Tales of the Gold Monkey

[[File:TotGM.jpg|righ]

"It had the romance of the 1930s, the bigger-than-life hero with the leather jacket, and the elements of intrigue of that time period. It was a lot of fun. That plane [the Goos was a magic carpet and it could take you anywhere."

- Donald A. Baer, director, on [[Tales of the Gold Monke] |undefined

Tropical islands, high-flying adventur], political intrigue, "talking" dogs and [[All Myths Are True|legends come aliv]! This is the world of [[Tales of the Gold Monke], a one-season adventure series that aired on ABC in 1982. Set in the mythical South Pacific island of Bora Gora (in the equally mythical Marivellas archipelago) in [[The Thirtie], it follows the adventures of Jake Cutter, pilot of a Grumman Goose flying boat named Cutter's Goose, his one-eyed [[Non-Human Sidekick|canine sidekick Jack, and [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|his various allies and associate] as they battle the villainous schemes of [[Dragon Lady|Princess Koj] and other ne'er-do-wells. Jake, a former Pan Am pilot and former member of the Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group, just wants to settle in to a quiet life as a legitimate pilot-for-hire. Needless to say, adventure tends to find him.

An early Belisarius Productio], it shares many of the traits common with his works, such as action/adventure, [[Camp, Rule of Cool, and a former military protagonist (Jake Cutter, former Flying Tigers AVG pilot) who narrates his own life through an inner voice. It ran for but a single season (Sept. 1982-July 1983) for a total of 21 episodes, counting the 2 hour pilot, but built up a large cult following that [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|kept circulating the tape] for decades before it finally made its way to DVD in 2009 (UK/Australia) and 2010 (US/Canada). While many assume the show was a Spiritual Successor of [[Indiana Jone], Bellisario originally pitched the idea in the late 1970s and always claimed the inspiration to be the 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings.

While short-lived, Tales of the Gold Monkey was critically acclaimed (winning several Emmys) and had a notable influence on future shows, including the animated [[Spiritual Successo] Disney's [[Tale Spi].

The cast included:
 * Stephen Collins as Jake Cutter, our [[Ace Pilo] and main protagonist, pilot of Cutter's Goose
 * Jeff MacKay as Corky, Jake's alcoholic mechanic and occasional co-pilot
 * Caitlin O'Heaney as Sarah Stickney White, an American spy undercover as a bar singer and Jake's quasi-[[Love Interes]
 * Roddy McDowall (Ron Moody in the Pilot) as Bon Chance Louie, French magistrate and owner of the [[Local Hangout|Monkey Ba]
 * John Calvin as Rev. Willie Tenboom, a Dutch priest and German spy with more devotion to his libido than to the Reich
 * Marta DuBois as Princess Koji, half-Japanese [[Dragon Lad] and main antagonist
 * John Fujioka as Todo, Koji's samurai henchman
 * Les Jankey as Gushie, Louie's wheelchair-bound partner and [[The Bartende]
 * "Leo" as Jack, Jake's impossibly intelligent one-eyed bull terrier

"Donald Baer (director): The network didn't like the lush look of the series. They wanted it to be light and sunny, like a kid's show. They saw it as bright. The villains had to be clear cut and the very idea that characters might speak with foreign accents really bothered them. It was unbelievable. Everything had to be articulated and clear and the intrigue was not what they were looking for, so the show was considered controversial. Right after the pilot, we had a meeting with network staff in Bellisaro's office, and Don was reciting some of the developing story lines. We were all nodding our heads...it was great stuff. But the network staff just sat there and said, "No, that's wrong. Don't do that." Tom Greene (writer): The studio kept pushing for mud people and monkey people and other elements that would play up the similarities [to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'']."
 * [[Ace Pilo]: Jake, of the Plugger variety (rather necessary in an unarmed flying boat). He was also a literal Ace, having scored five confirmed kills against the Japanese while with the Flying Tigers.
 * The Alcoholic: Corky
 * [[All Myths Are Tru]
 * Anachronism Stew: mostly averted (save for the hairstyles and other giveaways of its 1982 origins) but has a few notable anachronisms:
 * Though set in 1938, it features Japanese Zeros (not developed until 1939 and not operational until 1940)
 * Jake is a former member of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers), which didn't exist until 1941.
 * Samurai in full O'Yoroi armor (possibly justified as ceremonial)
 * [[Animal Athlete Loophol]: Jake is told he can't fly without a co-pilot, and attempts to claim that Jack is his co-pilot, using [[Animal Athlete Loophole|Ain't No Rul]. While there isn't a rule saying a dog can't be a co-pilot, there is a rule saying that your co-pilot has to have two working eyes, regardless of species.
 * Do] [[God Was My Co-Pilot|Was My Copilot?
 * Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Todo's Samurai armor
 * [[Back-to-Back Badasse]: Jake and Corky go into this routine during a brawl in a Philippine bar.
 * [[Badass Preache]: The one time Reverend Tenboom involves himself in a brawl, he shows himself to be very good at it.
 * Bar Brawl: a staple of the show, naturally, along with a [[Running Ga] of Louie doing up the bill for damages as the fight takes place.
 * [[The Bartende]: Gushie and to a lesser degree Louie
 * Big Bad: Princess Koji
 * [[Big Damn Heroe]
 * [[Bottle Episod]: Force of Habit. Half the episode takes place in the Goose's cockpit, and it was written to be an episode that could be filmed in half the time of the normal episodes, because they were behind schedule.
 * Camp: volcanoes, Bigfoot, native rituals, samurai, and a "talking" dog
 * [[Chased by Angry Native]: African ones...in the South Pacific!
 * [[Chivalrous Perver]: Rev. Willy Tenboom will sleep with any and all of the attractive female population on the island, but when one of those girls is coerced into prostitution, he responds by tearing down the pimp's tent and brawling with his enforcers.
 * time portrayed in the show. But she'll surprise you. Note: while totally a cool plane in the subjective sense, the Trope itself doesn't really apply to the Goose. See the main entry.
 * [[Creator Came]: [[Donald P. Bellisari] appears, along with his son, as a man and child being evacuated from Boragora when its volcano is erupting in the episode A Distant Shout of Thunder.
 * [[Crew of On]: Averted; Jake relies on Corky and others for repairs, co-piloting, emergency damage control, etc.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The Grumman Goose was introduced in 1938... as a brand new model. Even the first prototype flew less than a year before the setting of the show. However, this may not be an issue as the Goose wasn't necessarily presented as old, but as a salvage they had to repair.
 * In addition, Jake could not have been a veteran of the Flying Tigers, given that they first saw combat in 1941.
 * [[The Drago]: Todo
 * [[Dragon Lad]: Princess Koji
 * [[Dream Sequenc]
 * [[Donald P. Bellisari]
 * [[Double Meaning Titl] and [[Pun-Based Titl]: Evoked in some episodes, ex: "Force of Habit", "Last Chance Louie", and "Cooked Goose"
 * The original name for the series, "Tales of the Brass Monkey" applies as well...
 * [[Edited for Syndicatio]: In the late 80s two episodes were edited together to form a "movie" retitled "Curse of the Gold Monkey"
 * [[Everything's Better with Samura]: Todo
 * [[Everything's Better with Princesse]: Koji
 * [[Executive Meddlin]: the studio kept trying to make the series [[Lighter and Softe] and more kid-oriented, not to mention [[Viewers are Morons|ease up on the intrigue and plot turn].

