For his feature film debut, writer/producer/director Robert Rafelson takes screen credit as Bob the first time.

Ken Thorne, composer and conductor of HEAD's incidental music cues, was musical director for The Beatles' second film, Help! (United Artists, 1965). Coincidentally, it was The Beatles' communal pad in Help! which inspired The Monkees' beach pad on the TV series and in this movie; also, a scene from HEAD which finds a tank chasing The Monkees in the desert parallels a similar scene from Help!.

The origin of the movie generated in Ojai, California, where the foursome, Rafelson, Schneider and Nicholson ventured to generally spend an entire weekend in a resort motel verbally tossing story ideas into a tape recorder—which generally became the script for HEAD. The Monkees wanted to become instrumental members in this project from start to finish. Later on, as the boys got wind of being denied screenwriting credit for the movie, they (all but Peter) decided to rebel by failing to show up on the first day of shooting, February 19, 1968. While they returned on February 20, feeling they'd made their point with producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, the unity between the band and the producers was forever broken. For their part, Rafelson and Schneider began playing albums on the set by other groups like The Electric Flag, claiming, "That's REAL rock-n-roll."

When it was finally edited together into a cohesive whole, the entire entourage ran 10 minutes short of an unprecedented 2 hours! A poor audience response at an August 1968 screening of a rough cut of the film in Los Angeles (under the moniker Movee Untitled) eventually forced the producers to edit the picture down to an 86-minute length. For fear The Monkees' movie would force the more serious movie critics and movie goers to stay away in droves, the producers decided on a rather unorthodox promotion — one that would have nothing to do with Monkee business!

The bridge sequences were shot at The Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach on Wednesday, April 17, 1968...the 34th birthday of former Monkees music supervisor Don Kirshner. Named in honor of the late City Attorney for Long Beach who played a significant role in obtaining tideland oil funds which helped finance it, the Bethlehem Steel-constructed Gerald Desmond Bridge has since been replaced by The Long Beach International Gateway as of October 5, 2020. 

Colgems' Original Soundtrack Recording of HEAD (#COSO-5008, issued on November 26[?], 1968 as The Monkees' 6th album overall, and their last album as a quartet) was assembled by the film's cowriter/coproducer Jack Nicholson, and broke new ground in soundtrack long players, as it was a bizarre blend of song and dialogue from the film, proving its worth to be as unconventional as the movie itself!

The live cut of Michael Nesmith's “Circle Sky,” filmed and recorded before a live audience in Utah on the last day of shooting, May 17, 1968 (a poorly-recorded live lead vocal would prompt Nes to cut a new lead vocal at RCA Studios in Hollywood on May 21), would unfortunately be passed over for inclusion of the movie’s soundtrack album in favor of a studio-recorded take, cut six months earlier. The cut, long a favorite of bootleg collectors, would not see legitimate release until 22 years later, on Rhino’s Missing Links, Volume 2 compilation. Rhino’s November 15, 1994 reissue of the HEAD soundtrack (R2 71795) features both the studio and live versions of “Circle Sky”.

For the staged “Circle Sky” concert sequence for filming, which took place at 1 p.m., PR officer Floyd Ackerman, who previously geared up The Monkees' summer 1967 tour, spent a week stirring up interest and ensured an open-arms heliport welcome for the band. Radio KCPX 105.7 FM were given 4,000 free tickets to distribute to fans, precipitating a response so huge that a "bonus" concert was immediately scheduled, for which 5,000 more passes were handed out. After wrapping up shooting the movie with the concert sequence, The Monkees played that bonus concert (which ran 45 minutes) later that very evening at The Lagoon's Patio Gardens Theatre as a token of appreciation to the kids of Salt Lake City. (Filming was originally scheduled to take place at The Gardens, but the movie crew wasn't satisfied with the lighting there, and so was transferred to The Valley Aduitorium.) These turned out to be the very last live American performances The Monkees ever gave as a quartet.

