Watch this Space – Tales of the Gold Monkey

Tales of the Gold Monkey... Wow! Now here is a TV series that pretty much summed up all my interests as a kid in the mid 80’s – Second World War (hey I had English grandparents), cool planes, adventure stories and a pretty female lead (Catlin O’Heaney & I started early ok)...

Set in the South Pacific in 1938, Tales of the Gold Monkey told the story of ex Flying Tigers ace Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins) and his Red and White Grumman Goose (a type of seaplane) called Cutters Goose. It was a blatant exploitation of the “Indiana Jones” vibe that had hit the world after Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it worked... Well at least for me it did.

Although Tales of the Gold Monkey only lasted one season (due to high production costs) this TV series has always stuck in my mind as one of the greats. Great adventure storytelling with some added tongue-and-cheek humour was always a good mix in my book. Still is in fact!

Let’s take a look at the opening sequence (this is going to bring back some memories I promise):



Here is a later version of the opening sequence (with added scenes):



This clip below pretty much sums up the feel of the show... Just listen to Stephen Collins’s narration and you’ll see what I mean.



Cheesy? Hell yea! Fun? You betcha! Good stuff? More than we can remember!

PS: Unfortunately Tales of the Golden Monkey is not currently available on DVD (or Blu-Ray for that matter), but hopefully Universal will remedy this soon. Will update this post (and place my order) if things change.