3 Reasons Mike Nesmith Didn’t Film Specific Episodes of ‘The Monkees’
Mike Nesmith starred alongside Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones in The Monkees television show. The zany primetime series, which ran for two seasons between 1966 and 1968, was hugely popular. However, behind the scenes, not every cast member appeared in every episode. Here are three reasons Mike Nesmith didn’t film specific episodes of The Monkees.
‘The Monkees’ series featured zany storylines
Many of the storylines filmed for The Monkees were unrealistic and zany in context. The series documented the life of a struggling rock and roll band who lived in a California beach house.
Furthermore, The Monkees always seemed to get themselves into unlikely situations. Likewise, these often included crossing paths with royalty, bad guys, and other assorted characters, which caused chaos.
In his autobiography I’m A Believer, Micky Dolenz wrote that he was getting “jaded” near the series’ end. “Quite frankly, we were getting a little jaded with the show as it existed,” Micky said.
“Every week Davy [Jones] would fall in love with some girl, or Peter [Tork] would be kidnapped by some bad guy, or some guy spy would hide microfilm in somebody’s something or other.”
In addition, the band tried to bring in more relevant subjects, including references to the Vietnam war, drugs, and the hippie counterculture. However, the powers that be realized that the formula worked, so they didn’t tweak the show’s lighthearted martial too much.
Was the unrealistic material one of the three reasons Mike Nesmith didn’t appear in some episodes of The Monkees? Here are the reasons why.
Three reasons Mike Nesmith didn’t film specific ‘The Monkees’ episodes
Mike Nesmith felt The Monkees had worn out its welcome by season 2. However, while he may not have agreed with the direction of the series, he didn’t shirk his responsibilities to its production.
Subsequently, there were three reasons he didn’t film specific episodes of the NBC smash. Moreover, they had to do with personal, not professional, circumstances.
Of the show’s 58 episodes, Nesmith appeared in all of the episodes in season one. However, he didn’t film three episodes in season 2.
The first of these installments included “I Was a 99-Pound Weakling.” The episode was Micky-centric, focusing on the drummer’s dilemma when a muscular bodybuilder stole his girlfriend from him.
In “The Card Carrying Red Shoes,” Natasha Pavlova escapes from The Druvanian National Ballet by hiding in the Monkees’ instrument trunk and falls in love with Peter, whom she refers to as “The Face.” The third episode Nesmith didn’t appear in was “The Monkees Watch Their Feet,” where Micky is abducted by aliens from the planet Zlotnick and replaced by a robot duplicate.
Nesmith didn’t appear due to a tonsillectomy, the birth of his son Jonathan and a scheduled family trip to his home state of Texas.
The Monkees all appeared in their first and only feature film, ‘Head’
After The Monkees, Micky, Mike, Peter, and Davy starred in their first feature film, Head. As the second season of The Monkees wound down, the foursome met with Jack Nicholson and, during one weekend in the California desert, came up with an avant-garde concept for their first feature film.
Filming for Head began in February 1968 and ended in May of that same year. In an interview with WPR, Nesmith said he “loved” making Head.
“I loved making it. I had such a good time with Bob (Rafelson) and Jack (Nicholson), which was the high point of my Monkees experience. And I think it lives on well beyond the television shows,” Nesmith explained.
The Monkees ran for two seasons on NBC. Subsequently, it aired on ABC and CBS in reruns throughout the 1970s before finding a home on MTV in the 1980s.
