Line #61 Series/JackOfAllTrades


1	[[quoteright:334:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_of_all_trades-show.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:334:There ain't a French or pirate rogue who don't... [[{{Pun}} know Jack!]]]]
3
4	->''"In eighteen-hundred-one the Revolution had been won\
5	And Uncle Sam’s favorite son had a job he needed done\
6	Which brought Jack to a lady, both beautiful and smart\
7	Who found his mix intriguing—a scoundrel with a heart!\
8	From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli\
9	There was never a leatherneck braver, a Daring Dragoon is he\
10	He’ll halt the bold advance of Napoleon’s attack\
11	There ain’t a French or pirate rogue who don’t know Jack!\
12	From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli\
13	Sailin’ round the bloody world to defend democracy\
14	And when ya need a fightin’ man ya’d trust ta watch yer back\
15	Just ask the bloke right next ta ya—it’s… Jack!"''
16	--> The ExpositoryThemeTune
17
18	''Jack of All Trades'' was an action/comedy show that ran for one-and-a-half seasons in 2000, paired with ''Series/{{Cleopatra 2525}}'' as part of Creator/{{Universal}}/[[Creator/USANetwork Studios USA]]'s syndicated ''Creator/ActionPack''. Set in 1801, it is a spiritual relative of SteamPunk series like ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr.'' and ''Series/TheWildWildWest'', starring Creator/BruceCampbell as Jack Stiles, an American secret agent sent to the fictional French-controlled island of Palau-Palau. Once there, he meets his British contact and SlapSlapKiss love interest, fellow spy Emilia Rothschild, and together the two work to stop UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and other threats to the United States. To the public, Jack serves as Emilia's mild-mannered manservant, but when trouble strikes, he transforms into a masked hero, the Daring Dragoon.
19
20	A fun little series with a truly great (and, to the crew's surprise, Emmy Nominated) [[https://youtu.be/SmSVZtNtg1o theme song]].
21
22	Not to be confused with the trope {{Jack of All Trades}}.
23
24	----
25	!!This series contains examples of:
26	* AdaptationDecay: In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Opera," Croque writes an opera based on his life. He portrays himself as a strong and beloved governor, while the Daring Dragoon is portrayed as bald, fat, and pathetic. Jack is only too happy to wreck the performance.
27	* AesopAmnesia: Exaggerated. After Croque's stint in prison, he has a HeelRealization and that people suffer under the laws he enforced. He vows to pardon prisoners and easy up, but once back in power, he immediately forgets his promises and insists he only spoke out of duress.
28	* AffablyEvil: Croque.
29	* AmbiguouslyBi: Governor Croque is married to a woman and an entire episode is dedicated to him trying to sexually please his wife, but his working relationship with Captain Brogard is very suggestive too. They even spend a weekend together at the Marquis De Sade's BDSM resort as pets, the episode ending with Croque dragging Brogard around with a leash and whip him with a crop on their walk back to their estate.
30	* AnachronismStew:
31	** The theme song clearly establishes that the show is set in 1801. And yet New France hasn't fallen yet and Blackbeard and Ben Franklin are still alive.
32	** Jack himself is a walking anachronism, speaking in much more contemporary fashion and often referencing things that have yet to exist.
33	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: All over the place, naturally. But the biggest error was that the US [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars was allied with Napoleonic France against Britain]] [[UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 most of the time]]. The rest of the time it was neutral.
34	* BeenThereShapedHistory:
35	** While Jack certainly answers for Thomas Jefferson directly, he makes a lot of inflated (and possibly fake) claims about how closely he knows the Founding Fathers, ranging from taking a bullet for Washington on the Delaware and saving Franklin from electrocution from his kite, to helping author the Declaration of Independence.
36	** In "Raging Bully", Jack manages to procure the deed to Louisiana from Napoleon in a game of poker, turning it from a French colony to a US state.
37	* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: The reason why Jack and Emilia often help Governor Croque keep his job.
38	* BigBrotherBully: Napoleon to Croque.
39	* BondageIsBad: Averted in "X Marquis the Spot". While the Marquis de Sade is the episode's villain and stole King George's crown, everyone else on his island are depicted as normal (for the given value of "normal" in this series), consenting adults engaged in a bit of kinky fun. At the end, while Jack and Emilia decide the lifestyle is not for them, they also decide it's not their place to judge those who partake.
40	* TheCaligula: When Napoleon arrives in "Raging Bully", he humiliates his brother in front of everyone, has the locals feign their love and support with the threat of death from his troops, threatens to kill Jack for speaking out of turn, tries to execute Thomas Paine unprompted (planning on ransoming him off with his death kept a secret) and bets the deed to Louisiana on a poker game. In "One Wedding and an Execution", he goes to Pulau-Pula to divorce his wife and look for another one, deciding to make Emilia marry him and threatens to kill her and go to war with England if she refuses.
41	* CatapultNightmare: In "Daddy Dearest", Jack has a knockout gas-induced EroticDream about Emilia that turns into one of these when she's suddenly replaced by Governer Croque.
42	* TheCavalierYears: The show takes place long after this time period, but Jack's "Daring Dragoon" character invokes tropes from the era.
43	* ChekhovsGun: If an episode starts with Emilia demonstrating a new invention to Jack, you can bet that it will be just what's needed at some point in the episode.
44	* ClarkKenting: Jack wears a hat and mask to obscure his identity as the Daring Dragoon. He's the only American on the whole fretting island!
45	** In one gag (featured in the opening) someone rips the Dragoon's mask off... only to find another, identical, mask under it.
46	* CoatHatMask: The Daring Dragoon costume.
47	* CompanionCube: In some episodes, Croque communicates with a stuffed cow named Mr. Nipples.
48	* CurtainClothing: How Jack first got his Dragoon disguise.
49	* DancingTheme: Best intro sequence ever.
50	* DisproportionateRetribution:
51	** When her prized white-horse goes missing, Catherine the Great gives Croque 24-hours or else she has her armada blow the entire island away. She even has a few cannons fired at the Governor's home early as a warning shot.
52	** Croque's wife forges a letter from Napoleon to arrest her husband for treason because he forgot their anniversary (though that might have just been an excuse).
53	* DoubleEntendre: Pretty much the whole point.
54	* TheDragon: Capitaine Brogard.
55	* EasyAmnesia: Emilia contracts a case in the episode "Hamnesia", which Jack promptly uses to put himself in charge and convince her she's a carefree party animal. This comes back to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bite him in the ass]], and ''hard''.
56	* EmbarrassingNickname: Emilia's father calls her "Fufu". Also subverted in that [[spoiler: the way she got it was pretty badass.]]
57	* EpicFail: Lewis and Clarke (as in ''that'' Lewis and Clarke) decided to go into the "exploring" business and went to make the Western half of the Northern continent. The only problem is that they went over 10,000 miles ''in the wrong direction'', finding themselves in Palau-Palau when they meant to go to Oregon.
58	* ExpositoryThemeTune: A classic (and Emmy-nominated) example.
59	* FailedASpotCheck: It never occurs to Croque and Brogard that Jack and the Daring Dragoon might be in some way related in spite of the fact that they have the same height, accent, crass sense of humor and appearing on the same day. The closest they ever get to figuring it out is when Napoleon surmises that the Daring Dragoon is a spy and tries intimidating him into confessing.
60	* FakeGuestStar: Croque and Brogard appeared in almost every episode, but their actors were never credited in the main titles.
61	* FluffyFashionFeathers: Feather boas are part of the outfits in the Marquis de Sade's island.
62	* FriendlyEnemy: Jack and Emilia's father were this during the Revolution. They repeatedly tried to kill each other, but there was no real animosity; they even respected each other. Reuniting years after the war, they are more than happy to trade stories.
63	* {{Gasshole}}: Captain Blackbeard can burp balls of fire every time he drinks something alcoholic. [[spoiler:In "Shark Bait", he can also fart with the force of a sonic boom.]]
64	* HarmlessElectrocution: In "The Floundering Father", Jack, not realizing what it means, offers himself as a replacement electrical conductor for Emilia's submarine and suffers no ill effects from being zapped directly through the head for 100 nautical miles.
65	* HarmlessVillain: Croque, who in spite of technically being Napoleon's representative is more pathetic than anything else. Any the danger present in an episode always comes from the VillainOfTheWeek, with Croque ineptly assisting them. At one point Jack and Emilia even conspire to make Croque look good for Napoleon, since if he fails too often Napoleon might replace him with someone ''actually competent.''
66	* HiddenBuxom: When Jack and Emilia infiltrate a French fortress wearing "borrowed" soldiers' uniforms, Jack points out the obvious flaw in the plan, and she retorts, ''"they're not exactly detachable, you know."''
67	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: All over the place, from Napoleon to Ben Franklin to the Marquis de Sade to Catherine the Great. Pretty much anyone who could even ''vaguely'' be expected to show up in the early 1800s give or take a decade or three (Franklin and Catherine had already been dead for years by the time of the show, for example.)
