{"id":22507,"date":"2015-07-16T11:38:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=22507"},"modified":"2015-07-16T11:38:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:38:30","slug":"the-replacements-not-the-band-lebeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-replacements-not-the-band-lebeau\/","title":{"rendered":"The Replacements (Not the Band…): Swapping Louis LeBeau for Davy Jones in The Monkees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daydream

Daydream\u00a0Reliever<\/p><\/div>\n

A few years ago my wife got me hooked on Hogan’s Heroes<\/em>, a show I enjoyed as a kid but never subscribed to<\/em>, if you know what I mean: I had little\u00a0rooting interest in the characters and plotlines other than an instinctive love of Newkirk’s turtleneck and sideburns. As an adult, however, I realized what a comic genius Werner Klemperer was as Klink, not to mention the comedic support provided by dummkopf Schultz. Bob Crane’s Hogan is an outstanding wiseass character, who my wife pointed out is very much in the vein of one of my old college friends. They’re all great, even LeBeau, the little Frenchman in Stalag 13, who used to annoy me with his spells of overt cuteness when I was a kid.<\/p>\n

Every few years since childhood I tune into reruns of The Monkees<\/em>. Once I even rented a DVD of the second season from Netflix. Each time I try revisiting The Monkees<\/em> the show gets worse. I still enjoy seeing them lip-sync to one of my favorite Monkees songs, but the wacky hijinx style, which was innovative in its time, looks more and more like the Nickelodeon tweener sitcoms my boys used to watch when they were of that age. And speaking of spells of overt cuteness, I don’t think a single entertainer’s cutey-pie routine has ever annoyed me more than Davy Jones’ act. Not when I was a kid. Not to this day. If I want to gorge on cuteness I’ll watch a Shirley Temple movie. That’s<\/em> cute! Davy just strikes me as the worst kind of attention-seeking ass kisser.<\/p>\n

Look at me! Aren’t I adorable? And don’t you love my British accent? Here, let’s have a little tap dance! <\/em><\/p>\n

Yuck! Any time he shows up and gets a few lines on an episode of The Monkees<\/em> I want to denounce my fairly strong case of Anglophilia.<\/p>\n

Over the last 2 years, as I’ve grown to admire and love that little French rascal Louis LeBeau, I’ve had a recurring thought: What if LeBeau replaced Davy Jones in The Monkees?\u00a0<\/em>The benefits, as I see them, would have been mind blowing, show altering, and even extend to exerting positive influences over Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz’s burgeoning egos.<\/p>\n

Actor Robert Clary’s LeBeau could be inserted into the band pretty much as he appears in Hogan’s Heroes<\/em>. That ratty red sweater LeBeau was wearing in the 1940s of the 1960s’ show’s setting would have looked vintage hip in a show actually set in the late-’60s. LeBeau could have continued to don his beret and even wear the occasional chef’s hat, although on The Monkees<\/em> it would be implied that his favor-winning strudels contained an extra herbal ingredient.<\/p>\n

LeBeau’s hats would have helped keep Nesmith, the show’s lone hat wearer’s, ego in check. Successful bands of the time could accommodate two hat-wearing members. Nesmith’s hat dominance in the actual lineup of The Monkees provided him a sense of Papa John Phillips entitlement. The actual Monkees were forced to occupy specific, isolated roles, which led to much frustration over time and the eventual departure of the actual studio musicians who played on the records followed by the\u00a0actual fake band members. Add LeBeau’s hats to the mix and The Monkees would have established\u00a0a more fluid, democratic sense of hat power, along the lines of Buffalo Springfield and The Band, two contemporaries in the music world who accommodated multiple hat wearers.<\/p>\n

Although tiny, foreign-accented\u00a0LeBeau would have been just as capable of inducing\u00a0Cute Attacks in the show’s female viewers, LeBeau also would have played to the guys. He’s a rascal! He’s just as capable of stirring up trouble as he is picking up a cane and doing a tap dance. LeBeau’s rascally powers would have tempered Mickey’s propensity for going rascal. Think of how Hogan’s barracks\u00a0full of rascals played off each other. Think of how such interplay on The Monkees<\/em> TV show would have translated to their Brill Building\/studio musician\u2013concocted recordings. Think of “Daydream Believer” sung by Clary in more of a sophisticated, world-wear Jacques Brel vein. Nevertheless, the little girls would understand.<\/p>\n