Every ‘Monkees’ Episode: “Too Many Girls” (a.k.a. “Davy and Fern”) (S1E15)
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: “Too Many Girls” (a.k.a. “Davy and Fern”) (Season 1, Episode 15)
Air date: December 19, 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMjYZr_bx3g
Girls, gypsies, and the Stone Poneys! They’re all here in this fun romp written by Dave Evans and Gerald Gardner and directed by James Frawley.
The boys are in the middle of rehearsing “Steppin’ Stone” — and playing their own instruments for real — when Davy is caught mesmerized by the parade of girls appearing literally out of nowhere. They’re equally entranced by his “staggering good looks” as Mike puts it, and a despondent Micky confesses, “I, myself, am deeply jealous.”
To get away from all of these girls, Davy’s pals take him to Ye Olde Tea Room. There, we meet ambitious stage mother Mrs. Badderly, who has concocted an elaborate scheme to get her reluctant daughter Fern into show business with Davy. Reta Shaw, who is also seen in Bewitched and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, is clearly having fun playing Mrs. Badderly.
She calls Mr. Hack (actor Jeff DeBenning), the host of the local Amateur Hour, and requests he book her daughter on his show. She enthusiastically produces a jar of pepper and a nail and hands them to her daughter.
Since Davy is English, Mrs. Badderly figures that he must like tea, so she invites him and his mates to the Gypsy Tea Room to have their tea leaves read. She must first gain the boys’ confidence before she arrives at Davy’s prediction, so she informs Mike that he is a musician and composer (so far, so good), but that he will get a flat tire.
Next, she warns Peter that he’ll come down with a virus. Micky politely refuses the reading and decides to take his tea leaves home with him because he likes to have something to read in bed. Perhaps Mrs. Badderly has some clairvoyant talents? After all, she just presented Fern with two objects, both meant for Mike and Peter. Anyway, she tells Davy that he will fall in love soon and leave the group.
The boys leave, unconvinced by her predictions until they find one of the tires flat (Fern punctured it with the nail), and Peter begins to sneeze (Fern sprinkled pepper onto his coat). Now worried that the prediction that Davy will fall in love and leave the band will come to pass, the boys pump up the tire and race home.
Back at the pad, Micky, Mike, and Peter try to convince Davy not to leave the premises. Fern arrives dressed as a Girl Scout trying to sell cookies. “Girl Scout my (cuckoo sound)!” declares Micky, as they push her out and stash Davy upstairs. She returns dressed as a photographer wishing to take a publicity photo of them. When asked where their fourth member is, she is informed of his whereabouts. She takes the photo and the flash fills the room with smoke so she can sneak upstairs to fetch Davy, but the boys are on to her and push her out the door.
When asked where their fourth member is, she is informed of his whereabouts. She takes the photo and the flash fills the room with smoke so she can sneak upstairs to fetch Davy, but the boys are on to her and push her out the door.
Davy admits that the only way they can keep him from girls is to lock him up, so they oblige by chaining him to a chair. They leave the helpless, un-chaperoned Davy to watch a western on TV while they take care of a random errand. This isn’t just random program he is watching, however; it is Iron Horse, which ran on a rival network opposite the Monkees’ own TV show.
A telegram is slipped under the door, and a curious Davy heads over to it, dragging the chair with him. After reading the telegram, he leaves the apartment, chair and all! His mates return, find the telegram, and realize the only thing that could have prevented Davy from staying in the flat was an invitation to be a judge in a beauty contest, as promised by the telegram.
After the commercial break, the boys set off to find their friend. They run into a man dragging a chair across the sidewalk, so they naturally assume he’s Davy, only to find out he’s some other lad chained to a chair.
Davy returns to Ye Olde Tea Room and is greeted by Fern donning a dark wig and bikini. There was a scene where she emerged from a curtain, but that was edited for broadcast to please the censors at the time. Look closely, and Fern’s upper torso is blurred for the same reason (check out the uncensored version of this scene here).
Davy declares to Fern, “I think I love you,” and if this phrase rings a bell, it is because another made-for-TV-band known as the Partridge Family will sing it to #1 in 1970. That band will sign a contract for Bell Records, just like Davy did in his solo years.
The boys arrive and realize they are too late. “I, myself, am deeply jealous,” echoes Peter. Davy breaks free from the chain because “a man in love has the strength of thousands.” After he leaves with Fern, the sullen boys hear a phone ring. A phone on a table conveniently rolls into the scene.
Peter picks up, and it’s Mr. Hack who asks him to relay a message to Mrs. Badderly that her daughter Fern is officially booked on his show. Peter shares this information with Mike and Micky, and they are all stunned when they realize that Fern is Mrs. Badderly’s daughter.
They race to KXIU-TV and sign up for the talent show to ultimately sabotage Davy’s routine. Mr. Hack’s Amateur Hour is inspired by Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, which made its debut on NBC in 1948 and ran until 1970.
It has been said that it takes much talent to be bad, so the Monkees have talent to spare (but we already knew that). First up is Peter as The Astonishing Pietro, magician. All of his tricks fall flat, but he is successful with his milk-in-the-hat trick. That is until he places the hat on his head, and the milk spills all down his face. A sobbing Peter is rushed off the stage, providing new meaning to the phrase “crying over spilled milk.”
Next up is Mike as a nervous Billy Roy Hodstetter, folk singer, racing through a song called “Different Drum,” complete with choreographed eyewink during the phrase “every time you make eyes at me.” You have probably heard this Nesmith-penned composition before, but you might recognize it better when performed by the Stone Poneys.
Featured on their 1967 sophomore album Evergreen, Vol. 2, they brought the song to #13 with a little help from their lead singer, Linda Ronstadt. So, it can be said that the Monkees are indirectly responsible for helping to launch, or at least propel, Linda Ronstadt’s career.
Finally, Micky arrives as Locksley Mendoza, who claims to do impersonations but repeatedly impersonates James Cagney. During his bit, Mike and Peter place rocks in Davy’s jacket and replace his cane with a rubber one. At the last minute, Mike sprays something into Davy’s mouth, temporarily ruining his singing voice. The spray replaces the original idea of a glass of water laced with pills.
Davy and Fern stumble through the first two verses of “Undecided,” written by Tin Pan Alley team Charles Shavers and Sid Robin and recorded in 1939 by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb & his orchestra. A frustrated and embarrassed Fern flees the set to be comforted by her mother.
Mr. Hack advertises a supplement known as SDRAWKCAB and informs the audience it is superior to products containing iron because it has aluminum and iron can rust. He then tells us that SDRAWKCAB spelled backwards is “backwards.”
He introduces the Monkees who perform “I’m A Believer,” which will hit #1 shortly after this episode’s premiere. It will go gold (500,000 copies) in just a couple of days after release and will be the top-selling single of 1967.
After they perform, Mr. Hack stuns everyone by announcing that the winners of the Amateur Hour are, in fact, Fern and Davy!
The episode’s official title is taken from the 1939 Broadway musical Too Many Girls, but notice how the alternate title is “Davy and Fern,” but their act is billed as “Fern and Davy”? Good times.
