I attended the Monkees screening at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood.
They screened four episodes of the series from the 1969 ABC run. They
included new songs, replacing the original tunes from the NBC run.
They also pulled some rare Kool-aid commercials, including a two-
minute version I had never seen before. And, the Monkees on
“Happening” on ABC

After the screening, Andrew Sandoval hosted an interview & Q&A  Dave
Evans, Bobby Hart, Keith Allison (from Paul Revere & the Raiders), and
three “Monkees girls”. As always, Andrew did a great job of putting
this together. Dave told stories about writing the Frodis caper with
Micky, and his work on a Nez pilot that was never made.
Everyone had great memories of the guys.

After show screening, I asked Andrew what was coming up next regarding
re-releases. He said he just finished work in the last few weeks on
the deluxe edition of “Birds, the bees, and the Monkees”. He said it
will be the best edition yet. He mentioned Rhino said it would be out
by the end of the year, but he did not think they would make that
deadline.

So, a great afternoon was had by all. I was surprised at the large
crowd at the theater. It’s always great to see interest in the guys

Was the Happening ep in color? I've got it on a couple of tapes, but
both are b&w.

Yeah, my tapes include the commercials, too. Maybe not all network
programming was in color by 1968/69? (sorry, that was almost before my
time . Great news about BBM, there is hope! Keith Allison sure seems
to keep busy these days. I've heard he is part of an LA bar band with
Waddy Wachtell. Also saw him speak at Drake Levin's memorial a few
months ago, great guy.

Yeah, my tapes include the commercials, too. Maybe not all network
programming was in color by 1968/69? (sorry, that was almost before my
time . Great news about BBM, there is hope! Keith Allison sure seems
to keep busy these days. I've heard he is part of an LA bar band with
Waddy Wachtell. Also saw him speak at Drake Levin's memorial a few
months ago, great guy.

The Raiders performed "Time After Time" with the Monkees "assisting"
them, but yeah, I was surprised they didn't do at least one song.
'Teardrop City" was the current single, you can hear it playing as they
go to a commercial break. "A Man Without a Dream" can be heard later in
the show, too. The only color clip I have from Happening is a film the
Raiders did for "Too Much Talk". Too bad we never got a Happening dvd
set. They had some good guests (even if it was all lip-synching), there
aren't even many eps circulating among collectors. Wouldn't be surprised
if most of the tapes are lost. The only ep I have besides the Monkees
one features Strawberry Alarm Clock. Other than that, I've just got a
few random Raiders songs pulled from different eps.

Yeah, my tapes include the commercials, too. Maybe not all network
programming was in color by 1968/69? (sorry, that was almost before my
time . Great news about BBM, there is hope! Keith Allison sure seems
to keep busy these days. I've heard he is part of an LA bar band with
Waddy Wachtell. Also saw him speak at Drake Levin's memorial a few
months ago, great guy.

All network programming was in color by 1968-69, so the "Happening"
episode with the Monkees (who did not perform any songs, as I recall,
only comedy bits) should've been in color. I'm not sure what has
happened to the color episodes; perhaps they were lost or worse,
destroyed. There's a few videos on youtube from the old "Hollywood
Palace" show, from the days when that show was broadcast in color but
the clips are in black and white. Curiously, Peter had made a solo
appearance on "Happening," not as a performer but as a judge on their
weekly talent contest. Would've been nice if the Monkees and Peter as
a solo performer or with Release had been allowed to perform. I don't
recall any other musical performer not performing on that show and the
Monkees being relegated to comedy bits seemed like a slap in the face.

I was disappointed, too, that the Monkees didn't perform any songs on
that episode. No, Paul and Mark wouldn't have objected, lots of other
bands performed on the show. Strawberry Alarm Clock did one of their
followups to "Incense and Peppermints" titled "Tomorrow", and I've read
there are eps with the Beach Boys, Jose Feliciano, Sonny and Cher and
Wilson Pickett. Yeah, Dick Clark likes to keep this stuff locked away in
a vault, doesn't he realise there is money to be made on these things?
You can get Shindig and Hullaballoo tapes and dvd's, but no Happening,
American Bandstand or Where the Action Is. That's just wrong.

There was one show back around 1992 called Dick Clark's Golden Greats
that included clips from Bandstand and his other shows. I managed to
tape it when it was on a local channel. A lot of it was from his New
Years Eve specials. Other than that, he just shows bits and pieces on
his Bandstand anniversary specials.