hello, fellow monk lovers!

i have seen every episode of monk except for 2 (.5!) from the first season. so, this was probably covered in one of those episodes, or in one that i actually saw but don't recall, or possibly on this board before--many times. so, please indulge me!

why does he touch these things? and i don't see him wipe his hands after, either.

thanks a bunch!

also, while i have the floor--and so i don't have to bore you w/a whole, other thread--i have another question. in the opening credits theres one scene that i can not recall and it makes me nuts. it's where he's looking at what appears to be a restaurant chair and examining it for clues. in two different scenes, and he's bending down. it's close to the beginning, and it's been in nearly all the different openers, so i think it's from pretty early on (though i might have just made that up. i haven't seen an old episode for a while. but that's what i think;)).

thanks a bunch!

~~jeri lynn ("jl")

Hi jeri,

For people with OCD, touching things is a form of tension release. I can't explain how it works but the nervous tension they experience from their own behavior must be released and some touch things to do it.

I need more description for the clip you're talking about but what I'm thinking you mean is he's leaning to his right looking at something. It is from Mr. Monk and the Election where Natalie is running for the school board. it hink that clip is followed by Monk, Randy and Stott walking over to something else. They are on the roof across the stree from Nat's campaign headquarters. If that's the clip you're trying to describe. If not, try again with more detail. Hope I answered your questions though, I'm no expert.

Hello.

Thank you for the explanation. I had thought that in preparing for the role, Tony merely adopted this mannerism by observing infants doing the same thing so as to create an image of Monk as having a kind of pre-adult naive simplicity of heart like that of a baby.

KF

I pretty much know every scene from the Season 7, 8 opening credits. If there are other season opening credit scenes that you're dying to know, I can always look that up for you. I am a new Monk fan...maybe about a few months now? and have watched every single episode. So it's still very fresh in my head. Anyways, I know that restaurant chair scene where he bends down and does the hand thing, right? It's from Season 2 "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus." That scene should be somewhere in the beginning of the episode. You can watch that episode here: Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus. Click on "megavideo" to watch them (or you can click on other links to see if they work). Most of the links work. Some of them may/may not work. That website has been temperamental these past few weeks. You can click the other seasons from that link and watch more episodes for free! They have posted all the seasons including the current one. Enjoy!

Monkwriter:
Although it's not the clip Digthemonk was describing, you are right in describing another clip within the Season 8 opening credits. That scene is from "Mr. Monk and the Election." Monk was called in because they could not find any evidence when they knew the shooting took place there. So Monk asks Stottlemeyer for a bullet. He takes it and rolls it on the floor b/c there is a slant, the floor is a bit slanted to the right, so he knew there would be a missing bullet underneath a broken pavement. So in that clip, Monk follows where the bullet would stop and leans toward the right. Stottlemeyer and Randy follow him in unison...which is always funny! Do you know why I know this scene so well?? Because I was also looking at the opening credits and was wondering where this scene was from! I was going crazy trying to figure it out! It took days!


Okay, nobody asked, but I will tell you where the scenes are from for the Season 8 opening credits.

1st scene: Monk walking with long brown coat, touches the meters as he walks by. It is taken from Season 1 "Mr. Monk and the Candidate."

2nd scene: Monk is looking closely at the tables and bends over the restaurant table with his "thinking hands." That is from Season 2, "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus."

3rd scene: Monk & Natalie standing together in an office with the garbage bags in the background. Natalie is doing the Monk 'thinking hands.' That's from Season 5, "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike."

4th scene: Mr. Monk looking down and walking carefully to step on only certain parts of the stones on the floor. That's from Season 2, "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School."

5th scene: Monk is in a pile of garbage bags with the garbage truck in front of him. He is throwing them back into the garbage truck. That's from Season 5, "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike."

6th scene: Monk walking alone with his hand on the back of his neck, twisting it back and forth. He looks a bit dirtied. That's from Season 4, "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head."

7th scene: Monk is lying in his bed sick with the humifiers on. Season 4, "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed."

