Classic Nick Wed. – The Monkees
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Even though today is
Christmas and I was going to take the day off, as I was going to suggest all
the Moderators do, I decided that I indeed would be able to find something
Classic Nick to post today so here it is.
Most of you know The Monkees
from watching their TV series in the 1970’s when it aired in reruns. Fast
forward to February 23, 1986 when, a then five-year-old, MTV broadcast A
Monkees TV show marathon called "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the
group’s 20th anniversary.
The group that was once brushed
off by critics during their heyday as manufactured and lacking talent announced
a "20th Anniversary Tour". Tour
dates grew from smaller to larger venues and became one of the biggest live
acts of 1986 and 1987 with Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork playing North America.
All four Monkees would later reunite as Davy Jones, and eventually Michael
Nesmith, rejoining the group spreading Monkee shines everywhere they went.
With a new surge of Monkeemania
well on its way Nickelodeon began to run their old series daily and a whole new
generation of kids welcomed the Monkees into their hearts as The Monkees’
original albums began selling again and a smaller version of Monkeemania began
to spread.
The 20th
anniversary of the Monkees in 1986 was not only a revival for them but their rediscovered
fame generated the first official Monkees single since 1971. "That Was
Then, This Is Now" was listed as No. 20 position in Billboard Magazine which
featured only Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork. As the due gained new fans Davy
Jones later joined the Monkees for “Heart & Soul” later that year.
As was customary with sitcoms
of it’s time The Monkees also filmed a Christmas special in which they helped a
greedy boy find the true meaning of Christmas. The end of the epiode featured
the quartet gathered around a microphone singing a traditional Spanish
Christmas son called “Ríu Ríu Chíu.”
The Monkees – Ríu Ríu Chíu (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JthZskazxKo
Also included in this blog
are a few fun Monkees videos I found. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
The Monkees – That Was Then,
This Is Now (Version 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txO3D_VFWuAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgqQksQLdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo7cBvd62Uw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63nhSFFFfJ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip5G3YcIGLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7luImKzCuA
Daydream Believers: The
Monkees' Story – 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CujyfNQeduo
I stumbled across this post on your blog, and I really enjoyed it! As a huge classic Nickelodeon fan, I enjoy piecing together the memories I have of its programming. Unfortunately, Peter Tork passed away last week, and it was nostalgia for the show and the music that led me here. Do you have an idea of the rough dates during which the Monkees aired on Nick (months-wise)?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind words. That’s why I created this blog, to help those of us who love Classic Nickelodeon to relive our memories and to help us remember shows that we may have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThe dates that I have for the show are from 1986–1988 but I don’t have the months and days. Hope that helps and thank you once again.
Thanks for responding! I re-watched a VHS airing of 2 Monkees episodes that aired on Nickelodeon in Dec. 1986. It really brought me back! Nick used to have the best announcer for their commercials.
DeleteYou’re welcome 😊. And I agree, they had a great announcer, I wish we knew his name, it might be fun to track him down and interview him. Now, as to your VHS tape from 1986?! Oh my goodness, what a fun video!!! Any chance you could have it transferred to DVD and upload it onto youtube? Especially if you have the commercials with it (with that great announcer). I know a lot of us would really love to see those. I have some cassette tapes with episodes and clips from Kids’ Writes, interviews from Livewire and IDK, a few more things. People are asking me to upload them but I’m not tech so I have no idea of how to do that. Anyway…
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if you saw my latest blog or not but METV is now showing The Monkees every Sunday! They showed the first two episode this past Sunday and like you, it really took me back both to 1986 when I saw them on Nickelodeon but also the ‘70’s when I was a little kid and I watched them after school.
I actually think I can get the VHS transferred to DVD or digitized. The tape also includes a few episodes of Double Dare. I really love watching these old broadcasts with the commercials intact, it's the closest thing to a time machine in my opinion!
ReplyDeleteI did see that about METV showing the Monkees every Sunday! It's pretty amazing, because FETV (I think that's the name) shows a 2-hour long mini-marathon every Saturday morning! The show is such a cultural touchstone in so many ways, and I think it's great that it's being rebroadcast again. Also, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith are still touring -- I'm going to be at their concert in NYC this Saturday! I'm pretty stoked!
Time machine, that’s a great way of putting it; I know that when I watch a lot of these old shows I feel the same way. How I with that I would have been able to tape Nickelodeon back in the very early ‘80’s. We can’t go back but every year on Nickelodeon’s anniversary, April 1st – seriously that’s when it is, I like to do a “day in the life of Classic Nick.” I’ll gather links to shows and post them kind of in the same order that they appeared on Nickelodeon back in the day.
ReplyDeleteHave fun at the concert! Wow, I’ve never been able to see them live but my goodness I can imagine how much fun it would be.