Yes, all hypothetical of course but obviously the Monkees revival was hot at the time. I still believe it would it would be easier to sell "The New Monkees" vs. say, "The Parrots." Plus, there was a ton of money spent on the New Monkees promotion by Columbia-- solely on the Monkees name.
New Coke....failed. New Monkees...failed. It’s surprising they never unleashed “Monkees Classic” on an unsuspecting public...
Thank you for sharing these. I was too young to witness the New Monkees and from what I've seen of the show, it didn't appeal to much to me. Those podcasts gave me a new and refreshing insight into this "reboot" so to speak.
I don't remember watching The New Monkees but I remember one joke from it. They are all sitting at a table talking. Pope John Paul is mentioned. Someone says "Now if we can only get Pope George Ringo we'll have a reunion." They all laugh.
Did the "new" anything succeed? There was Gidget, Munsters, Andy Griffith, etc. I'm guessing "the new leave it to beaver" was a minor success as it was on many years. But it had almost the ENTIRE previous cast. I'm surprised Harry Shearer didn't show up (the original Eddie haskell.)
The Munsters Today was arguably more successful than the first series, racking up 3 seasons compared to the original's two.
Oh I'm not saying it's better than the original but it did have a longer run than the original, hence the "arguable". I myself don't care too much about Munsters Today, but the 3rd season's intro did have that rockin' 80s guitar sound:
Harry actually played Frankie Bennett on Leave it to Beaver, the same character he played on Studio 57. Don’t know how often that happened but of course Richard Belzer holds the record for most different shows playing John Munch
Yeah, it started out as STILL THE BEAVER on The Disney Channel and then changed to "The New..." once it hit syndication, and yes...it ran for a bunch of years.
Haha...that was my first VCR, too...they were one of the first decent affordable models (around $350 IIRC) at the time. I recorded the Monkees' MTV Marathon on that thing!
Ha, I did the same thing, 1986 wasn't it? I remember going out and buying 3 cases of Sony HG L-500's to record all 56 episodes. (I recall that being A LOT of money). Believe it or not, I still have that collection as part of a massive video library amassed throughout the eighties as a result of a then very robust video trading hobby. I have a Sony SLHF-900 Betamax that is remarkably still functional.
Consider me another fan who taped that marathon. As an added bonus, I was featured in a local commercial for a teen nightclub and it RAN during 'Monkee See, Monkee Die'! I still have the VHS tape despite no longer having a working VCR haha
As it happens, I literally went to Walmart last nite to start the process but they aren’t offering it currently. I was like “What does Covid 19 have to do with digitizing video?!?” I’ll try elsewhere
No, but when WMAQ-Channel 5 ran the series in Chicago, they'd go to a break with a graphic, and the announcer would say, "Zoo Revue will continue after these messages."