Yep, but as everything about that song was a mistake it's only fitting that the wrong writer was credited!
This is news to you? I thought it was widely known--I only mentioned it to establish that this was the episode when it happened. It's in Davy's autobiography, but in a sidebar that was written by Peter. The fact that Davy put Peter's description of the fight in his own autobiography is pretty darned good proof that the retelling is accurate. Davy was throwing a tantrum on the set. Peter tried to calm him down, and Davy gave him a "nutter"--a painful blow to the face with his forehead. A tussle ensued. Crew members separated them, and held them until they both calmed down. (Or seemed to have calmed down.) Peter then got one arm free and slugged Davy hard enough to open a cut above one eye. Davy included a picture of the $75 emergency room bill in the autobiography, which confirms the date the fight happened. From the telling in Davy's book, they got back to work in peace as soon as he returned to the set after getting his cut stitched up.
Today's episode is The Devil and Peter Tork: Songs used: Salesman, No Time and I Wanna Be Free (Harp version) I think the music is the best aspect of this ep, as these songs are all more interesting than most of what has featured recently. The story now feels overdone, and coincidentally it's the second episode in a row with a plot that was later partially used in The Simpsons. According to Wikipedia, this was filmed much earlier in the season. 2.5/5.
The Devil and Peter Tork -- 4/5 They pull off the Faust story pretty well here, with some obvious allusions to their own career. The material isn't nearly as slapstick/wacky as usual, and the absence of a laugh track here is deafening. As the second season rolls along, the pacing of the show starts to feel a little weird and unsure of itself, but there are some very fine moments in this episode. Great to see and hear "Salesman" here, too.
The Devil and Peter Tork - 5/5 One of my favorites. Peter's shining moment. Monte Landis as the devil is superb. It's quite memorable.
The Devil and Peter Tork - The Monkees’ take on the classic ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ and a second season classic in its own right. All four Monkees give great performances in this episode, especially Peter and Mike in the courtroom scene, Mike’s defense speech of Peter is perhaps the most sincere in the entire series as it’s a subject near and dear to both of them. Monte Landis is exquisitely sinister and evil as Mr. Zero and this is without doubt his best piece of acting on the Monkees series, the story couldn’t have asked for a better villain. Salesman works in the romp in Hades. In my opinion, this is the best episode in the entire series and I would place it at number one. 5/5. P.S.: I highly recommend that you watch the classic 1941 film version of The Devil and Daniel Webster starring Edward Arnold as Daniel Webster and Walter Houston as Mr. Scratch in a performance that will send shivers up your spine when you get to the ending.
A pretty great episode in and of itself (my favorite Monty Landis role by far) bit this is about one thing and one thing only - Mike's speech. It's his finest and probably the series' best moment, given the significance and symbolism - it sums it all up. 5/5
Missed a few episodes and those are two or three that I want to rewatch anyhow, just need to find the time. I remember some aspects of those episodes like Pat Paulson's narration and the guest star saying he hated them but certainly do not know the shows or have watched them as much as The Devil and Peter Tork. As with many of you, it is a standout episode for me and others have stated why - Monte Landis, Mike's speech, the romps, the music, the whole meaning of the episode. Also, as pointed out, a few episodes maybe starting with Fairy Tale, things got very loose and those can be funny too but my favorite episodes are more like this one , Christmas, helping Davy impress his grandfather, etc. A 5!
The Devil and Peter Tork Best episode title of any episode IMHO. And it has many other excellent points. The use of the music to create suspense when Peter is in the must shop. Monte Landis's star turn in all his appearances. Excellent romp with Landis going way over the top in a good way and the sexy she-devils. Peter's acting 'I don't want to go to hell'. 'You know, it was almost worth it'. It's not Shakespeare, but this just works as a Monkees episode in every way. The court setup is great too with the hanging judge and jury of convicted witnesses. Nez again is good in the court scene, particularly encouraging Peter to play the harp. I Wanna Be Free works really well as a harp solo, and the harp plus bass version of Pleasant Valley Sunday works well too. Salesman is great for the romp. And the episode has an actual conclusion. It doesn't just finish. No Time in the Rainbow Room is a bonus which isn't needed, but is good. I wonder how much Hank Cicalo received for the placement. It's said that he bought a house with the proceeds of the song in total. Just a great episode all round. 5/5
When I sat down to write my first Monkees episode review, I tried to summarize the reasons for my general disappointment in the episode Alias Micky Dolenz. I wrote, “It’s such an atypical episode… a very dark story, with very little levity and almost no fun.” I went on to praise Dolenz’s superb acting in the episode, and gave it an overall grade of B minus. Not bad, I suppose, but certainly not great. As I worked on the easy part of the review for The Devil and Peter Tork, picking out Zingers and Nitpicks and Monkee Magic and so forth, I noticed that the episode had few exchanges of dialogue funny enough to quote. It was difficult to come up with Physical Comedy Highlights or Sight Gag Highlights. I heard my own words coming back to haunt me: “It’s such an atypical episode… very dark… little levity and almost no fun.” Why, I asked myself, did Alias Micky Dolenz get downgraded for being dark and serious, while The Devil and Peter Tork stands unchallenged as my favorite episode of the whole series? One of the strikes against Alias Micky Dolenz was that it was very nearly a solo performance for Dolenz. He deserves highest praise for his acting, but the episode sadly lacked the Monkees’ usual one-for-all, all-for-one camaraderie. The Devil and Peter Tork, on the other hand, keeps all four Monkees close together throughout the episode (with the sole exception of the opening scene in Mr. Zero’s store). The story itself is a tight three-character drama, surprisingly well anchored by the two “non-actor” actors in the cast and a guest star who was on other occasions so unmemorable that the producers saw nothing wrong with casting him in seven different roles in seven different episodes. I tend to associate Tork’s work as an actor with his silly facial expressions, endearing reactions and pitch-perfect delivery of funny lines, but I tend not to focus on him when he’s not speaking. (In a couple of instances I have caught him mouthing another actor’s lines.) But in this episode, I am astonished not so much by the delivery of his dialogue, but by the depth, range and raw honesty expressed in long silences, reacting to the things that are being said around him and about him. His wordless performance during the climactic harp solo is heartbreaking. Nesmith’s major contribution is the pivotal courtroom speech, echoing the legendary eloquence of Daniel Webster in the short story that gave this episode its title. Ironically, his brilliance in this episode is not in the delivery of a persuasive argument—just the opposite, in fact. True to his character, Mike fumbles his folksy way throughout the speech and, just as he reaches the crux of the matter, gets painfully tangled up in his own words. “People say, ‘Well, I can’t carry a note. I can’t, I can’t say— I can’t sing— I’m, I’m tone deaf.’ But nobody’s tone deaf!” It’s Nesmith’s flawed delivery that keeps his oration in character. Jones and Dolenz don’t have much to do, but they are present throughout and are clearly involved in the fight, and they add a great deal to the drama simply in the way they listen and react. As they step away from the foreground, Monte Landis steps up. In several other episodes he annoys me in with his scenery-chewing comic accents and antics. Here, he calmly stays in harmony with the dramatic performances being delivered by Nesmith and Tork. He can belt out an evil cackle with gusto, when it’s called for, but he’s at his best when he’s glibly passing himself off as Peter’s most munificent benefactor. Third Runner-Up Nitpick Blackbeard was not particularly known for Englishman-blood-smelling. That phrase pairs up with “Fee Fi Fo Fum,” and was spoken by the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. Second Runner-Up Nitpick Billy the Kid testifies twice (responding to leading questions from both Mr. Zero and Mike) that he entered into a contract with Mr. Zero in the year 1882. It would have been so easy for the writers to fact-check this! For the record: Billy the Kid was killed in July, 1881. Runner-Up Nitpick Neither Pleasant Valley Sunday nor I Wanna Be Free were listed in the credits. Nitpick Considering that Mr. Zero is dragged back to “cuckoo” at the end of Peter’s trial, how in the “cuckoo” are the Monkees going to get home? Absolutely Not a Nitpick The devil was sloppy with the terms of his contract. “In exchange for fame, fortune, and the ability to play the harp, I purchased Peter Tork’s soul,” he says. Well, guess what? The only thing Peter wanted was the harp itself—and apparently, the terms of the contract did not include ownership of the harp in the price for Peter’s soul. The harp itself was free. Grading Tork and Nesmith: for your Emmy consideration. A+ Robert Kaufman: best adaptation. A+ Seven times at bat, and Monte Landis finally hits a home run. A I cry during that harp solo, and I don’t even like I Wanna be Free. A- Overall grade: 6 out of 5
My favorite episode is still to come and I will gush about it when we get there but Devil and Peter Tork is right up there in my top 3. Brilliant, emotional, and the fellas play it straight. Extra points for 'Salesman' 5/5
The Devil and Peter Tork - 5/5 Lots to like about this one, including Salesman which is a great, fitting song and fun romp. I’m glad it (eventually) cleared the censors.
Today's episode is The Monkees Race Again: Song used: What Am I Doing Hangin' Round? The acting in the pre-title sequence deserves to be singled out, as it is amazingly stilted and wooden... The re-write for this episode was done by Elias Davis and David Pollock who went on to have very good careers (M.A.S.H., Frasier etc.). There are laughs here and there, my favorite line being: "I see you're having some trouble with your car." "I see you're having some trouble with your accent." It has the same mix of fourth wall breaking and dodgy plotting that you would expect. 2.5/5.
The Monkees Race Again - Well, we go from the all-time Best Monkees episode to the all-time Worst in one fair swoop! The Guys are definitely phoning it in on this show. Some good gags and the wonderful Stubby Kaye as a guest star and fun cameos by Valerie Kairsy Venet and producer Bob Rafelson aren’t enough to save this lazy lack of effort. 1/5.
"The Monkees Race Again" -- 1/5 This might be the most flimsy episode of the series. The plot is weak, and the guys' acting in this feels so disconnected and disinterested. I would have to assume they're stoned out of their gourds for this shoot. They're definitely not into this one and neither am I.
May I add that this is the only episode that includes the Monkeemobile as a major character in the plot, which makes the weakness of the show all the more frustrating.
This episode sucks. It's boring, cliched, unfunny, vaguely depressing, lifeless, and the guys are totally mailing it in. If not the worst episode of the show, than among the bottom 2 or 3. But now that I think about it... it's the worst episode of the show. Though the weird thing about Race Again is that they'd clearly moved on - they had to have been completely over the show. The Birds & Bees/Head/Instant Replay recording glut had begun - it must've been so schizophrenic going from recording "Lady's Baby" and "Circle Sky" to filming the TV show, and vice versa. Anyway, this is some bottom of the barrel stuff: 1/5
Monkees race again easily the bottom of the barrel of the tv series. the romp just limps through It always irked me that they didn’t use a monkee song for the car race. I guess at this point they were running out of songs to use. Maybe they should have reached back in the vault and pulled out mr. Webster LOL I will say that despite this being the worst episode in the series, I do find it strangely fascinating. It’s so bad I can’t look away. So for that, I’ll give it a 1.6. The .6 is my twisted personal interest.
