“What if I interview all the writers of The Monkees? All the people who are in their 80’s who once wrote for The Monkees who are still alive. So I met with the writers of the show and it was fascinating. They had also written for many other things — Get Smart, Laugh-In. They’d won Emmys for The Mary Tyler Moore Show later in their career. They were all very accomplished people.
from Rosanne Welch talks about “Why The Monkees Matter” with Jean Hopkins Power
Watch this entire presentation – 1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees
Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
†A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
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† Available from the LA Public Library