“THE MONKEES ON THE WHEEL”

Prologue:

Las Vegas. Pleasure capital of the world, where each man seeks the things he loves most. [Peter follows a girl.] The things he loves most. [Michael follows a girl.] The things he loves most! [David follows a girl.] But all is not fun and games in the gambling capital of the world: while some pursue their pleasures, others pursue their greed. A hideaway on the other side of town...

Synopsis:

The episode starts off with a stock footage shot of the Las Vegas strip, and immediately switches to a busy Las Vegas casino where three lecherous Monkees pursue girls: Peter fawningly follows a beauteous blonde, Michael rubs his hands together as he tries to catch a brunette, and David zeros in on a girl’s derriere. Meanwhile in a hideaway on the other side of town, a crooked gambler and mob boss known as simply The Boss tells his man Biggy to enter the casino at precisely 7:54, for he has a Roulette wheel automatically fixed to land at 16-Red for five minutes starting at 8:00; he gives him instructions on how to win all the money from the casino, and sends him on his way (Boss can’t go himself, as he’ll be recognized). At the slot machine, Micky, in addition to getting bit by the gambling bug, tries to pick up a pretty blonde called Zelda by handing her coins to insert, blathering on and on about their endless love while she just wants to win money. When he’s out of coins, she rebuffs him (“Buzz off, Charlie!”), and walks away. Micky loses his temper and violently pulls the handle on the slot machine, suddenly winning the jackpot! She runs back to kiss his hand and tell him he has “magic fingers,” interested in him again now that he’s won money. Micky then says to the audience, “I thought she only loved me for my money!”

Michael chastises Micky for gambling, “you told me you wouldn’t gamble anymore!” while Zelda and Micky pick up the coins. Michael reminds Micky that they need to go play a gig on an engagement. While Micky is trying to explain to Michael about what happened, he mistakenly puts the bag of coins he won on the Roulette wheel on 16-Red, the same number Biggy is betting, and ends up winning in his stead! David walks up to mention they’re supposed to be rehearsing. The angry thug tries to warn Micky not to bid on 16-Red because it's an unlucky number, but Micky ends up winning again and Biggy crushes his hand! Micky, Michael and David decide to leave; then Peter arrives. Biggy tries to place his bet but Peter blocks him, putting Micky’s bet down again, suggesting you should never quit when you’re ahead. Micky wins 16-Red for the third time, breaking the bank, and causing the Manager to freak out! Soon The Monkees lug the bags of Micky's winnings into their hotel room on a stretcher and revel in their fortune. After informing his boss of the misfortune, The Boss orders Biggy to get Della The Decoy to swipe the money away from the guys. Meanwhile, The Monkees consider what to spend it on; Michael suggests they should invest the money in something “worthwhile,” thus launching a montage of Micky, Michael, and David with girls while Peter snuggles a stuffed tiger.

Soon there’s a knock at the door and Peter lets in Biggy, dragging a vacuum cleaner and poses as the “maintenance man.” Since David and Biggy are about the same size, David doubts his claim (“Maintenance men don’t come that short!”). Peter disagrees that Biggy’s short, and tells him to “stand up and show him how tall you are.” Of course Biggy comes back with, “I am standing up.” Next, Della The Decoy walks in the room, dressed in a sexy French maid’s costume that's practically wearing her, and in no time has the guys fawning all over her. Peter: “Are you the maintenance man too?” Della: “Sure. Don’t you like the way I’m…maintained?” The Monkees stumble over each other to try and pick her up; while they become distracted by Della, Biggy manages to toss all their money into the vacuum cleaner! Meanwhile at the casino room, the manager finds the wire attached to his Roulette wheel; distraught and aggravated on discovering it has been rigged, he informs an arriving policeman and they go to apprehend the boys. The Monkees are still schmoozing with Della until David halts the chaos to let her say her line, but she doesn’t have one. Zelda and Biggy takes off with the winnings, and The Monkees realize they’ve been robbed! They start shouting for the police, who turn up in their suite immediately along with the Manager, who immediately identifies Micky as "Magic Fingers". (Michael sarcastically quips, “What took you so long.”) Thinking they came to investigate their robbery, Micky reports the theft of their winnings. The Policeman tricks Micky into signing a confession on the pretext of a statement to the effect, and arrests all four Monkees. The Monkees protest that they’re arresting the victim, not the criminal, and complain about police brutality...

