The Monkees (person)

The Monkees was a television show that premiered in 1966 on NBC. The show was developed to play on the popularity of such bands as The Beatles and infact was patterned after the movie A Hard Days Night which starred The Beatles.

While the four actors hired had preformed musically prior to the show they only recorded vocals for their first album, "The Monkees". This album was released to promote the TV show and became a hit. The biggest single off this album was the popular "Last Train To Clarksville."

Eventually the band learned to play the songs and toured. Their second album was More of The Monkees. This album was released without the actors permission. I have no idea what they contributed to this album. They eventually managed to gain control of the music which led to their third album Headquarters where they played all the music.

After only two seasons the show came to an end and the band members went their seperate ways. They made many unsuccessful attempts to regain the popularity they once had. These attempts included a movie called Head. In recent years the band has had a reunion tour and much of their music and the episodes tv series have been re-released.

The television series was a wacky product of the 60s. Personally I'm not a big fan of many things from the 60s, but I loved this show. I remember watching reruns on Nickelodeon as a kid. I still think this and Scooby-Doo are two of the best series of all time. I think this show greatly affected my outlook on humor and why I find things that are just plan wacky extremely funny.

the actors/band:

Mikey Dolenz

Michael Nesmith

Peter Tork

David Jones