A local station is running the old “The Monkees” series on Saturday nights and it isn’t nearly as bad as I remember it. Some of the jokes are clever, it’s self-aware so far beyond a fault as to lap the universe, and, between the band, Don Kirschner, Neil Diamond, and Boyce and Hart, they really know how to put together little pop jewels.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make a show special. I will use last Saturday’s episode, “Monkees in a Ghost Town,” as an example. It starred Len Lesser (Seinfeld’s Uncle Leo) as George and Lon Chaney, Jr, as Lenny. I didn’t make the names connection in 1966 (though I suspect Burgess Meredith, at his career height on “Batman” at the time, was too expensive to get, too) because I hadn’t seen Chaney in “Of Mice and Men” yet nor did I get the joke when Lenny reached into his pocket for something and pulled out a mouse.
I don’t recall the songs but one was a Michael Nesmith original and I’m a fan of his. Rose Marie also starred, singing some songs I assume she once sang onstage as a child and, all in all, it was described by one daughter as, “crap, but they know it’s crap and they don’t care,” which she thought was part of its brilliance.
Seriously…cheesy genius. It’s silly, it knows it’s silly, it revels in the silliness. ‘Real’ band or no (and I don’t think a band deliberately formed by a producer is any less real than an equivelant band that formed organically), they were talented musicians, and good actors, for the kind of show it was - they might not be ready for Shakespear, but they could handle the wheel of sharp cheddar the show was.
I thought it was cheesy genius enough to buy both Rhino DVD box sets. Its appeal lies in that level of stupid-on-purpose they had going on, just because they could! That’s what’s so great about it. And hey, on the box set, you also get “33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee,” which I had never seen before.
Last year I bought the DVD box set of season two of the Monkees, not having seen the show since the first run. Watching the first episode was such great fun, and I quickly settled into a groove of watching one episode every Saturday morning, buying the season one box along the way. I’ve just recently gotten through the entire series that way (except for the episodes on the fourth DVD of season one, which turned out to be defective, and it was much too late to try to take it back). Still fun, but to tell the truth it kind of wore thin after a while.
(smugly geekish smile) That episode was broadcast on 3/11/68, AFTER the last Penguin episode (1/25/68) of “Batman.” He was unemployed and available for less than his rate would’ve been after he had hit on “Batman.”
Not that I think Burgess Meredith hit on Batman. I mean, the guy was on wife #4 at that point, though that smacks of trying too hard. :dubious:
Their Saturday night summer lineup (almost over, unfortunately) is a stitch. In addition to the Monkees, there’s Mr. Ed, Gidget AND The Flying Nun, The Patty Duke Show and others.
I always liked the old Peter Graves Mission Impossible TV series, but haven’t seen it in syndication in forever. I imagine it’s (like a lot of shows) not nearly as good as I remember, but I’d still watch it over some of the stuff on TV these days.
OMIGOD!!!
I have the DVDs, but have been working my way through them slowly. I had not gotten to, nor did I remember, that episode!!!
Your cite just inspired me to watch it:
First of all, Burgess Meredith’s (uncredited 'til IMDB) performance is just bizarre! he has no lines whatsoever. He is simply present in a nightclub while the Monkees foil the scheme of a dishonest mentalist.
Burgess Meredith sits at a table alone watching the stage act. The back of his chair is facing the stage so he twists around in his seat to watch, elbow draped over the back of his chair. He is in a Tuxedo and Top Hat (a la the Penguin), smoking a cigarette in a long cigarette holder. All we get is a few random reaction shots in which, in response to the stage act, he laughs his patented Penguin laugh.
BUT THAT ISN"T EVEN THE REALLY BIZARRE PART!!!
The show opens on the set of the Monkees T.V. show with a segment featuring Michael Nesmith interviewing Frank Zappa . . .
. . . but Mike Nesmith is portrayed by Frank Zappa and Frank Zappa is portrayed by Mike Nesmith!!!
Oh yeah, I remember this! (From my pre-high school years, IIRC.)
Not much to say, really…it was corny as hell, it went over the top every chance it got, and it never pretended to be anything other than a sitcom that’d produce a lot of cheap laughs and then be promptly forgotten. (Well, maybe not considering that we have this thread, but you get the idea.) I think the greatest thing about it was that it never tried to explain anything. How these guys are able to change costumes in two seconds, go completely through each other on a high wire, operate all kinds of motor vehicles with perfect proficiency, and so on. It was a show where stuff just happened, and in that regard, it succeeded admirably.
Wouldn’t buy it on DVD, though. Doesn’t age quite that well, and those songs are a bit old.