Monday, April 22, 2013

Direct References to Politics: Fall of Southeast Asia in Dominoes

In the middle of a very sentimental episode comes the most biting 2 seconds of commentary within the entire series.

"Monkee Mother", #27.  We are just coming out of the "Sometime in the Morning" segment, which acted as a love song to the younger version of Dick Van Dyke's writer, Sally.  A dream sequence, in which the Boys are wearing costumes from the Victorian Cowboy era.  This also might have been a commercial break, which would deflect attention even more.

We see the Boys playing a simple game of dominoes; the kind where you line them up and then knock them over.  The mic is on and is recording, this is the stuff which would normally be left on the cutting room floor.  Or rejected by the sponsors who might want to remain apolitical.

Micky asks: "What is this called?"
Davy: "This is called . . "
Peter : "Southeast Asia"

They cheer (now for the camera) and the scene proper begins.

Here is where the clear division of character and actor is displayed.

Peter had once spoken his mind and was told to retract his statements.  Raybert had control over what was going out over the airwaves.  They snuck in what they could.   Their actors were not meant to express their own minds.  Not just in terms of the music, but in terms of the content. Keeping controversial moments is a different brand of power than the PR arm.








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