Humbly, a correction and notes of Monkees archeology discovered in the Pilot episode

p-dave2

Correction: The country club and its bar sequences in the pilot were shot at the famous Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, which is where most other exterior scenes in the Pilot occurred; nothing was shot in Florida.

The Monkees stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado during shooting of these scenes, which was a treat for them, being they were young unstably working performers.

In-between setups of the Pilot marks the very first time The Monkees played together as a group. While waiting for shots to be ready, they asked crew members if they could hook into the amplifiers and start playing songs. The first songs they tried playing together were folk songs and Chuck Berry numbers.

Regarding the Monkees auditions: Mike Nesmith wore a wool cap to his audition, as seen at the end of the Pilot in the footage of his screen test. Bob Rafelson, co-creator and occasional director of episodes, requested Nesmith to wear the wool cap in every episode thereafter, which Nesmith was against, but did so anyway. Hence, in the beginning of The Monkees, Nesmith was often referred to as "Wool Cap". The cap Nesmith wore took on many alterations throughout the series (i.e., button, color, style). Nesmith is also wearing a harmonica in his screen test because he was influenced by Bob Dylan, who wore one this way. Neil Young saw the harmonica around Nesmith's neck and curiously asked him about it. Also, some 25 years later at a concert a fan approached and surprised Nesmith by presenting him with the original wool cap he wore to his audition.

David Jones also wore a hat during part of his audition, and occasionally wears hats in some episodes.

Previous to the auditions, Peter Tork had met Nesmith a couple of times at the Troubadour in LA, the rest of The Monkees had never met each other prior to the auditions and inception of The Monkees.

Peter Tork has mentioned he was afraid to use marijuana during the 10 days required to shoot this pilot, and, hence, abstained for the shoot of the Pilot.

score 10/10

p-dave2 24 August 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1717759/