This Article Originally Ran On Blumhouse.com
Welcome to A Very Spooky… where we take a look at and review a classic TV series that is not known for horror but would, on occasion, dip its toes into the waters of terror…
This week, we’ll be looking at The Monkees season 1 episode 2, “Monkee See, Monkee Die”.
The Monkees were… their history is weird, and for those of you who don’t know it, I’ll do my best to explain it quickly. In 1964, The Beatles released their first film, A Hard Day’s Night. The movie, something akin to a live action cartoon mixed with music videos, was a big success, as was anything Beatles related at the time. After seeing the film, aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson took a concept he had a few years before about a TV series that followed the adventures of some roadies for a rock band, and tweaked it to be about a rock band that wanted to be The Beatles but never got their break. As Rafelson and his partner Bert Schneider worked on the concept, it became The Monkees - four out of work, poor teens living in California trying to get their big break as a band. The show, and the music recorded to support the show, became big hits. The Monkees, a fake band, became real. Then, people figured out that The Monkees were fake (something that was never actually hidden) and got real angry about it. As fast as they were famous, The Monkees were hated. Their show was cancelled, and their albums stopped selling.
Which was a real shame, because the show was hilarious, and the music was top notch, with songs written by such icons as Harry Nilsson and Neil Diamond.
Anywho, The Monkees TV show was a weekly dose of insanity contained in 30 minute chunks. The show was scripted, though unafraid to delve into improv from time to time. Following the format laid out by The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night and, more importantly, Help!, The Monkees was full on fun. It still stands, in my opinion, as one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. And as with any great sitcom, they delved into horror from time to time, even with so few episodes.
The Monkees may be the quickest sitcom to hit on horror, taking on the genre with it’s second episode. In it, the boys find themselves of the precipice of homelessness, being six months late on the rent, when a lawyer appears telling them that they have been included in the will of John Cunningham, a very rich man. Our four heroes - Micky, Mike, Peter, and Davy - head off to the reading of the will at the island mansion of the dead rich man. There, they meet Cunningham’s spiritual adviser, Madame Roselle, Cunningham’s best friend Harris Kingsley, Cunningham’s butler, Ralph, and Ellie Reynolds, Cunningham’s niece. The Monkees are left an organ, provided that they play a song on it, which they immediately do (“Last Train to Clarksville”). After that, it is revealed that Cunningham has left everything he has to Ellie. This clearly upsets Madame Roselle and Kingsley.
A dense fog forces our four boys to spend the night in the mansion, which Micky is pretty sure is haunted from the second they stepped in. Sure enough, it seems to be haunted! As the boys choose who will stay up as guard during the night (since they are all too afraid to sleep) through a quick game of rock, paper, scissors. A monstrous hand joins in, sending the gang running from their room. They rush downstairs where they find the parlor has been destroyed by what appears to be a poltergeist. Micky and Davy enter detective mode, quickly deducing that the destruction of the room was caused by a man… or possibly a woman. Mike finds that the phone wire has been cut, sealing them off from the outside world.
Mike, the leader of the band, sets up a series of breadcrumbs to get a carrier pigeon to appear, which works. His plan, to put a note on the pigeon asking for help, is defeated by a note already having been placed on the carrier pigeon. The note that reads “Please do not attach a note to me. I am not a carrier pigeon”. Not one to give up, Mike takes a series of bones he finds in a closet and lays them out, waiting for a Saint Bernard to come so that he can attach a note to the dog. Sure enough, a Saint Bernard comes, but it already has a note, which reads “The pigeon has a note for you”.
Trapped in the house until morning, the boys decide to sleep. Their dreams are soon disturbed by the sounds of gunfire - two shots seconds apart. As they run towards the sound, they come across Madame Roselle who has had a vision that Harris Kingsley is either going on a trip, or is dead. The team searches, but Kingsley is missing, as is Ralph. Micky, the Tony Stark of the group, tinkers with the phone and turns it into a shortwave radio. He makes contact with a Russian submarine, which does them little good. Madame Roselle holds a seance, calling for the ghost of John Cunningham. She is able to connect to a spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Suddenly, as if something sudden, the lights go out, or as Peter, the dumb one, puts it, “someone turned on the dark!” This phrasing would later be used for a bad Spider-Man Broadway show. In the darkness, Madame Roselle vanishes. The gang, along with Ellie, decide the best move is to wait outside. To pass the time, The Monkees play a second tune, "Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day". By the time the music video is done, the sun has risen. It is then that the gang hears some noise from inside - it is Madame Roselle, Kingsley, and Ralph! They were the ones making it appear as if the mansion was haunted because if Ellie couldn't spend the night in the mansion, it would go to them! Using some knock-out pills that Micky has been experimenting with, Davy knocks out the evil threesom. Aside from the weird thing that Micky is apparently making roofies, the boys are the good guys, and so they win. As they celebrate their victory, a voice comes from somewhere in the house, the voice of the Ghost of Christmas Past, sending The Monkees and Ellie running from the home.
There is not a moment of fear in the episode, but it is endlessly funny. There’s a manic energy to the show in general that we don’t see on TV anymore (maybe because TV writers don’t do as much coke these days?). It does play on many a horror trope though - the episode’s plot is as old as dirt, and can be seen in movies like The House on Haunted Hill. There are ghostly voices, and the whole thing is in a gothic mansion on a secluded island with a dense fog. All the things you need for a classic ghost story, just with a touch of Monkee Madness!
Finding The Monkees will be tough. The episodes, sadly, aren’t streaming anywhere but you can buy the DVD sets on Amazon. I grew up with the show, as well as the music, but I feel pretty confident that the episodes are truly funny. Funny enough that John Lennon called The Monkees the new Marx Brothers, which is a hell of a compliment, and one I agree with.