The Monkees -

The Monkees were an American pop-rock band that released eight albums between 1966 and 1969 on Colgems–RCA Victor. They starred in a musical comedy show that ran for two seasons on NBC. Their hits include “(Theme from) The Monkees,” “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” “Valleri,” and the Billboard No. 1’s “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer,” and “Daydream Believer.”

Members: Micky Dolenz (vocals, drums, synthesizer, guitar), Davy Jones (vocals, percussion, bass, guitar, piano, drums, 1965-2012), Michael Nesmith (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, 1965-70, 1986, 1989, 1996-97, 2012-15, 2020-21), Peter Tork (vocals, keyboards, bass, piano, guitar, banjo, 1965-68, 1986-89, 1995-2001, 2011-19)

Concept Origin

The Monkees originated as the brainchild of television writer-producer Bob Rafelson, who traced the concept to 1960 while he worked for producer Daniel Melnick at ABC in New York. Rafelson based the premise on his own experience as an itinerant musician, including a period in Mexico where he performed with two friends and took miscellaneous jobs between engagements. He conceived a half-hour comedy about young musicians whose attempts to find work and maintain a band supplied the weekly stories. Richard Lester’s 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night subsequently demonstrated the screen possibilities and audience for a comedy built around the personalities, music, and offstage activity of a contemporary rock group.

Rafelson developed the project with producer Bert Schneider, whom he met through Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures. Schneider previously worked for Screen Gems under Columbia executive Abraham Schneider, his father. Rafelson and Schneider formed Raybert Productions in 1965 and sold the music-group concept to Screen Gems that April. Screen Gems financed a color pilot for network sale and left Raybert with control over the concept and casting.

Raybert hired Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker to convert the premise into a half-hour script. Mazursky and Tucker worked together on The Danny Kaye Show and brought experience in comedy and improvisational theater to the assignment. The writers centered the pilot on four young musicians who shared living quarters, pursued performance work, and encountered comic complications around jobs and relationships. Rafelson and Schneider planned the music as part of the filmed action, with songs placed inside performance scenes and self-contained visual sequences.

Rafelson also defined a visual approach that departed from the fixed-camera rhythm of many contemporary television comedies. He drew on French New Wave filmmaking and favored rapid cutting, stop frames, direct address, handheld location work, and abrupt visual jokes. Raybert treated editing as a central part of the comedy and planned short music sequences that could move independently from the principal story. The production team later called these sequences “romps,” with directors matching recorded songs to chases, dances, location footage, and staged comic action.

Screen Gems supplied Raybert with a separate music infrastructure through Screen Gems-Columbia Music. Publisher Don Kirshner and musician Al Nevins founded Aldon Music in New York in 1958 and assembled a staff that included songwriting teams Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Columbia Pictures purchased Aldon Music in 1963 and installed Kirshner in the Screen Gems music operation. Kirshner maintained the New York publishing network while music executive Lester Sill supervised West Coast activity in Los Angeles.

Sill brought staff songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart into the Monkees project in 1965. Boyce and Hart already worked under Screen Gems-Columbia contracts and wrote material for recording artists, television programs, and film assignments from the Los Angeles office. Sill sent the pair to the Columbia lot for a meeting with Schneider, who outlined the proposed series and asked them to develop music for the pilot. Boyce and Hart wrote “(Theme From) The Monkees” and “Let’s Dance On” for specific sequences and adapted the previously written “I Wanna Be Free” for another scene. The pair recorded pilot demos with their own vocals and established the first musical framework for the fictional group.

The Screen Gems publishing operation later gave the project access to songs by Goffin and King, Neil Diamond, Mann and Weil, Sedaka and Carole Bayer Sager, John Stewart, and Harry Nilsson. Kirshner also drew on producers and arrangers from the New York and Los Angeles record industries as the recording operation expanded. Raybert consequently entered production with a television studio, an established publishing network, a pilot script, and a set of demonstration recordings. Rafelson and Schneider next needed four performers who could carry the comedy and function on screen as a rock group.

