Tales of the Gold Monkey is a 1982 adventure television show broadcast by ABC. Most critics saw the program as the network's attempt to capitalize on the success of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark the previous year, in the same vein as Bring 'Em Back Alive on CBS. In actuality, the premise of Tales bears a much stronger resemblance to the 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings and the 1944 film To Have and Have Not. Creator Donald P. Bellisario tried to get the series commissioned since the late 1970s, but executives felt that audiences wouldn't be interested in an adventure series set in the... 1930s. It was the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark that changed their minds. The series featured the romance of early aviation, exotic locales and cliff-hanging action. Set in the South Pacific in 1938, the series is about an ex-Flying Tigers pilot named Jake Cutter . Now the operator of an air cargo delivery service based on the fictional South Seas island Bora Gora, he flies a red and white Grumman Goose called Cutter's Goose. Jake's best friend is his mechanic Corky , a good-hearted alcoholic whose memory is hazy as a result of the quantity of booze he consumes.
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