45 REVOLUTIONS PER MONKEE!!

[AaronHandy3]

It was exactly 45 years ago today that, in Screen Gems Studio 7, Hollywood, CA, the pilot episode for what would eventually becme THE MONKEES television series, entitled, oddly enough, "Here Come The Monkees," went in front of the cameras for the very first time. It wa shot for 10 days at various locations in California: in Los Angeles, at Malibu Beach, CA, in San Diego, and The Del Coronada Hotel, before production wrapped on the 23rd.

A disastrous January 1966 test screening of the pilot for the Audience Studies Incorporated (ASI), a research subsidary of Screen Gems which measured samples of a viewing audience and tallied their findings via computer, sent Robert Rafelson into the cutting room for 2 days, which he spent inserting the "spontaneous, unrehearsed" screen tests of the boys (which were featured @ the outset of this networkcast version) at the very beginning of the pilot. Only then did Raybert Productions get what they so coveted from the National Broadcasting Company: firm commitment to at least 32 episodes of their strange new sitcom, The Monkees.

The non-broadcast version of this pilot featured an alternate soundtrack featuring Boyce & Hart singing the vocals to their songs (“I Wanna Be Free”, “Let’s Dance On” and "(Theme From) The Monkees"); the songs were redubbed with The Monkees' versions when the pilot was eventually broadcast on NBC as Episode No. 10 of the series on November 14, 1966, over a full year after prouction began.

So I declare The Monkees' 45th Anniversary should begin today! Anyone in agreement, say "aye"!

Well, the ayes have it!

[Goldilocks]

Aye!!