Monkees star Mike Nesmith dead at 78

[tbolt909]

Apparently he wore it to the audition, and the producers told him to keep it. Once the show was done, so was the cap.

They actually called the character "Wool Cap" in the first scripts. Nesmith said he insisted they change it and they did. He was "Mike" in the show. The show only ran for two seasons and Nesmith was absent from a few episodes in the second season. He was likely tiring of the cap and the show...

 

[anotherguyTN]

There was also a period in the 70's that the Monkees TV show was on Saturday mornings. I was old enough to have seen them as a kid in the 60's but it was on Saturday mornings in the 70's that I really got to see them more.

This is from Dave Sundstrom's You Tube channel:

 

[vchimpanzee]

If you look at the songs, most of the hits were written by the best writers of the day: Carol King & Jerry Goffin, Neil Diamond, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart. The musicians, for the most part, were known as The Wrecking Crew, and they played on all the big hits of the day, from The Beach Boys to the Fifth Dimension. The songs would have been hits by anyone, but they had the added benefit of a hit TV show for the marketing. That was a key discovery. The music industry found out there was a TV audience for young music. Not just Mitch Miller or Lawrence Welk. That discovery would lead to more TV shows aimed at promoting young music. The Midnight Special. Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. In Concert. All added to the longtime favorite American Bandstand. Kirshner was the music man behind the Monkees, and ten years later he would have success again with the rock band Kansas.

Is it not also true that the music video techniques they used on the show led to MTV?

 

[vchimpanzee]

There was also a period in the 70's that the Monkees TV show was on Saturday mornings. I was old enough to have seen them as a kid in the 60's but it was on Saturday mornings in the 70's that I really got to see them more.

I don't ever remember seeing them except on Saturday.

 

[TheBigA]

Is it not also true that the music video techniques they used on the show led to MTV?

The inspiration to what you saw on The Monkees was the movie A Hard Days Night by The Beatles. Basically the same plot line and visual approach. Nothing really unique to what they did. There was a 15 year gap between The Monkees and MTV. In that time, record labels made videos for TV promotion on various TV shows. Where MTV came into the conversation is that Nesmeth was making videos for his music:

He began creating videos around his songs, most notably 1977’s “Rio,” and approached Warner Communications with the idea for a TV series featuring music videos. From that, Popclips was born, and it ran for six episodes on Nickelodeon in 1980. (Howie Mandel was among the veejays on the show.) John Lack, the Warner executive overseeing the project, thought the program would work better as a cable channel, and Popclips would become MTV. Lack wanted Nesmith to run it, but he declined, more interested in creating content than being a TV executive.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/michael-nesmith-dead-monkees-1235060806/

 

[firepoint525]

Is it not also true that the music video techniques they used on the show led to MTV?

Ironically, MTV showing old episodes of The Monkees was what led to THEM (MTV) jumping the shark. This marked the first time that I can recall (other than maybe Headbangers' Ball on late Saturday nights) when MTV didn't air videos.