While not great television it's still entertaining television. With the success of the Beatles, the creators of this show wanted something similar. Namely a band of four young men who could sing and act in a weekly television series. In the end what they got was a singer who also happened to be British, two folk musicians and a former child star. They became known as "The Monkees" because, as the theme song says, they liked to "monkey" around.
The show itself is a rather fictionalized aspect of their lives in which they romp and play, get into strange situations and play a couple musical numbers which may or may not include hijinks. Of course they all play their parts. Davey was the cute one. Mike was the serious one. Mickey was the goofy one. And Peter was the stupid one. A lot like that other group of four musicians from Liverpool.
And while the boys were talented in what they did, they weren't allowed to actually play their own instruments or write their own songs at least at first. It took some time, some convincing and a lot of hard work on their end to finally get the green light to do so. After all, they went on tour and came out with albums so they needed to be at least competent at what they did.
But they never got the recognition that they deserved because they were never seen as a "real" band hence the pejorative "Pre-fab" Four. After all they were created as a response to the Beatles, known as the Fab Four, but they didn't come together organically hence the idea they were constructed. And honestly that's pretty unfair all things considered that today all we have are manufactured pop stars that, in some cases, don't even sing their own works.
This show is just fun and if you happen to like their music, as I do, it's even better.
The show itself is a rather fictionalized aspect of their lives in which they romp and play, get into strange situations and play a couple musical numbers which may or may not include hijinks. Of course they all play their parts. Davey was the cute one. Mike was the serious one. Mickey was the goofy one. And Peter was the stupid one. A lot like that other group of four musicians from Liverpool.
And while the boys were talented in what they did, they weren't allowed to actually play their own instruments or write their own songs at least at first. It took some time, some convincing and a lot of hard work on their end to finally get the green light to do so. After all, they went on tour and came out with albums so they needed to be at least competent at what they did.
But they never got the recognition that they deserved because they were never seen as a "real" band hence the pejorative "Pre-fab" Four. After all they were created as a response to the Beatles, known as the Fab Four, but they didn't come together organically hence the idea they were constructed. And honestly that's pretty unfair all things considered that today all we have are manufactured pop stars that, in some cases, don't even sing their own works.
This show is just fun and if you happen to like their music, as I do, it's even better.