Scrumptiousenemypeach - #1 Music Stan

Reposting this photo I shared yesterday because I think I finally put together what Micky and Peter were actually doing. Micky “shot” Peter and Peter had to “die” so Micky could photograph his dramatic demise.

In They Made a Monkee Out of Me, Davy Jones explains a Monkee game called Killer.

We defused a lot of the tension with humour, naturally. On the set, and on the road, we had a game we used to play called Killer. Jim Frawley invented it. The idea was each person was allowed three shots per day. You could shoot whoever you liked—you just mimed your hand as a gun, like kids do, y’know—tssshhh! And whoever was shot had to die. But you couldn’t just fall down, nice and simple—it had to be a spectacular death. You had to moan and kick and fall over furniture and people and take about three-quarters of an hour to do it—like they used to in all of the best Westerns. And if you didn’t die loud enough, or long enough, or imaginatively enough, or if say you just didn’t die at all, because you were being introduced to the Queen Mother at the time, then you lost a life. And if you lost three lives—you were out of the game. Forever. No second chances. That was as good as being really dead. So, of course, we’d look for the best moments to shoot each other—when it would cause the most commotion. Not everyone was included. It was a clique of about eight. Sometimes we’d have a different director—we used to have a guest director to do one or two shows. They’d be in the middle of a scene and somebody would get shot and the whole scene would be ruined because this was very serious business—you couldn’t lose a life. The game produced no end of possibilities for going right over the top. In the middle of a love scene once—I had the stars coming out of my eyes, the whole bit—I’m walking over to the girl with my arms outstretched and she says, “Oh, Davy!” We’re just about to kiss when … Tssshhh!—Peter shoots me. I have to go into an epileptic seizure routine for about five minutes—knocking lamps over, fall over a drum kit, out the door, roll around the parking lot, up the stairs, across the president’s desk—“Oh my God, are you all right, David?”—“Aaargh! Shot, sir!” Back out the door, down the stairs, onto the set, collapse in a heap at her feet. Wild applause. One time in Australia, in front of about five million fans at the airport, Micky got shot and he fell all the way down this gigantic escalator. People were stunned. They thought he’d been assassinated. It was very rarely someone wouldn’t die—not even a token head slump. One time was the Emmy Awards. I think it was Bert Schneider stepped up to receive the award for “Best New Comedy Show.” We shot him, but the moment was too special for him to spoil it. He won an Emmy and lost a life. Towards the end of the second year—to show you how badly things were going—even Frawley couldn’t be persuaded to die anymore. Everyone had been up all night, as usual. We were on the set—first diet pill of the day—started fooling around, messing up takes as always. But somehow it wasn’t the same. Nobody was laughing. Frawley was so mad. The only thing we could do was shoot him. Dolenz shot him—he didn’t die. Mike shot him—still standing. I shot him—nothing. What a bummer. All the feeling was gone. The beginning of the end.

Just finished hamlet & had to share THIS

I'm done

A Few of The Best Monkees Stories Ever

Inspired by A Few of The Best Beatles Stories Ever.

I’ve combined all of your submissions and a few of my own to make a list of The Monkee fandom’s favorite Monkees Stories of ALL TIME.

I’ve been meaning to post this list for over a year, and it seems fitting to post it today in conjunction with thank-your-lucky-stars​ Monkees Awards question for today.

BEST MONKEES STORIES

Mike Nesmith yelling “that could’ve been your face motherfucker” and punching a hole in a wall, when Herb Moelis and Don Kirshner wouldn’t let the Monkees play their own instruments on their album.

Micky Dolenz gallantly making a tourniquet for Cynthia Plaster Caster after she sliced her hand while trying to open up a can of dental alginates to use to make Peter Tork’s plaster cast. (Unfortunately this injury made it impossible to cast Peter that day)

Peter Tork’s mile high orgies on their plane during the 1967 tour and his orgy organizer button which he wore during the second season of the Monkees’ television show.

Davy Jones plowing through the studio gate with his car when the guard refused to let him in because of his “long” hair/not believing Davy worked there.

Mike Nesmith’s Cincinnati (Cleveland?) prank with the elevator that almost got the guys trampled by thousands of fans until they jumped into a police car.

