Project Rewatch: Season 1 Disc 5 Episodes 28-30
This cover song (the one in the music tag) exists. To get an idea of the tone, imagine that someone has taken the original Archies song, and proceeded to stuff every drop of the attitude of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" into it. I have never heard anyone make the word "dextrose" sound this dirty. *faints*
Another three episodes
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 28: The Monkees On The Line
Synopsis: The Monkees decide to get an answering service, as they're always too busy to answer the phone (and can't always find it), but they can't pay for it. The owner of the answering service, after a rousing speech, offers to spot them the service as part of a job offer. They take her up on it, since they can work in shifts. Mike and Micky end up chasing after a girl who called the answering service and threatened suicide, while David delivers a message that leaves a policeman's wife convinced her husband is philandering, and Peter accidentally messes up an illegal betting scheme by substituting the name of another band for the name of the horse. The gamblers, irate, show up at the answering service and take Micky, Davy, and Peter hostage; Mike arrives late, followed by the policeman and his wife, and the gamblers are apprehended in an extended romp. The suicidal girl arrives in a mink coat and thanks Mike for helping her rehearse her part in the play; she got rave reviews!
There's lots of physical comedy with tangled phone cords, answering the wrong phone in the phone bank, etc. Most of it, including a bit in the romp with a phone as tall as Davy, is well-executed, as are several physical gags involving a hideaway bed at the answering service, and an extended chase sequence at the apartments when Davy delivers the cop's message (involving the gorilla suit from "Monkee Chow Mein" and a young woman clad only in a large towel, which Davy is wearing when he exits the scene!). The bits with Mike and the 'suicidal' actress are awkward and clunky.
Peter gets a lot of face time in this episode, but not much in the way of good lines.
The actress who plays the cop's jealous wife was the fraudulent medium in Episode 2.
There's a seltzer water gag here (second one). This time it's Mike getting spritzed by Micky.
There's nothing to complain about in this episode, but there's nothing much to praise, either - it's just thin.
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 29: The Monkees Get Out More Dirt
Synopsis: The Monkees haul their dirty laundry to April's Laundromat, but they've forgotten the soap; they ask the proprietress for some, one after the other, and completely fall for her. After returning to the pad with the laundry, they sneak back to the laundromat to listen to her propound her theories of laundry science. Then each one takes up a new hobby to impress her - Davy paints an abstract work on her laundromat wall, Micky takes up formal dance, Peter arrives on a harpsichord-rickshaw (no, I don't understand it either), and Mike arrives on a motor scooter. She falls for all of them, which sends them into a snit of jealousy against each other; they divide up the pad - Peter gets the TV, Micky the kitchen, Davy the front door, and Mike the downstairs bathroom. After getting some remarkably specific advice from a dating show on TV, they rush to the laundromat to find that April has collapsed; they decide to choose fingers for her, and Peter wins, so they leave him to run the laundromat while the rest race to her bedside to tell her that they've given up their hobbies. She recovers, and rescues Peter from angry laundry patrons. But a singer named Freddy Fox steals her heart before her first real date with Peter, leaving all four in a funk, until four new girls turn up and ask where the local laundromat is.
This one is a fan favorite; it gets constantly referenced in fanfic. I confess that I'm not sure why; it's a better-than-average episode, but no great standout. April Conquest is played by Julie Newmar, which might explain some of the appeal, but - really, the episode doesn't give her much to do.
At the end of the teaser, there are visual references to two different laundry commercials of the time. Without the context of the parody, they come off as one rather surreal gag, which ends with a middle-aged guy struggling with an arm that popped out of a washer. Later, a phone pops out of a box and grabs a phone from Micky for a visual echo of the gag.
I have no idea where the harpsichord-pedicab-rickshaw-tricycle thing is supposed to come from, but Peter looks really cute on it.
There are two literary quotes in the end sequence; Peter quotes T.S. Elliot with "April is the cruelest month," and Mike follows that up with the "To thine own self be true" line from Shakespeare, before Micky interrupts him with "Please, no morals!"
I think this is the first time we see the stars-in-the-eyes effect on any Monkee other than Davy; everyone other than Mike is so afflicted in the opener, and the framing and sound effects imply that it happened to Mike, too, just offscreen.
The whole bit about laundry science is supposed to be funny (April has several test tubes of different detergents), but given what I know about the foundations of home economics as a semi-serious academic field of study in the early 1900s, it's really just sort of tragic.
I'm not sure how much of my being grumpy about this episode is due to my poly impulses (not like they could have gotten that past Standards and Practices), but - yeah, I'm not feeling this one. Onward.
