I told you yesterday that 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee was one of the worst things ever broadcast on network television, and you didn't believe me did you dear reader?
Well here it is - see for yourself.
I believe the background story was this - the Monkees were tired of clowning around on their sitcom, and wanted to do a series of variety specials instead. 33 1/3 was the first of three commissioned by NBC, but it was so bad they canceled the other two. (It didn't help that it aired opposite the Academy Awards in parts of the country). Also, I believe it was originally broadcast out of sequence - not that it would matter to the coherence of the "plot".
Now, "bad" is a subjective term - but 33 1/3 was really aggressively "out there" - even for 1969.
If you stick around - and I bet you don't - you'll see the Monkees do a really nice version of "Listen to the Band" at the end (it was Peter Tork's last performance as a Monkee until the '80s reunion), and believe it or not - Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, and Little Richard are in this.