The Monkees’ unusual saga as a manufactured musical phenomenon receives loving treatment in VH1’s Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story. It’s one rock-band biopic where the actors actually resemble the characters they play.
The actors can’t help it that the story lacks dramatic punch. The central conflict: The Monkees, especially Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, longed to prove themselves musically and overcome critics’ carping that they were phonies coasting along on the success of their 1960s NBC sitcom.
Yet the movie bungles the dramatic payoff when the quartet is shown performing live. The group’s sound is muddy and weak – hardly reason to believe in a group that sang “I’m a Believer.”
The movie, premiering at 9 tonight, is an odd docudrama. The intention is to celebrate the group, its integrity and its hits, including “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Daydream Believer.”
But these Monkees are upstaged by the celebrities who roll through the movie, and that becomes an inadvertent commentary on the band. At a party the Beatles throw for the group, Paul McCartney (a believable Jason Knight) offers career advice.
“I think you’re the greatest comic talent since the Marx Brothers,” John Lennon (Christopher Crumb) gushes, not so believably. NBC’s The Monkees, with its stars dubbed the “Prefab Four,” was television’s answer to the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night.
Jimi Hendrix (Tony Springer) opens for the Monkees when they tour, but the crowd doesn’t recognize the guitarist’s artistry and shouts instead for the Monkees. Hendrix shows his disdain with an obscene gesture to the crowd.
Jack Nicholson (Matthew Schmelzle) brings manic energy to working on the Monkees’ 1968 film Head, a box-office bomb that gains status as a cult favorite. This Nicholson may seem ready for The Shining, but Schmelzle galvanizes the movie.
Record producer Don Kirshner (Wallace Langham of Veronica’s Closet) is presented as a controlling villain, who manufactured the Monkees sound but discounted their true abilities.
The Monkees themselves come off as pleasant enough lads but perhaps unworthy subjects for a TV movie. Davy Jones (George Stanchev) tires of the stresses of fame, such as dressing as a woman to outwit female fans and visit his dad.
Mystical Peter Tork (L.B. Fisher) tries to find himself and worries about negative energy. Former child star Micky Dolenz (Aaron Lohr) just wants to have fun. Mike Nesmith (Jeff Geddis) hopes to write songs and win professional respect.
The Monkees won the TV industry’s respect when the sitcom took the best comedy Emmy in 1967 over The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, Get Smart and Hogan’s Heroes. The movie restages the victory, a pivotal moment in the band’s career.
But the success lasted just two years, with NBC canceling the sitcom in 1968. So the movie just peters out, with the band members meeting on the beach, realizing fame’s good points and frolicking with fans in a production number.
Daydream Believers comes up short in the celebrity parade – not every personality deserves a movie. But when it’s time to make a Jack Nicholson movie, the right actor has been found.
‘SOUL FOOD’
The recipe for Showtime’s Soul Food mixes poignant family drama and unusually frank sexuality. The TV series, based on the beloved 1997 film, follows three adult sisters trying to keep their Chicago family together after their mother’s death.
The series, debuting at 10 tonight, looks more promising than many broadcast drama series this fall. It’s a rare family drama this season, and in a refreshing change of pace, black actors take center screen.
Teri (Nicole Ari Parker) is a high-powered lawyer still recovering from a failed marriage. Plain-speaking Maxine (Vanessa Williams) tries to knock sense into son Ahmad (Aaron Meeks), who dislikes his prep school.
Sister No. 3 Bird (Malinda Williams) is going into labor, comforting unemployed husband Lem (Darrin Dewitt Henson) and dealing with several crises. Her departed mother (Irma P. Hall, repeating her film role) appears to Bird to urge her to start wearing longer skirts because “you’re somebody’s mama now.”
The winning Parker and Williams do make a persuasive case for visiting these sisters regularly.
‘OPPOSITE SEX’
Fox has decided against throwing sex at CBS’ Survivor. Smart move – the island rats would have beaten it.
Opposite Sex, a summer series about a 15-year-old boy in a former all-girls school, has been shifted from an announced start tonight to 8 p.m. Mondays, starting July 17.
