Bob Rafelson, ‘New Hollywood’ director who co-created the Monkees and made Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson – obituary
msn.comBert Schneider, his partner in the independent production company Raybert, began kicking around the idea of a television show about a band “more interested in having fun than making a living”.
Their Variety ad seeking “4 insane boys, [aged] 17-21” was answered by 437 hopefuls, and the successful applicants – Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork – were dispatched on a six-week improv course.
The show’s goofily knowing house style did not arrive instantly – a pilot polled direly in testing. Yet elevated by solid-gold songwriting and Rafelson’s editorial finesse, the prefab four soon topped TV and pop charts.
Two Emmy-winning seasons later, all parties signed off with Head (1968), a full-length farewell/comedown featuring a heavy psychedelic influence – Rafelson’s co-writer was his drug-savvy pal Jack Nicholson – and cameos from Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa and Dennis Hopper.
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