Synopsis:

At the home of debutante Valerie Cartwright, The Monkees are auditioning for her impending coming out party by performing the tune “You Just May Be The One.” Peter is fawning over her the whole performance. With Valerie is her obnoxious and pompous boyfriend, Ronnie Farnsworth. An impressed Valerie hires them to the disapproval of Ronnie, who remarks to lovestruck Peter that "A gentleman does not stare at a lady!" Peter defensively retorts, "A beggar can look at a queen!" Ronnie then doesn’t hesitate to dismiss The Monkees' “primitive, grotesque and ugly” music with multiple put downs, and the group expresses their own disdain of the snob. In the meantime, the proverbially girl-shy Peter begins fawning at a portrait of Valerie before they launched into their audition number, clearly captivated by her beauty. The despondent guys prepare to leave in The Monkeemobile, they are shocked to discover Peter who, unable to express his feelings, is so love struck over Valerie he has stolen her portrait, and in fear The Monkees make a fast exit home.

Back at their pad, Peter continues to admire and fawn over Valerie’s portrait while the other guys try to convince him to talk to her and ask her out. But Peter is too shy to talk to girls so the other guys come up with an idea by taking him to Valerie’s place. a reworking of Cyrano De Bergerac, Micky, Michael and David take turns shouting out affectionate lines while which Peter lip-synchs from below to Valerie up above in her balcony—only to wind up getting slugged in the mouth by the groundskeeper. Later, when Valerie and Ronnie show up at The Monkees pad regarding the songs they’ll be playing, The Fabulour Foursome hide Valerie’s portrait by putting a glass of mirror over the painting while Michael holds it there. Ronnie starts bashing their pad on the spot and when Michael briefly loses his grip on the mirror he sees the painting and accusing the guys of stealing it threatening to call the authorities; “You do, and I’ll be sorry!” screams Micky in retort. When Peter admits to being the culprit, a friendly Valerie just tells him to return it at the party. Fed up with Ronnie's snobbery, the guys decide to strike back. So, in alternating disguises, David, Michael and Micky appear wherever Ron and Val are together, each time trying to prove what a rotter Ron is.

First, David, as a French waiter outside a restaurant where the couple is sitting, hammers a cork into a bottle of champagne and Ronnie struggles to open it with great effort. Both Ronnie and David managed to finally pop the cork out only to destroy an entire building. Next, while in the park admiring some art work with Valerie, Ronnie admires an assemblage of pipes and asks Michael, disguised as a park man, about having it to which Michael replies by turning on the faucet causing him to be squirted in the face. Then Micky, disguised as toy salesman, approaches the two and offers to sell Ronnie a new Derby Doll, which is an ugly mono-browed doll that Micky causes to wet, spit and scream! But when Ronnie starts to recognize Micky, he storms off in a huff leaving Ronnie very suspicious. Ronnie then realizes who they are and figues out their plot so he sets out to repeats the procedure on them. Inviting The Monkees over, Ronnie manages to outshine David, Michael and Micky by outshining them in skeetshooting, archery, and badminton, respectively (the last one leaves Micky nearly swallowing the badminton bird!), to show Val how low class the boys are. Annoyed by his actions in shaming the boys, Valerie storms off and later phones Peter to ask him to escort her to the party, but Peter, overcome by shyness and inexperience with girls, tries to bow out. So in the rendition of “I’m A Believer”, Micky, Michael and David try to teach Peter how to treat a lady from sitting her in her seat at a restaurant, to spreading his coat across a puddle so that she could walk over it (a la Sir Walter Raleigh), to opening the (Monkeemobile) car door for her, to lighting her cigarette, with Peter failing in each and every one of them.

The guys then bring a lady over to play spin the bottle but Peter always loses, since the bottle always points to David; even when Michael sends him out of the room, the bottle flies off the floor to the door near David! Micky then disguises himself as Sigmund Freud and psychoanalyzes Peter; "Freud" Dolenz states that his problem is "mother fixation" ("You are too close to your mother!")...and then receives a phone call from his mother, telling him to put his galoshes on, leaving “Mr. Freud” nearly hysterical! Later, at the party, the other Monkees give Peter moral support as he tries to talk to Valerie discussing music, books and politics but, being too nervous, he fails so badly that Micky, David, and Michael decide to intervene and give him a hand. Disguised as his stockbroker, private English tailor and caption of his yacht they, they set out to convince Val that Peter is really a shy tycoon. But Ronnie enters the scene, exposes their scam, and sends Michael, Micky and David to perform leaving Peter to explain their intentions to make him look special. But Valerie tells him he’s a fine person just being himself, and that she likes him as he is. The Monkees perform “You Just May Be The One,” Peter, with newfound confidence, beats Ronnie in every type of competition he proposes to win Valerie’s favor, in arm-wrestling, hopscotch, weightlifting, dueling, jumping, boxing, fencing, and marbles. In the end, Peter winds up finally winning “spin-the-bottle,” and is in turn smooched by four girls.

