play our own instruments on the records much at the very moment when the idealism of early Beatlemania in rock was at its peak. So we became the ultimate betrayers." Timeline for the studio recordings controversy 1965: At the end of the year, the four Monkees are cast in the TV show. April 1966: The Monkees begin rehearsing as a band to produce music for the upcoming TV show and records. Nesmith, Dolenz, and Tork were all experienced guitar players, and Nesmith and Tork were a little familiar with drums, but no one was a real expert in drumming. Jones was an able drummer and percussionist, but his experience from Broadway made him more known as a singer. Producer Ward Sylvester tells Tork that he would have signed the band even without a TV show. May 1966: Filming for the TV show starts, taking 12 hours a day for the cast of the Monkees. The public is informed in the beginning that the Monkees are "manufactured", as seen in this Washington Post report: "The series stars a fearsome foursome in the Monkees, a wholly manufactured singing group of attractive young men who come off as a combination of the Beatles, the Dead End Kids and the Marx Brothers. Critics will cry foul. Longhairs will demand, outraged, that they be removed from the air. But the kids will adore the Monkees [...] unlike other rock 'n' roll groups, the boys had never performed together before. Indeed, they'd never even met [...] they've been working to create their own sound." June 1966: Although the producers want the Monkees to create their own music, they have not progressed enough by this point and still lack the desired "upbeat, young, happy, driving, pulsating sound". Dolenz would later state, "I'm sure that Rafelson and Schneider said in all honesty, 'Yeah, don't worry, when we start going you're gonna record your own tunes and it will be wonderful.' But the things get caught up in the inertia of the moment. NBC gets involved. RCA gets involved. Screen Gems gets involved. Millions and millions of dollars are on the line [...] people aren't as forthcoming. Mike's style was very distinct, country-western, Peter was very folk-rock, neither of which at the time would have been considered mainstream pop. Davy would have done all Broadway tunes [...] I ended up singing the leads [...] pop-rock was more my style."