Here Come the Monkees

"Here Come the Monkees," although the 10th episode broadcast (Nov 14 1966), was actually the original pilot, shot Nov 11-20 1965, slightly reshuffled with some new footage of the group filmed for the musical numbers. There is a brief appearance from The Monkees' manager (Bing Russell, father of Kurt), never to be seen again, and wisely dropped for the resultant series. There is the introduction of 'Davy's in Love,' complete with starry eyes, as the band perform at the Sweet Sixteen party for Vanessa Russell, played by actual 16 year old Robyn Millan, who later entranced David Cassidy's Keith on THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY ("Dora, Dora, Dora," with Jack Burns as her father). There are brief appearances from Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, the writers of the pilot, whose greatest success was 1969's "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice." The final romp features many surreal elements, an integral part of the series' success, concluding with black and white footage from both Davy and Mike's screen tests (the unaired pilot put these introductions at the very beginning). All three songs were composed by original producers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, with their own vocals accompanying the slower, more folksy versions recorded in 1965. "(Theme from) The Monkees" and "Let's Dance On" (the final releases) were recorded the same day (July 5 1966), while both versions of "I Wanna Be Free" were recorded July 19. The slow version of "I Wanna Be Free," featuring Davy alone backed by string quartet, featured prominently on the debut album, while the faster, organ-based, more bluesy version sung mainly by Micky (here billed for the last time as 'Micky Braddock') did not see release until 1990's MISSING LINKS 2. A simple reedit by Robert Rafelson, helping the test audience identify the group members, salvaged the pilot and ensured that NBC would pick up the series for 1966, with filming starting the last day of May with "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth" (the offscreen voice interviewing The Monkees at the end of many episodes belonged to Rafelson).