Project Rewatch: Season 2 Disc 4 Episodes 54-56
Closing on the end, now. Five episodes left, two of which I regard rather highly in memory, three not so much. Alas, those are the three for this installment.
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 54: The Monkees In Paris
Synopsis: Davy, Micky, and Mike are seated at the kitchen table when Peter bursts out of the bedroom, reading a threatening note aloud. As the others assure him it's nothing, a goon appears out of the closet and tells him to freeze. The Monkees just look at him, as the director, Jim Frawley, hollers "cut!" and complains that they didn't scare correctly. They complain that this script is terrible and repetitive, and walk off, telling him that they're going on vacation, and to fix the script while they're gone. They romp around Paris in dialogue-less sequences scored to incidental music, "Don't Call On Me," "Love Is Only Sleeping," "Goin' Down," "Star Collector," the Ride of the Valkyries, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and the 1812 Overture. Meanwhile, Frawley complains about their behavior to the producer over the phone and makes minor adjustments to the script. After being chased through the streets of Paris, around the markets, and up the Eiffel Tower by overenthusiastic young women, the Monkees return to the set, only to find that the script is still terrible and repetitive. They apologize to the camera, saying they'll try and get something better together by next week.
I like the idea of this show far, far better than I like the execution. The playing with meta-levels is fun, especially since this the second season's echo of the concert show in Season 1, Episode 32. Just as that one was portrayed as the band members rather than the characters, but still doing something as tightly scheduled and scripted as a show, this is a scripted romp (the Monkees were largely off the radar in France up until Head, despite being wildly popular in England, so there was little chance of them actually attracting screaming groupies), but it's at least theoretically the four actors, not their characters. Their complaints about the scripts are pretty true-to-life. Having Frawley, who was their most common director, here as an actor playing their director (the actual director is Bob Rafaelson, who has the commentary on this episode and is also the producer that Frawley is complaining to) is pretty tasty.
Part of my problem with the episode is that it's in terrible condition. Having the Paris scenes (many of which are homages to stock silent movie bits) in 16mm sort of works, but the framing sequences really ought to have been in better quality, and it has not been restored well. The sound is fuzzy, too, although since so much of the show is without dialogue, that's not as big a problem as it might be.
The framing sequences have a tonsorial continuity problem; Micky has the Itali-fro in the frame but the Paris sequences are all shaggy!Micky.
(Now that I've mentioned Head two paragraphs ago, I'm starting to think of this as the anti-Head - the boys successfully escape the Black Box for a while, then come back voluntarily.)
There's a few bits consistent with the set characterization, even though the boys are OOC for the whole episode. Davy is the one most likely to stop running from the girls and enjoy their company; Micky climbs all over everything - a pole, architecture, other Monkees; Mike is the least likely to interact with the girls (presumably this Mike is the married one, since he's broken character). There are also a few repeated physical gags - the "freeze and fall over" (all of them once, Mike by himself once), the stair fall (Peter coming off the plane, although it's a less extreme version than usual), the squeeze-through (a ramp onto a boat). At one point, Davy is wearing a vaguely Dickensian outfit, complete with a top hat - shades of the Artful Dodger.
Both Micky and Davy end up shirtless at points. Whose idea was it to shoot this in 16mm again?
At one point, Davy and Micky take a wrong turn running from the girls and end up in a graveyard, to the Toccata and Fugue. It might be worth noting that both Jones and Dolenz had lost a parent during their teen years.; I don't know if that was deliberate, putting the two Monkees most familiar with death in that scene, but it's poignant if you happen to know that background.
Rafaelson's commentary is more about the Monkees as a phenomenon than about this episode, although he explains that both this and Episode 32 exist partly for budgetary reasons (soundstages are expensive). He also at one point talks about the four boys as individuals in their post-Monkees careers, and there's very much a sense of pride in his voice, that he launched them - especially strong for Michael and Micky. It's sort of startling to me, honestly, given that the feeling in the fandom is that he and Schneider used Head as a way of killing the monster they'd brought to life, but I suppose there's a difference between the way B&B felt about The Monkees as a phenomenon and how they felt about Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Tork.
