The Monkees haven't toured together in more than four decades, so it seemed only logical that at a rehearsal last week in North Hollywood, the band's three surviving members might not be in sync.

But two days ahead of a short reunion tour that began Thursday in Escondido, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork communicated in a secret language as if it were still 1969.

In the middle of a long jam, Nesmith, 69, took his hands off his vintage-style Gretsch guitar and began addressing Dolenz in an elaborate sequence of arm and hand signals. Dolenz, 67, quickly answered in similar body language from behind his drum kit. Tork smiled.

Nesmith, who hasn't taken part in a full-fledged U.S. tour with the other Monkees since 1969, then translated. "This means," he said haltingly as he continued gesturing, "chili ... dog ... with ... cheese."

Humor is a key element in the camaraderie among these men, who along with the late singer Davy Jones vaulted to fame in 1966 with their hit TV show "The Monkees" and the string of recordings they made for each week's episode. Even though they were originally hired to portray a zany famous rock band on TV, the songs made bona-fide pop stars out of the four amateur actor-musicians.

Following their first run-through of the set at a dress rehearsal, Nesmith exhibited genuine curiosity, and a little nervousness, when he asked a visitor how the show would come across: "Do you think Monkees' fans will like it?"

Nesmith has reason to question how they'll be received since the band will be touring without one of its lead singers, who was the British heartthrob of the band in the TV series. The reunion tour follows Jones' death this year of a heart attack. He'd toured periodically with Dolenz and Tork since the Monkees released their final album in 1970 and is being saluted in this round of shows.

"Of course we miss Davy," Tork, 70, said, "and it's sad to be playing without him. But when Davy, Micky and I were touring, it was sad to play without Mike."

Over the years Nesmith skipped most of the Monkees reunions, citing commitments related to his solo career - including running the Pacific Arts music and video label he launched in the ’70s, producing films (including "Repo Man") and writing two novels.

But behind the scenes, Jones made remarks during the ’97 British tour that hinted at tension with Nesmith, and the 2011 Monkees tour ended prematurely because of reported disagreements Dolenz and Tork had with Jones regarding business facets of the tour.

That's all water under the bridge. "This show, it's not about a loss, it's not a memorial," Nesmith said. "It's acknowledging the gain and the contribution that David made. At this time of our lives, we don't have illusions about what this is: It's about the good work we did."

The Monkees' career lasted barely four years but yielded four No. 1 albums, half a dozen Top 10 singles, three of which reached No. 1, a TV series that's become a comedy classic that still airs around the world and the avant-garde 1968 film, "Head," which reflected the anarchic zeitgeist of the late '60s while satirically relating the story of the Monkees' rise from creative puppets to masters of their own fate.

"There's no other story like it in entertainment," said music historian Andrew Sandoval. "They released their first single in August 1966, the show premiered in September, and by January they'd won their fight for artistic control. It's as if the contestants on 'American Idol' came in one day and said, 'Fire the judges and the producers, we're taking over.'"

That refers to the famous showdown between the Monkees and music world impresario Don Kirshner, who controlled the music the group recorded, largely from his bevy of esteemed songwriters including Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and Neil Diamond.

Kirshner also had an authoritarian hand over how the band's records were made and packaged. The contributions of ace Hollywood studio musicians who played most of the music on the group's first two albums went largely uncredited, creating the impression that all the music was played by Dolenz, Jones, Nesmith and Tork.

That bit of pop history will underscore this tour, a portion of which will be devoted to their third album, 1967's "Headquarters," the first after Kirshner's ousting.

"It's the first album we were the musicians on, the first which we had creative control over," said Tork, who performs and records with his own band, Shoe Suede Blues, when he's not occupied with Monkees business, while Dolenz has kept active in musical theater and recently released a new solo album, "Remember."

The reunion show will include all the songs from "Head," the experimental film written by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson.

Today the Monkees have no shortage of fans, and not all of them are boomers. The TV show went into syndication in the 1970s, then became a major hit with a new generation at the dawn of MTV, which ran episodes three times a day in the 1980s, leading to a major Monkees revival. Their original studio albums were reissued and returned the group to the Billboard charts two decades after it formed.

But of the fans who bemoan that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has never inducted the Monkees, group members aren't among them. "It's their museum (and) I don't feel the least bit slighted, or snubbed in any way," said Nesmith.

Back in the day the Monkees' legitimacy was often questioned by those out of grade school, but it was never an issue for the band they were partly modeled after, the Beatles.

"The Beatles always got the whole Monkee thing," Dolenz said, adopting a Liverpudlian accent: "It was John who was the first one to say, 'It's like the Marx Brothers.'"

"The Monkees were in the mix with most of the lions of rock 'n' roll," Nesmith said, "but we got there by special permission because of the TV show. None of us are fooling ourselves into thinking we are one of the great classic-rock bands. We are kind of an iconic garage band, sort of the inmates taking over the asylum, and we have a lot of fun."