Adorkable: Peter due to his endearingly bumbling, hangdog nature and Davy due to his status as "the cute one" and the romanticist. Even Mike became this when he entered a talent show competition.
Peter Tork. Despite playing "the dumb one" on the show and making only a handful of vocal appearances on the original albums, Peter is beloved in the fandom, because of his witty, self-effacing personality, his candid remembrances of The '60s, and his inspiring life story (his recovery from substance abuse and later struggles with cancer). At one point in The '80s he had more individual fan clubs devoted to him than any of the other Monkees.
Mike Nesmith appears to be the favorite among younger fans in The New '10s. Especially notable in that Mike never got an individual episode dedicated to him having a love interest because he was already married in real life, but it seems Millennials and Gen Z love his status as the Team Dad. (It also helps that the real life Michael Nesmith liked to keep up on current trends and was a fan of vaporwave music.)
Genius Bonus: In "The Frodis Caper", the chant Micky says he got from sending in cereal box tops that they use to break Peter from his trance is nam myoho renge kyo, the central chant of Nichiren Buddhism (which basically translates as "Glory to the Lotus Sutra"), and particularly associated with the Soka Gakkai sect, which has gained a following in the American entertainment industry (Tina Turner was famously a devotee).
In "The Spy Who Came in from the Cool," Mike tells Peter that they're forming a trio without him. Of course, Mike was joking, but in 1968 Peter would be the first member to leave the group.
And in "Monstrous Monster Mash," when they can't find Davy, Micky says that they could form a trio and then a duo when Peter disappears. Davy Jones passed away in 2012, and Michael, Micky and Peter toured and recorded as a trio in the years after that. In 2018 Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz announced that they would tour as a duo (Peter wanted to focus on other projects and decided to officially retire as a Monkee). Tork's death in February 2019 left Michael and Micky with no choice but to be a duo. Then to complete the fulfillment of the episode's eerie prediction, Nesmith's death in 2021 left Micky as the last surviving Monkee.
Micky: If you get lost, I’ll be a single! Mike (imitating the opening drum roll of the theme song): Bl-lu-lum! Micky (singing): Here I come, walking down the street, I get the funniest looks from all the people I meet, hey hey I'm a Monkee!
In Micky's autobiography, I'm A Believer, near the end of the book he includes a humorous Imagine Spot of what The Monkees are doing in the year 2020 (the book was released in 1993). Naturally they're all old men partaking in futuristic pursuits, but Micky had no way of knowing that only he and Mike would still be around by then (with Peter's passing even being less than a year early and Mike passing away a year later). Micky also goes into his relationship and friendship with Harry Nilsson, referring to him in the present tense. Nilsson died within a year of the book's release.
"The Devil and Peter Tork" is considered a series highlight for both Peter and director James Frawley (who got an Emmy Award nomination for the episode). Frawley and Tork died almost exactly a month apart in early 2019.
The smooth-talking, scheming manager in "Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers" is named Trump.
In "Monkees A'la Carte", Fusseli orders his goon to "get those punks out of here", referring to The Monkees. About ten years later, the Sex Pistols would play "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone"note which even featured in this very episode! as a standard part of their live repertoire (it didn't make the cut for Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, however.)
Older Than They Think: While everyone acknowledged A Hard Day's Night and Help! as inspirations for the show, a Sitcom generating hit songs with the use of music videos dated back to Ricky Nelson and his performances on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Indeed, Nelson's career prefigured The Monkees in a lot of ways. The Monkees were the TV Beatles, while Nelson had been the TV Elvis, but in both cases they had talent and ambition that made them transcend the Follow the Leader category, and they won the admiration of their peers. Michael Nesmith admitted to having been a big Nelson fan, and hired guitarist James Burton for his Monkees recording sessions because he'd worked with Nelson.
Padding: Whenever an episode came up short in editing, Bob Rafelson would do a short interview with the boys to fill out the necessary run time. In fact, in the first episode to air, Mike is asked what he thought of the episode and he quips how short it was. It's also referenced in an alternate outtake version of "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" where Peter does vocal interjections between verses.
