To Petition or Not To Petition...

Petitions are good you know,
it's a way to fight against animal cruelty,
against chopping down the rain forests,
or to stand against storage of nuclear weapons--
but ya know, it shouldn't be used
to get "The Monkees" on network television.

Call me a loser, idiot, jerk, a------, meen chick, or
whatever other derogatory name, but DON'T call
me "not a true Monkees' fan". "True Monkees' fan"
was concocted by the promotional department of
some companies to get you to buy their
Monkee products.
Petitions have a history of working, if it didn't there
would be no just thing as petitions. However, petitioning
Nick-at-Nite or the Fox Family Channel to air episodes
of "The Monkees" is like petitioning the Catholic Pope
to drop his celibacy. For a short run, it might make
everybody feel better but people directly connected
will be scratching their heads some time down the road and wondering why they did something so unnecessary.

Why This Thing Won't Work For Now
Columbia Pictures currently OWNS the legal rights to air the syndicated episodes of "The Monkees"; in order for other networks to air the episodes, the networks need to PAY a license fee to air the episodes-- that means money, and LOTS of it. In order to finance this license fee, stations will allow commercials (aka "a word from their sponsors") to be aired for a certain fee. This is where things get complicated.
Columbia slapped a big, fat price on the license fee to air "The Monkees". If a station, like say Nick-at-Nite, wants to air the episodes they have to PAY the price. However, Nick can only set a certain price for other companies (aka sponsors) to put commercials on their station, any price higher NOBODY would want to put a commercial on Nick-at-Nite. No commercials means to way to pay Columbia without losing PROFIT. Yes, even Nick-at-Nite is run by big, corporate fat cats. Since Nick-at-Nite sees NO PROFIT potential in "The Monkees", they've learned their lesson several years ago, they now refuse to air the episodes due to loss in PROFIT.
What does that mean for petitions signed by 1000+/- devoted "true" Monkee fans? Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Not even didly squat. There are MILLIONS of potential viewers for Nick-at-Nite in the United States; and it's in those millions that Nick relies on BUYING products from sponsors. It's been rumored that the mail clerk at Nick-at-Nite has been told to DISPOSE of petitions because frankly some thousand odd signatures don't get them any dough. You want to be pissed off at a corporation for "The Monkees" not being on the air???? Rant towards Columbia Pictures, they're the ones who slapped the fat price tag that got Nick-at-Nite AVOIDING "The Monkees" like the plague.

Okay, So Why Was Nick-at-Nite Kind Enough To Air "The Monkees" in the 1980s?
Again, it all comes down to money. Columbia owned not ONLY the rights to air the episodes in the 1980s, but it also owned the rights to the music. So every time "I'm a Believer" came on or everytime you saw the Monkees running around to "All The Kings Horses", Columbia got MORE money in their pockets because from the license to air the songs. Since the money thing was very secure, Columbia was generous to allow the episodes to be aired for a moderate price.
Since the early 1990s, Rhino Records owned all the rights to the music. So every time an episode aired, part of the money would go to Columbia for licensing the episode, and other part would go to Rhino for licensing of the music. The reason why there was no music in E!'s True Hollywood Story of The Monkees was because Rhino didn't allow them to air the songs. Since Columbia LOST a great deal of money to Rhino from the licensing of the music, they decided to HIKE UP the license fee to air the episodes!

Complete Run Down of the Whole Spiel

Columbia sells license fees to allow Nick-at-Nite to air "The Monkees"

Nick-at-Nite pays the hefty price and says if sponsor wants to air a commercial during "The Monkees" they have to pay a certain price.

No sponsor would go for a ludicrous price, so Nick-at-Nite is limited in the amount of money they can get from sponsors.

With the limited amount of money that they get from sponsors, Nick-at-Nite is only able to pay Columbia a certain amount for the license fee without going broke or losing PROFIT.

Since they can't get any money for themselves when they air "The Monkees", Nick-at-Nite decides that unless they own the rights, they WON'T EVER air "The Monkees" UNLESS somebody pays them LOTS OF MONEY.

So you see, my fine feathered friends? In this case, money talks more louder than a humble petition signed by "fans". If you want others, like those who DO have cable, to see the episodes you can either 1) cough up millions of dollars or 2) get the episode box set and dub the tapes for those who can't afford to get the episode box set. With technology advancing further and further these days, there might come a time when you will see the episodes as a whole on the internet and the box set might become obsolete because of it.

Thank you,
Management at Monkee TeleVision <pacjoy@mailcity.com>
-- Not Affiliated or Endorsed By Any "Entertainment" Corporations
and the Big Fat Cats who run those said Corporations