History Trivia / TheMonkees

** None of the four were pleased with the album ''More of the Monkees'', and Mike Nesmith especially has never had a kind word to say about it. The album was compiled without any input from the group and released behind their back; reportedly, the band didn't find out about its existence until one of them saw it in a record store. Additionally, the album contained a few tracks which they felt were substandard. They also hated the cover shot, which featured them in what they considered to be extremely tacky [=JCPenney=] clothing.
** Davy hated ''Changes'', the only album he and Micky recorded as a duo, calling it "Jeff Barry and Andy Kim doing an Andy Kim album". Micky hasn't criticized the album directly, but admits that it was only recorded [[ContractualObligationProject to fulfill a contractual obligation]].

* {{Defictionalization}}: One of the most wildly successful examples.

** Davy was once a jockey in RealLife, a skill he gets to use on camera in "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth".

** All four of them agreed to reunite to present an award at the Primetime Emmys in 1980, but an actors' strike led to a mass boycott of the ceremony and Mike and Micky elected not to cross the picket line.

** Creator/SammyDavisJr dropped by the set during the filming of "Monkees A La Mode" while he was on the Columbia lot for his guest appearance on ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', and taped a cameo bit with the guys, but it never got used the footage has disappeared.

* MissingEpisode: The 2-part Japanese special "The Monkees In Japan." A concert performance from their Far East tour only aired once in October 1968, and hasn't been seen since. However, the audio from both parts can be heard in the bootleg ''Made In Japan.''

** Peter's song "Lady's Baby", recorded during the sessions for ''The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees'', took 11 recording sessions stretching out over four months to complete, with Tork restarting from scratch a bunch of times, bringing in big-name buddies like Stephen Stills and Buddy Miles to help out, and ultimately racking up tens of thousands of dollars in studio fees (Nesmith joked that Tork spent all of the band's royalties on the song). RCA recording engineer Hank Cicalo, who'd worked closely with the band on their previous two albums, grew frustrated and refused to work with Peter anymore. Then, as the ultimate insult, the song wasn't even included on the album. It had to wait two decades until Rhino's original ''Missing Links'' album in 1987 to see the light of day (and even then, only the CD version of the album).

** Peter's song "Lady's Baby", recorded during the sessions for ''The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees'', took 11 recording sessions stretching out over four months to complete, with Tork restarting from scratch a bunch of times, bringing in big-name buddies like Stephen Stills and Buddy Miles to help out, and ultimately racking up tens of thousands of dollars in studio fees (Nesmith joked that Tork spent all of the band's royalties on the song). RCA recording engineer Hank Cicalo, who'd worked closely with the band on their previous two albums, grew frustrated refused to work with Peter anymore. Then, as the ultimate insult, the song wasn't even included on the album. It had to wait two decades until Rhino's original ''Missing Links'' album in 1987 to see the light of day (and even then, only the CD version of the album).

* AdoredByTheNetwork[=/=]ScrewedByTheNetwork: The series was unavoidable on Creator/{{MTV}} in 1986, running several times a day, plus weekend marathons every couple of months. Davy, Micky and Peter did lots of on-camera work, and even starred in the annual MTV Christmas video (with a surprise cameo by Mike). Then they pulled out of an appearance on an MTV Super Bowl Sunday special.[[note]]There are lots of conflicting stories on why this happened, but it boils down to lack of communication between the guys, their then-manager, and MTV executives.[[/note]] After that, The Monkees suddenly became personae non gratae on MTV. They refused to play the video for "Heart and Soul" despite it being among the most requested, which played a big role in both the single and the reunion album ''Pool It!'' tanking. In the 1989 ''The Decade in Rock'' special, MTV voted The Monkees as "Most Unnecessary Comeback of The 80s", blissfully ignoring their important role in that comeback (as well as Nesmith's own early involvement with the network's creation).
* BreakthroughHit: "Last Train to Clarksville".
* BreakupBreakout:
** Nesmith was the only Monkee to have a Top 40 solo hit, with his 1970 #21 hit "Joanne". He became well known as a pioneer of the country rock genre and as an early adopter of both home video and the music video. His show ''Pop-Clips'', which aired on the then-new Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} in 1980, is considered to be the direct predecessor of Creator/{{MTV}}, launched by Nickelodeon's then-owner Warner the next year.
** Subverted with Davy Jones, who was widely tipped and heavily promoted to become a solo star after the Monkees broke up. Unfortunately, that never really happened for him. Despite Jones singing the entire song in an episode of ''Series/TheBradyBunch'', his 1971 single "Girl" was not a hit. The highest up the Hot 100 he ever got was with the Music/NeilSedaka song "Rainy Jane", which missed the top 40 and peaked at #52 the previous year.
* CashCowFranchise: Since 1970 they made an unusual journey from being out of favor to being considered a CultClassic and finally ending up as this trope. It helps that the fandom now spans several generations: the original fans from TheSixties, the fans they picked up via the syndicated reruns that began in 1975, and of course the MTV-fueled 1986 comeback, alongside those discovering them today. Creator/RhinoRecords, who first reissued Monkees music in the TheEighties, gained full rights to the Monkee music and video catalog in 1994 [[note]]they bought the rights from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who won them in a court settlement with Creator/ColumbiaPictures after they sued the studio for destroying the outtakes of ''Film/EasyRider'' they'd been storing[[/note]] and has issued numerous well-received collections, curated by PromotedFanboy [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sandoval Andrew Sandoval]].

