[link to original on tumblr]
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According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Royal Flush" - the first episode of The Monkees series - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (12 September 1966). It was written by Peter Meyerson and Robert Schlitt, directed by James Frawley, and featured the songs "Take a Giant Step," "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day," and "Last Train to Clarksville." Sandoval describes the plot as: "The Monkees foil a fiendish plot to assassinate Princess Bettina, the Duchess of Harmonica."
I watched this episode this morning (three times actually; once for the episode itself and then twice more for the commentaries by James Frawley and Davy Jones). I found some things to write about.
I don't think I noticed this before, but at the beginning of the episode, Peter is wearing mis-matched socks:
After Otto explains his plan of poisoning Princess Bettina, there's a close-up of the bottle of poison, in which there's a continuity error. The hand in the close-up has a ring:
but Otto isn't wearing one in the wider shot:
There are also a couple shots that match the lyrics of the songs playing during them. When Sigmund is chasing Micky on the beach during "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day," the camera turns upside down for the line "My whole world is upside down":
Those might just be coincidences, but I thought them interesting.
I read the trivia for the episode on the DVD menu, and apparently "Last Train to Clarksville" was in this episode only when it aired as a re-run. It replaced the short interview at the end.
