March 10, 2026 • 38 mins
Micky Dolenz was a successful child-actor, but he became a full-fledged star at 20 in 1966 as the exuberant singer and drummer of The Monkees -- or rather, as the actor playing that character. At first, the band was a creation of NBC and only existed on the show The Monkees. For the first season, much of the backing music was played by a studio band. Eventually, that changed, and The Monkees' transition from a TV band to a real band is a fascinating story of hard work, perseverance, and marketing genius. Dolenz brings all the energy and humor he showed on The Monkees to this episode of Here's the Thing, telling Alec about the dynamics among the bandmates, his years as a successful TV producer in the UK, and what it's like touring -- and recording -- as a member of The Monkees 50 years after the end of the show.
Originally aired June 16th, 2020.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You we come walk now, mystery yet funniest looks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Everyone weaving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Okay with the monkeys.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Peep Hey, Hey, it's Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Here's the thing. This song shaped my childhood and that
of millions of other Americans.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
You are glad to do.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
The voice is Mickey Dolan's.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
So something Ever the monkeys pep saving monkey ound where.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Too busy saying.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's nineteen sixty six, the year Timothy Leary tells America
to turn on tune in drop out TV executives know
they need to make programming that reflects the times.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Enter the monkeys. Hey that's a groovy button. What does
it say?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Love is the Ultimate trip?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Oh that's a nice time. That's a groovy button.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
What does it say?
Speaker 7 (01:03):
Save the Texas Prairie Chicken?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It was save the Chicken, not stop the War. NBC
wasn't about to risk a boycott of Bonanza after all,
but the misadventures of four shaggy musicians in Malibu managed
to be subversive anyway. The grown ups were STIPs, the
sets were psychedelic, and the long haired bandmates just wanted
to be loved. Artistically, the show used new wave film
(01:29):
techniques and brought the audience in on the jokes two
years before laughing and Monty Python.
Speaker 7 (01:36):
Hey wait, wait, how do I get in if the
door's locked?
Speaker 8 (01:39):
Peter, You can't expect the writers to know everything improvised.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
He.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Besides, the music is undeniably great. Soon the fictional band
morphed into a real band. They wrote their own songs
and played their own instruments, and at the same time
The Monkeys, the TV show topped the Nielsen rating, the
band topped the Billboard charts. The Monkeys got the formula
(02:06):
just right, but the concept wasn't unique. Throughout the sixties,
movie and TV bosses were desperately trying to bottle Beatlemania.
Mickey Dolans, with musical talent and floppy hair in abundance,
was perhaps faded to end up in a band on TV.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
The question was only which one.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
There were at least three other shows that pilot season
that I was up for as an actor singer similar
well in the sense that they were about music and
about the young generation. There was a lot going on
at that time. It wasn't just the Beatles, it was
folk music. It was all kinds of youth oriented music.
(02:50):
One pilot was a Peter, Paul and Mary type of
group called the Happeners. It did not sell. Another was
this beach boy of surfer group, and another one was
a big family mighty wind kind of hind those thirty
people on stage singing I got a hammer, ye New Christimer.
(03:11):
So it was in the air. It was in the
air to try to capture this youth movement and obviously
exploit it.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
For this medium of TV.
Speaker 8 (03:21):
That's important for people to remember, well, in our case,
for the first time to really combine the power of television,
radio and record companies.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Now, it had been done before to some degree with
Ricky Nelson. Once in a while some TV act would
come out with a little single, but this was the
first time that it was a concerted assault.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
On the American consumer.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
The Monkeys was not The Beatles or an attempt to
be the American Beatles. The Monkeys was a television show
about an imaginary group that wanted to be the Beatles.
That's what it was about. It was the struggle for success,
and that's I think one of the reasons it resonated
(04:08):
with with so many kids of our generation. If you're hungry, yes,
so many shows since you know you see him. They
come on the other they're all beautiful, cute and lovely,
and they're successful already. You know. The closest thing I've
seen come around over the decades is Glee, which was
a TV show about an imaginary glee club. But I
(04:31):
gather they go and perform because they could, so rather
than the old school Hollywood trick having somebody else sing
your vocals in West Side Story or Sweet and Low
Down Sean Penn, I mean, it was a beautiful movie,
but of course he didn't play any of that. They
had in mind that we were going to eventually go
(04:55):
out on the road and perform, because the audition process
was nothing like I'd ever been through before. You had
to be able to sing, you had to be able
to play an instrument, you had to improvise, you had
to do comedy scene work on the screen tests. So
they must have had in mind, you know that this
(05:16):
thing sells, then one day these guys are going to
go out on the road and perform. So after we
got cast and started filming early days, early early days,
I think maybe before I'd recorded anything, and they brought
me to this apartment building and said we want you
to meet the writers who will be writing for you.
