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Monkees - Season One

Monkees - Season One

List Price: $89.95
Your Price: $80.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sweet DVD!!!
Review: I have been a Monkees fan for 17 years. This is one great DVD! The package is really sweet, probably the best package I ever seen. It has 6 discs in each case but the DVD slides out easily so be very careful with the discs. The only thing that I'm disappointed with is the booklet, I wish it has more information. Overall, I give this 5 stars! Don't wait, go get it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally The Monkees season 1 on DVD
Review: Totally awesome Monkees DVD set. I am a huge Monkees fan and I have the complete set on video and I can't wait for the second season on DVD. I told my husband several months ago I wish they would put the complete season on DVD. If you're a huge Monkees fan this is a must have DVD set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Monkee Business
Review: The Monkees television program was created to capitalize on the success of The Beatles' movies. The show was based on the Fab Four's A Hard Day's Night and the idea was to bring rock and roll into primetime for the large teenage audience. The show cast four unknowns, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones & Peter Tork, to play themselves. The show was produced by Bob Rafelson (who also directed several episodes) and Bert Schneider and they wanted to create a madcap, quick paced show. The show's plots were pretty simple, usually revolving around Davy falling in love with a girl and the group foiling someone's evil schemes. The way that the show was put together that was extremely inventive. It didn't follow standard television scene shooting by filming an entire scene on a single set. The scenes would feature images spliced in and out, quick camera movement from one character to the next, freeze frames, inserting images like light bulbs over someone's head and humorous captions. The shows also feature what would become known as Monkee romps. These were set to the Monkees' songs and were basically promotional clips for the songs. They were the forerunners of music videos and that is probably why MTV featured Monkees episodes in 1986 and helped spur a new Monkeemania wave in the mid 80's. The Monkees each assumed their own identities, Davy was the handsome one, Mike was the leader, Mickey was the silly one and Peter was the dumb one. Each actor was quite believable, so believable that the public thought they were an actual group and the success of the music helped pave the way for a Monkees tour. The show had an anarchic sense of humor and the guys never took themselves too seriously on screen. It's this loose feel that helps keep the show fresh (although the clothes and phrases are 60's all the way) even today. The show was a moderate success in the ratings, but it was a big success with the critics. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series (an award also bestowed on shows like Cheers, All In The Family, Friends and The Mary Tyler Moore Show) for the 1966-67 season and James Frawley won for Outstanding Director for a comedy series as well. Rhino, as they have done in the past with Monkees material, has done a masterful job in packaging this six-dvd set. The packaging is like an old record player and the disks are encased in what look like old 45 record sleeves. Each episode contains a trivia section that can be accessed on the episode screen (the trivia section is quite comprehensive as it gives some background info on the episode, bio information on guest stars, use of music and other interesting tidbits) and can be played in 5.1 surround sound which makes each episode sound crisp and clean. Each episode is presented in its original format, with all the original songs included (the shows in reruns, both during their original reruns during the show's summer hiatus and when they appeared on Saturday morning contained newer songs used to promote new releases) and even with the Kellogg's and Black Label sponsors shown over the closing credits. This dvd set a first rate set and a welcomed one as it helps preserve one of the great shows from the 60's and an underrated program that was highly influential (shows like Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In copied the show's style) and highly entertaining.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Finally, the whole first season!
Review: I'm a fan of the Monkees from the very beginning, as a matter of fact I remember seeing most of these episodes the first time they were aired on television. That being said, I am thrilled that the first season of episodes is now on DVD. It's a real treat to see Micky, Davy, Peter and Mike romp around the TV! Every Monkees fan should own this set!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Beginnings
Review: Bless Rhino for this near-perfect collection. I've always written off the first season of THE MONKEES as overly shrill, cutesy, and childish, the worst aspect being the standard laugh track, which tends to flatten some episodes outright. But, while the second season (and the feature film HEAD) are light years ahead of season one in terms of music, performance, and overall style, watching this set has allowed me an opportunity to re-appraise the earlier shows. While some are still pretty unpleasant, even the worst episodes have moments of surprising, almost experimental, quality. The pacing and editing of these shows alone stand out as being well ahead of their time, and, even from the very beginning, the show borders on Brechtian in all the many ways (albeit mostly minor) it attempted to break the fourth wall of televised artifice. I am convinced that anyone who wrote the show off as kid's stuff or criticized the Monkees themselves as being talentless or disposable Beatle rip-offs has simply been misguided. Much of what the Monkees did holds up better than any of the Beatles' film work, even from the very beginning.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Monkees are better than ever!!
Review: This collection was even better than I thought it would be!! The more standard sitcom-like (and, in my opinion, funnier) of the series' two seasons, this collection has (almost) everything. Great packaging (it should win an award), complete, uncut(as far as I could tell) episodes and original songs. FYI-"older" songs were substituted in later TV airings with "newer" songs (some syndicated episodes reflected this). An example: I was surprised to hear 'The Girl I knew Somewhere' in 'Monkees on Tour' during Micky's skating scene (It had always been Steam Engine in my memory). Bonus stuff is also very cool (look for producers comment sheets on auditioned actors on the last disc-It's hidden in the 'Collection'. I'd never seen some of this stuff before!)! Great vintage commercials and informative commentary tracks. The 16mm Pilot is also interesting to watch! Complaints: 1.Commentary should have been on ALL episodes, 2. Where's Micky? He is noticably absent from the comment tracks and 3. the 5.1 audio is not that great (it sounds like it's being played thru the P.A. at the beginning of Head). All in all, A GREAT Collection! A Must Have!! Bring on Season Two (with 33 1/3 & the "Hey Hey, We're the Monkees" Documentary included!!)!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Your eyes are like cupcakes, in a sea of sour cream..."
Review: Awesome! We finally get to see this woefully underappreciated series on DVD. Although the first season is not nearly as good as the second (where the wackiness became downright inspired) it is still a lot of fun and contains some terrific music.

