The Monkees (TV series)

The series centered on the adventures of the Monkees, a struggling rock band from Los Angeles, California consisting of Micky, Davy, Michael, and Peter. The comic elements of the storyline were provided by the strange and often surreal encounters that the band would have while searching for their big break.

The Monkees resided in a two-story beach house. The address varied in different episodes.

• 1334 Beechwood in “Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers”
• 1424 ???, Malibu, California, in “Too Many Girls”
• 1438 North Beechwood according to Davy in “The Case of the Missing Monkee”
• 1334 North Beechwood Drive, Hollywood, California, according to the telegram in Head

The address 1334 North Beechwood Drive, Hollywood, California, was frequently given in 16 magazine as an address to contact Screen Gems and/or The Monkees. The front of the first floor was a combination of the living room, dining room and kitchen. In the back, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was an alcove formed by massive floor-to-ceiling bay windows, where the Monkees kept their instruments and rehearsed songs. The walls were covered with various kitschy signs and posters, such as the "MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL" sign near the kitchen, the "SCRUB UP" sign above the kitchen sink, and the "IN CASE OF FIRE, RUN" sign with an arrow pointing to an old-fashioned fire extinguisher near the front door. There were also two doors in the kitchen area; one led to a bathroom, the other to Davy and Peter's bedroom. The second floor (via spiral staircase near the front door) only consisted of Micky and Mike's bedroom. By the second season, the upstairs bedroom was occupied by all four Monkees. Also "residing" with the Monkees was Mr. Schneider, a mannequin who dispensed philosophical advice with the pull of his cord. Mr. Schneider was named after the show's co-producer Bert Schneider and was mostly voiced by main director James Frawley. During Season One, the boys also had to contend with their bad-tempered landlord Mr. Babbit, who was always yelling at them about various infractions that he thought they were responsible for or threatening to throw them out for not paying the rent.

The Monkeemobile.

The Monkeemobile was a modified Pontiac GTO designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries. The car featured a tilted forward split two-piece windshield, a touring car T-bucket-type convertible top, modified rear quarter panels and front fenders, exaggerated tail lamps, set of four bucket seats with an extra third row bench where the rear deck should have been, and a parachute. The front grille sported the GTO emblem.[12][13]

The Monkees won two Emmy Awards in 1967: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy (James Frawley, for the episode "Royal Flush"). Frawley was nominated for the same award the following season (for the episode "The Devil and Peter Tork"). Its win for Comedy Series was considered somewhat of an upset, as it bested long-time favorites The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, Get Smart, and Hogan's Heroes.

For its first season (1966-1967), the series fared well in the television ratings bolstered by several hit records by the band. The Monkees became a huge pop culture sensation. However, the public did not realize the show and the band were just a regularly produced television series and the Monkees characters did not write or perform their own studio music except to provide the vocals. The only exception were their live performances. When the truth became known, there was considerable backlash from many fans and music critics. Liner notes for a 2006 re-release of More of the Monkees also noted that the album sales had consistently outperformed the TV show's Nielsen ratings; more were listening to the Monkees than watching The Monkees on TV. The west coast American recording industry had many session musicians under contract performing for many musical acts, such as the Wrecking Crew that recorded for the Monkees and many other music groups of this era so this was nothing new.

However, NBC responded to the criticism, and internal tensions, by retooling the show in its second season with the Monkees now writing and performing much of their own music that was much less pop-oriented. Moreover, Don Kirshner, the producer for the Monkees for their first season and responsible for their first smash hits, was terminated by Colgems Records, resulting in a much less bubblegum rock sound for the band. In addition, the first season's clean cut looks were replaced by more hippy looking attire. By 1967, both NBC and the band felt the series had run its course, as even with the changes, the formulaic premises of each episode were beginning to repeat themselves. The series was cancelled in 1968, with the band afforded the right to write their own series finale.[14]

The series finale, Dolenz's original story "The Frodis Caper," was written as a satire of the industry and a parting shot thereto: an evil eye resembling the CBS logo is hypnotizing television viewers everywhere, and the Monkees trace it to an alien plant being manipulated by a villain seeking world domination. When the plant emits smoke, it pacifies the villain, the meaning of which Dolenz stated he would leave to the imagination of the viewer. Tim Buckley, as a special guest, closes out the series with his "Song to the Siren."[14]

Had the series been renewed for a third season, the Monkees had planned on abandoning the sitcom format and retooling the series. Ideas that had been bandied about included a music-centered live show, a variety show or a sketch comedy series.[14]

In 1968, The Monkees starred in their own motion picture titled Head. Elements of the series were included in the film. The film did poorly at the box office and criticism was mostly mixed.

The Monkees enjoyed a resurgence on Saturday morning/afternoon television on CBS from September 1969 to September 1972 (sponsored by General Foods' Kool-Aid), and on ABC from September 1972 to August 1973. To coincide with the releases of The Monkees Present and Changes albums during this time period, many episodes replaced the older songs with tracks from these recent releases.[15] (This strategy was also employed during the summer of 1967, when many of the first-season episodes had their songs from the first two albums replaced with songs from the then-current single and from the third album Headquarters.) [16]

The 58 episodes were then sold to local markets for syndication in September 1975, where they typically appeared on independent television stations on weekday afternoons (the opening title sequence seen in the syndication package, for all 58 episodes, is from the second season of the original run).

