Every ‘Monkees’ Episode: “Monkee See, Monkee Die” (S1E2)
This past summer, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Monkees as a band by counting down our top 50 Monkees songs. Now, we’re celebrating The Monkees TV show by profiling each and every episode — exactly 50 years after it first premiered.
Tonight’s episode: “Monkee See, Monkee Die” (Season 1, Episode 2)
Air date: September 19, 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzV00Dd0zFY
Ahhhh, yes. “Monkee See, Monkee Die.” Filmed fifth in production and aired second in line, this episode is a definite improvement over the debut episode, “Royal Flush.” However, this one still feels like the weirdness and wildness of later episodes in seasons one and two are still many many romps away.
That being said, there’s a lot to recommend in “Monkee See, Monkee Die”: it takes the piss out of old murder mystery tropes, features Davy dressed as Whistler’s Mother, and boasts the first onscreen appearance of that evergreen classic “Last Train to Clarksville,” whose appearance in this episode would give it a fantastic boost up the Billboard charts where it ultimately landed at #1 in November.
The show opens with a Monkees rehearsal interrupted by the easily irritated Mr. Babbit (Henry Corden, in the first of four appearances as the character), the Monkees’ landlord, demanding back rent for their pad. Babbitt threatens to evict, so when there’s a knock at the door the next day, the Monkees are prepares and appear in disguise to try trick the lawyer Babbit’s hired.
This is an early example of the boys playing dress up (which, as we’ll see, they loved to do): Michael Nesmith is an old man with a beard holding a cone to his ear; Micky Dolenz is the 23-hour doorman (he was once the 24-hour doorman but “couldn’t take the long hours”); Peter Tork is a TV repair man (“Your TV is working so hard it’s tired!” Womp, womp!); and as mentioned before, Davy is cutting a Bugs Bunny-esque figure as Whistler’s Mother. Of course, when the lawyer reveals that he comes bearing a legacy from an eccentric millionaire, the Monkees change back to themselves right-quick — in cartoony-sped-up motion, even!
In order to find out what they’ve inherited, the Monkees arrive at a spooky mansion on an island wearing their matching eight-button, long-sleeved red shirts — the first time they appear in the series. An awesome rubber bat flies by, and they’re greeted by Riff-Raff, err, I mean Ralph, butler to the late millionaire John Cunningham. (Episode writer Treva Silverman, who’d later go on to win an Emmy for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, definitely packed the slips and puns into these 30 minutes.)
The four boys are taken to the drawing room filled with a cast of zany tropes — I mean, characters, including a clairvoyant with a snow globe, an old and blustery author, and Ellie Reynolds, Cunningham’s grand-niece. This girl is stunning and Davy is, of course, starry-eyed at the prospect of spending some QT with his new bae. (Side note: though the running joke of Davy falling in love looms large in The Monkees‘ legend, it’s good that the writers stopped using it as a plot device early on because it’s already wearing a little thin here — and this is only the second episode.)
The Monkees and pals listen to a recording of the deceased’s voice. Of course, the creepy mansion is left to Ellie with the stipulation she spends one night inside. Dun dun dunnnnn! The Monkees are left an organ by the wacko millionaire with the stipulation they play a song on it, so it’s clearly time for our first romp: “Last Train to Clarksville.”
What can be said about this wonderful song that hasn’t already been said? It’s really great to see its video debut in this episode, which includes some nifty makes-sense stock footage of a train and also lots of completely rando stock footage of early examples of experimental flying machines ending up in horrible accidents. Whoops! The experimental nature of this early romp really makes it sizzle.
Back to the “plot.” The boys get stuck on the island for the night and are forced to sleep in an ADORABLE GIANT BED ALL IN A ROW WITH THEM WEARING PAJAMAS OMG THE CUTENESS. However, right as the lights go out, the hijinks begin as a fuzzy monster-hand interrupts a Monkee game of rock, paper, scissors, making them flee right into the hallway.
They then run into the clairvoyant who predicts the death of the butler. Well, a few very silly St. Bernard, carrier pigeon (Peter: “What does [the message] say?” Mike: “It says, ‘I am not a carrier pigeon, please do not strap a message to my leg!’”), and Sherlock Holmes jokes later, the clairvoyant leads the Monkees and Ellie in a ridiculous seance in which they reach Cunningham’s answering service and Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas past, but not Cunningham himself, and the clairvoyant mysteriously vanishes.
The Monkees decide to hightail it off this spooky island. While they wait outside with Ellie, they decide to play some tunes, which prompts the second romp to “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day.” This is a fun spot in which the boys are wearing what appear to be red wetsuits (???) and monster masks.
Then, the Monkees hear laughter inside the mansion, and guess what? The night’s scary shenanigans was actually the butler, the clairvoyant, and the author attempting to scare Ellie off. Shocker! Those terrible adult authority figures getting in the way of the youthful exuberance of the Monkees!
Although each of these stuffy adults tries to stop the boys, they’re no match for Peter’s excellent gun-miming (pew, pew!) and are taken out one at a time. Or maybe they’ve been poisoned by an off-screen-fuzzy-handed-monster. The world will never know. Luckily, there are police easily able to get on and off the remote island to take these guys off to jail. BYEEE!
This episode hits all the tropes of a mystery well, but you can tell our beloved Monkees are still finding their chemistry with each other as the behind-the-scenes crew is still figuring out the rhythms of the show. That being said, there’s a lot of funny in “Monkee See, Monkee Die,” and things get better as the season really gets cookin’ with next week’s episode, “Monkee vs. Machine.”
Stats:
First appearances: 4 (the Monkeemobile; “Last Train to Clarksville”; Mr. Babbit; and those sharp, mod, amazing, long-sleeved, red, eight-button shirts!)
Number of times Davy get starry-eyed: 2
Number of times Davy appears as a classic painting: 1
Number of extra guys in monster masks during the romp: 1
Monkee pajama count: 4
Number of beds for the Monkees to sleep in: 1 (and it’s the cutest)
-
Guy Smiley