Series Description:

The Tales of the Gold Monkey TV show was a 60 minute action/adventure series on ABC about a former Flying Tigers pilot named Jake Cutter who delivered cargo during the late 1930s all over the South Pacific. Jake's love interest was bar singer Sarah White who also happened to be an American spy. Jake was a natural to help her out with anti-Nazi/anti-Japanese spying due to his mobility throughout the South Pacific. Add to that a Nazi spy who pretended to be a man of the cloth, an evil Japanese Princess who had the "hots" for Jake, and the Princess' bodyguard who was a samurai type character and you can imagine that the action and intrigue was exciting, to say the least!

Tales of the Gold Monkey Cast:

Stephen Collins ........... Jake Cutter
Caitlin O'Heaney .......... Sarah Stickney White
Jeff MacKay ............... Corky
Roddy McDowall ............ Bon Chance Louie (Except in the Pilot Movie)
Ron Moody ................. Bon Chance Louie (Pilot Movie Only) 
Marta Dubois .............. Princess Kogi
John Calvin ............... Reverend Willie Tenboom
Les Jankey ................ Gushie the Waiter
John Fujioka .............. Todo

Tales of the Gold Monkey Trivia:

The pilot movie episodes are sometimes referred to as "Curse of the Gold Monkey".

John Calvin, Marta DuBois and John Fujioka only appeared in a few episodes of Tales of the Gold Monkey even though they were listing in every single episode's opening credits.

In 1983, the Tales of the Gold Monkey pilot movie won and Emmy for "Outstanding Art Direction for a Series". There were also two other Emmy nominations that year. They were for, "Outstanding Costume Design for a Series" for episode #18, "Naka Jima Kill" and "Outstanding Film Sound Mixing for a Series" for the Pilot Movie. Another great TV series, "Hill Street Blues", won both of those awards.

Jake had a Jack Russell Terrier appropriately named, "Jack". The dog appeared to have nearly human intelligence (if not more). He understood pretty much anything people said and if asked a question, he'd answer by barking two times for yes and one time for no and sometimes he'd lie. Jack only had one eye. Jack used to have an opal fake eyeball but Jake lost it in a poker game. Jack would often remind Jake just how ticked off he was about it too!

The original title of the series was "Tales of the Brass Monkey". At that time, there was a popular alcoholic drink called a "Brass Monkey" so the name was changed to "Tales of the Gold Monkey" to avoid having anyone think the show was about a cocktail.

The title of the series supposedly came from a statue in the bar where Jack and the other characters hung out. The problem with that is that the statue was actually made of brass. So after the title change to "Gold Monkey", the association between the statue and the title really made no sense.

In several episodes, the audience sees that there was an extremly huge "statue" on the island where the "Brass Monkey" statue was found. That one was made of gold and kind of looked like a monkey.

The plane that Jack flew was a Gruman Goose. It had a red & white paint job.

Jack's delivery company was located on a fictional island called, "Bora Gora".

Tales of the Gold Monkey was one of those TV shows that was good enough to have run for several seasons but it was just way too expensive to produce.

About five years after Tales of the Golden Monkey ended, Stephen Collins landed another starring role in a series titled, "Tattingers" but, unfortunately, it only lasted less than a dozen episodes. Stephen did keep busy between TV series doing parts in films, TV movies, and guest-starring on other TV shows. Then in 1996, Stephen hit the jackpot by getting the role of "Reverend Eric Camden" on the hugely successful series, "7th Heaven" that ran for 243 episodes over 11 seasons! It just doesn't get much better than that in television land!

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

Pilot Movie:

Tales of the Gold Monkey - Parts 1 & 2 (9/22/1982)

The First and Only Season

Shanghaied (9/29/1982)
Black Pearl (10/13/1982)
Legends Are Forever (10/20/1982)
Escape From Death Island (10/27/1982)
Trunk From the Past (11/3/1982)
Once a Tiger... (11/17/1982)
Honor Thy Brother (11/24/1982)
The Lady and the Tiger (12/8/1982)
The Late Sarah White (12/22/1982)
The Sultan of Swat (1/5/1983)
Ape Boy (1/12/1983)
God Save the Queen (1/19/1983)
High Stakes Lady (1/26/1983)
Force of Habit (2/2/1983)
Cooked Goose (3/4/1983)
Last Chance Louie (3/11/1983)
Naka Jima Kill (3/18/1983)
Boragora or Bust (3/25/1983)
A Distant Shout of Thunder (4/8/1983)
Mourning Becomes Matuka (6/1/1983)

Series Description:

Tales of the Gold Monkey Cast:

Tales of the Gold Monkey Trivia:

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

Pilot Movie:

The First and Only Season

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