http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/

A long time ago, when men were all babes, every Friday evening at 6pm on BBC2, the entire schoolboy (plus the occasional schoolgirl) population of the UK would sit in front of the TV watching "Monkey", a Japanese fantasy about a boy priest Tripitaka and his three disciples Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy on their way to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures to save the world.

In all, 39 episodes were shown, featuring the wildest adventures you could ever imagine. Demons, vampires, dog-people, witches - you name it, Monkey had it!

Tripitaka was the sensible boy priest who was forever trying to keep his disciples under control. Monkey had amazing magical powers; he could cloud-fly, fight with a magic wishing staff, produce an entire army of warriors by blowing on a chest hair. He was mischievous, and liked nothing more than a good fight. To keep him under control, he wore a band on his head, and Tripitaka would say the Headache Sutra to cause him pain to make him behave himself. Pigsy was the lustful, greedy pig spirit who loved drinking wine, eating lots of food, chatting up women, and lazing around. Aside from all this, he was in fact a good fighter, with his trusty muckrake. Sandy was the quiet, reflective water spirit who was much a thinker than a doer. He often philosophised on the meaning of life, the world etc. Before meeting up with Tripitaka and co, he was a cannibal, and that's why he wore skulls around his neck.

Nowadays, there's a great deal of Monkey nostalgia going on on the Internet, focused on the Monkey! web site:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/
Check out this web site for Monkey videos, pictures, sounds, episode summaries, a drinking game, tv guide, movies, penpals etc. (you get the idea).
There's even a Monkey Mailing List, set up for Monkey fans around the world to get together and discuss their hero:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/mailinglist.html

Buy Monkey Videos at BlackStar:
Vol 1         Vol 2         Vol 3
Vol 4         Vol 5         Vol 6
Vol 7         Vol 8         Vol 9