bluemoonalto

2012 was the year I rediscovered the Monkees, and recaptured both a taste of my long-ago childhood and an echo of my once-upon-a-time hobby of writing.  It’s been an adventure, and a challenge, and a blast.  I’m having so much fun, and I don’t want it to end.  Now that the number of episodes remaining in my alphabetical list dwindles toward zero, I wonder what I’ll do next.

50 Posts For The Monkees’ 50th Anniversary

Post Twenty-Nine: The Rainbow Room

A mainstay of Season Two of the show, the Rainbow Room is probably one of the most iconic video elements of The Monkees. It’s something most fans think of right away when combining the music with the images on television.

Still, as iconic as it is; it’s hard to pin down what exactly the appeal of the Rainbow Room is as a Monkees fan. At its simplest, it’s just a segment of the episodes where the guys mime songs from either Headquarters or Pieces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones LTD (with the exception being Daydream Believer from The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees).  Performance romps that all take place in the same brightly colored room. In theory, it shouldn’t stand out any more than any other set that was used for performance romps, such as the wood paneled room where tunes like You Just May Be the One were filmed or the stage that hosted romps for I’m a Believer or Sweet Young Thing.

And yet there is something about the Rainbow Room romps that always seem a slight cut above any other performance romps.

I think one aspect of it is that these were some of the best songs featured on the show. Songs like Pleasant Valley Sunday, Randy Scouse Git and Daydream Believer are all from the highpoint of The Monkees music career. Seeing the guys perform those songs, even if they’re just miming them, reminds us the great musical talent that was paired with an entertaining television show.

On a shallower note, it could also be because the guys looked fabulous in the Rainbow Room segments too. Micky and his tablecloth poncho. Davy and his Nehru outfits. Peter and his beads and temporary tattoos. Mike and his range of fashion statements from questionable red slacks to classic blue suit with fancy cuffs. The guys rarely looked better than they did during these performances. Pretty impressive when you consider that they were filmed in large blocks of time which were squeezed into the guys’ already crammed schedule.

Of course, another thing that can’t be ignored is the sheer joy and fun that are contained in the Rainbow Room romps. Sure, the guys were probably tired and less than enthused by this additional filming, but you’d never know it watching them. Micky does his usually high-energy antics and seems to be all smiles about his band mates. Peter is his usual enthusiastic self, pretending to play with gusto before finding some way to be silly. Davy might be more serious much of the time, but his dancing is always fun to watch.

Then you have Mike, often so deadpan while he plays, but then you have moments like Randy Scouse Git where there’s a continuous stream of goofiness coming from him in the background.

That’s not even counting what I’d consider the true height of the group’s comedy antics: the attempts to get Mike to fall in line with the dancing during No Time.

In the end, I think what it really boils down to is how all of this works together. Yes, the guys are just lip-syncing and pretending to play, but it’s edited beautifully. So instead of focusing on the obvious signs of the fakery (yes, I’m looking at you, Davy with your supposed bass playing); the audience is swept up in the combination of images and music. When you add in the eye candy the guys provide along with their patented never-taking-themselves-too-seriously humor; it feels like it was all as much fun to create as it is for us, the fans, to watch.

Screenshots of all of the instances in which I’ve been able to identify Valerie Kairys on The Monkees

I initially began compiling these screenshots as an offshoot of my Recurring Guest Actors post, but @bluemoonalto recently keyed me into the fact that Valerie actually acted as a stand in for Davy as well as an extra, so I’ll attach her to that series instead:

Related Links: Ric Klein’s Appearances  / John London’s Appearances / David Pearl’s Appearances / David Price’s Appearances / Bruce Barbour’s Appearances

Part of a series of screenshots of every instance in which I’ve been able to identify the stand-ins appearing as extras or guest characters on the show.

Please forgive my laughable attempts at drawing arrows.

Related Links: Ric Klein’s Appearances / John London’s Appearances / David Price’s Appearances / Bruce Barbour’s Appearances

50 Posts For The Monkees’ 50th Anniversary

Post Twenty Four: Lizard Sunning Itself on a Rock

This post is a little different in that it isn’t quite what you may think it is.