* ContractualObligationProject: Much of what the remaining Monkees did after Peter left at the start of 1969 counts, like the commercials for Kool-Aid, a series of concerts in UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} done for MoneyDearBoy after a promoter gave them a huge offer, and the final few albums (with ''Changes'' recorded ''only'' because Davy and Micky owed the label one final album).
* CreativeDifferences:
** One reason that the group didn't last long past the end of the TV series was that the four members brought radically different musical preferences to the table. Tork was a folk singer, Jones favored showtunes and ballads, Nesmith favored either country-rock or straight-up country, and Dolenz was into rock and soul.
** By the time the band recorded its fifth album, ''The Birds, the Bees, and The Monkees'', the group had completely abandoned recording together. Each member chose his own songs and produced his own sessions with his own musicians of choice, then the results were pooled and the best songs chosen for the album.
* CreatorBacklash:
** None of the four were pleased with the album ''More of the Monkees'', and Mike Nesmith especially has never had a kind word to say about it. The album was compiled without any input from the group and released behind their back; reportedly, the band didn't find out about its existence until one of them saw it in a record store. Additionally, the album contained a few tracks which they felt were substandard. They also hated the cover shot, which featured them in what they considered to be extremely tacky [=JCPenney=] clothing.
** Davy hated ''Changes'', the only album he and Micky recorded as a duo, calling it "Jeff Barry and Andy Kim doing an Andy Kim album". Micky hasn't criticized the album directly, but admits that it was only recorded [[ContractualObligationProject to fulfill a contractual obligation]].
** In the mid-80s, Micky and Peter teamed up to record some new songs for a Monkees compilation album. Peter expressed displeasure at having to record "Kicks", a CoverVersion of a hit by the group's 60s contemporaries Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders, comparing it to Music/TheBeatles reuniting and being forced to record "Ferry Cross the Mersey".[[note]]A hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers, UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} contemporaries of the Beatles, who enjoyed some success but were considered far below the Beatles in both popularity and musical ability.[[/note]]

* {{Defictionalization}}: One of the most wildly successful examples.
* DevelopmentHell:
** After their 80s comeback there were several attempts to do a new Monkees movie. Around 1987-88 there were preliminary announcements about one called ''The Monkees Save the World'', with Mike even penciled in to rejoin the others for it, but it never got past the planning stage. In 1994, Creator/ColumbiaPictures tried to get the ball rolling on a reunion film with a PuttingTheBandBackTogether plot, and Creator/JonLovitz playing their ex-manager. After a few fruitless script meetings between potential writers and Creator/RhinoRecords chief Harold Bronson (who, with Rhino now in control of the Monkees franchise, was the point man for any film project), the idea was dropped, but Bronson still wanted to do a movie. ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' writer Jeff Sherman wrote a spy-spoof script that Bronson liked, but no one was interested in backing it. [[UsefulNotes/NoteworthyDisneyStaff Disney exec]] David Hoberman showed interest in a Monkees movie, but had CreativeDifferences with Bronson. An idea cooked up by Mike and former Creator/{{NBC}} president Brandon Tartikoff, an oddball comedy set in a town where the ''Magazine/WeeklyWorldNews'' is the factual local newspaper, came close to getting greenlighted, but salary demands from band members proved unfeasible. Ultimately the band reunited for the 1997 ''Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees'' TV special, and Rhino got a movie ''about'' the Monkees made, the 2000 Creator/{{VH1}} DocuDrama ''Daydream Believers: The Monkees' Story''.
** Bronson also tried to develop some Monkees TV projects around that time. One was a BandToon, with the guys doing their own voice acting. ''WesternAnimation/{{Toonsylvania}}'' co-creator Jeff [=DeGrandis=] and Creator/FilmRoman were both involved at various points, but nothing ever got produced. In 2003, Music/SpiceGirls[=/=]''Series/AmericanIdol'' impresario Simon Fuller approached Bronson about doing a Monkees reboot series with an all-new cast. Unlike ''Series/TheNewMonkees'', though, this series would feature new versions of the original Monkee songs. A cast was lined up (with Creator/JayBaruchel as the drummer), and ex-''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein wrote a pilot script, but everyone was so busy with other projects that it never came to fruition.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Largely the story behind the assembling of the group's second album, ''More of the Monkees''. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, producers of the first album, recorded what they believed was to be the follow-up to the group's debut, not knowing that Don Kirshner was having the boys record lots of tracks with other writers and producers as well. Kirshner then assembled his own version of the album and released it behind everyone's back. Only two of the tracks Boyce and Hart recorded were included.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Headquarters'', which reched #1 althought it had no singles released in America (though several tracks got Top 40 radio airplay, with "Shades of Gray" and "You Just May Be the One" as the most popular). However, "Randy Scouse Git"/"Alternate Title" got to #2 on the British charts.

* InspirationForTheWork: Roger Miller's 1965 CountryMusic crossover hit "One Dyin' and A-Buryin'" is about a man contemplating suicide, and includes the line "I wanna be free" in the chorus. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart took that line and made it the title of a more wistful ballad.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** Reruns of ''Monkees'' episodes often replaced the songs from those episodes with more current ones in order to promote the band's most recent releases. Some songs were replaced multiple times. The syndication versions sometimes have the original songs and sometimes have the replaced songs, with no real pattern to it. Thus while all ''Monkees'' episodes are currently available on DVD with original songs intact, there are some fans who insist on trying to obtain copies of every variation of each episode they can, leading to a thriving tape trading market.
** The reason why "Valleri" was released as a single. The version used during the first season became a big hit in some cities when [=DJs=] recorded it from the TV broadcast and played it on the radio. As a response, they went back in the studio and cut a more polished version.
** Songs used on the show that never got released on the original albums [[note]]"All the King's Horses", the original takes of "Valleri" and "I'll Be Back up on My Feet", the uptempo "I Wanna Be Free" from the pilot, plus some 1969-era songs that got dubbed into the Saturday morning reruns, like "Steam Engine")[[/note]] were heavily bootlegged until Rhino gave them official releases on the ''Missing Links'' albums.
* LimeyGoesToHollywood: Davy, both in-universe and real life. He started out as Limey Goes To Broadway with ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' and spent the rest of his life living in the United States, including properties in Pennsylvania and UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfWriters: ''More of the Monkees'' was a rare music example of this, with Don Kirshner desperately trying to get all the various songwriters in his publishing stable represented on the album. There's a cumulative total of 19 credited writers for the album's 12 songs.

** On the musical side, the first-ever Monkees recording session in June of 1966. Snuff Garrett, who was best-known at the time for producing Gary Lewis & The Playboys, brought all four members in to cut two songs (with arrangements by Leon Russell), but the group clashed with him (especially after he decided to designate Davy as the lead singer) and Garrett resigned from the project by mutual agreement after the session. While photos of the session have survived, the actual tapes have never turned up (and not for lack of searching, either).
* NamesTheSame: ''The Monkees''' Davy Jones [[note]]Actual name: David Thomas Jones[[/note]] is not a character from nautical folklore or ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean.'' However, he was responsible for another Davy Jones changing his name to Music/DavidBowie.
** This was referenced in the episode "Hitting the High Seas." The ship's captain learns that one of the boys is named Davy Jones and assumes he is the descendant of the famous character from folklore -- Micky quickly plays into it: "...And when he's 25, he inherits the Locker!"
** In "The Devil and Peter Tork", when UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}} learns that one of the Monkees is Davy Jones, he tries to recruit him to be part of his crew.
** This was also referenced in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Spongebob vs. The Big One," in which Davy guest stars.
** Also referenced in an episode of the '90s remake of ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' cartoon (in which the title character was voiced by Creator/MattFrewer). The episode had a pirate theme, so upon being threatened with being sent to Davy Jones' locker, the Panther deadpanned: "Wasn't he the lead singer of The Monkees?"
* NewbieBoom: At the end of 1985 ''Monkee Business Fanzine'', which was the main source for news about them at the time, had a few hundred subscribers. At the end of 1986, it had around ''11,000''. (An increase of somewhere around 1,500%!!)

* OutOfOrder: The airing order of the episodes is all jumbled up. The first episode, "The Royal Flush" was the third one filmed, while the pilot aired as the tenth episode. "The Monkees Race Again" was the last episode filmed but debuted six weeks before the last aired episode, "Mijacogeo".
* PromotedFanboy: The rock luminaries who contributed songs to ''Good Times!'', like [[{{Music/Weezer}} Rivers Cuomo]][[note]]Who shares an alma mater with Peter Tork, E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut[[/note]], [[Music/DeathCabForCutie Ben]] [[Music/ThePostalService Gibbard]], [[{{Music/Oasis}} Noel Gallagher]], [[Music/TheJam Paul Weller]], plus [[Music/FountainsOfWayne Adam Schlesinger]], who also produced the album. They were all admirers of Monkee music and jumped at the offer to contribute material for a new album.
** [[Music/{{XTC}} Andy Partridge]] is especially notable, since he was a fan in TheSixties and [[http://www.monkeeslivealmanac.com/blog/is-andy-partridge-of-xtc-writing-a-new-song-for-the-monkees had a drawing he made of Micky]] published in the official fan publication in 1968. Micky sings lead on Partridge's "You Bring The Summer".

* ReferencedBy: In the series premiere of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', Ensign Barnes tells her date Ensign Rutherford that she's a fan of a "classical band called the Monkees" (the group is over ''400 years old'' from their late 24th-century perspective), and he responds, "Let's just say that '''I'm a believer'''."

