The Monkees

                  Leave it to South Park.  And Cody.  Not watching this show while 'studying'....it's only on for 'company'.
                  The little ones are tired - we are running just a little harder and later than usual...Aut asked me if we could go out and say goodnight to Kim.  As I walked down the hallway to get Cody, I heard a song that took me blasted me back into the '70's...

                    "Here we come..."
                
                   The theme song to one of our favorite t.v. shows...

                    "walking down the street..."

                    Countless nights we watched episode after episode...

                    "we get the funniest looks from everyone we meet..."

          Remember when your T.V. remote only had five buttons?  The 'power' button, a 'up' volume button, a 'down' volume button, a 'up' channel button and a 'down' channel button.  And it was big.  And clunky.  A door stop.

                  'hey hey we're the Monkees!"
 
          One of our favorite part of any episode was the them song and the medley of shenanigans that the Monkees were involved in.

                    I ran the rest of the way to Cody's bedroom. 

                   "Cody!  This was one of Mama's and my favorite shows!  Of ALL TIME!!  Is it on Netflix?"

                   "Uh.  No Dad.  It was a South Park episode."

                    Instead of going right out to say goodnight, I ran back down the hallway, to the computer.

                    "We have to YOUTUBE the Monkees! You HAVE to see this show!"

                     I told them I believe the Monkees were the predecessor to MTV.  They always played their songs during their shows...and hi jinx ensued.

                   Our favorite was always Mickey Dolenz, the drummer.  We loved his delivery - and he had a better voice than Davey Jones (which was David Bowie's original name, but he changed it because Davey Jones of the Monkees was a bigger star...for the moment.). 

                 These guys were big. They toured with Jimi Hendrix.  Did Nerf, Kellogg's, etc. commercials and had a lot of top 40 hits.
                 We watched a bunch of episodes - it is amazing how much you can find on YOUTUBE!  The bambini enjoyed it - well, they at least enjoyed my enjoyment of the episodes.  I didn't have to tell them that it seemed as if Kim was sitting next to me, laughing along at the slapstick comedy...
                 The sound effects were brilliant.  The 'boink' sound when someone hit their head.  Or a creaky hinge sound when one would close their gaping mouth.  There's a great boxing episode and everytime Mickey punches the champ, there are sounds of breaking glass, etc.  And the laugh track was unmistakable, but adds to the period feel.  I always remember the laugh track from the old Scooby Doo episodes, too...of which we owned them all!  We got Cody pretty hooked on Scooby Doo when he was younger.

 

 

             I swear this one was filmed at Old Tucson Movie studios - same sound stage that I did the 'The Big, the Bad and the Ugly"  about a zillion years ago, prior to the big fire...but that's a different story.  There's a great 'spooky' episode, starring 'Jaws' from that old James Bond movie, too.

           Ahhhh South Park.  Even as I type, I hear Butter's explaining Scientology, as Tom Cruise hides in his closet...But, looking at the 'bright side', if Cod wasn't watching South Park, I wouldn't have heard the Monkees theme song, and a brilliant memory revived, however briefly, a moment of warm, bright, sunshine...I told Aut that I was going to stay up all night and watch every episode.  She sternly told me that I had better not, that I needed my sleep.  And who would take them to school in the morning?

             ....somewhere, far away, Kim is giggling....