"Monkee See, Monkee Die"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

This morning I watched Monkee See, Monkee Die, the second episode of the Monkees (which is the first episode of the Monkees I ever saw, something like a decade ago), and I noticed a couple things.

After Micky connects some elements of the telephone to the radio in order to get a signal out, he says, "Laugh will they."

I'm not sure about this, but I think that line is a reference to the Gershwins' "They All Laughed."  The song exhibits anaphora with the title line "they all laughed," and there's a line about radios: "They told Marconi wireless was a phony."

---&---

During the "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" romp, there are two shots of the Monkees lying on the ground with their heads together:

This lookt familiar to me, and it wasn't too long before I remembered that there's a picture of the Beatles in this same configuration.  I think the reason I remembered is that it's also the cover image for Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles:

[source]

I dug out my copy and lookt at the credits, which say this picture was taken by Bob Whitaker.  I couldn't find a specific date for it, but I did find a short biography of Whitaker that says he photographed the Beatles during 1964 to 1966.  So it's possible that those two shots in "Monkee See, Monkee Die" were inspired by this particular image.