The “Circle Sky” concert sequence in the movie HEAD marks the second onscreen appearance of The Monkees performing live, following the January 21, 1967 set at The Coliseum in Phoenix, AZ, which was filmed for Episode No. 32 of The Monkees, “The Monkees On Tour”. (Look closely, and you just might catch a glimspe of a brief snippet from “The Monkees On Tour” of cops fighting back hysterical fans.) It's also the first actual live concert footage to be featured in a motion picture. 

Several other tracks in HEAD appear in the film in versions which differ aurally than they did on the soundtrack album:

There are no varispeed effects in the movie version of Jack Nicholson and Robert Rafelson's “Ditty Diego” as opposed to the version of the cut included on the soundtrack LP. A remix from the original 8-track master can be heard on Rhino's 2001 Monkees Music Box (R2 76706).

Some of “As We Go Along”'s opening guitar licks emit echo effects.

Near the end of David's “Daddy’s Song” number, he goes into a melancholy rendition of the fifth verse. A similar studio-recorded mix was unearthed for Rhino's Monkees Music Box compilation.

The version of Peter Tork's “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again” used in the film does not fade; instead, it plays continuously to the end.

The reprise of “Porpoise Song” (heard at the very end of the movie) adds a third lead vocal by Micky Dolenz.

Goffin and King's “Porpoise Song”, backed with King and Stern's “As We Go Along”, was released as a rather unsuccessful Colgems #66-1031 single on October 5, 1968 (The Monkees 8th and last single as a quartet), almost a full month prior to the premiere of HEAD in New York City and 4 weeks before the soundtrack LP's release.

A tune named “Get Tuff” (not sung by The Monkees) was written exclusively for the "dandruff" sequence in HEAD by incidental music composer-conductor Ken Thorne & writer-producer-director Robert Rafelson. It appears in the movie in its entirety, but appears on the soundtrack in brief snippets.

2 other tracks in HEAD, Peter Tork's “Can You Dig It” and Nilsson's “Daddy’s Song”, were originally recorded at Western Recorders and RCA Victor Studios in Hollywood in early versions with different Monkees singing lead: Tork sang his own composition, “Can You Dig It”, while “Daddy’s Song” was cut with a double tracked lead vocal of Michael Nesmith (in the 1920's vein of "Magnolia Sims" and "Tapioca Tundra"). These early versions were released as bonus selections on Rhino’s 1994 reissue of the HEAD soundtrack.

In addition to co-writing and co-producing the movie HEAD with its director Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson also coordinated its adjoining soundtrack album, which boasted a surrealist mixture of song and dialogue with snippets of the movie dialogue between songs, and is so credited on the album cover. (When he saw Michael Nesmith at work in the studio and asked if he could help, Nesmith let him take over, because "I just want to go home!") Nicholson had unwavering enthusiasm for the movie, joining in a stickering campaign to promote the premiere (eventually getting himself and Rafelson arrested in return), and declaring later that "I saw it, like, 158 million times, man. I loved it!" The Monkees themselves produced the majority of the songs in the movie's soundtrack, save for “Porpoise Song” (Theme From HEAD), which was produced by Gerry Goffin.

Rhino's 1985 reissue of the HEAD soundtrack (RNLP-145) features the original 4:00 version of “Porpoise Song” (Theme From HEAD).

"Swami-Plus Strings, etc.", the closing track on the HEAD soundtrack, finds The Swami (the late Abraham Sofaer) speaking the line, "To experience The Now, without preconception or belief." However, the scene with him uttering this line was edited out of the movie itself.

Choreographer Toni Basil (who can be seen dancing with David Jones in the “Daddy’s Song” musical number) became a one-hit wonder in 1982 with the song "Mickey."

Terry Chambers (Hero) and John Hoffman (The Sexfiend) were responsible for providing footage from old movies to insert between certain scenes in episodes of The Monkees TV show.