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 55: The Monkees Mind Their Manor
A rehearsal is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Friar, an innkeeper from the Kibbee estate, where Davy was once a stable boy. He begs Davy to return to England for the reading of the will of Lord Malcolm Kibbee, on the grounds that he believes that Davy may have inherited the estate; he faints every time Davy refuses, so he gives in. They don't have enough money for the remaining Monkees to fly, but they are smuggled on board the airplane as the mummies Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricorn. The customs man is called out by Davy as the Prop Man, Jack Williams, but he points out that to the viewers, he's the customs man - and then delivers "Everybody Wants Somebody Sometime" to the camera, prompting Pisces/Micky to scream like a teen girl and fling himself at him. Davy and Mr. Friar arrive at the reading of the will, along with the other potential heir, Lance Kibbee the Sot, and the executor, Sir Twiggly Toppen-Middlebottom. and the estate's nearly-blind butler. Sir Twiggly reads the will, which states that Davy inherits the manor but must reside there for 5 years; if he declines, the village may purchase the manor for 50,000 pounds; otherwise, Lance inherits the manor - which he intents to sell to a land developer. The Monkees are introduced to Mr. Friar's daughter Mary, and are led to their rooms by the butler in a conga line of furniture collisions as Lance and Twiggly depart. After determining from Mary that there's nothing at all to do in this village, the Monkees are sitting around bored stiff when Twiggly returns with Davy's contract. Rather than sign or leave the manor to Lance, they decide to attempt to raise the money for the village; Mike decides on a medieval faire, where Mr. Friar bets on the winner of the Grand Tournament - before telling Davy that, as the Lord of the Manor, he's one of the contestants! Davy wins the joust by selecting Lance Kibbee the Sot as his weapon (victory by pun), but Twiggly wins the duel (actually a fencing bout), leaving it all up to the third bout. The butler's ancient father steps in and reminds Twiggly that, by tradition, the fairgoers select the last bout; he concedes, and they choose a singing match. Davy wins the Greensleeves-off, and wins, but even with the proceeds of the bet, they only have 10,000 pounds. Rather than keep Davy there, the villagers accept their fate at the hands of Lance Kibbee the Sot, but Mary decides to give him a piece of her mind, and as she finishes, Lance removes her glasses and declares that he's in love with her and will stay here, with her, as the Lord of the Manor instead of selling it. The Monkees return to the Pad, where Mike is giving an extended sign-off and is interrupted by Peter with a special Christmas message, despite it being February. [Unrelated and previously seen "Star Collector" video follows.]
Davy identifies the song they're rehearsing at the beginning (which is panned by both Micky and Mike) as his second attempt at songwriting. We also find out here that he served his jockey apprenticeship as a stable boy on the Kibbee Manor. Oh, and Peter and Micky, at least, are playing their own instruments live on the set in the intro.
The director on this episode is one Peter H. Thorkelson - Peter Tork under his legal (rather than stage) name. He also has a commentary on the episode, which is largely about the various actors and extras, although there are a couple of offhand comments about the other Monkees (at one point he calls Dolenz "one of the great freaks of our time," although his tone of voice is fairly affectionate, and flat out calls Nesmith "a contrary son-of-a-bitch"). One bit of commentary that's an interesting RL character note - there's a gag where Mr. Friar mis-genders Micky, and Micky does his cross-eyed squinty angry face and moves to stab him with a drumstick (yes, stab, not whack), when Mike catches his arm and stops him. Tork notes that he had to make Micky do that for multiple takes; he kept doing it too gently/slowly, because he was afraid of actually hitting the other actor!
Micky's reaction to putting on a Renfair to raise money is the correct one. Knew I liked that boy. In that same scene, Peter and Micky are each wearing one glove (Peter left, Micky right) from a pair of brown leather gloves; I wonder whether that's an editing remnant of a joke that got cut?
