Customer Reviews

The Monkees: Season 2

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a huge Monkees fan, and especially, a huge fan of the second season. To begin, I'm with fans everywhere in being thrilled that the entire series is now available on DVD. It's long overdue and I'm happy to have it. BUT -- and it's a big BUT ---

BUT, this DVD set has many, many shortcomings that are unacceptable in this day and age.

1) AUDIO & VIDEO: the quality of these film prints is, in many cases, abysmal. Dirt, scratches and other damage abound. I find it TERRIBLY difficult to believe that Rhino couldn't find a better copy for transfer. Rather, I suspect they didn't want to spend the money 'cleaning' up the picture. I work in TV & Film and ALL of these scratches and dirt marks COULD have been removed digitally. But, they were not. Likewise, the audio is often muddy and at very inconsistent volume. Some passages are soft while others are way too loud. A little quality control would have corrected this problem.

2) AUDIO COMMENTARY: With the sole exception of Mike's commentary on "Fairy Tale Monkees", all the commentaries on the episodes are 99% worthless. We're lucky if, in a given 28-minute episode, there are 5-10 minutes of actual commentary. Most of the time, Davy or Peter just seem to be silently watching the episode alongside us. And most of their comments are of the "Hmm. I remember that shirt!" variety. Just totally inconsequential and very few and far between. If your major contribution on an audio commentary is, "Hmmm, I remember that shirt!", why bother even doing it? It boggles my mind that Rhino even included these commentaries. That's how inconsequential they are. One would expect slightly more insightful commentary given that the commentators are, in fact, the Monkees themselves.

3) EXTRAS: The inclusion of "33 1/3rd" is almost worth the price of admission alone. It's great to have and in the best quality I've seen thus far. The other "extras" are two :30 clips of the Monkees as a trio in '69 on a variety show. You will watch them once, and that's probably it. Also, there is an interesting but overlong interview with the series Editor who sheds many interesting insights into putting the show together.

Bottom line: even though Rhino came through with "33 1/3rd", we're supposedly buying the set for the episodes of the series: and that is where Rhino has totally dropped the ball. Rhino must either a) feel that Monkees fans are not sophisticated enough to enjoy properly restored audio and video a la the Beatles Anthology, or, b) simply not wanted to spend the money doing a proper job.

This box set, we must hope, will NOT be the definitive collection of the Monkees TV series on DVD for very long.

First of all, let me state that this review does not concern itself with the content of the Monkees episodes. I grew up with the show in 1970's syndication and love it. I'm a big fan of both the show and the Monkees' music.

The axe I have to grind is not with the show, the music, or the (1960's) Monkees themselves. Those aspects of the show get a 5-star rating from me. (And if you are reading this, then I assume you are also a big fan.) It's just that while Apple was able to wonderfully restore the Beatles' legacy in the "Anthology" DVD collection, Rhino chose not to do the same thing here...

My first problem is the fact that Rhino (or more precisely, AOL Time Warner, which bought Rhino in 1998) did not bother to spend any money to restore & clean up the audio or video of any of these episodes. If you bought the mid-90's VHS box set and were expecting an audio & video upgrade, you're going to be in for a disappointment. Rhino seems to have used the same video masters they used for the earlier collection (the 1994, 1995, & 1996 "program content" copyrights on the DVD boxes would support this theory).

The audio portions of each episode sound much softer than the title screens. As a result, you have to crank the volume up when you watch an episode. When the episode is finished, and you go back to the title screen (and forget to reset the volume), it's almost like being hit on the head when you are blasted by the *very* loud Monkee's Theme that will greet you there. Granted, this is a minor annoyance, but after you are startled a number of times, it starts getting to you.

The video quality is also rather poor. The episodes appear *very* dark and murky. Lots of details cannot be seen as they have faded into the shadows. The prints used for syndication were a bit edited in places, yet they had MUCH more vibrant colors and were not as dark as the prints Rhino used. If you saw the show in the 1970's, then you should remember how much more colorful it looked at that time.

If you are lucky enough to own one of the early 1990's Japanese Laserdisc box sets, you'd know how much better those episodes look when compared to the ones released by Rhino. The LD box only contained 40 of the 58 episodes, yet that's what I still reach for when I want to watch the show.

Now, let me direct my attention to the audio commentaries:

In a perfect world, all four of the Monkees would have done the commentaries together and they would have been complimentary to the producers who gave them the show, the fans who have supported it all of these years, and the other guys in the group. In a less perfect world, they would have at least done a little fact-checking before they got behind the microphones.

It's sad to say that in the Monkees' world, none of this happened. All four of the Monkees (with the exception of Davy, maybe) don't come off very well. Their commentaries are short on anecdotes, and collectively, they appear to be rather dysfunctional. I'd bet that paychecks were driving force behind a few of the commentaries, not out of respect for the fans or the show.

Micky comes off the worst. He may have believed he was being cute and funny, but his rather obnoxious commentary is like a poor-man's version of MST3K. He offers precious little insight into the episode he co-wrote and directed. He is also quite blistering in his assessment of the 33 1/3 special. It really seemed like he didn't want to do the commentary and he was carrying on just to prove a point.

Mike seems to show bemusement that the show was and continues to be popular. He says the intelligence level of the show appeals to 9-year olds. He can't seem to understand that adults like (and continue to watch) the show. While he has mellowed in regards to his place in the Monkees' legacy, it still appears he feels the show was beneath him (and that its fans might be too).

Peter (or "Former Monkee Peter Tork" as he identifies himself at the start of each commentary) uses his commentaries as a platform to rip into Mike and (to a lesser extent) producer Rafelson. Some of his Monkees' history is a bit faulty (like going on about how his song "For Pete's Sake" was edited onto the end of *first* season shows when the show was in syndication in the 70's - it wasn't). Peter has replaced Mike as the group's curmudgeon.

Davy is the only Monkee who is gracious to the others, and who appreciates the fans who have kept the show going for all these years. His commentary is light on the facts and anecdotes, but it's not mean, dismissive, or obnoxious. He definitely comes off the best.

Conversely, the two non-Monkee commentaries here (by Bob Rafelson and Brian Auger) are the most informed and interesting. Mr. Rafelson is very gracious to the group he created and he is very complimentary of the guys. Mr. Auger shares some interesting insights about the 33 1/3 special and he never attacks it (unlike a certain Mr. Dolenz). Both Rafelson & Auger enhance this collection, unlike the Monkees themselves.

So, unless AOL Time Warner / Rhino decides to spend the dough and really restore these classic TV episodes, then this rather disappointing collection is all we're going to get. I recommend it for the inspired content it contains (the original episodes), not for its presentation.

While season 1 of "The Monkees" had a handful of episodes, it is season 2 that has a fresher, more genuine off-the-wall feel to it.

And, by the end of season 1, critics were complaining that the mnusic wasn't "theirs". As a result of this and Mike Nesmith's subsequent prodding, the music used in this season was done BY the Monkees and not behind-the-scenes artists. Many songs that even bested some of the "legit" music of the time, include "Salesman", "For Pete's Sake", "Randy Scouse Git", "The Door into Summer", "Zor and Zam", "Daily Nightly", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "You Just May Be The One", "You Told Me", and there are many others...

The best episodes include:

* Monkees Marooned (Peter sells his guitar for a treasure map and, after being berated by the others is joined by the others to see what it's about. The one liners in this one are great...)

* The Picture Frame (The group is conned into pulling a bank robbery by a "producer" who is actually a crook!)
* Monkee Mayor (Mike Nesmith runs for mayor in an attempt to drive out the corrupt incumbant. One of my top 5.)
* Hillbilly Honeymoon (A spoof of The Beverly Hillbillies and ironically more realistic... One of my top 5.)
* Fairy Tale (A surreal and outrageous spoof on old fairy tales; Mike also dresses up in drag and there's a lot of fun to be had here. The lack of laugh track is also intriguing. Another top 5.)
* The Devil and Peter Tork. (A great plot, which contains one of their best-ever songs, almost banned by NBC because of a hidden drug reference (though the song is clearly AGAINST drugs...). It's my absolute favorite. (the 5th one being, of course, "Monkee vs Machine" but that's season 1...))
* Mijacogeo (aka "The Frodis Caper") - unusual social commentary about television, even if the story is written and directed in such a bizarre (and likely deliberate) manner by Mickey Dolenz himself.


As for the DVDs themselves:

Menu/layout:

A+++ for the menuing system. I was impressed by the use of audio noise between the master and sub-menus, and the layout. Very impressed indeed.

Trivia:

A nice addition with some interesting bits and pieces, along with guest cast filmography.

Video:

Colors look deep and saturated and flesh tones remarkably accurate from a filmed ~38 year old show. As the show was filmed and not taped, that has led to

The prints seem reasonably sharp too.

There are some dust and other film-related issues, but that is unavoidable and I only know of one TV show whose restoration team actually removes by hand all signs of scratches and dust...

The only problem is DVD compression artifacting, which tends to make the picture seem a bit muddy; particularly with background/darker areas; they suffer the most from this artifacting. It's not entirely bad, but bad enough for me to make a mention of. :-)

Audio:

Sounds great but please stick to the standard Dolby 2.0 mono. I tried out the 5.1 and maybe they thought the viewer ought to be on LSD while listening to the show. The 5.1 produces a very bizarre sort of echo effect that makes everything difficult to understand. And as I don't have this problem with any of my other 5.1 movies/shows, it must then be a problem with the encoding. But the Dolby 2.0 is crisp and clean; like how it was originally, minus that wretched hiss. :-)

In short, the MSRP is too high. Buying it used or clearance would be a better choice; $80 for BOTH seasons is a much fairer price given the video quality and that bizarre 5.1 transfer (B+ for effort but they needn't have bothered to take this step. I'd rather have better compression for the video.)

It's quite acceptable quality in the end, especially when compared to offerings from certain other vendors, who clearly don't put much time into their releases at all.

While I prefer more Monkees episodes from Season I, than from Season II, I figured I would cover this set because of the "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" (33.3 RPM) the 1 hour NBC special which aired in 1969 shortly after the Monkees show was cancelled. That is the highlight of this set, if you have not seen it before. 33.3 RPM is basically an extension of Head; meaning deconstructing in a scathing manner the crass commercialization of the successful Monkee machine. 33.3 RPM is overall a very distant piece exhibiting often times excessive hippiedom, but the DVD commentary by both Brian Auger and Micky Dolenz do make it more watchable. 33.3 RPM was a very strange special for its time. One of the greatest highlights of the special is seeing Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard along with Brian Auger playing simultaneously on stacked pianos. It was the last time the Monkees appeared as a foursome on television for nearly 2 decades.

All 4 Monkees contribute DVD commentary to this set, whereas in Season I, when Dolenz was not available to add his crazy comments. I found Nesmith's commentary the most interesting. Nesmith mentions details such as using very large film cameras nearly the size of "VW bugs" which were used in filming during the tail end of the Hollywood's Golden Years. Tork generally seemed bitter in his commentary and took long pauses at times.

There are a few easter eggs to be found. You can easily find these by googling the information. One Easter Egg is Butch Patrick talking about appearing on Monkees Christmas episode and befriending Peter.

Now my complaints about the DVDs themselves. Most of the episodes appear in very good shape despite the film approaching 40 years of age, but you have a few disappointments with image quality such as "Monkees in Paris" and "Fairy Tale."

The design of the DVD is you can play all the romps (footage set to music) on each disk, but you are not able to play all the episodes themselves at once. The DVD trivia notes by Aaron Handy and his website The Monkees Film & TV Vault. I highly recommend a Monkees fan or a fan of amazing detailed trivia to go to his website to read more. Another idea I wish Rhino had used is having the option of the selecting songs available to play on DVD that were changed out at later dates. As Monkees fans may or may not know, when the Monkees episodes were repeated in prime time, and later in syndication 1969-70, many songs were changed out. It would have been nice to chose from a menu which song was used, so one could watch them they way they were in later syndication use. The Monkees released 4 more albums after the show went off the air in September 1968. Some of this material, such as "Midnight Train" appeared on the repeat shows in 1970.

I wished also Rhino had added the entire appearance the 3 Monkees on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour: the very best part was left off The guys singing a medley of 3 of their songs and a perfoming an odd musical parody of American historical events.

I have read that a few people have had problems playing these DVDs on their players. I recommend cleaning the DVDs very thoroughly and or using a different player just to make sure there is no defect.

Pricing: I would seek out a used set and not pay more than $45 or $50 total for each set: Season II or Season I. The retail price of a new set for around $80 is too high in my opinion.

I've had this set for a while, but finally got around to watching them just recently, as I was working my way through the first season. I actually enjoy the second season episodes to the first, but I was disappointed at the sound quality of the music. Rhino owns the original master to the Monkees recordings, and could easily have improved on the sound over the original 16mm prints, but unfortunately didn't. The music clips on most episodes sound muffled and distorted. This is especially true for the "Rainbow" performances, the end-of-show music videos that feature the Monkees lip syncing to their songs. I didn't notice this on the audio of the first season shows. How hard would it have been to overdub the stereo recordings to these clips? On the plus side, the picture quality was generally excellent, and the inclusion of the rare 33 & 1/3 special (with very good audio) makes this worth recommending. However, I was still disappointed at this set from Rhino, a label with a usually excellent track record

The second season becomes a little more silly and obnoxious. But never-the-less worth all of the fun and laughs!

Second Season Episodes: It's A Nice Place To Visit, The Picture Frame, Everywhere A Sheik, Sheik, Monkee Mayor, Art, For Monkees' Sake, I Was A 99 LB. Weakling, Hillbilly Honeymoon, Monkees Marooned, Card Carrying Red Shoes, The Wild Monkees, A Coffin Too Frequent, Hitting The High Seas, Monkees In Texas, Monkees On the Wheel, The Christmas Show, Fairy Tale, Monkees Watch Their Feet, Monstrous Monkee Mash, The Devil & Peter Tork, Monkees Race Again, The Monkees In Paris, Monkees Mind Their Manor, Some Like It Lukewarm, Monkees Blow Their Minds, Mijacogeo, & Special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

When I bought The Second Season and watched it from start to finish I was sad to see the show end here. I wanted and craved more. However, those who know The Monkees history we understand why it did end.

Packaged like the first box set, there's even more goodies! They have the music video's (which some do repeat like Daydream Believer) & tons more! Don't miss out on this one especially for the episodes: Hitting The High Seas, The Christmas Show, & Fairy Tale. Which are my favorite episodes of the bunch.

With the release of both Seasons 1 and 2 of "The Monkees" television series on DVD now over, I'm close to saying my Monkees collection is complete. Most of the other reviewers have accurately described the contents within this release: all the episodes look great, the packaging is fantastic and creative, and it certainly is a treat to have the 1969 NBC special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" on DVD (even though it is NOWHERE near as innovative as their 1968 feature film HEAD).

I will also agree with reviewers below who complain about the sound going up and down when switching back and forth from the menus to the actual episodes, but that is a minor quibble, and in the long run, hardly something to lose sleep over. The fact is...I no longer have to watch my 20-year old VHS tapes that I compiled in 1986 during the Monkees resurgence of that year when MTV ran the series three times a day.

Sure, the Monkees' individual commentaries are not overly-enlightening, but what is it about "The Monkees" television show that we already don't know? The general public needs to remember that this series was a 'day job' for the Monkees, and should not fault them for being foggy on the details of a certain episode that aired way back in 1968.

However, longtime Monkees caretakers Rhino could have treated us and included the Monkees' 1997 ABC television special, but it is nowhere to be found. It also would have been nice to collect all of the Monkees' television appearances of 1969 into a bonus feature as well--like their guest spots on the Johnny Cash Show, The Tonight Show, the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, etc. etc. (NOTE: some footage of the Monkees on Glen Campbell's show is included as a bonus, but their musical performances on that show have been edited out!)

This release highlights the superior second season, with episodes like "The Devil and Peter Tork," "The Frodis Caper" and "The Fairy Tale," plus "Monkees on the Wheel"...my choice for most underrated episode of the second season! Recommended.

First of all, I'm in the UK so am watching NTSC on a PAL format TV, which will have some effect on picture quality.

While this is hardly the best quality DVD transfer ever done, I couldn't care less. For the money, it's great. It's all perfectly watchable, and some of the extras - especially the episode trivia - are excellent. Love the packaging as well, which is perfectly robust if you're careful with it.

The bottom line is that these episodes are unavailable elsewhere on DVD as far as I know and I'm delighted to have them (although I prefer Season 1 overall). If someone produces some better versions, then fine, I'll buy them too!

The second season box set is much like the first, in that it is overpriced, with suprisingly poor sound (the 5.1 selection is best but even that is not anywhere near what it should be), but otherwise a great compilation of all the episodes. Some fans prefer the tighter first season, and some the looser second year. I go for the second season, primarily because the songs are superior (with nearly all stemming from their two finest works "Headquarters" and "Pisces, Aquarious..."--just imagine what those teenyboppers back in late '67 must've thought when they heard "Star Collector" for the first time!), and I do enjoy the greater spontaneity and half-improvised nature of the scripts. The group look like they are having fun, goofing around on set and filming cool tags for the end of each show that parody normal television formulas. The jokes are more sophisticated, culminating in the
delightful "Frodis Caper", directed by Dolenz and quite possibly the first sitcom episode to feature drug humor. There are also cool guest spots by Zappa, Tim Buckley and Charlie Smalls, a stunning a capella rendition of "Riu Chiu" for the Christmas episode, and the increased color and intensity of the psychedelic era in general. Note also the transitional nature of the earliest episodes filmed in the spring of '67 (which you can tell because Mickey's hair is still straight in them): some of the tightness of the first season remains (along with the use of several rejected first season scripts), but the wilder fashions and more risque humor of the latter half of the season also begins to creep in; it is this perfect combination of tight and loose which makes that period my favorite of the show.

The best episodes include the aforementioned "Frodis Caper", the touching "Devil And Peter Tork", the truly bizarre "Monkees Watch Their Feet" (with Pat Paulsen in fine form and Dolenz an absolute riot as a robot) and "The Monkees' Paw" (Dolenz in dazzling comic form once again). The band were even allowed to parody their own frustration with the increasingly formulaic nature of the scripts in "The Monkees In Paris"--which only proved that they weren't so formulaic, although Davy Jones still falls in love every other episode. The commentaries are generally pretty good, and Mickey is a scream reminiscing about "The Frodis Caper".

Finally, the extras are nice, including some TV appearances and news footage, as well as the vastly underrated and overlooked special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee". While "33 1/3" has a thin plot and some filler--including their worst filmed moment as singing chimps--it also contains some of their best-ever performances and *spectacular* guest stars, including Julie Driscoll (a superb singer) and her partner Brian Auger (a brilliant Keith Emerson-like organist), plus the three piano giants from the 50s: Little Richard, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. Add The Buddy Miles Express, and the complaint that The Monkees were second-billed in their own special becomes moot--with guest stars like these, who cares? The band itself are still good, and the closing performance of "Listen To The Band" has to be seen to be believed--their mind-blowing final live appearance (before the 80s/90s reunion tours) being the total avant-garde antithesis of their commercial bubblegum image. In short, the entire box set is worth it, although you'll have to pay a pretty penny for it...and be sure to turn the volume *way* up.

I was pretty stoked to hear that Rhino was finally going to release the second season of the Monkees' TV show. Once I got my package and opened it up I was pretty disappointed.
The 45 record sleeves that held the discs were very poorly glued together. One was completely open as it had not been glued properly at all!
The quality of the prints are very poor-there's lots of dirt on them in every episode. I was surprised at what a poor "remastering" job they had done on the prints. Many of the tunes (especially "Goin' Down") sound very muffled, no matter whether you set the audio at 2.0 or 5.1!
I like these episodes immensely but I can't help but express my disappointment at the poor quality of it all.