[Lee Stewart]

This is kind of a weird photo: George Barris with the Monkeemobile outside his shop. It gives the impression he created it. That is false. Dean Jefferies created it. Here is Dean and his creation right after he completed it:

The Monkeemobile had its origins in 1966 when Dean Jeffries was asked to design and build a car for a new TV show called The Monkees. Jeffries, under contract with Model Products Corporation (MPC) at the time, told CEO George Toteff about the project. A make of vehicle had not yet been chosen for the project. Toteff then told his friend Jim Wangers of these developments. Wangers was working with Pontiac promotion and advertising at the time and saw the show as a huge promotional opportunity for Pontiac. After making the deal, Jim Wangers supplied two base 389 4-barrel 1966 GTO convertibles with automatic transmissions to be converted into Monkeemobiles. MPC was in turn given exclusive rights to market a model kit of the Monkeemobile. They eventually sold over seven million copies of the kits.