The three mummies are named after Micky's, Peter's, and Mike's astrological signs, which implies that the characters have the same ones as the actors. (Nesmith and Jones share a birthday, thus the album name "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones".)
There are actually three non-Monkee songs in the episode - "Greensleeves," "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," and a brief bit of "Where the Blue of the Night," by Sir Toppen-Middlebottom.
In the tag sequence, Peter explicitly asks Mike for permission to speak. It's a little odd (or subby, one of the two).
This isn't a great episode by any stretch, but it's actually better than I remembered. Mary Friar is yet another rarity on the show - a woman who interacts with the Monkees as an equal but isn't a love interest. (Well, in this case, not their love interest - and the fact that she's Lance's is a bit of a twist ending.)
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 55: Some Like It Lukewarm (a.k.a. The Band Contest
Synopsis: The Monkees enter a band contest because they desperately need the $500 prize, but when Davy, Micky, and Mike show up to register, they're told they don't qualify - the contest is for mixed-gender groups only. Upon reviewing which of them makes the best girl, the other three decide on Davy, much to his chagrin. They put him in a wig, mini-dress, and heeled boots, and attempt to teach him how to be a girl, with mixed results. Their main competition is the West Minstrel Abbies, a group made of three girls (Harmony, Melody, and Cacophone, although the host/DJ, Jerry Blavat, mispronounces the last with the accents on the first and third syllables and a silent E) and William the Conqueror, who is revealed in a dressing room scene to be a Daphne, a girl in drag. They do a Chipmunks-speed version of "Last Train to Clarksville." The DJ hits on Davy right before the Monkees go on, and he spends the entirety of "Door Into Summer" trying to flee the stage and being stopped by the others (mostly Micky, using props from a large stop sign to an old-fashioned stage hook). The two bands tie, so Jerry announces they'll have a sing-off the next evening. Back at the Pad, the others tell Davy he has to stay in costume in case someone from the radio station comes by, and sure enough, Jerry does, carrying a huge bouquet of roses and hinting that if "Miss Jones" goes out with him, he'll make sure they win the next day. Davy thanks him and sends him away. The others go out to dinner, promising to bring him back a tuna sandwich; Davy sneaks out, incognito, and runs into Daphne, sparking stars in both their eyes. Davy bolts when the other three happen to arrive, leaving behind one high-heeled boot. The next day, Davy accidentally ducks into the wrong dressing room to get away from Jerry and runs into Daphne, in the middle of dressing as William. They decide to come clean, and in order to not have both bands disqualified, they combine to perform "She Hangs Out" as an eight-piece and split the prize. [Unrelated interview with Davy and Charlie Smalls follows.]
The worst part of this isn't the comedic drag, although it's pretty bad. The worst part is how ugly the other three Monkees are to Davy, who makes it clear that he really, really doesn't want to do this. It's especially out of character for Peter and Micky to force Davy to stay on the stage physically instead of trying to talk him back into it. It just feels off; if they need the money badly enough that Mike, Micky, and Peter would do that to Davy, Davy wouldn't be trying to leave; he might sulk, but he'd stay on the stage.
Actually, given the previous drag scenes we see in brief flashback when they're making the selection - Princes Gwen, Mrs. Arcadian, and Peter's unnamed mother from Episode 3 - it would be most in character for Micky to be the one in drag. It may have been an impulsive decision at the time, but the need for him to dress as Mrs. Arcadian was significantly less pressing, and related to only one of them, not the whole group. He's also the one who makes the observation, out loud, that one of them will have to be a chick. And from within the show's set-up, Jerry has seen Davy, Micky, and Mike; the "missing" girl would logically have to have been Peter, since Jerry hasn't seen him yet. This is just poor writing all around, here.
