The Mysterious Cities of Gold

Has anybody ever watched The Mysterious Cities of Gold?

I remember watching MCoG when it was shown on Children's BBC in the 80s and I think it's a great shame that so few children today have even heard of, let alone watched, this fascinating cartoon. MCoG is available on DVD. HMV was selling it last time I looked.

Another favourite cartoon of mine is Ulysses 31.

I'm pleased to find somebody who remembers and enjoys MCoG. I recorded every episode when MCoG was shown on CBBC and I watched them so many times that the oxide wore off the tape to the point where they would no longer play in a new video recorder. Now I have the DVD set.

A few years ago I encountered somebody over on another AS forum who was an enthusiast of just about every cartoon from the 80s.

I never understood why CBBC didn't show the documentaries that accompanied each episode. They were just a few minutes long and the BBC was committed to showing educational programmes for children as part of CBBC at the time. The BBC could have used them to up the figures for children's educational output without having to produce or find any material. Another mystery surrounding MCoG?

It does seem strange that entertainment focused cable TV channels in the US showed the documentaries but the rather highbrow BBC decided not to show them. I suspect it could have been something to do with timing. Has anybody got any CBBC programme listings with MCoG on them? Another plausible reason is that the BBC already had a sufficient output of educational materials to meet the requirements in their Charter despite the MCoG documentaries being better than some of the educational material CBBC was showing at the time. One explanation I have received (that needs further confirmation) is that some policy existed at the time demanding CBBC educational material had to be produced in Britain and the MCoG documentaries couldn't meet that requirement.

MCoG could be unique in being the only cartoon with an educational documentary for each episode.

I vaguely remember finding a TV listing on the internet with MCoG included. It was about 5 or 6 years ago and it definitely wasn't an MCoG website. The listing was scanned which means it's almost impossible to search for it now.

The next programme after MCoG was most likely to be Newsround. CBBC had a liking of showing their programmes in roughly increasing order of length with Newsround slotted in at 5:00 PM. MCoG was longer than most cartoons and CBBC probably wouldn't have shown a similar length drama, educational programme, or gameshow that day. Something I definitely remember was that it was dark during the early months of 1987 when I was watching MCoG.



There may be some truth to this. I have difficulty recalling if there were any foreign educational programmes on CBBC. They all seemed to be British.