

Although generally well received in both America and overseas (such as the United Kingdom, where it was broadcast on BBC One on Monday evenings), the show was not renewed for another season, mostly due to the ratings not justifying the high cost of production.

This show was an inspiration for the Disney animated series Talespin, according to that series' creator/supervising producer, Jymn Magon.

There is a fictional recursion in "The Sultan of Swat" in which - while waiting for the Boeing 314 Pan Am Clipper - Jake is reading a book with a dustcover titled "Murder on the Footbridge"; which is apparently a key plot reference from the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock movie Suspicion.

DVD releases

Fabulous Films has obtained the DVD rights for the complete series for the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. Release dates are listed below. Shout! Factory released Tales of the Gold Monkey: The Complete Series on Region 1 DVD on June 8, 2010.

Region 2/4 (UK)	November 16, 2009
Region 2/4 (Australia)	November 27, 2009
Region 1 (US)	June 8, 2010

All three DVD sets include the same bonus features: original double-length pilot episode; the complete 20-episode series; new 36-minute 'making of' documentary with Stephen Collins (Jake Cutter), Caitlin O'Heaney (Sarah Stickney White), writer/producer Tom Greene, director Harvey Laidman; audio commentaries on 5 episodes; series synopsis; stills gallery; Caitlin's Original Costume gallery; artifacts gallery; 24-page collector's booklet with episode synopses. The Region 1 and 2 versions have a dedication to "the memory of the late, great Jeff Mackay" printed on the back cover.

Episodes

No.	Title	Director	Writer	Original air date
1	Tales of the Gold Monkey (2 parts)	Ray Austin	Donald P. Bellisario	September 22, 1982
2	Shanghaied	Alan J. Levi	Donald P. Bellisario	September 29, 1982
3	Black Pearl	Victor Lobl	Dennis Capps, George Geiger, Bob Foster, Paul Savage, Donald P. Bellisario	October 13, 1982
4	Legends Are Forever	Virgil Vogel	Milt Rosen, Reuben Leder, Donald P. Bellisario	October 20, 1982
5	Escape From Death Island	James Frawley	Peter Elliot, Stephen Katz	October 27, 1982
6	Trunk From the Past	Christian I. Nyby II	John Pashdag, Brady Westwater	November 3, 1982
7	Once a Tiger...	Winrich Kolbe	L. Ford Neal, John Huff	November 17, 1982
8	Honor Thy Brother	Mike Vejar	Jeff Ray, Danny Lee Cole, Bill Driskill, George Geiger	November 24, 1982
9	The Lady and the Tiger	Virgil Vogel	Donald P. Bellisario	December 8, 1982
10	The Late Sarah White	Harvey S. Laidman	Mary Ann Kasica, Michael Scheff, Donald P. Bellisario, George Geiger	December 22, 1982
11	The Sultan of Swat	Virgil Vogel	David Brown	January 5, 1983
12	Ape Boy	Winrich Kolbe	Andrew Schneider, Bill Driskill	January 12, 1983
13	God Save the Queen	Virgil Vogel	George Geiger	January 19, 1983
14	High Stakes Lady	James Frawley	Bill Driskill	January 26, 1983
15	Force of Habit	Harvey S. Laidman	Tom Greene	February 2, 1983
16	Cooked Goose	Donald A. Baer	Jay Huguely	March 4, 1983
17	Last Chance Louie	James Fargo	Tom Greene, George Geiger	March 11, 1983
18	Naka Jima Kill	Jack Whitman	Andrew Schneider, Tom Greene	March 18, 1983
19	Boragora or Bust	Ivan Dixon	George Geiger, Tom Greene	March 25, 1983
20	A Distant Shout of Thunder	James Fargo	Tom Greene, George Geiger	April 8, 1983
21	Mourning Becomes Matuka	David Jones	Jay Huguely, Tom Greene, George Geiger	June 1, 1983

External links

• Tales of the Gold Monkey at TV.com
• Tales of the Gold Monkey at the Internet Movie Database
• Goldmonkey.com, the unofficial web site
• John Kenneth Muir's profile of the show
• DVD review of series