There's also some casual sexism in the end sequence. We've seen in the West Minstrel Abbies's performance that they have a bass player, an acoustic guitar player, a drummer, and a vocalist. (They made the vocalist dress as a boy. How does that make any sense? Wouldn't it work better for one of the people who doesn't sing to be the cross-dresser? At least "Door Into Summer" is a Mike song. More poor writing.) When they combine the bands, okay, if they're going to do a Monkees song, it makes sense for their vocalist to sing backup, and double drumming is hard, so sure, only one kit on the stage and put Micky on it. But what's the justification for taking their bassist and guitarist off their instruments? All four girls are acting as go-go dancers and backup vocalists only. Ugh.
For what it's worth, Jerry's sexual harassment both of Davy and of several other unnamed girls in other bands is presented as despicable behavior, although it's also presented as expected behavior and never actually punished.
Any time a Monkee appears in drag for a significant proportion of an episode, there's a 'Crying Game' subplot. Micky also observes (during the sequence when Jerry is chasing Davy around the Pad with the giant bouquet) that Davy is kind of cute; Peter replies "you would." I'm not sure if that quite counts as Getting Crap Past The Censors, but it's definitely HoYay.
Davy makes a comment during the part where Peter's trying to teach him to be a girl that implies he has three sisters. Jones did in real life (all older than him), although so does Dolenz (all younger). (They also each had four daughters.)
Val Kairys is one of the Abbies.
This episode (a) feels like a first-season script, even though it can't be (all leftover first-season scripts were filmed in the shaggy!Micky period, and this is 'fro!Micky), (b) is out of character, and (c) isn't even that funny. It was actually one of the last episodes filmed, and it feels like everyone other than Micky is sick of this crap. Davy may be the one actually trying to get off the stage, but Mike looks like he wants to just as badly. There are bits of this episode that touch on the ridiculousness of gender roles, but the rest of the script fails to do them any justice. This is definitely down in the Bottom Five, here.
So, one out of continuity, one that's not great but certainly not bad, and a real stinker. Two more to go, both of which are examples of the wildest excesses of Season Two. And we may do Head for Movie Night, although obviously that's out of continuity.
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 54: The Monkees In Paris
Synopsis: Davy, Micky, and Mike are seated at the kitchen table when Peter bursts out of the bedroom, reading a threatening note aloud. As the others assure him it's nothing, a goon appears out of the closet and tells him to freeze. The Monkees just look at him, as the director, Jim Frawley, hollers "cut!" and complains that they didn't scare correctly. They complain that this script is terrible and repetitive, and walk off, telling him that they're going on vacation, and to fix the script while they're gone. They romp around Paris in dialogue-less sequences scored to incidental music, "Don't Call On Me," "Love Is Only Sleeping," "Goin' Down," "Star Collector," the Ride of the Valkyries, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and the 1812 Overture. Meanwhile, Frawley complains about their behavior to the producer over the phone and makes minor adjustments to the script. After being chased through the streets of Paris, around the markets, and up the Eiffel Tower by overenthusiastic young women, the Monkees return to the set, only to find that the script is still terrible and repetitive. They apologize to the camera, saying they'll try and get something better together by next week.
I like the idea of this show far, far better than I like the execution. The playing with meta-levels is fun, especially since this the second season's echo of the concert show in Season 1, Episode 32. Just as that one was portrayed as the band members rather than the characters, but still doing something as tightly scheduled and scripted as a show, this is a scripted romp (the Monkees were largely off the radar in France up until Head, despite being wildly popular in England, so there was little chance of them actually attracting screaming groupies), but it's at least theoretically the four actors, not their characters. Their complaints about the scripts are pretty true-to-life. Having Frawley, who was their most common director, here as an actor playing their director (the actual director is Bob Rafaelson, who has the commentary on this episode and is also the producer that Frawley is complaining to) is pretty tasty.
Part of my problem with the episode is that it's in terrible condition. Having the Paris scenes (many of which are homages to stock silent movie bits) in 16mm sort of works, but the framing sequences really ought to have been in better quality, and it has not been restored well. The sound is fuzzy, too, although since so much of the show is without dialogue, that's not as big a problem as it might be.
