"The Monkees" Rewatch: Success Story

In “Success Story” Davy receives a message that his grandfather will pay him a surprise visit from England. In an effort to please and impress the man who raised him (and quell his fear about his grandson going abroad), Davy had previously written about how successful he’d become in the States. The others try to cover the lie and make Davy appear well-off by disguising themselves as (among other things) fans and photographers, acquiring a fancy car, expensive food, and such. But, of course, the plan quickly backfires and Davy’s grandfather, as his guardian, threatens to take him back home.

Before I say anything else let me be clear, there are a lot of hilarious moments in this episode. (See: “Micky, as my chauffer, how would you help a lady into the backseat of a car?” “As quick as I can.”) But, oh man, I’d be lying if I said this episode doesn’t choke me up something fierce. The scene of Davy saying goodbye to the others came with a lot of tears during my first viewings and time has barely softened it. If anything, Davy Jones’ passing in 2012 has given the scene another layer of sadness. His choked up “I hate goodbyes” was heartbreaking before, but now? Forget it, man, I can barely look at it. Similar things could be said about the “I Wanna Be Free” sequence of Davy walking on the beach, which was also used during the Evening with the Monkees tour that came in the late 2012.

Another aspect that always tugged my heartstrings was the melancholy “Shades of Gray” played over the beach scene instead of the ballad version of “I Wanna Be Free” in the cut of the episode I initially watched. My first viewings of the show included edits that had been made for syndication. Many syndicated shows receive edits to accommodate more commercials and while that happened to The Monkees, some songs were also changed. Some shows do change music on syndicated episodes for copyright reasons, but I don’t know what the rationale was behind certain song changes here. I think for this particular instance the song change doesn’t hurt or alter what the scene was trying to convey. “I Wanna Be Free” and “Shades of Gray” differ thematically, but the various emotions they bring up (feeling constrained, nostalgic, conflicted) make sense in context. However, the same cannot be said of notable song changes in later episodes, which I’m sure I’ll discuss in time.