There’s a curious dichotomy to this quasi-documentary, a half-hour film that is at war with itself. I call it a quasi-documentary because Bob Rafelson can hardly be called an objective filmmaker; he not only has a story to tell, he also has a product to sell. It’s in his vested interest to depict the concert-performing Monkees as a mirror reflection of the television-acting Monkees. See? They’re having a good time. They’re telling jokes. They’re goofing around with their fans. They may be coming to your town; wouldn’t that be fun? Three of the Monkees have jaunty little solo scenes depicting their leisure activities before the concert: Davy plays slow-motion tag with an irritable swan; Micky roller-skates around the hotel and signs autographs; Mike drives the Monkeemobile into town and goes shopping in a sporting goods store. Other activities take place in groups of three: breakfast (Davy, Peter and Mike), a trail ride (Davy, Peter and Micky) and a radio station takeover (Davy, Micky and Mike). The implication is that the Monkees enjoy a lot of free time on the day of a concert. And yet, there’s the contradictory view, succinctly and vividly expressed by not one but two Monkees, in the form of Michael quoting Peter: “Your life when you go out on the road turns into an endless tunnel of just limousines and airplanes and hotel rooms. And all of a sudden there’s one brief period of light—and that’s when you walk out there on the stage, you know. And it all seems worthwhile.” What a stark image! What a lonely, cold, sad vision of the Monkees on tour—a vision matched by the bleak, colorless footage shot at the airport in the dark of night, in the bowels of the arena between sets, in the starkly lit garage with its wailing sirens. Physical Comedy Highlight Davy getting tough with a swan. Or…maybe not. Sight Gag Highlight Micky in auto-autograph mode. We Do Our Own Stunts Davy hotdogging recklessly on a motorcycle. Helmet? He’s not even wearing a shirt! Grading Candy-colored capers of a band that’s having a ball. B- That long, dark tunnel of limousines, airplanes and hotel rooms. C The concert. What’s that? I can’t hear you over all the screaming. Overall grade: 3 out of 5
Also, toward the end of "Mary, Mary", Davy would step behind the drums while Micky went to the front of the stage.
It's kinda odd that Boyce and Hart never showed up on the TV show as guests other than that brief clip of Bobby Hart live on stage in the tour episode. Especially since Boyce and Hart were musical guests on other Screen Gems TV shows, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. Looking back, it seems odd that a TV series about a musical band did not seem to focus on music that often in the episodes. I guess the producers preferred the usual sitcom formula, especially in the 1st season. At least in the shorter second season, the guys got a few other musical guests to appear on the TV show, so there's that. Frank Zappa, Charlie Smalls, Liberace and Tim Buckley.
Today's episode is It's a Nice Place to Visit (The Monkees in Mexico): Song used: What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round? The positives to this one for me are the relevant use of the above song, and the fact that For Pete's Sake is now the closing theme. The negatives are that it's another ramshackle plot with a bunch of national stereotypes thrown in. Again there's nothing that I find offensive as it is very typical of the time, but the writing simply isn't very good. 2.5/5.
It’s a nice place to visit. 1.5/5 The only good part of this episode is what am I doing hanging around. If I’m not mistaken, hanging around was part of the rainbow room sessions and dropped into the episode
It's A Nice Place to Visit / Monkees in Mexico - 3.5/5 Here we have bandits, not much different than gansters, I suppose. Docking it some for the outdated ethnic dressing up. I don't really like westerns that much overall and it has that feel as well. Crappy plot but lots and lots of good gags make up for it through out. Lots of silly gags are funny and memorable for me - anyways. El Monotono. My fav. part is probably Davy walking out holding Sgt. Peppers LP while being on the bad guys' side during the shootout. Talk about product placement that worked well IMHO! Close runner up gag: Mike's quip as Davy falls in love at the beginning: "David means business, baby." Some of the set looks like the same area where the 3 of them filmed those Kool-Aid commercials a few years later. Overused part is Davy dancing as El Diablo is shooting around his feet. That same part was used in one of the Back to the Future movies with Michael J. Fox. I suppose the shooting at the feet was used quite often in older films and TV.