Burton Gershfiled and Bruce Lane, responsible for all of the special color effects in HEAD, were mistakenly credited in HEAD's pressbook as Post-Production Assistants.

French-American academic and Director of Photography Michel Hugo's film and TV credits included the 1969 Charlton Heston film Number One, the 1969 film The April Fools which starred Jack Lemmon, Bless the Beasts and Children in 1971, Dynasty (ABC, 1981–89), Melrose Place (FOX, 1992–99) and Mission: Impossible (CBS, 1966–73).

HEAD's unit production manager Harold Schnieder was kid brother to executive producer Bert Schneider; their father Abraham was Studio Head of Columbia Pictures at the time. Harold Schnieder and Bob Rafelson later collaborated on the films Five Easy Pieces (Columbia, 1970), Stay Hungry (United Artists, 1976), and Black Widow (20th Century-Fox, 1987).

Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, tunesmiths responsible for composing a great many songs for The Monkees, were strictly persona non grata in HEAD, with nary a song to their credit in its soundtrack listing.

An early demo recording of Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson's “Ditty Diego” (a.k.a. "Movie Jingle"), included as a bonus selection on Rhino's 1994 reissue of the HEAD soundtrack, reveals it had an extra stanza:

To mix it all together, picture sounds and songs,
And time and place and weather, and even rights and wrongs!

Naturally, this line was expunged when time came to record the actual track.

In the scene where, Michael awakens and witnesses the other three Monkees dressed as druids, chanting and then suddenly breaking into a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday To You”, they might very well have sung, "Happy Birthday, Mike and Davy," for David Jones shares a birthday with Michael Nesmith (December 30th)!

Collector's Note: Micky, David, and Peter recorded the traditional song by Patti Smith Hill and Mildred J. Hill with organ accompaniment [provided by Michael Rubini] on August 3, 1968 at RCA Victor Studios, Hollywood. Never officially released, Rhino added the short piece as a bonus to their 1994 reissue of the HEAD soundtrack.)

An unused scene from the movie HEAD (it would have occurred just after the gal kisses them and leaves the pad) would have the guys each looking at themselves in the mirror and seeing the persona the public sees: Peter is dressed as a clown (someone else is wearing a clown outfit in the scene when people are watching the girl deciding whether or not to jump); Michael has on a tux with a top hat, tails & a cane and descends a red carpet staircase; Micky is a satyr; and David is dressed as a sheik. Other deleted scenes include:

In the war trench scene, David tosses a hand grenade and it explodes; after which, he and Sgt. Michael resuce a rabbit from the trenches.

After David shows his way out of the big black box by fighting his way out, the other Monkees demonstrate their own way to escape: Michael "cons" his way out, Micky entices his mates in working together, and Peter devises a method involving meditation.

The Monkees, led by David, confront the dreaded Coca-Cola machine in the desert.

A website located @ http://www.brilton.net/html/i/monkees_head_outtakes.html fully describes at least 2 of these scenes. A rare trailer called "NY Action," included as an extra feature on Rhino's HEAD DVD (R2 4460), features a potpourri of expurgated scenes from the movie as well as several well-known scenes and other snippets.

The birthday-party sequence set to “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again” was filmed on a set from Rosemary's Baby (Paramount, 1968). 

The factory sequences were all filmed at The Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant on February 28, 1968.

The Monkees' Untitled motion picture was finally given a title on September 3, 1968; according to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Raybert Production for Columbia Pictures will be titled HEAD." The title was probably inspired by a filmmaking term for the beginning of a shot or a roll of film -- the "head".

Trivia Notes For HEAD:

The World Premiere Engangement of HEAD occurred on Wednesday, November 6, 1968 in Manhattan; a gala was held there at the Columbia Pictures studio on West 54th Street attended by The Monkees, Janis Ian, Andy Warhol, Boyce & Hart, Carole Bayer, Lester Sill, Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson, Peter Fonda, Peter's brother Nick Thorkelson, and his grandmother. An invitation-only debut of HEAD in Los Angeles took place @ 8:30 pm, Tuesday evening, November 19, 1968 at The Vogue Theater on Hollywood Blvd., attended by The Monkees (in one of their last public appearances as a quartet), Phyllis Nesmith, Samantha Juste, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty (of The Mamas And The Papas), Boyce & Hart, Dennis Hopper, actor Sonny Tufts, comedy troupe The Committee, Tina Louise, and supporting HEAD castmembers Frank Zappa, Sonny Liston and Annette Funicello. 2 days after HEAD's invite-only Bay Area premiere at San Francisco's Metro 2 Theatre, The Monkees went to MGM Studios in Culver City to begin work on what would eventually become Peter Tork's final project with the band: the TV special 33⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee.

Trivia Footnote #1: The Vogue Theatre, ironically, would be the exact same location which saw all 4 reunited Monkees being awarded a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 10, 1989.

Trivia Footnote #2: The premiere of The Monkees' movie HEAD in New York City occurred a full week to the day of the USA opening of The Beatles' third film for United Artists, the equally trippy Yellow Submarine, in the exact same city (as well as in Los Angeles).

A misleading ad campaign (a balding man’s face? No indication of the group appearing in the film?) and a mistimed release date, due to a painfully prolonged postproduction process (November 6, 1968? Two months after The Monkees TV show’s official cancellation [and the day after Richard Milhous Nixon defeated Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. in a knockdown, dragout vie for The Presidency!]?) helped sabotage this otherwise fun-loving crowd pleaser, which moved a meager $16,111 in ticket sales.

You notice that HEAD has no opening credit sequence.

Changes, a working title for The Monkees' movie, eventually later became the title for their ninth and final original LP (#COS-119, released in May 1970). 

The vaccuum cleaner which is used to suck The Monkees out of The Big Victor's hair is manufactured by The Bison Bag Company. There is a for-real company with the same name located in Lockport, NY, which specializes in printers, Converters, laminators of polyethylene, polypropylene, COEX, polyester, metalized films, nylon, PVDC coated and other flexible packaging materials (bags, sheets, rollstock, pouches, triangle bags, zippers, zipper bags and zipper rollstock).

The scene following "THE COP'S DREAM," at The Monkees’ beach pad, where Michael is awakened out of a sound sleep by the door buzzer and gets up amidst floating silver pollows, is in reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 art piece Silver Clouds, which consisted of floating metallic pillows.

The Western Union telegram which Michael reads is dated December 31 (New Year's Eve!), 1968, which would be exactly 1 day after Michael Nesmith's 26th birthday (and David Jones' 23rd).

David Jones' “Daddy’s Song” song-and-dance number (filmed on Monday, April 8, 1968) is a tribute to late director Vincente Minelli (yes, Liza's dad). The only track on the HEAD soundtrack on which David sings lead, Harry Nilsson's “Daddy’s Song” was originally planned as a possible follow-up single for “Valleri”, but it was scrapped when Nilsson's own version was junked as a single. (It did later on see release as a single in England, but it didn't chart.)

Trivia Footnote: "If You Have The Time," a previously unissued track written and produced by Bill Chadwick and David Jones, was originally planned to be David's dance number in HEAD, but was replaced by the similar “Daddy’s Song” at the last minute. It eventually made it onto the redubbed soundtrack of Episode No. 14 of The Monkees, “Dance, Monkee, Dance”, for the CBS Saturday Afternoon run of The Monkees' TV series, and, in July 1987, it was finally released as a featured track on Rhino’s Missing Links (RNLP/RNC/R2 70150).

Trivia Footnote #2: David's spotlight singing “Daddy’s Song” was originally conceived as a showcase for Michael singing "Magnolia Simms" (which eventually got locked in for the lineup of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees). 

