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(More customer reviews)The first broadcast episode of the Monkees television series kicks off this two-episode tape.
Davy is on the beach when a beautiful young woman appears on an inflatable raft. The raft breaks and the girl can't swim, so Davy dives in and gets her to safety. The woman is a princess, Petina, and her uncle is archduke to a small prinicaplity - so small, in fact, that when Davy dials the operator to find their hotel (he gives her his jacket and now needs it back), the operator doesn't even believe the place exists.
But it does, and Davy recognizes there is something seriously wrong with this archduke-princess setup - the archduke gives Davy a saying that is a veiled threat to his life - so he and the other boys get a room at Petina's hotel and go to work getting her out of danger. But it's going to take all the boys have got - to the strains of "This Just Doesn't Seem To be My Day" and "Take A Giant Step" - to get Petina truly out of danger - and it will also surprise the boys to know that a "phony" stock tip really works.
The episode closes with a one-minute spontaneous interview by off-camera producer Bob Rafelson with the boys. The show soon became famous for being a minute short in its episodes and filling out airtime with such interview tags, and the tags are often the best part of the show, helping the audience get to know the boys better.
The tape then shows one of the most genuinely effective episodes of the series, Monkees At The Circus. There are of course extensive comedic flavors - Micky constantly sings the theme song to "an old TV show" to Mike, who repeatedly asks what the song is (the show was Circus Boy, which starred a then-ten year old Micky using the stage name Braddock); Micky plays lion tamer Clyde Greedy and Mike plays the lion who turns the tables.
However, this episode is played more straight than most, beginning when sadistic knife thrower Victor (Richard Devon in a superior performance) deftly impales blades inches from Davy's person as a warning to the boys. The circus is dying, its members blaming discoteques for declining audience attendance. Karen (Donna Baccala) is distraught at the circus' declining fortunes, and the boys try to help as aerialists, but cannot perform the dangerous stunts necessary - highlighted by a very good double exposure shot on the high wire.
Upon discovering that the boys are really rock & roll singers, Victor and the others quit in a fury and Karen is left in tears, but the equally distraught Monkees have one more trick up their sleeve that restores the performance pride in the circus.
The best scene comes when the circus goes on and Victor initially refuses to do his act - until Davy takes his place and nearly impales Karen and Peter with a knife.
Fleshing out this superior episode are two of the best music tracks from More Of The Monkees - "Sometime In The Morning" (the Goffin-King classic that personified the tension between the boys and Don Kirshner), and the venomous Boyce-Hart anthem "She."
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Monkees, Vol. 06 - Royal Flush / Monkees at the Circus (1966)
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