Tales of the Gold Monkey

[jake_fink]

Just a point, Tales of the Gold Monkey predates Raiders by a couple years.
It has some fans, the COW folks would fit right in.

http://www.goldmonkey.com/

1982 is a couple of years before 1981? Weird.

 

[GOK]

I think Carebear was referring to this:

ABC rejected the series in 1979 after Don Bellisario refused to update it. The network executives thought that no one would watch a show set in the 1930s. They quickly changed their minds after the enormous success of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981.

Which was indeed a couple of years before '81.

 

[carebear]

I think Carebear was referring to this:



Which was indeed a couple of years before '81.

NOW you're forgiven.

 

[GOK]

NOW you're forgiven.

Aha, my cunning plan to get back in favour worked! Yay! lol

 

[ShanghaiJack]

Gold Monkey

All,

I have the DVD set, as advertised
on the Gold Monkey website. It's "ok"..
just old VHS recordings re-cut onto DVD.
The show, IMHO was excellent. Well...
When I was 12 it was spectacular! Historically
inaccurate, yes.... Hoaky, yes......
But most entertaining.
"Tales of the Gold Monkey" and
"Call to Glory" inspired my aviation
pursuits. And 4000+ hours of
flight-time in the 'ol log book later....

Let's hope the studio will introduce
all of our favorite shows [restored] onto DVD.

See You in the Clouds....
SJ

 

[Doctor Damage]

I had watched this show when I was a kid and enjoyed it so I picked up the DVD box set several years ago and found that I still really enjoyed it (except the pilot episode, which is bad). It's got some good humour in it for adults and it's just charming and harmless entertainment. I'd like to see Bring 'Em Back Alive again but that's not somethat that will ever make it to DVD (if someone knows differently, please let me know).

 

[Tiki Tom]

I loved the concept of Tales of the Gold Monkey. However, It’s execution was a little weak. Nonetheless, I have the box set and it’s a fun bit of fluff.

I still wonder why there are very few other modern examples of that genre around. Is it that there are just not that many people interested in pulp-fiction type adventure stories set in the 1930s in exotic locales? Is it viewed as un-PC these days? Saw something once that argued that “exotic” is a code word for cultural appropriation and racism. I disagree, but that is neither here nor there. Also there is the whole “you shouldn’t trivialize the evils of Nazism (or in this case Japanese Imperialism) by turning them into cardboard bad guys” thing. Maybe it is as simple as “baggy trousers and fedoras are out of style”. Has Indiana Jones become such a cliché that it has poisoned the well? I think Agent Carter might have been the last show that gave the genre a whirl.

Anyway, I’d very much like to see some current program take a stab at showcasing the STYLE of the 1930s and take place in a world that has not yet been domesticated, electronically networked, and made bland. And if you want to make the bad guys a little more nuanced that’s okay, but there should still be emphasis on the fact that “bad guys” actually did exist and they were actually trying to take over large parts of the globe during that distant day and age. Throw in some cool vintage transportation and a period soundtrack and I'd be over the moon.

In short: I would not be opposed to a 2020 relaunch of Tales of the Gold Monkey*. Make it a little less hokey and a little more historically accurate. Film it at actual South Pacific locations. Load it with star-power. Hire some decent writers. Throw some money at it. If only.

(*Settle down. It's just a fantasy.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I loved the concept of Tales of the Gold Monkey. However, It’s execution was a little weak. Nonetheless, I have the box set and it’s a fun bit of fluff.

I still wonder why there are very few other modern examples of that genre around. Is it that there are just not that many people interested in pulp-fiction type adventure stories set in the 1930s in exotic locales? Is it viewed as un-PC these days? Saw something once that argued that “exotic” is a code word for cultural appropriation and racism. I disagree, but that is neither here nor there. Also there is the whole “you shouldn’t trivialize the evils of Nazism (or in this case Japanese Imperialism) by turning them into cardboard bad guys” thing. Maybe it is as simple as “baggy trousers and fedoras are out of style”. Has Indiana Jones become such a cliché that it has poisoned the well? I think Agent Carter might have been the last show that gave the genre a whirl.

