Researching this title, prior to receiving it, I kept running into that comparison. I just couldn’t see it.
The series followed an ex-WWII pilot named Jake Cutter and his one-eyed dog, Jack. Jake and Jack carry cargo for paying customers in Jake’s twin propeller plane (say that five times). While making a wine delivery, Jake runs into a damsel in distress named Sarah, who he later finds out is an American spy. Stuck with Sarah, and his alcoholic mechanic friend Corky (apparently in 1982 being an alcoholic meant ‘comedy opportunity’), they start off on a quest for a Gold Monkey and continue various adventures together. In between their action, they hang out at a local bar run by a very eloquent french man named Bon Chance Louie.
The first episode was clearly a painfully put together pilot. Stephen Collins (Jake Cutter) and Caitlin O’Heaney (Sarah White) were both shaky and delivered dialogue like they had the script in front of their faces for the first time. Jeff MacKay (Corky) did a fine job introducing his character, as did Leo the Dog (Jack). As the series grew through each episode, all the actors began to get comfortable with their alter egos. Apparently the producers felt the need to spice up Bon Chance Louie, so they brought in Roddy McDowell (whom I love as an actor and will greatly miss — loved him in Fright Night) to bring out some personality.
The combination of actors and their growing experience on the show shined.
The thing that dulled the shine is the writing.
Going back to the first thing I mentioned, this is not Indiana Jones by any means. The adventures that Jake, Jack, Corky, Sarah and Bon Chance Louie went on were about as exciting as mowing one’s grass. It’s a shame because this could have been a really good series. Having an episode about a gold monkey is darn cool. After that the episodes become lackluster. I’m not sure what the issue is but the episodes jump from a volcano ready to destroy the island to an old war buddy coming to see Jake about moving ‘medical’ supplies all the way to a story about the death of a Japanese/American princess.
What’s funny is that they synopsis for each story sounds great, but the execution is just ‘blah’. If the series had established the characters a bit more, or even taken the entire first season and had it look for a ‘gold monkey’ and conclude the season with some sort of resolve on that particular tale then it would have been great. Regretfully what you get is a slew of disjointed episodes that barely have anything to do with each other or the characters.
This show could have been much better. The budget was there, the locale was there, but the stories just couldn’t hold up.
With that said, is the series neat to watch? I love 80s shows and I love watching them. I’m taken back when I see the Universal/MCA logo at the end of each of the episodes. I love how they do the freeze frames at the end of the credits. I also like that the title credits take more than 15 seconds to get through, something that gives that decade’s shows personality. It screams 80s and I couldn’t be happier.
People that remember this show will be thrilled that it’s captured and preserved beautifully on DVD. What’s particularly cool about the DVD set is that you get some really good special features. Collins, O’Heaney, Harvey Laidman (director) and Tom Greene (writer/producer) are on a 36-minute ‘making of’ documentary that provides some pretty cool insight on the show. Intentions and stories make up the documentary and are more fascinating than the episodes of the show. Aside from this you get some good audio commentary on five of the episodes, some biographies and various little things that will amuse you.
Overall some really good features.