Jack of All Trades

TV NR 7.5 2000 22 min

Jack of All Trades is a half-hour long syndicated action-comedy television series which ran for two seasons in 2000. With Cleopatra 2525, it formed the Back2Back Action Hour and both shows were notable for being the first American non-animated action series to be produced in the half-hour format since the 1970s. The show was canceled in the middle of its second season.

The program is set at the turn of the 19th century on the fictional French-controlled island of Pulau-Pulau in the East Indies. Jack Stiles is an American secret agent sent there by President Jefferson. While there, he meets his British contact and love interest, English spy Emilia Rothschild. Together, the two work to stop Napoleon and various other threats to the United States. To the public, Jack is seen as Emilia’s attaché, but when the need arises, he transforms into a masked hero: The Daring Dragoon.

The show contained many on-going gags, such as deliberate historical inaccuracies, Jack being responsible for many important historical events but not receiving credit, Emilia inventing a miraculous invention in an obvious deus ex machina, sexual puns and innuendos, and Jack and Emilia’s ongoing romantic tension.

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