* SimilarlyNamedWorks:
** They recorded two unrelated Davy Jones-co-written songs called "You and I". The first was written with Bill Chadwick and appeared on their 1969 album ''Instant Replay''. The second was written with Micky Dolenz and was featured on the 1976 side project ''Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart'' and later rerecorded by the Monkees for their 1996 album ''Justus''.
** ''Changes'' was the original title of ''Head'', plus a song Davy wrote and recorded for the movie (but it got passed over for inclusion), then became the title of their final first-run album in 1970. Not to mention a song by that ''other'' [[Music/DavidBowie David Jones]].
** Mike's "Good Clean Fun" was a NonAppearingTitle but the phrase "here I am" features prominently in the lyrics. A couple years later he released a completely different solo song called "Here I Am".
** The Peter Tork-penned "Little Girl" on ''Good Times!'' isn't the same song as Micky's "Little Girl" from ''The Monkees Present''.
* ThrowItIn:
** The song "Gonna Buy Me a Dog" from the first album was intended to be a quirky novelty tune to wrap up the album on a light-hearted note. However, Micky and Davy found the song corny rather than funny, and used one take to goof off and just basically make fun of the song. This version was the one that got released.
** The band included "Band 6" and "Zilch" (both of which were short clips of the boys cutting up in the studio) in the final track listing for ''Headquarters'' to add to the off-the-wall, spontaneous atmosphere of the project.
** The single mix of "Daydream Believer" opens with this bit of StudioChatter:
--->'''Chip Douglas:''' (This is take) 7A.\\
'''Davy Jones:''' What number is this, Chip?\\
'''Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz:''' ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Seven. A!!!]]''\\
'''Davy Jones:''' Okay, know what I mean, like, don't get excited, man. It's 'cause I'm short, I know.
** Ad libs and outtakes were frequently left in the finished product of the TV series. This was designed to be a part of the show from the very beginning; when they were casting the series, the producers made certain to hire actors with strong improvisational skills.

* TroubledProduction:
** ''More of The Monkees'', their second album. Don Kirshner really became a ControlFreak with this album. The debut album had been recorded in Hollywood, with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart handling most of the songwriting and production (with Music/MichaelNesmith getting two songs as writer[=/=]singer[=/=]producer). After that, Kirshner moved recording to his home base of New York, with veteran songwriter and producer Jeff Barry in charge, effectively pushing Boyce, Hart and Nesmith to the sidelines (only four songs between them ended up on the second album). While the band hadn't been allowed to control the music on the first album, they had a cozy relationship with Boyce and Hart and still felt like they were a vital part of the process. Now, their only involvement was dubbing vocals onto pre-recorded music tracks shipped cross-country. Nesmith, whose relationship with Kirshner was already frosty, was livid over the change. Things came to a head during the recording of "I'm a Believer". The band had unanimously agreed that with its folkish sound, Nesmith was the best choice to sing it, but Barry and Kirshner didn't think he had a commercial voice and gave it to Dolenz. On top of that, [[ThePerfectionist Perfectionist]] Nesmith and more laid-back Barry had a big fight early on in the sessions. Then, Kirshner also got into a battle with Bert Schneider,[[note]]Who, being the son of Columbia Pictures president Abe Schneider, was not the wisest person for Kirshner to be picking fights with[[/note]] accusing him of trying to butt into the music end of the project too much. The Monkees only found out about the album's release when someone saw it in a store while they were out on tour. They especially loathed the packaging; the front cover was an unflattering shot taken from a shoot they did to promote a cheesy JC Penney Monkees clothing line, and the back cover contained outdated pics and liner notes from Kirshner celebrating the album's writers and producers and giving scant DamnedByFaintPraise mention to the band. The ultimate firing of Kirshner had deep roots in the second album's drama.
** ''Pool It!'', the 1987 reunion album. For starters, Nesmith declined to take part, meaning it wasn't a full reunion. Then Creator/RhinoRecords and the band seemed to have different visions for the album. Rhino was looking for a PowerPop album that would please old fans and appeal to younger audiences alike (something along the lines of Music/{{Squeeze}}). The band (Davy in particular) wanted a contemporary-sounding chartbuster. Davy even made the unaffordable and unrealistic suggestion that Rhino hire Music/QuincyJones to produce! The label approached Music/NickLowe to produce, but he was busy and reluctantly said no. Lowe's frequent collaborator Dave Edmunds was asked, but wasn't interested. The job ultimately went to Roger Bechirian, who had worked with the likes of Lowe and Music/ElvisCostello, but had a spotty record overall as a producer (he was better-regarded as an engineer). While they managed to book the prestigious Cherokee Studios in Hollywood for the sessions, the material wasn't anywhere near top notch. The majority of the songs were written by various cronies of Bechirian, ranging from good to dreadful. Davy was still envisioning the album as the Monkee version of ''Music/{{Thriller}}''. According to Rhino honcho Harold Bronson, Micky [[YokoOhNo brought in his then-wife and deferred most of his decision-making to her]]. Bronson secured the rights to cover the Wreckless Eric PowerPop classic "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" specifically for Davy to sing, but he turned it down (Micky does the vocal on the finished version). Then, as luck would have it, Series/TheNewMonkees were recording at the same studio, and great pains were taken to avoid a confrontation between the two groups. The end product reeked of WereStillRelevantDammit and only made it to #72 on the ''Billboard'' album chart.

