Written by Ron McGee and Harold Bronson
Directed by Neill Fearnley

Sometime back around 1976, a local television station began re-running the television series The Monkees.  I caught the fever that time around and have been a fan ever since.  This made for TV movie manages to do a good job illustrating what brought the band together and what eventually tore them apart.

Part television show, part musicians, the show was conceived as something of an answer to the Beatles.  The idea was to make a sitcom that was about four boys trying to make it as a band.  The idea had been floated before, but failed largely because they tried to use a cast that was already working together as a band.  The idea with The Monkees was to cast four boys in the roles and have the music handled as a separate issue.

Daydream Believer: The Monkees Story opens with the auditions.  Each of the boys came from a very different background and only Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith were actual musicians.  In fact, Mike was really only interested in working on the show in developing the music, not in front of the camera.  Davy Jones was a veteran Broadway actor at a very young age, and Micky Dolenz had been a child actor as well.

As the show is put together, they become the lowest-testing pilot in history until the screen tests are cut in so the audience gets to know them before the storyline begins.

It’s not long before the conflict begins.  Although Micky, and especially Davy, seem content with the show’s success, Mike was a serious musician.  He really led them in rebelling against Don Kirschner (portrayed by Wallace Langham).  Kirschner had been given exclusive creative control with the music and had a line-up of musicians and songwriters he’s made promises to.  While Mike, Peter, Micky and Davy wanted to do more than just lay vocal tracks for the music, Kirschner often recorded the instrumental tracks and then called them in for the vocals without giving them the opportunity to do any more.

Mike, though, was always about the music.  Peter was a folk musician who was into the hippie scene at the time.  Like Micky, he seemed caught in the middle.  Davy was on the opposite side and seemed to take things in stride.  The argument Mike made to this was Davy was happy being on everybody’s lunchbox and on the covers of teen magazines.  Even when John Lennon told Mike at a party how much he loved their comedy, Mike couldn’t see that as a triumph, it was always about being taken seriously as a musician.  This inability to see how great they were at what they were doing and accept that was what would eventually tear them apart.

Cast

George Stanchev as Davy
L.B. Fisher as Peter
Jeff Geddis as Mike
Aaron Lohr as Micky

The cast is excellent.  I can’t say enough for how well the cast the film.  Not only do the actors look like the four actors who were in the original show, but they manage to act like them.  In the commentary that companies the film, Peter remarks at how well L.B. Fisher even captured his smile.  All three who participate in the commentaries remark how much Jeff Geddis looks like Mike.  All of the actors do a fantastic job in the roles.  There are a few nit-picks to be had, such as the fact that Aaron Lohr is always shown with his hair sort of crazy, not plastered down in a net the way Micky had to have it initially because of network concerns.  The sequence for Daydream Believer also takes a few liberties with that very well-known sequence.

Wallace Langham from C.S.I. Las Vegas portrays Don Kirschner.  I think it worked well to have lesser-known actors in the lead roles and a couple of more notable names portraying secondary characters.  Colin Ferguson portrayed Van Foreman, who was actually a fictional composite of a number of people who worked developing the television show.   

Probably the best thing about the film, though is that they used the actual music recorded for the series, rather than having the actors try to mimic the sound.  Instead, the four sing and do their thing while I could hear the music sung by Micky or Davy.

The extras are pretty good, especially the commentaries which are quite interesting.  Not surprisingly, Mike doesn’t participate at all.  Davy doesn’t sound bitter, but he does bring up that when Mike was advocating for them to quit the show, he had millions of dollars waiting for him back home (his mother invented white-out).  Micky is just a comedian during his, and sometimes it gets to be a bit much after a while.  Up until then, I wondered why they didn’t have the three of them doing a commentary together, and Micky’s was a good reason why.  Still, it was a way to hear a lot of insight into what happened during the three years they initially were together and what liberties the filmmakers took.  There are also interviews with the three original cast members who participated in the film, some of which were stories that made it onto the screen.

When you think about it The Monkees were sort of the first reality show.  It took four people and put them together in a sit-com as well as musicians.  Although a lot of the drama took place behind the scenes, the evolution of the series was interesting to watch.  Daydream Believer: The Monkees Story does a good job showing the conflicts as well as successes, and I recommend listening to the commentaries and interviews for getting a more accurate picture of what went on.


Special Features:

• Director Neill Fearnley’s Commentary
• Davy Jones Commentary
• Micky Dolenz Commentary
• Peter Tork Commentary
• Filmographies
• Original Trailer
• Micky Dolenz Video Interview
• Davy Jones Video Interview
• Peter Tork Video Interview