‘The Monkees’ Last Episode, Contained a Not Safe for Prime Time Innuendo: Micky Dolenz Says, ‘I’ll Let You Work That Out, Folks”
The Monkees television series is famous for its lighthearted messaging and musical romps. However, as the series progressed into its second season, the show added more timely innuendos. This included not-safe for prime-time contexts, to its scripts. Micky Dolenz once said of a reported drug reference in the series’ last episode, “I’ll let you work that out, folks.”
The last episode of ‘The Monkees’ aired in 1968
The Monkees aired its final episode, “The Frodis Caper,” on March 25, 1968.
However, prior to the second season of the series, Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith were tired of its old-fashioned formula. It never varied from The Monkees‘ first episode which aired in Sept. 1966.
Each installment followed a simple, basic premise.
The Monkees perform and act silly. The band is involved with a villain of some sort. Jones or one of the other band members falls briefly in love.
“Quite frankly, we were a little jaded with the show as it existed,” Micky Dolenz wrote in his book “I’m A Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, and Madness.”
“Every week Davy [Jones] would fall in love with some girl or Peter [Tork] was kidnapped by some bad guy, or some guy spy would hide microfilm in somebody’s something or other.”
As the closed its second season, Rafelson and Schneider allowed The Monkees to address counterculture issues of the late 1960s.
However, these references were gentle in a way that wouldn’t ruffle the feathers of NBC’s censors.
‘The Monkees’ Last Episode, Contained a Not-Safe for Prime-Time Innuendo
Ultimate Classic Rock website reported that Dolenz alluded to a not-safe-for-prime-time moment during the episode he directed.
The finale episode, “The Frodis Caper,” was about the evil Wizard Glick (Rip Taylor). Glick’s mission is to control people’s minds via their television sets.
The Monkees realize Wizard Glick captured a plant named Frodis he planned on using as part of his evil plot. They intend to save the foliage.
Upon the plant’s rescue, it emits a cloud of smoke that calms Glick and his henchmen.
Dolenz said, “I’ll let you work out that reference, folks.”
However, the subtle nod toward marijuana was not safe for prime time in 1968. Therefore, it was hidden within a joke suitable for network television.
‘The Frodis Caper’ was notable for a second reason
“The Frodis Caper” is notable for its use of a snippet of a Beatles song from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
During a Monkees Convention Q&A captured in a YouTube Clip, Dolenz admitted that during a visit to the recording studio where the Fab Four laid down tracks for the album, he heard the track “Good Morning, Good Morning.”
“Good Morning, Good Morning,” the song John Lennon claimed was inspired by a Kellogg’s commercial, was heard as the members of The Monkees awoke.
Subsequently, this was the first time a network series used a Beatles tune.