Auditions and Casting

Raybert Productions opened public casting on September 8, 1965, when Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter advertised for “Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers” to fill acting roles in the proposed series. The notice sought four young men with the appearance and attitude of the Sunset Strip crowd around Ben Frank’s restaurant. Rafelson and Schneider wanted performers who could carry comedy on camera while remaining credible as members of a contemporary rock group.

Davy Jones entered the process with an established connection to Screen Gems. The company signed Jones to a long-term television, film, and recording agreement in September 1964, and The Hollywood Reporter announced his attachment to the unnamed Raybert pilot on July 14, 1965. Rafelson nevertheless put Jones through the screen-test process and later recalled approximately 15 tests for the English performer.

The casting call produced a reported 437 applicants. Rafelson and Schneider used personal interviews and informal musical sessions to reduce the field. Selected candidates then completed filmed personality tests, script work, and group scenes in changing combinations. Peter Tork later recalled a final pool of eight performers from which Raybert selected Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Tork. Rafelson identified independence and distinct personality as decisive qualities in the final four.

Several later musicians passed through the audition pool. Stephen Stills reached the producers through the Los Angeles folk circuit and recommended Tork when his own involvement ended. Accounts differ on the reason: Tork recalled that the producers liked Stills but considered his hair and teeth unsuitable for television, while Stills later said he approached Raybert to pitch music and redirected the producers toward Tork. Both accounts place Stills at Raybert and identify him as the link to Tork.

Paul Williams also auditioned and later confirmed his rejection. Danny Hutton, later of Three Dog Night, appeared among the unsuccessful candidates, while Bill Chadwick reached the filmed group-test stage and subsequently worked around the production. Reports also name Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks, and David Crosby, but the surviving evidence for those claims remains less secure. The recurring Charles Manson story is false; Manson remained incarcerated through the 1965 Monkees casting period.

Raybert did not cast the four men according to instrumental vacancies. Dolenz later described auditions weighted toward acting, improvisation, and personality, with music serving as an additional requirement. Applicants still needed enough musical ability to sing, play, and move convincingly inside performance scenes. The producers wanted visible contrast between the four men because an ensemble comedy required characters that an audience could distinguish immediately.

The Chosen Four

David Thomas Jones was born December 30, 1945, in Openshaw, Manchester, England. Jones worked in British radio and television as a boy, then left school in 1960 for an apprenticeship with Newmarket horse trainer Basil Foster. A theatrical contact at the stable led Jones to Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, where he played the Artful Dodger in London and Broadway productions. The Broadway engagement brought Jones a 1963 Tony nomination and placed him on The Ed Sullivan Show with the Oliver! cast on February 9, 1964, the night of the first American Beatles appearance.

Jones moved into American television through Screen Gems and recorded for the associated Colpix label. Colpix issued the album David Jones in 1965, while Screen Gems placed him in television work and searched for a suitable vehicle. Rafelson identified Jones as a proven show-business performer with unusual charm and enough vocal ability to cross from musical theatre into the proposed rock setting. His stature, English accent, stage training, and existing public profile subsequently defined the romantic lead within the four-man ensemble.

George Michael Dolenz Jr. was born March 8, 1945, in Los Angeles to actors George Dolenz and Janelle Johnson. He entered television under the name Mickey Braddock and starred as Corky in the adventure series Circus Boy from 1956 through 1958. In 1965, Dolenz cut the solo recordings “Don’t Do It” and “Huff Puff” for Challenge with studio musicians, including guitarist Glen Campbell; Challenge shelved both tracks until 1967.

Dolenz learned of the Raybert project through his agent and auditioned on guitar with Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.” His prior television experience gave him camera discipline, while his rock singing and broad comic instincts suited the physical comedy that Raybert wanted. The producers assigned Dolenz the drum position despite his guitar background because the developing cast already contained stronger guitar players. His screen role consequently became the impulsive and physically comic member of the group.