* UrbanLegend: For years it was believed that UsefulNotes/CharlesManson (yes, THAT Charles Manson), was one of the aspiring musicians to have auditioned for a part in the show, but in reality Manson was in prison at the time. Additionally, since the casting notice called for boys ages 17 to 21, the 30-year-old Manson would have been immediately sent away if he had tried to audition.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The members felt the roles they had been assigned didn't fit their individual musical talents, particularly what instruments they were each good at. If they had had their way, Davy would have been on drums, Peter on guitar, Mike on bass, and Micky as the frontman (since they all agreed his voice was a signature element of the band). Mike and Peter could play all sorts of stringed instruments, but Mike was an accomplished bassist and he believed Peter to be a better guitarist than him. Their specific, preferred assignments appeared just once, in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJJL-clqdfU promotional clip for "Words"]].
** One of musicians who unsuccessfully auditioned for the group was Stephen Stills. While different stories have circulated as to why he was turned down, Stills has clarified that Bob Rafelson and Burt Schneider ultimately didn't think he was telegenic enough and that, while obviously a good musician, he didn't really have the comedy chops they were looking for. Stephen Stills as a Monkee would mean no Music/BuffaloSpringfield or Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung. But Stills played a major role in the group anyway, because he told Rafelson and Schneider that his old Greenwich Village pal Peter Tork, who looked like a handsomer version of Stills, had recently moved to California (Stills and Tork had just played a nightclub gig together) and needed a job, and the rest is history.
** A fanciful AlternateHistory timeline following Stills' acceptance into the Monkees (with cataclysmic consequences for a huge chunk of subsequent rock history) can be found [[http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/09/12/alternate-history-x-what-if-stephen-stills-had-joined-the-monkees/ here]].
*** Another auditionee who received serious consideration was Van Dyke Parks. Who would [[Music/TheBeachBoys Brian]] [[Music/BrianWilson Wilson]] have collaborated with on ''Music/{{Smile}}'' if Parks had become a Monkee? And the relationship between Parks and Don Kirshner would've been...interesting.
** One of the reasons the show was canceled was a disagreement with the network over the show's format. The band felt that the sitcom format had grown stale and tried to sell Creator/{{NBC}} on a variety show, with skits and special musical guests. Considering that they'd already managed to work appearances by Music/TimBuckley and Music/FrankZappa into the second season, the latter could have been especially interesting. Just one of these specials was aired, 1969's ''33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee'', which was a ratings flop. Peter had actually left the group on the final day of filming, so further specials would have been down a Monkee anyway.
** The series was originally going to feature the real band Music/TheLovinSpoonful, but lead singer-songwriter John Sebastian had already signed the band to another label, which meant the producers of ''The Monkees'' couldn't distribute their music.
*** The folk group The Mitchell Trio (formerly the Chad Mitchell Trio, but with a young Music/JohnDenver filling in [[TheBandMinusTheFace after Mitchell went solo]]) also auditioned but were rejected for being too mature.
** Music/PaulWilliams auditioned for the group. He later wrote "Someday Man" for them.
** Music/HarryNilsson also tried out for the group but was rejected. He later wrote the song "Cuddly Toy", which the group covered.
** Eventually the auditionees were whittled down to 14 or so finalists (basically competing for three slots, since Davy was always going to be in the group) who were screen tested in various combinations. Most of the rejected candidates sank into obscurity afterwards, but a few notable names were among them. Bill Callaway would go on to be a prolific animation voice actor. Michael Burns had a busy acting career (including playing the male lead in Creator/RobertAltman's ''Film/ThatColdDayInThePark'') until he left Hollywood in TheSeventies to become a history professor. Bill Chadwick stuck around as part of the band's entourage, writing several songs and helping out on tours as a manager.
** Bob Rafelson briefly considered calling them The Creeps or The Inevitables.
** ''The Monkees Present'' was originally conceived in 1968 as a double album which devoted one side to each member of the group, who by now were recording virtually as solo artists. There was even talk of it being a 4-record set with each Monkee getting his own album. By 1969, though, with Tork now gone, and record sales waning, the decision was made to pare the track selection down to a single disc. The [[Music/KissSoloAlbums "simultaneous solo albums" idea]] was later used by Music/{{KISS}}.
** All four of them agreed to reunite to present an award at the Primetime Emmys in 1980, but an actors' strike led to a mass boycott of the ceremony and Mike and Micky elected not to cross the picket line.
** In his autobiography Micky says that toward the end of TheSixties, Music/FrankZappa invited him to join The Mothers of Invention, but [[ScrewedByTheLawyers he couldn't get out of his Monkees contract]].
** They were seriously considered to play at the Film/MontereyPop Festival, but after weeks of deliberation, John Phillips and Lou Adler decided not to invite them. However, Micky Dolenz (in full American Indian buckskins and headdress) and Peter Tork attended the festival and mingled with musicians backstage. Tork was asked to introduce Buffalo Springfield, his favorite group, for their set. Tork also introduced Lou Rawls and was involved in a bizarre incident where he walked out onstage in the middle of Music/TheGratefulDead's set to try to stop fans from climbing on stage and dancing. Tork also informed the crowd that the Beatles were not at the festival in disguise.
** As mentioned in Troubled Production, if the band had their way, Michael would've sang lead on "I'm a Believer". Micky was supposed to sing "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" but boycotted the session as a protest against Don Kirshner, who instead turned to Davy, who ''did'' show up, to take over.[[note]]Micky stopped off in New York before embarking on his famous February 1967 trip to London, where he met The Beatles and his future wife Samantha Juste, as chronicled in the lyrics of "Randy Scouse Git". His understanding was that he was only supposed to dub the vocal for "A Little Bit Me", but when he was informed that Kirshner wanted him to do other songs as well, Micky said ScrewThisImOuttaHere and never showed up. It was this incident, more than anything else, that started the chain of events leading to Kirshner's ouster[[/note]]
** Before Kirshner was fired, he was supervising a third Monkees album using the same methodology as ''More of the Monkees''--Jeff Barry producing songs in New York that the band would later dub vocals for. The songs that were worked on tended to be either pure bubblegum rock ("I Wanna Be Your Puppy Dog", "Sugar Man") or schmaltz ("If I Learned to Play the Violin", "Love is on the Way"), and likely would've only led to more dismissal of their music as disposable lightweight pop, as opposed to the more accomplished work they ended up doing on the actual third album, ''Headquarters''. A few of the songs eventually received Monkees vocals and have been released as bonus tracks on various Rhino releases.
* WordOfGod:
** "For Pete's Sake" may have been written by Peter, but it was Mike who named it.
** "Mijacogeo" is a ShoutOut to the first names of Micky's immediate family: '''Mi'''cky, his mother '''Ja'''nelle, sister '''Co'''co and father '''Geo'''rge. The name "Frodis" came to him in a dream.
** In a 1978 interview with Blitz Magazine, Mike Nesmith corrected the interviewer who regarded "Pleasant Valley Sunday" as being about suburban America:
--->"I hate to pop your balloon about 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'. That song was actually written about a mental institution."
* WorkingTitle: "Listen To The Band" started life as [[WordSaladTitle "Bonnie Jean and The Psychedelic Car"]].

