The Monkees Second Season - Episode No. 39:

“HILLBILLY HONEYMOON”
(a.k.a. “DOUBLE BARREL SHOTGUN WEDDING”)

While lost, The Monkees are caught in the middle of a hillbilly feud
with David staring straight down the barrel of a shotgun wedding!

Technical & Telecast Info:

Production No.4768
Final Draft:September 5, 1967
Filmed At:Screen Gems Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Filming Dates:September 12-15, 1967.
Original Air Date:October 23, 1967.
Ratings:16.1 rating/28.3 share (9,020,000 viewers)
© Raybert Productions; 10-23-67; LP37680
Sponsor This Week:
Kellogg’s™
Rerun Dates:March 18, 1968 (NBC); November 7, 1970, May 1 and August 28, 1971, May 6, 1972 (CBS).

Production Credits:

Written byPeter Meyerson.
Directed byJames Frawley.
Produced byRobert Rafelson & Bert Schneider.
Story Editor: Neil Burstyn.
Associate Producer:Gerald S. Shepard.
Production Executive:Ward Sylvester.
Background Music byLester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
“Papa Gene’s Blues”:Written & Produced by Michael Nesmith.
Guest cast:

Paw.................................................................. Dub Taylor
Maw................................................................. Billie Hayes
Preacher.......................................................... Jim Boles
Lou Antonio as Jud
Melody Patterson as Ella Mae

Releases On Home Video:

  • The Monkees: The Collector's Edition - VHS Tape #2 (Columbia House VHS #13223, May 22, 1995)
  • The Monkees Deluxe Limited Edition Boxed Set - VHS Tape #2 (Rhino R3 2960, October 17, 1995)
  • The Monkees - Volume 2 (Rhino VHS R3 2236, March 26, 1996)
  • The Monkees - Volumes 1-2 (Rhino RetroVision DVD R2 976025, May 22, 2001)
  • The Monkees - Season 2 DVD Boxed Set - Disc 2 (Rhino RetroVision DVD R2 970128, November 18, 2003)
  • The Monkees - Season 2 DVD Boxed Set - Disc 2 (Eagle Rock Entertainment DVD EM351369, September 27, 2011)
  • The Monkees - The Complete Series - Blu-Ray Disc 5 (Rhino BD2-552705, July 8, 2016)

Synopsis:

The Monkees drive to a hick town called Swineville, where a white line on the road divides The Weskitts and The Chubbers, who have been feuding for generations. As the guys get out of their car to ask where Highway 101 is (Micky states they actually missed it by only two blocks!), the feuding clans draw their weapons and force the quartet to stand on the line. Each clan swears they’ll shoot member of the other who crosses the white line. Hearing this, The Monkees think they’re off the hook since they’re neither Weskitts nor Chubbers, until both parties announce they both hate strangers. Michael sends David to find some help so David walks nervously down the street on the white line as all guns are on him. Then Ella Mae Chubber, a 15 year-old pretty boy-crazy teenager, quickly grabs David, yanks him into a haystack, and kisses him. David fears the townsfolk will kill him if he doesn’t get back on the line but Ella Mae explains that if boyfriend Judd Weskitt catches them together he’ll kill him anyway! Just then Paw Chubber, Ella Mae’s father points a gun to David’s head declaring him his future son-in-law. David’s refuses and heads back on the white line where Judd Weskitt points a gun at him too for kissing Ella Mae.

As both Paw and Judd begin to quarrel, David cries for help and Micky coming to his aid tries to convince the two men to end their feuding but when both points their guns at him he backs off and soon guns starts blazing from each side and The Monkees take cover. 155 year-old Maw Weskitt, Judd’s mom, asks David to help her cross the street and asks he escorts her across the white line, Judd appears holding him at gunpoint pleased with his Maw for helping him capture him. David tries to explain that he’s just an innocent bystander but they tell him they’re the ones they kill first just before taking him back with them. Meanwhile, Ella Mae grabs Micky and starts kissing him now as Paw catches him and declares him his future son-in-law. Michael and Peter come to Micky’s aid and Paw Chubber explains he doesn’t care who Ella Mae marries because she’s going to be 16 the next day and he doesn’t want anyone calling her an old maid. When they ask about David’s whereabouts, he tells them he’s been taking by Judd and Maw Weskitt but they needn't worry since he’s probably dead already just as he marches them off at gunpoint. At the Weskitt’s shack, Judd still pointing a gun at David starts berating him for being a city slicker and when David tries to explain he’s British, Maw accuses The Redcoats of returning (since she was born the time The War Of 1812 started and hate and vengeance are the reasons for her longevity) as Judd make plans to have David put in a vat to grind in sour mash, and keeps him tied up in a gunnysack until that time.

