Searching for the Mysterious Cities of Gold

January 2, 2011 11:24 PM

It is the 16th century. From all over Europe great ships sail west to conquer the new world, the Americas. The men eager to seek their fortune, to find new adventures in new lands. They long to cross uncharted seas and discover unknown countries. To find secret gold on a mountain trail high in the Andes. They dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to Eldorado, and the Mysterious Cities Of Gold.

The original run was from 06/30/1986 to 03/24/1987. Now it is possible to view the series in its entirety on hulu with limited commercial interruption.

Episodes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

posted by AElfwine Evenstar (41 comments total)

Shameless Star Trek intro ripoff. But works.
posted by stbalbach at 11:29 PM on January 2, 2011 [7 favorites]

Favourited!

Then favourite removed 'cos I don't live in the US, and hulu wont let me watch it here.

Wake me when someone posts some way around region restrictions.
posted by robotot at 11:35 PM on January 2, 2011 [7 favorites]

Esteban!
posted by Artw at 11:43 PM on January 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

the intro was one of those songs that my friends and i would just randomly start singing on car trips.
posted by gorestainedrunes at 11:46 PM on January 2, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ohgoddamn. That was a favorite show of mine, growing up. I remember they'd never show all the episodes needed to form a coherent storyline. Or that's what I felt when I was... what? 5? I have doubts that it'll still hold my interest now, but I'm checking it out!
posted by alex_skazat at 11:48 PM on January 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hulu now has a lot of anime of varying levels of quality/absurdity/suckiness. Example: Ramen Fighter Miki (think Samurai Pizza Cats taking itself too seriously).
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:48 PM on January 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

hulu wont let me watch it here.

:( That sucks. Maybe you can watch them on youtube. Here is the link to the first episode.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 11:49 PM on January 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

I must have been about 8 when this aired on the ABC. I remember falling in love with Zia and being afraid of those creepy Olmecs. Stupid hulu region restrictions.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:04 AM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

The original run was from 06/30/1986 to 03/24/1987

..in the USA. It originally aired in Japan 1982/83. Then the French redid some parts and redubbed it, from there it was translated into other languages and worked its war around, the US got it later on cable TV Nickelodeon.
posted by stbalbach at 12:05 AM on January 3, 2011

All I remember about this show is that I never knew when it was going to be on and always wanted to see more of it, because I wanted to know what the hell was going on.
posted by flaterik at 12:15 AM on January 3, 2011

Some interesting factoids..

The story was written by Frenchman Jean Chalopin, who is a sort of one-man cartoon writing factory, he also did Inspector Gadget, The Care Bears, The New Adventures of He-Man and dozs others.

The story is based on the novel The King's Fifth (1966) by Scott O'Dell (1898-1989).
posted by stbalbach at 12:30 AM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wake me when someone posts some way around region restrictions.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network
posted by metsauce at 12:31 AM on January 3, 2011

Ahh... see, I remembered the theme song vaguely but I was only 5 or 6. I might have to kill some time watching these over lunchbreak at work.
posted by sbutler at 12:33 AM on January 3, 2011

Here in the Bay Area, they re-ran Mysterious Cities of Gold in the late '80s on KTSF, but quickly replaced it with Saber Rider.

My affinity for this show used to drive my friend Iishwara into fits because I'd insist that we turn off his Sega system in time to catch the broadcast. Thanks for the memory.
posted by Graygorey at 12:39 AM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's actually pretty good (much more watchable than Goldorak or Albator/Captain Harlock). But I wish somebody would edit it to remove Sancho/Pedro and almost every scene with Zia, the fact that she has to be rescued so often gets old quick.

The french intro has a better voice over IMHO... the song after it is still crap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w_zn3uRwPU

The soundtrack has some good themes, some guy redid most of the themes....

http://www.citesdor.com/musiques/musiques_boub.php3
posted by coust at 12:46 AM on January 3, 2011

but quickly replaced it with Saber Rider.

I remember liking that show but I was a bigger fan of Galaxy Rangers.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 12:50 AM on January 3, 2011

Oh, wow. Even though I barely remember this show I know I loved it. Thanks for posting!
posted by brundlefly at 1:18 AM on January 3, 2011

Wow, I loved Galaxy Rangers. Are there any episodes of that floating around?
posted by aychedee at 1:34 AM on January 3, 2011

(think Samurai Pizza Cats taking itself too seriously)

Isn't that most anime?
posted by munchingzombie at 2:15 AM on January 3, 2011

I had completely forgotten about this until a friend bought the boxed set - and as soon as I heard the theme tune I remembered how much I loved it.

