A poor audience response at an August 1968 screening in Los Angeles eventually forced the producers to edit the picture from its original 110-minute length. The 86-minute Head premiered in New York City on November 6, 1968; the film later debuted in Hollywood on November 20. It was not a commercial success.[3] This was in part because Head, being an antithesis of The Monkees sitcom, comprehensively demolished the group's carefully groomed public image while the older, hipper counterculture audience they had been reaching for rejected The Monkees' efforts out of hand.[3]