TOP 13 LISTS | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Sep12

MIKE ALLRED: 13 THINGS to Love About THE MONKEES — RANKED

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 12, 2026

MIKE ALLRED: 13 THINGS to Love About THE MONKEES — RANKED

1966 WEEK! A special 60th ANNIVERSARY celebration by the comics great and Monkees album designer… — Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’ve brought you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan — By MIKE ALLRED CRAZY how much pop culture passion still reverberates with me today, having erupted when I was a wee one in 1966. The big three for me being Batman, Star Trek, and The Monkees. All mostly ever-present my entire life thanks to syndication and then VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray box sets. To the great joy of the little kid that still thrives and survives in me, I’ve been able to do comic book covers (for every Batman ’66 issue and crossover), stories, and a couple of music videos for these iconic entities. I’m still bruised from pinching myself. But now, I wanna specifically zero in on the Monkees, whose TV show debuted 60 years ago, on Sept. 12, 1966: Why anyone ever has to argue the significance, influence and magic of the Monkees is absurd. Chemistry is chemistry. A hit is a hit. Charm is charm. And this band, this show, this music, has it all over me. I DIG ‘EM INFINITELY! My favorite album by far is their self-titled debut, for the simple reason that my older cousin Robin came to live with us and brought her record collection (also planting my love for the British invasion when I otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to it at such a young age). Among her most played LPs was this beauty, which I’ve never tired of, and which only ever fills me with the happiest of memories. Apologies to all my other cousins, but Robin will always be my favorite, being much more a sister than a cousin. Now, beyond that distinction, let’s to stick to the “List of 13.” I’m gonna jump around from songwriting, TV episodes, songs, and THE MOVIE: Let the countdown begin! — 13. The Songwriters. The Monkees utilized great songwriters, many of whom went on to stellar careers as recording artists themselves: Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Neil Diamond… but they...

Sep11

DARK SHADOWS: Dig 13 of the Classic Show’s Grooviest Characters

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 11, 2026

DARK SHADOWS: Dig 13 of the Classic Show’s Grooviest Characters

1966 WEEK! Vampires, warlocks and monsters — oh my! — Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan — — UPDATED 9/11/26: Dark Shadows premiered June 27, 1966. We’re reprinting this piece from April 2022 because we wanted to make sure we included it in 1966 WEEK. Dig it! — Dan — Hey, dig this Shadowy ones – our man Jim Beard has a new book out: a series of essays on the classic TV show Dark Shadows called, appropriately enough, Running Home to Shadows. The book, which is also edited by Charles R. Rutledge, is similar to Jim’s classic Gotham City 14 Miles and features a coterie of contributors, including a foreword by Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie Evans on the supernatural soap. You can get the 150-page paperback from Amazon for a startlingly affordable $8.99. Writers include Greg Cox, Mark Dawidziak, Dave Dykema, Bob Freeman, Ed Gross, Rich Handley, Nancy Holder, Tina Hunt, Katherine Kerestman, Mark Maddox (with Ed Catto), Elizabeth Massie, Kimberly Oswald, Martin Powell, Dana Pride, Mark Rainey, Michael Rogers, Chris Ryan, Frank Schildiner, Duane Spurlock and Jeff Thompson. Cool, eh? Well with the book burning up the sales charts (it’s in Amazon’s Top 10 for TV guides and the like), Jim is here with a fun piece in which he pays tribute to 13 of the show’s grooviest characters. Dig it. — By JIM BEARD Sometimes I wonder if most people who aren’t die-hard Dark Shadows fans realize how cool the show really was. Just like my beloved Batman ’66, there’s a lot of short-handing about TV’s first supernatural soap, but not a lot of digging below its surface. If you know anything, you know about Barnabas and Angelique and maybe some of the goofs and gaffes and the low-budget atmosphere, but I’m here to tell you there’s a whole lot more, stuff that may surprise a lot of genre fans. The show itself dug deep, even if many of us today do not. Here’s a list of 13 of my favorite Dark Shadows characters, of...

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