Peter Tork wears a record 4 Nehru shirts throughout the entire movie. David Jones, save for his scene smooching Lady Pleasure (I.J. Jefferson) and the Pasadena Rose Bowl, war trench, live concert and “Daddy’s Song” musical sequences, remains clad in his regular green shirt, orange trousers and white boots.

In the scene with The Jumper (June Fairchild), watch out for a female extra wearing a Jeannie outfit. The Monkees TV series preceded I Dream Of Jeannie on NBC during the 1966-67 season, and it was I Dream Of Jeannie which inherited The Monkees' old timeslot on NBC (7:30 p.m. EDT Monday) upon the latter's cancellation in September 1968.

The “Ditty Diego” sequence was used in Columbia Pictures' theatrical trailer for HEAD.

The desert sequences were filmed in Palm Springs, on the same location as the chase climax in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (United Artists, 1963).

During the war-movie parody, Micky Dolenz sports a gold football helmet (formerly belonging to Private One [Ray Nitschke]). It closely resembles the helmet Jack Nicholson wore in Easy Rider.

The war trench sequence was filmed on Bronson Canyon in Hollywood Hills, the same shooting location of the scene of The Batmobile leaving The Batcave on Batman.

The hours of The Columbia-Screen Gems Studio Club are from 9 to 6.

The championship drill team seen in HEAD were from L.B. Jordan High School in Los Angeles. 

2 other HEAD co-stars, the late Logan Ramsey (Off. Faye Lapid) and Charles Macaulay (Inspector Shrink), were later seen in 2 episodes of Mission: Impossible (CBS, 1966–73) with Monkee guest alum Tony Giorgio ("Mijacogeo" [a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper"]): Ramsey and Giorgio in the 3-parter "The Falcon" (Jan. 4, 8 & 11, 1970), and Macaulay and Giorgio in "Lover's Knot" (Feb. 22, 1970).

David's factory fisticuff sequence and Michael, Micky and David's near-fatal conveyor belt ride probably lampoons similar melees in the 1967 20th Century Fox sequel In Like Flint. (Coincidentally, pre-Monkee guest actress Ginny Gan ["The Wild Monkees"] appeared in a brief role in the film as an Amazon.)

David Jones' secret wife Linda Haines (whom he wed on December 15, 1967) was present during the filming of HEAD; she can be seen during the “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again” dance party sequence.  Phyllis Barbour Nesmith is also seen in the "Long Title" sequence in HEAD, only very briefly and hardly noticably. (She's wearing a flowered dress with her hair down. Here are 3 ways to spot her. #1: Look at the right side of the screen when they show an above shot of Lord High n' Low coming toward The Monkees. #2: Also, look on the right side, near the throne exactly right after the song ends. #3: Near the beginning of the song, she is clearly seen dancing, but not her face. A light of another girl's face is shone on Phyllis' hair as it covers her own face.) 

The presence of the Coca-Cola machine in the movie HEAD might have proven to be prophetic for its distributor, Columbia Pictures; in the 1980s, the studio became 'a product of the Coca-Cola Company'!

The beach buggy The Monkees are seen tooling around the Columbia Pictures lot is a Mantaray II Kyote, which was designed by Dean Jefferies, stylizer of The Monkeemobile, and also The Black Beauty for The Green Hornet (ABC, 1966-67).

The drum set Micky Dolenz uses in the concert scene, with the word "DRUM" emblazoned on the large tum-tum, will be reused by The Monkees (sans Peter Tork) for an ill-fated February 5, 1969 appearance on The Glenn Campbell Show (CBS, 1969-72).

The same Vietnam War footage that was interspersed into HEAD was reused in Bert Schneider's Oscar-winning documentary Hearts And Minds (Warner Bros., 1974).

At the end of HEAD, the order that the remaining three Monkees leap off The Gerald Desmond Bridge into The Back Channel after Micky Dolenz's dive is the exact order to that of their penultimate deaths: David Jones (d. 2012), Peter Tork (d. 2019), and Michael Nesmith (d. 2021)!

