Those three make sense to me. If we start going through all episodes of Metal Mickey directed by Micky, then that may be going too far (I'm not saying that anyone would suggest this.)
Today's episode is Monkees Blow Their Minds: Songs used: Valleri, Gonna But Me a Dog and Daily Nightly This is chiefly of interest for the Frank Zappa bit at the start and it's amusing to watch the two of them together. I think it's further evidence that the powers didn't really care anymore, as most of the conversation will have been lost on the kids. The episode itself is fairly forgettable and the songs are the best aspect. 2.5/5.
It appears the More Of The Monkees 3CD Super Deluxe Edition may have finally sold out (unless Rhino is able to allocate more stock) at the Monkees store. With that being said, maybe we will finally get the rumored announcement of the Headquarters Super Deluxe Edition that supposedly is to be announced sometime during this current tour.
Monkees Blow Their Minds - A weak episode with a campy performance by Monte Landis and a goofy one by James Frawley. What helps to save it a little is the Frank Zappa guest appearance and the surprise cameo by Burgess Meredith in a version of his Penguin persona. Another where the guys are phoning it in, though there is a sprinkling of amusing gags. 3/5.
Monkees Blow Their Minds -- 3/5 5/5 for the opening 2/5 for the rest Monte Landis is always great, and his performance as Oraculo -- with Jim Frawley as his dopey assistant -- is fun. But the script is pretty much DOA and the guys are really phoning it in for most of this. Watching the series as an adult now, it's easy to see how over it they were by this time. The Zappa segment is possibly the best three minutes of the entire series.
Monkees Blow Their Minds - 3/5 Zappa, the Penguin, and Daily Nightly are what make this one a 3. It bears repeating the episode itself is subpar, despite having the great Monti Landis and James Frawley involved. Going by how curly Micky's hair is how you can tell approximately when the show was filmed before or after the Summer of '67. This was clearly filmed earlier and pieced together towards the end. The non-story clips tie this episode together well sorta like that rug mentioned in the Big Lebowski movie.
This one was actually filmed very early on, as Micky's hair is still kinda straight. So, if they were over it already, then they still had quite a ways to go
People talk about how "over it" the guys were, but this was actually the third episode filmed for the 2nd season. Way, way back in April 1967. If you don't have a copy of Monkee Magic handy as a reference, try to remember that all the Monte Landis episodes were filmed pretty much back to back to back in the spring of '67--before the big summer tour. For some reason, The Devil and Peter Tork and Monkees Blow Their Minds were held back nearly to the end of the broadcast schedule. I have a copy of the script for this episode, and it's a bit of a mess. The script's plot ends with the Monkees getting hold of Oraculo's magic tool--a noisemaker called a ratchet--and taking control of both Oraculo's mind and the club owner's mind. Under the influence of the magic rachet, the club owner offers them a hundred dollars a week, plus his life savings, ownership of the nightclub, and his wife's furs. The tag scene has them rich, successful, and using Oraculo as household help. So I kind of think that's how we ended up with dogs instead.
Monkees blow their minds The actual story is a 1. but the penguin, Zappa, daily nightly, and an Instrumental version of gonna buy me a dog are a 5. (How cool if they had used Mike’s unreleased instrumental track instead?) sort of a reluctant 3/5 An interesting format for a third season could’ve been a 15 minute story combined with 15 minutes of guests, interviews and musical numbers.
Cool title, cool Zappa intro, cool Daily Nightly clip, completely garden variety episode. I've probably beaten this into the ground over the last few weeks but the early Season 2/Spring '67 episodes are generally my least favorite of the series. It's their adolescent period - they feel kind of goofy, their fashion and hair's a bit off, they're no longer the cute little clueless kids of Season 1 nor are they yet the jaded stoner hipsters from the post-summer tour 'sodes - everything was starting to change but at different speeds, and as such it seems out of whack to me. That said, Peter dragging his thumb across his backwards bass is one of my favorite sight gags in the entire series. I'm with everyone else - the extras elevate this one dramatically. 3/5.
Ahh, that makes sense. They're not quite engaged with this script, then, it seems. Feels like in the first season they were committed to at least trying to make the most out of some tired old sitcom tropes. Second season Monkees are being pulled in lots of different directions. At the time this was filmed, they'd finished Headquarters and were probably pretty exhausted. I'll be able to put the pieces together a bit better once my books arrive, hopefully this afternoon!
The Monkees Blow Their Minds What a strange episode. Monte Landis does a decent bad guy act, while 'other stuff' is going on around him. I'm not sure what Burgess Meredith really contributed, apart from being his character. Did I zone out and miss something again? The intro with Frank Zappa is interesting and zany, but a very different 'zany' from typical Monkees. Daily Nightly is great, but we've seen this clip a few times. The comment 'psychedelic' at the end adds a bit. 3.3/5 Because it's a bit weird and I like weird.