During an interrogation at police headquarters (with crooked Batman-type angles), The Monkees protest the illegality of this arrest and insist their money was stolen. The Policeman tells them to think of a better story than that, so Michael tells “Jack and the Beanstalk.” The Manager breaks the atmosphere and informs Micky that the wheel was rigged and he didn’t win, and he is dismayed upon learning doesn’t have magic fingers after all. However, the manager releases them on a 24-hour reprieve on condition they get back the money or face a 20-year jail term! Later, in their casino suite, Michael suggests if they can’t find the crooks, they should get the crooks to find them. Peter suggests, “Why don’t we open a prison?”; the other Monkees immediately jump on him for the “stupidity” of that suggestion. The guys devise a plan to pose as mobsters to lure the crooks to them. The Monkees don disguises and sunglasses as gangsters (with the exception of Peter, who wears normal glasses) and return to the casino. Zelda recognizes Micky but he brushes her off. They step up to the Roulette wheel, where Biggy approaches Peter; Micky recognizes him as the hand crusher. He tells Biggy not to bother the Professor (referring to Peter) and identifies himself as the Insidious Strangler and explains his gang is in town for “robbery, extortion, and murder.” Michael quips, “sort of your regular tourist activities.” Micky identifies David as Muscles The Mauler, who snaps a stick over Biggy's head (repeating a procedure Biggy did to himself in an attempt to intimidate them), and Michael as Vicious Killer and says he did two years of solitary confinement, standing on his head. (This leads to a shot of Michael upside down.) “The Professor” tells Biggy they’re here to “take over this town and win all the money” via his mathematical system to beat the Roulette table that he has invented, which is almost perfected. Biggy gives him the missing piece: 7+5 equals 12 (not 11). Peter gets overjoyed (“This perfects my system! My system is perfect! I have it!!”), and an inverted Michael inquires “isn’t that dumb?”

They are brought by Biggy to The Boss where he and Micky square off with hilarious James Cagney impressions. Then The Boss orders Peter The Professor to reveal his system, and he gets the mobsters drunk while explaining the system until they pass out. The Monkees attempt to search the place for the stolen money when suddenly they trip an alarm which revives The Boss, who orders the boys to gamble with their system and his cash. Back in the casino, the fake and real gangsters enter. An irate patron approaches Michael, tweaks his nose Three Stooges-style, and says “take this, Wizard Glick!” Michael tells him he’s not Wizard Glick and the patron apologizes. At the Roulette table, the cop tells Insidious Strangler they need proof that the money with which they’re gambling is stolen and warns him to lose on the wheel or else. Peter The Professor at first bets 24-red in order to cause The Monkees to lose the money back to the casino but ends up winning anyhow! Peter then bets absurd numbers that don’t exist (212-green, 87-plaid), yet nevertheless still racks up the winnings! All throughout the game, Micky continuously fends off Zelda who swears that she knows him. Finally, they do lose all the money but Zelda finally yanks off Micky’s shades and recognizes him as “Magic Fingers,” giving them away to the crooks. The Boss figures out their plans to steal back the money they stole from them and orders Biggy to get them, and they start chasing the boys around the room. The ensuing romp, which is set to “The Door Into Summer”, involves David, Peter and Biggy each taking turns capturing each other, then being distracted by Della The Decoy and escaping; Micky using Michael for a money scale; and the participants passing around a yellow rose, resulting in the recipient catching a sneezing fit. Finally, the exhausted gangsters pass out on the tables, covered with their own cash.