Yes, it is about the Justus era TV special, and yet at the same time it’s not. Yes in the sense that what I’m going to talk about in this post all relates to the special and the stuff that happened in it. No in that this isn’t a critical assessment one way or the other about the special itself. My feelings on that are that it definitely had its strengths and weakness. Overall, it was fun, but it did start to fall apart by the end. There’s also the question of whether or not the special actually captures the true essence of the original show. To me…that one is even harder to pin down and thus is best left for another discussion….

What I would like to focus on here is something I do think the special did excel at: demonstrating the absurdity that surrounded The Monkees and that was woven into the concept itself. If there was one thing that Mike got right about this special it’s how he humorously illustrated the ridiculous aspects of how The Monkees operated and were perceived. Not all of his illustrations were direct, but they did give a great sense of the subtext that has always been there within the Monkees phenomenon.  

How did he illustrate this? I think there are several examples….

1. The broken laugh track

It would be easy to start with the notion that a laugh track is an inane addition to any comedic show and leave it at that. After all, a laugh track essentially tells the viewer that they need to be told when something is funny. Or it could be used to force the notion that something is funny even if it isn’t.

The latter point was skewered to great effect with Mike’s declarations that “the house is on fire” and “people are starving” which were accompanied by completely inappropriate laughter. Of course, this is a knowing bit of snark when you consider that The Monkees TV show also used a laugh track in many of its episodes. Thus, not even they were immune to this.

Still, I also think that Nez took this a small additional step by demonstrating how it’s ridiculous to try to sway people to find something humorous in the first place. Either they will or they won’t. Any other expectation that is given so much weight should be suspect.

2. The guys reacting to the sudden inserts of stock footage.

This is fourth wall breaking of the highest order. Not only are the guys acknowledging that they are on a TV show, they are affected by how it is conceived within the minds of the audience. In other words, they react at the same time the audience would to the appearances of a lizard on a rock. It’s a complete synergy of the band and show with the fans who are watching them.

It also shows how the concept of breaking the fourth wall can spiral out of control. True, it’s a great bit of humor. However, if it becomes too engrained on a show that also hinges on attachment to a set of characters and their stories, it can start to become about as compatible as oil and water.

3. “This is not a band”

This one is a parody of a painting by well known surrealist artist Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images which has a caption that translates to “this is not a pipe”.

(image courtesy of galeri.uludagsozluk.com)

However, the parody has more than one layer in that many people including the guys themselves often assert that The Monkees were not a band from the outset. They managed to become a band over time. But even then, they did not tend to have the same structure that most of us equate a music group with. Thus, even if we say that they are a band, much like Magritte’s pipe, we also must concede that they are not a band when we include their fictional personas into the equation.

(many thanks to @bluemoonalto for pointing this joke out to me in the first place)

4. The hand puppet

Aside from being good old fashioned nightmare fuel, the hand puppet is a great representation of the marketing that was so prolific back in the 60s and of how absurd and crass it could be. It truly did reach a point where the fans were expected to buy anything with the name “Monkees” on it, a tactic that is still in use today.  

What adds to the sideways humor of all this is how The Monkees were often accused of being a lowest common denominator attempt to pander to young girls. Thus, they were put in the same category as the hand puppet. It’s a misguided, mean-spirited thought, but one that still exists to some extent with every mention of the guys as being the “prefab Four”.

5. Davy and Mike’s disagreement over whether a plot is necessary

This is the one I’d consider to be the most subtle of these illustrations, but I also think it’s the most profound. Throughout the special Davy and Mike are at odds as to whether or not it’s necessary to have a clearly defined goal for them to pursue with Davy being in favor of it and proposing several options while Mike continues to assert that there is no need or point to it.

This could easily be taken as a comment on how the show did devolve from having simple, goofy plots that pushed the action to a much more chaotic atmosphere by the end. Indeed, with a show like The Monkees, it’s hard to say if those plots were also needed given how the excellent humor often did not depend on them.

However, I also think you could extend this idea over The Monkees band and concept in general. There does seem to be an expectation that there has to be a “point” to The Monkees. That either they are prefabricated garbage that led to a depressing trend of manufactured bands or they were a brilliant pop culture satire and talented band that inspired musicians and fans to look beyond a band’s origins for whether or not they or their music have any quality. But then the question becomes why is this debate even important in the first place? The Monkees were originally conceived as a television show with the aim of entertaining people. The guys took control of the music so they could pursue their own artistic vision and share their ideas with people. The fans love them and their work for their humor, talent and fun that it brings to their lives.