There’s not a whole lot of story here. Once you subtract the credits, Mike’s delightfully strange visit with Frank Zappa and the video noir presentation of Daily Nightly, the episode is left with only 17 minutes 40 seconds of story-telling time. Furthermore, if you subtract out the superfluously recycled puppy-romping footage from I’ve Got a Little Song Here you’re down to just 16 and a half minutes of actual plot. And it shows. What we’re left with is a mere shadow of a story, in part a pale rehash of The Monkee’s Paw; it would seem that every nightclub owner in Los Angeles is choosing between a music act and a magic act. All four Monkees end up frozen and expressionless; this is not a good formula for capturing the show’s trademark hijinks. By sheer luck (and not through any action of their own) they are freed, and the story eventually stumbles to a close. If The Devil and Peter Tork features Monte Landis at his finest, The Monkees Blow Their Minds has Monte Landis at his most annoying. I blame it in part on the makeup artist and costumer, who pulled out all the stops in making the character of Oraculo look about twenty steps beyond ridiculous. But Landis laps it all up, and then chews the scenery for good measure. I doubt there is a character anywhere under all that window dressing. You know who’s a real character? Rudy Bayshore, Oraculo’s semi-enslaved sidekick. I was tickled to see James Frawley, The Monkees’ regular director, improvisation coach and voice artist making an appearance in front of the cameras. Rudy actually has some semblance of motivation, and over the course of the episode manages to display more emotional range than any other character. Sadly, they missed an opportunity to strengthen the story by having Rudy switch sides and free the Monkees on purpose rather than by mistake. Production Note The Monkees Blow Their Minds was officially the 25th episode of the second season, but it was the third episode in production order. Filmed April 18 – 20 1967, it was held back for nearly a year before being aired on March 11 1968. No other regular episode was delayed as long. (A full year passed between the filming of the pilot and its eventual airing as episode number 10, but that’s a special case.) Cultural Clarification Frank Zappa appeared as a guest on the Steve Allen Show in 1963, when he was 22 years old. In that appearance he demonstrated his remarkable skill at playing a bicycle. (He did not demolish the bicycle. He used drumsticks and a bow, not a sledgehammer.) Nitpick I do believe there’s a major editing goof here, as these crucial events seem to take place in the wrong order: + Oraculo tells Rudy to give the Monkees more potion and then come out front to help with the act. + Rudy immediately appears out front and helps Oraculo with his act. + Somebody who looks very much like Davy crawls out from under a table (which makes no sense at all) and tries to make Oraculo look stupid. + Somebody who looks very much like Micky also tries to embarrass Oraculo, and actually leads the audience in a “boo!” + Rudy checks on the Monkees’ need for more potion and accidentally wakes them up. If the Monkees are still entranced backstage while Oraculo does his act, what is that 35-year-old lawyer doing hiding under a table? Absolutely Not a Nitpick The youngest justice of the US Supreme Court was Joseph Story, who was appointed at the age of 32 in 1812. The Constitution does not specify a minimum age for appointment to the court. Grading I am he and he is me. A Of Human Bondage. B- There ought to be a plot in here, somewhere. C- Overall grade 1 out of 5
Well, it was this episode that got me into buying Hot Rats, having decided that The Best Of The Mothers album just looked too weird! I pretty much agree with everyone else about the merits of the episode. The snippet of the Mother's song that features in the show is Mother People from their We're Only In It For The Money album. The Monkees Blow Their Minds - 3/5
Out of town and also spending time reading a certain new book I purchased has left me behind. I have good memories of the past several shows. Yes, each plot may be thin but the running time of the actual show is about 17 minutes of plot. The musical guest stars have also been something I remembered from the series run. I wasn't old enough to think about this but the people featured had to be completely foreign to the shows main audience like my sisters and myself. Zappa on a Monkees show, it may still have not sunk in. As far as tunes, they really featured some good music through this period, sped up Clarksville not withstanding. I also had heard the Greensleeves and Tango many hundreds of times more than in the episode since those appeared on Monkeeshines bootleg. Some Like it Lukewarm was a cool episode again going back to what a show about a music group and what they could actually encounter might be. One more very wacky episode to come!
Today's episode is The Frodis Caper: Song used: Zor and Zam I think this was Peter's favourite episode (?), and Micky did an interesting job with his direction. There is more energy than in some other instalments and there are some novel filmmaking ideas. You can perhaps see a little the potential that he had to direct. 3/5.
Frodis Caper - 5/5 Positively nuts. Quite different than the other episodes. I believe this is the only episode using more than 1 film camera at once. Rip Taylor and Tim Buckley and Micky's wacky directing are wins here. It seems like there are hints of Head here, just subtly.
The Frodis Caper (Mijacogeo) -- 5/5 Is it brilliantly written? No. Is it brilliantly directed? No. Is it brilliantly acted? No. But... Is it an expertly executed half hour of television nonetheless? Well...also, no. It's pretty amateurish on so many levels. However, it's probably the most fun I ever have watching an episode of this show, and it's one of only a handful that I tend to revisit regularly. It's not like any other installment of the series, for what it's worth, and the guys seem to be having fun breaking the fourth wall and mocking the formula of the show. Totally crazy. Rip Taylor as Wizard Glick is highly entertaining, and I never fail to laugh watching the game of Creebage, and prop man Jack Williams exclaiming "But I have a Creebage!". I'm also fascinated by the inclusion of "Zor and Zam" in this one -- in fact, also by yesterday's episode with the 1968 "Valleri" as well. It's just these couple of episodes (not counting the ones with "Daydream Believer" earlier in the season) which include tracks from The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees. "The Frodis Caper" only very slightly hints at what a third season might have been like, and there's an added charm just because of that.