Ladies and gentlemen, this part of our record is here because if it weren’t, the record would be seventeen seconds too short, and we would have to do an interview at the end.
Bobby Sherman plays an obnoxious Teen Idol in "The Monkees at the Movies," some time before becoming a teen idol himself.
Before his later fame, a clean-shaven Rip Taylor appeared in two episodes and the "Listen to the Band" segment of 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.
Shipping: Younger, primarily Tumblr-dwelling fans have taken to pairing the various Monkees up, both in the context of their depictions in the series and their Real Life personalities. Common ships include "Jork" (Peter & Davy, seemingly based on an interview in which Peter claimed to have had a crush on Davy), "Torksmith" (Peter and Mike, often portrayed as a Foe Yay dynamic), "Dolenzsmith" (Micky and Mike), and "Torklenz" (Peter and Micky).
Values Dissonance: As to be expected in a show from The '60s. Most obviously, the depictions of various racial and ethnic minorities would definitely not fly if aired today. The Yellow Peril-based "Monkee Chow Mein"—in which the villains are played by white actors wearing makeup to make them look stereotypically East Asian—comes across as appallingly racist in the 21st century.
Vindicated by History: Clever writing and good music has given the Monkees staying power regardless of their so-called "fake band" origins.
Michael Nesmith's reaction to "I'm a Believer" was, "I'm a songwriter and that's no hit".
Many people did not think that "Daydream Believer" would be popular. It had been turned down by Spanky and Our Gang as well as We Five (despite songwriter John Stewart's brother being a member of the band!), and even Davy Jones was "pissed off" about recording the song. His vocals show a hint of annoyance at the ongoing takes.
The 1987-89 period isn't considered one of their finer moments. The anticipated reunion album Pool It! was disappointing, with a few good moments buried in a pile of misfires (like a Davy-sung Reggae song called "She's Movin' in with Rico"). Concerts went from ambitious multimedia shows featuring lots of deep cuts from the original albums to Greatest Hits-heavy with stale banter between Davy, Micky and Peter. There were also Vaporware plans for movies and albums that never happened. Micky himself got fed up and basically quit, putting the band on hiatus for a few years. It certainly didn't help that MTV, which had done an immense amount to bring the Monkees back into the public eye, dropped the band like a bad habit and forbade any further promotion of them, their album or even the very fact they existed because an MTV executive got his nose out of joint that the Monkees didn't appear on a Super Bowl special note The situation seems to be all down to Poor Communication Kills, as nobody on either side of the discussion seemingly actually bothered to check to see if the band was indeed available to do the gig.
May 1968. The TV show is off the air, and every single they've released up to this point has made the Top 3. Obviously, their next single is going to be crucial in establishing whether The Monkees can sustain a music career even without TV exposure. So what do they release? "D.W. Washburn", a Dixieland Jazz-flavored song about how much fun it is to be a homeless alcoholic. It's a Leiber and Stoller song, so it's not bad, but still, it was so out-of-place not only for The Monkees, but pop music in general. The executive who chose the song for the group was said to have instantly regretted the decision. The single limped to #19 in Billboard, was their last Top 40 hit until 1986, and didn't even get released on an album until the 80s.
The variety show special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee was so strange and off-brand that Peter Tork bought out his contract soon after for a small fortune.
"I'm A Believer", first made famous by The Monkees (Neil Diamond recorded his version a few months after The Monkees), and then much later, brought back into the mainstream by Smash Mouth.
"That Was Then, This Is Now" brought the Monkees back to the Top 40 during their '80s revival. It was originally recorded by a now-obscure Power Pop band called The Mosquitos (and written by their frontman Vance Brescia), who had a following on the New York club scene, but only managed to release a single EP in 1985 before splitting up.
Several of the Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart songs were recorded by other groups first, such as "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (Paul Revere and the Raiders) and "Words" (The Leaves).
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band recorded and released the Nesmith composition "Mary Mary" before The Monkees did. The early pressings of their East-West album didn't include a songwriting credit, leading fans to assume it was either a Butterfield original or an old blues song. After the Monkees version came out, properly credited to Michael Nesmith, Nesmith was accused of stealing credit for his own song.