The framing sequences have a tonsorial continuity problem; Micky has the Itali-fro in the frame but the Paris sequences are all shaggy!Micky.
(Now that I've mentioned Head two paragraphs ago, I'm starting to think of this as the anti-Head - the boys successfully escape the Black Box for a while, then come back voluntarily.)
There's a few bits consistent with the set characterization, even though the boys are OOC for the whole episode. Davy is the one most likely to stop running from the girls and enjoy their company; Micky climbs all over everything - a pole, architecture, other Monkees; Mike is the least likely to interact with the girls (presumably this Mike is the married one, since he's broken character). There are also a few repeated physical gags - the "freeze and fall over" (all of them once, Mike by himself once), the stair fall (Peter coming off the plane, although it's a less extreme version than usual), the squeeze-through (a ramp onto a boat). At one point, Davy is wearing a vaguely Dickensian outfit, complete with a top hat - shades of the Artful Dodger.
Both Micky and Davy end up shirtless at points. Whose idea was it to shoot this in 16mm again?
At one point, Davy and Micky take a wrong turn running from the girls and end up in a graveyard, to the Toccata and Fugue. It might be worth noting that both Jones and Dolenz had lost a parent during their teen years.; I don't know if that was deliberate, putting the two Monkees most familiar with death in that scene, but it's poignant if you happen to know that background.
Rafaelson's commentary is more about the Monkees as a phenomenon than about this episode, although he explains that both this and Episode 32 exist partly for budgetary reasons (soundstages are expensive). He also at one point talks about the four boys as individuals in their post-Monkees careers, and there's very much a sense of pride in his voice, that he launched them - especially strong for Michael and Micky. It's sort of startling to me, honestly, given that the feeling in the fandom is that he and Schneider used Head as a way of killing the monster they'd brought to life, but I suppose there's a difference between the way B&B felt about The Monkees as a phenomenon and how they felt about Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Tork.
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 55: The Monkees Mind Their Manor
A rehearsal is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Friar, an innkeeper from the Kibbee estate, where Davy was once a stable boy. He begs Davy to return to England for the reading of the will of Lord Malcolm Kibbee, on the grounds that he believes that Davy may have inherited the estate; he faints every time Davy refuses, so he gives in. They don't have enough money for the remaining Monkees to fly, but they are smuggled on board the airplane as the mummies Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricorn. The customs man is called out by Davy as the Prop Man, Jack Williams, but he points out that to the viewers, he's the customs man - and then delivers "Everybody Wants Somebody Sometime" to the camera, prompting Pisces/Micky to scream like a teen girl and fling himself at him. Davy and Mr. Friar arrive at the reading of the will, along with the other potential heir, Lance Kibbee the Sot, and the executor, Sir Twiggly Toppen-Middlebottom. and the estate's nearly-blind butler. Sir Twiggly reads the will, which states that Davy inherits the manor but must reside there for 5 years; if he declines, the village may purchase the manor for 50,000 pounds; otherwise, Lance inherits the manor - which he intents to sell to a land developer. The Monkees are introduced to Mr. Friar's daughter Mary, and are led to their rooms by the butler in a conga line of furniture collisions as Lance and Twiggly depart. After determining from Mary that there's nothing at all to do in this village, the Monkees are sitting around bored stiff when Twiggly returns with Davy's contract. Rather than sign or leave the manor to Lance, they decide to attempt to raise the money for the village; Mike decides on a medieval faire, where Mr. Friar bets on the winner of the Grand Tournament - before telling Davy that, as the Lord of the Manor, he's one of the contestants! Davy wins the joust by selecting Lance Kibbee the Sot as his weapon (victory by pun), but Twiggly wins the duel (actually a fencing bout), leaving it all up to the third bout. The butler's ancient father steps in and reminds Twiggly that, by tradition, the fairgoers select the last bout; he concedes, and they choose a singing match. Davy wins the Greensleeves-off, and wins, but even with the proceeds of the bet, they only have 10,000 pounds. Rather than keep Davy there, the villagers accept their fate at the hands of Lance Kibbee the Sot, but Mary decides to give him a piece of her mind, and as she finishes, Lance removes her glasses and declares that he's in love with her and will stay here, with her, as the Lord of the Manor instead of selling it. The Monkees return to the Pad, where Mike is giving an extended sign-off and is interrupted by Peter with a special Christmas message, despite it being February. [Unrelated and previously seen "Star Collector" video follows.]
