Project Rewatch: Season 1 Disc 2 Episodes 7-12
I am having Issues. I don't even know. This isn't even a very good song, and it is Doing Things for me. Okay, it's Nesmith and Dolenz again, and we've established that I am way into their voices together. (There's also at least one more background voice. I can't tell if it's Peter or not. They actually used Boyce and Hart as background singers for some of the songs. I don't think it's an extra track of either Mike or Micky, although they did use that trick on some of the other songs; one of them has Micky at least triple-tracked.)
Anyway, on to the episodes:
Season 1 Episode 7: The Monkees In A Ghost Town
That's an awful title. There's also a huge continuity error (or possibly just a plot hole) - the boys get stranded in said ghost town because the Monkeemobile runs out of gas, but they drive it back home at the end of the episode with no mention of how it got refilled, and no time when that could reasonably have happened. I'd like to believe that at some point they're supposed to have siphoned the gas from the bad guys' car, but it's never mentioned if they did.
Lon Cheney Jr. is in this as one of the hoods.
This is either the first or second appearance of Micky's Jimmy Cagney impression. He does it at least twice on this disc alone.
There are a lot of female villains on this show. In fact, most of the interesting female characters are villains; a huge chunk of the rest are Davy's girls-of-the-week, and they're uniformly boring. We do get the occasional flat-out funny female character bit - the chambermaid in the first episode, for instance - but not often.
The romp in this one is a lot of fun, but most of the rest of the episode just falls flat. The boys put a lot of energy into it, but the writers kind of phoned this one in. Moving on.
Season 1, Episode 8: Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
And here's one of the good early ones. It touches on some important character notes: Peter's terrible cooking, Davy's passion for animals in general and horses in particular (the RL Davy Jones's jockey background appears to be at least semi-canonical for his character as well), and Micky bursting into a werewolf routine involving some fairly athletic physical comedy for no obvious reason (Peter mutters "here we go again" at the beginning, and Mike salts his hand for Micky to chew on and prompts him into the bit of the routine involving the stuffed bird, so this is clearly something that character!Micky has already done multiple times).
The Pad has a neighbor by the name of Mrs. Purdy. She never appears again.
The landlord isn't yelling about the rent this episode; he's yelling about them keeping animals (originally he mistakes Micky's howling for a dog, then he discovers the horse) at the Pad against their lease.
There's some cute physical comedy bits during the farm sequence, including losing Peter in the haystack and Micky failing at calling hogs. I'm a little surprised that they play all of the boys as equal slickers here, given Mike's background - although he is the one who succeeds at milking a cow, so perhaps that's meant to be meaningful. (It's not clear how the kid got the horse from the farm to the beach where he meets Davy, or how he got home again afterwards, but it appears the boys drove the beach buggy to the farm and not the Monkeemobile, so I think that gets filed under handwaving rather than a plot hole.)
Season 1, Episode 9: The Chaperone
Oh, gods, it's a drag episode. Why did anyone think that was funny?
The decorating scene is probably the best part of the episode; again, Micky does some fairly impressive physical comedy bits climbing up the outside of the spiral staircase, while Mike defeats an unruly bag of pretzels with a hatchet.
Here's another female character bit that's neither a villain nor Davy's girl-of-the-week - and it's a housekeeper again. Although here she's also an excuse for a My Fair Lady reference, so I suppose it's okay. She's also the character Micky has to replace , which is why he ends up in a dress, being hit on by both Davy's GotW's father (the episode's antagonist) and the landlord.
Did I mention I hate comedic drag? Because I do. I think it's lazy comedy and usually not very funny. I can't stand it when Monty Python does it, I can't stand it when Kids in the Hall do it, and I can't stand it here. Having said that, I do have to say they at least found a dress that flatters Micky's figure - they didn't have to pad him very much. (There may also be a brief Some Like It Hot reference near the end of the drag bit, which doesn't redeem it but softens the blow a bit. I'd feel better about it if it were more explicit.)
Season 1, Episode 10: Here Come The Monkees
The shows were aired out of order, which would matter more if there were any significant episode-to-episode continuity. This is a re-cut version of the original pilot episode, which means it is even more out-of-continuity than a regular episode. Among other things:
- Micky's hair is not straightened (except for two bandstand sequences, in which Mike has Blonde Beauty, so those must have been shot late in the process) and is much shorter than it ever appears in the rest of the series. (I have to say, it's not a good look for him - it makes his jaw look even more square than usual.)
- Davy plays rhythm guitar in both of the bandstand sequences rather than auxiliary percussion, which I don't think ever happens again.