Meanwhile at the Chubber’s shack, Paw asks the guys which one of them will marry Ella Mae and the guys select David and are prepared to risk their lives rescuing him from The Weskitts. Paw allows Michael and Micky to go rescue David, but keeps Peter as a last-minute bridesgroom should they fail to return. Disguised as hillbillies, Micky and Michael head for the Weskitts’ place with a pig just as Judd is prepared to throw David into a boiling vat. When they hear someone coming, Judd hides David in the sack and confronts Michael and Micky who claim they’re cousins Roland and Clem who come with a pig for dinner. Meanwhile at the Chubbers' place, Ella Mae starts flirting with Peter at the Chubbers place. The Weskitts wanting to be sure they’re kinsfolk ask the guys to play their noses, and soon they allay The Weskitts’ suspicions by playing on washboards, noses and pigs and singing “Papa Gene’s Blues” to prove they are hillbilly cousins. After the song, Michael explains how he plays his nose and then signals Micky create a diversion by freeing the pig. When Judd and Maw go after it, Michael and Micky search for David. They end up with the wrong sack filled with oats and convinced it’s David they start bawling; when David appears still in his sack, he wails along with them. They quickly stop their act as Michael takes out the script for this episode and reads their next plan, which is to return to The Chubbers for Peter and as they rehearse their lines.

Micky, Michael and David return to The Chubbers cabin, where the three squeal pig calls which lure Paw and Elly Mae outside. But as Micky and Michael rush inside the cabin, David catches his pants on a nail, and Ella Mae spots him again. By the time Micky and Michael have freed Peter, Paw has forced David to propose at double-barrel shotgunpoint. While Paw dirties up David for the wedding, Michael and Micky alert Judd that Ella Mae is getting married to David. When Judd angrily reaches for his gun, Michael calms him down and persuades him that he could win Ella Mae if he were a real gentleman. Micky introduces Peter, dressed as a Davy Crockett-type trapper, as Uncle Raccoon; the three then start giving Judd lessons in etiquette, good manners and the proper way to eat. Meanwhile the wedding as Paw holds Davy at gunpoint with Ella Mae before the minister. Luckily proceedings are interrupted by Gentleman Judd Weskitt, who appears in formal attire declaring his intentions to marry Ella Mae along with the rest of the Chubbers clan carrying shotguns with Michael, Micky and Peter in tow. When Paw takes aim at Judd and pronounces him dead and gone, Micky tries to again be the voice of reason and declares they’ve been “feudin’ in this town too long,” but he changes his mind when the gun is pointed at him, and the feud is on again!

Ducking behind a hay bale, Ella admits to David that she loves Jud the most and, playing matchmaker, he summons Jud and the preacher. David lends Judd two bucks—seventeen shillings and sixpence in English currency—for the preacher and David acts as best man. Meanwhile, Micky and Peter hedge bets on the bride or the groom, depending on who survives the shootout! As the gunfire continues, the preacher marries the hillbilly couple behind the hay stacks. Jud and Ellla are about to kiss when Paw comes up with his gun and says, “I got you at last!” Ella Mae Weskitt updates him that they’re married; Paw happily says, “You son-in-law!” and hugs Jud. He takes the couple to the center of the barn and makes the announcement to both feuding families that The Big Feud is over and “the House of Chubber and the House of Weskitt has bin joined!” Then everybody stops fighting and commences with a wedding hoedown along with The Monkees. Paw invites Jud to go ahead and kiss. Jud leans in, and Paw clarifies, “Not me, her!” The Monkees end this week's throw with a knock knock joke: "Knock, knock." "Who’s there?" "Wa." "Wa who?" "That’s right, wahoo." "Wahoo." "Wahoo!"

