The Case of The Missing Monkee

Written by Gerald Gardner&Dee Caruso

Directed by Robert Rafelson

Produced by Robert Rafelson&Bert Schneider

Songs: "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" by Tommy Boyce&Bobby Hart

Guest Appearances

           Marcovitch                      Vito Scotti

            Bruno                   Vincent Gardenia

           Prof. Schnitzler      Norbert Schiller

            Nurse                              Nancy Fish

           Policeman                     Ivan Bonar

Premiered on Janurary 9, 1967

Summary

The Monkees are performing at a Banquet in a French restaurant for Professor Milo Schnitzler, a nuclear scientist who is giving a speech.  After the speech, Peter compliments the professor just before the sinister Dr. Marcovitch leads the scientist away.  The professor manages to slip Peter a note that says he's being to taken to the Remington clinic.  Peter hands the note to Mike and goes searching for the professor.  He's spotted by Marcovitch and with a nod Peter is knocked unconscious with a hammer from behind the curtains and dragged off.

Mike, Micky and Davy realize Peter hasn't shown up just as they about to perform again.  They question Marovitch who plays dumb.  Then Mike remembers the note Peter gave him and reads it.  Soon they head for the Remington clinic convinced that Peter is there along with the professor.  When they get there, they ask a ditzy nurse about Peter and Professor Schitzler but when she can't find any patients of their names so she suggest they go to the police.  After they leave, Dr. Marcovitch shows up looking very dastardly.  Later, the trio bring a policeman to the French restaurant where they saw Peter last but the place is now a Chinese restaurant and Marcovitch is disguised as a Chinese man and manages to fool the cop.  Then the guys return to the clinic with Davy all bandaged, wearing casts with a crutch pretending to being severely injured but their plans are ruined when the nurse gives Davy an appointment on the 13th.  She then gives Davy a cough drop for the time being and when he takes it he breaks out into song and dance singing "The Swanee River" and the nurse endsp up swallows several cough drops herself. 

Meanwhile, the guys decide to break into the hospital by climbing up a ladder and sneak into the window of the physical therapy room where they soon disguise themselves as patients and start searching the room for him.  In another part of the clinic, Peter is tied up in a chair with Professor Schnitzler who is on a gurney drugged up while Dr. Marcovitch and his sidekick Bruno make plans to smuggle the professor out of the country.  Bruno prepares to take care of Peter with a gun but the sinister doc stops him insisting on another idea before they leave the room.  Peter in an attempt to escape, drags his chair to a mirror and shouts "Shazam!" causing the mirror to break(Well, another seven years of bad luck for Captain Marvel).  Meanwhile, Bruno enters the physical therapy room and gives the guys harsh physical therapy with Micky on the weights nearly knocking him out amd strapping Davy on a machine that gets rid of his spare tire(literally).  After the therapy, the guys continue their search for Peter when the phone rings and Mike answers giving details to the events that's happened before hanging up.  Micky wonders if it was police on the phone but Mike replies "no it was TV guide".  As for Peter, Dr. Marcovitch uses a device to erase Peter's memory and when the guys return to the therapy room convinced all hope of finding Peter is lost, he enters the room to their joy until they discover he now has amnesia.

The guys attempt to restore Peter's memory by scaring him which after two attempts works(or partly, Peter calls Davy Micky).  Peter remembers where Professor Schnitzler is and when they enter the room, Mike, Micky and Davy hide leaving Peter to play dumb as the nurse enters.  After she leaves, they all learn of Marcovitch's sinister plan to operate on the professor and then sneak him out of the country in an ambulance!   They come of with a plan of having Micky take Schnitzler's place on the gurney since it's hard to see the patient's face with the gas mask on.  Then Marcovitch and Bruno arrive to move the gurney in the operation room with Mike, Davy and Peter hiding under it.  As they prepare to operate, the others managed to sneak out unseen.  Then they return dressed in surgical gowns pretending to be doctors where they attempt to take over the operation to stall for time with their shananigens including literally cutting cards for the patient.  The fed up Marcovitch and the Monkees are struggling over the gurney causing Micky to sit up and Marcovitch recognizes them all as the musicians.  Soon they all give a comical chase all around the hospital to the song "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" which leaves the guys overpowering the two villains in the physical therapy room by using the equipments on them and soon spin them around on the gurney leaving them dizzy and defeated.

Later, a now conscious Professor Schnitzler thanks the guys for saving him.  Convinced that the two villains will get twenty years in prison by a federal judge or a wrist-slapping from the American Medical Association, they guys  depart.  Peter remains trying to tell the tied up Marcovitch about his tonsils before Mike drags him along soon all of them are driving away in the Monkeemobile.

Trivia Notes

The day this episode aired, the Monkees second album "More of the Monkees"

was released.

During the NBC July 24, 1967 re-airing of this episode, the song "I'm Not Your

Stepping Stone" was replaced by the song "Pleasant Valley Sunday".

The late actor Vito Scotti(Marcovitch) later appeared with the Monkees again

in their feature film "Head" playing General Vitteloni.

The late actor Vincent Gardenia(Bruno) was nominated for an Oscar for

best actor in a supporting role as Cosmo Castorini in the 1987 film "Moonstruck".

He also played Murray Melman in TV series "L.A. Law" and Frank Lorenzo in

"All In The Family".

Actress Nancy Fish(The Nurse) played another nurse on ABC's daytime soap opera

General Hospital as Nurse Strickland.

Actor Ivan Bonar(Policeman) also appeared on General Hospital as Chase Murdock

and starred in the classic sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet" as Dean Hopkins

as well as appeared in numerous TV shows.