Monkees Day

“Hey, hey we’re the Monkees -- and we don’t monkey around...” The theme song from the NBC-TV, The Monkees, kicked off a fun-filled weekly series on this day in 1966. Some 400 aspiring actors had auditioned for the Columbia television series by producer Don Kirschner. Davy Jones, a former English horse racing jockey; Michael Nesmith, a session guitarist; Peter Tork of the Phoenix Singers; and Micky Dolenz, who had appeared in the TV series Circus Boy were picked to be America’s answer to The Beatles. The four were picked to become the fabricated music group -- not because they could sing, act or play musical instruments -- but because they looked the parts. Dolenz and Jones were actors, Tork and Nesmith had some musical experience.

The Monkees were the first made-for-TV rock group. Ironically -- or maybe not -- The Monkees TV show won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series of 1967.

I note with sadness that Davy Jones died this past February, just before he was to have appeared at the Crystal Grand Theater here in the Dells.