Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers
Written by Dave Evans
Directed by James Frawley
Produced by Robert Rafelson&Bert Schneider
Songs: “Let’s Dance On”,“I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”
and “Last Train To Clarksville” by Tommy Boyce& Bobby Hart
Guest Appearances
Nick Trump Andre Phillippe
George Vic Tayback
Horace Louis Quinn
Contest Manager David Hull
Swine #1 Ken Del Conte
Premiered on October 3, 1966
Summary
The Monkees participate in a music contest where they’re waiting backstage while The Four Swines, a rival rock n’ roll band are on stage performing. The guys bash their rivals as low lives while Peter defends them when they appear backstage after their act and begin mocking the foursome. When the Monkees are announced next, Nick Trump, the Four Swines’ manager sabotages the group’s performance by interrupting their performance with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
Trump shows up at the Monkees’s pad later that day to tell them they made the finals since the judges liked their Beethoven rendition and explains his plans to get publicity for them. When they guys are reluctant, he tells them that it's the contest rules that they have to submit to exploitation and publicity. For their first stunt, they’re to go to the Vincent Van Gogh-Gogh Discotheque, sit at table three where at 8:00, a group of teenage girls will show up to rip Davy’s clothes off. At 8:00 precisely a group of girls do arrive but they rip off the clothes of Lester Craptree, a businessman instead. Then Trump sends the band to have their hands put in cement in front of The Chinese Theatre and be photographed but the cement is quick drying and leaving the guys stuck until Trump frees them using a sledgehammer. For their last stunt, Trump tells them about hiring two actors to stage a kidnapping on the guys until their performance at the finals. Reassuring the guys that this stunt will make the front pages, he calls up two thugs, Horace and George. The two crooks in the middle of an assault, agree to kidnap the Monkees for real for $360 per person. At first Horace and George barge into the wrong place where a friendly elderly couple reside. Then they go arrive at the Monkees' pad who now have all changed into a black suit and tie and gagged Mike, Micky, Peter and Mr. Schneider, their pet dummy.
Since Davy is at the Vincent Van Goh Goh with his girlfriend, George shows up to fetch him. Then Davy along with his girlfreind and followed by a whole crowd head back to the pad with George. Back at the pad, the place becomes overcrowed with teenyboppers as they begin to party and dance to the song “Let’s Dance On” and “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” on the jukebox as George attempts to tie them all up. The crowd gets even larger as more and more people show up with food and chairs including the nice elderly couple with drinks and soon rthey arrange reservations outside their door for entrance. Horace phones Trump explaining the problem and demands more money. Desperately needing to get rid of the crowd since they’re not willing to write forty ransom notes, Davy takes care of it by switching the music to the tune of “Pennies From Heaven” which sends the crowd storming out of the pad in seconds.
Later when Trump arrives, he tells Horace and George not to let the Monkees out of the pad while he goes to the contest to make sure his clients, The Four Swines wins at 8:00 p.m. precisely and the guys realize the kidnapping is real. They are locked in their room where they come up with ideas to escape first by throwing Peter out of the window to attract passerby until they realize he could land on someone. Then they tear up Peter’s bedroom sheets to climb out but they live on the first floor. Micky uses pennies as brash nuckles to smash through the door only to inadvertently punch George in the mouth. After all fails, Micky doing an impersonation of a mad scientist threatens the crooks with a bottle of nitroglycerin and manages to lock the two thugs in the room. Then he throws the bottle out of the windows and it explodes to their surprise knock-ing the locked door of the room open. The Monkees head the contest before 8:00 with George and Horace in pursuit to the song “Last Train To Clarksville” eventually apprehending the thugs with fish nets before arriving to the contest in time to give their performance.
Trump and the Four Swines are soon arrested and jailed but to the Monkees surprise, Lester Craptree and The Three Crabs are declared the winners and a group of teenage girls run up and tear off his clothes. The guys convinced that getting your clothes ripped off is all it takes to become celebrities start ripping each other’s shirts off.
This episode ends with a brief interview with Mike by co-producer Bob Rafelson about people from his past. Click here_____for transcripts.
Trivia Notes:
The late actor Vic Tayback (best remembered as Mel on the
TV sitcom Alice) who played George appeared on other Monkees
episodes ,“The Son of a Gypsy” and “Art for Monkees Sake” playing
villains.
Late actor Louis Quinn(Horace) appeared in the 1975 film“Keep Off!
Keep Off!” with Micky Dolenz. He also started out as a comedy writer for
Milton Berle and others during the radio and golden age of TV. He also best
remembered as Roscoe int he classic detective drama "77 Sunset Strip".
The late actress Georgia Schmidt has an uncredited role as the old lady.
She later appears in the episode "Monkees Marooned".
Monkees stand-ins David Price, David Pearl, Richard Klein and the late John
London appear as extra spectators. The make cameo appearences in future
episodes.
The song "Let's Dance On" is not credited in the end credits.
In the May 15, 1967 re-run the songs “ A Little Bit Me, A Little
Bit You” and “A Girl I Know Somewhere” replaced the two old
tunes and on the CBS May 30, 1970 re-airing a Jeff Barry&Andy
Kim song “Do You Feel It Too” was added.
