In this heartwarming episode of The Monkees, The Monkees get involved with a toy company that has switched from old fashioned, hand-made toys to machine made toys. Peter goes to a job interview at the company, and finds it is conducted entirely by a machine, and in a humorous scene reminiscent of Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First?” he fails the interview. When Mike tries, he outsmarts the machine, it short circuits, and he is hired on the spot. But when he is shown around the company, he finds it is completely made up of machines, besides one lone worker named Harper who used to make the toys but has since been replaced. The Monkees make it their mission not only to get Harper his job back, but to put a stop to the rise of machine-made toys.

Season 1 Episode 3 of this humorous sitcom came out in 1966, back when technological toys weren’t yet on the shelves. In fact, Pong, the table tennis came and one of the first computer games, didn’t come out for another six years. Toys at this time included action figures like G.I. Joe, dolls like Barbie, and toy cars like Hot Wheels. Tech hadn’t yet consumed the toy industry, but it was certainly on it’s way. This episode is an interesting and entertaining take on the rise of machines and what it meant for the toy industry for machines to be involved in the making of toys. Imagine if they knew back then what technology would come to!