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hiii Gwen so I just finished reading your Infinite Tuesdays series (which was very good, im cri) and it got me wondering for not the first time Who The Fuck Is Nyles? Cause I’ve seen him around in a bunch of different fics and I got the feeling he’s a collective fandom OC but also I might just not be remembering someone from the show? Anywayy if you’d be willing to shed some light I’d be very grateful 💗

Hiiiiii, oh wow, thank you for reading my series! That's a substantial investment of time, and I am really glad you liked it! Invoking "cri" is what I aim for!

I'd be happy to shed some light on the presence of Nyles in Monkee canon and fic. Probably way more light than you or anyone will ever want!

The show-verse boys are self-contained, and outside of them, there aren't any recurring characters on the show except for Mr. Babbitt, and he only exists to continually remind the audience that the Monkees are always financially insecure and desperate for work, and in the show-verse, desperation = HILARIOUS SCHEMES AND SITUATIONS.

Everyone else is in and out of their lives in a single episode. And for the show, that works just fine. The focus is always on the Monkees and their friendship and their eternal and ultimately doomed quest to become a successful band.

Us fic writers, however, want more for the boys. We want the backstory. We to know about their families and interpersonal relationships and everyday existence outside of the wild and weird adventures. And if the material doesn't exist, then we create it; often from the brief and flimsy framework supplied by the show. OCs are fine, and I populated my series with a couple of my own in fleshing out Mike's backstory, but it's a lot of work to to make readers care about your OCs, and it can backfire. But if you can work in a blink-and-miss-them side character from canon? Now we're talkin'.

Enter Nyles.

Nyles Brown portrays the Monkees' neighbour of the same name for exactly 10 seconds in the final episode of the show ("Mijacogeo/The Frodis Caper"). Micky Dolenz wrote and directed the episode, so I guess technically Nyles is Micky's OC! And in 10 seconds we learn 4 things:

a) Nyles lives two doors over from the Pad

b) He's on a first-name basis with the boys

c) He never locks his door

d) He is incredibly stoned ... all the time (Micky is trying to cram as many pot jokes/references into his one and only episode as humanly possible)

That's efficient plot-device-building, Micky. Nicely done.

In the episode, the Monkees are alarmed to find Peter hypnotized by a strange test pattern on the TV. Because they're nice and good people, they decide to go check on the neighbours. Micky and Mike check on a family next door, while Davy scampers to the house next to it. He bursts into the living room, where a young blond guy is staring his television set, glassy-eyed.

Davy: "Nyles! Oh, no! Has the TV got you too?"

Nyles: *slow drawl* "What TV? Man, I'm always like this!"

And then he slowly turns his head to give Davy a shit-eating grin. Davy makes one of his cute alarmed noises, and scampers out again. And that's the last we see of Nyles.

As with most, I read a ton of Monkee fic before I decided to write some of my own, and that's where I became aware of Nyles, too. He's just a brief plot device created by Micky, and an opportunity for another weed joke. But for Monkee fic writers, he's the stoned kid next door who is their friend and doesn't mind if they pop in unannounced. While Mr. Babbitt represents a villainous presence in the Monkees' day-to-day life, Nyles is a friend and ally. Maybe not the most helpful one, but he's there to help.

And is probably their pot dealer.

Thanks for the note and I hope some of this is interesting! I enjoyed procrastinating from work to write a short essay about a super minor character on the show.

#the monkees #monkees #the frodis caper #mijacogeo #monkees lore #monkees fic #asks