Production Notes:

“Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrel Shotgun Wedding”) was the first episode of The Monkees TV series to be filmed (it started a full year after The Monkees' debut in NBC primetime) 14 days after The Monkees compleeted their summer tour in Spokane, Washington on August 27, 1967, as Phase 2 of second-season Monkees episode production (September-December 1967) officially got underway. It also introduced the “new-look” Monkees, in which case they employed love beads, shades, paisley gear, Indian boots, and, in Micky’s case, a huge head of curly Afro hair. As production on the show's second season progressed (during which 16 more episodes were produced), Michael would also adapt to the "new-look" Monkees phase by abandoning his omnipresent wool hat in favor of shades and neckties.

For the March 18, 1968 retelecast of “Hillbilly Honeymoon” on NBC, its soundtrack was redubbed to replace “Papa Gene’s Blues” with another Michael Nesmith tune, “Tapioca Tundra”, 3 weeks after it was issued on the Colgems #66-1019 single as the B-side to the hit remake of Boyce and Hart's "Valleri" (showcased the previous week in Episode No. 57, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds"). This was the only retelecast of The Monkees television series in the 1967-1968 season to be rerecorded with new music.

“Hillbilly Honeymoon” is one of 3 second-season Monkees episodes to feature a Monkees song from the first season; the second was Episode No. 56, "Some Like It Lukewarm" (a.k.a. "The Band Contest"), which saw The West Minstrel Abbies, in The KXIW Rockathon Contest, performing a rendition of Boyce & Hart's “Last Train To Clarksville” which is sped up @ 78 RPM. And a third, No. 57, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds", uses the instrumental backing track from “Gonna Buy Me A Dog”

Because Kellogg’s™ gave their cereal boxes a facelift in October 1967, updated package faces of Kellogg’s™ products appear for the first time on The Monkees during the end credits for “Hillbilly Honeymoon” - only now they featured Kellogg’s™ then newly manufactured (and now defunct) brown sugar rice cereal, Puffa Puffa Rice (in lieu of Apple Jacks). Oddly, The Kellogg’s™ sponsor billboard sequence from the first season was still employed for use, however, featuring the boys clutching the old packages...which would continue to be featured on the show through February!

Screen Gems Storyline entry for “Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrel Shotgun Wedding”) reveals a deleted scene which finds David being led to his wedding in handcuffs, and an alternate ending in which Judd Weskitt objects to Ella Mae Chubber-Weskitt's smooching The Monkees farewell, thus triggering yet another feud!

The musical romp for “Papa Gene’s Blues” (which appears here in an artificially extended version) edits footage from Episode No. 8, “Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth”.

A number of frames gleaned from color stills of “Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding”) were released as a GAF View-Master® reel set in 1967 called "Last Wheelbarrow To Pokeyville" (#B-493). It turned out to be the only View-Master® set to ever be manufactured off The Monkees television show.

Shots of Micky and Michael used on the rear of the impending 4th album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. are also from “Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding”). (But you already knew that...)

“Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrel Shotgun Wedding”) was one of 36 episodes of The Monkees not to be screened on ABC's Saturday Afternoon schedule in 1972-73; others were “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”, “Here Come The Monkees” (Original Pilot Film), “Monkees A La Carte”, “Dance, Monkee, Dance”, “Too Many Girls” (a.k.a. "Davy And Fern"), “The Son Of A Gypsy”, “I Was A Teenage Monster”, “The Monkees In The Ring”, “The Prince And The Paupers”, “The Monkees At The Circus”, “Monkees A La Mode”, “Alias Micky Dolenz”, “Monkee Chow Mein”, “The Monkees On The Line”, “The Monkees In Manhattan” (a.k.a “The Monkees Manhattan Style”), “The Monkees On Tour”, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico"), "The Picture Frame" (a.k.a. "The Bank Robbery"), "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik", "Art For Monkee's Sake", "The Wild Monkees", "A Coffin Too Frequent", "Hitting The High Seas", "The Monkees In Texas", "The Monkees Christmas Show", "Fairy Tale", "The Monkees Watch Their Feet" (a.k.a. "Micky And The Outer Space Creatures"), "The Monkee's Paw", "The Monkees Race Again" (a.k.a. "Leave The Driving To Us"), "The Monkees In Paris" (a.k.a. "The Paris Show"), "The Monkees Mind Their Manor", "Some Like It Lukewarm" (a.k.a. "The Band Contest"), "The Monkees Blow Their Minds" and "Mijacogeo" (a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper").