Davy identifies the song they're rehearsing at the beginning (which is panned by both Micky and Mike) as his second attempt at songwriting. We also find out here that he served his jockey apprenticeship as a stable boy on the Kibbee Manor. Oh, and Peter and Micky, at least, are playing their own instruments live on the set in the intro.
The director on this episode is one Peter H. Thorkelson - Peter Tork under his legal (rather than stage) name. He also has a commentary on the episode, which is largely about the various actors and extras, although there are a couple of offhand comments about the other Monkees (at one point he calls Dolenz "one of the great freaks of our time," although his tone of voice is fairly affectionate, and flat out calls Nesmith "a contrary son-of-a-bitch"). One bit of commentary that's an interesting RL character note - there's a gag where Mr. Friar mis-genders Micky, and Micky does his cross-eyed squinty angry face and moves to stab him with a drumstick (yes, stab, not whack), when Mike catches his arm and stops him. Tork notes that he had to make Micky do that for multiple takes; he kept doing it too gently/slowly, because he was afraid of actually hitting the other actor!
Micky's reaction to putting on a Renfair to raise money is the correct one. Knew I liked that boy. In that same scene, Peter and Micky are each wearing one glove (Peter left, Micky right) from a pair of brown leather gloves; I wonder whether that's an editing remnant of a joke that got cut?
The three mummies are named after Micky's, Peter's, and Mike's astrological signs, which implies that the characters have the same ones as the actors. (Nesmith and Jones share a birthday, thus the album name "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones".)
There are actually three non-Monkee songs in the episode - "Greensleeves," "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," and a brief bit of "Where the Blue of the Night," by Sir Toppen-Middlebottom.
In the tag sequence, Peter explicitly asks Mike for permission to speak. It's a little odd (or subby, one of the two).
This isn't a great episode by any stretch, but it's actually better than I remembered. Mary Friar is yet another rarity on the show - a woman who interacts with the Monkees as an equal but isn't a love interest. (Well, in this case, not their love interest - and the fact that she's Lance's is a bit of a twist ending.)
Season 2 Disc 4 Episode 55: Some Like It Lukewarm (a.k.a. The Band Contest
Synopsis: The Monkees enter a band contest because they desperately need the $500 prize, but when Davy, Micky, and Mike show up to register, they're told they don't qualify - the contest is for mixed-gender groups only. Upon reviewing which of them makes the best girl, the other three decide on Davy, much to his chagrin. They put him in a wig, mini-dress, and heeled boots, and attempt to teach him how to be a girl, with mixed results. Their main competition is the West Minstrel Abbies, a group made of three girls (Harmony, Melody, and Cacophone, although the host/DJ, Jerry Blavat, mispronounces the last with the accents on the first and third syllables and a silent E) and William the Conqueror, who is revealed in a dressing room scene to be a Daphne, a girl in drag. They do a Chipmunks-speed version of "Last Train to Clarksville." The DJ hits on Davy right before the Monkees go on, and he spends the entirety of "Door Into Summer" trying to flee the stage and being stopped by the others (mostly Micky, using props from a large stop sign to an old-fashioned stage hook). The two bands tie, so Jerry announces they'll have a sing-off the next evening. Back at the Pad, the others tell Davy he has to stay in costume in case someone from the radio station comes by, and sure enough, Jerry does, carrying a huge bouquet of roses and hinting that if "Miss Jones" goes out with him, he'll make sure they win the next day. Davy thanks him and sends him away. The others go out to dinner, promising to bring him back a tuna sandwich; Davy sneaks out, incognito, and runs into Daphne, sparking stars in both their eyes. Davy bolts when the other three happen to arrive, leaving behind one high-heeled boot. The next day, Davy accidentally ducks into the wrong dressing room to get away from Jerry and runs into Daphne, in the middle of dressing as William. They decide to come clean, and in order to not have both bands disqualified, they combine to perform "She Hangs Out" as an eight-piece and split the prize. [Unrelated interview with Davy and Charlie Smalls follows.]
