The Partridge Family Bulletin Board

AarHandy3

For those of you who can't wait until The Monkees' 40th anniversary in 2006...

2005 marks the 30th syndicated year of The Monkees television show.

When it first appeared in local syndication in September 1975, 2 years after completing a neat 4-year run on CBS and ABC Saturday Afternoon (September 1969 - August 1973), the first 7 TV stations to have the honour of carrying the series locally were KBHK-TV in San Francisco, WFLD-TV in Chicago, WKBS-TV in Philadelphia, WKBD-TV in Detroit, WLVI-TV in Boston, KDNL in St. Louis, and WDCA-TV in Washington D.C. (Peter Tork's hometown!!). For 9 years the show played on and off these and other local markets until the group's 20th Anniversary in 1986 put them over worldwide.

I myself am a Generation-2 Monkees fan who got hooked from seeing the repeats on MTV. The celebration saw The Monkees playing in my hometown (New Orleans) for the very first time, in Summer of '86, on WNOL-TV Channel 38. (The Monkees themselves played 2 20th Anniversary concerts in The Big Easy in 1986; one @ The Audobon Zoo, the other @ The Superdome.)

The series still currently pops up on cable and digital TV occasionally, despite both seasons being released on DVD by Rhino, and despite the fact that its episode compliment is only over half of the required magic 100 episodes for a series to be shown in syndication. The Monkees' last big hurrah (so far) was on TV Land in summer 2002 as part of its TV Land Kitschen schedule, with annual showings of the 1967 Christmas episode on the TV Land Merry-Thon; in recent years, the show has enjoyed runs on the Canadian Much More Music. Saturday, June 25 saw Episode No. 19 of the series,
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Sheriffswell · Moderator Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 681 Location: NY

Aaron,
Haven't heard from you in years good to see you are keeping everyone abreast of the anniversaries of various Monkee milestones and so forth.

I don't think that Mike, Micky, Davy, or Peter are planning any reunion for 2006 and so I doubt that the 40th annivesary will bring us anything new.

As for the Monkees in syndication/DVD, it would be great if TVLAND should add them back to the regular schedule along with The Partridge Family. I have not purchased the DVD sets of season 1, and season 2 because I have read horrible reviews of them. Apparently they were rush jobs and no special features, no commentaries. I'm not sure about the actual image/sound but that would be the only advantage to replace my VHS tapes.

I know that Rhino also issued "Our favorite Episodes" dvds that were supposedly 'handpicked' by the Monkees cast. Not sure if they include any extras - can anyone tell me if they are worth picking up?

Being as there are only 2 seasons (Plus the two tv specials "33 1/3 revolutions per Monkee", and "Justus"), I wonder if Rhino would consider re-mastering and re-issuing "The Monkees" in a new DVD package? Perhaps include some concert footage or other lost footage? I mean it screws fans who purchased the inflated original sets but if the extas are included it would be worth it.

Ed

Lina Partridge · Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject:

Hmmmm...interesting.

I'd ordered both Seasons 1 and 2 DVD sets through the Columbia House DVD club because I could get them at a discount using my club points.
I waited several weeks before getting notices that my orders were cancelled since they couldn't get any stock to fill the orders. Mad

Yet, they still have them advertised as available to order... Confused

I've wanted these for a long time, being a huge Monkees fan, but the price always held me back. I hadn't read any bad reviews of them, on the other hand I was kind of hoping for a few extras.

If nothing's planned for the 40th anniversary maybe I'll just try my luck on ebay again and hope I can get a fairly decent price. Cool

sunshine eyes · Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:38 am Post subject:

I happen to own the DVDs of the Monkees on Rhino. There are a few commentaries and a few extras too. I happen to be pleased with them. i also have the box set, Music Box which has 100 songs on it.

Maybe they'll have a 20th anniversary of their 20th anniversary from 1986.