Click to hear Goin' Down
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Click to hear Words
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"The Monkees In Texas" is the second episode this season to lampoon Westerns; the first was the second-season premiere, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." Earlier episods that take shots as westerns include "The Monkees In A Ghost Town," "Here Come The Monkees" and "The Monkees In Manhattan.' Ironically, during the 1967-68 season, The Monkees went head-to-head oposite two TV westerns, Cowboy In Africa (ABC, 1967-68) and Gunsmoke (CBS, 1955-75). "The Monkees In Texas" parodies four well-known TV westerns: The Big Valley (ABC, 1965-69), Bonanza (NBC, 1959-73), The Lone Ranger (ABC, 1949-57) and the aforementioned Gunsmoke.
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Composer Stu Phillips included musical nods to the title themes of Bonanza, Gunsmoke and The Lone Ranger.
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The original Screen Gems Storyline for "The Monkees In Texas" had Micky and Peter sobbing in each other's arms after the former refuses to kill the latter. A battle ensues, with The Monkees knocking off the bad guys in black one by one and unmasking Black Bart--as Ben Cartwheel (referencing Ben Cartright of Bonanza).
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Barton MacLaine portrayed Gen. Martin Peterson on I Dream Of Jeannie (NBC, 1965-70) . He also appeared in the episode of Micky Dolenz old series, Circus Boy (NBC/ABC, 1956-58), entitled "The Tumbling Clown."
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Len Lesser later played the role of Jerry Seinfeld's Uncle Leo on Seinfeld (NBC, 1989-98).
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Jacqueline DeWit's role as Aunt Kate Nesmith in this episode was her last acting job. She died of natural causes in 1998.
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Rex Holman is known to Trekkies as Morgan Earp in a 1968 episode of Star Trek entitled "Spectre of the Gun:" and as J'Onn in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).
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Stuart Nisbet appeared as Judge R Kenney in a 2001 episode of The Practice entitled "The Vanished (Part 2)."
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The late James Griffith wrote for the original version of the TV series, The Fugitive (ABC, 1963-67). of the entire guest cast, Griffith is the only one to have made a guest appearance in all four TV Westerns that are parodied in this episode.
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Photographer and L.A. socialite Nunt Wilde makes an unbilled cameo in "The Monkees In Texas."
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The running gag of Mike screaming into an inverted end of the telephone receiver is borrowed from another episode, "The Prince And The Paupers."
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The guy with the mustache whom Micky bumps into in the saloon is Davy Jones.
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This is the first of two episodes featuring a musical number as the tag. The second is "The Monkees Blow Their Minds," in which they sing "Daily Nightly."
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The character Black Bart is named after an actual stagecoach robber from 1875-83. He is known for poetic notes he would leave at the robbery scene. Interestingly, in the western fantasy sequence of "The Monkees In A Ghost Town," Mike Nesmith plys a villian called Black Bart.
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"The Monkees In Texas" is one of nine episodes to use voice-over narration.
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The Monkees finished work on their fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., at the same time this episode was produced.
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