I spent a lot of my childhood in front of the TV.  So much, in fact, that my parents had to set up rules for TV watching in my house:  no watching it before 3:00pm and after 7:00pm.  Of course, I would sneak up behind their back to get my own recommended daily dose.  I would pretend to fall asleep at around 8:00pm and then get up at around 11 to sit in front of the tube with an earphone.  I would even put a towel at the bottom of their room's door, so the glare from the screen wouldn't give me away.

As a result of this, I have many memories of old TV shows and commercials.  Some of my favorites, however are only a ghost or silhouette in my mind.  I remember what the show was about, but I'll be dammed with the details.  Still, I manage to astound my friends and those of a previous generation with my remembrances of stupid commercial jingles and some obscure factoids of the early eighties TV scene.

I remember shows like Sapphire and Steel, Remington Steele, Miami Vice, Bring them Back (which aired here as "Frank Buck, legendary hunter"), Quincy, Simon and Simon, Whiz Kids, and so many others...

Recently, I stumbled upon a writeup called The complete guide to 1980's television and a particular show brought a lot of memories back: "Tales of the Gold Monkey", which was misnamed "Tales of the Golden Monkey".  I followed the hardlink and stumbled into an empty node.  In my personal node I remarked that a lot of empty nodes seem to be present at Everything2 and someone pointed to me that they were filling the niche of a BBS's commentary fields.  Still, I didn't see the point for Gold Monkey to be an empty writeup so I decided to do a little research and do a writeup of one of my favorite childhood adventure series.

Tales of the Gold Monkey aired from 1982 to 1983 (only 21 episodes) and followed the adventures of Jake Cutter, a bush pilot who lives and work in the island of Boragora in 1938.  He is styled after Indiana Jones, no doubt (just like Frank Buck was) and the Disney character Baloo in Tales of Spin seems to be styled after him.  He flew a seaplane called The Goose and, while his main job was cargo transport, it always managed to get him in situations where he had to fight assorted bad guys.

His opponent, Princess Koji, rules a nearby island, and (to my erratic memory) apparently was a very clean person, for she would spend most of her time taking hot baths in a barrel.  She would even receive visitors that way.  Even though she was always scheming and Jake was always getting in her way, one of her objectives was to try and get him into her bed.

Other characters included Corky, Jake's co-pilot, Rev. Willie Tenboom, a womanizing priest who is also a german spy and Jack, a one eyed dog with a glass eye.  According to http://www.goldmonkey.com jack could talk both english and japanese, but for the life of me, I can't remember such a detail.  I can't even remember the dog talking.  But I do remember that the dog's fake eye was the plot of many chapters, since it was valuable for some reason and whenever they were strapped for money, they would have to trade it, so Jack spent a lot of time wearing an eye patch.

There is not much more I remember.  What follows is cast list as seen on the Internet Movie Database:

 Stephen Collins: Jake Cutter
Jeff MacKay: Corky
Caitlin O'Heaney: Sarah Stickney White
Roddy McDowall: Bon Chance Louis
John Calvin: Reverend Willie Tenboom
Marta DuBois: Princess Koji
John Fujioka: Todo
Les Jankey: Gushie the Waiter
Ahmed Kalane: The Bartender


Sources: The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com), The Unoficial Fansite (http://www.goldmonkey.com/)

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