Anyway, I’d very much like to see some current program take a stab at showcasing the STYLE of the 1930s and take place in a world that has not yet been domesticated, electronically networked, and made bland. And if you want to make the bad guys a little more nuanced that’s okay, but there should still be emphasis on the fact that “bad guys” actually did exist and they were actually trying to take over large parts of the globe during that distant day and age. Throw in some cool vintage transportation and a period soundtrack and I'd be over the moon.

In short: I would not be opposed to a 2020 relaunch of Tales of the Gold Monkey*. Make it a little less hokey and a little more historically accurate. Film it at actual South Pacific locations. Load it with star-power. Hire some decent writers. Throw some money at it. If only.

(*Settle down. It's just a fantasy.)

A reworking of "Terry and the Pirates" for contemporary audiences could go over big right now. Consider -- the original had nuanced ethnic characters, a really strong female lead in the Dragon Lady, who despite the lingering whiff of racial stereotyping, was a classic anti-hero before the term was invented. You had Japanese fascists/militarists versus heroic Chinese defending their country from invasion. And if you really wanted to bring it up to date, there's no reason why Terry Lee and Pat Ryan couldn't be women. And their sidekick Connie, too. I'd be fully on board with something like this. I'd even write it.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Maybe we could crowd fund it. I volunteer to be on your concept development team.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I loved the concept of Tales of the Gold Monkey. However, It’s execution was a little weak. Nonetheless, I have the box set and it’s a fun bit of fluff.

I still wonder why there are very few other modern examples of that genre around. Is it that there are just not that many people interested in pulp-fiction type adventure stories set in the 1930s in exotic locales? Is it viewed as un-PC these days? Saw something once that argued that “exotic” is a code word for cultural appropriation and racism. I disagree, but that is neither here nor there. Also there is the whole “you shouldn’t trivialize the evils of Nazism (or in this case Japanese Imperialism) by turning them into cardboard bad guys” thing. Maybe it is as simple as “baggy trousers and fedoras are out of style”. Has Indiana Jones become such a cliché that it has poisoned the well? I think Agent Carter might have been the last show that gave the genre a whirl.

Anyway, I’d very much like to see some current program take a stab at showcasing the STYLE of the 1930s and take place in a world that has not yet been domesticated, electronically networked, and made bland. And if you want to make the bad guys a little more nuanced that’s okay, but there should still be emphasis on the fact that “bad guys” actually did exist and they were actually trying to take over large parts of the globe during that distant day and age. Throw in some cool vintage transportation and a period soundtrack and I'd be over the moon.

In short: I would not be opposed to a 2020 relaunch of Tales of the Gold Monkey*. Make it a little less hokey and a little more historically accurate. Film it at actual South Pacific locations. Load it with star-power. Hire some decent writers. Throw some money at it. If only.

(*Settle down. It's just a fantasy.)

It would need to be a lot less hokey. I think the world today may be too complex for this kind of show unless they can do justice to the issues of race and culture and colonization and take a more nuanced Deadwood-style approach to it - which has gritty social comment propelled by energy and humour, along with a great writing.

But if it's just a half-baked Indiana Jones style production without it's own clear point of view, and if it doesn't work hard to make something intelligent of the material, it would be just too banal for today's audiences and would genuinely risk trivialising history and being offensive in all the wrong ways.

 

[MikeKardec]

A reworking of "Terry and the Pirates" for contemporary audiences could go over big right now. Consider -- the original had nuanced ethnic characters, a really strong female lead in the Dragon Lady, who despite the lingering whiff of racial stereotyping, was a classic anti-hero before the term was invented. You had Japanese fascists/militarists versus heroic Chinese defending their country from invasion. And if you really wanted to bring it up to date, there's no reason why Terry Lee and Pat Ryan couldn't be women. And their sidekick Connie, too. I'd be fully on board with something like this. I'd even write it.