"Do It In The Name of Love", the last song released by Micky and Davy before they split up in 1971, became a Top 20 R&B hit for Candi Staton a couple years later.
"I'll Be True to You" was originally released by The Hollies under the title "Yes I Will". However, their version was not a hit in the US, and American listeners are more familiar with the Monkees' version.
"Shades of Gray" was first recorded by The Will-O-Bees in a more uptempo version, and released a few weeks before The Monkees did their ballad take on it for Headquarters.
"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" gets it both ways. It was first recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders, as mentioned above, but the Monkees' version is more well known. Later on, it was a favorite mainstay for the Sex Pistolsnote no, you did read that right. The Sex Pistols. John Lydon had a much broader set of musical interests than he was given credit for back then... for their live gigs (including their very first live performance in October 1975), and a 1976 studio recording of the song was released as a single in 1980, well after the band had imploded.
Zig-zagged with the Goffin-King song "I Don't Think You Know Me". They recorded two different versions in 1966 (Nesmith sang lead on the first one, Tork on the second one), but they stayed on the shelf until 1987 and 1991, respectively. Then in early 1967, The American Breed ("Bend Me, Shape Me") recorded it and had a minor hit, but the Monkees versions are better known these days.
Did Not Think This Through: The short-lived Monkees-Jimi Hendrix tour. Mike and Mickey had seen his breakout performance at Monterrey, loved it and made the, in retrospect, somewhat not-completely-thought-out decision to invite him and the Experience to tour with The Monkees. Jimi and the Monkees may have liked each other, but Jimi's fans and The Monkees' fans did not gel at all, and even worse, the parents of the Monkees target audience did not care for Jimi's more mature stage act. The tour lasted 8 gigs before they finally called it a day.
Epic Riff: "Last Train to Clarksville", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "As We Go Along" (an unusual acoustic ballad example, with a flute doubling up the guitar riff before the second verse).
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Mention The Monkees and several people will comment on the fact that they didn't play on the albums. Despite the fact that they were furious when they were told that they couldn't record (Mike Nesmith reportedly punched a hole in the wall while arguing about it), despite that they eventually got creative control over their music, and despite that they were vindicated by history multiple times, some people still remember The Monkees as that one band that didn't play their own instruments, even incorrectly assuming that they couldn't play at all, or play well. These people also forget that respected bands from the same era, such as The Beach Boys and The Byrds, also made extensive use of session musicians.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: After their initial success waned in the US, they still remained popular in Japan and Australia. They had a successful tour in those places in late 1968, and various combinations of the four Monkees toured there in the 1970s and 1980s.
Growing the Beard: The 1967-68 psychedelic period, when they began taking more control of their musical activities, and their music became more complex and varied as a result.
Micky was in a pre-Monkees band called The Missing Links. Even funnier after they made the 33 & 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee TV special, which featured Charles Darwin as a character.
Misattributed Song: Due to Mike Nesmith's legacy as a country-rock pioneer, it's common for fans to assume that every single Monkees song that's even country-adjacent came from his pen, but this is not always the case. For instance, "What Am I Doing Hanging Round" from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., with its twangy sound and Old West imagery, was actually written by Nesmith's former bandmates Michael Murphy and Owens Castleman, while Nesmith's own two songs on the album—"Daily Nightly" and "Don't Call on Me"—have nothing to do with country at all (the former is overtly psychedelic while the latter is more or less a lounge jazz song).
Narm: "The Day We Fall in Love" from More of the Monkees would otherwise be your typical schmaltzy Davy Jones ballad, but in this one, Davy speaks the lyrics instead of singing them. He had recorded a similar "spoken word" love song on his 1965 pre-Monkees solo album, David Jones called "Theme For a New Love," possibly the reason why "The Day We Fall In Love" was chosen to be included on the album. It's commonly considered by fans to be one of the worst songs the band released.
Suspiciously Similar Song: A few of their songs were meant to sound like hits by other artists; some of the songwriters have even admitted that this was done intentionally.
