MESA – Monkees concerts have been intergenerational affairs for some time now. Friday’s performance at the Mesa Arts Center was no exception.
Sitting in the top row of the balcony, for example, was a mom and dad, and their two daughters, ages 17 and 21. All clearly enjoying a healthy two-hour dose of Monkeemania.
“This was awesome,” the 17-year-old said of the show. Asked what it was about the Monkees that appealed to her, she responded, “Their music is so different from what we have to listen to. It’s more fun! We love it.”
This book signing at Book Soup was wonderful – good people, good conversation (before and after the signing). Just another example of the kind of quality positive people who have been drawn to The Monkees across generations – I even met a former head of publicity for ScreenGems who had some fun stories to tell. — Rosanne
When I talked to the writers about that they said it was because the censors didn’t get it. They had no ideas what they were actually saying.They just thought it was some sort goofy — I don’t know — you could have called it Italy for all anyone cared. They did not see the connection. That happened a lot. There are a lot of drug jokes on the show. They talk about taking trips a lot and that sort of thing. They talk about taking pills that will give you funny visions and they have a great moment in one of the episodes where they’re doing a little flashback — a fake fantasy — and Micky goes to visit Mike who is the “Middle Llama” because the High Llama is off sleeping it off out back. And it stayed on the air, but just a year after The Monkees went off the air The Smothers Brothers come on and they make the same jokes and they get canceled. They get canceled for being overtly political on television, but here were these guys doing the very thing for two years and nobody noticed. Partially because it was all slapstick humor — you’re talking about vaudeville — they were very much like The Marx Bros as we know and partially the censors just didn’t get it.
Jean Powergirl takes the host reigns and welcomes her guest Rosanne Welch, PhD to the show! They’ll be discussing Roseanne’s book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.”
Transcript:
Jean: So how many season did The Monkees run?
Rosanne: You know it only ran for 2 seasons. Back in the day, you had more shows — nowadays you do 13 or maybe 20 episodes — so they did 58 episodes in total in 2 seasons. They were going to come back for a 3rd season after a very successful couple of years of concert tours, but they had decided that — the actors has decided — that they were tired of the formula of the show, which was a sitcom and it was usually some crazy adventure going on. They felt that they wanted to do a variety show ala The Carol Burnett Show, but there were no rock and roll groups hosting variety shows yet, so the network said, “no. We don’t believe that will work.” They said, “Look, we’ll do little sketches in between and will do music and have musical guests,” The network said no and they said, “If that’s the case we’ll just cancel it.”
Jean: Even though Donnie and Marie did do that, right?
Rosanne: But later in the 70’s and the next year Sonny and Cher will do that a and they were a rock and roll group of the day and, in fact, Coslough Johnson, who’s one of my favorite writers for the show who I got to interview. He moved from The Monkees to Sonny and Cher and so that style was going to work, but the network didn’t — I think it was a big mistake monetarily. If they had morphed the show it would have brought that audience along with them.
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement 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 Rider and Five Easy Pieces.
Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.
This book signing at Book Soup was wonderful – good people, good conversation (before and after the signing). Just another example of the kind of quality positive people who have been drawn to The Monkees across generations – I even met a former head of publicity for ScreenGems who had some fun stories to tell. — Rosanne
I think also the show introduced the audience to a lot of new political ideas that weren’t supposed to be on television, but as the writers told me, they were young. They were hip. They were using language that the censors didn’t quite understand so, by accident, they got through some ideas. One of my favorites is a scene where all four of the guys are playing a game of dominos and, at one point, they drop all the dominos flat on the table and Davy says to Peter, “What do you call this game?” and Peter says, ‘Southeast Asia.” Because the Domino Theory of communism that Johnson had put fortth — as putting forward was that we had to stop communism any time it started to spread or it would domino through the whole of Asia. So, literally they had just made a comment about the Vietnam War and the censors didn’t cut that out of the show.
In fascinating, star-studded anecdotes, original Monkee Micky Dolenz takes readers from his starring role at age 12 as TV’s “Circus Boy,” to the open casting call that brought the Monkees together, through the creative conflicts that finally drove them apart. Along the way you’ll find hilarious anecdotes about his adventures as a Monkee―the girls, the parties, the celebrities―as well as the harder-edged realities of a life lived in front of a camera. — Amazon
By using a variety of narrative structures, The Monkees innovation in narrative style helped the show stand out in its first season. Audiences learned to expect the unexpected, wrapped in what started out as seemingly familiar stories. These changing narrative structures became the signature of The Monkees, likely leading to its Best Comedy Emmy.
Jean Powergirl takes the host reigns and welcomes her guest Rosanne Welch, PhD to the show! They’ll be discussing Roseanne’s book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.”
Transcript:
Jean: So here we finally have television trying to deal with these difficult issues, but in a way that made a difference to people.
Rosanne: I think so. It made people start talking about those things in their own lives and that’s what TV’s always done. We credit Will & Grace with giving us a weekly gay character who came into people’s homes and it made people start talking about issues like gay marriage and gay adoption and things like that. So it’s really — people don’t realize — we think movies are influential, but you choose what movies you’re going to go see. You choose with your money to pay for those messages. So, often movies are preaching to a choir. TV comes into your home uninvited. You don’t know what you’re going to stumble upon when you change the channel and so there’s more of an ability to find things you didn’t think you wanted to know about.
Jean: Right, because it was there and it was free. So everyone’s going to sit down that evening — you’re not going out to a movie to watch something controversial and go “Let’s start flipping the channels. Oh look at these kids running around. That’s pretty funny”
Rosanne: Exactly. It attracted — the energetic feel of the show and that they were cute young boys made them pay attention.
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement 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 Rider and Five Easy Pieces.
Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.
Teenagers and Teenpics tells the story of two signature developments in the 1950s: the decline of the classical Hollywood cinema and the emergence of that strange new creature, the American teenager. Hollywood’s discovery of the teenage moviegoer initiated a progressive “juvenilization” of film content that is today the operative reality of the American motion picture industry. The juvenilization of the American movies is best revealed in the development of the 1950s “teenpic,” a picture targeted at teenagers even to the exclusion of their elders. In a wry and readable style, Doherty defines and interprets the various teenpic film types: rock ‘n’ roll pictures, j.d. films, horror and sci-fi weirdies, and clean teenpics. Individual films are examined both in light of their impact on the motion picture industry and in terms of their important role in validating the emerging teenage subculture. Also included in this edition is an expanded treatment of teenpics since the 1950s, especially the teenpics produced during the age of AIDS. — Amazon
Jean Powergirl takes the host reigns and welcomes her guest Rosanne Welch, PhD to the show! They’ll be discussing Roseanne’s book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.”
Transcript:
Rosanne: So, in fact, because we just lost Mary Tyler Moore a couple weeks ago there was a lot of discussion
Jean: God rest her soul
Rosanne:…about here show. Exactly and how she introduced a gay character on her show. She talked about birth control pills.
Jean: She was the working woman by herself. That’s why I watched it.
Rosanne: Exactly. Exactly.
Jean: I was shocked. She got a real job on her own.
Rosanne:…and she spent the night with boys without them coming to her apartment. We would see her come home wearing the same clothes she wore on the day before.
Jean: Oooo….Where’s my fainting couch?
Rosanne: So we were moving into that area where these things were going to be more open and so The Monkees couldn’t quite be blatant about it, but they could be subtle about the things they were saying.
Jean; Right and actually I do like the subtlety. I think it is an artistic thing that I appreciate.
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement 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 Rider and Five Easy Pieces.
Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.
Forty-two years ago today — September 11, 1966 — Del Mar was renamed “Clarksville” as part of a promotion for the Monkees’ TV show to debut the following night. The Sunday event marked the first time the foursome performed in public.
Ron Jacobs was a DJ at L.A. radio station KHJ at the time. “One of Boss Radio’s most exciting promotions was staging an actual ‘Last Train to Clarksville,’ ” he says on his website. “A few hundred KHJ winners rode to ‘Clarksville,’ the city of Del Mar.”
“The tenth callers would get two free tickets to the Last Train to Clarksville,” recalls KHJ promotions associate Barbara Hamaker in the Michael Nesmith biography Total Control.
“To this day I don’t know how we did it,” continues Hamaker. “I was the one who had to type up all the releases and all of the stuff that was involved in getting kids onto the train…we used some Podunk town called Del Mar.”
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