They could all be women, gay and trans ... I fear that's what it takes sometimes! I don't know if anyone but six of us here cares about China in the 1930s. I'd go for it though ... if you kept the gender bending down to a dull roar.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Terry and the Pirates would be a perfect reboot for our times. Dragon Lady and Sanjak (sp? It autocorrected my spelling) fit right in with today’s bicoastal zeitgeist.* It could kind of be like rocky horror show, only set in 1930s China. Definitely some marketing possibilities there. Sorry Mike, your last wish probably goes out the window.

* “Bicoastal Zeitgeist” - I need to copyright that as a brand name for ...?

 

[Edward]

I had watched this show when I was a kid and enjoyed it so I picked up the DVD box set several years ago and found that I still really enjoyed it (except the pilot episode, which is bad). It's got some good humour in it for adults and it's just charming and harmless entertainment. I'd like to see Bring 'Em Back Alive again but that's not somethat that will ever make it to DVD (if someone knows differently, please let me know).

Rereading this thread, your post sparked a thought about how our conception of the past is so influenced by the media of the time which is preserved; that this may not always be wholly representative is somewhat hammered home as one looks back on the shows we used to watch in the eighties, and how many of them are almost entirely forgotten now. I remember in particular an awful lot of eighties sitcoms that were probably very second rate were we to see them again now - Home to Roost, Duty Free, Full House, The Gaffer, Halleluljah, Andy Capp, Don't Wait Up, To The Manor Born, Me and My Girl, Galloping Galaxies, Never the Twain, You Must Be The Husband.... the list goes on. I seem to be the only person in the world who remembers a kids' TV show from the 70s called Ragtime. I wonder if this will change in any way as we switch to streaming media, or will the move away from even selective video/DVD/BD releases towards the ephemeral only compound the effect? Notably, seven years ago or so my undergraduates had never heard of Gene Hunt, or had never seen Father Ted Crilly in action, having been too young to be the target audience at the time. Now, however, as long as I stick to the 'classics' there's a whole new generation can comprehend my popular culture reference points because they've been presented with it on Netflix / Prime / whatevs.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Well, this is quite possibly the most poorly written article ever. Yet the mere fact that it was, er, “published” only last month made me pay attention. Title of the article: “why it is time to bring back Tales of the Gold Monkey.”

https://www.tvovermind.com/why-its-time-to-bring-back-tales-of-the-gold-monkey/

ah, if only. Don’t yank my chain like that.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Rereading this thread, your post sparked a thought about how our conception of the past is so influenced by the media of the time which is preserved; that this may not always be wholly representative is somewhat hammered home as one looks back on the shows we used to watch in the eighties, and how many of them are almost entirely forgotten now. I remember in particular an awful lot of eighties sitcoms that were probably very second rate were we to see them again now - Home to Roost, Duty Free, Full House, The Gaffer, Halleluljah, Andy Capp, Don't Wait Up, To The Manor Born, Me and My Girl, Galloping Galaxies, Never the Twain, You Must Be The Husband.... the list goes on. I seem to be the only person in the world who remembers a kids' TV show from the 70s called Ragtime. I wonder if this will change in any way as we switch to streaming media, or will the move away from even selective video/DVD/BD releases towards the ephemeral only compound the effect? Notably, seven years ago or so my undergraduates had never heard of Gene Hunt, or had never seen Father Ted Crilly in action, having been too young to be the target audience at the time. Now, however, as long as I stick to the 'classics' there's a whole new generation can comprehend my popular culture reference points because they've been presented with it on Netflix / Prime / whatevs.

You're quite right that some films and tv shows age better than others. I'm rewatching ST TNG for the first time since I saw the original broadcast on tv and my goodness it holds up as quality television. But yeah, there's a bunch of stuff from the same period which I'm sure I'd quickly shut off if I tried to watch it again.

One thing that annoys me about younger generations discovering classics on streaming is that they are amazed that good movies and tv shows were made before, say, 2010. Geez. I want to say if you liked that then I can give you a list of ten other old movies from half a century ago which are ten times better...

 

[MikeKardec]

I don't know if you could do something like this these days, serious or not, without pissing someone off.