Robert Michael Nesmith was born December 30, 1942, in Houston, Texas. He left high school and entered the United States Air Force in 1960, where he trained as an aircraft mechanic and earned a GED. Nesmith received an honorable discharge in 1962 and enrolled at San Antonio College, where he developed a folk repertoire with bassist John Kuehne. He moved to Los Angeles with Kuehne and wife Phyllis Barbour in 1964, performed folk material around the city, and hosted open-microphone nights at the Troubadour.

Nesmith recorded under several names, including Michael Blessing, and entered the Monkees auditions as a working guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He answered the trade advertisement and arrived with a guitar, harmonica, and the green wool cap that became a visual marker on the series. Rafelson and Schneider responded to his dry humor and self-possession as much as his musical background. Those traits developed into the comparatively grounded Mike character, whose clipped reactions often anchored scenes around the broader comedy of Dolenz and Tork.

Peter Halsten Thorkelson was born February 13, 1942, in Washington, D.C., to economics professor John Thorkelson and Virginia Thorkelson. He studied piano from childhood and added guitar, banjo, acoustic bass, and French horn. Tork attended Carleton College in Minnesota, then moved into the Greenwich Village folk circuit, where he performed in coffeehouses and formed a friendship with Stephen Stills. He relocated to Southern California in 1965 and worked around the folk scene while Stills directed him toward Raybert.

Tork entered the project as the most instrumentally versatile member of the eventual quartet. His comic value came from a stage persona he already used in Greenwich Village, where he answered failed jokes and awkward moments with exaggerated innocence. Raybert selected Tork first, then asked whether he would play the “dummy” character on television. Tork accepted the role and developed Peter as the trusting comic foil despite his greater instrumental experience.

The resulting cast therefore covered different areas of performance. Jones brought musical-theatre discipline and an established teen-idol profile. Dolenz brought television experience and a strong rock voice. Nesmith brought songwriting, guitar work, and deadpan improvisation. Tork brought the widest instrumental range and a developed comic persona. Raybert valued the contrast among those attributes more than conventional band instrumentation.

Musical Role at the Start

The original arrangement sharply separated the television cast from the record-making apparatus. Boyce and Hart recorded the songs used to sell the November 1965 pilot, including “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “Let’s Dance On,” and “I Wanna Be Free,” with their own voices on the demonstration recordings. The four actors therefore supplied the faces and comedy for the pilot while Screen Gems treated recorded music as a separate production department.

Raybert subsequently placed the four men in musical rehearsals, but the assigned stage positions did not simply reproduce their prior skills. Nesmith remained a guitarist, while Tork moved principally to bass for the television lineup. Dolenz learned drums from a starting point as a guitarist and singer. Jones concentrated on vocals and hand percussion. The arrangement created a visually legible four-piece band for television and later concert work.

The first album sessions gave the Monkees substantial vocal input but little instrumental control. Dolenz sang six solo leads on The Monkees and shared “Gonna Buy Me a Dog” with Jones, who sang three solo leads, while Nesmith sang “Papa Gene’s Blues” and “Sweet Young Thing.” Tork supplied backing vocals and guitar on the two Nesmith-produced tracks. Session musicians supplied nearly all remaining instrumental parts.

Nesmith held the largest creative role among the four from the outset. He wrote “Papa Gene’s Blues,” co-wrote “Sweet Young Thing” with Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and produced both recordings. Screen Gems nevertheless kept him away from the instrumental tracks on the debut masters, while Tork played guitar among the Los Angeles session players on both titles. Dolenz and Jones contributed vocals but no credited instruments to the released first album.

The same division largely continued through More of the Monkees. Dolenz and Jones remained the principal lead singers, while Tork received his first album lead on “Your Auntie Grizelda.” Tork played guitar on “Mary, Mary,” and Nesmith played steel guitar on “The Kind of Girl I Could Love.” Those isolated parts left the instrumental backing principally in the hands of outside musicians and producers.

NBC Pickup and Public Launch

Screen Gems and NBC tested the completed pilot, Here Come the Monkees, with a preview audience in late 1965. The first screening produced a poor response and placed the series in danger of rejection. Rafelson persuaded the companies to authorize a second test and returned to the editing room three days later. He inserted footage from the individual screen tests, which allowed Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Tork to address the camera outside the scripted story. The revised version produced a sharply improved audience response and gave NBC a stronger presentation of the four personalities.

NBC ordered 32 episodes of The Monkees on January 17, 1966, for the fall television schedule. Raybert expanded the pilot operation into a weekly production and hired James Frawley as the principal director and performance coach. Frawley used improvisational exercises to develop interaction among the four cast members and helped each performer refine the screen character that grew from his existing personality. Regular episode production commenced at Screen Gems on May 31.

The television order also accelerated the recording operation. Screen Gems and RCA Victor established Colgems Records as a joint label for Monkees releases and other Columbia-Screen Gems properties, with RCA manufacturing and distributing the records. Don Kirshner supervised the music program, generated by a talent pool of producers, songwriters, arrangers, and studio players. Raybert simultaneously rehearsed the four performers as a stage group for filmed performance scenes and prospective personal appearances.

Colgems introduced the Monkees to record buyers with “Last Train to Clarksville,” a Boyce–Hart number sung by Dolenz with backing musicians. Goffin–King supplied the flipside, “Take a Giant Step.”The single appeared on August 16, four weeks ahead of the NBC premiere, as Colgems 66-1001.

Screen Gems introduced the group to journalists at a Screen Gems press party in Los Angeles on September 1. A subsequent publicity trip took the four performers through major American media markets, including a September 8 appearance at the Broadway Theatre in New York, where a large young audience demonstrated the response already developing around the record and television campaign.

Los Angeles station KHJ staged the most elaborate pre-premiere promotion on September 11. Several hundred contest winners boarded a train from Los Angeles to Del Mar, where local officials temporarily renamed the destination “Clarksville.” The Monkees arrived by helicopter and joined the passengers for the return trip to Los Angeles. Nesmith, Tork, Dolenz, and Jones played “Papa Gene’s Blues” and Baker Knight’s “She’s So Far Out, She’s In” aboard the train, which marked their first documented public musical performance as a quartet. Organizers also screened the forthcoming television program for approximately 400 contest winners.

NBC premiered The Monkees at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday, September 12, with “Royal Flush.” The series occupied the opening half-hour of the NBC Monday-night schedule ahead of I Dream of Jeannie and competed with Gilligan’s Island on CBS and the opening half-hour of The Iron Horse on ABC. Kellogg and Yardley sponsored the series. NBC presented the four performers under their own first names as an unsuccessful rock group that shared a beach house and pursued jobs, engagements, and relationships around Los Angeles.

Season One

NBC aired the first season of The Monkees on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, with 32 new episodes from September 12, 1966, through April 24, 1967. Summer repeats extended the season through September 4.

The Monkees opened the published NBC Monday prime-time schedule and led into I Dream of Jeannie at 8:00. The Roger Miller Show followed at 8:30 through December 26; Captain Nice took that slot from January 9. The Road West occupied 9:00, apart from monthly Kraft Music Hall broadcasts, and Run for Your Life followed at 10:00. CBS opposed The Monkees with Gilligan’s Island, while ABC aired the first half-hour of the hour-long railroad Western Iron Horse.

Episode 1. “The Royal Flush.”

Air date: September 12, 1966

In “The Royal Flush,” Davy and the Monkees protect Princess Bettina from her uncle Otto, who plans to kill her before she assumes the throne at midnight. The plot involves two songs (“This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day,” “Take a Giant Step”) included on their first album. The episode guest stars Katherine Walsh as Bettina, Theodore Marcuse as Otto, Vincent Beck as Sigmund, and Ceil Cabot as the chambermaid at the Ritz Swank Hotel.

