After missing too many calls, the Monkees go to a telephone answering service and wind up recruited by the overworked supervisor. Between the false alarm medical emergency and the organized crime, they learn the timeless lesson that call centers are awful.
Hold for the following tropes:
- Critical Staffing Shortage: The supervisor cannot wait to get out of there. Instead of assigning a shift schedule, she tells them to push a red button when they're tired. It releases a bed from the wall.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: An unethical aspiring actress tests her skills by telling poor Mike she's ready to end her life. He spends the rest of the episode trying to stop her while she carries on without explaining she doesn't mean it.
- Rousing Speech: The supervisor convinces them to work there by extolling the virtue of becoming the very lifeblood of the city. As soon as they agree, she runs off to Jamaica.
- Spanner in the Works: Peter gets a message to book a musical gig for the Popsicles which pays $10,000. Peter switches the band name to the Pelicans (not the Monkees) because he knows they need the work. He couldn't have known the caller was really a criminal placing illegal bets on horse races by pretending to book bands. When the bookie's horse wins with nothing to show for it, he comes to take it out of Peter's hide.