Production Notes:

This episode marked the debut appearance of the phenomenal Neil Diamond tune “I’m A Believer”. Released as the A-side of the Colgems #66-1002 single on November 12, 1966, the song was heavily hyped by NBC, as it was used in every episode of The Monkees TV series aired on The Peacock Network in December 1966. All this, naturally, resulted in “I’m A Believer” being The Monkees' biggest hit (a 7-week stay at the top of the Billboard chart!), not to mention the Top song of 1967! “I’m A Believer” made no further appearances on The Monkees TV series beyond December 1966 (save for a brief snippet in the final minutes of Episode No. 32, “The Monkees On Tour”, the show's first season finale), but Micky can be heard briefly mentioning its title in Episode No. 38, "I Was A 99-lb. Weakling", and he also performed “I’m A Believer” in a duet with Julie Driscoll in the 1969 TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

An August 14, 1967 repeat of "One Man Shy" featured "Forget That Girl" in lieu of “I’m A Believer”, and CBS and ABC repeats of the episode featured "If I Knew", which in turn replaced "Forget That Girl." VAP Video gave the episode (the redubbed summer 1967 version) its first taste of home video release in Japan in 1992 on VHS and LD. While the summer 1967 rebroadcast version still airs in syndication, Rhino has dusted off the original firstrun NBC edition for home video.

There is a possibility that the Peter Tork-sung version of Goffin and King's "I Don't Think You Know Me" (the monaural TV mix is featured as a bonus selection on Rhino's 1994 reissue of More Of The Monkees [#R2 71791]) was originally slated for use in this episode.

The stellar, Robert West-bassed “You Just May Be The One” was erroneously credited as “You May Just Be The One” in “One Man Shy's” end title song listing---probably because, when Michael Nesmith introduces the song to the audience at Valerie's party, he misindentifies his own composition as "You May Just Be The One." The end credits of another episode to feature Papa Nez's tune would also have this dubious distinction: Episode No. 24, “The Monkees A La Mode.”

Writers Gardner, Caruso and Silverman rejoined ranks with director Frawley to make Episode No. 16, "The Son Of A Gypsy."

“One Man Shy” (a.k.a. “Peter And The Debutante”) is also the first of five Monkees episodes bearing titles named after members of the band, preceding No. 15, “Too Many Girls” (a.k.a. "Davy And Fern"), No. 25, “Alias Micky Dolenz”, No. 49, "The Monkees Watch Their Feet" (a.k.a. "Micky And The Outer Space Creatures") and No. 52, "The Devil And Peter Tork". 

“One Man Shy” (a.k.a. “Peter And The Debutante”) originally ended with Peter and Valerie Cartwright (Lisa James) dancing alone in the moonlight.

The second day of production on “One Man Shy”, September 29, 1966, fell on director Jim Frawley's 30th birthday; The Monkees' TV cast and crew celebrated on-set.

Trivia Notes:

“One Man Shy” (a.k.a. "Peter And The Debutante") is the first episode of the series to exhibit a slight change in Michael Nesmith's sideburns.

The scene during the “You Just May Be The One” romp from this episode featuring Peter (taking part in a mock duel with Ronnie Farnsworth) firing a gun, out of which pops a flag bearing the word "BANG!", was incorporated into the second season opening for The Monkees. Michael uses the same gun in the “Words” musical romp of Episode No. 45, "The Monkees In Texas".

This is the first time Micky says "You do and I'll be sorry!"; the second time would be in Episode No. 22, “The Monkees At The Circus”.

Ronnie Farnsworth's butler's name is Jeeves, a reference to P.G. Wodehouse's capable manservant character.

The name of Valerie Cartwright foreshadows the title of a future Monkees tune which would later appear in 2 future episodes of The Monkees' first season and be remade for inclusion on the A-side of The Monkees' 6th and final Top 10 single: the differently-titled Boyce-Hart tune “Valleri”.