** ''Series/ThePartridgeFamily'' was an attempt by Screen Gems to reuse the successful methodology they'd found with The Monkees, although the show's premise was based on the real-life family pop group the Cowsills. It worked for a while.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Headquarters'', which had no singles released in America (though several tracks got Top 40 radio airplay, with "Shades of Gray" and "You Just May Be the One" as the most popular). "Randy Scouse Git"/"Alternate Title" got to #2 on the British charts, however.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Headquarters'', which had no singles released in America. ("Randy Scouse Git"/"Alternate Title" was a hit in England.)

** ''More of The Monkees'', their second album. Don Kirshner really became a ControlFreak with this album. The debut album had been recorded in Hollywood, with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart handling most of the songwriting and production (with Music/MichaelNesmith getting two songs as writer[=/=]singer[=/=]producer). After that, Kirshner elected to move recording to his home base of New York, with veteran songwriter and producer Jeff Barry in charge, effectively pushing Boyce, Hart and Nesmith to the sidelines (only four songs between them ended up on the second album). While the band hadn't been allowed to control the music on the first album, they had a cozy relationship with Boyce and Hart and still felt like they were a vital part of the process. Now, their only involvement was to dubbing vocals onto pre-recorded music tracks. Nesmith, whose relationship with Kirshner was already frosty, was livid over the change. Things came to a head during the recording of "I'm a Believer". The band had unanimously agreed that with its folkish sound, Nesmith was the best choice to sing it, but Barry and Kirshner didn't think he had a commercial voice and gave it to Dolenz. On top of that, [[ThePerfectionist Perfectionist]] Nesmith and more laid-back Barry had a big fight early on in the sessions. Then, Kirshner also got into a battle with Bert Schneider,[[note]]Who, being the son of Columbia Pictures president Abe Schneider, was not the wisest person for Kirshner to be picking fights with[[/note]] accusing him of trying to butt into the music end of the project too much. The Monkees only found out about the album's release when someone saw it in a store while they were out on tour. They especially loathed the packaging; the front cover was an unflattering shot taken from a shoot they did to promote a cheesy JC Penney Monkees clothing line, and the back cover contained outdated pics and liner notes from Kirshner celebrating the album's writers and producers and giving scant DamnedByFaintPraise mention to the band. The ultimate firing of Kirshner had deep roots in the second album's drama.

** ''More of The Monkees'', their second album. Don Kirshner really became a ControlFreak with this album. The debut album had been recorded in Hollywood, with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart handling most of the songwriting and production (with Music/MichaelNesmith getting two songs as writer[=/=]singer[=/=]producer). After that, Kirshner elected to move recording to his home base of New York, with veteran songwriter and producer Jeff Barry in charge, effectively pushing Boyce, Hart and Nesmith to the sidelines. While the band hadn't been allowed to control the music on the first album, they had a cozy relationship with Boyce and Hart and still felt like they were a vital part of the process. Now, their only involvement was to dub vocals onto pre-recorded music tracks. Nesmith, whose relationship with Kirshner was already frosty, was livid over the change. Things came to a head during the recording of "I'm a Believer". The band had unanimously agreed that with its folkish sound, Nesmith was the best choice to sing it, but Barry and Kirshner didn't think he had a commercial voice and gave it to Dolenz. On top of that, [[ThePerfectionist Perfectionist]] Nesmith and more laid-back Barry had a big personality clash. Then, Kirshner also got into a battle with Bert Schneider,[[note]]Who, being the son of Columbia Pictures president Abe Schneider, was not the wisest person for Kirshner to be picking fights with[[/note]] accusing him of trying to butt into the music end of the project too much. The Monkees only found out about the album's release when someone saw it in a store while they were out on tour, and to add insult to injury, the cover photo came from a shoot they did to promote a cheesy JC Penney Monkees clothing line. The ultimate firing of Kirshner had deep roots in the second album's drama.

