Trivia / Tales of the Gold Monkey

• Dueling Shows: With Bring 'Em Back Alive, which is why Stephen Collins is sometimes mistaken for Bruce Boxleitner. Collins considers it a huge compliment.
• Edited for Syndication: In the late 80s two episodes were edited together to form a "movie" retitled "Curse of the Gold Monkey".
• Executive Meddling: the studio kept trying to make the series Lighter and Softer and more kid-oriented, not to mention ease up on the intrigue and plot turns.
  Donald Baer (director): The network didn't like the lush look of the series. They wanted it to be light and sunny, like a kid's show. They saw it as bright. The villains had to be clear cut and the very idea that characters might speak with foreign accents really bothered them. It was unbelievable. Everything had to be articulated and clear and the intrigue was not what they were looking for, so the show was considered controversial. Right after the pilot, we had a meeting with network staff in Bellisaro's office, and Don was reciting some of the developing story lines. We were all nodding our heads...it was great stuff. But the network staff just sat there and said, "No, that's wrong. Don't do that."
  Tom Greene (writer): The studio kept pushing for mud people and monkey people and other elements that would play up the similarities [to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark''].
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The only way to see it until very recently.
• Prop Recycling: The Goose was reused in the Quantum Leap episode "Ghost Ship", even owned by a Cutter.
• Screwed by the Network
  Jeff MacKay: Between the time we finished shooting the season and were waiting to hear about renewal, I had contacts at the other networks, and they all told me that CBS and NBC were programming against our show. The other networks were assuming Gold Monkey would be a successful part of the ABC line-up for the next five years or so. But ABC didn't have the same confidence in us that our competition did. The word asshole leaps to mind.

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