Monkees Episode "Too Many Girls" - which is the original?

So which one is the original?

There are two versions, one with the Fern’s cleavage out of focus and the other with alternate camera angles and the aforementioned cleavage on display.

I was under the impression that the blurry version was the original and the clean version was the syndication version.

I’ve only seen the clean version in syndication prints over here, which feature the second season intros.

The DVD shows the blurry version, but has the first season opening credits, which leads me to believe that it is the original.


From the Monkees DVD thread this review says the blurring was done for the Saturday morning syndication.

However, The monkees.net website (http://monkeestv2.tripod.com/season1/2manygirls.html) says:

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So which is which?


Can anyone remember back that far?

 

I'd say the blurred version is the original.

It's on the DVD, but also on the early-90's Japanese LD box.

Also, I believe that this particular episode is the only one that *didn't* have its original first-season opening sequence replaced when the series went to Saturday morning, and then into syndication.

If the blurred version was not the original, then why would they add the original first season opening after they took pains to replace it in every other episode?

I'd say the "blur-added-for-Saturday-morning" claim is one person's ill-informed conclusion - just like the one that tells us the "beards" Headquarters cover was the original (that's another erroneous Monkee legend that refuses to die).

 

Thanks for the info about the Japanese Laserdiscs.

So it seems that the reviewer is wrong and that the blurred version is the correct one.

The version I taped off the Disney Channel over hear around ten years ago has the second season opening with the non blurred scenes.

I also assume that the Rhino DVDs are complete episodes with no edits?

 

The Rhino DVDs appear to be unedited, but "Too Many Girls" is the "blurred" version, with I think a couple shots edited or reframed a la Disney's Fantasia.

I'm not an expert, but I suspect that the correct Season 1 openings on the Season 1 shows in the Rhino set were put back in by Rhino -- I mean I think they had to actually edit them back into each show. One clue (IIRC) is that often, the audio levels are inconsistent between the theme song and the rest of the show. I think the same may be true of the various Kellogg's billboards which appear in the occasional show. Some time during the second season Kellogg's changed all their cereal box designs, and IIRC there are a few shows where the boxes shown in the billboard don't match the ones shown in the closing credits. Or did they pay less attention to stuff like that in the 1960s? (Once I saw cereal boxes and Black Label cologne in the closing credits when the shows were released on video, I understood why the closing credits on many episodes shown on MTV started in 16mm and then switched to 35mm halfway through -- and also why, for instance, Peter Tork's name is justified all the way to the left and not centered like the other three. I'd wondered that for years -- but it's like Dick Van Dyke's face appearing in the lower left corner of his closing credits, replacing a picture of a sponsor's product.)

I wonder if there is any rhyme or reason for which episodes have a Kellogg's billboard, since not every show has one.

I also would like to know for the commercials they included in the Season 1 set, which episodes they were from. I had a few on VHS and IIRC the "Brand X" commercial was from "The Monkees At The Circus." The pilot was sponsored by Black Label and "Alias Micky Dolenz" has one of the commercials with the song "it's going to be a rice day" (IIRC). I wonder just how many of those commercials the Monkees did; I assume there are more than just the ones they included (only one of which appears to be sourced from the original film, the rest look like they came from collectors). Same for Kool-Aid, though none of those were included (probably couldn't get permission to use the trademark on those)?

Does the footage of "We'll Be Back In A Minute" (aka "TV Music Bridge") exist anywhere?

 

I know when MTV ran the Monkees in '86, Too Many Girls and Royal Flush were the only episodes that had the season one credits. That is a very good point you make that the 'blurred' version probably is the network version since it had the original credits in there and the original version crept into syndication somewhere down the line.

On the Rhino set though I agree with Mark. It does appear that they tacked the season one credits on to the season one shows (or maybe 'remastered' one credit sequence and used it for all other episodes) as the volume level becomes higher.

 

That is most likely what has been done. I know this was done to the first 2 dvd releases of BBC's The Goodies. The found a few of the original elements of the intro, and interplaced them and redid the on screen captions, and used the same 2 intro's they fixed for all the applicable episodes.

I'm pretty sure they did the same thing for the Happy Days dvd sets, as there doesn't seem to be any differences in the intro sequences, execpt for the odd few in Seasons 1 and 2.