amexspam A poor combination of borscht-belt jokes, vaudeville sight gags that were 30 years old even then, a predictable Hanna-Barbera cartoon approach to a show that couldn't quite decide if it was a kid's show or something more grownup. When I watched the show at age 11 I thought it was stupid. I watched this show again recently on Antenna TV and although many of my opinions have changed over the years the original one remains. This is bad slap-stick with songs, performed by characters that were not funny and couldn't act. The surprising part is many of the songs do hold up. Even 55 years later several of the pieces are memorable and well done. I also enjoy the pretty girls and the mid 60s cars I grew up with. However, this is bad TV.

p-dave2 Correction: The country club and its bar sequences in the pilot were shot at the famous Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, which is where most other exterior scenes in the Pilot occurred; nothing was shot in Florida.The Monkees stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado during shooting of these scenes, which was a treat for them, being they were young unstably working performers.In-between setups of the Pilot marks the very first time The Monkees played together as a group. While waiting for shots to be ready, they asked crew members if they could hook into the amplifiers and start playing songs. The first songs they tried playing together were folk songs and Chuck Berry numbers.Regarding the Monkees auditions: Mike Nesmith wore a wool cap to his audition, as seen at the end of the Pilot in the footage of his screen test. Bob Rafelson, co-creator and occasional director of episodes, requested Nesmith to wear the wool cap in every episode thereafter, which Nesmith was against, but did so anyway. Hence, in the beginning of The Monkees, Nesmith was often referred to as "Wool Cap". The cap Nesmith wore took on many alterations throughout the series (i.e., button, color, style). Nesmith is also wearing a harmonica in his screen test because he was influenced by Bob Dylan, who wore one this way. Neil Young saw the harmonica around Nesmith's neck and curiously asked him about it. Also, some 25 years later at a concert a fan approached and surprised Nesmith by presenting him with the original wool cap he wore to his audition.David Jones also wore a hat during part of his audition, and occasionally wears hats in some episodes.Previous to the auditions, Peter Tork had met Nesmith a couple of times at the Troubadour in LA, the rest of The Monkees had never met each other prior to the auditions and inception of The Monkees.Peter Tork has mentioned he was afraid to use marijuana during the 10 days required to shoot this pilot, and, hence, abstained for the shoot of the Pilot.

Thor2000 To be honest, I was never a big Beatle fan, but if they were more like Mikey, Davy, Peter and Michael, I could have tolerated them. First off, I loved the Monkees more for their slipshod, improvisational, Benny Hill comedy than their music. They seemed to barely stick to a script as they just had fun, and a lot of their guest stars seemed to share the fun. Some of whom were John Hoyt and the timeless Marla Martel. Most of the music was great, but I loved their comedy routines best. Mickey was the funniest with Michael as his straight man. Peter, the shy one, was funny when he did the dumb guy thing who got his buddies in trouble, but Davy also did the same thing as the cute one with girls chasing him down. My favorite episodes are the ones with the reading of the will, the mad scientist and the fairy tell. I didn't mind much that they weren't allowed to play their instruments, but I was shocked to hear in recent years they smoked pott. I thought they would have known better, but then looking at ""Head," I guess they know now.

kaystar16 The Monkees was one of the most unique television shows ever created! The show featured great music and comedy that had people laughing for hours. All four of the guys were extremely talented and no one else could have taken their place. The show should be run more often so that today's generation of kids can enjoy them too.