"The Monkees" Rewatch: Monkees Get Out More Dirt
“Monkees Get Out More Dirt” should be subtitled “Laundry Day Is A Very Romantic Day,” because when the boys stop by the laundromat and go looking for soap, all four quickly fall for the owner, April Conquest. Upon returning home, they each concoct a reason (from sick aunts to dog food) to immediately go back and visit her at work where they find her working on her doctor’s thesis in laundry science. They return home again only to pace around the pad for a bit being snippy at each other before watching Dr. Sisters advice show in which she claims to win the girl you want through her mind and learning “the kind of man she likes and then be that man.” This leads each of the boys to call April and other people in her life to find out her interests and hobbies, including pop art, ballet, chamber music, and motorcycles, and taking them on in order to impress her. Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well with April proclaiming, “Oh, I love you all” and pushing her close to a nervous collapse. Her nerves lead her to close her laundromat one day and the boys worry it could cost her the business, so they decide to choose one of them for her while the others let her down easy.
I’ll say, for an episode based on a love pentagon it’s lighthearted. I mean, at no point did I ever think the band was in danger, unlike “Success Story” which had an ominous cloud hanging over it during that first watch. “Dirt” does put them, ostensibly, into competition with each other, but they don't really lose sight of their friendship (as shown by Peter’s letter to Dr. Sisters) nor do they allow it to hurt April and her business. They do snip at each other a bit and split the pad into quarters for a brief moment, so any beef between them is relatively minor and short-lived. It’s a nice change of pace from other love triangles-rectangles-tetradecagons where people damn near want to slit each other’s throats, no matter how good of friends they were. Then again, this particular pentagon centers on the try-to-describe-her-and-not-use-the-word-statuesque Julie Newmar, so who could really blame them if they did become so blinded by infatuation they threw it all away? I mean, if a chick were to come between the band it might as well be the only Catwoman.
My other prompt for this episode says, “Wait, how old are they supposed to all be again? (thirty year old teenagers.)” If April’s working on her doctor’s thesis, she’s gotta be about twenty-three, twenty-four, at least, right? Meanwhile, Mike’s twenty-one and Davy’s young enough to still have a legal guardian. Hell, forget age differences, April apparently has multiple degrees and her own business, why is she even giving a bunch of broke “teenagers” a second glance? Especially when they lied to her from the start. Yeah, let’s be honest, they didn’t really deserve her anyway.
I’ll say, for an episode based on a love pentagon it’s lighthearted. I mean, at no point did I ever think the band was in danger, unlike “Success Story” which had an ominous cloud hanging over it during that first watch. “Dirt” does put them, ostensibly, into competition with each other, but they don't really lose sight of their friendship (as shown by Peter’s letter to Dr. Sisters) nor do they allow it to hurt April and her business. They do snip at each other a bit and split the pad into quarters for a brief moment, so any beef between them is relatively minor and short-lived. It’s a nice change of pace from other love triangles-rectangles-tetradecagons where people damn near want to slit each other’s throats, no matter how good of friends they were. Then again, this particular pentagon centers on the try-to-describe-her-and-not-use-the-word-statuesque Julie Newmar, so who could really blame them if they did become so blinded by infatuation they threw it all away? I mean, if a chick were to come between the band it might as well be the only Catwoman.
My other prompt for this episode says, “Wait, how old are they supposed to all be again? (thirty year old teenagers.)” If April’s working on her doctor’s thesis, she’s gotta be about twenty-three, twenty-four, at least, right? Meanwhile, Mike’s twenty-one and Davy’s young enough to still have a legal guardian. Hell, forget age differences, April apparently has multiple degrees and her own business, why is she even giving a bunch of broke “teenagers” a second glance? Especially when they lied to her from the start. Yeah, let’s be honest, they didn’t really deserve her anyway.
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