Tales of the Gold Monkey

Now that Johnny $ has got me thinking about TV shows who remembers Tales of the Gold Monkey? It followed in the wake of the Indiana Jones phenomenon and involved a guy flying around in an amphibious plane and going on various adventures with his one eyed dog Jack! I still meet people today who think that the show never existed and that I imagined it all! But that was some great TV - exotic locales, adventure, one-eyed dogs, nazis getting their asses kicked -it had it all!

Ah yes, great show, but went wierd by the end of the series.

What do you mean "It went weird by the end of the series?" It was about an amphibious plane piloting adventurer/Soldier of Fortune with a 1 eyed dog, a wisecracking side kick, nazis, spies, a Samurai running a private army for the princess of a tiny atoll, guys in monkey suits, & Roddy McDowall as the owner of the titular bar! How do you get weird from that?

From TV Tome:

My favorite show of all time (aside from Young Indiana Jones).

Here's the official unofficail website:
http://www.goldmonkey.com/

You can even buy EVERY episode on DVD! (not the best quality, mind you, but where else are you gonna see it?)

There's a website for everything these days...

On 2004-04-30 08:20, freddiefreelance wrote:
How do you get weird from that?

Well the dog got its glass eye back that jake had lost in a poker game and then the dog didn't like him any more.
i admit that i was about nine at the time so my memories are a touch fuzzy

I used to love that show! I haven't thought about it in years. Thanks for the show & DVD links!

Kanaka

I tried to find a good shot of the interior of the Gold Monkey bar, this's the best I've come up with so far.

On 2004-04-30 10:02, Polynesiac wrote:
Here's the official unofficail website:
http://www.goldmonkey.com/

Ah, I remember writing to the girl who runs this site back in like 1998. She said that the series would never be on home video, so it is nice to see that she is now bootlegging it herself.

This show was so much fun, I loved it 20 years ago. Had a crush on Caitlin. Wonder where she is now? I wonder how well the show is holding up? Still cool or painfully cheezy? Guess I'll have to spring for the webmistress's intellectual-property-law- violating DVD set before she gets busted!

And hey, when is Hawaiian Eye coming to DVD...?

On 2004-04-30 15:34, tikibars wrote:

This show was so much fun, I loved it 20 years ago. Had a crush on Caitlin. Wonder where she is now?

Pushing her Perfume line? She was "Snow White" in 1st season of "The Charmings," & was in "The Emperor's Club." It looks like she took the '90s off, probably for family.

---

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2004-05-02 14:35 ]

Through a round about way that involved a Tommy Collins song I just learned about this show.

And I also just learned that Tales of the Gold Monkey, the entire one season series, is coming out on Region 1 DVD on June 8th. Now you know and you're summer will be perfeect.

A dog with an eye patch? I really wanna see this show.

I don't remember this show but it sure looks interesting. That shot of the bar is quite intriguing. Is it worth buying the DVDs?

I used to watch this show when i was a youngin'. I liked it as a child, and it reminded me of Stephen J Cannel works. The series was similar and almost a witches brew of shows like Riptide, A-Team, Baa Baa Blacksheep, Dukes of Hazzard, and Battlestar Gallactica all rolled into one.
Don Bellisario was the creator, and was a part of other leading 80s shows such as JAG, Quantum Leap, Magnum P.I. and Airwolf.

I seem to remember alot of corny comedy within this adventure show...I may just have a bad memory too! Looking forward to seeing it again.

I still have a flyer somewhere from Universal Studios that was promoting the show. Picked it up as a kid on a family trip. The flyer had the original title "Tales of the Brass Monkey" on it. Used to like the show - but kind of lost interest in it about halfway through its run. I also recall that old flyer touting the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" - with a picture of Phoebe Cates. I thought to myself as a young lad - now she looks interesting!

man, we used to hit the bonger and watch this show. it was a pleasent trip into tropical fantasy. nice!

i think amazon has a place where you can petition to have old tv series released to dvd.
i remember filling one out for the first & second season of the wild wild west.

this is out on DVD now.

Thanks for the heads up!!!! I just ordered a copy from amazon....I can't wait to watch this show again!