Just in general I worry about limited interest. I own some of the last, marketable (as in still selling modestly well in book form) stories of this type, and there has never been any interest either from others, or when I personally tried pitching the various concepts in either their original or updated forms. A celebrity writer/show runner or a star might get something going ... maybe. I suspect that the entire Hollywood establishment sees this sort of material through the lens of Indiana Jones, and I never got the feeling that they really understood THAT!

I think there's a reply to a thread around here somewhere where I made the argument that whoever understood the pulp genre well enough to aim Raiders of the Lost Ark in the right direction was not around when the sequels were made. In my opinion they got confused about the genre or the medium or something and shifted from classic 1940s adventure movie or "Pulp Magazine Inspired Adventure" to "Comic Book." If you enjoy the adventure fiction produced between the 1870s and the 1950s, the comic book style style in the Raiders sequels (and a little in Raiders) comes up short. There were a few comics that skewed serious to play in the realm of classic adventure fiction too. Terry and the Pirates was one of them.

Recently I've put one of my own concepts out there, a bit more up to date than my Dad's stuff, but still very much in this vein. Interest has a way of peaking and then falling off to nothing. It's not like I'm a great TV writer or anything, but I am sure that some of it is politics. If it's not about Nazis you can barely have a historically correct bad guy. Context may be meaningless these days. Everyone is afraid that someone, or their proxy, is just waiting to be offended. It'll change but it may take awhile.

http://www.louislamourgreatadventure.com/ClassicAdventure.htm

 

[Tiki Tom]

FYI. Thought you might be amused that the Grandson of Ponga Jim Mayo has a small bit part in a book I just wrote (a murder mystery/adventure set in Hawaii). No worries. I have no Agent or publisher and none are interested. But I may self publish one of these days.

 

[Frunobulax]

I don't know if you could do something like this these days, serious or not, without pissing someone off.

Just in general I worry about limited interest. I own some of the last, marketable (as in still selling modestly well in book form) stories of this type, and there has never been any interest either from others, or when I personally tried pitching the various concepts in either their original or updated forms. A celebrity writer/show runner or a star might get something going ... maybe. I suspect that the entire Hollywood establishment sees this sort of material through the lens of Indiana Jones, and I never got the feeling that they really understood THAT!

I think there's a reply to a thread around here somewhere where I made the argument that whoever understood the pulp genre well enough to aim Raiders of the Lost Ark in the right direction was not around when the sequels were made. In my opinion they got confused about the genre or the medium or something and shifted from classic 1940s adventure movie or "Pulp Magazine Inspired Adventure" to "Comic Book." If you enjoy the adventure fiction produced between the 1870s and the 1950s, the comic book style style in the Raiders sequels (and a little in Raiders) comes up short. There were a few comics that skewed serious to play in the realm of classic adventure fiction too. Terry and the Pirates was one of them.

Recently I've put one of my own concepts out there, a bit more up to date than my Dad's stuff, but still very much in this vein. Interest has a way of peaking and then falling off to nothing. It's not like I'm a great TV writer or anything, but I am sure that some of it is politics. If it's not about Nazis you can barely have a historically correct bad guy. Context may be meaningless these days. Everyone is afraid that someone, or their proxy, is just waiting to be offended. It'll change but it may take awhile.

http://www.louislamourgreatadventure.com/ClassicAdventure.htm

Well, that sounds like I'll never get that Doc Savage show I've dreamed about since I was a pup.

 

[MikeKardec]

Well, there was some discussion a little while ago about how Clark Savage Jr. was a "superhero" and that was something that SUPPOSEDLY worked these days. Yeah, maybe. It's never good to chase a declining trend. Especially with the now forgotten thing that STARTED it. Okay, maybe Tarzan started it. Unsure.

I grew up on the Bantam reprints of Doc Savage. In the old days all the Bantam writers got one copy of every book Bantam produced. They came in a big box three or four times a year. For us it was like Christmas.

We'll see. Adventure stories set before the era of jet travel are a genre unto themselves. That was when the world was still wide enough to contain wonders the average man could experience yet still mysterious enough that those wonders wouldn't be included on a packaged tour. I think that concept still has legs. As soon as we can clear our minds of Indy we can reset and start over.

