Monkees: Season 1 [DVD] [1966] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

First the "caveat emptor" i.e. "let the buyer beware": both series I have bought (from separate sources) are indeed Region 2 (in fact Region 2,3,4 and 5 to be precise) BUT the transmission standard is NOT the British PAL TV standard as stated in the Product Details section, but the AMERICAN/JAPANESE NTSC TV standard (bizarre or what?) so please ensure your DVD player and TV can cope with NTSC (most TVs & DVD players less than 5-6 years old will almost certainly handle NTSC OK - but check first) before you buy either series 1 or 2 - in case the box set you get is NTSC as well. I'm lucky... my system copes just fine with NTSC!

Well now that's dealt with, the series proper! I clearly remember the Monkees from my childhood and although it never realy wowed me then, when I watched the first few episodes on the DVDs I found I was almost rolling round on the floor with laughter! Their brand of quickfire, wacky, slapstick and highly visual humour has in my opinion aged very well! Sadly the all-too-obvious canned laughter hasn't!!

Humour is one of those thngs that is very personal: one man's meat is very much another's poison in this regard; but don't forget there's the music of the Monkees captured here as well, and that too has aged very well and is almost worth buying both series for on its own. "Take The Last Train To Clarkesville" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" are still firm favourites of mine after all these years and still raise the hairs on the back of my neck whenever I hear them!

Restoration quality is pretty good considering the age of the material although there is evidence of some colour fading on the original film prints, but it's "liveable-with".

Both series 1 and 2 are available separately in a box set of slimline cases and come with a slim series booklet containing episode listings and trivia etc., plus a selection of "collectors cards"... and series 1 is almost awash with extras, but again bizarrely, no subtitles have been included!

Each episode has a pretty comprehensive trivia section, and the following "extras" are included in series 1:-

5.1 audio

Separate commentaries for episodes 1,3,10,12,14,15 & 32 by various group members & the series production team.

A transfer from 16mm film of the pilot episode

"Play Songs Only" option

Monkees Discography

Vintage Monkees Kelloggs Commercials

Interview with Monkees songwriter Bobby Hart

Monkees Memorabilia Gallery

All in all, well worth the money in my opinion (as is series 2 as well) if you like the Monkees and their music. The only reason I haven't rated the set with five stars is because of the bizarre NTSC transmission standard... why was this done??

I'll admit that I wasn't even born when The Monkees was first screened... I just caught the mid-90's reruns. That's why I was so happy when I found this DVD!

It contains as the episodes from the first season... from "Royal Flush" all they way to "The Monkees on Tour". It even includes the pilot episode, Mike and Davy's screen tests and the Yardley Black Label advert. If it's been the girl in that advert there would have been no way I'd run past Mike.

The packaging is a little unusual... but it looks good. The box is done to look like an vintage record player, while the DVD's themselves come individually packed in cardboard sleeves that look like their old 45's covers.

The humour is so innocent and almost whimsical, yet nearly 40 years on it still works. It's pretty impossible not to find them funny... even if you don't like it, you kids will love it!

This is a very cute box - exactly as the Amazon photo. Downside is that it is a big cute box, 7cm x 15cm x 15cm, and mine got damaged a little in the post and required re-gluing. The actual DVD's are all in their own little cardboard miniature `Record' sleeves, great little facsimiles of the Monkees LP covers, fitted into a removable `record deck' outer cardboard case that slots into the portable `record player' box. All the episodes 1 to 32 from the first series are here, first aired from Sept 1966 to April 1967, and they are spread over 6 DVDs. The final DVD also has a few extras, like the Kellogs commercials, discography, play songs only, Monkees commentaries, interview with songwriter Bobby Hart, and a Monkees memorabilia gallery. The set also has little booklet of the chapter indexes and a short `behind the scenes' written piece that's quite interesting (I didn't realise Mickey and Davy were only 20 when picked or that the Monkees concept wasn't nicked from the Beatles film `Hard Days Night' - one of the creators, Bob Rafelson, had toured with a struggling young band in 1962 and got the idea then). See tvtome.com for the actual episode list. There is also a similar `record player' DVD set for season two.

This first season DVD set is great fun, if a little repetitive naturally being nearly 16h of episodes. My daughter (12) likes the Monkees and has watched most of the episodes - but not as much as her original 4 episode DVD `The Monkees our favourite episodes' - NTSC Region 1 locked as well - so perhaps she has suffered from Monkees overload fatigue (and she has since fallen under the spell of the Charmed ones). She also has the CD set `The definitive Monkees - limited edition' which she really likes. She became a fan after singing 'I'm a believer' in the school Choir. She really likes the Monkees humour (and also the similarly zany The Goodies at last/2nd helping UK offering). My son (10) also loves this Monkees set, although he tends to watch The Goodies a bit more. So a pretty good value DVD set in a fun package at around thirty quid from Amazon resellers.