New Monkees
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New Monkees was the name of both a US pop rock music group, and the short-lived 1987 syndicated television show featuring the group.
The 20th anniversary of The Monkees in 1986 generated enough interest that New Monkees was conceived later that year, and launched the following year. The show was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and distributed by Coca-Cola Telecommunications. Straybert Productions, headed by Steve Blauner (a former partner of original Monkees producers Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider), served as the project's producers.
The group's members were Jared Chandler, Dino Kovas,Marty Ross, and Larry Saltis. As with the first Monkees, each had to pass a grueling round of auditions, but this time the emphasis was on musical ability. The band released one, self-titled album, distributed by Warner Bros. Records. The synth-pop sound of the New Monkees was largely the work of producers Carol Carmichael Parks and Dean Parks, and was similar to that of contemporaries Mr. Mister and Glass Tiger.
On the show, the band lived in a large mansion with a butler, and numerous unexplored rooms (much like recent hit series The Young Ones), and this was the main source of their adventures. Instead of a normal kitchen and dining room, the house featured a diner with a waitress named Rita, played by former exercise instructor Bess Motta, of 20 Minute Workout fame.
Originally slated for a 22-episode season, the show earned ratings lower than expected, and New Monkees left the air after only thirteen episodes. The album also did not catch on, and yielded no hit records. While the original Monkees series served as promotion for their records, and vice versa, this did not happen the second time around.
Long-time Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (who was a stand-in for Davy Jones in the 1960s) suggested that a better idea would have been to have a project featuring the children of the original Monkees (several of whom showed musical and/or theatrical talent) with occasional guest appearances by Dolenz, Jones, Tork, and Nesmith. Micky Dolenz disparaged the New Monkees in TV Guide as tarnishing the original concept and dividing the fan market.
There are currently no plans to release New Monkees on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Their album also remains out of print. Interest in the short-lived band has continued on Internet news groups. The band themselves staged a 20-year reunion in Los Angeles during 2007, with all four members in attendance.
[edit] Album
Warner Bros. Records (Released 1987)
Track listing:
- "What I Want"
- "Do It Again"
- "I Don't Know"
- "Way She Moves"
- "Boy Inside the Man"
- "Burnin' Desire"
- "Whatever It Takes"
- "Affection"
- "Carlene"
- "Corner of My Eye"
- "Turn It Up"
- An additional song entitled "Clone of My Own" was featured in an episode of the TV series, but did not appear on the album. A similar fate happened to an acoustic version of "Affection".
[edit] External links
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