A Nice Place To Visit - First episode of the second season, and another that would be considered PIC by today’s standards. As an Hispanic, I’m not bothered that much by the stereotypes, to me it’s just comedy, though I can understand if it makes others uncomfortable. In this episode you can the beginnings of the Monkees starting to become detached by the confines of the plots. I do like the reference to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, years before Mel Brooks used it in Blazing Saddles. A middling episode. 3/5.
Actor Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez sometimes got criticized for playing stereotyped Mexican characters, usually grinning, subservient bumblers, in dozens of movies and television shows. But he also earned a good living at his craft, and paved the way for other Hispanic actors in Hollywood. Born into poverty and never formally educated, he was working as an itinerant entertainer in his native Texas when he was discovered by a talent scout and sent to Hollywood to appear on the game show You Bet Your Life in 1953. John Wayne spotted him on that show, ably matching wits with Groucho Marx, and signed him to a long-term contract with his production company. It’s because of Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez that I am giving the episode It’s a Nice Place to Visit a passing grade, despite its uncomfortably high level of stereotyping. I had flunked the episode Monkee Chow Mein for its crude depiction of Chinese culture and its use of Caucasian actors in heavy makeup and thick, make believe Chinese accents. I’m not claiming that It’s a Nice Place to Visit is blameless on those counts; although I can’t prove that Cynthia Hull (Angelita) and Peter Whitney (El Diablo) are not Hispanic, I did notice that they both manage to mispronounce their own characters’ names. But then there’s ol’ Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, decked out in a ragged sombrero and a sweet, ingratiating grin, playing that same old character he played in so many John Wayne westerns, the one that used to make people tut with disapproval. Subservient. Bumbling. And then... he fixes the car. Bumbler? Heck, no! He rebuilds the Monkeemobile’s engine in a matter of hours for the extravagant sum of $14.95. So no failing grade this time! It’s a Nice Place to Visit doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory when it comes to cross-cultural sensitivity, but at least it employs several Hispanic actors in significant roles. And it manages to populate its mythical Mexican village with a variety of residents, many of whom come to the cantina to appreciate some live music. There’s much more to El Monotono than just a band of swarthy, hairy, drunk, foul-tempered bandits. Sadly, there are an awful lot of swarthy, hairy, drunk, foul-tempered bandits. Production Notes Principal filming for this episode ended on June 2, 1967. The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1, 1967. During the shootout romp, Davy can be seen carrying a copy of the brand-new album. The performance for What am I Doing Hangin’ ’Round? was shot in Chicago on August 2, 1967, in the same filming session that also produced performances for Daydream Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Randy Scouse Git and several other songs. This was the only performance shot that day that did not use the candy-striped Rainbow Room setting. Instead, a blank backdrop was dressed with a decorative valance and serape meant to resemble the cantina set in the episode, which had been filmed two months earlier. Nitpick Given the effort put into matching the background and costumes for the What Am I Doing Hangin’ ’Round? performance to the cantina scene in the episode, they got the instruments 100% wrong. + Performance: Blonde 12-string guitar, banjo, four red maracas and black drums + Episode: Dark 6-string guitar, bass, two blue maracas Cultural Clarification The iconic line “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” is widely believed to have originated with the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But the line from that movie was, “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” It was Micky’s line from this Monkees episode, written by Treva Silverman in 1967 and later used by Mel Brooks for his 1974 parody film Blazing Saddles, that has entered the cultural vocabulary. Grading I thought love was only true in travelogues. B- I wanna be free (no, Peter, that’s my finger). A I don’t think you know Mexico at all. D Overall grade 3 out of 5
The start of the weird transitional style phase! Micky and Mike in particular both look like they're kind of working through some hair decisions. The episode itself is pretty standard fare (if a little more manic than season 1) but it holds up better than I remembered it. I particularly like Peter in this one. 3/5
On the cover of the LP "Monkee Flips", in an image from the "Hangin' 'Round' clip, you can see the Rainbow Room stripes on the floor by Michael and Peter's feet.
