The Monkees (TV series)
The Monkees | |
---|---|
For Pete's Sake" (second season only) | |
Composer | Stu Phillips (score) |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 58 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Producers |
|
Cinematography |
|
Editor | Mike Pozen (and others) |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | September 12, 1966 March 25, 1968 | –
Related | |
The Monkees is an American television
It later enjoyed a 1980s revival, after MTV aired reruns of the program in 1986.[3] It aired on Sunday afternoons on MeTV beginning on February 24, 2019, three days after the death of cast member Peter Tork, and ending on April 26, 2020. The network aired four episodes on December 12, 2021, as a tribute to Michael Nesmith, who died two days earlier, followed by a 'Weekend Binge' on December 11 and 12.
Overview
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 32 | September 12, 1966 | April 24, 1967 | |
2 | 26 | September 11, 1967 | March 25, 1968 |
The series centered on the adventures of the Monkees, a struggling rock band from Los Angeles, California consisting of Micky, Davy, Michael, and Peter.[4] 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.
Production
Conception and casting
In the early 1960s, aspiring filmmakers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider had formed Raybert Productions and were trying to get a foot in the door in Hollywood. They were inspired by the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night and decided to develop a television series about a fictional rock and roll group.[5] Raybert sold the series idea to Screen Gems in April 1965,[6] and Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker completed a pilot script by August entitled "The Monkeys".[7] Rafelson has said that he had the idea for a TV series about a music group as early as 1960, but had a hard time interesting anyone in it until 1965, by which time rock and roll music was firmly entrenched in pop culture.
Trade publications Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran an ad on September 8, 1965, seeking "Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series." As many as 400 hopefuls showed up to be considered as one of "4 insane boys".[8] Fourteen actors from the audition pool were brought back for screen tests[9] and Raybert chose their final four after audience research.
Micky Dolenz, son of screen actor George Dolenz, had prior screen experience under the name "Mickey Braddock" as the 10-year-old star of the Circus Boy series in the 1950s. He was actively auditioning for pilots at the time and was told about the Raybert project by his agent.[8]
Englishman
Texan Michael Nesmith's mother Bette Nesmith Graham had invented a correction fluid and founded the company that became Liquid Paper. He had served a brief stint in the U.S. Air Force and had also recorded for Colpix under the name "Michael Blessing". He was the only one of The Monkees who had come for the audition based on seeing the trade magazine ad. He showed up to the audition with his laundry[8] and impressed Rafelson and Schneider with his laid-back style and droll sense of humor. He also wore a woollen hat to keep his hair out of his eyes when he rode his motorcycle,[10] leading to early promotional materials which nicknamed him "Wool Hat". The hat remained part of Nesmith's wardrobe, but the name was dropped after the pilot.[10]
Development
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Rafelson and Schneider wanted the style of the series to reflect
Rafelson and Schneider hired novice director James Frawley to teach the four actors improvisational comedy. Each of the four was given a different personality to portray: Dolenz the funny one, Nesmith the smart and serious one, Tork the naive one, and Jones the cute one. Their characters were loosely based on their real selves, with the exception of Tork, who was actually a quiet intellectual. The character types also had much in common with the respective personalities of the Beatles, with Dolenz representing the madcap attitude of John Lennon, Nesmith affecting the deadpan seriousness of George Harrison, Tork depicting the odd-man-out quality of Ringo Starr, and Jones conveying the pin-up appeal of Paul McCartney.
A pilot episode was shot in San Diego and Los Angeles on a shoestring budget — in many scenes, the Monkees wore their own clothes. Initial audience tests (which were just then being pioneered) produced very low responses. Rafelson then re-edited the pilot and included some of the screen tests to better introduce the band members to viewers. (Dolenz was credited in this pilot as "Micky Braddock".) The re-cut pilot tested so well that NBC placed an order for two seasons of episodes (the edited pilot was broadcast November 14, 1966, as the tenth episode of the first season, with Dolenz credited under his real last name, as for all other episodes).
Filming
The Monkees debuted September 12, 1966, on the NBC television network. The series was sponsored on alternate weeks by
The series was filmed by
Due to the young men routinely wandering off set and being hard to find when needed for filming, any of the four Monkees who was not needed in front of the cameras was sequestered in a repurposed meat locker.
Due to the loosely scripted nature of the series, some episodes would come in too short for air. The producers decided to fill time with various "extras", including the Monkees' original screen tests and candid interviews with the group (conducted by Rafelson off-camera); these interviews usually lasted one minute, hence the frequent joke, "We're a minute short as usual," though the episode "Find the Monkees" featured a three-minute epilogue interview (in which the Monkees gave their opinions on the then-recently occurred Sunset Strip curfew riots). Although the early episodes contained a laugh track, which was standard practice at the time, the show eventually did not add one and half of the episodes from Season 2 had no canned laughter.
