Sometimes you find things on TV unexpectedly and that's what I did last night at about 11:00 PM. The Smithsonian Channel was airing their Monkees documentary and for some reason I sat down to watch.
Since Davy Jones passed away last Feb 29th, I've avoided all things Monkees.
Why?
Its depressing to watch.
Making The Monkees is really no exception. Any hard core fan will know most of the story. It has been documented in countless bios of the band, and autobiographies by the band members. One thing is for sure, they may have been the only 4 guys in the height of the 60s that seem to remember it all.
This documentary does put a lot of focus on the shows creators Bob Rafelson & Bert Scheinder as well as the guys themselves. There was also some focus of Don Kirschner who was the music director for the guys until the big rift in the Beverly Hills Hotel sent him packing.
One thing that anyone watching the documentary will likely take away is that Don Kirschner was the big butt head that the guys made him out to be.
Maybe it was editing or maybe not, but he came across as arrogant and "I think I'm Godlike" which makes it easy to understand how someone might put their fist through a wall after having a discussion with him, or pouring a Coke over his head.
The best part of the documentary was seeing the guys talk about that period in their lives. It is also the saddest part, because this special is a few years old, and Davy took part.
Of all the guys, it seems like Peter is the most at ease with things and still seems like his old self, albeit a clean and sober self.
Not sure if this is a documentary that fans need to see, unless they have a hankering to listen to the guys talk about stuff they've talked about hundreds of times before. There's nothing new here at all, but then if you are a fan of The Monkees, you might not care.
~ As an aside, this Davy fan fought back tears every time he came on the screen.
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