Television – Page 95 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

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!

from The Monkees Live Almanac

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:

The Monkees In Melbourne, Australia 1968 [Video]

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?”

from Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch

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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:

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?

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Funky Monkees Cover of Detroit Free Press Weekly Magazine TV Channels, 1967 via NAMM.org

Came across this in my Internet travels and I hadn’t seen it before. This is a very funky, caricature-style of the 4 lads and quite unlike anything else I have ever seen.

Click for larger image

Image: NAMM.org

Behind The Scenes with The Monkees On The Set from Big Glee: The Albert Bryan Bigley Archives

In her coverage of a day at the set of The Monkees, Gloria Malerba was able to show her (largely teen) readers how much hard work goes into filming a television show – and how many people are employed by such a hit show.

I particularly like the photo on the lower left of Davy Jones in costume taking “a last minute look at the script’ – a nice reminder that as often as we hear the show as ‘all ad-libbed’ – it was not. Writers conceived the characters and conflicts and then wrote dialogue for each of the regular stars.

Image: Big Glee: The Albert Bryan Bigley Archives – Click for larger image

Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” by Dave Evans

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:

Previously in Who Wrote The Monkees?:

Happy Birthday, Micky Dolenz!

In honor of Micky Dolenz 71st birthday here’s my opinion of his best natural smile, displayed in a moment from Monkee Mother (written by Peter Meyerson and Bob Schlitt).

The episode involves guest star Rose Marie (from the recently ended Dick Van Dyke Show) as Millie, a woman who moves into the Monkees’ beach house when they can’t pay rent. As a way of highlighting each Monkees’ niceness (in a time when all long-haired boys were bad ones) Millie has a moment with each boy where she asks him to do a household chore and then declares each ‘a nice boy’.

From 7:40-8:09 she asks Micky to fix a leaky faucet.

Another highlight is at 9:06 when Peter asks Millie if she likes music and then they go into Micky’s lead vocals on “Sometime in the Morning”, perhaps the finest of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s songs written for the show.

We all know he’s done great work behind the cameras and on the Broadway stage since the show – but today we’re wishing Happy Birthday to the Voice of The Monkees.

Who Wrote The Monkees? – “Monkees in a Ghost Town” by Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson

Who wrote The Monkees? – “Monkees in a Ghost Town” by Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson Part 2 of an on-going series

The second Monkees episode Antenna TV is airing this weekend is “Monkees in a Ghost Town”, by the writing team of Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson. The partnership ended shortly after their work on The Monkees with Schmitt moving into one-hour dramas such as The Father Dowling Mysteries and, eventually, Matlock while Meyerson teamed up with fellow Monkees writer Treva Silverman on an episode of That Girl and a Buck Henry series called Captain Nice before eventually co-creating Welcome Back, Kotter.

I was lucky enough to interview Mr. Meyerson several months before he passed away and he regaled me with several stories about his time on the show and socializing with the actors, particularly at parties at Peter’s house, as Meyerson himself was quite the hippie, so their philosophies were well matched.

A few of the other writers I interviewed kept referring to Mr. Meyerson as their ‘college guy’ and in “Ghost Town” we see his homage to that perennial of literature courses – Of Mice and Men.

Yes, that is veteran actor, Lon Chaney, Jr. on the right.

More information on The Monkees:

Previously in Who Write The Monkees?:

“Success Story” by Bernie Orenstein

Diane Sawyer’s Obituary to Davy Jones 2012 [Video]

In memory of the anniversary of the loss of Davy Jones in 2012 I wanted to post this newscast by Diane Sawyer where she spoke of the news as “startling bulletin” which came across her desk in the newsroom that day (February 29, 2012). Sawyer then proclaimed “He is still that forever young and sunny singer from The Monkees who made more than one generation want to sing along.”

The question I ask in the book is why would a serious journalist (not merely an entertainment reporter) consider news of the death of a former teen idol ‘startling’ unless she, too, had once been among his fans? To me it speaks volumes about how he – and The Monkees – effected all our lives.

You can join The Monkees Discussion on my Why The Monkees Mattered Facebook Page