Music
The theme song to The Monkees, "(Theme From) The Monkees" (released as a single in some countries in 1967), is one of the group's most well-known songs. The line "We're the young generation and we've got somethin' to say" reflected the new youth counterculture and their desire to give their own opinions on world events and choosing how to live their own lives instead of abiding by the traditions and beliefs of their elders.[citation needed]
For the second season, the show used a version of the song "For Pete's Sake" as the closing theme, which appeared on the Monkees' album
The Monkees' "pad"
This section possibly contains original research. (May 2015) |
The Monkees resided in a two-story beach house. 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. 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 their rent.
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, a 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.[15][16]
Awards and nominations
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.
Decline and cancellation
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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,
The series finale, Dolenz's original story "The Frodis Caper", was written as a
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.[17]
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.
Syndication
The Monkees enjoyed a resurgence on Saturday morning/afternoon television on
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
The series has aired edited versions on
From March 3, 2019, to April 26, 2020, restored episodes of The Monkees aired on MeTV on Sundays at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., following an overwhelming response to Peter Tork's death after MeTV aired two episodes on February 24, 2019, as a tribute to the late Monkee.[21]
AXS TV began airing the series on April 7, 2023.[22]
Catchy Comedy is scheduled to present a "Catchy Binge" of the series on August 19–20, 2023.
Legacy
The TV show
Dolenz said in a 2007 interview on the
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."[24]
Home video
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 20th 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,
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 2003,
In honor of the band's 50th anniversary, Rhino released the complete series on Blu-ray on July 8, 2016.[27][28]
References
- ^ "BBC - Comedy Guide - The Monkees". January 12, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-01-12.
- ^ Gould, Jack (September 13, 1966). "TV: The Unpredictable Monkees Arrive on N.B.C.; Humor Played Up and Music Soft-Pedaled Jean Arthur and Jack Sheldon Also Bow". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Boone, Brian (November 2, 2011). "The Monkees, The Old New Monkees, and New Monkees: How to Destroy A Beloved Franchise". Vulture.
- ^ Stone, Judy (October 2, 1966). "The Monkees Let Down Their Hair". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Lefcowitz (1985), pp.6–7
- ^ Sandoval (2005), p.23
- ^ a b Sandoval (2005), p.25
- ^ a b c d e Sandoval (2005), p.26
- ^ Documents reproduced in the booklet of the VHS box set (Rhino Records 1995)
- ^ a b Baker (1986), p.10
- ^ Lefcowitz (1985), p.3
- ^ The Three Stooges Journal (fall 1987); published by the Three Stooges Fan Club
- ^ "14 Behind-the-Scenes Stories from 'The Monkees'". 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Quotes from Mike Nesmith".
- ^ St. Antoine, Arthur. - "Interview: Dean Jeffries, Hollywood legend" Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine. - Motor Trend Magazine
- ^ Keefe, Don. - "The History of the MonkeeMobile" Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine. - Pontiac Enthusiast Magazine. - (c/o monkees.net) - 1997
- ^ a b "The Monkees Final Episode". ultimateclassicrock.com. 25 March 2016. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- ^ "The Monkees CBS Saturday Afternoon Checklist: 1969-1970 SEASON". monkeestv.tripod.com.
- ^ "1966-67 PREEMPTIONS & RERUNS". Monkeestv2.tripod.com. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
- ^ Boone, Brian. "The Monkees, The Old New Monkees, and New Monkees: How to Destroy A Beloved Franchise". SplitSider. Archived from the original on 5 November 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ MeTV Staff. "The Monkees join the MeTV lineup starting this Sunday". MeTV. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
- ^ ""The Monkees" Highlight Axs TV's All-New Friday Night Retro Lineup Airing Every Week at 8:30 PM ET Starting April 7" (Press release). AXS TV. March 16, 2023 – via The Futon Critic.
- ^ Martin, Denise. "Child's Play." Los Angeles Times. November 22, 2009.
- ^ Poniewozik, James (February 2012). "RIP Davy Jones, The Monkees' Daydreamboat". Time. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
- ^ "DVD Talk". www.dvdtalk.com.
- ^ "DVD Talk". www.dvdtalk.com.
- ^ "The Monkees - New Extras on the Limited Edition Blu-ray of 'The Complete Series'!". Archived from the original on 2016-06-13.
- ^ "DVD Calendar Feature Articles - Metacritic". www.metacritic.com. Archived from the original on July 6, 2016.
Bibliography
- 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.