Rafelson and Nicholson's “Ditty Diego” is of course a satirical jab at Boyce and Hart's bouncy Main Title for The Monkees television series

The WWII foxhole scene recalls the mock Army briefing sequence in the series premiere, “The Royal Flush” (#4701)

The kissing contest involving The Monkees and Lady Pleasure (I.J. Jefferson) hearkens back to Episode #29, “The Monkees Get Out More Dirt” (#4738)

The live performance of “Circle Sky” in Salt Lake City obviously references Episode #32, “The Monkees On Tour” (#4753)

The harem girls dancing to the tune of “Can You Dig It” is a retread of Episode #35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik" (#4749)

Micky Dolenz's complaints to director Bob Rafelson about fake arrows and trees in the Western scene he is portraying a Cavalryman and Peter Tork's griping to Rafelson about the scene filmed in the The Columbia-Screen Gems Studio Club recollects The Monkees’ grousing to director James Frawley about the repetitious episode scripts they endure in the wraparounds of Episode #54, "The Monkees In Paris" (a.k.a. "The Paris Show") (#4771).

David's brutal boxing match with Sonny Liston in the boxing arena is a curt nod to Episode #20, “The Monkees In The Ring” (#4734)

Inspector Shrink (Charles Macaulay), in a sense, parallels Dr. Mendoza (John Hoyt) from Episode #18, “I Was A Teenage Monster” (#4725)

David Jones' “Daddy’s Song” musical number with which he briefly dances with dancer/choreographer Toni Basil in the film recalls his previous song-and-dance routine with dancer/choreographer Anita Mann in the “Cuddly Toy” number which was showcased at the outset of "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik" (#4749). (Interesting that both featured tunes were composed by Harry Nilsson!) 

Micky, Michael and Peter getting hassled by Officer Faye Lapid (Logan Ramsey) relates to their brutal interrogations in Episode #11, “The Monkees A La Carte” (#4718) (Peter), #34, "The Picture Frame" (a.k.a. "The Bank Robbery") (#4759) (David, Micky and Michael) and #46, "The Monkees On The Wheel" (#4742)

David, Peter and Michael venturing their way through a long Gothic vestibule room is inspired by Episode #2, “Monkee See, Monkee Die” (#4705) and Episode #50, "The Monstrous Monkee Mash" (#4767)

The strawskirted native tribesmen who capture Micky and shackle him to a wall in a dungeon next to Peter and Michael reference the character Thursday (Rupert Crosse) in Episode No. 40, "The Monkees Marooned" (#4755)

The Monkees’ encounter with Lord High and Low (Timothy Carey) and his posse of desperados throws back to their crossing paths with banditos and outlaws in Episode #33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico") (#4752) and #45, "The Monkees In Texas" (#4761), respectively 

The party pass tribute to Michael in HEAD soundtracked by Peter Tork's “Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again” is a sly tip of the wool hat to the parties The Monkees threw in Episode No. 4, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers” (4703), No. 9, “The Chaperone” (#4711), and the shindig that started it all: Vanessa Russel (Robyn Millan)’s Sweet 16 birthday bash in Episode No. 10, “Here Come The Monkees” (a.k.a. “The Monkees—The Pilot”) (#4091)

After the ill-fated birthday party, David, Micky and Michael are inmates in a jail cell, which references the three pacing in the city jail in a scene from Episode #34, "The Picture Frame" (a.k.a. "The Bank Robbery") (#4759) and all four of them previously being held captive by George (Len Lesser) and Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr.) in the local jail in a ghost town in Episode #7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town” (#4704) 

Micky loses a $10 bet with Michael on the fate of a Jumper (June Fairchild) – reminiscent of his gambling bug in Las Vegas which got them all in dutch with The Mob in Episode #46, "The Monkees On The Wheel" (#4742) 

A further, separate section of the cast listing seen in the end credits is displayed backwards, ending with "Frodis" (portrayed by "Yelnah Mij" [Jim Hanley]), a callback to the intergalactic football-eyed philodendron in the series closer, Episode 58, "Mijacogeo" [a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper") (#4770)

Further movie/TV connections:

Aside from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schnieder, other members from HEAD's production crew also previously worked on The Monkees TV series: Mike Pozen, Jack Williams, Gene Ashman, Igo Kantor, Les Fresholtz, Jon Andersen and Marilyn Schlossberg. The TV show's sound-effects company, Edit-Rite, lent its many noises to the movie's audio track as well.

Four actors in HEAD were also seen in guest roles on The Monkees TV series: Vito Scotti (I. Vitteloni in the movie and Dr. Marcovich in Episode No. 17, “The Case Of The Missing Monkee”), William Baghdad (The Black Sheik in the movie and Curad in Episode No. 35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik"), Lee Kolima (the security guard in the movie and Yakimoto in Episode No. 5, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool”, and Atilla The Hun in No. 52, "The Devil And Peter Tork") and Frank Zappa (The Critic in the movie and 'Mike Nesmith' in the teaser of Episode No. 57, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds"). (Both “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool” and “The Case Of The Missing Monkee” were also directed by Bob Rafelson.)