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez’s classic appearance with Groucho Marx on You Bet Your Life. You can tell that Groucho absolutely loved him.
Today's episode is The Picture Frame (The Bank Robbery): Songs used: Pleasant Valley Sunday and Randy Scouse Git I think this is superior to yesterday's episode (and superior to tomorrow's too). The first few minutes are the usual overly busy nonsense, but once things settle down there is some entertainment to be had. There are some genuine jokes and comical situations. 3.5/5.
the lads used ta drink with yer man at arms in Padstow back in yonks we done, short bloke, him, got right made with a daft yank shambles him did, with the velvet flares and creepers, a bit of a tosser yer man, would nick the dosh off the bar, the lads would take yer man out in the lane fer a well proper punch up then would. Proper times in Cornwall them was, my son!
My first impressions of season two opener was Micky seemed to have matured and looks four or five years older than he just did. Also, season two has always been viewed as when they changed some things like outfits but these first two episodes still had the Monkees in matching blue or red outfits, which I always thought was OK since they were a band or group. Great songs and the Rainbow room and some good comic jokes. It was weird to see three Monkees go into somewhere, in this case to get movie parts (which were not movie parts at all), what happened to the fourth Monkee? Monkees at Sea will have the same thing. And since Turk already alluded to tomorrow's episode, that is one of my absolute favorites. More on it tomorrow.
Picture Frame - 4/5 Back at Mammoth studios again. Quite funny and the guys still seem to be into putting effort into their roles. Lots of funny one liners here. Peter seemed to be away some from this episode.
The Picture Frame - A wacky second season episode, featuring a rare solo Peter romp. The guys are goofy and the courtroom scenes are appropriately zany. 4/5.
"FREE FOOD" is one of my all-time favorite sight gags. This is one of my favorite episodes from the early second season, post-Headquaters/pre-tour era. Nothing earth-shattering but everyone's in fine form, there's a worthy script, and a solid supporting cast. And great tunes. 4/5
Once I move past the idea of the Monkees being dumb enough to fall for the set-up, this is a very enjoyable episode lol. Maybe they thought they were in an Ed Wood production ha ha. picture frame gets a 4.5/5. This is one of the stronger “straight” episodes of the second season. The music is great and the guys look like they’re having fun.
Enjoying The Monkees requires a willing suspension of disbelief. Even before Monkee Magic is invoked, even before the fourth wall is breached, even before the first cartoon villain makes the first cartoon threat, the premise of the show requires us to believe that four out-of-work musicians can afford a souped-up custom GTO and a beachfront house in Malibu. In this fantasy world, The Picture Frame stands out as an episode in which every character—from the Monkees themselves to the villains, the victims, the cops, the lawyers and the judge—has been struck with the stupid stick. In fact, if any one character doesn’t get swept up in the relentless flood of dim-wittedness, it’s Peter! He misses the initial swindle and spends much of the second act working independently, trying to rescue his friends. In the face of all this foolishness, the most remarkable moment in the episode comes at the police station, when Mike (and Mike alone) becomes intellectually aware, his face sliding through half a dozen different expressions of horror and physical illness as the shadow of confusion lifts and the enormity of the situation hits him. Nesmith’s silly faces are usually good for a laugh, but here they take on dramatic significance, to excellent effect. Second Runner-Up Nitpick The D.A. objects to Mike’s testimony about the stick of dynamite, and then the stick of dynamite goes off in his hand. Why does the judge overrule his objection? Seems like the defense’s stunt has… well, backfired. Runner-Up Nitpick The robbery takes place during business hours, so the vault should be open. The time lock the manager mentions is activated only at closing time, to prevent the vault from being opened while the bank is closed. Nitpick When the police come to the pad, the four guys are all standing near the bay window area where they rehearse. There’s not an instrument in sight; just a plain wooden lectern and an enormous sword. Was there a yard sale? Grading Crime and Punishment. B- Law and Order. C+ Truth or Consequences. A- Overall grade 4 out of 5
The rainbow room romps are really my favorites overall. The guys are being filmed at the height of their success in the summer of 1967 in Chicago.
