OK, this must have been in the early 80’s. I remember really liking this show but I couldn’t remember any details at all (if that makes sense). I very recently remembered this one detail that may spring it from your mind.
Guy is some sort of adventurer, and he has a dog with a glass eye. The dog barks twice for “yes” and once for “no” (or vice versa) and the adventurer forgets which is which - thinks he meant “yes” when he really meant “no” - so thinking he had the dog’s permission he removes his glass eye and loses it in a card game. For the rest of the show the dog is mad b/c he lost his glass eye.
It was part a short lived series call “Bojangles & Friends!" starring Sammy Davis Jr. about an ex-dancer/hobo’s adventures with his dog.
One part you’re slightly mis-remembering is that Bojangles mixes up the dog’s instructions because he “drinks a bit” and the dog gets seriously pissed at this.
Someone here suggests that it was Tales of the Gold Monkey, an Indiana Jones inspired tropical island adventure series. Stephen Collins, currenlty of Seventh Heaven, starred.
Then again, maybe astro is right. I don’t remember the '80s as being filled with glass-eyed dog tv shows, but I may be mis-remembering.
It was definitely Tales of the Gold Monkey! Good gravy, upon seeing the picture from GorillaGirl’s link, my mind just filled in all the details like Dory suddenly remembering everything in Finding Nemo.
He had a seaplane and was an Indiana Jones type, it was set in the same time period as ROTLA, and the guy from Magnum P.I. (Mac) was his sidekick!
Unfortunately none of the episode guides say anything about him losing his dog’s glass eye in a card game. Bosda, do you remember that?
The pilot episode started with the poker game in which the dog’s eye was lost.
Notably, at around the same time, a pre-B5 Bruce Boxleitner starred in a similar (and similarly shortlived) adventure series called Bring 'Em Back Alive, though it turns out the source material is far older than Indiana Jones.
