"Monkees in Texas"

This morning, I watched "Monkees in Texas" and noticed a variation of a joke that's also in "Monkees a la Mode."  Both seem to be adapted from the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races (1937).  Early in the episode, the Monkees grab guns to join the shootout at Aunt Kate's ranch, and each announces to the camera what type of gun he has:

Micky:  "Winchester 73"

 
Davy:  "Colt 45"

 
Mike:  "Smith and Wesson 38"

But then Peter breaks this pattern with "Vintage '66," holding up a bottle of what is presumably champagne.

As I wrote about with "Monkees a la Mode," the same sort of joke is in A Day at the Race, where three doctors step forward to introduce themselves and give their credentials:

Johnson, Bellevue Hospital, 1918

Franco, Johns Hopkins, '22

Wilmerding, Mayo Brothers, '24

But then Groucho, as Dr. Hackenbush, gives the model and year of his car:  "Dodge Brothers, late '29."

"Monkees in Texas"

When I watched "Monkees in Texas" earlier this week, I found a few references in the incidental music and dialogue.

After Mike tells the rest of the Monkees, "They [Black Bart and his men] killed our golf cart," there's a shot of the golf cart (at about 4:48), and - as incidental music - there's a quote of the third movement of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35, which has the appropriate heading "Marche funebre: lento."

At about 8:45, as Micky and Peter enter the saloon, Stephen Foster's "Swanee River" is playing.

At about 16:00, Mike tells Davy, "Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes."  At first, I thought this was a reference to the Battle of New Orleans (1812).  In the song "The Battle of New Orleans" (probably most famously sung by Johnny Horton), there are the lines "Old Hick'ry said we can take 'em by surprise / If we didn't fire our muskets till we looked 'em in the eyes."  However, when I lookt up the phrase, I found that it's also associated with the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775).

"Monkees in Texas"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Monkees in Texas" - the forty-fifth episode of The Monkees series (and the thirteenth of the second season) - was broadcast fifty years ago to-day (4 December 1967).  It was written by Jack Winter, directed by James Frawley, and featured the songs "Words" and "Goin' Down."  Sandoval describes the plot as: "The group comes to the rescue of Mike's Aunt Kate, whose ranch is under siege."