Season one episodes include: Here Come the Monkees, One Many Shy, Two Many Girls, Alias Mickey Dolenz, Monkee Mother, Monkees on Tour (with lots of great live music), Captain Crocodile and many others spread out over 6 discs. There were 32 episodes in the first season, and 25 in the second. My five all-time favorite episodes are all in the second season, so if you're new to the show you might want to wait for the second season release on DVD.

These cute shows are suitable for the whole family; in fact when I recently lent 3 of my videos to a 15 year friend she watched them 4 times over in 3 days. The music is perfect 60's pop, and songs in this season include "Last Train to Clarksville", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Steppin' Stone", "I'm a Believer", the beautiful "I Wanna Be Free" and my favorite Monkees song, "You Just May Be the One", written by Mike Nesmith.

A good show that was occasionally great, and a thousand cheers for Rhino for releasing the DVDs.

GRADE: B+ (And check out that cool packaging!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing zany improv
Review: The Monkees are truly talented who actually had a chance to play their own music. They are multi-talented, funny, and the best entertainers in the world.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Monkees Collectables
Review: Hey, yes, dvd is great! i'm a big monkees fan. i went to just about all of their concerts when they started playing in the 90s. i even got their summer dvd concert 2002. you should get it also if you are going to get this, and of course the monkees head. i also got all of their songs on box set. so of course i'm going to get all of their stuff on dvd. too bad they only had 2 1/2 years of show. they should've went for 3 years. but it's worth it. thanks. i even got to meet micky dolenz....so i know he would want me to get this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Looking forward to this!
Review: It is about time that Rhino came around and brought the series out on the best format ever! I even cancled my subscription through Columbua House for this! It has been a long time coming... I just hope that there are some episodes with the MONKEEMEN.... bit... Columbia House seemed to ditch most of these bits.... Now to pay down my bills and await the arrivel of this gem that we monkeemaniacs have been waiting a long time for... The new review from me will be coming soon....


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