--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: The Monkees image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt839a5f6253b2d220/69869f2a35ba6fa996c0360c/t100_tv_monkees1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 12, 2014 # _The Monkees_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Remember, this is not a musical top-100 list—see the entry on [_American Idol_](/time/migration/article%5Fdisplay/0,32209,1%5F111%5F1652055,00.xml "undefined"). But whatever contributions the Prefab Four didn’t make to music, their show was a form-breaking tribute to video chaos. This sitcom-cum-marketing-platform was surrealistic, experimental, self-referential and as trippy as a network show of the time could reasonably be. (It’s funny to think that it was on the same network that was airing the drug-paranoid _Dragnet ’67_.) Davy, Micky, Mike and Peter made up what they lacked in musical cred with real acting chops, using improv in a way that foreshadowed shows like _Reno 911!_ while the show’s psychedelic wackiness presaged the hallucinatory Saturday-morning shows of Sid and Marty Krofft. And as for its show of TV’s power to fabricate pop sensations? Again… see _American Idol_. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006ZZ05/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/"},"headline":"The Monkees","datePublished":"2014-08-12T14:46:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:30.129Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/","keywords":["Sitcom"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt839a5f6253b2d220/69869f2a35ba6fa996c0360c/t100_tv_monkees1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt839a5f6253b2d220/69869f2a35ba6fa996c0360c/t100_tv_monkees1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/","name":"The Monkees"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Monkees","description":"Whatever contributions the Prefab Four didn't make to music, their show was a form-breaking tribute to video chaos","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/UUUdG7iw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T21:39:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UUUdG7iw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/","duration":"PT33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103649/the-monkees/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```