Yes, it was cheesey.  Yes, it was a Raiders knockoff.  I still loved it when I was a teen.

Tales of the Gold Monkey was a prime-time show on ABC in 1982 looking to cash in on Raiders (just as CBS had Bring ’em Back Alive), but  the flavor was closer to some of the 1930s adventure movies like Only Angels Have Wings, which the creator, Donald Bellisario, claims was more the inspiration.  (He had been trying to get the series made since the 1970s, predating the Lucas-Speilberg spectacle.)

The show took place in 1938 in the South Pacific and featured a young (and improbable) Stephen Collins as a rough around the edges contract pilot, Jake Cutter.  Other backup characters followed the Bellisario Magnum PI, Airwolf, JAG motif of hero, comedic sidekick (in this case his drunk mecnahic, Corky), and a bar owner/fixer (Bon chance Louie, played by Roddy McDowell.)  The love interest was a female American spy. And of course, there was Jake’s one-eyed dog, Jack — who was alleged to answer yes/no questions with a number of banks…that no one could remember which was which.

Central to the series was the building Japanese menace, led by a “dragon lady” type —  Japanese princess Koji (of course, not played by a Japanese actress, Marta DuBois [some might remember her as the alien posing as the Devil in Star Trek: The Next Generation].)

There were 21 episodes in all, and while I’m a bit worried that it won’t hold up to a mature screening (much like Heavy Metal), I would love to see a DVD release.