Peter Tork telling the draft board that he was gay to get out of going to Vietnam.

Micky Dolenz tripping balls in Hyde Park at 7 in the morning and singing songs to a couple hundred schoolkids until Jack Nicholson and Bob and Bert and the cops show up and when they finally make a run for it, everybody gets trampled.

Peter Tork and Davy Jones getting into a knockout, drag down fight on the set of the show, with Davy giving Peter a “nutter” and Peter subsequently punching Davy, who then had to get stitches.

Two Mexican federal agents handing Mike Nesmith a million dollars’ worth of marijuana in a brown paper sack as an apology after the agents took his camera away because he took photos of a student demonstration.

A member of the Monkees entourage hiding Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones in the Monkees’ hotel in England after he was busted for drugs.

Two seventeen-year-old girls bribing pizza delivery guys for their outfits to deliver pizza to the Monkees’ hotel room.

Mike Nesmith sending John Lennon a telegram that ended with “God is Love, Mike Nesmith.”

Davy’s salad story

When Mike had a party with a houseful of people and asked Davy if he wanted to go get a burger. Davy declined, but later learned Mike left his own party to hop on his private jet and fly to get his favorite burger just cos he had it like that.

The time when Micky was invited to the recording of Sgt. Pepper and he thought it was going to be some big psychedelic party so he shows up all crazy in paisley print bell bottoms and like tie-dyed underwear in the middle of the day, and he just finds the Beatles sitting all calm in folding chairs.

The game of “Killer,” that required the actors, producers, some of the inner-circle to play-act a spectacular death scene on demand.

The Monkees nearly sabotaging their own show before it could even begin, by invading the network affiliates’ dinner at Chason’s restaurant.

The pilot of the Monkees Express having to come on the PA system on the plane, asking some of the passengers enjoying the party-pit in the rear of the plane to please come forward so he could get the nose down.

Micky getting mobbed while doing his Christmas shopping.

Bert Schneider sitting in the audience at the Cow Palace, seeing his band on stage for the first time and not quite believing what he had created.Raybert scoring the lowest rated pilot in the history of the network—and figuring out how to fix it.

That girl that mailed herself to Davy

Davy flying to a hospital in Phoenix to visit two little girls who had been hit by a car when they were out buying Monkees albums

Spending a weekend locked in a hotel with Jack Nicholson and drugs to write Head.

Micky building that scale model plane in his living room, then having to disassemble it because he couldn’t get it out the door.

1973

Queens Freddie Mercury blowing a kiss to a dissaproving crowd member from one of their early shows in Oxford, London

can’t believe tiktok is actually getting banned, twitter is infested with bots and brainworm-infested musk bots, facebook is king of QAnon, instagram caught the plague from facebook and is dying a slow death in real time… and as the dust settles… only Miss Tumblr is left standing… failing upwards once again

local theatre kid and his aspiring director boyfriend

Monkees fandom can get really weird because there’s no clear way to draw the line between the real people and the fictional characters they played on tv. If only someone had made an experimental film starring the Monkees about this very problem.

Oh, sure, I know Queen. Here's a nifty, not-at-all-devastating fact for you: Brian just wanted Freddie to be loved. It's everywhere.

It's in his dislike for Don't Stop Me Now, a song that—in Brian's mind—represented drug use and intense partying that was leading Freddie away from the band, toward people who didn't care about his wellbeing. It's in Brian saying he regrets not looking after Freddie better.

It's in his writing Save Me to give Freddie an outlet for his heartbreak, but also subtly tell him, "Hey, you're a loving partner. You deserve one in return."

It's in Brian helping Freddie write It's a Hard Life, with expressing his heartbreak once again. It's in Brian watching the video for that song and interpreting the setting as a depiction of Freddie's emotionally unfulfilling personal life during the Münich era.

It's in Brian stressing that Freddie was always in serious, monogamous relationships, searching for the right person. It's in Brian defending Freddie's relationship with Jim and calling it loving.

It's in Brian having a soft spot for Don't Try So Hard, a song representing Freddie finally securing his dream relationship.

BRIAN JUST WANTED HIM TO BE LOVED.