Country/western entertainers Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (The Beverly Hillbillies [CBS, 1962-71]) scored a lion's share of "Hillbilly Honeymoon"'s incidental music cues, a bunch of which came from a 1961 Flatt & Scruggs' album Foggy Mountain Banjo (Columbia #CS 8364/CM 1564).

Trivia Notes:

This is also the first episode which sees Micky wearing his white Converse All-Stars sneakers. He can also be seen wearing them in No. 41, "The Card-Carrying Red Shoes", No. 42, "The Wild Monkees", No. 43, "A Coffin Too Frequent", No. 45, "The Monkees In Texas", No. 46, "The Monkees On The Wheel", No. 47, "The Monkees Christmas Show", No. 48, "Fairy Tale", No. 50, "The Monstrous Monkee Mash", and No. 51, "The Monkee's Paw". He can be seen in blue sneakers in No. 44, "Hitting The High Seas", and in the movie HEAD he wears a pair of (probably) Adidas sneakers.

The ever-popular line "Isn't that dumb?!" was first delivered in “Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding”). It was also heard in Episode No. 42, "The Wild Monkees", No. 43, "A Coffin Too Frequent", No. 45, "The Monkees In Texas", and No. 46, "The Monkees On The Wheel".

Twice throughout this episode, David can be heard singing a couple of bars of Boyce and Hart's "I Wanna Be Free".

Michael Nesmith gives mention that he's a married father for the first time on the series in this episode (in the scene where when Ellie Mae hits on him); he mentions it again in Episode No. 48, "Fairy Tale". Nes was the only married Monkee at the time of this episode's telecast (David Jones would wed Linda Haines in December of '67); he and wife Phyllis Barbour (who sang backup on a few 1968 Monkees tunes) had a son, Christian DuVal Nesmith (b. 1965). Michael and Phyllis would bear two additional children - Jonathan (who appears in Nes's 1981 special Elephant Parts) in 1968, and Jessica, in 1970. Michael's son Jason - who played with the glam-rock group Nancy Boy and has released a solo album, Greetings From Pleasure Island - was born (also in 1968) to photgrapher Nurit Wilde (Phyllis was recovering from an auto wreck at the time).

Once again, Micky displays his inability to navigate, something which was first exhibited in Episode No. 7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”.

In addition to Flatt and Scrugg's countrified musical stings, show composer Stu Phillip's own country-western cues first heard in Episode No. 8, “Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth”, and No. 32, “The Monkees On Tour”, are also used in Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding”). They will be used once more in No. 45, "The Monkees In Texas".

The hillbilly wedding was filmed in the barn first seen on Farmer Fisher's farm in Episode No. 8, “Don't Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth” (with the same guest actor, too: Jim Boles!). It was also used in No. 7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”, where Micky and Peter duck and hide from bank robber George (Len Lesser), and the barn's exterior appears during the “Words” musical romp in No. 45, "The Monkees In Texas".

"Daydream Believer" b/w "Goin' Down" was issued on October 25, 1967 as The Monkees' 5th single (Colgems #1012), a good 2 days after the NBC broadcast of “Hillbilly Honeymoon.”

Micky and Michael's alternate hillbilly cousin names: Claude and LeRoy, Luke and Ezra.

As Micky announces the arrival of Peter as "Uncle Raccoon," he intones, "Raybert presents, comin' in from the mountains, Uncle Raccoon!" This line is an obvious, yet affectionate nod to The Monkees TV series' production company, Raybert Productions.

This is the third wedding to occur on The Monkees, following the marriage of Prince Ludlow and Wendy Forsythe in Episode No. 21, “The Prince And The Paupers”, and the wedlock of Milly Rudnik and Larry The Moving Man in No. 27, “Monkee Mother”.

Also, The Monkees once again assume the roles of matchmakers, just like they did in “Monkee Mother”

The scene of David escorting Maw Weskitt across the street parallels a similar scenario involving Dr. Turner (Larry Tucker) in Episode No. 10, “Here Come The Monkees” (Original Pilot Film).

Number of times Paw Chubber spits on the ground/floor: 5.

Micky and Michael previously wept over David (along with Peter) in Episode No. 6, “The Success Story”, after he is briefly dragged away from them by Grandfather (Ben Wright).