The incarnation of the famed Columbia Pictures "Torch Lady" production slate seen at the end of HEAD (which flutters, travels erratically on the sprockets, and finally burns) is a completely different logo than the one used in Columbia films at the time, probably created for this very film. Incidentally, Columbia was in its 45th anniversary year at the time of HEAD's release.

Having failed the first time out, HEAD was briefly given 2 new leases on theatrical life to boost ticket sales: in Los Angeles on December 4, 1968 in a city-wide engagement at 16 theaters and drive-ins (2 weeks after its West Coast Premiere there at The Vogue Theater), with a double feature (limited to the Pacific drive-ins and a handful of theaters) in the form of then-recent Columbia crime comedy Duffy starring James Coburn; and in New York City on December 13, 1968 (the site of its World Premiere Engagement) at Columbia's Showcase Presentation Theatres, with the 1967 Columbia melodrama The Love-Ins starring Richard Todd and James MacArthur added to run as a double feature.

HEAD was The Monkees' final collaboration with Raybert Productions, and their only venture on the big screen. Plans for a second Monkees movie, The Monkees Save The World, first announced at the 1986 New Jersey Monkees convention, apparently fell dead in the water (sic!). However, in later years, David, Micky and Peter made cameos as judges in The Brady Bunch Movie (Paramount, 1995), and Michael appeared as a cabbie in Burglar (Warner Bros., 1987).

HEAD also has a distinction of being the only motion picture adaptation of a live-action Screen Gems series—said series being, of course, The Monkees (NBC, 1966-68). It also serves as a swan song (series finale) of the show, made immediately after the end of production on the series.

Berton Jerome Schneider died on December 12, 2011 at the age of 78.

Robert Jay Rafelson died on July 23, 2022 at the age of 89.

Monkees Movie/TV Connections:

A pivotal scene from Monkees Episode No. 35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik", and the scene with dancing harem girls in the Arab tent
shimmying around The Monkees in Sheikh regalia to the tune of “Can You Dig It” in the movie HEAD it inspired. 

Believe it or not, The Monkees’ motion picture HEAD actually features scenes that paid homage to episodes of their 1966–1968 television sitcom, or random scenes, characters, guests, personnel or props thereof:

Rafelson and Nicholson's “Ditty Diego” is of course a satirical jab at Boyce and Hart's bouncy Main Title for The Monkees television series

The WWII foxhole scene recalls the mock Army briefing sequence in the series premiere, “The Royal Flush” (#4701)

The kissing contest involving The Monkees and Lady Pleasure (I.J. Jefferson) hearkens back to Episode #29, “The Monkees Get Out More Dirt” (#4738)

The live performance of “Circle Sky” in Salt Lake City obviously references Episode #32, “The Monkees On Tour” (#4753)

The harem girls dancing to the tune of “Can You Dig It” is a retread of Episode #35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik" (#4749)

David's brutal boxing match with Sonny Liston in the boxing arena is a curt nod to Episode #20, “The Monkees In The Ring” (#4734)

Inspector Shrink (Charles Macaulay), in a sense, parallels Dr. Mendoza (John Hoyt) from Episode #18, “I Was A Teenage Monster” (#4725)

Micky, Michael and Peter getting hassled by Officer Faye Lapid (Logan Ramsey) relates to their brutal interrogations in Episode #11, “The Monkees A La Carte” (#4718) (Peter), #34, "The Picture Frame" (a.k.a. "The Bank Robbery") (#4759) (David, Micky and Michael) and #46, "The Monkees On The Wheel" (#4742)

David, Peter and Michael venturing their way through a long Gothic vestibule room is inspired by Episode #2, “Monkee See, Monkee Die” (#4705) and Episode #50, "The Monstrous Monkee Mash" (#4767)

The strawskirted native tribesmen who capture Micky and shackle him to a wall in a dungeon next to Peter and Michael reference the character Thursday (Rupert Crosse) in Episode No. 40, "The Monkees Marooned" (#4755)

