The Monkees TV Series & 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee + "Head" (1968) movie, coming to Blu (1 Viewer)

[BobO'Link]

Another thing I liked--you know how whenever you put one of the Record Box discs into your player The Monkees theme music plays. I don't think any TV releases should ever put the series theme on the menus. We can hear it on every episode. There is NO sound of any kind on The Monkees Blu-Ray menu. The silence is golden!

That is almost worth $100 just by itself! I absolutely detest when there's music/sound that plays in a continuous loop on a menu. And it's often louder than the episode volume so comes up blaring! Those that have a single play through of a theme/music aren't too bad but I still don't care for them.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Exactly,Mike as u know wrote 'The Girl I knew Somewhere' and recorded it but his vocal was not as good as Mickys which was the released version.I love the harpsichord on that song played by Peter.,

Micky's voice definitely fits the song better than Mike's would have. I too, love Peter's harpsichord playing on that.

CHEERS!

 

[Mark Y]

That is almost worth $100 just by itself! I absolutely detest when there's music/sound that plays in a continuous loop on a menu. And it's often louder than the episode volume so comes up blaring! Those that have a single play through of a theme/music aren't too bad but I still don't care for them.

The music on the DVD menus is much louder than the audio on the shows, and what made matters worse for me is, I find the TV theme song annoying in the first place, even though the Monkees are one of my favorite groups. What's really irritating is if I ever mention I like the Monkees, sometimes some nitwit starts singing that stupid theme song at me. I mean why don't they ever sing "Love Is Only Sleeping" or "Steam Engine?" (Half kidding, the average person who's not a hardcore Monkees fan likely wouldn't recognize those songs.)

 

[Tony Bensley]

The music on the DVD menus is much louder than the audio on the shows, and what made matters worse for me is, I find the TV theme song annoying in the first place, even though the Monkees are one of my favorite groups. What's really irritating is if I ever mention I like the Monkees, sometimes some nitwit starts singing that stupid theme song at me. I mean why don't they ever sing "Love Is Only Sleeping" or "Steam Engine?" (Half kidding, the average person who's not a hardcore Monkees fan likely wouldn't recognize those songs.)

I like the TV Theme, but I get your meaning. There are many great songs in the Monkees' canon.

CHEERS!

 

[BobO'Link]

I, too, like the theme - but I do *not* want to hear a snippet of it playing over and over and over... If I'm binging a show I'll often skip the open even if its one with a theme song I really like. Once a day is more than enough for most.

 

[SuperClark]

Happy holidays to all!

 

[BobO'Link]

My set arrived yesterday - really lousy shipping packaging. Thin cardboard box with very little interior padding - just a couple of brown paper sheets kind of wadded up. Box was partially crushed but, fortunately, no damage to the set. I was expecting it to be numbered on the outside but that's apparently on the booklet. Mine is 08086. If that's any indication of the number left (unlikely) they're in no danger of running out any time soon...

I'm not very impressed with the actual set box. It's heavy card/paper board and kind of a larger version of the DVD "Record Player" box that will absolutely not fit "properly" in a standard media shelving unit (it's 7 13/16" square so sticks out a couple of inches if placed spine out). There is a lenticular image of the group on the box's front inset. This shows 3 different poses of the group. Meh... like all such things it really doesn't work that well.

Each disc is in its own sleeve that fully replicates an album release. There's the outer sleeve, an inner paper sleeve (with opening facing up so the "record" can't accidentally fall out - as it should be), and a plastic sleeve holding the disc (also properly inserted sideways so the disc can't accidentally fall out of the paper sleeve). It's cumbersome and the sleeves are tighter than what you'd have on a true 33 1/3 release.

All of the discs are in a square hole inside the case. There's a ribbon that goes under the stack to, supposedly, make them easier to extract. It does not work. The best use for the ribbon is to help get the 45" and booklet out of the top of the case. It's easier to extract the top 7 or so discs by simply pressing down a corner and lifting the opposite corner up with a finger, sliding it out from under 2 paperboard "hold down" tabs (I'm guessing to keep the discs in place but the 45" and episode guide do this just as well as they're stacked on top of the discs).

