""Tales of the Gold Monkey" release date" Topic

The complete run of the TV show "Tales of the Gold Monkey" will be released on DVD on June 8th. Here's a link to the Amazon page:

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I've been waiting years for this. I haven't seen any episodes since it went off the air. I hope it holds up over time.

FINALLY!

Not one I've come across – was the series just seen in America?

Dudes. Still not on Blu Ray…
I guess its better than my cruddy copies…

>>Not one I've come across – was the series just seen in America?<<

Dunno. But the series is almost 20 years old, so you might not have seen it if you aren't old enough.

I noticed something strange in the product description. It says that TOTGM takes place in 1938, which doesn't make sense as Collins wears a "Flying Tigers" jacket, but the AVG didn't see combat until 1941.

Not just in the US, this was on British TV at some point in the 1980s. HMV was selling a boxed set of all episodes last Christmas, it was just that little bit too expensive for me to pick up. I think it might have been an HMV-only release. I loved the series as a kid, but don't remember too much about it now.

I loved the series. I just re-watched it last year on DVD's made form old cassette tapes when someone recorded it off of TV. I iwll definately be buying this release, as it will have to be of better quality!

Oh yeah! I've been talking about this series for ages and everone, including people who watched it with me, think I'm insane and imagined it.

I remember this show. I to wonder how it will hold up over time.

It's a period show so it holds up better than most. However, the acting is definitely 80s.

For Pulp, it holds up just fine! I was a kid when I used to watch it. My dad and I would always catch it, no DVR's back then! He doesnt remember it, but I sure do, pleasant memory of my childhood…

I noticed something strange in the product description. It says that TOTGM takes place in 1938, which doesn't make sense as Collins wears a "Flying Tigers" jacket, but the AVG didn't see combat until 1941.

It made just as little sense when the show first aired but the words "television" and "historical accuracy" turned out to be as difficult to use in the same sentence then as they are now.

LT

It was a pretty cheesy show, very '80s as others have said, but I loved the setting. I'll be renting this on Netflix at some point.

of all the plot holes you pick that one???

I am in for the DVD set too, cant wait

>>of all the plot holes you pick that one???<<

Ummm…that's a little more than a plot hole. If "Cutter" was an AVG pilot flying against the Japanese, and the series takes place in South East Asia, shouldn't there be some Japanese soldiers around? I give the series a lot of leeway because it's pretty "tongue-in-cheek", and a lot of it is done for laughs. As a matter of fact I stopped watching it after a few episodes for that reason. But the AVG jacket and hat is pretty hard to ignore.

cool. Will keep an eye out for this one!

Already bought it and it's supposed to ship on the 14th.

Let's see, the one of the main re-occuring villians was a Japanese Princess who's father was Scottish, and controlled a group of Samurai who flew Japanese Zero aircraft…???

The most intelligent person on the show was a dog with a glass eye?

Almost every white person on the home base island was a secret agent?

There was a island of lost Egyptians? With a Pyrimid?

And you are worried about a AVG jacket in 1938. Silly rabbit.

I just mentioned this show to my family last week. I'll definitely buy the set.

I think all that was explained in a time warp episode that was never written.

Hooray! That's now officially on my list!!!

It's pulp adventure. Might as well question the historical accuracy of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Gunga Din.

You mean the Ark of the Covenant isn't lost in some government warehouse?

>>Gunga Din.<<

Whaaat??!! You mean there wasn't a golden temple with a pit of snakes inside that nobody ever noticed before Din happened to find it??!! Inconceivable!

OK. OK. I understand that TOTGM was a fantasy, but why go through the trouble of giving "Cutter" a jacket with a blood chit on the back if there was no connection to the story? Why not just give him a leather jacket and leave it at that?

Because, the writers of the show thought "Flying Tigers" were cool and their brief reading of the history amounted to noting that Chennault started work for the Chinese in 1937 (they never got as far as finding out that the first American pilots were not recruited until 1940.)

This is pre-internet days. They would have had to do research that no one else would have at their fingertips. So just alter history to fit the story.

On general release in the Uk on 10th July, at the not-so cheap RRP £60.00 GBP I think that I'll wait a while…

I saw this whem it first came out, recorded the theme music on cassette tape to play. Actually still have the storybook from when I was younger. Probably don't want to watch it, even though I want to, just because It can't be as fun as I remember.

I'll give it a miss for now.

Re not old enough, TMP link , nope, that's not it. Just missed it.

. . . Chennault started work for the Chinese in 1937 (they never got as far as finding out that the first American pilots were not recruited until 1940.)

Maybe Jake was kind of a pre-release prototype of an AVG pilot, see how the jacket looked "in action," things like that.