Jacque's Cafe is seen twice in “One Man Shy” (a.k.a. “Peter And The Debutante”): once when Davy pounds in the cork of Ronnie's champagne bottle, and again in the “I’m A Believer” musical number, when Micky teaches Peter how to help Valerie into a seat at a table.

Another episode which employs the cork-stuck-in-the-champagne-bottle gag is No. 30, “The Monkees In Manhattan” (a.k.a “The Monkees Manhattan Style”). 

The Monkees guitar logo appears for the first time on Micky's drum as part of the story instead of a music video sequence; all other appearances of the drum featured a small banner hung from it.

For the second time on the show, David Jones is seen doing a parody of the famous 1872 James Abbott McNeill Whistler painting Arrangement In Grey And Black, No. 1: Portrait Of The Artist's Mother, when he imitates Ronnie's mother. The first time is in Episode No. 2, “Monkee See, Monkee Die”, in the scene where the boys don disguises to fool lawyer McQuinney (Oliver MacGowan).

Notice in this and several other first-season Monkees episodes Peter Tork wore his belt buckle on the left. He did so to keep the buckle from scratching the back of his precious bass guitar.

In the scene where he confronts Valerie and The Monkees at the debutante ball, Ronnie is seen wearing a tuxedo and a Monkeeman cape.

Cyrano De Bergerac is given mention again in Episode No. 21, "The Prince And The Paupers." De Bergerac was a French author and soldier known for his skill in sword fighting and having a long nose. Edmond Rostand's famous play is a somewhat candid and fictional account of De Bergerac's life.

This is one of 10 occasions in which The Monkeemobile is seen without her ragtop roof. Others are the previous episode, “I've Got A Little Song Here”, and No. 15, “Too Many Girls” (a.k.a. "Davy And Fern"), No. 17, “The Case Of The Missing Monkee”, No. 19, “Find The Monkees” (a.k.a. "The Audition"), No. 25, “Alias Micky Dolenz”, No. 33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico"), No. 39, "Hillbilly Honeymoon" (a.k.a. "Double Barrell Shotgun Wedding"), No. 42, "The Wild Monkees”, No. 53, "The Monkees Race Again" (a.k.a. "Leave The Driving To Us"), and in The Monkees' 1997 reunion special, Hey Hey It's The Monkees.

Another Monkee seen mimicking Dr. Sigmund Freud will be Michael (as Dr. Frigmund Freed) in Episode No. 29, “The Monkees Get Out More Dirt”.

The boxing and weightlifting sequences in the “You Just May Be The One” romp foreshadow Episode No. 20, “The Monkees In The Ring”, and No. 38, "I Was A 99-lb. Weakling" (a.k.a. "Physical Culture"). 

Peter confesses that he once got some threatening Valentines. Interestingly, he was born in 1942, on the eve of St. Valentine's Day!

In the scene where Ronnie shows Michael up in archery, Michael is shown to have a zipper on the left side his blue 8-button shirt!

The scene of David, Micky and Michael disguising themselves to make Peter look wealthy recalls a similar scenario involving David in Episode No. 6, “The Success Story”.

“One Man Shy” (a.k.a. "Peter And The Debutante") first aired on the 34th birthday of iconic pianist-singer Little Richard Penniman, later to be a featured performer in The Monkees' 1969 special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. 

Guest Cast Notes:

The late George Furth (Ronnie), notable for composing such stage productions as Company (4/26/1970 - 1/1/1972) and Twigs (11/14/1971 - 1/3/1972; 1/5/1972 - 7/23/1972), reappears on this series as swindling nephew Henry Weatherspoon in Episode No. 43, "A Coffin Too Frequent." Furth previously turned up with Robert Strauss (“Alias Micky Dolenz”) in a March 11, 1966 episode of Honey West (ABC, 1965-66), "Pop Goes The Easel," and later appeared in an October 27, 1975 episode of All In The Family (CBS, 1971-79), "Mike Faces Life," with another Monkee guest alum Diane Shalet ("Fairy Tale"). Furth passed away August 12, 2008 at age 75. 

Lisa James (Valerie) had her own turn in guest credits on Laredo (NBC, 1965–67), Coronet Blue (CBS, 1967), The F.B.I. (ABC, 1965-74), Circle of Fear (formerly Ghost Story, NBC, 1972-73), and Down To Earth (Superstation WTBS, 1984-87). She is currently involved in stage productions herself, being a theatrical Director at The New Jersey Repertory Company, which is a Fitness & Dance Facilities company.

Extra Color/B&W Episode Photo Stills: