You never know when you’ll stumble on a piece of popular culture proof that The Monkees were an entrenched part of the 1960s – and a bonafide world-wide phenomenon of that time. I thought I had found quite a few of them in my research for the book – from the then newest moment on the first season of Grace and Frankie (where Frankie admits she once hung out with Micky) to the couple of Simpsons show references – to the now ubiquitous “I’m a Believer” ending of Shrek (no matter who sings it, that is always a Monkees song).
But watching reruns of the long-running BBC detective series Lewis unearthed a new one I had missed. This moment I’m posting came in Season 3, Episode 3, titled “The Point of Vanishing” in 2009 between characters at a high class Oxford cocktail party. The character properly credits the writer of “I’m a Believer” as Neil Diamond (in my other, non-Monkees-fan life I do teach screenwriting so I’m always pleased to see writers credited) so he does not call it a Monkees song – but we all know that it IS a Monkees song being referenced in this high-end program (it did air in the U.S. on PBS’s Mystery.
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