Oh, and insert usual grumble about hulu not working in the UK.
posted by Coobeastie at 2:23 AM on January 3, 2011

I loved this show as a kid. The Australian ABC showed it weekday afternoons. I watched the whole series ... and then missed the last episode. I was so annoyed. Then a couple of years later, they showed the series again. I wasn't able to watch it much, but I kept dropping in to see where they were up to so I could see the last episode ... and then I missed it again! Then 15 years later the internet came along ...
posted by jjderooy at 2:25 AM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

jjderooy, you and I are of the same era of aussie afternoon toons, back when abc was where it was at - and I missed the ending too! I downloaded the whole series, but that lappy blew up and it just wasn't a high priority to re-download on my (at that time) capped internet connection. Time to queue it, I think.
posted by Raunchy 60s Humour at 3:23 AM on January 3, 2011

I used to watch this on the BBC in what I guess was the late 80s. The ludicrously long intro and credits were promoted (tongue in cheek) as key feature of the program. The continuity announcer would sing along, play air guitar or just generally take the piss. At the time I thought this was the height of clever television ;)

Great show. I downloaded some bad VHS rips several years ago and made some DVDs for my brother. An official 6-disc DVD is now available for all your Esteban needs.
posted by samworm at 4:00 AM on January 3, 2011

Anybody got an angle on Spartakus, which aired after MCoG on Nickelodeon in the 1980s? I've been looking for that show for years.
posted by valkyryn at 4:39 AM on January 3, 2011

Oh, SHIT! I'm looking forward to re-watching these! I loved it as a child, but was always a little unclear on how much of it was actual history and how much was embellishment. Which, in retropect, may be one reason why I got so into conspiracy theories as a youth.
posted by Greg Nog at 5:17 AM on January 3, 2011

Wow, I loved Galaxy Rangers. Are there any episodes of that floating around?

Yes, look here. Also hulu, apologies to non USians.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 5:37 AM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I got your Cities of Gold.
posted by marxchivist at 6:24 AM on January 3, 2011

Best theme song ever! Love this show!
posted by chara at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2011

I never watched the show, but I did play the hell out of "Seven Cities of Gold" around the same time it was originally broadcast.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:31 AM on January 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

You and me both, Burhanistan.
posted by briank at 7:32 AM on January 3, 2011

This is like a fever dream from my very early childhood.
posted by Tesseractive at 7:43 AM on January 3, 2011

Wake me when someone posts some way around region restrictions.

Hey, wakey wakey! It's time for class, and for today's lesson, we'll be studying proxy servers.
posted by hippybear at 8:32 AM on January 3, 2011

The story is based on the novel The King's Fifth (1966) by Scott O'Dell (1898-1989).

I don't remember the TV series at all, but I'm now interested based on this factoid. I remember the book very well from my childhood, for all that I was too old to catch the show at the magic cartoon age. It's saveable on Netflix, so maybe if all of us add it to our queues, they'll buy it.
posted by immlass at 9:40 AM on January 3, 2011

I looked around for this show several years ago and found some forum where people were exchanging tapes. I managed to pay someone to send me extremely bad VHS copies of every episode.

... and they're mostly terrible. Every 30 minutes or so something would happen that would give me a nice warm flare-up of nostalgia (like the discovery of the Solaris, or Mendoza rescuing Esteban from the sea, or Esteban swimming himself into exhaustion to go after Zia). But in between it's really tough going. Sancho and Pedro are insufferable.

So here's what I did: I waited until I was in bed with a high fever, and then I watched them all, back to back. It was glorious, but I think it was kind of a one-time thing.
posted by gurple at 11:05 AM on January 3, 2011

Broadcast here in SA as well. As well as Spartakus which was all kinds of messed up. Also Saber Rider which they dubbed into Xhosa.
posted by PenDevil at 11:18 AM on January 3, 2011

This takes me back.

In college I had a friend who was totally into Mysterious Cities of Gold. In the mid 90s with all the other anime series out there, whenever we watched anime, it was the only thing he chose. When he became archivist of the local anime club, he removed nearly all the club's tapes of anime series due to "copyright conflict", but his 4th-generation tapes of Mysterious Cities of Gold remained.

I really can't stand that series- never been able to get past three episodes. The only thing more annoying than my friend's obsession with Mysterious Cities of Gold, is possibly my other friend's obsession with Orange Road. But the less said about that the better.
posted by happyroach at 1:01 PM on January 3, 2011

valkyryn: God, was Spartakus trippy.

There is something to these two shows, MCoG and Spartakus, that seems missing from children's entertainment today. That whole sense of adventure thing, of genuine wonder, the concern with the seeking out of lost mysteries.

They both also feature children who proactively go out and seek adventure, unhindered by parents. I wonder if this isn't at the root of why we don't see this kind of TV anymore.
posted by JHarris at 2:16 PM on January 3, 2011

The French version of Spartakus also had a ridiculously good theme song.

The English/Spanish version, not so much.
posted by 0xdeadc0de at 5:23 PM on January 3, 2011

I'm gonna call the mysterious technology they keep finding "Goldpunk".
posted by Artw at 5:44 PM on January 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

This looks like the entire 2 seasons, in French:

http://www.veoh.com/collection/lesmysterieusesciteesdor/
posted by alex_skazat at 11:50 PM on January 3, 2011

There is something to these two shows, MCoG and Spartakus, that seems missing from children's entertainment today. That whole sense of adventure thing, of genuine wonder, the concern with the seeking out of lost mysteries.

They both also feature children who proactively go out and seek adventure, unhindered by parents. I wonder if this isn't at the root of why we don't see this kind of TV anymore.

As always, I recommend that everyone watch the three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender! It's really remarkable.
posted by Greg Nog at 9:27 AM on January 4, 2011