Tag Sequence:

Michael introduces a "Here We Go Again" tag that Peter and David do involving Micky, and repeatedly cut between Micky at the slot machines (and wining at each and every one of them!) and the boys before The Monkees, clad in Vaudevillian gear, sing “Cuddly Toy”; then, 6 outtakes of Micky and Michael from the soon-to-be-telecast “The Monstrous Monkee Mash” (#4767, 11-2-67) are shown.

Production Notes:

The origin for “The Monkees On The Wheel” can be traced back to the recording sessions for “Daydream Believer”, for which The Monkees searched for some great horn players. The story goes that Dean Davis gave producer Chip Douglas a few numbers out of his address book which just happened to belong to some of the top jazz musicians of the day; two of which, Shorty Rogers (who also arranged the song) and Pete Candoli, wound up on the record. Dean, Pete, and Shorty became friends when Dean interviewed each of them for Girlie-Q magazine. Shorty and Pete also appeared on the King Bennett To Be Or Not To Be album. Shorty eventually would do future arranging and session work for The Monkees as would Pete and his brother, Conte. To thank Dean for turning them on to these great musicians, The Monkees decided to do an episode based in Las Vegas, and thus begat “The Monkees On The Wheel”.

Dean Davis was asked to write this episode, but a scheduling conflict prevented him from doing so. He was nevertheless written into a casino scene: Micky walks up to Dean at a craps table and says, “Hey, have you seen Peter?”. Dean then replies, “No, but if he’s missing I know a good detective that can find him.” Though the scene was never actually filmed for this episode, Dean Davis would become an extra and a stuntman in The Monkees' 1968 movie HEAD. A hard hat which bears a red and white checker pattern that he wore for his stunt in the movie, which he had a prop man decorate in the form of the pattern that was on Damon Runyon's typewriter case as a tribute to his favorite writer, replicates a helmet Micky wore in Episode No. 22, “The Monkees At The Circus”, as part of his clown costume in the “Sometime In The Morning” romp.

The technique of hilarious flashcuts first demonstrated at the beginning of “The Monkees On The Wheel”'s tag sequence is repeated in Episode No. 50, “The Monstrous Monkee Mash” and No. 58, “Mijacogeo” (a.k.a. “The Frodis Caper”).

Douglas and Martin's “The Door Into Summer” makes its debut appearance here. Whereas here it's used for the musical chase, a second appearance, 10 episodes later, in No. 56, "Some Like It Lukewarm" (a.k.a. "The Band Contest"), finds The Monkees performing it.

Nilsson's “Cuddly Toy” appears here in an alternate mix, with no reverb at the close. It appeared before, in Episode No. 35, “Everywhere A Sheik, Skeik.”

“The Monkees On The Wheel”'s entry in Screen Gems' Storylines featured an alternate tag sequence in which Micky swears off gambling forever; after which, David discovers that Peter has caught the gambling bug, having converted their hard-earned salary into quarters and returned to the slot machines with Zelda!

“The Monkees On The Wheel”'s submain title theme can also be heard in Episode No. 12, “I've Got A Little Song Here”, No. 28, “The Monkees On The Line”, and No. 53, "The Monkees Race Again" (a.k.a. "And Leave The Driving To Us").

“The Monkees On The Wheel”'s first of just 2 telecasts on ABC Saturday, December 30, 1972, coincided with David Jones' 27th birthday and Michael Nesmith's 30th.

The first draft of the Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson's script for The Monkees motion picture (tentatively entitled Changes) was compleeted December 19, 1967, 8 days after “The Monkees On The Wheel”'s firstrun airing.

Broadcast Notes:

CBS preempted Gunsmoke this week for a National Geographic special on sharks which received a 24.2 rating /37.6 share (13,550,000 viewers), while The Monkees came in second.

Trivia Notes:

Guest Cast Notes: