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I was far too young to watch "The Monkees" in prime time, but discovered them at a young age in syndication on a local independent UHF television station after school at 3:30 in the afternoon. This box set is a great, though imperfect, treat. Realize that the set contains six DVDs and a thin pamphlet, though the packaging is quite large. The quality of the images is generally good, but some episodes are decidedly worse than others, and it would have been nice to see them cleaned up. Likewise, the audio is sometimes uneven. Having said that, the pros far outweigh the cons here: I was thrilled to see the original episodes as they aired in the correct order, and was especially amused by the presence of the Kellogg's advertisements.
I had forgotten how many great guest stars the show featured. Stars like Lon Chaney, Rose Marie, Richard Kiel, Mike Farrell, and fellow singing sensation and future deputy sheriff Bobby Sherman predominate. As if that wasn't enough, there's even an episode with both Foster Brooks as a drunken rabbit breeder and comic Doodles Weaver (Sigourney's uncle) as a Broadway producer ("Monkees in Manhattan.") (As a strange aside, if you want a truly otherworldly listening experience, find a copy of Doodles Weaver singing "Eleanor Rigby." You won't be disappointed.)
The shows all center around the four struggling musicians, and while the show was nominally made to capitalize on the success of the Beatles, realize that the show was originally formulated before the stateside success of Beatles; it took the success of the Fab Four to make studio execs sit up and take note of the potential market. Each episode (except "Monkees on Tour") features musical "romps" (which are viewable by themselves as a special feature.) While I always liked the music, and while these fast-cut segments define the look of the show, they are fairly repetitive and are now my least part of the episodes. What I remembered loving as a kid, and I appreciate even more now, are the peculiar characters and rather stream-of-consciousness approach in the writing, along with numerous excellent one liners and some sly humor that escaped me as a child (e.g. dominoes as a metaphor for the Vietnam War.)
There are too many examples of great gags to cite, but there are some that I particularly like on reflection. Peter is at one point asked "How do you feel about demonstrations?" He replies "They're the only way to sell a vacuum cleaner." It was a great way to make you think the writers were going to go for a political joke, and then rip the carpet out from under the premise. In the "Fern and Davy" episode we are introduced to a variety of terrible performers, among which is Mike as "Billy Roy Hodstetter" singing a hilarious version of "Different Drum," which of course Nesmith wrote, and which became a huge hit for Linda Ronstadt. It also introduced a unique nutritional supplement, "Sdrawkcab" (which is, of course, "Backwards" backwards...other supplements contain iron, but iron can rust, so Sdrawkcab contains aluminum.) These peculiar turns of phrase and in-jokes fly fast and loose throughout the show. Another great example is in "Monkees at the Circus" where Mickey keeps singing the theme song to "Circus Boy" and is continually quizzed about what he's singing. (Dolenz starred as a child actor in "Circus Boy.")
The ability to lampoon various genres is another hallmark of the series, and I especially liked the superhero duo of "Frogman and Reuben the Tadpole" who have a wonderful Batman-style fight. ("Kretch?") Nesmith was very comfortable improvising and slipping into his Texan persona: the children's story about the "Wicked Stepladder" made me laugh out loud, as did his "Farm Report" ad libs. One of the best episodes, "Monkees a la Mode" features the wonderful characters of Madame Quagmire and Rob Roy Fingerhead who work for "Chic" magazine. It's clear from the outset where the conflict will originate from and what the boys will have to do, but their execution of the plan is especially ingenious and well-crafted. The final episode of the season "The Monkees on Tour" is especially good and introspective. The live concert footage (from a Phoenix show) is great, though you almost can't hear the songs over the screaming. It is clear that the four had melded into a true performing band at that point, even if they didn't start out that way. The set features commentary by various people on various episodes, including all the Monkees except for Dolenz, as well as people like director James Frawley and songwriter Bobby Hart. Though the commentary tracks are not groundbreaking (a few are downright boring) I enjoyed them, and especially liked the recollections of Jones and Nesmith.
Not long ago I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Davy Jones. He was exceptionally friendly and genuine. Davy rekindled my interest in seeing these shows again, after which I only had one thought: what took me so long?
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