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 29: The Monkees In Manhattan
Synopsis: The Monkees have travelled by bus to NYC to star in a musical being produced by an unknown named Baker, but they used all their money on bus fare and have no place to stay. Baker offers them crash space in his hotel room, but the hotel manager insists that he vacate, too - he hasn't paid for the day yet. While Baker tries to chase down the show's backer and get an advance, the boys stall for time, including offering one of the hotel waiters a role in the show. After accidentally barging in on a newlywed couple trying to open their champagne, the manager finally corners the boys just as Baker returns with the news that the backer has backed out. While Baker packs, the boys sneak into the Millionaire's Club across the street in disguise as an English nobleman, a Texas oilman, a sheik (Micky), and a collegiate legacy kid (Peter). They fail to impress the members, who nod off during their description of the show/romp, but the club's butler is intrigued and offers to step in and back the show. After talking with him, Baker is about to turn him down, since he thinks the leads should be girls, but the Monkees convince him to go for it. They're about to catch a bus back to California when the hotel manager presents them with a bill for room service, which they have to work off.
This is a better-than-average plot, but they must have been running short on cash at this point; more than half of the clips for the romps are recycled from earlier shows in the season.
One of the reasons the manager wants them gone is to free up a room for a wealthy rabbit breeder. Each time we see the breeder, he's more drunk than previously and he has more rabbits (three cages' worth when the boys have to help him check in in the end sequence). It's a cute gag.
Mike and Davy do most of the talking; Micky gets a few cute bits of business, and Peter is sidelined for much of the middle part of the show, although he gets a wonderful silent gag while Baker is trying to pack his suitcase.
There's a moment when the waiter has just brought them a platter of sandwich fixings from room service where Peter is eating very neatly with a knife and fork, and everyone else is stuffing sandwiches in their faces willy-nilly. Micky, in another cute silent gag, manages to make a sandwich with his own hand as the filling.
The end musical bit is the video for "Words" with everyone's usual places swapped - Micky in front with the tambourine, Davy behind the drum kit, Peter on lead guitar (playing Blonde Beauty, no less!), Mike on bass. Partly this is because Peter has second vocal on the song; he really puts his heart into the vocal acting here.
There's an interview segment with Rafaelson asking them what they're doing with their money now that the show is successful, and what they'd do if that success went away. Peter says he'd go back to the Village and be a folk singer; Davy says he'd go watch him; Mike says he'd burn the village; Micky says he'd probably be dating his science teacher. (Cue "Hot for Teacher.") Peter and Davy give joking answers to what they'd buy if money were no object ("Texas" and a date with Ursula Andress, respectively), Mike basically says that he has what he wants now, and Micky says he'd be more interested in buying up city blocks and planting orange groves than getting more physical stuff. There's an interlude with the makeup guy, and then Rafelson asks Mike, specifically, why one of the first things he did with his Monkee money was buy a house, to which Mike gives the perfectly reasonable reply, "To keep the wind off of me!" The interview segment is almost more fun than the episode was.
This is, again, a slightly-better-than-average episode, but nothing except the interview (and maybe the Fibonacci rabbit gag) to make it particularly memorable.
One thin ep and two okay ones. Two more to go in the season, one of which is the concert footage episode.
Another three episodes
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 28: The Monkees On The Line
Synopsis: The Monkees decide to get an answering service, as they're always too busy to answer the phone (and can't always find it), but they can't pay for it. The owner of the answering service, after a rousing speech, offers to spot them the service as part of a job offer. They take her up on it, since they can work in shifts. Mike and Micky end up chasing after a girl who called the answering service and threatened suicide, while David delivers a message that leaves a policeman's wife convinced her husband is philandering, and Peter accidentally messes up an illegal betting scheme by substituting the name of another band for the name of the horse. The gamblers, irate, show up at the answering service and take Micky, Davy, and Peter hostage; Mike arrives late, followed by the policeman and his wife, and the gamblers are apprehended in an extended romp. The suicidal girl arrives in a mink coat and thanks Mike for helping her rehearse her part in the play; she got rave reviews!
There's lots of physical comedy with tangled phone cords, answering the wrong phone in the phone bank, etc. Most of it, including a bit in the romp with a phone as tall as Davy, is well-executed, as are several physical gags involving a hideaway bed at the answering service, and an extended chase sequence at the apartments when Davy delivers the cop's message (involving the gorilla suit from "Monkee Chow Mein" and a young woman clad only in a large towel, which Davy is wearing when he exits the scene!). The bits with Mike and the 'suicidal' actress are awkward and clunky.
Peter gets a lot of face time in this episode, but not much in the way of good lines.
The actress who plays the cop's jealous wife was the fraudulent medium in Episode 2.
There's a seltzer water gag here (second one). This time it's Mike getting spritzed by Micky.
There's nothing to complain about in this episode, but there's nothing much to praise, either - it's just thin.
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 29: The Monkees Get Out More Dirt
Synopsis: The Monkees haul their dirty laundry to April's Laundromat, but they've forgotten the soap; they ask the proprietress for some, one after the other, and completely fall for her. After returning to the pad with the laundry, they sneak back to the laundromat to listen to her propound her theories of laundry science. Then each one takes up a new hobby to impress her - Davy paints an abstract work on her laundromat wall, Micky takes up formal dance, Peter arrives on a harpsichord-rickshaw (no, I don't understand it either), and Mike arrives on a motor scooter. She falls for all of them, which sends them into a snit of jealousy against each other; they divide up the pad - Peter gets the TV, Micky the kitchen, Davy the front door, and Mike the downstairs bathroom. After getting some remarkably specific advice from a dating show on TV, they rush to the laundromat to find that April has collapsed; they decide to choose fingers for her, and Peter wins, so they leave him to run the laundromat while the rest race to her bedside to tell her that they've given up their hobbies. She recovers, and rescues Peter from angry laundry patrons. But a singer named Freddy Fox steals her heart before her first real date with Peter, leaving all four in a funk, until four new girls turn up and ask where the local laundromat is.
