Why isn't The Monkees TV show in syndication anymore?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by PaulKTF, Aug 27, 2010.

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  1. nail75

    nail75 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Germany
    :laugh:
     
  2. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    Sony Owns The Monkees TV show? I thought Rhino bought all the rights to the show when they bought the music catalog. No?
     
  3. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    Sony owns the syndication rights. Rhino owns the series and the music catalog, but not the syndication rights.
     
  4. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    Right. It's the same reason United Artists wanted to make the Beatles movie 'A Hard Day's Night', so they could have the rights to distribute the soundtrack album. They didn't care how the movie turned out, as long as the soundtrack sold in the millions. They didn't count on the Beatles natural acting talent or the visual creativity of Richard Lester which produced a classic.
     
  5. Drifter

    Drifter AAD survivor

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC, CA
    Misconstrued once again. I'm not talking about liking it or not, I'm talking about people who love something when they are young but detest it now. That's what the "jaded grump" comment was. I should have given a wink smiley though, because I did mean it in fun. :wave:
     
  6. deadbirdie

    deadbirdie Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I watch it on Sunday on ME TV, which others have already mentioned. Would love to buy the DVDs but they're out of print, at least Season 1.
     
  7. RobMac

    RobMac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boonville, MO.
    I find it hard to believe that an audience weaned on Hannah Montana (didn't Dolenz cut a duet with Emily Osment?), High School Musical, Camp Rock and Glee not enjoying the Monkees show. If anything, the Monkees is the precursor to a show like Hannah Montana.
     
  8. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    The Monkees is seen as old, out-dated, and un-cool by the kids watching the Disney stuff.
     
  9. RobMac

    RobMac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boonville, MO.
    And you know this because...
     
  10. mr.schneider

    mr.schneider Active Member

    Location:
    N. Beechwood Dr.
    The humor and the subject matter is timeless. Unfortunately, for me, watching most the first season has become difficult. It's really dated, and I've only noticed that within the last few years. It's made me feel old. On the other hand, season 2 hold up a bit better. When they were able to claim a bit of their own identities for the show, i.e. clothing. The well groomed, button shirt episodes have begun to fall flat for me. However, that DOES NOT mean that I hate those episodes.

    It should be in syndication. Problem is there's no afternoon programming for kids anymore. Detroit and WXON & WKBD used to play them in the mid 70's and I used to watch a kids block every afternoon. With that time slot as a start, kids might be turned on to them. However, the computer and other activities have drawn kids from the TV.
    So much for mid afternoon syndication.
     
  11. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Huh? Because it's true. The same demographic that watches Hannah montana isn't (by and large) going to watch The Monkees.
     
  12. HELLOLARRY

    HELLOLARRY Forum Resident

    The Monkees show is no more or less dated than any other sitcom of it's time. The humor was timeless and other shows/movies (The Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers etc.) of an even older age have carried on. It was a fun show and has some strong episodes. The comparisons to A Hard Days Night are so cliche' at this point and while one wouldn't have happened without the other, I try to judge the show on its own merit for what it was. Just because it was influenced by AHDN doesn't make it bad and IMO, most of the Monkees were far better 'actors' than the Beatles were. The show still makes me laugh and I enjoy watching it. It doesn't really require a lot of thought, either you enjoy it or you don't but it has to be available for people to assess that. I have them all on DVD along with many of my other favorite TV shows both past and present so seeking them out on TV really isn't something I do anymore.

    I think it has a lot to do with the exposure and the syndicators are just charging too much to run the older shows or going to the route of having them played exclusively on cable channels. Like several other posters have meontioned, I live in Chicago and we have a channel here that plays nothing but those shows. Several months ago in fact, they revamped their late night lineup which consisted of Andy Griffith, the Honeymooners, Dick Van Dyke, and one other and replaced them with Roseanne and a few other shows of that time. Complaint calls were so high that they went back to the original late night lineup so the market for old shows is still out there.
     
  13. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    The Monkees music is timeless, but the TV show is not....I bought the entire series on VHS a long time ago when I got sucked into the Rhino "limited edition" scam, but never watched more than maybe 10 episodes + 33 1/3 (because I had never seen that). The shows have their moments but not enough of them to sustain interest for even 24 minutes...
     
  14. Why not? Let me be the umpteenth to pile on with the view that the appeal of a dated, cornball 44-year old youth-market show is extremely limited - mainly to a handful of nostalgic boomers and pop-genre aficianados - and there are a helluvalotta syndicated shows that have been aired since then with more commercial appeal for broadcasters. There are a lot of once-popular shows that are in this situation (like, when was the last time you saw Love American Style or The Mod Squad?). Sest lah vye.
     
  15. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    Or in other words, what happened in 1986 (The Monkees big comeback year) ain't gonna happen again....the world has changed greatly since then.
     
  16. Hard Panner

    Hard Panner Baroque Popsike & Fuzz

    How do you know that? The world had changed a lot leading up to 1986 and yet The Monkees were once again popular. It is a possibility - sure a remote one, but still a possibilty.
     
  17. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    The popularity was based on a short-lived retro fad. Ask yourself how popular were The Monkees by 1988?
     
  18. nf0603

    nf0603 New Member

    Location:
    somewhere
    You never know that kids wouldn't like it unless they watch it. I was 6-7 during the big Monkee renaissance of 1986 (and carried over a bit into 1987) and the show was massively popular with the first and second graders at the time who discovered the show through Nickelodeon. The show was already 20 years old at that point but yet we all embraced it in 1986.

    You can never predict what will strike a chord with youngsters. I remember 9-10 years ago when Nick At Nite aired The Facts Of Life, that the show picked up a new generation of pre-teen girls and there were fansites and everything devoted to the site run by girls who weren't even alive when the final episode aired in 1988. Who would've predicted that Facts Of Life would've seen a renaissance in 2000, but it did.
     
  19. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    The kids of 2010 have been matured by pop culture and TV shows well beyond The Monkees.
     
  20. krlpuretone

    krlpuretone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grantham, NH
    Yep, and I was watching it 10 years earlier (when I was 8 or so...) with the same effect...

    You'd think it'd be prime fodder for TV Land viewing.
     
  21. FredV

    FredV Senior Member

    Still popular enough to have a Monkees Convention in Chicago that included appearances by the Monkees, Bill Chadwick, Chip Douglas, Monty Landis among others associated with the group that was attended by fans throughout the country. Followed in 1989 by the Los Angeles Monkees convention that coincided with their reunion with Michael Nesmith at the Universal Amphitheater that preceded the Monkees receiving their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I should know, I MC'd both events.
     
  22. nf0603

    nf0603 New Member

    Location:
    somewhere
    you mean like how The Jonas Brothers have their sitcom where they share a beach pad together and do wacky things while music videos of songs play at the end of the show? (I have a niece, I have an excuse LOL)
     
  23. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Hmm.. okay well maybe I'm wrong then. :)
     
  24. nf0603

    nf0603 New Member

    Location:
    somewhere
    yea, it was seeing my niece watching that Jonas L.A. show that made me wonder if you could sell The Monkees to kids today and have another 1986. Their show is such an updated version of The Monkees, except they don't have the great music to back the slapstick.
     
  25. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Buy her The Best Of THe Monkees CD and see if she likes it.
     
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