(05:36):
And I go in and this little cubby holes like
it reminds me of like a medical building where it's
dentist here in a chiropractice, and it's like, hello, Carol, Oh, hi, Mickey,
this is Carol King. She'll be writing songs for you.
Oh my god, oh hi. And she's sitting at an
upright piano in a little cubby hole like the size
(05:58):
of this little less less than the size of this
little studio. And she has a woolen sack reel to
reel tape recorder. And I remember that because I had
the Zach same Yes, Carol, this, Mickey and Mickey this Carol. Hi,
how are you doing. Nice to meet you. Hello, Hi,
Oh David David Gates. This is Mickey Dolans. He's gonna
(06:21):
be singing and you're going to be writing for him.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
David Gates from Brady Gates.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, my god, yeah, oh my god. Oh. He wrote
a big hit for us. And I don't know if
you saw beautiful, but Carol King at one point says,
we got to write some songs for this TV show
in Hollywood, and Jerry Goffin goes, oh fuck, oh, sorry.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
It's okay. So it's David Gates.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And then I heard about all these writers. But you know,
even in that day, the writers were not acknowledged like
they are now. Whenever I do a show, I immediately
acknowledge the writers that wrote this stuff, because without them,
I'd be going, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
When did Boys and hert come into the picture?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Very early, so Boyce and Heart were trying out to
be a cast as a couple of the monkeys. I
have no idea why, Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, but you
know how it goes. I mean, you got development from
NBC or wherever. I'm sure they were all watching the
screen tests and making those choices. And I have no
(07:29):
idea why they chose any of us, including me, but
thank god I did.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But what was your musical DNA? I mean, I know
you performed since you were a child, correct, Yeah, and
so what was your music, DNA? Great question when you
went rolling into that scenario.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Thank you, because it is important to me. I started
out playing classical guitar Segovia kind of stuff as a
ten year old or something like that. My dad got
me into it and played me a Segovia record, and
I was like, there's no way one person is doing alright.
(08:07):
He said yes, and I got into it. I got
really hooked. I got really passionate. My dad was a actor,
a schwash buckling kind of Errol Flynn character in the
forties and fifties from Middle Lisa Old School. And he
got me into playing a classical guitar. And I took
lessons and studied and try, but yeah, I'm ten years old.
(08:31):
Then I went to high school and I started going
to parties and they would invite me to parties. I
was this little geeky mascot, you know. But the girls
would invite me to parties because I could play something
on the guitar. Then they would say, do you know
any Kingston triol. I'll be right back, hang down new
hit do? So I got okay at folk music Peter Palm,
(08:57):
Mary my sister, and I would say at parties and stuff.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
And you knew you could sing?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, my mom, because my mom was a singer and
great singer, and my dad was a great singer. But
he was like a you know, operatic. He would do
strangers in the you make see a strange, but he
would sing it walking through the living room in his underwear.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
So it's like, oh, Dad, that is so cross with
the glass of red wining?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Is that anyway? So I'm brought up singing, acting, the
whole thing. But I think nature also has something to
do with it. You know, there's the physicality of it.
You're born with the physique to be a tennis player
or golfer, and well that's it's a muscle and so
(09:51):
I think I was born with the muscles to do that.
So yeah, I could sing my After the folk music era,
I started rock and roll, and I you know, started
playing guitar and rock guitar and started going out with like,
you know, cover bands Mickey and the One Nighters, you know,
(10:12):
just doing you know, walking the Dog and money and
and house like everything like the Beatles Stones. I talked
to Ring about it when I interviewed him one day.
He said, well, we've all cover bends, and it's true.
I used to do a tune in my band called
Johnny Be Good because I was a huge Chuck Berry fan.
That was my audition piece for the Monkeys.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
How did they find you?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Oh, since I had already had a television show as
a child.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
NBC, you were circus.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I was, yes, one does not go to the cattle hall.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
NBC knew you and the.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Producers and Bob and Bird and my agent. I had
an agent, you know. I was doing guest shots on
mister Novak Peyton Place, usually playing the bad guy, the
little thug, the kind of you know, creepy kid. Yeah,
the creepy kid. Well you could tell it was like
the creepy kid thing. There's a little anarchy underneath everything
you're doing. There's a little there's a little madness underneath
(11:14):
everything you're doing. The under the whole monkey thing was
a little bit of anarchy. Bob and Burt weren't much older,
the creators, producers, they were not much older than we were.
When I went to my first audition down on Gower
there at the Scringems, I walked in and there were
these two guys sitting there in jeans and T shirts.
