Ray Richmond of Variety noted that Monkey-ed Movies "proved to be clever stuff, in large part because it was short and sweet.
TBS ordered 48 segments to be produced which were run during Dinner and a Movie and in odd time slots after sporting events.
However, one day when a golf tournament ran short, the station played about half an hour of Monkey'ed Movies to unexpected results.
The ratings actually increased, which prompted TBS to order 13 episodes of an expanded half-hour series which would become The Chimp Channel.
The series lasted only one season and met with negative reviews criticizing its attempt to expand the already effective Monkey-ed Movies concept.