Also, look for Valerie Kairys in the scene with The Jumper (June Fairchild); she's the one with a hanky near her eye. Monkee stand-ins David Price, David Pearl, Ric Klein and Bruce Barbour (Wizard Glick [Rip Taylor]’s villainous henchmen from "Mijacogeo" [a.k.a. "The Frodis Caper"]) can also be spotted. Plus, watch out for an unidentified extra clad in a Captain Crocodile outfit, a throwback to the Joey Forman antagonist in the same-named Episode #23 of the series (#4730), and check out the extra wearing a striped convict outfit, worn by one of The Monkees in a pivotal scene from Episode #10, “Here Come The Monkees” (a.k.a. “The Monkees—The Pilot”) (#4091).

The late June Fairchild, who plays "The Jumper" and one of the belly dancers in the “Can You Dig It” sequence in HEAD, made an early, uncredited appearance with the boys in the episode “The Chaperone”. She feeds "Mr. Schneider" a potato chip and asks him for some advice, then pulls his string for an answer; she surprisingly wouldn't get onscreen credit for her appearance on the show. June would work again for producer Bert Schneider in Jack Nicholson's directorial outing Drive, He Said (Columbia, 1971), but is probably best known as the "Ajax Lady" in Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke (Paramount, 1978), which featured a cameo by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (David's double in “The Prince And The Paupers”).

The Monkees' ramshackle beach pad crosses over from the TV show into the movie, with a few slight adjustments and/or additions, including stained glass, futuristic lounge chairs and table, a new couch, floating silver pillows, an elevator cage, fuzzy carpeting, a brown leather easy chair, a barber's chair, and an aquarium. Deleted is the bus stop sign, the number "4", the plane schedule, the movie posters and the "Money Is The Root Of All Evil" sign on the wall, the dummy Mr. Schneider, and the tornado staircase (although the upper balcony remains intact!). Also, for the first and only time, use is made of a door buzzer, which has been newly installed in the pad. (The 1997 ABC Monkees reunion special Hey Hey It's The Monkees [a.k.a. "A Lizard Sunning Itself On A Rock"] had a doorbell installed, which chimed to the chorus of the "[Theme From] The Monkees.") 

The huge bed David lands into in the Columbia lot is the same one he was seen riding in in the Season 2 main title sequence of The Monkees TV series.

Michael is seen getting up from the same bed in The Monkees' beach pad in an earlier scene.

David and The Monkees use a cannon to blow Lord Hign 'n' Low (Timothy Carey) and his 20 cohorts to smithereens, the same cannon which was previously used in Episode No. 16, “The Son Of A Gypsy”, and No. 33, "It's A Nice Place To Visit..." (a.k.a. "The Monkees In Mexico").

In a scene where The Monkees speed towards the back of a backdrop in the Columbia Pictures lot in their Mantaray II Koyote dunebuggy, stagehands heave a huge green telephone out of their way---the same one that appeared in Episode No. 28, "The Monkees On The Line." 

Scenes of Micky and later The Monkees in the desert is reminiscent of their musical romp in the desert on The Monkees TV series as Foreign Legionnaires set to "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day", as first used in Episode No. 7, “The Monkees In A Ghost Town”, and recycled in snippets in Episode No. 4, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers”, No. 5, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cool” , No. 6, “The Success Story”, No. 31, “The Monkees At The Movies”, and No. 35, "Everywhere A Sheik Sheik", and in the second season main title sequence of The Monkees.

At the end of the sequence in the boxing arena, as a quintet of policemen are restraning riot-crazed Micky, Peter rises through the ropes, quietly declaring, “I’m the dummy, Micky. I’m always the dummy!”, owing to his persona on The Monkees' former television series. 

The big black box in the movie HEAD is based on the black room producers of the TV series would make the actors stay in to keep them out of trouble and available for scenes. Micky Dolenz stated each Monkee was appointed to a corner in the room and when the light in their corner lit up it meant that Monkee was needed on the set. There were pillows and music playing to keep the atmosphere ultra groovy. He said they had a heavy duty freezer type door on the room to keep them inside and out of trouble.

Just as several episodes of The Monkees television series relied on inserting humorous film clips to advance their plot, their feature film HEAD followed this pattern, interspersing filmclips featuring Jon Brockman (who engineered HEAD’s promotional campaign and was featured with The Monkees again at the beginning of their 1997 ABC-TV reunion special, Hey Hey It's The Monkees) and The Rockettes, former actor/at-the-time California Governor/America's future 40th President Ronald Reagan, and scenes from the Columbia Pictures Gilda (1946), Golden Boy (1939), and Salome (1953), and the films The Sign of the Cross (Paramount, 1932), City For Conquest (Warner Bros., 1940), and The Black Cat (Universal, 1941). A brief snippet of the Hanna-Barbera Loopy DeLoop cartoon Two Faced Wolf (released April 6, 1961 by Columbia Pictures) can also be seen. And the b/w excerpt of the two men watching an old lady dance wildly ("You make motion pictures here, don't you? You're always looking for talent? Watch this!") is from a 1944 Columbia B-picture called Jam Session; the two men are actors George Eldredge and Eddie Kane, and the old woman is actually a young Ann Miller in disguise.  

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