Davy sees a young woman stranded offshore when her inflatable raft collapses and swims out to rescue her. The woman identifies herself as Princess Bettina, Duchess of Harmonica, who has come to California with her uncle, Archduke Otto, and his chauffeur and bodyguard Sigmund. Davy becomes suspicious when he learns that Otto gave Bettina the defective raft and Otto warns him against interfering.

Davy returns to the Monkees’ beach house, where Mike notes that the group has gone a month without a job and the kitchen cupboard stands empty. Micky finds a newspaper item that places Bettina and Otto at the Ritz Swank. Davy tells the others that Otto means to kill Bettina, while Mike initially resists acting on a suspicion. Davy finally wins their support by pointing out that Bettina still has his jacket. Micky converts the rescue plan into a mock military briefing, with the four dressed as commandos around a tactical map.

The Monkees take the hotel room adjoining the royal suite and use the room as an observation post. Mike poses as wealthy eccentric W.H. Woolhat and keeps the chambermaid occupied with absurd demands and a stock-market tip for International Steel. Micky and Peter help wire the wall with listening equipment and record Otto telling Sigmund that he plans to drug Bettina following her birthday reception. Micky then telephones Otto under the guise of a dealer in royal furnishings and draws him into the adjoining room with an improvised throne showroom. Mike, Micky, and Peter keep Otto occupied while Davy enters the royal suite and plays Bettina the incriminating tape.

Bettina explains that Otto possesses diplomatic immunity and governs Harmonica as regent until she reaches age eighteen. Her birthday arrives at midnight, when she assumes the throne. Davy therefore proposes keeping her away from Otto until the transfer of power. He takes Bettina from the hotel while the other three complete the diversion. Otto discovers the deception and sends Sigmund after them.

“This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day” accompanies the first extended romp. The sequence cuts between Davy and Bettina walking together on the beach and Sigmund pursuing the other Monkees across the sand. Micky draws Sigmund through the chase while Peter repeatedly stops to excavate a large pit, marking his progress with increasingly literal warning signs. Sigmund eventually drops into Peter’s completed hole. The sequence advances Davy’s romantic subplot while Micky and Peter remove Otto’s enforcer from the immediate pursuit.

Davy brings Bettina to the beach house, but Sigmund locates the group and alerts Otto. The Monkees suspend a safe over a marked section of floor and arrange for Peter to cut its supporting rope when the villains enter. The rope refuses to break at the required moment. Otto openly admits his plan once Bettina confronts him, then takes her to the birthday ball while Sigmund remains behind to hold the four Monkees. Davy distracts Sigmund by reading Snow White and stressing the poisoned-apple episode while Mike, Micky, and Peter bind him. Sigmund breaks loose, but the weakened rope finally snaps and drops the safe on him, allowing the group to reach the hotel.

The four enter Bettina’s birthday reception from different points around the ballroom. Otto attempts to leave with Bettina, but Davy blocks him. Otto draws a sword from his cane, and Micky throws Davy a sword from the wall. “Take a Giant Step” accompanies the resulting romp. Davy and Otto fence through the ballroom as the scene shifts into exaggerated period costumes and swashbuckling visual gags. Mike and Micky dispose of the revived Sigmund by inducing him to charge through curtains and into a wall. Peter calls the telephone time service and holds the receiver up as the clock reaches midnight. Bettina assumes authority as queen at the tone and orders Otto arrested.

The closing hotel scene resolves Mike’s earlier subplot. The chambermaid returns as the new owner of the Ritz Swank and tells Mike that his International Steel tip supplied the money for her purchase. A separate interview tag then breaks from the story. Rafelson tells the four performers from off camera that the program has run short and asks them to discuss the episode. Peter and Davy argue over Davy’s fencing scene, Micky jokes about the next script, and the exchange ends with questions about what the four want from the television series. The unscripted-style tag established a device that recurred through the first season and allowed the performers to appear outside their fictional adventure.