"(Theme From) The Monkees" = "Catch Us If You Can" by The Dave Clark Five
The Beatles, as you'd expect, got many musical nods from The Monkees, with "Last Train to Clarksville" inspired by "Paperback Writer",note Boyce and Hart only heard the fade of "Paperback Writer" the first time they heard it, and thought the "Paperback writer, paperback writer" chant was "Take the last train tosomething-something". Besides the title, though, they borrowed some musical ideas from "Paperback Writer", like a similar Epic Riff and a similar chord change in the middle of the verse "Porpoise Song" taking cues from "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Me Without You" being clearly modeled on "Your Mother Should Know". "Cuddly Toy" also sounds a lot like "Your Mother Should Know", but they were recorded and released around the same time. "Good Day Sunshine" seems to be the Beatles song that was the model for "Cuddly Toy".
The Rolling Stones also inspired quite a few songs. "Your Auntie Grizelda" was a deliberate rewrite of "19th Nervous Breakdown" (Peter Tork's comic vocal masks it a bit, but the songs are structured very similarly). "Shades of Gray" has a similar arrangement to "Ruby Tuesday". "Sunny Girlfriend" directly copies the intro of "It's All Over Now" (which the Stones themselves Covered Up from Bobby Womack and his band The Valentinos).
"Let's Dance On" = "Good Lovin' " by The Rascals
"Papa Gene's Blues" = "Hello Mary Lou" by Ricky Nelson (bonus points for both songs having the same lead guitarist, James Burton)
"A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" = "Cherry, Cherry" by Neil Diamond (which makes sense, as Diamond wrote both songs). Neil returned the favor with "Sweet Caroline", which has an arrangement that follows the structure of "Daydream Believer" closely (though they sound different enough that it might take you a while to pick up on the similarities).
"Salesman" = "She's About a Mover" by The Sir Douglas Quintet
"Daydream Believer" = "Happy Together" by The Turtles (the melodies are much different, but producer Chip Douglas had been a member of the Turtles and had arranged "Happy Together" and re-used its basic formula on "Daydream Believer": simple, calm verse leading into a rousing, intense chorus).
"Goin' Down" = "Parchman Farm" by Mose Allison (which they freely admitted to)
"Teardrop City" = "Last Train to Clarksville". Yes, they imitated their own earlier hit.
They've also been on the receiving end. "The Letter" by The Box Tops was at least partly inspired by "I'm a Believer". Smash Mouth's "Then the Morning Comes" sounds a bit like "Love to Love". Normally, you'd say that sounding like an obscure Monkees song written by Neil Diamond is just a coincidence, until you remember that this is a group who had a big hit with a Cover Version of "I'm a Believer".
Unintentional Period Piece: While a good chunk of their sixties music has a timeless sound, the reunion albums fall under this trope to varying degrees. The synth-laden Pool It! is about as 80s-sounding an album as anyone ever recorded. Of particular note is "Midnight", which is basically a Miami Vice episode set to music. Justus has a few nods to Grunge, which was at its peak when it was recorded. Good Times! is more of a Genre Throwback, laced with some Indie Pop feeling.
Vindicated by History: The show was relatively popular and well-received in The '60s (even winning two Emmys), and their records were top-sellers, but after the group was "discovered" to have been manufactured, anyone who wanted to look remotely hip or intellectual completely disavowed them. A couple decades later, an MTV marathon of the show and Rhino Records' re-releases of their albums incited renewed interest in the Monkees' music. As the story of the band's successful overthrow of their musical puppet-masters became more widely known, and the legitimate innovations and influences became more apparent (Michael Nesmith, for example, should probably share credit with Gram Parsons for inventing country rock), they finally started getting some critical respect for the music they made post-overthrow.
The Woobie: Peter left the group fearing that his time with the band had irreparably damaged his reputation as a legitimate musician, then went on a personal rollercoaster ride in The '70s that included jail time and a Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job as a singing waiter (plus a slightly more prestigious gig teaching high school). Micky once responded to an interviewer's remark about being lucky to survive the whole surreal experience unscathed with "Peter didn't".
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