:)

>>Because, the writers of the show thought "Flying Tigers" were cool and their brief reading of the history amounted to noting that Chennault started work for the Chinese in 1937 (they never got as far as finding out that the first American pilots were not recruited until 1940.)<<

Rich. I have books on the AVG that predate 1982. I think the producers just wanted to do an "Indiana Jones" type series and as you said the writers of the show thought that the Flying Tigers were cool. They didn't take the subject matter seriously and didn't think that their audience would either. If they *had* taken it more seriously, like the 1950's TV show "Soldiers of Fortune", IMO it would have been a better production.

True story about Tales of the Gold Monkey:

The show was, I believe, the highest rated show in its time slot and did so well that the other two rival networks had planned their own similar shows in response. However, the network that aired the show, used a different formula for calculating viewers and did not think the show did well enough to continue it. And so it was cancelled.

I watched it. it was shown in the States. Loved it.

It was shown in Australia. One of the shows I was allowed to stay up for as a kid. I have old copies I bought off eBay but have been looking forward to this. I'd heard about and almost bought the HMV edition but couldn't afford it at the time.

According to goldmonkey.com/infopage.html the series was first proposed in the late 70's but was rejected because executives thought that no one would watch a show set in the 1930s. They changed their minds after the success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". I also mentions that Bellisario always insisted that he got his inspiration from the 1939 film, "Only Angels Have Wings".

I loved this show when I was a kid! Glad to see it coming 'round again.

I bought it from HMV last year and loved it. Excellent picture quality. Some (most?) of it is ridiculously hokey but the series improved in the second half, as the producer tried to make it less Indiana Jones like, against the wishes of the network. Shame it was cancelled. Now we need "Bring em Back Alive" (that realy was dreadful!).

What really cost me the money wasn't the DVD set itself but the 1/48th Czech Models Grumman Goose I bought as a result!

I found the Lindberg 1/48 Goose at 12.00 USD to be just about right. If you search on-line there is a guy out there that makes decals for Cutter's Goose. They're pricey, but you can download an image that will make a nice spray paint template.

My set arrived today from Amazon. I pre-ordered months ago.

Eclectic Wave wrote:

"Let's see, the one of the main re-occuring villians was a Japanese Princess who's father was Scottish, and controlled a group of Samurai who flew Japanese Zero aircraft…???"

Thanks, amigo, you just saved me money and a few hours of disappointment. Sounds MASSIVELY estupido.

chicklewis 09 Jun 2010 1:37 p.m. PST wrote:

<Thanks, amigo, you just saved me money and a few hours of disappointment. Sounds MASSIVELY estupido.>

Aw, c'mon Chick, put yer brain in neutral and let the cheeziness take over your mind! It's no worse than Professor Henry Jones riding out a nuke blast in a refrigerator!

Let's see, a Japanese minor noble estranged due to mixed parentage operating in the Japanese Mandate of the south Pacific Ocean with a shipping empire, protected my a devoted and somewhat psychotic samurai descendant and believer in Bushido, all the while the Nazi's have planted a spy in the form of a Dutch reverend in a French Polynesian colony, that is also operated by a former American pilot and soldier of fortune and his absent-minded friend, a former PAN-AM mechanic and heavy drinker, and befriended by an American agent in the form of a sexy cabaret performer, all on the eve of WWII….sounds like classic pulp to me.

>>sounds like classic pulp to me<<

I'm not sure what you think "classic" pulp is, and I'm not trying to put you down, but back in the day the stories in pulp magazines, in the movies and on the radio were taken seriously. "Tales" is done for laughs. That's cool if you can dig it, but it's hardly "classic" pulp.

Noir is taken seriously, but not pulp. Unless of course you think G-8 and his prize battle tales and Biggles is serious stuff. And if you do, that's OK too.

>>Noir is taken seriously, but not pulp. Unless of course you think G-8 and his prize battle tales and Biggles is serious stuff. And if you do, that's OK too.<<

Nope. I can't say that I think that G-8 is "serious stuff" and I don't know anything about Biggles, but G-8 wasn't the only pulp magazine. Lovecraft, REH, ERB and a host of other very good writers had their stories published in the pulps. In fact, "noir" was born out of pulp. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler both wrote for "Black Mask" which is one of the most famous pulp magazines of all.

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I'm planning on getting it. I got the bootleg DVD's and wouldn't feel right if I didn't support the legal venue now.

I ain't worried about the wrong date with the Flying Tigers….after all, just a word of point: Very few real Pyramids in the Marivellas…..Oh wait…there isn't even really any islands named the Marivellas ;)

Overall it was a good show. 80's acting and plenty cheesy, but quite entertaining and a good watch. Beter than watching haf of the new TV programs….