The Monkees Legend Micky Dolenz Recalls the 'Wonderful, Mad Adventure' That Started the TV Classic 60 Years Ago
Micky Dolenz marked a major milestone in his history with The Monkees. The legendary actor and musician posted to Instagram to share a memory of filming the very first episode of The Monkees TV series in June 1966.
Dolenz, 81, shared a series of photos from the episode as well as the first page of the Screen Gems script penned by Dave Evans. He also showed the opening credits listing Robert Rafelson as the director of the episode that featured the Monkees as unlikely horsesitters.
"60 years ago this week, we began filming 'Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth,' which was the first episode we shot for The Monkees series," Dolenz captioned the post on June 3. "I'd love to say I remember every detail clearly, but honestly, in those days we were moving so fast that if you blinked you might miss an episode, a song, a costume change, and possibly a horse."
The "I'm a Believer" singer noted that screenwriter Evans also co-wrote the later episode "The Frodis Caper" with him, which Dolenz also directed.
"Davy, Mike, Peter, and I were suddenly thrown into this wonderful, mad adventure, guided by the vision of Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who somehow looked at the four of us and thought, ‘Yes, this could work,'" Dolenz recalled. "I'm grateful to have been part of it, grateful to the fans who have kept it alive all these years, and grateful to my three brothers in Monkee mayhem."
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Dolenz starred alongside Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork on the NBC musical sitcomThe Monkees from 1966 to 1968. While the TV series only aired for two seasons, it spawned a plethora of pop-rock music from the made-for-TV band. The Monkees had three No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits during the height of their television fame.
While "Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth" was the first episode filmed besides the unaired Monkees pilot, the episodes didn't appear on TV chronologically. "Gift House" actually didn't air until eight episodes in, per IMDb. The first episode to run when the series made its debut on Sept. 12, 1966, was titled "Royal Flush."
According to the official Monkees Facebook page, the pilot was shot in November 1965, in part, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.
Dolenz once told Best Classic Bands that after he auditioned for The Monkees he didn't get overly excited about where it would go.
"I knew The Monkees was going to be a pilot, and I knew that pilots mostly do not get sold," he said. "I saw the ad [for actors] in Variety. It wasn't in the music papers. They were going for four kids who just jumped off the screen, four characters that were charismatic and different. …The music was not at the top of the list of their priorities. It had to be there, and we had to be comfortable around music, but it was heavily weighted toward the improvisation."
"But I didn't get enormously invested in the whole thing," he added. "I knew it was a pilot. It was late November 1965. I was still going to school [at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College] when we did the pilot. I was kind of encouraged to be kind of goofy and improvise and be unusual."
"It obviously clicked and it had chemistry," The Monkees legend said of the pilot. "The series got picked up. That is when I quit school."
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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 8:14 AM.