ANYONE REMEMBER OR WATCH 'Tales of the Gold Monkey"?

[joker-scar]

anyone out there remember and /or watch the 80's TV rip off of RAIDERS starring (I think) Stephan Collins? I remember it being pretty entertaining for it's day....haven't seen it since it was broadcast. hope it stands up....?

 

[Larry Young]

I just got the DVD as a gift but I haven't cracked it yet. I loved it when it was first on.

 

[SSgt Burton]

Yup.

Used to watch it every night it was on. Like yourself I haven't seen it since it was on the air.

(I think) I thought it was good. I remember the action being a little more toned down (as opposed to say the bullet fest A-Team).

Weren't they after a "Gold Monkey" in the season premiere, and it turned out to be made of brass?


Kevin

 

[Wes R]

This sounds sooo familiar but i can't picture the thing. Edit: just googled it and now i remember this show. My folks loved it as much as i did.

 

[dcarty]

I re-watched the series on DVD last fall and thought it held up pretty well. It helped that the show didn't take itself too seriously to begin with but on the whole I enjoyed it probably as much as I did when it was first on.

 

[Wes R]

I added it to my amazon want list. I have one i wish i could remember from the 80s i may end up posting a thread about.

 

[terryr]

How about Bring 'Em Back Alive, an adventure television series starring Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and Ron O'Neal. The series was shown in the United States from September 1982 to May 1983.

I goggled 'gold monkey' and this popped up. I remember it now. Cindy Morgan!

Bring 'Em Back Alive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[KnightAsylum]

Great Show.
I have a photo (somewhere) I took of the plane he used in the show from one of my trips through Universal Studios (back when they has Galactica Stuff as well:rolleyes)

 

[Jlewis]

Picked up the series on DVD, recorded off TV and quality so so. Loved Jake the dog.

 

[wuher da brewer]

I too enjoyed it as a kid and have been eager to see how it held up. I just watched disc 1 the other day from Netflix. I liked it well enough to want to get the rest of the discs.

It's a misconception that it was a Raiders rip-off. Though Raiders did pave the way for it.

Tales of the Gold Monkey is a 1982 television show broadcast by ABC. Most critics saw it as the network's attempt to capitalize on the fame of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark the previous year, in the same vein as Bring 'Em Back Alive on CBS. In actuality, the premise of the show bears a much stronger resemblance to the 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings and the 1944 film To Have And Have Not. Creator Donald P. Bellisario tried to get the series 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.

 

[Kerr Avon]

I remember Tailspin more YouTube - TaleSpin Intro

 

[robstyle]

A friend, Calvin Jung, was on an episode. Think he told some stories about it back in 04/05 at a SoCal prop party.

 

[robn1]

Definitely remember this, great show.

 

[Mola Rob]

I watched these when they were first aired and I have been Netflixing them to see how they hold up. It's still an enjoyable show and the cast and setting are great. A little too much reuse of footage when it comes to the plane but oh well.

If you want a laugh watch the episode The Lady and the Tiger followed by The Lost Warrior episode of the original BSG. Slight case of story reuse to put it mildly.

 

[Vermithrax 4]

I loved "Tales of the Gold Monkey". Stephen Collins was great as Jake Cutter and I loved his seaplane, the Cutter's Goose. Also thought his sidekick, Corky, was cool. Roddy McDowell had a recurring role in it as well.

Loved "Bring 'Em Back Alive" as well, it had much too short a run. Boxleitner was at DragonCon 2009 and I told him what a kick-ass shot I thought it was. His response was, "It was a kick-ass show, no doubt about it...but you can only ride an elephant so many times." I got a chuckle out of that. :lol

 

[Treadwell]

If you want a laugh watch the episode The Lady and the Tiger followed by The Lost Warrior episode of the original BSG. Slight case of story reuse to put it mildly.

Producers gotta do what they gotta do.
The same thing happened between an episode of Monkey and Magnum, P.I.

It has its faults but I've always liked this show. All of the stock Bellisario players show up at one time or another.

And, of course, Roddy McDowell. He'd be interesting reading the want ads.

I never cared much for the female character. Dunno if it was how it was written or how it was cast, or both.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Man, I didn't know they finally came out with an official DVD release. To the top of the netflix cue.

I think this series holds up much better than most of it's contemporaries.

 

[CJ 617]

Yeah, I loved this show.....brings back memories now.

 

[Treadwell]

The picture quality of the DVD could be better. For some reason, the company could only get what seem to be old broadcast masters, which look soft and muddy. They put a lot of work into cleaning them up, but why Universal couldn't just strike new 35mm prints from the negatives for them is beyond me. (The show was made toward the end of the era when shows were still finished on film.) They also produced the material in the UK, in PAL format, which was then converted for the US set.

So it's by no means the definitive set of all time, but we're not likely to get another.

 

[WarPig]

Yeah!!

I just got the DVD set; we've been enjoying it quite a lot. Same feeling about the transfer quality and re-use of stock footage, but you can't complain at the price.

Some things a are a bit hokey (ape suits, for one), but (as dcarty said), it didn't take itself seriously, so the hokey stuff adds to the fun.