Walsh played Lulu in The Trip, director Roger Coreman’s 1967 psychedelic film starring the subsequent Easy Rider duo (Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda) with music by the Electric Flag. She died in 1970 at age 23 from an apparent barbiturate overdose. Marcuse also appeared in 1966/67 episodes of I Spy, Batman, Hogan’s Heroes (“The Hostage”), and Star Trek (“Catspaw”). He died in November 1967 at age 47 in a traffic accident. Beck played Soviet cosmonaut Igor in the Season 2 Gilligan’s Island episode “Nyet, Nyet — Not Yet.”

Broadcast-version footnote: The September 12, 1966 NBC premiere used “This Just Doesn’t Seem to Be My Day” for the beach chase and “Take a Giant Step” for the ballroom duel. The former used a television edit with an extended instrumental passage absent from the first-album version. NBC recut the episode for its May 8, 1967 repeat, substituting the Headquarters-era “You Told Me” for the beach sequence and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere” for the duel. CBS and ABC Saturday reruns from 1969 through 1973 changed the music again, using “Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears” and “Good Clean Fun.” The 1986 Colex syndication master combined the May 1967 soundtrack with a CBS-era credit roll, which consequently listed songs different from those heard in the episode. Rhino restored the original 1966 musical soundtrack for its 1995 video edition and subsequent syndication master. A separate alternate print replaces the closing interview tag with a performance clip of “Last Train to Clarksville.”

Episode 2. “Monkee See, Monkee Die.”

Air date: September 19, 1966

In “Monkee See, Monkee Die,” the Monkees attend the reading of an eccentric millionaire’s will and spend the night in his island mansion, where three disappointed beneficiaries stage a haunting to drive the principal heir from the property. The plot involves two songs from their first album, “Last Train to Clarksville” and “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day.” The episode guest stars Stacey Maxwell as Ellie Reynolds, Milton Parsons as Ralph, Lea Marmer as Madame Roselle, Mark Harris as Harris Kingsley, Oliver MacGowan as lawyer McQuinney, and Henry Corden as landlord Mr. Babbitt.

Babbitt arrives at the Monkees’ beach house and threatens eviction over unpaid rent. Mike counters with complaints about the leaking roof and falling plaster, but Babbitt announces that his lawyer will arrive with dispossession papers. The four disguise themselves when McQuinney reaches the house: Mike poses as a deaf elderly man, Davy dresses as an elderly woman, Micky acts as a doorman, and Peter presents himself as a television repairman. McQuinney asks for the Monkees and leaves a message that millionaire John Cunningham has named them in his will. The four immediately discard their disguises, although McQuinney refuses to believe their claim that they are the missing group.

The Monkees travel to Cunningham Island that evening and enter a fog-bound mansion, where butler Ralph explains their connection to the deceased. Cunningham remembered the group because they once returned a wallet containing six hundred dollars, although the wallet did not belong to him. Ralph introduces Cunningham’s spiritualist Madame Roselle, travel writer Harris Kingsley, and grandniece Ellie Reynolds. Davy immediately takes an interest in Ellie, while Kingsley repeatedly corners Peter with titles from his unsuccessful travel books.

Ralph plays Cunningham’s recorded will on a phonograph. Cunningham leaves the Monkees a library organ on the condition that they play one song and awards the mansion with the rest of the estate to Ellie. The inheritance requires Ellie to spend one night in the house prior to deciding whether she wants the property. Ralph, Roselle, and Kingsley react angrily because each expected a share of the estate.

“Last Train to Clarksville” follows the reading of the will and marks the song’s first appearance on the series. The sequence starts from the library-organ provision and moves into a disconnected romp built around the four Monkees. The montage incorporates train footage, experimental aircraft footage, amusement-park material from the pilot, and shots of the group around the Monkeemobile. The sequence establishes the program’s early practice of detaching a song from literal performance and cutting it against unrelated visual jokes.