The Monkees’ encounter with Lord High and Low (Timothy Carey) and his posse of desperados throws back to their crossing paths with banditos and outlaws in Episode #33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico") (#4752) and #45, "The Monkees In Texas" (#4761), respectively 

The party pass tribute to Michael in HEAD soundtracked by Peter Tork's “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again” is a sly tip of the wool hat to the parties The Monkees threw in Episode No. 4, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers” (4703), No. 9, “The Chaperone” (#4711), and the shindig that started it all: Vanessa Russel (Robyn Millan)’s Sweet 16 birthday bash in Episode No. 10, “Here Come The Monkees” (a.k.a. “The Monkees—The Pilot”) (#4091)

A further section of the cast listing seen in the end credits is displayed backwards, ending with "Frodis" (portrayed by "Yelnah Mij" [Jim Hanley]), a callback to the concluding Episode 58, "Mijacogeo" [a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper") (#4770)

Further movie/TV connections:

Aside from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schnieder, other members from HEAD's production crew also previously worked on The Monkees TV series: Mike Pozen, Jack Williams, Gene Ashman, Igo Kantor, Les Fresholtz, Jon Andersen and Marilyn Schlossberg. The TV show's sound-effects company, Edit-Rite, lent its many noises to the movie's audio track as well.

Four actors in HEAD were also seen in guest roles on The Monkees TV series: Vito Scotti (I. Vitteloni in the movie and Dr. Marcovich in Episode No. 17, “The Case Of The Missing Monkee”), William Baghdad (The Black Sheik in the movie and Curad in Episode No. 35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik"), Lee Kolima (the security guard in the movie and Yakimoto in Episode No. 5, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool”, and Atilla The Hun in No. 52, "The Devil And Peter Tork") and Frank Zappa (The Critic in the movie and 'Mike Nesmith' in the teaser of Episode No. 57, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds"). (Both “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool” and “The Case Of The Missing Monkee” were also directed by Bob Rafelson.)

Also, look for Valerie Kairys in the scene with The Jumper (June Fairchild); she's the one with a hanky near her eye. Monkee stand-ins David Price, David Pearl, Ric Klein and Bruce Barbour (Wizard Glick [Rip Taylor]’s villainous henchmen from "Mijacogeo" [a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper"]) can also be spotted.

The late June Fairchild, who plays "The Jumper" and one of the belly dancers in the “Can You Dig It” sequence in HEAD, made an early, uncredited appearance with the boys in the episode “The Chaperone”. She feeds "Mr. Schneider" a potato chip and asks him for some advice, then pulls his string for an answer; she surprisingly wouldn't get onscreen credit for her appearance on the show. June would work again for producer Bert Schneider in Jack Nicholson's directorial outing Drive, He Said (Columbia, 1971), but is probably best known as the "Ajax Lady" in Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke (Paramount, 1978), which featured a cameo by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (David's double in “The Prince And The Paupers”).

The Monkees' ramshackle beach pad crosses over from the TV show into the movie, with a few slight adjustments and/or additions, including stained glass, futuristic lounge chairs and table, a new couch, floating silver pillows, an elevator cage, fuzzy carpeting, a brown leather easy chair, a barber's chair, and an aquarium. Deleted is the bus stop sign, the number "4", the plane schedule, the movie posters and the "Money Is The Root Of All Evil" sign on the wall, the dummy Mr. Schneider, and the tornado staircase (although the upper balcony remains intact!). Also, for the first and only time, use is made of a door buzzer, which has been newly installed in the pad. (The 1997 ABC Monkees reunion special Hey Hey It's The Monkees [a.k.a. "A Lizard Sunning Itself On A Rock"] had a doorbell installed, which chimed to the chorus of the "[Theme From] The Monkees.") 

The huge bed David lands into in the Columbia lot is the same one he was seen riding in in the Season 2 main title sequence of The Monkees TV series.

David and The Monkees use a cannon to blow Lord Hign 'n' Low (Timothy Carey) and his 20 cohorts to smithereens, the same cannon which was previously used in Episode No. 16, “The Son Of A Gypsy”, and No. 33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico").

In a scene where The Monkees speed towards the back of a backdrop in the Columbia Pictures lot in their Mantaray II Koyote dunebuggy, stagehands heave a huge green telephone out of their way---the same one that appeared in Episode No. 28, "The Monkees On The Line." 

Scenes of Micky and later The Monkees in the desert is reminiscent of their musical romp in the desert on The Monkees TV series as Foreign Legionnaires set to "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day", as first used in Episode No. 7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”, and recycled in snippets in Episode No. 4, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers”, No. 5, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool” , No. 6, “The Success Story”, No. 31, “The Monkees At The Movies”, and No. 35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik", and in the second season main title sequence of The Monkees.

At the end of the sequence in the boxing arena, as a quintet of policemen are restraning riot-crazed Micky, Peter rises through the ropes, quietly declaring, “I’m the dummy, Micky. I’m always the dummy!”, owing to his persona on The Monkees' former television series. 

The big black box in the movie HEAD is based on the black room producers of the TV series would make the actors stay in to keep them out of trouble and available for scenes. Micky Dolenz stated each Monkee was appointed to a corner in the room and when the light in their corner lit up it meant that Monkee was needed on the set. There were pillows and music playing to keep the atmosphere ultra groovy. He said they had a heavy duty freezer type door on the room to keep them inside and out of trouble.

Just as several episodes of The Monkees television series relied on inserting humorous film clips to advance their plot, their feature film HEAD followed this pattern, interspersing filmclips featuring Jon Brockman (who engineered HEAD’s promotional campaign and was featured with The Monkees again at the beginning of their 1997 ABC-TV reunion special, Hey Hey It's The Monkees) and The Rockettes, former actor/at-the-time California Governor/America's future 40th President Ronald Reagan, and scenes from the Columbia Pictures Gilda (1946), Golden Boy (1939), and Salome (1953), and the films The Sign of the Cross (Paramount, 1932), City For Conquest (Warner Bros., 1940), and The Black Cat (Universal, 1941). A brief snippet of the Hanna-Barbera Loopy DeLoop cartoon Two Faced Wolf (released April 6, 1961 by Columbia Pictures) can also be seen. And the b/w excerpt of the two men watching an old lady dance wildly ("You make motion pictures here, don't you? You're always looking for talent? Watch this!") is from a 1944 Columbia B-picture called Jam Session; the two men are actors George Eldredge and Eddie Kane, and the old woman is actually a young Ann Miller in disguise. 

Broadcast Notes For HEAD:

HEAD had its network television broadcast premiere on Monday, December 30, 1974 (Michael Nesmith's 32nd birthday, and David Jones' 29th). CBS, which aired repeats of The Monkees TV series on its Saturday Afternoon schedule between September 1969 and September 1972, aired the movie across-the-board as part of its CBS Late Movie at 11:30pm (EST), airing opposite The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson on NBC and The Gator Bowl (Texas Longhorns versus Auburn Tigers) on ABC. CBS repeated the film on Monday, July 7, 1975 (the 35th birthday of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, who gets mentioned in HEAD!), also @ 11:30 PM (EDT), against Johnny Carson on NBC and Wide World Mystery on ABC. These airings truly proved to be The Monkees' last hurrah on network television until 1997.

CBS Promo #1: "Tonight the singing Monkees star in the musical HEAD--a television premiere on The CBS Late Movie."

CBS Promo #2: "On The CBS Late Movie, The Monkees get it all together in a film that's out of this world. Take off on a non-stop trip of hilarity and song with 4 young men who don't know where they're going. The Monkees are on the move in HEAD."

Supporting Cast Notes For HEAD: