Perhaps the minority the audience least expected to see on the show, the elderly, fared best in that each time an elderly character appeared the Monkees actively worked to keep that character from being exploited by a middle-aged villain. It was as if the two ends of the generational spectrum needed each other to survive the generation gap.
Long hair was in, then long, long hair was out, then short-long hair was in and all the while controversies raged on about what type of hairstyle looked best—on boys and girls. This didn’t apply to the entertainers alone. Teenage hairstyles are a constant battle since now long, long hair on girls is the thing and at the same time Twiggy has made short, short hair very popular. What are you to do?The only solution for you or your friends or even for the entertainers who are constantly seen by the public is to wear your hair according to what you think looks best. This is what Micky Dolenz did and what did he run into but a rash of protests from fans. This hardly seems fair.
“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…
Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references. Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016
Transcript:
Another episode that they have, that I like a lot is called “The Devil and Peter Tork.” It’s written by Gardener, Caruso and Kaufman. This is the Devil and Dr. Faustus and all those other versions of that story. Peter Tork wants the talent of playing the harp, because he is in love with the harp and so he sells his soul to the Devil to get that talent, but he doesn’t even understand who the devil is because he loves everybody and he’s all about peace. But eventually, the Devil shows up to take that soul and the boys won’t let him. They have a little dance sequence where they imagine what Hell might be like and theirs a lot of girls who look like Playboy bunnies. I’m not sure how we get away with that. And the whole point of it is, there’s a lovely little scene I’ll show you a clip of — they start talking about “Maybe Hell won’t be that bad.” but they bleep them every time they say the word “Hell” and eventually — well, I’ll show you that in a minute, Micky Dolenz looks at the audience and says something very funny – “You know what’s even more scary? You can’t say <cuckoo> on television.”
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
Since Gardner and Caruso had cut their writing teeth on television’s number one spy parody, Get Smart, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cool” tended to involve more homages to Buck Henry’s series buried within than stereotypes of Russians. Mostly that came from the characterizations of the two Russian spies. Arlene Martel as Madame had already played three different Russian females on Hogan’s Heroes and clearly played ethnic so well she was cast as the farthest thing from an American – T’Pring, the Vulcan bride of the alien Mr. Spock, in “Amok Time” on Star Trek.
JB: What were some of your earlier influences musically?
RS: My first favorite song was “Daydream Believer,” the Monkees’ version. How’s that for guilty pleasure? I loved that song when I was 8 or 9 years old and I still love it. Of course, there was Dylan, we always had Dylan in the house all the time. We had Gilbert and Sullivan. We had the Beatles. Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger. For me, it was mostly the Monkees and the Beatles. Shortly thereafter, the Allman Brothers, and then shortly thereafter Genesis and then shortly thereafter Bruce Springsteen, which caused a horrible riff between me and my ‘art rock-prog’ friends. They couldn’t understand Springsteen. The early stuff really is probably Dylan and the Beatles.
JB: When did you know that music could really be your career?
RS: It was in Hartford, Conn., right after my first record came out. I still had some doubts if this could happen as an actual career. I went to a gig at WWUH and afterwards I sold $325 worth of CDs, which to me at that time was a ridiculous amount of money. After the gig they said this is the money for your CDs. I just not could believe that they’d give me $325 for 22 CDs. I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened. Right then and there, a little switch went off in my head, “aha. I like this.”
JB: If you weren’t a singer-songwriter, what would you be?
Perhaps due to the attention drawn by the Red Power Movement during the run of The Monkees, Native Americans tended to fare better than Americans of Asian descent. Perhaps the fact that Dolenz self-identified as part Native American on his mother’s side had an effect. Perhaps the writers were looking to move beyond the Tonto/Lone Ranger dynamic. Or perhaps the writers and actors found a connection between Native Americans and the emerging ideology of the hippie movement.
This 1997 interview clip involves all four actor/musicians on the Clive James program out of the UK. They discuss the Justus tour, their history, and the 30th anniversary special that aired that year. James (or his editors) are good at giving each their individual moment during the interview. James defines the show as “their old but always new” series – which is a compliment and shows how James understood the show and its importance. It’s always interesting to compare the questions asked by American interviewers and those from other countries. — Rosanne
“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…
Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references. Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016
Transcript:
In the course of this episode they do this song, which is hugely anti-war, if you look at it. Zoor and Zam.
“The king of Zor, he called for war And the king of Zam, he answered.
Two little kings playing a game. They gave a war and nobody came.”
That’s a hugely anti-war song to be in the middle of the still, fussing around kind of program. They got away with it. They got away with it. I’m not — I just find that fascinating. At the very end of the episode, they get to the bad plant. They’re going to kill it unti the plant says, “No, no, it’s not my fault. The other guy used me. I want to help the world. If I reenergize my Frodis power, more people will be happier. It will be a lovely thing.” This is the bad Wizard Glick and once he gets near the plant this is how he starts to feel. It’s an entire episode dedicated the love of marijuana. In 1967 in American television. I just love that.
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
The only positive representation of Asian culture came unexpectedly in the final episode, “Frodis Caper”, co-written by Dolenz and Dave Evans. As discussed in the chapter on counter-culture, a Buddhist chant known as the Lotus Sutra aided the band in escaping the evil Wizard Glick and saving the world. Therefore these all-American boys save the world with the help of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, a teaching from the first historical Budda, Siddhartha Gautama.
![The Devil, Peter Tork and The Monkees from 1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees [Video] (0:53)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/monkees-censorship-19-devil-peter-tork.jpeg)
![Zor and Zam and The Monkees from 1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees [Video] (1:00)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/monkees-censorship-18-zor-zam.jpeg)