68	* HistoricalInJoke: The series is full of them.
69	** Most people don't realize that "The Louisiana Purchase" was actually Napoleon losing Louisiana in a poker game to the Daring Dragoon.
70	** In a passing comment, Jack recalls saving West Point from a traitor "named Benedict Arnold."
71	** Lewis and Clark's expedition had been a disaster, missing Oregon by "about 10,000 miles." Jack got them on the right course and even set them up with a certain female Indian guide.
72	** The rumor about Catherine the Great and a horse apparently started due to an unfortunate shadow play (a pendant in the shape of a horse was swinging in front of a window, while Catherine bent over to fix her boot; the protagonists were behind a curtain and saw what appeared to be a horse repeatedly mounting a woman).
73	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade:
74	** Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was a warmongerer, a sexist, a bit racist, sure. But he wasn't a supervillain plotting to use mind-control wine or make a trojan horse out of the Statue of Liberty.
75	** The Creator/MarquisDeSade was a lot of things: an author of obscene EroticLiterature, a political activist, a political prisoner multiple times over, but it's unlikely that the real Marquis was the owner of his own BDSM-resort island in the West Indies, or that he partook in the auctioning of stolen royal treasure.
76	* HollywoodCostuming: The costumes fit the 1700s more than the [[https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/1801-fashion-plate--58406126400289605/ Regency]] styles that were fashionable in 1801. Averted with Josephine Bonaparte as her dress has the correct silhouette for the era.
77	* IgnoreTheDisability: Spoofed: Having been admonished not to comment on Napoleon's height, Jack comes right out and calls him shorty (it is notable that Napoleon was played by Verne Troyer).
78	* ImagineTheAudienceNaked: Emilia suggests the underwear variant in "Raging Bully" when Jack gets nervous about his upcoming life-or-death poker game with Napoleon. When the time comes, he not only imagines Napoleon in his underwear, but Governer Croque, Captain Brogard (whom he imagines is in a diaper), and Emilia as well.
79	* ImprovisedParachute: The President's niece's dress to escape the French in Canada with Jack.
80	* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: How could anyone not like Governor Croque?
81	* InstantMessengerPigeon: ... as played by a talking parrot.
82	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: "A scoundrel with a heart" according to the theme song.
83	* JustAStupidAccent: The show takes place on a French colony, but French characters inevitably just speak English with a silly accent. One could conceivably justify this as characters speaking English for Jack and Emilia's benefit, but the trope is in force even during scenes where every character is French.
84	* TheLadette: Kentucky Sue is a fairly exaggerated example, close to a female BoisterousBruiser.
85	* LargeHam: "'''DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DO TO CREAM PUFFS?'''"
86	* LoveableRogue: Jack, of course.
87	* MemoryWipeExploitation: "Hamnesia" has Emilia left with amnesia after taking a blow to the head, and Jack promptly convinces her that she's an uninhibited party animal.
88	* MisterBig: Napoleon (who is an actual midget).
89	* MsFanservice: Emilia (Angela Dotchin) is fairly attractive.
90	* TheNapoleon: The man himself. Portrayed as almost single-highhandedly keeping his empire together with his Keen Mind, ruthlessness, and WireFu. Played by Verne Troyer.
91	* NotQuiteDead: The end of "Shark Bait" reveals that Blackbeard and Nardo survived the explosion and are fighting over control of the sub.
92	* ObfuscatingInsanity: King George, to throw off Napoleon. According to George, Napoleon is so much TheChessMaster that he panics if he can't predict your actions.
93	* OfCorsetsSexy: The Marquis de Sade's island.
94	* PaperThinDisguise: Jack is never identified as the Daring Dragoon despite making no attempt to disguise his voice or American accent on an island where he is the only American. And the Dragoon didn't start appearing until Jack arrived in Pulau Pulau. Justified to an extent by Croque's incompetence, but the soldiers, particularly Brogard, have no such excuse.
95	* ParachutePetticoat: In the first episode, Jack rescues President Jefferson's niece from a French fort in Canada. To escape the fort, Jack and the girl jump off a high cliff. They are saved because Jack grabs on to her feet and her dress billows out to form a parachute. (Jack also gets an excellent view of her petticoats, and her bloomers are showing)
96	* PayingForTheActionScene: Hilariously lampshaded in "Raging Bully"
97	-->'''Jack''' ''(As the Dragoon)'' Oh, uh, Croque... ''(Tosses him a coin)'' This is for the broken window.
98	-->'''Croque''': ''(Catches it)'' What broken window?