- The band uniforms are yellow long-sleeved button-up shirts, green slacks, and fuzzy brown vests rather than the eight-button shirts.
- The Pad looks completely different (it's obviously a different set - possibly two different sets, one for the kitchen area and one for the bay window/bandstand area).
- The boys drive a wood-paneled station wagon rather than the Monkeemobile (it must have been commissioned after the show was greenlit).
- The whole pace of the show is slower. Apparently there was some footage cut of the various Monkees arriving at a music store - Peter by surfboard, Micky via motorcycle, Mike by the motorized skateboard that appears in the Season 1 opening credits. I'm guessing that would have helped the madcap feel a bit if it had been left in, but it also would delay getting to the actual storyline, so perhaps it's best that it went.
The owner of the record store tips them off to the gig for the episode; in the original pilot he was supposed to be their manager. That was dropped for the actual show, and Peter notes in the commentary that he thinks it helped the show that the band had no older authority figure (then notes a few scenes later that Mike's character took over the managerial aspects for the band).
There's a framing device of a reporter trying to get interviews that simply doesn't work.
There are some character notes that carry through, though; Micky has a couple of very impressive freak-outs, Davy falling for a girl is the primary plot complication, Mike's the solid and sensible one, Peter's quiet and a bit slow.
The key song, "I Want To Be Free," is played twice, once at a rock tempo and once as a ballad. The ballad version is the one that ended up on the album. I kind of prefer the other one, and not just because Micky sings the bridge instead of it being Davy the whole way through. There's also a two-bar clip of Boyce and Hart's demo of the song at the end of one of the fantasy sequences!
The episode ends with Micky and Peter introducing Davy and Mike's screen tests, of which we see about two minutes for each. (No explanation of why those two in particular is ever given. I would have liked to have seen Micky's and Peter's as well, honestly). Mike introduces himself as Michael Blessing (his performing pseudonym pre-Monkees) and is already wearing the wool hat. (Speaking of pseudonyms, apparently Micky was listed as Micky Braddock on the original pilot - his stage name as a child actor.)
There are two commentary tracks for this episode, one from Nesmith and one from Tork. Tork gives better commentary, honestly; Nesmith tends to ramble here, mostly talking about the route he took into the whole mess, ending with his own screen test. Tork has some fairly pointed commentary about the issues involved in filming the pilot, including his own lack of acting experience at the time (and the fact that Micky apparently lorded this over him).
Season 1, Episode 11: Monkees A La Carte
This is the most violent episode so far; the bad guys actually all shoot each other in the end, over Micky's protestations that violence is not the answer and that reasonable adults should talk out their differences. (There's no blood - the gangsters clutch their chests when they get shot and fall over, Western-style.) Davy and Mike are hiding under the table throughout the firefight playing tic-tac-toe, and Peter has left the building to summon help (unsuccessfully). Does that mean character!Micky in my Harry Potter fusion should be able to see thestrals?
There's a Cagney impression, but it's not Micky this time, even though he does dress up as a gangster. There's also a female gangster, again.
There's a lot of quick-change costume gags in this one. They work, for the most part. There's also an extended kitchen romp that doesn't fit the song but is moderately amusing in its own right, with Peter in particular more than holding his own (if there's a weak link in this one, it's Mike).
Other than the shoot-out, which seems kind of out of character for the show as a whole, it's a decent episode - the plot mostly hangs together, there's no huge acting failures, it gets a reasonable number of laughs. Not much to make it stand out, though, except the kitchen sequence.
Season 1, Episode 12: I've Got A Little Song Here
Whoa, actual character work! This one actually fleshes Mike's character out a bit - he gets taken in by an appeal to his pride, he acts star-struck, when he figures out he's been swindled he goes into a deep blue funk, and at the end he tries to make things right not just for himself but for one other victim. The other three don't get quite as much development, but the sequence where each of them tries to cheer up Mike in turn is cute and outlines who they are quite well.
There's Micky's Cagney impersonation again. He also does a generic studio big shot that would have fit right in in WoSaT.
This seems to be the first time the other Monkees learn that Mike writes songs (although, oddly enough, the song in the episode isn't one of his in RL). Where have they been getting theirs, then? Are they supposed to be a cover band in-universe? I think this counts as a continuity error.
First appearance of the Monkeemen superhero outfits. First appearance of Mammoth Studios.
The key song here is "Gonna Buy Me A Dog," which is a novelty tune with a fairly risque Getting Crap Past The Censor moment even played straight. Micky and Davy basically deconstructed it in the studio, trying to crack each other up, barking, and telling jokes during the bridge. I think it actually improves the song.
