When the TV series was about to be renewed for a third season, The Monkees wanted to change it from a half-hour sitcom to an hour-long variety show where they would introduce new artists; however, NBC gave the group an ultimatum: stick with the format as it was or be canceled. They stuck to their guns and, as a result, the TV series was canceled after two seasons.
The four members of The Monkees were each paid $450.00 per episode of their TV series, which was raised to $750.00 for its second season. They received standard royalty rates for their recordings (and publishing, when they wrote the songs), but virtually nothing for their merchandising. Both Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz sued Columbia Pictures in the late 1970s, but they
had to settle for a payment of only $10,000.00 each.
The original inspiration for the TV series was the film A Hard Day's Night (1964) starring The Beatles. Strangely enough, when The Beatles made their U.S. debut on Meet The Beatles (1964) on February 9, 1964, Davy Jones was also on that TV episode as a member of a stage acting troupe performing a scene from Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist."
The TV series was filmed on the Columbia Pictures studio lot, and many of the sets and props that were used in it were left over from the studio's series of short films which The Three Stooges had starred in.
The first version of the TV series' pilot episode, Here Come the Monkees (1966), set a new record at the time - for the lowest ratings for a TV pilot. A re-edited second version of the same episode that featured Davy Jones' and Michael Nesmith's original screen tests at the beginning scored one of the highest test ratings ever.