The Monkees prepare to leave, but Ralph reports that fog has stopped the last ferry from the island. The four share a large bed and attempt to decide who will keep watch. A hairy paw enters their finger-counting game and sends them into the hallway. Roselle then predicts either good fortune or death for Ralph. Two gunshots follow, and the group finds bullet holes and a knife in a downstairs room. Ralph has disappeared.

Mike tries to telephone the police and finds the severed wire tied into a bow. Micky examines the knife through a Sherlock Holmes parody, with Davy as Watson, and concludes that the murderer could be either a man or a woman. Davy hears Ellie cry out and rushes downstairs, where he finds Kingsley pressuring her to acknowledge one of his travel books. Davy cuts off the exchange and returns with the others to their room.

Mike next attempts to contact the mainland through a carrier pigeon. The bird arrives with a note asking people to stop attaching messages to its leg. Mike lays bones across the floor to attract a St. Bernard, but the dog arrives with a note directing them back to the pigeon. Further gunshots interrupt the group, and Roselle announces a vision that Kingsley will be shot. The Monkees return downstairs and find Kingsley missing as well.

Micky dismantles the telephone receiver and uses the components to construct a radio link. He reaches a sailor but cannot extract a usable location or summon help. Roselle proposes a séance and asks the remaining group to contact Cunningham. The voice that answers identifies itself as Cunningham’s answering service and then as the Ghost of Christmas Past. The lights fail, and Roselle disappears when they return. Ellie now believes the mansion contains something dangerous and decides to abandon the inheritance.

The next morning, Mike suggests music to improve the group’s mood as they wait outside for the ferry. “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day” accompanies a second romp built from costumes and chase material around the estate. The Monkees appear in monster masks and capes, play around a public fountain, wear diving equipment in a swimming pool, and switch through Western and adventure costumes. Davy appears as an Indian and as a Tarzan figure, while other shots place the group in fur coats, orange suits, and mock combat scenes. The sequence ends with the four removing monster masks one by one and discovering a fifth masked figure among them.

The music fails to improve their mood, but laughter from inside the mansion exposes the scheme. Mike, Micky, and Davy spy on Ralph, Roselle, and Kingsley as the three celebrate their success in frightening Ellie from the property. Davy asks Micky for experimental knockout pills and enters the room inside a suit of armor. The group places the pills in the conspirators’ wine, but Peter announces himself and alerts the three plotters.

Ralph, Roselle, and Kingsley confront the Monkees with guns. Peter points his finger at them and imitates gunfire just as the drug takes effect, which makes each conspirator collapse in turn. Davy explains the scheme to Ellie, and Micky dismisses his earlier fear of ghosts. The Ghost of Christmas Past calls from elsewhere in the mansion and sends the Monkees and Ellie running from the house.

The closing tag brings police to Cunningham Manor. Davy explains the use of Micky’s knockout drops, and an officer tells the group that the conspirators will answer for the scheme. Kingsley regains consciousness and immediately resumes his running gag by asking the policeman whether he has read titles such as Akron: The City Behind the Myth and South Dakota: Fact or Fiction?

Corden makes his first appearance as the Monkees’ landlord Babbitt and returned in three later first-season episodes. Corden subsequently became the principal voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed died in 1977, following earlier work as Fred’s singing voice in The Man Called Flintstone. Stacey Maxwell was the American professional name of British actress Stacey Gregg, who had appeared with Jones in a January 1966 episode of The Farmer’s Daughter.

Parsons had already played John Channing in the 1942 comedy-horror film The Hidden Hand, whose plot also centers on a disputed inheritance, staged fright, and a mansion filled with prospective beneficiaries. Lea Marmer later played Madame Tinkertoy in Easy Rider. MacGowan returned to The Monkees as J.J. Pontoon in “Captain Crocodile” and appeared as the Caretaker in the 1966 Star Trek episode “Shore Leave.”

