Him and Nesmith were the only true musicians on the band and the more I learned about the control others had over what they could do, the more I felt sad for both of them. A few years ago I saw a documentary on Stephen Still and in the first part it has several jams sessions that included Tork and he could hold his own with Stills and the other musicians. Many of The Wrecking Crew(the group that actually played on the Monkees songs) said that Tork was a better musician than some of the guys who played on the song--but they said Kirshner and other wanted Tork only to concentrate on being in front of the camera and not behind.
It's not completely true - after his run as a child star on Circus Boy, Mickey went on to form a band...thing is, he played guitar and in The Monkees he was cast as a drummer, so he had to go out and learn how to drum.
That said, Nesmith was clearly the most musically talented (the only one to record an album before the Monkees, and a budding singer-songwriter who had a major influence on The Monkees' sound right from the start when the boys were otherwise not allowed near the recording studio by manager Kirshner). It was also Nesmith whose wall-damaging outburst in a hotel conference room meeting with show executives led to the band's liberation from Kirshner's control...but also eventually the downfall of the show.
For his part, Peter was the first one disillusioned with the whole thing enough to leave. When The Monkees Present: (their 8th album) was released in 1969 they were already a threesome and the show was already done. Nesmith left before 1970's Changes and then they were done recording until a reunion album with Davy, Mickey and Peter in 1987 (yes, I own a copy on cassette). After the Monkees, Mike was the only one to ever chart again with "Joanne" peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 21 and a later single peaking at number 42.