Goldie Gold and Action Jack

A Saturday Morning Cartoon from 1981, this was Ruby-Spears' attempt to follow the lead of then-upcoming film Raiders of the Lost Ark (which came out before the show was released, but the show started production before that), by using the "mismatched couple has globe-trotting adventures" theme that would become popular during the 1980s.

The premise of the series, as spelled out in the opening, is that 18-year-old Goldie Gold, the "world's richest girl", founded her own newspaper, "The Goldstreet Journal". She and her companion, daredevil reporter "Action" Jack Travis, go on adventures across the globe solving crimes and reporting on them to the paper's editor, Sam Gritt. The series featured a new villain and caper each week, and an array of fantastical and improbable gadgets that helped Goldie and Jack in essentially any situation. The Richie Rich comparisons were inevitable, though despite many jokes about the sort of things Goldie could buy, the focus was more on the action and adventure while the gadgets simply appeared to keep the plot moving. The show also tended to follow some fairly familiar tropes of contemporary series, particularly shows on which Joe Ruby and Ken Spears had worked for Hanna-Barbera.

The show ran for a single series of 13 episodes on ABC, reran until September 1982, then faded into relative obscurity as Ruby-Spears quickly shifted to selling shows based on licensed properties.


 * Action Adventure Series
 * Battle Butler: Travis "Action" Jack...since Goldie wasn't particularly actiony herself.
 * Bond Villain Stupidity: Being Saturday morning, nobody can just shoot anyone...regardless of how useful this would be. For either side.
 * Canine Companion: Nugget
 * Conspicuous Consumption: Everything Goldie owned was, well, gold. Be this simple things like jewelry all the way up to, oh, the building her newspaper was headquartered in.
 * Conveyor Belt O' Doom
 * Cool Car: Goldie drove the appropriately named "Goldster".
 * Crimefighting with Cash: Goldie, though it was more to get a scoop than save the world.
 * Crystal Skull: The subject of the first episode.
 * Damsel in Distress: Goldie, something even shown in the opening as she stares in awe at all the times she's shown being tied up by the bad guys.
 * Dramatic Unmask: Happened in a couple episodes. Remember who made this show.
 * The Eighties: The series was made in this decade.
 * Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Goldie uses her pearl necklace as a replacement seal for a magic box.
 * Fake Memories: "The Goddess of the Black Pearl"
 * Fan Service: The shot of Goldie and Jack at the pool, with far more emphasis on Goldie's rather skimpy (for the timeslot) bikini.
 * Fiction 500: Goldie is the "richest woman in the world". Which means she can apparently afford hover bikes, indoor weather machines, and even a space shuttle and a space mansion. All coated in gold, of course.
 * Flying Car: Goldie's limo.
 * Gem-Encrusted: Like a nail clipper.
 * Gentleman Adventurer: Action Jack.
 * Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Once again
 * Hair of Gold: Goldie, of course.
 * Hypnotize the Princess: "The Goddess of the Black Pearl"
 * Identical Great-grandmother: Caroletta Gold.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: Goldie's fur coat stands up to anything.
 * Infinite Supplies: Goldie Gold's gadgets and vehicles.
 * Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates:
 * Intrepid Reporter: Jack. Goldie doesn't count because she owns the paper.
 * Jack Kirby: He did the character designs.
 * James Bondage: There's plenty of situations Goldie has to get Jack out of as well.
 * Just Between You and Me
 * Just Friends: Goldie and Jack, likely for the sake of the Saturday morning crowd.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Not all episodes are on VHS, and it's not even out on DVD.
 * One episode, if you count the WB's "Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980s — Volume #1" DVD.
 * Lady of Adventure: Goldie
 * Limited Wardrobe: Understandable with Jack, but all that money and Goldie has just five outfits. She has her ensemble with the gold pants and fur coat, her swimsuit, her evening dress, her winter gear with the ermine parka, and her safari gear. Everything else is just disguises or costumes.
 * Non-Idle Rich: Goldie could have just sat down and let other people run her paper. Instead, she runs around and does her own reporting. Presumably out of boredom.
 * Ojou: Goldie Gold is the western version.
 * Pretty in Mink: Goldie's white fur coat and her ermine-trimmed parka.
 * Right-Hand-Cat: The eponymous "Pirate of the Airways" had one.
 * Schrödinger's Gun: All her gadgets.
 * Sky Pirate: "Pirate of the Airways".
 * Standard Female Grab Area: Goldie gets this a few times.
 * Steven Ulysses Perhero: Goldie's family name.
 * Stylish Protection Gear: Her parka.
 * Swiss Cheese Security: You'd think that with all of Goldie's cash for crazy inventions and gadgets in her day job, she might spend some of it on security gadgets to stop just any old run-of-the-mill thug from being able to waltz into her home through the front door.
 * Team Pet: Nugget
 * They Fight Crime: Though not actually crime fighters, Goldie and Jack end up doing this anyway.
 * Time Travel
 * Auntie Pennybags: Goldie Gold
 * UST: Goldie Gold and Jack Travis
 * Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: The audience will frequently wonder this. Especially when the space mansion shows up. Strangely, it's rare for anyone in the actual stories to comment on the insane level of technology Goldie apparently has at her disposal. Not even the space mansion.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Despite not being much of an Action Girl, Goldie is naturally the one that tries to actually hit the Countess in "Menace of the Medallion".
 * Will They or Won't They?: They don't.