Broadcast-version footnote: NBC first aired the episode on September 19 with “Last Train to Clarksville” and “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day.” The May 1, 1967 NBC repeat retained “Last Train to Clarksville” but replaced “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day” with Neil Diamond’s “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” Later syndicated prints commonly retained the 1967 replacement. The 1986 Colex master also carried altered closing credits that omitted Don Kirshner’s music-supervision credit. Rhino restored the original 1966 soundtrack in later home-video editions.

Discography:

The Monkees (1966)
More of The Monkees (1967)
Headquarters (1967)
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967)
The Birds, the Bees & The Monkees (1968)
Head [OST] (1968)
Instant Replay (1969)
The Monkees Present (1969)
Changes (1970)

Sources:

References:

Rafelson gave the fullest direct account of the concept to the Television Academy. He traced the premise to 1960 at ABC, tied it to his experience as a musician in Mexico, said Beatles popularity “legitimized” the idea, and described the French New Wave influence and Screen Gems arrangement. (Television Academy) His earlier Sight and Sound interview likewise states that the concept predated the Beatles and explains the fast shooting and editing method that defined the eventual series. (BFI)
Paul Mazursky independently recalled that Rafelson and Schneider recruited him and Larry Tucker from The Danny Kaye Show to create a half-hour show in the screen style associated with the Beatles films. His account is useful because it separates the Rafelson-Schneider premise from the Mazursky-Tucker pilot script. (WBAA)
The Television Academy interview with Bobby Hart establishes the Aldon → Screen Gems-Columbia connection and Boyce and Hart’s employment under the publishing company. (Television Academy) Hart’s longer interview identifies Lester Sill as the executive who sent Boyce and Hart to meet Schneider and describes their position as Screen Gems contract writers in Los Angeles. (Monkees) Contemporary recollections by Boyce and Hart identify the three principal pilot songs as “(Theme From) The Monkees,” “Let’s Dance On,” and “I Wanna Be Free.” (Monkees)
Kirshner’s corporate position is well supported: Columbia purchased Aldon in 1963 and placed him in charge of the Screen Gems music operation. The Aldon/Screen Gems roster included Goffin–King, Mann–Weil, Keller, Boyce, Hart, and other writers who fed the later Monkees recording program. (Rhino)
One chronology point should stay reserved for the pilot/launch section: NBC formally ordered 32 episodes on January 17, 1966, following the revised pilot test. The series therefore did not originate as an NBC commission. (HISTORY TV Denmark)
Rafelson specifically said he made one change between the two pilot tests: he inserted the cast screen-test footage. He recalled the first test as exceptionally low and the second as exceptionally high. The same Television Academy account identifies Frawley as the first director and explains his improvisational work with the four performers. (Television Academy)
NBC placed the 32-episode order on January 17, 1966. A contemporary Monkees chronology gives May 31 as the start of regular-series filming, September 1 for the Screen Gems press party, September 12 for the NBC debut, and October 10 for the first album. (HISTORY TV Denmark)
Colgems issued “Last Train to Clarksville” on August 16, 1966, backed with “Take a Giant Step.” The single preceded the television premiere by 27 days. Rhino also dates the A-side session to July 25 at RCA Victor Studio B in Hollywood. (Rhino)
The September 11 KHJ event is unusually well preserved. Contest winners traveled from Los Angeles to Del Mar; the mayor ceremonially renamed Del Mar “Clarksville”; the Monkees arrived by helicopter, boarded the return train, played “Papa Gene’s Blues” and “She’s So Far Out, She’s In,” and joined a screening for roughly 400 participants. Contemporary participants identify the event as the quartet’s first public musical performance. (San Diego Reader)
NBC carried the series Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Eastern against Gilligan’s Island and The Iron Horse. Broadcasting trade listings identify Kellogg and Yardley as the sponsors. (monkees.com)