This is a list of episodes of the television series The Monkees which ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968, on Monday nights at 7:30 PM Eastern. The first songs listed are from the original NBC broadcasts. Over the summer of 1967, NBC reran multiple episodes with revised soundtracks to promote the Monkees' then-current album, Headquarters, and the singles released during that summer. Then, between 1969 and 1973, CBS reran the episodes on Saturday morning, revising the soundtracks once again to promote the albums The Monkees Present and Changes. All alternate songs are listed where applicable. Tracks with different mixes or versions as compared to the album versions are indicated.
Debuting on September 12, 1966, the series aired on Monday nights at 7:30pm EST, preceding I Dream of Jeannie and opposite The Iron Horse and Gilligan's Island. A few episodes are shown out of chronological order from when they were filmed, as evident in Episode 8, "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth", and the pilot as episode 10. Some syndicated and overseas versions of episode, use the second-season version of the opening credits in place of the original first season version.
Season 2 (1967–1968)
The series aired on Monday nights preceding The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and The Champions and opposite Cowboy in Africa and Gunsmoke. "For Pete's Sake" from the Headquarters album replaced the "Monkees Theme" as the closing song during this season.
Unproduced episode
"Monkees Toy Around"
Movie
The Monkees also filmed a movie called Head that started production in early 1968, and was released in theaters that November by the Monkees' parent studio, Columbia, just after their TV show was canceled. Head was co-written by a then-largely-unknown Jack Nicholson. The film included six new songs, but was poorly promoted and not received very well by the public or contemporary critics; in the decades since, it has become somewhat of a cult classic; some of the film's songs are now part of the Monkees' current concert setlist.
Later television episodes
The Monkees' television series was canceled after its second season. The group hoped to take the television show in different directions, e.g. recasting it as an hour-long variety show with comedy sketches and musical guests. However, NBC wanted the show to stay the same. Both parties decided to throw in the towel. After the series was canceled, NBC contracted with The Monkees to create and broadcast three longer television specials. 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee was the first of these longer television productions. It aired on NBC on April 14, 1969 to lower-than-expected ratings. The second two planned television specials were never produced. Peter Tork quit the group between the taping of 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee and its broadcast; Michael Nesmith left the group - buying out of his contract - in early 1970 to focus on his solo career, leaving the Monkees as a duo of Dolenz and Jones, under which one final original Monkees album under the 1966 Colgems contract, Changes, was released in June 1970. The Monkees returned to broadcast television with Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees, a reunion special which was broadcast on ABC on February 17, 1997. The special was written and directed by Nesmith, emulating the style of the original NBC series; all four of the "real" Monkees do comedy and sing songs, some of which were new songs from the quartet's 1996 album Justus. This would be the last time Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith, and Tork would appear together on a television special, although Dolenz, Jones, and Tork made semi-frequent guest appearances on TV talk shows for a few years afterwards. Davy Jones died in 2012. Nesmith, Dolenz and Tork continued to make occasional TV interview appearances in later years. The trio appeared together for a May 2016 interview with Anthony Mason of CBS News Sunday Morning, on the occasion of the group's 50th anniversary. Peter Tork died in 2019.
