On our way to the Cupcake Theatre today to see their performance of Avenue Q I realized we were walking over the names of so many of the actors of our childhood. Then I further realized that I had yet to check the address of the star given to The Monkees in 1989 following three years of fan reaction to all the hoopla started by MTV in 1986 when they began rerunning all the episodes for the 20th anniversary of the show (during which time I stayed home all the days of the Pleasant Valley Weekend and used my VCR to capture all my favorite episodes).
Turned out we were only a couple blocks from the star and so we checked it out on the way back to the Hollywood and Highland center. The Monkees’ star sits quite respectably at 6675 Hollywood Blvd, right in front of the Vogue Theatre where Head premiered and as I remembered, it is a star with a little television box in the middle, adding to the thesis of my book which is that their television program was just as important – if not moreso – than their work as a band.
It was weird to imagine all the people in the street on the day they received the star – but not hard to do since thanks to YouTube I have seen video footage taken that day of the speeches each actor/musician gave and heard the cheers of the crowd. What a nice experience for all those fans – and how fun to know now, in hindsight, that the diehard folks were going to be treated to continued reunion tours every so many years right up to today when I’ve been able to take my son to see them – and to read articles by all kinds of people – from Penn Jillette to Rachel Maddow – talking about how much they, too, loved the show.