 

[Edward]

You're quite right that some films and tv shows age better than others. I'm rewatching ST TNG for the first time since I saw the original broadcast on tv and my goodness it holds up as quality television. But yeah, there's a bunch of stuff from the same period which I'm sure I'd quickly shut off if I tried to watch it again.

The look of the early TNG seasons has dated badly - very, very eighties (weirdly, the original series never looked dated to me - perhaps because it was always 'retro cool' to me, but I remember the eighties when it was "now"?) - but the quality of the writing still holds up. I think that's the key: much can be forgiven in the way of rubber suited aliens and wobbly walls if the story is engaging and well told. In many ways, prior to the modern wave of CGI making so many visuals both affordable and even possible, I think budgets often forced a greater concentration on storytelling than there often is now. It'll be interesting to see what survives as "classic" and what is forgotten of today's shows.

One thing that annoys me about younger generations discovering classics on streaming is that they are amazed that good movies and tv shows were made before, say, 2010. Geez. I want to say if you liked that then I can give you a list of ten other old movies from half a century ago which are ten times better...

What amuses and scares me is how they bracket things. A year or so ago I was sitting in the cinema one night, having a tea before the auditorium opened, and the kid in charge of the music was playing the Beatles, Oasis, Hendrix, Nirvana.... fine stuff, but to him, I realised, it was all simply "retro, from before I was born". It's a weird sensation when you realise the 'new' stuff I listened to at their age is now viewed as "cool stuff from the olden days" like Hendrix was when I was nineteen! I see the same in the "classic old movie" posters they prize. They still buy Taxi Driver and The Godfather like I did in the nineties, but now Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting are in there too... cool "olde worlde" images for films they may or may not have seen.

I think there's a reply to a thread around here somewhere where I made the argument that whoever understood the pulp genre well enough to aim Raiders of the Lost Ark in the right direction was not around when the sequels were made. In my opinion they got confused about the genre or the medium or something and shifted from classic 1940s adventure movie or "Pulp Magazine Inspired Adventure" to "Comic Book." If you enjoy the adventure fiction produced between the 1870s and the 1950s, the comic book style style in the Raiders sequels (and a little in Raiders) comes up short. There were a few comics that skewed serious to play in the realm of classic adventure fiction too. Terry and the Pirates was one of them.

Unfashionable as I am, I enjoyed the change in pace of Indy when he shifted to the fifties and the story became a pastiche of the fifties sci-fi that was the equivalent by then of the pulp stuff in the 30s. The issue I think is how an audience reacts. When I first saw Indiana Jones, I had no idea whatsoever about the reference points - I just took it at face value. (Funnily enough, I did the same with Ghostbusters - I only really realised it was a comedy as an adult.) It's not surprising if the series moved away from the purity of its original aims if the audience were oblivious to that and enjoyed it on a different level. John Waters talks about this sort of thing in the extras on the Cry Baby DVD - he was making a deliberate satire of an Elvis film, but of course the kids who flocked to see Johnny Depp in the cinema in 1990 had never seen an Elvis film, and read it in a totally different way. Then there was Rango - lovely little film, very clever, very funny, but it bombed with the kiddy audience because the Western genre was so out of favour for so long they just didn't 'get' it. Shame, as it really is very clever. Had it been a hit, though, despite that, I think there's every chance it would have veered further and further away from the conventions of the source material for the simple reason of audience expectations (or lack thereof).

Well, that sounds like I'll never get that Doc Savage show I've dreamed about since I was a pup.

I'm sure there was a film I saw on TV years ago - DocSavage and the Green Death? I remember seeing that around the time I was watching a lot of Flash Gordon (animated series, though I'd already seen the campy Brian Blessed one and the Buster Crabbe serial), and I loved it. About 1984ish, I think that was. From what little I otherwise know of the character, I think it would be fantastic to see a revival on Netlfix or the likes, but it would have to be when it finds it audience. I very much enjoyed The Phantom too, but I know that bombed at the box office. Maybe if Sam Raimi ever gets the rights to do his version of The Shadow...