Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” by Dave Evans Part 3 of an on-going series
This week’s Antenna offering for The Monkees – “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” – was written by Dave Evans who is one of the nicest, kindest, men I have ever had the pleasure of interviewing.
Mr. Evans remembered being asked by Davy’s manager, Ward Sylvester, to write something that would highlight Davy’s ability with horses and hence this episode was born. Mr. Evans also remembered being asked by Bob Rafaelson to be on set for rewrites as needed, which gave him the chance to get to know the actors early on – an opportunity not all the other writers shared. After his two-season, nine episode run on the show he moved on to Laugh-in and Love, American Style, but told me no other job ever gave him the pleasure The Monkees did, so he eventually quit writing and went into conflict resolution, where he won awards for his ability to bring deeply distant parties together in compromise.
A 2014 article in the Los Angeles Times tells you all you need to know about him:
A tale of two churches — and a persistent racial divide, The Los Angeles Time
After the 1992 Los Angeles Riots Evans, the son of a minister, was a member of an all white Presbyterian church that created a cross town friendship with an all black Presbyterian church. Members of each began to visit the other church to create community. Twenty years later, Evans is the only member of his church still visiting the other church.
More information on The Monkees:
- Read more about the writers of “The Monkees” own this article for Written By Magazine – Hey, Hey They Wrote the Monkees!
- “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” cast and crew information on IMDB
Previously in Who Wrote The Monkees?: