POP! The Lost 1972 Davy Jones TV Special

1. By Fred Velez

Davy Jones performing ‘Clowns’ on the ABC Television Special ‘POP’.

A few years after The Monkees officially called it a day, the individual members pursued their solo careers. Michael Nesmith followed his muse into Country Rock. Micky Dolenz resumed his acting career and dabbled in his solo music, which despite showing a lot of promise, was sadly ignored. Peter Tork, the first to leave the group, tried to launch his solo career with his group Release. The project failed to get off the ground and Peter disappeared from the scene for a few years.

Next to Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones was the most publicly prominent ex-Monkee in the early 70’s. He had some success with his first solo single on Bell Records ‘Rainy Jane’ which went Top 60 on Billboard and Top 40 in Cashbox. It did better in Canada where it charted in the Top 20. His self titled solo album for Bell didn’t do as well in the charts. He re-pursued his theater acting career and recreated his Tony nominated role of the Artful Dodger in the Los Angeles revival of ‘Oliver!’ which starred Sir Ron Moody recreating his celebrated role of Fagin from the 1968 movie musical version.

Davy Jones and Ron Moody in the Los Angeles revival of ‘Oliver!’

 

During the 70’s Davy made various TV appearances on shows like Laugh In, Merv Griffin, Make Room For Grand Daddy with Danny Thomas, and most memorably on The Brady Bunch.

Davy Jones guest starring in ‘Make Room For Grand Daddy’.

In 1972 the ABC Television Network developed a Saturday afternoon special aimed at pre-Teens that would showcase some of the biggest Teen Stars as well as featuring educational segments that would appeal to young people.

Davy Jones was signed to be the host of the special which was titled ‘POP!’. Davy’s guests included The Osmonds, The Mike Curb Congregation, the female musical group Sunday’s Child, actor Michael Gray and comics Hudson & Laurie. The special was a pilot for a proposed regular series that was to start in September, 1972.

‘POP!’ Special Break Down Transcripts given to Judith Supple Hadlock from Davy Jones as a gift. By permission of Judith Supple Hadlock, 2019. 

 

It was extensively promoted in many of the Teen magazines at the time like Tiger Beat and 16. ABC also ran a promo of ‘POP!’ with pictures of Davy and a female voice saying “Davy Jones, you’ll fall in Love with him All Over Again!”.

Davy Jones in ‘POP!’

ABC Television Studios, Hollywood.

The special aired on ABC, Saturday July 15th, 1972 right after ‘American Bandstand’. It only aired once. If there was any intention of making it a regular series, ABC never followed up on it. After it’s initial airing ‘POP!’ vanished and was long forgotten except by the fans who watched it, some who recorded the show on primitive cassette tape recorders and who’ve held onto their clippings from the Teen mags.

 

Davy Jones hosting ‘POP!’

Davy with the group Sunday’ Child

Davy with Ilene Anderson of Sunday’s Child

Davy with the Mike Curb Congregation 

1. 

Davy with a young audience member in ‘POP!’

Davy Jones In ‘POP!’

Recently on a couple of Monkees Facebook pages, some fans found and posted photos of Davy hosting the ‘POP!’ special. Soon, more photos and clippings from the Teen magazines were posted, sparking interest in this long forgotten artifact of Monkees history. A lot of fans saw the special and remembered it. Others didn’t even know it aired at the time and missed it. Many more, especially recent fans, didn’t even know that it even existed!

 

While going through the Facebook postings, a memory jogged itself. I recall back in the pre-home video/smartphone era of the 1970’s, I was a 8mm/Super 8 film enthusiast with my own movie camera and projector. I used to film Saturday morning rerun episodes of The Monkees off my old black & white TV set, and after developing the film, watch my results from my projector to a screen. The quality was never great, but it was the best one could do in those pre-VCR days. So, on July 15th, 1972, I was aiming my trusty little movie camera on my black & white TV screen and filmed what I could of the ‘POP!’ Special, trying to capture as much footage of Davy Jones as the little roll of film had room for. I also got a brief couple of seconds of the Osmonds and Mike Curb and a snatch of a Partridge Family TV promo. I was able to film some bits of Davy in clown makeup as he performed the song ‘Clowns’, looking very sad as he held out a flower to an imaginary girl. After getting the developed film back and watching it, I recalled the quality being not as good as I would have liked, but it was watchable. After a few more viewings of it, I placed the little roll of film into a drawer and as life went on, I soon forgot about it.

Flash forward to the present, and the memory of that little roll of film jogged forth with the recent Facebook interest in the special. Since then I’ve made several major moves and I had gotten married to my Lovely Linda. Did I still have that little roll of film or did it get lost in one of my many moves?

I proceeded to go through a few boxes in our basement that I knew still had some of my old home movie films in them. After going through a couple of boxes and coming up zero, I opened up one more that contained a few family movies in them which I wanted to check out too.

I soon came across one little roll of film on which I had long ago hand written the title: POP!

Photo: Fred Velez

I found it! But, was it still in good enough condition to be run on a projector?

Linda and I went through a comical search for a working regular 8mm movie projector. The light bulb on my old dual 8 projector no longer worked and getting a replacement would be very expensive. Linda then remembered her dad’s old 1940’s 8mm projector and was able to locate it. She knew how to run it, and after a few test tries with a different film roll which I recorded with my iPhone, we then proceeded to carefully thread the ‘POP!’ reel on the projector. We turned on the projector and on a little screen we set up, my phone started recording the images being projected.

Fuzzy images of The Monkees came up and I remembered that I must have filmed bits of the Monkees episode ‘Ghost Town’ on it. After a couple of more images of the 1967 Davy with the Monkees ran, suddenly, an image of Davy wearing a shorter 70’s haircut flashed on the screen, and I knew it was the ‘POP!’ Special. I managed to have filmed about a minute of the special and I captured as much of the images as best I could on my iPhone. Re-watching the results showed that the footage quality was still not the best and the iPhone recording was even more wonky. Still, it was better than nothing. I was able to apply as a soundtrack Davy’s demo of the song ‘Clowns’ which he had performed on the special. (The song can be found on Davy’s album ‘Wild Ponies: Lost & Found Rarities Vol.1’).

‘POP!’ “Clowns” Break Down Transcripts. With permission of Judith Supple Hadlock, 2019.

Davy Jones performing ‘Clowns’. 

Link: https://davyjones.bandcamp.com/album/wild-ponies-lost-found-rarities-volume-1

I uploaded the video of the footage on YouTube so that other fans could get a small glimpse and a taste of this rare and almost forgotten piece of Monkees/Davy Jones history.

A better transfer of my home movie of ‘POP!’. Many thanks to Mark Nelson.

Hopefully, with fan interest growing for the special, a full and complete copy of Davy Jones ‘POP!’ Special will turn up for original fans to watch again and later generations of Monkees/Davy fans to enjoy too.

Someday, someday. 😉

(Many thanks to Judith Supple Hadlock, Esther Fitzpatrick and other fans on Facebook for sharing their photos, clippings and memories of the ‘POP!’ Special). 

Fred Velez, 2019.

Fred Velez is the author of the book ‘A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You: The Monkees From A Fan’s Perspective’

Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1496112288/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1557613313&sr=8-1