Magnum Mania!

Thorfinn wrote:

Styles Bitchley wrote:Just watched the pilot. What a great show...it's all coming back to me now.

The Raiders connection is really obvious now after watching it.

Maybe the reason it didn't continue was budget. Looks like it would have cost a fortune to produce all those explosions, flying sequences, etc.

You'll be surprised when you find out "why" it wasn't renewed and it wasn't budget problems.

do share!

Had a discount card at Barnes and Noble and as I was looking around I saw it on the shelf and it brought back memories so I bought the complete series and watched the first disc and while some of the effects were a litlle low budget, it is such a great show. I miss the good old days with this, Magnum, Simon and Simon, they just dont make anything that is good anymore everyhting has to be a CSI clone

Tales of the Gold Monkey has a Magnum Mania type site too.

http://www.goldmonkey.com/index.html

It's a little dated, but it does for TOTGM what MM does for Magnum.

SouthEastAsiaTX wrote:Tales of the Gold Monkey has a Magnum Mania type site too.

http://www.goldmonkey.com/index.html

It's a little dated, but it does for TOTGM what MM does for Magnum.

Before Tales of the Gold Monkey was released on DVD, the guy that runs that website had recorded the the series when it first aired and had ported the episodes from VHS to DVD and was selling them. I bought the series from him first before buying the "real" DVD's from Amazon.

I actually like watching this guys VHS versions better. The quality is 6/10 at best but the really neat part is that he recorded the opening and ending credits (and sometimes he would leave in the commercials).

The voice-overs of what was coming up next brought back more memories than the show actually did!!!

Still, I watch this series at least once a year. The goldmonkey.com website has tons of stuff about the show. They have a timeline of the series and character histories gleaned from each of the episodes (Jake Cutter was a Flying Tiger in China before getting injured).

At one time, they even had a Gold Monkey reunion where most (if not all) of the actors joined in! That site is really great.

I vaguely remembered TOTGM from my teen years and watched some of it back then. TCM is showing it now and I've tried to watch it again but for some reason I cannot watch a single entire episode. It's like Baa Baa Black Sheep met Fantasy Island and somehow got caught up in a time warp with flashes of Magnum PI. For me it's too much of a 70's kitsch.

Dragging up an ancient thread, but I've been watching Gold Monkey over the last couple of weeks. It is a great concept for a TV show, but the stories drag a little. Aside from Collins and MacKay the acting is not great and it has a cheap look. The dog is the best thing about it; he's hilarious! Anyway, this is a show that ought to get a re-make instead of MacGyver. It would really benefit from modern production methods, but I'm sure it would cost a fortune. Was Gold Monkey filmed in Hawaii?

The first couple posts on this strand have really covered my sense after watching the complete episodes of TOTGM. I loved the premise - the late 1930's just before the outbreak of WWII, a time that Indiana Jones so well visited for its adventure. I love the idea of the characters, and the sea plane and the bar with the carved, wooden monkeys hinting at lost treasure. There was so much the show might've mined - Nazis, aviation, treasure hunting, ruins, pretty ladies and such, that TOTGM should've been a great one.

TOTGM seemed written by junior high students. I was really disappointed by how shallow the characters seemed. I thought the treatment of the Asian characters was especially bad, if not down-right prejudiced. It so often seemed thrown together at the last minute. No doubt the studio execs just wanted something quick to cash in on the Indiana Jones success. And there seemed something about so many of the action shows of that time that seemed childish, from the A-Team to Knight Rider. Maybe television producers back then had to try to come up with shows that would catch the entire family's interest back when there were not yet so many channels and outlets for them?

But I would love to see TOTGM get remade and earn just a better effort. I think the time and location of the setting might really work, if it was done well, if it was taken seriously. That era seems filled with possible stories. I would love to see that seaplane flying again, maybe filled with new characters and a new dog, but I would love to see it rebooted. Great idea MagnumsLeftShoulder!

TOTGM seemed written by junior high students.

That's a good description. It's like the show couldn't decide if it wanted to be full on campy or take a more serious approach to the events in the South Pacific before Pearl Harbor. The jokes aren't funny enough and the drama isn't dramatic enough, but I still think it's a great idea for a show.

Styles Bitchley wrote:

SelleckLover wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the title was: Tales of the Gold Monkey!

When I was a kid we used to refer to it as Brass Monkey Balls. This sort of joke NEVER gets tired for an eight year old kid!

I haven't seen a episode since its first run, but I remember it being cool. I seem to remember it reminding me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anybody remember if there's a similar feel? Maybe I'm just mis-remembering.

Hi Styles !

I got an amercian DVD copy oth that serie. After Magnum PI and Mc Gyver, it was my favorite show when i was 14 ou 15 years old. It was a very subtile balance between exotism, adventure, 1930's atmosphere, bright and colorful characters (while childish and somewhat 'burlesque'), humour and a strand of action... The historical background was far lossy and sketchy, however i guess it was never aimed towards historical recreation. Historical events was only a rear scenery for the whole picture. The Bora gora set and the Hotel were a pure sucess from my point of view.

Very good start for youngsters ! I will think about it for my son...

As an aviation spotter i loved the old (and allegedy worn up...)Grumman goose used in that serie (if you except the anachronism of such a plane in 1938 (at that time it was a military prototype !) - it was only introduced in the civil market in the late 1940's !!

You're right: The show was a pure 'B serie' replica of the pulp novels from 1930-1940 era. The legacy of "Raiders of Lost ark" is quite obvious too. It reminds me the french 'Bob Morane' serie from the 1960's.

Well, a very good 'souvenir' ...

Styles Bitchley wrote:

SelleckLover wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the title was: Tales of the Gold Monkey!

When I was a kid we used to refer to it as Brass Monkey Balls. This sort of joke NEVER gets tired for an eight year old kid!

I haven't seen a episode since its first run, but I remember it being cool. I seem to remember it reminding me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anybody remember if there's a similar feel? Maybe I'm just mis-remembering.

Hi Styles !

I got an amercian DVD copy oth that serie. After Magnum PI and Mc Gyver, it was my favorite show when i was 14 ou 15 years old. In French version it was titled as "Jack's Cutter". The original title would have been not a seller in French . It was a very subtile balance between exotism, adventure, 1930's atmosphere, bright and colorful characters (while childish and somewhat 'burlesque'), humour and a strand of action... The historical background was far lossy and sketchy, however i guess it was never aimed towards historical recreation. Historical events was only a rear scenery for the whole picture. The Bora gora set and the Hotel were a pure sucess from my point of view.

Very good start for youngsters ! I will think about it for my son...

As an aviation spotter i loved the old (and allegedy worn up...)Grumman goose used in that serie (if you except the anachronism of such a plane in 1938 (at that time it was a military prototype !) - it was only introduced in the civil market in the late 1940's !!

You're right: The show was a pure 'B serie' replica of the pulp novels from 1930-1940 era. The legacy of "Raiders of Lost ark" is quite obvious too. It reminds me the french 'Bob Morane' serie from the 1960's.

Well, a very good 'souvenir' ...

edit: in the same influence you've got, in 1983 "Bring'em Back Alive !" starring Bruce Boxleiner. I will tak about it in another post another time.

Discovered that Tales Of The Gold Monkey full episodes are free to watch on YouTube. Watching it again for the first time in 40+ years. Loved it as a 6 year old when it came out but the monkey suits, synthesizer soundtrack, pacing and dialog are a little hard to take now. And as a WWII history buff, the idea that Cutter was a Flying Tigers veteran four years before the AVG group fought its first sortie is too much to swallow.

I’m enjoying revisiting the origins of much of the inspiration behind TaleSpin, which I watched as an early teen, recognizing even then the connections between the shows.