In the “Papa Gene’s Blues” musical number, Michael is playing the same washboard (compleet with horn) he did in a previous “Papa Gene’s Blues” musical number seen in Episode No. 19, “Find The Monkees!” (a.k.a. "The Audition").

It is good to know that a full day after “Hillbilly Honeymoon” (a.k.a. “Double Barrel Shotgun Wedding”) aired first-run on NBC, the very motion picture which served as inspiration for The Monkees, The Beatles' 1964 United Artists' romp A Hard Day's Night, aired on The Peacock Network as a special presentation on Tuesday, October 24, 1967 from 7:30-9:15PM (EDT), preempting I Dream of Jeannie and The Jerry Lewis Show. 

Guest Cast Notes:

The late Melody Patterson (Ella Mae) portrayed Wrangler Jane Angelica Thrift on the sitcom F-Troop (ABC, 1965-67). She was married to James MacArthur of Hawaii Five-O (CBS, 1968-80) fame and later a published writer with her column "Wrapping With Wrangler" for Wildest Westerns Magazine. Patterson died August 20, 2015 in a nursing home of multiple organ failure at age 66. 

Lou Antonio (Judd) was later seen on Star Trek (NBC, 1966-69) as Lokai in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (1/10/69). Antonio became known for his role as Koko in Cool Hand Luke (Warner Bros., 1967), and has directed a number of TV series, including The Flying Nun (ABC, 1967-70), Party of Five (Fox, 1994-2000), C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Dawson's Creek (The WB, 1998-2003) and The Guardian; he directed an October 15, 1971 episode of The Partridge Family (ABC, 1970-74) entitled "Anatomy Of A Tonsil," written by Monkee writing alumnus Coslough Johnson. Antonio also spent his time making appearances with great frequency on Gunsmoke (CBS, 1955-75), including an guest shot with Kelly Jean Peters (“Too Many Girls” [a.k.a. "Davy And Fern"]) in a November 13, 1967 episode of the Western, "Prarie Wolfer" (#1615-0255).

The late Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr. (Paw) appeared in a variety of film and TV Westerns, in which his characters wore the top half of faded long johns as a shirt. As well as acting, writing and directing his own 1951 TV series The Dub Taylor Show, and appearing with Monkee guest alum Joe Higgins (“Here Come The Monkees”, “Find The Monkees”, “The Prince And The Paupers”) in a December 3, 1968 episode of The Mod Squad (ABC, 1968-73), "A Quiet Weekend In The Country," Taylor was a reguar on Hee Haw (CBS/Syndicated, 1969-92). Dub was also the father of actor Buck Taylor, best remembered for his roles as Newly O'Brien in Gunsmoke and Detective Bussey in Dallas (CBS, 1978-91). Both father and son appeared in the July 1, 1991 TNT TV movie Conagher.

The late Billie Hayes (Maw) went on to fame starring in two Sid & Marty Krofft-produced TV series: as Whilemina W. Witchiepoo in H.R. Pufnstuf (NBC, 1969-71; ABC, 1972-73) and the 1970 Universal picture it spawned, Pufnstuf, and Weenie The Genie on Liddsville (NBC, 1971-73; ABC, 1973-74), which also starred Monkee guest alum Butch Patrick ("The Monkees Christmas Show"). Hayes appeared with Monkee guest Bobo Lewis (“Find The Monkees” [a.k.a. "The Audition"]) in a November 17, 1971 episode of Bewitched (ABC, 1964-72), "Hansel And Gretel In Samanthaland", and with Mickey Morton ("A Coffin Too Frequent") in "Mr. Nice Guy," a December 19, 1977 episode of the ill-fated spin-off from Bewitched, Tabitha (ABC, 1977), which starred Lisa Hartman in the title role. Hayes role here as the corncob pipe-smoking hillbilly Ma Weskitt is similar to her previous portrayal of Mammy Yokum in the big-screen musical version of the comic strip Li'l Abner (Paramount, 1959), whose supporting cast also featured future Monkee guests Stubby Kaye ("The Monkees Race Again" [a.k.a. "Leave The Driving To Us"]), Julie Newmar (“The Monkees Get Out More Dirt”), and Robert Strauss (“Alias Micky Dolenz”). Hayes passed away at age 96 on April 29, 2021.

Extra Color/B&W Episode Photo Stills:


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