While three of the Monkees were on a 20th anniversary tour, some genius at Columbia Pictures Television (now Sony Pictures Television) thought it'd be cool to revive the TV series with a new set of musicians/characters, and a completely different setting.
Unfortunately, The New Monkees was a major bomb, cancelled after 13 episodes. The lone album failed to produce a major hit, even though the four guys in the band were all musicians this time, one of whom already had a contract with his own band, the Wigs.
I never got to see New Monkees, and maybe it's just as well, considering the concept that placed them in a mansion, even though none of them were rich enough to warrant it. Just to illustrate how lame this was, check out the intro:
If you ain't dizzy from watching that, I'm happy for you. Y'think maybe they missed the boat by not doing any promos on MTV, which actually supported the original group's anniversary tour and had rerun rights to the original series? Um, yeah.
No rating.
As a Monkees fan I DID watch this show and you're right in it being a train wreck. Someone was hoping to ride the coattails of the original band's revival by creating a modern version of them. The casting of the band wasn't bad, as the actors/musicians seemed likeable enough. The problems were the music (too Glass Tiger - there was only one song I liked and thought it deserved to chart) and the premise of living in a mansion so big it had hundreds of rooms. It even had its own diner and a waitress named Rita. I tuned in partly out of curiosity and partly because I had hoped the original group would stop by and disrupt things and show these guys just how a funny show is done!
ReplyDeleteWhat TBTB should have done was create a sequel series and cast the daughters of the original Monkees. That could have had far better possibilities.
I remember hearing the New Monkees' lone single on the radio, and waving it off as just another lame song.
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