8th scene: Monk covers his mouth with a handkerchief while a rat jumps on his shoulder. Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate."

9th scene: Monk is standing, pointing his gun. He looks to his right and sewage water pours over him. Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate."

10th scene: Monk's head is half-out and he's peeking out. Season 2, "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School."

11th scene: Monk, Stottlemeyer, Randy are on the roof, looking down, leaning toward the right as they walk with Monk. Season 3, "Mr. Monk and the Election."

12th scene: Monk is wearing a big thick turtle-neck sweater and he slowly rolls it over his nose. Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate."

13th scene: Stottlemeyer and Randy are standing together. Randy has sunglasses on and is trying to light a cigarette. Stottlemeyer flicks it off him. Season 4, "Mr. Monk Goes to a Fashion Show."

14th scene: Monk is running next to a fighter jet plane. Season 4, "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut."

15th scene: Monk is touching the end of the car antenna. Season 3, "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever."

16th scene: Monk is freaking out when the laser pointers are directed at him. He takes off his jacket. Season 4, "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut."

17th scene: Monk is in a white lab suit. His head is completely covered and he is smiling. Season 5, "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike."

18th scene: Monk has his arms out like an airplane. He leans to the left while the airport security officer is scanning him. Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Airplane."

19th scene: Monk is looking into the aquarium, then suddenly runs and climbs onto the table, while Stottlemeyer jumps out to see what's going on. Season 2, "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man."

20th and last scene: Monk is walking the night streets of SF. Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate."



EDIT: Thanks to Monkwriter and Monanic10 for the corrections on the 10th and 19th scene!
I know, cheesy. But had to give credit to the right people!

I have OCD. And I sympathize with Monk about the urge to touch things. I can't walk down the street without reaching out and touching fences, cars, mail boxes and especially leaves. I go to the grocery store and I touch the cans and boxes of everything. I walk into a new house that I've never been in before and I touch the furniture. For me, I just HAVE to know what it feels like. I can picture the texture, temperature, etc in my mind but I need to be able to touch it and see for myself. I've gotten into trouble with it before. I have a really hard time at museums and places where I'm not aloud to touch things. When I was younger I would get caught feeling stuff in other people shopping carts. I just feel like I know the world better if I can touch it.
There are different reasons for 'touching' things and I don't necessarily know Monk's. But that's my reasoning for myself.

Okay, now I need help too!

As I was writing about all the different scenes from the Season 8 opening credits, I missed out on two scenes. I couldn't figure out where those two scenes were from! It's now driving me nuts! So can you guys help me out??

10th scene: Monk's head is half-out of some hole (or maybe coming up the stairs?) and he's peeking out. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's from Season 1, "Mr. Monk and the Candidate." But now I'm thinking it might be in Season 2! Help!

19th scene (2nd to last scene): Monk is looking into a glass container(?) and he suddenly runs and climbs onto the table, while Stottlemeyer jumps out to see what's going on. I'm not 100% on this one either. I think it's Season 2, "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School." I think I might be right about this scene, but still...any confirmations?

The tenth scene is from "Goes Back to School" he's going up into the bell tower. The nineteenth scene is from Plays Baseball or Goes to a Baseball Game or some such title. Where a guy steals a baseball and he killed the player's girlfriend. He's looking in an aquarium and realizes there's supposed to be three snakes but there's only two. It's also where Stott is having Karen trouble and he stays at Monk's place. Whew!

regarding my understanding of the touching thing, I read about that on an OCD site about a year ago, so I don't remember the link. It might have been linked from the USA web site.

Thanks for answering my questions and knowing the answers, Monkwriter! You don't know what a relief that is! Haha!

I don't know a lot about OCD, but as JamieMcFly wrote, there must be different reasons for touching things. When I was younger I had some slight kind of OCD, and I did some compulsive (and not so compulsive) things because I felt guilty if I didn't do them, or I thought that bad things were going to happen. For example, if an idea crossed my mind unconsciously (like being able to see the traffic lights changing into green before losing sight of them when going by car) I needed to do that thing, because if I didn't, I felt anxious! That was (and sometimes is) my reason to touch things.

