One of the many stories about how the movie got made, centered around the classic counter-culture film Easy Rider (1969). As the story goes, Monkees producer Bob Rafelson had met Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Fonda, and wanted to produce their film. Rafelson went to Columbia Pictures (who produced The Monkees television series) and pitched Easy Rider (1969) to the executives. Columbia agreed to finance the picture, on the condition that Rafelson made a Monkees movie. Rafelson agreed, and got Jack Nicholson, who was also a screenwriter, to write the film. Nicholson hung out with The Monkees for several weeks, even going with them on tour. Once this movie was made, Rafelson abandoned The Monkees (as told by Peter Tork) and went off to bigger projects, starting with Easy Rider (1969).