Why The Monkees Matter: We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Category: Monkees
Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Case of the Missing Monkee” and “I Was A Teenage Monster” – by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso and Dave Evans
Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Case of the Missing Monkee” and “I Was A Teenage Monster” – by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso and Dave Evans Part 5 of an on-going series
Did you know The Monkees had a connection to RFK? Not the movie, but the man. Read on…
This weekend Antenna TV is showing 2 episodes of The Monkees “Case of the Missing Monkee” and “I Was A Teenage Monster”. One was written solely by Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, who were the showrunners, and one written by them AND Dave Evans, who I’ve written about before on this page. So today I’ll focus on Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso.
Sadly, Mr. Caruso had passed away just a few months before I first had the idea to interview the writers of The Monkees for the article in Written By magazine that turned into the proposal for my eventual book so I was never able to meet him. But his writing partner, Gerald Gardner, welcomed me warmly into his wonderful home and told me all about their work before, during and after The Monkees.
How does Robert F. Kennedy fit into the story?
Mr. Gardner had begun his writing career doing comical political satire books called Who’s In Charge Here?. Those books caught the attention of then President John F. Kennedy, who invited the writer to lunch at the White House. After his assassination, Mr. Gardner sent a condolence letter to then Attorney General RFK. When RFK decided to run for the Senate in New York, he asked Mr. Gardner to join his speech writing team. (Sound a bit like The West Wing, doesn’t it?) After Senator Kennedy went to work in Washington, Mr. Gardner wrote a book about the campaign: Robert Kennedy in New York. Mr. Gardner’s first work in television was in New York as the senior writer on That Was the Week That Was which was a forerunner to “Weekend Update” on SNL. All this work in comedy led him to partner up with Dee Caruso to work for producer Buck Henry on Get Smart and when Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson came to Henry asking to meet some hot young comedy writers to run their new show… well, you know what happened. And that’s how The Monkees are connected to Camelot?
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!
- “Case of the Missing Monkee” on IMDB
- “I Was A Teenage Monster” on IMDB
- Gerald Gardner on IMDB
- Dee Caruso on IMDB
Previously in Who Wrote The Monkees?:
Quotes from “Why The Monkees Matter” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 3 in a series
Monkees Question of the Moment: How did you defend The Monkees to your friends?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
“…But I also wrote it in honor of and to honor the fans who love the show and lived with years of teasing when the mistaken reputation of the band and the show as ‘plastic’ kept dogging them. With this book I hope to show that those early and continuing fans all recognized the diamond in the rough from the start. ”
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Why The Monkees Matter: We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
Why The Monkees Matter: We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Out of the Research Vault: Micky Dolenz & Peter Tork on Nightwatch – 1986
Since Micky and Peter are conducting this current tour alone, this 1986 episode of Nightwatch, hosted by Charlie Rose, is quite fun to watch as it only involves the two of them.
Micky discusses “Why now?” for their 20th anniversary tour in 1986 – and pins it all on the success of the premiere of the television show and the new generation introduced to it by MTV’s “Pleasant Valley” Marathon. Peter discusses why the show worked – citing things I cover in the book about how The Monkees were originally considered dangerous (due to their long hair and connection to the counter-culture). He also mentions how the fan base went from mostly female to nearly 60/40 female/male. Then Micky discusses his directing career in England and how hard it was to leave it behind for this one summer – that he had no idea how long this one anniversary tour would last!
The video is shaky but fun to watch because they are so deeply complimentary to each other’s talents, they talk about the ‘patrimony’ of the series in how the money made by the producers funded Five Easy Pieces and the new musical-variety version of the show they hoped to do in the third season that lead to the cancellation.
Previously in Out of Research Vault:
Quotes from “Why The Monkees Matter” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 2 in a series
Monkees Question of the Moment: How did you decide what to watch in your childhood?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
“I was a fan from the beginning at the age of 6 when the show debuted on NBC and caused what I often tease was the first great choice of a childhood lived without benefit of DVR. Should I watch The Monkees or Gilligan’s Island?”
Why The Monkees Matter: Shades of Grey: An Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees
Why The Monkees Matter: Shades of Grey: An Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Monkees Question of the Moment: What did The Monkees Teach You About Race and Ethnicity?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Out of the Research Vault: The Monkees In Melbourne, Australia 1968 [Video]
A taste of Monkeemania at it’s height in Melbourne in 1968.
Once you pass the first minute of fans screaming as the foursome descends their DC-9, the footage moves to a press conference where Mickey predicts they will perform in different variations in the years to come – trios, duos, etc. – much as it has all played out…. How did he know?
Who Wrote The Monkees? – “I’ve Got a Little Song Here” written by Treva Silverman
Who Wrote The Monkees? – “I’ve Got a Little Song Here” written by Treva Silverman Part 4 of an on-going series
This weekend Antenna TV airs “I’ve Got a Little Song Here” written by Treva Silverman. One of several staff writers for The Monkees who went on to win Emmy Awards for her later work in television (Her Emmy came from The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Treva was the only woman writer on the The Monkees.
If you’re interested in learning more about Treva’s post Monkees work, the blog “…by Ken Levine” did a nice coverage of her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, complete with some script pages and a whole page of biography noting that Valerie Harper (Rhoda) called Treva the “Feminist conscience of the show”. In my book, I write that Treva brought that same feminist conscience to The Monkees where viewers can note that none of the young women the Monkees dated were ever ditzy – they were always women of substance – serious about their schoolwork or with careers already in place or otherwise involved in the world. Not bad for a show about four band members. I believe that attitude came to The Monkees from Treva – the only female writer on staff.
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!
- “I’ve Got a Little Song Here” cast and crew information on IMDB
- Treva Silverman Credits on IMDB
Previously in Who Wrote The Monkees?:
Quotes from “Why The Monkees Matter” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 1 in a series
“The Monkees as a television show introduced young audiences to new ideas of political ideology, a new anti-military discourse and new concepts of class and feminist theory.”
from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Coming Fall 2016 – Click for more info!
Monkees Question of the Moment: What did you learn from The Monkees?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!