Tales of the Gold Monkey

Tales of the Gold Monkey
Jake and Sarah in Tales of the Gold Monkey
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 min
Production company(s)	Belisarius Productions Universal Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Film
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 22, 1982 – June 1, 1983
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Tales of the Gold Monkey is a 1982 adventure television show broadcast in prime time on Wednesday nights by ABC. The series featured the romance of early aviation, exotic locales, and cliff-hanging action. It was aired following the success of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark the previous year.

Premise and major characters

Set anachronistically in 1938 in the South Pacific, the series is about an ex-Flying Tigers pilot named Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins). (The Flying Tigers operated from 1941-1942.) 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 with a memory hazy from heavy drinking. However, a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier named Jack, which 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 semiregular basis in a handful of episodes.)

The title is derived from a gigantic mythical golden statue that is the focal point of the pilot episode, seen only by the viewer at the end of the show. The characters end their search for the statue after finding a substitute brass monkey 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 the Heublin company had run a series of magazine ads with exactly that name about a bar in the Far East, with hints of Casablanca intrigue and references to the Kempeitai; so, to avoid legal difficulties, 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. However, a 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, links exist 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. has 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 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 three, episode eight) and in Quantum Leap Episode "Ghost Ship" (season four, episode sixteen). Additionally, Jake's surname, Cutter, was previously an early working title and character name for that of Magnum, and Bellisario later reused 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 United States 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.

A fictional recursion occurs 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	Plot
1	Tales of the Gold Monkey (2 parts)	Ray Austin	Donald P. Bellisario	September 22, 1982	Series pilot. Ex-Flying Tiger Jake Cutter and his mechanic Corky find themselves caught up in the affairs of Nazis when they search for the fabled gold monkey.
2	Shanghaied	Alan J. Levi	Donald P. Bellisario	September 29, 1982	A malaria-stricken Jake must rescue a kidnapped Corky from a slave trader.
3	Black Pearl	Victor Lobl	Dennis Capps, George Geiger, Bob Foster, Paul Savage, Donald P. Bellisario	October 13, 1982	Jake goes undercover when the Nazis begin building an atomic bomb.
4	Legends Are Forever	Virgil Vogel	Milt Rosen, Reuben Leder and Donald P. Bellisario (teleplay), Milt Rosen (story)	October 20, 1982	An ex-Flying Tiger recruits Jake for an adventure.
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	Can Jake prove a legendary baseball star innocent of a rape and murder, or will it be three strikes for his hero?
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	Jake helps an old flame turned nun retrieve a clipper filled with vaccinations when it's stolen.
16	Cooked Goose	Donald A. Baer	Jay Huguely	March 4, 1983
17	Last Chance Louie	James Fargo	Tom Greene, George Geiger	March 11, 1983	Jake must save Louie from the guillotine when Louie is accused of murdering a former colleague and refuses to say why he did the deed.
18	Naka Jima Kill	Jack Whitman	Andrew Schneider, Tom Greene	March 18, 1983	An assassin skilled in disguise targets the Japanese Defense Minister when the latter comes to Bora Gora. Adding to our heroes' problems is a former roommate of Sarah coming to interview the Defense Minister.
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	Sarah is accused of stealing a sacred statue.
21	Mourning Becomes Matuka	David Jones	Jay Huguely, Tom Greene, George Geiger	June 1, 1983	After an attempt on her life, Koji blackmails Jake into acting as her bodyguard during her birthday.

External links

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