IMHO, that 45" is a totally wasted tchotchke type thing... Yeah... I know vinyl is making somewhat of a comeback - but not at my house and even when I was purchasing vinyl I never purchased 45s. I couldn't wait for CDs to finally take off to replace all that cumbersome and easily damaged vinyl. I was going to show my grandkids how records work a few months back and discovered the motor on my turntable (a BIC 980) had fully locked up due to lack of use. It's repairable - but I doubt I'll bother as I've not bothered to play any vinyl for over 30 years and haven't even started the turntable for ~10 years or so (I used to start it every few months to keep things working properly).

The booklet is very nice - stupidly oversized (the size of a 45" sleeve), but nice. Its a full episode guide with extended synopsis for every episode and also lists the songs performed in the episode. There's a short BIO on each band member on the inside cover of the box. IMHO, that should have been in the booklet and used larger type.

I'm considering purchasing a standard case for the discs to be able to keep them on the shelf. The "collector's" case will just go into storage with all the other poorly designed and useless "collector" cases I've accumulated over the years.

I may post some photos later... kind of a busy week though...

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

I ended up with two of these sets, the second as a back-up since, imho it turned out so well, plus it was heavily discounted (with a coupon code and holiday shipping) way back before it disappeared for a few years.

I'm in the minority that likes the box design and I wish I could source or had the smarts to make a lenticular photo like the front cover for framing. I even contacted Rhino to see if I could buy a surplus pic to no avail. Meh.. Simple things entertain me!

At least the 45 does contain a unique show mix of Star Collector, eq'ed minus the sound effects direct from the mag soundtrack.

I do think an opportunity, were it financially feasible, might have been missed though: Why not press a 7", 33 1/3rpm ep of the short incidental music cues from the show that, otherwise, wouldn't be marketable? Crafty Mr. Sandoval just MUST have harvested every bit of mag track isolated audio possible from those film transfer sessions, with one cue ending up on the ROG 1st lp, and the End Theme Edit of "For Pete's Sake" is on the new HQ set, and other clean, tv-only mono mixes on other releases. I know-- extra cost and all.

Also, just once on the Bluray I would have loved to see the NBC Snake logo in hi-def. Just once! The Screen Gems "S" From Hell got a makeover/redo, so why not The Snake? I know, licensing and such.

Also, the box has just enough spare room to keep all my Monkee concert ticket stubs, backstage cloth/sticker passes, lenticular souvenir tickets from 2013, the back cards from the dvd box sets that don't fit inside those record player boxes and whatnot.. with a lil' room left over for some mighty fine Frodis!

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

A "new" old find: one of those odd rerun versions. This time, it's The Christmas Show as presented on the Japanese laserdisc collection. This one has a weird choice of music replacement, and the redone, standardized end titles no longer include the cast introductions playing underneath. No idea when this was done, but the studio still had access to original materials to create the credit sequence.

What's with the Decca Records music, though?

 

[Tony Bensley]

A "new" old find: one of those odd rerun versions. This time, it's The Christmas Show as presented on the Japanese laserdisc collection. This one has a weird choice of music replacement, and the redone, standardized end titles no longer include the cast introductions playing underneath. No idea when this was done, but the studio still had access to original materials to create the credit sequence.

What's with the Decca Records music, though?

WOW, that was kind of weird, and ultimately depressing!

 

[SuperClark]

I am sure many of you have seen this but for those that have not enjoy! Perfect casting.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

WOW, that was kind of weird, and ultimately depressing!

But it sure keeps your foot tappin', don't it? *ROP-BA-DE-BA!*

Nothing like a bouncy, jingling yet, still, lifeless tune with a droning "Ahhhhh" in the background to really brighten things up! The replacement song must have been at the behest of CBS or ABC (whoever had this rerun at the time?) who might have had Decca/MCA under contract. Having a song featured that was not owned by Screen Gems or Columbia/RCA just seems wrong based on all that had transpired, previously.

Why stop there, though? They could have dug into the Peter Pan library and gotten "The Christmas Tree" from Snoopy's Christmas. The lilting tones of Wendy Hill and Ray Dorey of The Caroleers might have helped to lighten the mood!