This is possibly the strongest episode so far; sitting in such close proximity to the rather raw pilot story makes it stand out even more. There's a commentary track by Nesmith that's a little less rambly than the previous one, but still more about how lost he felt in the creative and filming process at this point in the show than what actually happened.
Edited to fix a misplaced HTML tag and a spelling error
Anyway, on to the episodes:
Season 1 Episode 7: The Monkees In A Ghost Town
That's an awful title. There's also a huge continuity error (or possibly just a plot hole) - the boys get stranded in said ghost town because the Monkeemobile runs out of gas, but they drive it back home at the end of the episode with no mention of how it got refilled, and no time when that could reasonably have happened. I'd like to believe that at some point they're supposed to have siphoned the gas from the bad guys' car, but it's never mentioned if they did.
Lon Cheney Jr. is in this as one of the hoods.
This is either the first or second appearance of Micky's Jimmy Cagney impression. He does it at least twice on this disc alone.
There are a lot of female villains on this show. In fact, most of the interesting female characters are villains; a huge chunk of the rest are Davy's girls-of-the-week, and they're uniformly boring. We do get the occasional flat-out funny female character bit - the chambermaid in the first episode, for instance - but not often.
The romp in this one is a lot of fun, but most of the rest of the episode just falls flat. The boys put a lot of energy into it, but the writers kind of phoned this one in. Moving on.
Season 1, Episode 8: Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
And here's one of the good early ones. It touches on some important character notes: Peter's terrible cooking, Davy's passion for animals in general and horses in particular (the RL Davy Jones's jockey background appears to be at least semi-canonical for his character as well), and Micky bursting into a werewolf routine involving some fairly athletic physical comedy for no obvious reason (Peter mutters "here we go again" at the beginning, and Mike salts his hand for Micky to chew on and prompts him into the bit of the routine involving the stuffed bird, so this is clearly something that character!Micky has already done multiple times).
The Pad has a neighbor by the name of Mrs. Purdy. She never appears again.
The landlord isn't yelling about the rent this episode; he's yelling about them keeping animals (originally he mistakes Micky's howling for a dog, then he discovers the horse) at the Pad against their lease.
There's some cute physical comedy bits during the farm sequence, including losing Peter in the haystack and Micky failing at calling hogs. I'm a little surprised that they play all of the boys as equal slickers here, given Mike's background - although he is the one who succeeds at milking a cow, so perhaps that's meant to be meaningful. (It's not clear how the kid got the horse from the farm to the beach where he meets Davy, or how he got home again afterwards, but it appears the boys drove the beach buggy to the farm and not the Monkeemobile, so I think that gets filed under handwaving rather than a plot hole.)
Season 1, Episode 9: The Chaperone
Oh, gods, it's a drag episode. Why did anyone think that was funny?
The decorating scene is probably the best part of the episode; again, Micky does some fairly impressive physical comedy bits climbing up the outside of the spiral staircase, while Mike defeats an unruly bag of pretzels with a hatchet.
Here's another female character bit that's neither a villain nor Davy's girl-of-the-week - and it's a housekeeper again. Although here she's also an excuse for a My Fair Lady reference, so I suppose it's okay. She's also the character Micky has to replace , which is why he ends up in a dress, being hit on by both Davy's GotW's father (the episode's antagonist) and the landlord.
Did I mention I hate comedic drag? Because I do. I think it's lazy comedy and usually not very funny. I can't stand it when Monty Python does it, I can't stand it when Kids in the Hall do it, and I can't stand it here. Having said that, I do have to say they at least found a dress that flatters Micky's figure - they didn't have to pad him very much. (There may also be a brief Some Like It Hot reference near the end of the drag bit, which doesn't redeem it but softens the blow a bit. I'd feel better about it if it were more explicit.)
Season 1, Episode 10: Here Come The Monkees
The shows were aired out of order, which would matter more if there were any significant episode-to-episode continuity. This is a re-cut version of the original pilot episode, which means it is even more out-of-continuity than a regular episode. Among other things:
- Micky's hair is not straightened (except for two bandstand sequences, in which Mike has Blonde Beauty, so those must have been shot late in the process) and is much shorter than it ever appears in the rest of the series. (I have to say, it's not a good look for him - it makes his jaw look even more square than usual.)
- Davy plays rhythm guitar in both of the bandstand sequences rather than auxiliary percussion, which I don't think ever happens again.
- The band uniforms are yellow long-sleeved button-up shirts, green slacks, and fuzzy brown vests rather than the eight-button shirts.
- The Pad looks completely different (it's obviously a different set - possibly two different sets, one for the kitchen area and one for the bay window/bandstand area).
- The boys drive a wood-paneled station wagon rather than the Monkeemobile (it must have been commissioned after the show was greenlit).
- The whole pace of the show is slower. Apparently there was some footage cut of the various Monkees arriving at a music store - Peter by surfboard, Micky via motorcycle, Mike by the motorized skateboard that appears in the Season 1 opening credits. I'm guessing that would have helped the madcap feel a bit if it had been left in, but it also would delay getting to the actual storyline, so perhaps it's best that it went.
The owner of the record store tips them off to the gig for the episode; in the original pilot he was supposed to be their manager. That was dropped for the actual show, and Peter notes in the commentary that he thinks it helped the show that the band had no older authority figure (then notes a few scenes later that Mike's character took over the managerial aspects for the band).
There's a framing device of a reporter trying to get interviews that simply doesn't work.
There are some character notes that carry through, though; Micky has a couple of very impressive freak-outs, Davy falling for a girl is the primary plot complication, Mike's the solid and sensible one, Peter's quiet and a bit slow.
The key song, "I Want To Be Free," is played twice, once at a rock tempo and once as a ballad. The ballad version is the one that ended up on the album. I kind of prefer the other one, and not just because Micky sings the bridge instead of it being Davy the whole way through. There's also a two-bar clip of Boyce and Hart's demo of the song at the end of one of the fantasy sequences!
The episode ends with Micky and Peter introducing Davy and Mike's screen tests, of which we see about two minutes for each. (No explanation of why those two in particular is ever given. I would have liked to have seen Micky's and Peter's as well, honestly). Mike introduces himself as Michael Blessing (his performing pseudonym pre-Monkees) and is already wearing the wool hat. (Speaking of pseudonyms, apparently Micky was listed as Micky Braddock on the original pilot - his stage name as a child actor.)
There are two commentary tracks for this episode, one from Nesmith and one from Tork. Tork gives better commentary, honestly; Nesmith tends to ramble here, mostly talking about the route he took into the whole mess, ending with his own screen test. Tork has some fairly pointed commentary about the issues involved in filming the pilot, including his own lack of acting experience at the time (and the fact that Micky apparently lorded this over him).
Season 1, Episode 11: Monkees A La Carte
This is the most violent episode so far; the bad guys actually all shoot each other in the end, over Micky's protestations that violence is not the answer and that reasonable adults should talk out their differences. (There's no blood - the gangsters clutch their chests when they get shot and fall over, Western-style.) Davy and Mike are hiding under the table throughout the firefight playing tic-tac-toe, and Peter has left the building to summon help (unsuccessfully). Does that mean character!Micky in my Harry Potter fusion should be able to see thestrals?
There's a Cagney impression, but it's not Micky this time, even though he does dress up as a gangster. There's also a female gangster, again.
There's a lot of quick-change costume gags in this one. They work, for the most part. There's also an extended kitchen romp that doesn't fit the song but is moderately amusing in its own right, with Peter in particular more than holding his own (if there's a weak link in this one, it's Mike).
Other than the shoot-out, which seems kind of out of character for the show as a whole, it's a decent episode - the plot mostly hangs together, there's no huge acting failures, it gets a reasonable number of laughs. Not much to make it stand out, though, except the kitchen sequence.
Season 1, Episode 12: I've Got A Little Song Here
Whoa, actual character work! This one actually fleshes Mike's character out a bit - he gets taken in by an appeal to his pride, he acts star-struck, when he figures out he's been swindled he goes into a deep blue funk, and at the end he tries to make things right not just for himself but for one other victim. The other three don't get quite as much development, but the sequence where each of them tries to cheer up Mike in turn is cute and outlines who they are quite well.
There's Micky's Cagney impersonation again. He also does a generic studio big shot that would have fit right in in WoSaT.
This seems to be the first time the other Monkees learn that Mike writes songs (although, oddly enough, the song in the episode isn't one of his in RL). Where have they been getting theirs, then? Are they supposed to be a cover band in-universe? I think this counts as a continuity error.
First appearance of the Monkeemen superhero outfits. First appearance of Mammoth Studios.
The key song here is "Gonna Buy Me A Dog," which is a novelty tune with a fairly risque Getting Crap Past The Censor moment even played straight. Micky and Davy basically deconstructed it in the studio, trying to crack each other up, barking, and telling jokes during the bridge. I think it actually improves the song.
This is possibly the strongest episode so far; sitting in such close proximity to the rather raw pilot story makes it stand out even more. There's a commentary track by Nesmith that's a little less rambly than the previous one, but still more about how lost he felt in the creative and filming process at this point in the show than what actually happened.
Edited to fix a misplaced HTML tag and a spelling error