So it basically is the foundation of what the article said. The need to touch; the compulsion to touch is to release the tension and stress building up of the feelings surrounding what's in the mind. It may feel like a different reason but is there not a sense of relief, release, even if minute when that object is finally touched or the light finally confirmed? in La Novia's case?

Absolutely, that's the purpose!

wow, thanks for all the ocd info, everyone! that makes a ton of sense. i've actually known a lot of people w/ocd, but i teach first grade and have known them mostly before they were identified and/or many of their mannerisms had manifested. again, what you've said makes a lot of sense.

for those of you that id'd monk goes to the circus, can you tell me where exactly the scene w/the table and chairs is? i don't have much time online and i can't watch the whole episode, but it would probably ring a bell if you said something like "that scene happened when monk went back to the restaurant where the ringmaster was killed" (although, i hope you don't say that, cuz that doesn't actually ring a bell to me at all, lol!).

thanks again!

~~jl

Sure, I'll try.
So as most Monk episodes start, it starts off with a murder scene and then the opening credits roll.
The next scene opens with Monk at the murder scene. He is standing at the outdoor restaurant area where the victim was shot. The victim's body has already been cleared away. Yellow tape has been placed around the perimeter. Police and pedestrians are standing back and watching Monk do his thing. Randy and a fellow cop are also there. Monk looks and even squints at the different tables left and right. He uses his 'thinking hands' over a few tables and at time bends down to see the tables at different angles. That's pretty much it. There's no talking during that scene, so there's only so much explaining you can do. I think you should go back and watch.

You can watch that scene it should be less than a minute. I can give you the exact time and you can watch by fast-forwarding to the exact time, if you'd like to watch that scene. Click on tle link below and watch! Click on red and then green button to watch. There might be a extra screen popping up, but you can X out of it.

"Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus"

It starts at 3 min. 11 sec and goes on 'til 3 min 16 seconds in the scene. The scenes are a few seconds away from each other and they show it real quick, so you're gonna have to catch it.

Woah, woah, woah. I know that you are right about the 10th scene with Mr. Monk Goes Back to School, but the 19th scene is from Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man. See, Stottlemeyer doesn't watch Karen's video about the old man, so he has to stay at Monk's house, and you were right about the fact that he is looking in the aquarium and freaks out after he realizes Moe (maybe Curly) is missing. Sorry, but I had to correct it when it was wrong. I hope I didn't make anyone mad, next time I will just try to keeep my mouth shut.

Hey, I don't mind~ I appreciate it! I don't think anyone would feel bad about a Monk correction, right?

Gonna have to go back and check on those two anyways. I'm sure they're right and I'll probably be wasting my time checkin', but just so I can see it with my own two eyes! Haha!

Nope, You're cool. That's right. I remember now. Yes it is Very very Old man!! Good on ya. I'm not afraid of correction. Thanks for catching me!

that was SO cool of you! i just checked it out and i have to sign up for it, so i'll do that tomorrow and watch as much as i can. thanks, i really appreciate it!

~~jl

You're welcome! But there's no need to sign up for anything. I sure didn't. I don't remember what I did in the beginning, but if there were any sign-up screens popping up, just 'X' out of it...or any other pop-ups for that matter. This is a very easy-to-use website. Giving you the Monk link again...just in case the other one isn't working as well.

MONK (Seasons 1-8)

omg, i saw it! thanks so much!... but, it was really weird. last night i got several different screens coming up, and one of them was a "sign up before you watch" one. so, this morning i start clicking again, the same thing happens, and i x out of all the windows to start over again, but this time i'm writing a reply to your post, and explaining everything to you as it happens (and i even write "here's what *happens....."). but then, instead of all those windows popping up--the show appeared! so, i got to see it. thanks so much...

that was really weird, but thanks so much!!

, jl

You're welcome! Glad you've got to watch the clip!
I love that site because you can watch Monk, for free at any time! Although there are time restrictions when you're not a member. But no biggie...you don't wait too long to watch again.