** ''More of The Monkees'', their second album. Basically, this is where Don Kirshner decided to exhibit his ControlFreak tendencies. The debut album had been recorded in Hollywood, with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart handling most of the songwriting and production (with Music/MichaelNesmith getting two songs as writer[=/=]singer[=/=]producer). After that, Kirshner elected to move recording to his home base of New York, with veteran songwriter and producer Jeff Barry in charge, effectively pushing Boyce, Hart and Nesmith to the sidelines. While the band hadn't been allowed to control the music on the first album, they had a cozy relationship with Boyce and Hart and still felt like they were a vital part of the process. Now, their only involvement was to dub vocals onto pre-recorded music tracks. Nesmith, whose relationship with Kirshner was already frosty, was livid over the change. Things came to a head during the recording of "I'm a Believer". The band had unanimously agreed that with its folkish sound, Nesmith was the best choice to sing it, but Barry and Kirshner didn't think he had a commercial voice and gave it to Dolenz. On top of that, [[ThePerfectionist Perfectionist]] Nesmith and more laid-back Barry had a big personality clash. Then, Kirshner also got into a battle with Bert Schneider,[[note]]Who, being the son of Columbia Pictures president Abe Schneider, was not the wisest person for Kirshner to be picking fights with[[/note]] accusing him of trying to butt into the music end of the project too much. The Monkees only found out about the album's release when someone saw it in a store while they were out on tour, and to add insult to injury, the cover photo came from a shoot they did to promote a cheesy JC Penney Monkees clothing line. The ultimate firing of Kirshner had deep roots in the second album's drama.

* TroubledProduction: ''Pool It!'', the 1987 reunion album. For starters, Music/MichaelNesmith declined to take part, meaning it wasn't a full reunion. Then Creator/RhinoRecords and the band seemed to have different visions for the album. Rhino was looking for a PowerPop album that would please old fans and appeal to younger audiences alike (something along the lines of Music/{{Squeeze}}). The band (Davy in particular) wanted a contemporary-sounding chartbuster. Davy even made the unaffordable and unrealistic suggestion that Rhino hire Music/QuincyJones to produce! The label approached Music/NickLowe to produce, but he was busy and reluctantly said no. Lowe's frequent collaborator Dave Edmunds was asked, but wasn't interested. The job ultimately went to Roger Bechirian, who had worked with the likes of Lowe and Music/ElvisCostello, but had a spotty record overall as a producer (he was better-regarded as an engineer). While they managed to book the prestigious Cherokee Studios in Hollywood for the sessions, the material wasn't anywhere near top notch. The majority of the songs were written by various cronies of Bechirian, ranging from good to dreadful. Davy was still envisioning the album as the Monkee version of ''Music/{{Thriller}}''. According to Rhino honcho Harold Bronson, Micky [[YokoOhNo brought in his then-wife and deferred most of his decision-making to her]]. Bronson secured the rights to cover the Wreckless Eric PowerPop classic "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" specifically for Davy to sing, but he turned it down (Micky does the vocal on the finished version). Then, as luck would have it, Series/TheNewMonkees were recording at the same studio, and great pains were taken to avoid a confrontation between the two groups. The end product reeked of WereStillRelevantDammit and only made it to #72 on the ''Billboard'' album chart.

** A handful of rejected auditionees got as far as the screen test phase, but most didn't go on to do anything else of note. There were exceptions, though: William Callaway would become a prolific animation voice actor; Michael Burns had a busy acting career toward the end of TheSixties (including playing the male lead in Creator/RobertAltman's ''Film/ThatColdDayInThePark''); and Bill Chadwick went on to write several songs for the group and be the road manager for a few of their tours.

** Micky Dolenz recalled that one guest star[[note]]Most likely Hans Conried in "The Monkees' Paw"[[/note]] got so annoyed with their ad-libbing that he left saying, "God, I hate these fucking kids".

** One of musicians who unsuccessfully auditioned for the group was Stephen Stills. While different stories have circulated as to why he was turned down, Stills has clarified that Bob Rafelson and Burt Schneider ultimately didn't think he was telegenic enough and that, while obviously a good musician, he didn't really have the comedy chops they were looking for. Stephen Stills as a Monkee would mean no Music/BuffaloSpringfield or Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung. But Stills played a major role in the group anyway, because he mentioned that his old Greenwich Village pal Peter Tork, who looked like a handsomer version of Stills, had recently moved to California (Stills and Tork had recently played a nightclub gig together) and needed a job, and the rest is history.

** One of musicians who unsuccessfully auditioned for the group was Stephen Stills. Conflicting accounts exist for his not joining the group. Some claim it was because producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider felt he wasn't telegenic enough, while others claim that he passed on the role because it contractually obligated him to assign his songwriting and publishing rights to Creator/ScreenGems, which co-produced the series along with Raybert Productions, Rafelson and Schneider's production company, which was something he did not want to do. Had he been accepted, there would have been no Music/BuffaloSpringfield or Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung. As it happened, Stills wound up recommending his then-roommate, Peter Tork, for the gig, and the rest is history.

** Most of the handful of auditionees who made it to the screen test phase didn't go on to do anything else of note, but there were exceptions: William Callaway would become a prolific animation voice actor; Michael Burns had a busy acting career toward the end of TheSixties (including playing the male lead in Creator/RobertAltman's ''Film/ThatColdDayInThePark''); and Bill Chadwick went on to write several songs for the group and be the road manager for a few of their tours.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Davy Jones died in 2012, and Peter Tork died in 2019.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Peter Tork died in 2019.

* BreakupBreakout: Nesmith was the only Monkee to have a Top 40 solo hit, with his 1970 #21 hit "Joanne". He became well known as a pioneer of the country rock genre and as an early adopter of both home video and the music video. His show ''Pop-Clips'', which aired on the then-new Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} in 1980, is considered to be the direct predecessor of Creator/{{MTV}}, launched by Nickelodeon's then-owner Warner the next year.

-->"I hate to pop your balloon about 'Pleasant Valley Sunday'. That song was actually written about a mental institution."

* CashCowFranchise: Since 1970 they made an unusual journey from being out of favor to being considered a CultClassic and finally ending up as this trope. It helps that the fandom now spans several generations: the original fans from TheSixties, the fans they picked up via the syndicated reruns that began in 1975, and of course the MTV-fueled 1986 comeback, alongside those discovering them today. Creator/RhinoRecords, who first reissued Monkees music in the TheEighties, gained full rights to the Monkee music and video catalog in 1994 [[note]]they bought the rights from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who won them in a court settlement with Columbia Pictures after they sued the studio for destroying the outtakes of ''Film/EasyRider'' they'd been storing[[/note]] and has issued numerous well-received collections, curated by PromotedFanboy [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sandoval Andrew Sandoval]].

** After their 80s comeback there were several attempts to do a new Monkees movie. Around 1987-88 there were preliminary announcements about one called ''The Monkees Save the World'', with Mike even penciled in to rejoin the others for it, but it never got past the planning stage. In 1994, Creator/ColumbiaPictures tried to get the ball rolling on a reunion film with a PuttingTheBandBackTogether plot, and Creator/JonLovitz playing their ex-manager. After a few fruitless script meetings between potential writers and Rhino Records chief Harold Bronson (who, with Rhino now in control of the Monkees franchise, was the point man for any film project), the idea was dropped, but Bronson still wanted to do a movie. ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' writer Jeff Sherman wrote a spy-spoof script that Bronson liked, but no one was interested in backing it. [[UsefulNotes/NoteworthyDisneyStaff Disney exec]] David Hoberman showed interest in a Monkees movie, but had CreativeDifferences with Bronson. An idea cooked up by Mike and former Creator/{{NBC}} president Brandon Tartikoff, an oddball comedy set in a town where the ''Magazine/WeeklyWorldNews'' is the factual local newspaper, came close to getting greenlighted, but salary demands from band members proved unfeasible. Ultimately the band reunited for the 1997 ''Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees'' TV special, and Rhino got a movie ''about'' the Monkees made, the 2000 Creator/{{VH1}} DocuDrama ''Daydream Believers: The Monkees' Story''.

* DirectedByCastMember: Micky Dolenz ("Mijacogeo"[=/=]"The Frodis Caper") and Peter Tork ('The Monkees Mind Their Manor") each directed an episode of the series. Dolenz later had some success as a TV director in Britain.

* LimeyGoesToHollywood: Davy, both in-universe and real life. He started out as Limey Goes To Broadway with ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' and spent the rest of his life living in the United States, including properties in Pennsylvania and Florida.

** In the mid-80s, Micky and Peter teamed up to record some new songs for a Monkees compilation album. Peter expressed displeasure at having to record "Kicks", a CoverVersion of a hit by the group's 60s contemporaries Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders, comparing it to Music/TheBeatles reuniting and being forced to record "Ferry Cross the Mersey".[[note]]A hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers, Liverpool contemporaries of the Beatles, who enjoyed some success but were considered far below the Beatles in both popularity and musical ability.[[/note]]

** One of musicians who unsuccessfully auditioned for the group was Stephen Stills. Conflicting accounts exist for his not joining the group. Some claim it was because producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider felt he wasn't telegenic enough, while others claim that he passed on the role because it contractually obligated him to assign his songwriting and publishing rights to Creator/ScreenGems, which co-produced the series along with Raybert Productions, Rafelson and Schneider's production company, which was something he did not want to do. Had he been accepted, there would have been no Buffalo Springfield or Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung. As it happened, Stills wound up recommending his then-roommate, Peter Tork, for the gig, and the rest is history.