The worst part of this isn't the comedic drag, although it's pretty bad. The worst part is how ugly the other three Monkees are to Davy, who makes it clear that he really, really doesn't want to do this. It's especially out of character for Peter and Micky to force Davy to stay on the stage physically instead of trying to talk him back into it. It just feels off; if they need the money badly enough that Mike, Micky, and Peter would do that to Davy, Davy wouldn't be trying to leave; he might sulk, but he'd stay on the stage.
Actually, given the previous drag scenes we see in brief flashback when they're making the selection - Princes Gwen, Mrs. Arcadian, and Peter's unnamed mother from Episode 3 - it would be most in character for Micky to be the one in drag. It may have been an impulsive decision at the time, but the need for him to dress as Mrs. Arcadian was significantly less pressing, and related to only one of them, not the whole group. He's also the one who makes the observation, out loud, that one of them will have to be a chick. And from within the show's set-up, Jerry has seen Davy, Micky, and Mike; the "missing" girl would logically have to have been Peter, since Jerry hasn't seen him yet. This is just poor writing all around, here.
There's also some casual sexism in the end sequence. We've seen in the West Minstrel Abbies's performance that they have a bass player, an acoustic guitar player, a drummer, and a vocalist. (They made the vocalist dress as a boy. How does that make any sense? Wouldn't it work better for one of the people who doesn't sing to be the cross-dresser? At least "Door Into Summer" is a Mike song. More poor writing.) When they combine the bands, okay, if they're going to do a Monkees song, it makes sense for their vocalist to sing backup, and double drumming is hard, so sure, only one kit on the stage and put Micky on it. But what's the justification for taking their bassist and guitarist off their instruments? All four girls are acting as go-go dancers and backup vocalists only. Ugh.
For what it's worth, Jerry's sexual harassment both of Davy and of several other unnamed girls in other bands is presented as despicable behavior, although it's also presented as expected behavior and never actually punished.
Any time a Monkee appears in drag for a significant proportion of an episode, there's a 'Crying Game' subplot. Micky also observes (during the sequence when Jerry is chasing Davy around the Pad with the giant bouquet) that Davy is kind of cute; Peter replies "you would." I'm not sure if that quite counts as Getting Crap Past The Censors, but it's definitely HoYay.
Davy makes a comment during the part where Peter's trying to teach him to be a girl that implies he has three sisters. Jones did in real life (all older than him), although so does Dolenz (all younger). (They also each had four daughters.)
Val Kairys is one of the Abbies.
This episode (a) feels like a first-season script, even though it can't be (all leftover first-season scripts were filmed in the shaggy!Micky period, and this is 'fro!Micky), (b) is out of character, and (c) isn't even that funny. It was actually one of the last episodes filmed, and it feels like everyone other than Micky is sick of this crap. Davy may be the one actually trying to get off the stage, but Mike looks like he wants to just as badly. There are bits of this episode that touch on the ridiculousness of gender roles, but the rest of the script fails to do them any justice. This is definitely down in the Bottom Five, here.
So, one out of continuity, one that's not great but certainly not bad, and a real stinker. Two more to go, both of which are examples of the wildest excesses of Season Two. And we may do Head for Movie Night, although obviously that's out of continuity.