This one is a fan favorite; it gets constantly referenced in fanfic. I confess that I'm not sure why; it's a better-than-average episode, but no great standout. April Conquest is played by Julie Newmar, which might explain some of the appeal, but - really, the episode doesn't give her much to do.
At the end of the teaser, there are visual references to two different laundry commercials of the time. Without the context of the parody, they come off as one rather surreal gag, which ends with a middle-aged guy struggling with an arm that popped out of a washer. Later, a phone pops out of a box and grabs a phone from Micky for a visual echo of the gag.
I have no idea where the harpsichord-pedicab-rickshaw-tricycle thing is supposed to come from, but Peter looks really cute on it.
There are two literary quotes in the end sequence; Peter quotes T.S. Elliot with "April is the cruelest month," and Mike follows that up with the "To thine own self be true" line from Shakespeare, before Micky interrupts him with "Please, no morals!"
I think this is the first time we see the stars-in-the-eyes effect on any Monkee other than Davy; everyone other than Mike is so afflicted in the opener, and the framing and sound effects imply that it happened to Mike, too, just offscreen.
The whole bit about laundry science is supposed to be funny (April has several test tubes of different detergents), but given what I know about the foundations of home economics as a semi-serious academic field of study in the early 1900s, it's really just sort of tragic.
I'm not sure how much of my being grumpy about this episode is due to my poly impulses (not like they could have gotten that past Standards and Practices), but - yeah, I'm not feeling this one. Onward.
Season 1 Disc 5 Episode 29: The Monkees In Manhattan
Synopsis: The Monkees have travelled by bus to NYC to star in a musical being produced by an unknown named Baker, but they used all their money on bus fare and have no place to stay. Baker offers them crash space in his hotel room, but the hotel manager insists that he vacate, too - he hasn't paid for the day yet. While Baker tries to chase down the show's backer and get an advance, the boys stall for time, including offering one of the hotel waiters a role in the show. After accidentally barging in on a newlywed couple trying to open their champagne, the manager finally corners the boys just as Baker returns with the news that the backer has backed out. While Baker packs, the boys sneak into the Millionaire's Club across the street in disguise as an English nobleman, a Texas oilman, a sheik (Micky), and a collegiate legacy kid (Peter). They fail to impress the members, who nod off during their description of the show/romp, but the club's butler is intrigued and offers to step in and back the show. After talking with him, Baker is about to turn him down, since he thinks the leads should be girls, but the Monkees convince him to go for it. They're about to catch a bus back to California when the hotel manager presents them with a bill for room service, which they have to work off.
This is a better-than-average plot, but they must have been running short on cash at this point; more than half of the clips for the romps are recycled from earlier shows in the season.
One of the reasons the manager wants them gone is to free up a room for a wealthy rabbit breeder. Each time we see the breeder, he's more drunk than previously and he has more rabbits (three cages' worth when the boys have to help him check in in the end sequence). It's a cute gag.
Mike and Davy do most of the talking; Micky gets a few cute bits of business, and Peter is sidelined for much of the middle part of the show, although he gets a wonderful silent gag while Baker is trying to pack his suitcase.
There's a moment when the waiter has just brought them a platter of sandwich fixings from room service where Peter is eating very neatly with a knife and fork, and everyone else is stuffing sandwiches in their faces willy-nilly. Micky, in another cute silent gag, manages to make a sandwich with his own hand as the filling.
The end musical bit is the video for "Words" with everyone's usual places swapped - Micky in front with the tambourine, Davy behind the drum kit, Peter on lead guitar (playing Blonde Beauty, no less!), Mike on bass. Partly this is because Peter has second vocal on the song; he really puts his heart into the vocal acting here.
There's an interview segment with Rafaelson asking them what they're doing with their money now that the show is successful, and what they'd do if that success went away. Peter says he'd go back to the Village and be a folk singer; Davy says he'd go watch him; Mike says he'd burn the village; Micky says he'd probably be dating his science teacher. (Cue "Hot for Teacher.") Peter and Davy give joking answers to what they'd buy if money were no object ("Texas" and a date with Ursula Andress, respectively), Mike basically says that he has what he wants now, and Micky says he'd be more interested in buying up city blocks and planting orange groves than getting more physical stuff. There's an interlude with the makeup guy, and then Rafelson asks Mike, specifically, why one of the first things he did with his Monkee money was buy a house, to which Mike gives the perfectly reasonable reply, "To keep the wind off of me!" The interview segment is almost more fun than the episode was.
This is, again, a slightly-better-than-average episode, but nothing except the interview (and maybe the Fibonacci rabbit gag) to make it particularly memorable.
One thin ep and two okay ones. Two more to go in the season, one of which is the concert footage episode.