A second, massive resurgence occurred when a Monkees marathon aired on February 23, 1986, on MTV. Within months, the 58 episodes were airing regularly throughout the United States on local stations (in edited form), Nickelodeon/MTV (uncut), as well as Canada on MuchMusic. Dolenz, Tork and Jones, already reunited for a "20th Anniversary Tour", went from playing small clubs to stadiums as the series caught on, and the tour drew critical praise. The popularity led Columbia Pictures to create a "reboot" version of the franchise in 1987, New Monkees, but it flopped and was cancelled after a half season.[17]

The series has aired edited versions on Antenna TV, a digital subchannel network that broadcasts classic programming from the 1950s-1990s era. IFC also picked up the series for reruns in spring 2015. FETV, a cable and satellite network, began airing the series in December 2017. In 2018, Canadian superstation CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario began carrying the series; the station is viewable over-the-air in areas of New York State and Michigan that border Ontario.

As of March 3, 2019, restored episodes of The Monkees will air on MeTV on Sundays at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. after following an overwhelming response to Peter Tork's death after MeTV aired two episodes on February 24, as a tribute to the late Monkee.[18]

Rhino Records now serves as the underlying rights holder for this series, as they acquired the Monkees' music catalog, TV series and official logo from Raybert and Columbia Pictures in 1994. Sony Pictures Television, which has owned Columbia Pictures since 1989, remains the television distributor for syndication.

The TV show Miami 7, the debut of the British 1990s pop band S Club 7, had a very similar premise. It was the second time that a manufactured band had their own TV show on American television. Likewise, the Nickelodeon sitcom Big Time Rush followed the same basic format and premise, and producers of that show acknowledged The Monkees as their primary inspiration.[19]

Dolenz said in a 2007 interview on the Roe Conn radio program that, while inspiration did come from the Beatles, the band's image was not meant to be a rip-off of them. He said that the Beatles were always depicted as superstars with legions of fans, whereas the Monkees were always depicted as unsigned and struggling to make a buck. This is reflected numerous times throughout the series, such as in the pilot where Mike Nesmith is seen throwing darts at a Beatles poster, and in the episode "Find the Monkees (The Audition)" where the Monkees struggle to see a famous television producer who is looking for a rock act for use in commercial advertisements; in the episode "I Was a 99-Pound Weakling", Micky is tricked into signing onto a bogus weight-training program, but objects by noting, "Where am I gonna get that kind of money? I'm an unemployed drummer." Also in a screen test, a Monkee asks what the Beatles have that they don't have. They sing "Thirteen million dollars!" Also, the last episode of the series, "The Frodis Caper," opens with the repetitive strains of the chorus of the Beatles' Good Morning, Good Morning, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

When commenting on the death of Davy Jones on February 29, 2012, Time magazine contributor James Poniewozik praised the show: "Even if the show never meant to be more than entertainment and a hit-single generator, we shouldn’t sell The Monkees short. It was far better TV than it had to be; during an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor and unusual story structure. Whatever Jones and The Monkees were meant to be, they became creative artists in their own right, and Jones’ chipper Brit-pop presence was a big reason they were able to produce work that was commercial, wholesome and yet impressively weird."[20]

Six two-episode VHS volumes of the television series were distributed by Musicvision/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video between July 15, 1986 and June 25, 1987, taking advantage of the group's twentieth anniversary.

On October 17, 1995, with the Monkees' 30th anniversary looming, Rhino Home Video issued the complete series as a deluxe VHS boxed set, containing all 58 episodes, plus the pilot and the 1969 special, 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee, in a total of 21 videotapes, along with a specially created full-color photo book that tells the history of the series, information of each episode and a variety of photographs from the series. First-run issues of the set also included a limited-edition wristwatch. A few months before, on May 22, Columbia House started releasing a Collector's Edition series also collecting all 58 Monkees episodes and the 1969 special; the one exception being the unaired 1965 Monkees pilot, which was available only on Rhino's Video Box Set.

Rhino later released individual two-episode VHS volumes of the TV series between March 26, 1996 and April 11, 2000; it would be the last time The Monkees television show would be distributed on videocassette.

In May and November 2003, Rhino Entertainment Company (under its Rhino Retrovision classic TV entertainment brand) released the first two seasons of the original television series on DVD. Seasons 1 and 2 were each released separately, six DVDs for Season 1 and five DVDs for Season 2. Both seasons were re-released by Eagle Rock Entertainment on Sept. 27, 2011.

In honor of The Monkees' 50th anniversary, Rhino released the complete series on Blu-ray on July 8, 2016, after a two-week delay.[21][22]

• Baker, Glenn A. (1986). Monkeemania: The Story of the Monkees. Plexus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-312-00003-5.
• Baker, Glenn A. (2000) [1986]. Monkeemania: The Story of the Monkees. Plexus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85965-292-6.
• Lefcowitz, Eric (1985). The Monkees Tale. Last Gasp. ISBN 978-0-86719-338-1.
• Lefcowitz, Eric (1989) [1985]. The Monkees Tale. Last Gasp. ISBN 978-0-86719-378-7.
• Sandoval, Andrew (2005). The Monkees: The day-by-day story of the '60s TV pop sensation. Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 978-1-59223-372-4.

• The Monkees at IMDb
• The Monkees at TV.com
• The Monkees at epguides.com
• The Monkees at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• The Monkees Film & TV Vault
• Season Two episode reviews at The Anorak Zone