Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees

Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees
Written by	Michael Nesmith
Directed by	Michael Nesmith
Starring	Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	February 17, 1997 (1997-02-17)

Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees is a one-hour comedy special televised on the ABC Network on Monday February 17, 1997. The show features all four of the original Monkees and would be the last time Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork would appear together in a new television program. Michael Nesmith wrote and directed the program.

This is not to be confused with the similarly titled documentary from 1997, Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees.

Overview

The special shows the now middle-aged Monkees performing a medley of 5 of their biggest 1960s hits; "Last Train to Clarksville", "Daydream Believer", "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", "I'm a Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday". These songs are shown as performances by the group in 1997, intercut with performances of these same songs from their 1960s television series. As of April 2017, it has not been made available on DVD or Blu-ray.

Game show host Chuck Woolery makes a cameo.

Plot

The special is a combination of comedy skits and music videos.

Development

The wheels began rolling when ABC approached Monkees manager Ward Sylvester in November, 1996 about producing a Monkees retrospective. Post production delays caused the final print to be delivered too late for advanced screening, but the marketing push was strong, starting on Super Bowl Sunday, January 26 and continuing with ads run during some of ABC's most popular shows at the time (including a scene of Home Improvement incorporating the "Monkees Theme"). Initial promos featured scenes from the film HEAD, since scenes from the new special were unavailable and the group did not want people to see shots from the TV series and think the special was merely a retrospective filled with old clips. Ad spots with actual scenes from the special began airing on February 9.

Premise of the Special

The 1997 summer issue of the Monkees H.Q. quotes Monkees manager Ward Sylvester as saying that they could not legally create a new episode of the original series, Micky calls it "a show within a show," and Davy contends "anyone can see" that "it's not an episode." Mike and Peter said they were "glad" to be able to play themselves rather than their fictional characters. Nesmith is also quoted in the May 1997 issue of the fanzine P.O. Box 9847 as describing the TV special as being about "... us Monkees today. We made 'Justus'. It's about that. Obviously 'Justus', a real CD, wasn't made by fictional characters."

External links

• Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees at IMDb