On 2010-04-09 15:26, exquisitecorpse wrote:
i think amazon has a place where you can petition to have old tv series released to dvd.
i remember filling one out for the first & second season of the wild wild west.

http://www.tvondvd.com is the site for that but Golden Monkey is out already. I love Shout Factory. (The people who put it out, not to mention two of my favorite shows McHale's Navy and Code Monkeys)

Woah! I gotta visit Beyond Tiki more often! LOVED the Golden Monkey - and to top things off, the pilot episode spent weeks shooting at my dad's office on Makai Research Pier in Waimanalo. I practically lived on the pier when the filmed there. Lots of fun. The golden monkey site has some screen-grabs of the pier:

Now, if you are thinking that the pier looks familiar, it also served as TC's office and helipad in Magnum PI. They booted my dad out every so often to shoot for a few years, but when the show really started making $$ they built a duplicate of the office at the Diamond Head Soundstages. Jack Lord also shot M-station: Hawaii at the pier, and you can see the pier being built in one of the first seasons of Hawaii 5-0. End of history lesson :)

Henrik

Keep that "Monkey Love" rolling in!

I used to love this show as a kid and was truly bummed when it got killed. Sweaty tropical location, tons of eye-candy in the background, good action.
Couple years ago I downloaded some VHS-ripped episodes - held up better than I thought. A little hokey, but ya gotta expect that from the time-period.
Gotta get the DVD.

I like old "so-bad-it's-good,""exotic-locale" pop stuff as much as the next TCer, but I'm afraid I couldn't take much of this series.
By all means have a look if you're so inclined, but it seemed to me this thread ought to have one frank, negative review of the show.
I hate to be a stinker, but I found it to be so bad it's ... bad.
Totally cornball, over-acted attempts at humor.
Generic tropical locations, no tiki (unless it starts to appear in later episodes) despite being set in the "south seas," and very limited (and often inane or otherwise problemmatic) presence of "natives"...
I tried, I really did, but ... I cried "Uncle" after about 2 or 3 episodes.
Info. above on shooting location is great stuff though. I like "M Station Hawaii," but then anything with Elissa Dulce is awesome, right?

Just rediscovered this series on my boxee box with the Navi-X app installed. I love the pulpy adventure feel! I watched this when I was in like kindergarten and just realized what a subliminal impact it had on me. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I always wanted to be an adventurer in the south pacific! :)

Anyways, if you download boxee or get a boxee box and install the navi-x app you can watch the whole series for free! :)

I remember when it was on TV. It was called "Tales of the BRASS MONKEY" at first. It must have changed to the Gold Monkey after the Pilot or first season. I just might have to get the DVD's and watch again.

Craig the Keg

Just ordered the DVDs. Planning on showing it at my room crawl party for Oasis. My room does not have a DVD player so think I will have to show off my laptop. Our cocktail will be the Gold Monkey (I'm experimenting with the recipe today at the VampTiki Lounge). Since I never saw this when it was on TV, really looking forward to watching it.

Monkeys...bar...espionage...the South Pacific...can't go wrong with that!!!

Of the two shows trying for the Raider's of the Lost Ark audience, Tale's of the Gold Monkey was better than Bring 'Em Back Alive with Bruce Boxleitner but I'd like to see that one again too.

Jeff MacKay's character on Magnum P.I. "Mac" was killed so he could leave for the Gold Monkey, when it ended he came back to Magnum as one of those "I had to fake my death." things.

On 2012-07-04 22:26, Bora Boris wrote:
Tale's of the Gold Monkey was better than Bring 'Em Back Alive

Couldn't agree more, Gold Monkey aired first here followed within a few weeks
by BEBA, a pathetic attempt at competition I thought at the time.

One bark yes, two barks no... or was that...???

On 2010-04-09 14:12, talo ka wrote:
man, we used to hit the bonger and watch this show. it was a pleasent trip into tropical fantasy. nice!

Ditto!!! LOVED this show after a few... refreshments.

Nice bar!!!

On 2010-12-21 15:14, Thomas wrote:

I like "M Station Hawaii," but then anything with Elissa Dulce is awesome, right?

YES! :D

I love Tales of the gold monkey and bought the bootleg vhs transfer dvd's a few years ago. Good fun.
I remember reading somewhere that the creators inspiration was "only angels have wings" (good movie) and that he pitched the show around hollywood 3 years before Indiana Jones came out. Of course they picked it up after Raiders was successful.

I have the bring em back alive dvd's too. Its not as good as gold monkey. Ramar of the jungle, adventures in paradise, Hawaiian eye, sheena of the jungle, Jungle jim, gold monkey, etc all provide me with building inspiration more than anything. I see a something cool, pause it, and then figure out if I can build it for my tiki hut.