99	-->'''Jack''': AH-HA-HA-HA! ''([[SuperWindowJump Crashes out the window]])''
100	* PintSizedPowerhouse: As evidenced by her lifting of a wide platter of a roast, Emilia is definitely [[StrongerThanTheyLook stronger than she appears]].
101	* {{Pirate}}: Blackbeard, even though he should be long dead by the time the show is set.
102	* PollyWantsAMicrophone: Jack and Emilia frequently gets their orders from a messenger parrot who's perfectly capable of having a conversation with them.
103	* PrisonEpisode: "Croquey in the Pokey." Croque is framed for plotting to assassinate Napoleon and Jack (unwillingly) goes to prison to protect him, while Emilia works to prove his innocence.
104	* ReassignedToAntarctica:
105	** President Jefferson genuinely believes the mission in Palau-Palau is vital to American interests and that Jack is the best man for the job. Of course, Jefferson knew that Jack was fooling around with his niece and wanted him as far away from her as humanly possible.
106	** The series itself was an Antarctica for writer/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. They had successfully show-ran ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'', so they were made show-runners for the fifth season of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. That season wound up being heavily criticized, and, fairly or not, they got the blame from all concerned. More than a few people noticed how they were off ''Xena'' before Season 5 ended and suddenly on this series.
107	* RidingTheBomb: Blackbeard, of all people.
108	* SelectiveMagnetism: Applied to the Governor's armor to avert an execution.
109	* ShoutOut: One episode revolves around France's gift of the Statue of Liberty to the USA. It ends with a re-creation of [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes one of cinema's best known examples of the]] TwistEnding.
110	* ShownTheirWork: You would think the US and France would have good relations in 1801, except for an undeclared, seldom remembered war between the US and France, called the Quasi-War. The US hated both Britain and France at the time, and many Americans even hated the French much more. The 1801 setting is also surprisingly appropriate for the UsefulNotes/ColdWar-esque nature of the Britain vs. France conflict in the show. It takes place during (technically, just prior to) the Peace of Amiens, a brief period when Britain and France were not actually at war with each other.
111	* {{Slapstick}}: Emilia is usually spared this, but "Crokey in the Pokey" ends with Jack pushing her off the docks as payback for getting him mixed up in the PrisonEpisode plot.
112	* StillFightingTheCivilWar: When Jack reunites with his war-buddies Lewis and Clarke, they still think that the Revolutionary War is still going on. When Jack tries convincing them of the truth, they take one look at Emilia and presume that not only is the war still going, but that Jack had gone turncoat and that the island (which they think is US territory) is under British occupation. It takes the Daring Dragoon saving them from an execution and a (likely forged) letter from the President for them to believe him.
113	* SuperWindowJump: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt59rjadYeI As seen here.]]
114	* TalkLikeAPirate: Blackbeard, of course!
115	* ThanksgivingEpisode: "One, Two, Three Give Me Lady Liberty" is set during the holiday. Because Napoleon has another scheme in the works, Jack and Emilia take part in Croque's planned dinner. Emilia sees it as an opportunity to look for intel, though Jack also wants to ensure the French get Thanksgiving dinner right. We even get a montage of what the featured characters are thankful for. After finding Napoleon's plans, they need a diversion to foil his scheme, so Jack makes use of another holiday tradition: a game of American football.
116	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: In one episode, Emilia takes off her robe and we get a glimpse of her bare back before she steps into the bath.
117	* TheUnreveal: Captain Brogard once had the opportunity to [[DramaticUnmask rip off the mask]] of "the Daring Dragoon" and reveal his secret identity... except that Jack was wearing a ''second'' mask underneath the one Brogard ripped off!
118	* [[WellDoneSonGuy Well Done Daughter Gal]]: Emilia feels her father never truly supported her following in his footsteps as a spy. In truth, he didn't - not because of gender roles, but because he was haunted by the thought of her dying in the line of duty and having to bury her.
119	* WhoShotJFK: In Napoleon's first appearance on the show, he forces the residents to constantly cheer him as he circles them - with soldiers pointing rifles at them the whole time - prompting Jack to suggest to Emilia some elegant ways to kill Napoleon out of revenge. One plan Jack comes up with involves getting a pasty to shoot Napoleon from "that school book depository over there."
120	* WholesomeCrossdresser: In "One Wedding and an Execution", Jack pretends to be Emilia's mother [[ObnoxiousInLaws in a gambit to dissuade Napoleon in forcing Emilia to marry him]].

Context Series / JackOfAllTrades