"Jeff MacKay: Between the time we finished shooting the season and were waiting to hear about renewal, I had contacts at the other networks, and they all told me that CBS and NBC were programming against our show. The other networks were assuming Gold Monkey would be a successful part of the ABC line-up for the next five years or so. But ABC didn't have the same confidence in us that our competition did. The word asshole leaps to mind."
 * [[Expanded Univers]: a short-lived series of comics, among others.
 * [[Expansion Pack Pas]: Bon Chance Louie; for a single season show it's amazing how fast his Mysterious Past grew!
 * [[Eyepatch of Powe]: on Jack (the dog)!
 * [[Femme Fatal]: Koji, obviously!
 * The Gamble]: in "High Stakes Lady". She's also a [[Femme Fatal.
 * [[Good Guy Ba]: The Monkey Bar
 * [[Heroic Do]: Jack, of course!
 * [[If It Swims, It Flie]: Justified with Cutter's Goose...it is a flying boat, after all!
 * Intellectual Animal and Talking Animal: Jack (barks once for "no", twice for "yes")
 * He's even multilingual: "Speaks" Japanese ("The Lady and the Tiger") and Spanish ("The Late Sarah White")!
 * Possibly also a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plo]. To quote Jeff MacKay in a Cinescape interview, "That dog had more brains than any of us."
 * [[Jungle Oper]
 * [[Keep Circulating the Tape]: the only way to see it until very recently
 * [[Kick the Do]: [[Those Wacky Nazi], naturally
 * [[Let Them Die Happ]: In "Legends Are Forever", more or less the same way as with Harry Luck in [[The Magnificent Seve].
 * [[Local Hangou]: the Monkey Bar; also at various times the [[Good Guy Ba], [[Bad Guy Ba], and/or [[Wretched Hiv]
 * [[Loveable Rogu]: Jake
 * Love At First Punch: Jake's introduction to Sarah is her hitting him with a champaign bottle
 * [[Moral Guardian]: the reason the name was changed from "Tales of the Brass Monkey", since a Brass Monkey was an alcoholic cocktail.
 * Certain "cold weather effects" to "brass monkeys" may have been another factor.
 * [[Mr. Fixi]: Corky
 * [[Mysterious Pas]: Bon Chance Louie
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Jack (a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier)
 * [[Non-Indicative Nam]: The gold monkey at the bar is actually a brass monkey.
 * [[Nubile Savag]: One takes a liking to Corky in "Shanghaied."
 * [[Pass the Popcor]: Louie and his patrons tend to take bets on the outcome of bar brawls.
 * [[Penal Colon]: In "Escape from Death Island". Subverted in that
 * [[Plot-Driven Breakdow]: of Cutter's Goose, as required
 * [[Punch Clock Villai]: Rev. Tenboom
 * [[Quicksand Suck]
 * [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfit]
 * [[Rare Vehicle]: A6M Zero fighters are pretty common [[Anachronism Stew|for a fighter not even in prototype phase ye]
 * Rule of Cool: pretty much runs on it
 * Screwed by the Network


 * [[Shoot the Do]: "narrowly averted" literal example in "Escape from Death Island". Admittedly more of a [[Kick the Do] case, but yeah...
 * [[Sinister Ministe]: Reverend Tenboom, sinner, womanizer, and German spy!
 * Spiritual Successo]: Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and other depression-era adventure and noir films (despite assumptions to the contrary, it was not a Spiritual Successor of [[Raiders of the Lost Ark, having been originally pitched and rejected in 1979...though the idea was finally accepted following the success of Raiders.
 * Influenced its own Spiritual Successor in Disney's [[Tale Spi].
 * [[Stock Footag]:
 * No they didn't in the dramatic conclusion of "The Distant Sound of Thunder", that was footage from the 1961 Spencer Tracy/Frank Sinatra film The Devil at 4 O'Clock, whose bar plans were copied when building the Monkey Bar!
 * Some very conspicuous stock footage shows up whenever they showed the Pan Am clipper in flight -- suddenly the show's in black and white.
 * [[Stupid Jetpack Hitle]: in "Black Pearl" [[Those Wacky Nazi] make an atomic bomb, in 1938!
 * [[Thememobil]: Cutter's Goose
 * [[The Thirtie]: 1938, to be specific.
 * [[Those Wacky Nazi]: "monocle guy" Fritz in the pilot and the scientists building an atomic bomb in "Black Pearl."
 * While Reverend Tenboom is German, he is not a Nazi.
 * Two-Fisted Tale] and/or [[Dieselpunk
 * [[Unresolved Sexual Tensio]: Jake and Sarah, Jake and Koji...well, Jake and about any unrelated female
 * What a Piece of Junk!: Cutter's Goose

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