The Monkees....they were the Marx Brothers to a hip generation. The Monkees music became the sound track for our young lives. Their antics made us laugh, but while were laughing, we were learning. We learned things that have stayed with us well into the 70’s the 80’s and now..the 90’s.

Like the Marx Brothers the Monkees magic was captured on film. Both groups shared similar comedy technique; the play on words, the wise cracks, the loser who was selected by a hand over hand on a baseball bat-or a golf club. Groucho would break the 4th wall and talk to the viewers. The Monkees would later do just the same and Micky would ask us "Isn’t that dumb?"

The Marx Brothers’ fans sat in darkened theatres and from time to time laughed along with their latest film. The Monkees were invited into their fans homes once a week. The Monkees became a part of our extended families , and so we gave them our strictest attention. We were given our first glimpse of what life might be like (we hoped) in our future, when we no longer lived with our parents. The Monkee were out of school, they had jobs (sometimes!) they paid rent (usually!) and were interested in the opposite sex, (all the time.) No matter how crazy the episodes were, the Monkees themselves were very real. We were offered brief views of them at them at the end of selected programs.

Peter was our guru. He taught us about peace, love, non violence and that "love is understanding." We could always count on Peter to make it through all the chaos and give us a beautiful smile, with a dimple. Peter was our perfect example of a 60’s flower child. We could see the joy and love in his face. Peter gave us our first glimpse of the "natural" things that were the emerging, ideas that would come full force in the 70s. Things like health foods, organic anything, moccasins and hand made gifts. We also knew that Peter loved the music. He loved playing music and loved being with musicians. When Peter played he would shine with a light of his own. Peter had an appreciation for almost all types of music, classical, folk, rock, pop, blues. Many of us got our first taste of Bach and Rock by "sitting at Peter’s feet." We were also introduced to eastern philosophy and that "where there is clarity, there is no choice. Where there is choice, there is misery." Oh- there was one more thing. We learned that you have to be very smart to play dumb so convincingly. But then WE always knew that Peter was very intelligent. Peter would make sure that we understood, by dropping out of character every so often to dazzle us with the real man behind the beautiful clown.

Mike was our mentor. Mike was as wily as a fox and always seemed to know what to do if all else failed. Mike was often the designated driver of the Monkees. He had a plan- complete with a great vocabulary. Mike forced us to actually use the dictionary and to think it was hip. Banal and incipid were the first in a long string of words we would learn from Mike. He also gave new meaning to the phrase "think before you speak." To this day many of us will never forget Mike’s lessons on why we shouldn’t ask stupid questions. If we should catch ourselves saying something totally ridiculous, we just hope that Mike is not somewhere nearby. Mike also taught us that you didn’t have to follow the crowd and that it was harder to "love something ugly." Mike made us realize that we should expect no less than we were promised. And Mike could make us laugh hysterically with a few words from his dry wit or with just an expression. He could later turn around and make us cry with a "love is where the power’s at" speech. Mike was always ahead of the times in many things like country-rock music and even fashion. Did you notice his tux at the Emmys? Mike had style and Mike was the only man under 25 that looked cool in a tie.