The Monkees TV Show
About The Monkees Television Series
The Monkees TV series was one of the most original TV series ever made. This classic musical comedy sitcom created by producers Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider loosely based on the Beatle’s 1964 flick “A Hard Day’s Night” was ahead of it’s time being a combination of the Beatles and the Marx Brothers it had a mixture of slapstick humor, musical romps, fantasy sequences and unrealistic and non logical mayhem and plots which became a huge phenomenon attracting millions of young viewers around the country. What also made it a success to the young generation was that it was one of the first shows about young people living on their own with no adult authority or rules of society. They were not of the squeaky clean images of “Leave It To Beaver” or “My Three Sons” and other classic sitcoms yet there were still portrayed as nice boys.
The Series Synopsis
Basically, the series revolved around four struggling musicians, Mike, Micky, Davy and Peter who lived in an apartment near the beach in Southern California who were always out of work looking for gigs to pay the rent and hoping to make it big one day. Yet they always managed to get into crazy and hilarious escapades involving foiling bad guys, solving people’s troubles, saving the day and trying to become famous.
About The Characters
The four guys in the series with the exception of Peter were loosely based on their own personalities. Another original format in this series was that the four musicians used their real life names in the show instead of fictional names like in other series. Although they were all zany and crazy they each had different character straits in the show that made them unique.
Mike Nesmith: Mike was the guitar player and leader of the group and being the straight guy he was the most normal one of the quartet. Being the smartest one, he was usually the problem solver who came of with ideas to get them out of the messes they found themselves in and to foil the bad guys. With his Texas accent, he had a country/western singing voice and sang lead on their songs that mostly had a country rock tone including “Papa Blue Jeans” and “What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round”.
Micky Dolenz: Micky was the drummer of the band and the funniest and most energetic one being the clown of the group. With his hilarious, goofy and oddball shenighans, he became the second favorite of the band next to Davy. He was particularly known for his silly impersonations including James Cagney. He was also occasionally coming up with crazy experiments which he loved to try out and was the second smartest one of the group, coming up with plots or schemes of his own sometimes to help the guys out of jam. During their run, he sang lead on the majority of their songs due to having the best singing voice and right sound for their material.
Davy Jones: British born Davy is the cute one of the group and with his staggering good looks and cute smile he mostly received the female attraction and was the most favorite among the female fans off screen as well despite being pint-sized. Sometimes on the show, they made references of his short size. Also being girl-crazy he also got most of the romantic storylines on the show getting stars in his eyes every time he saw a pretty girl who would get stars in her eyes too sometimes to the exasperation of the other guys. Davy was also the tambourine or maracas player in the band and came in second next to Micky to sing lead on most of their songs.
Peter Tork: Peter the guitar, bass and keyboard player was also the dummy of the group. His child-like innocence and demeanor made the others quite protective of him at times. He would get the others in hilarious messes because of his dim-wittedness but they would all still be patient with some of times since he didn’t usually know any better. In the band, Peter rarely sang lead on any of their songs although he sang solo in the funny tune “Your Auntie Grizelda”.
Aftermath
The Monkees TV series ran from 1966 to 1968 winning an Emmy for Best Outstanding Comedy Sitcom in 1967. After the show ended it continued to air in syndication throughout the decades and still remains the most popular and original shows for the young and new generation alike.