(11:35):
I thought they were there for the audition, and that
was Bob and Burt. I mean, they were part of
that young buck new wave generation which created the Hollywood
independent film industry with Easy Rider. So Bob and Bert
were not much older than I was. And there's a
wonderful chapter in Timothy Leary's book Politics of Ecstasy. Don't
(11:57):
know what you think about Timothy Leary, but he has
like a a chapter on the Monkeys describing how essentially
we brought long hair into the living room and made
it okay to wear bell bottoms and have long hair
because the only time you saw long haired kids in
sixty six or seven on television they were getting arrested.
(12:20):
So the monkeys came along and said, which is what
if you have had a lone to have our fun.
We're just trying to be friendly. Yeah, And it was
a tough sell. Bob and Bert, I understand, had a
real tough cell at the New York The Upfront upfronts YEP,
NBC was nervous, but it represented all the kids out
(12:43):
there that were of the same mind. The majority didn't
want to throw bombs at people or you know, to then.
It was just we wanted to just have fun and
we loved the look.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
The very similar thing happened with Harry Winkler in Heavy Days.
He made it okay to wear a leather jacket finally
and ride a motorcycle. And he wasn't Marlon brand I'm
a kiss of danger. The Kiss of Danger. Will Smith
did a similar thing with Fresh Prince. He said it's
okay to be a young black guy and sing rap music. Well,
(13:17):
the Monkeys did the same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
So and then did you mentioned Easy Writer? You know,
we had Russ Tamblin in here to record a show
with us. And what's interesting is I asked him how
his career rolls after he does a West Side Story
and then within a matter of a few years, a
handful of years, all that's crumbling. As you said, everything
starts to change, Easy Writer, the anti heroic period of filmmaking.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Nicholson's career is born.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Well, Nicholson had his first I don't know, I don't
want to say break. He was a B movie actor
and Gorman guy Corman and I don't know if you
heard of the monkey movie called Head, Yes, of course,
written by Nicholson and us. We did get credit eventually
after the Monkey's showing off the air. Bob introduced this
(13:59):
to this guy I called Jack Jack Nicholson, who was
doing B movie but wanted to write. And we just
fell in love with him, I did. I can't speak
for everybody else, but he was and is most wonderful charismatic, funny,
intelligent guy that I'd ever met, and we welcomed him
(14:19):
with open arms, and he hung out with us for
like god months, it seems like. And then we all
got together up in Ohai at the Inn and Spot,
and I got film with this. I got actual film
of us sitting around and choreographing what this movie was
going to be about, because obviously as a movie, we
didn't have to stick to the NBC standards and practices thing,
(14:44):
which was pretty brutal. But The Monkeys wasn't about that anyway,
it was not our place to do that. At the time.
We left that to laugh in into other shows. I
had no objections to that. It was wide demographic, young
kids thirteen years old. So we went up and wrote
(15:04):
this wacky script and they took that created this movie Head,
which I love. I mean, I don't get it still,
and I wrote part of it, and I wrote parties
Beyond You, but it's Quintin told me it's like his
top five. So that was our little kind of breakout,
(15:25):
you know, and fans hated it. But now now it's
become this little cult thing because at the time, you know,
they would not let us even touch upon anything political,
social it NBC, you know, standards and practices. I'm not
sure it was only just after they let Ozzy and
Harriet sleep in the same bed or something like that.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
But I've been described for people to hear it from
your own mouth, this journey everyone's impression. Who knows about
that period of you know, your careers in television, that
your lip syncing another band was playing and you were simulating.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Correct. No, well it's not accurate. First of all, its accurate.
We sang all of it, every note. We didn't live sync. No,
you only live sync when you're doing a music video.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
But the recording process was different, and I know that Peter,
for instance, wanted to go in and play. Mike wanted to.
But when we first were cast, they had already recorded
a lot of tracks. They hired the Wrecking Crew, which
I'm sure you've.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
A studio band.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
They were the studio Cats played all the tracks for
the Beach Boys, for Association for the Birds. I frankly
didn't care. I mean, I approached it like I was
doing a musical. I was an entertainer, singer, actor. The
Monkeys was like a Marx Brothers musical, and it was
(16:58):
John Lennon that first made that. Compare the Monkeys was
a little half hour Marks Brothers musical.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
But what I'm looking for is eventually, oh yeah, you
do play. Yeah, what's around the time when you're sitting
there and you guys are playing and you say, he said, wow,
yeah we're there.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Oh yeah, when does that happen?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
That happened in Honolulu in nineteen sixty seven. But the
prelude to that is that we start rehearsing because they
say we want to go on the road, want to
take the sack on the road, and that is why
they hired actor musicians. Mike plays incredible twelve string. Peter
plays seven instruments. God rest his soul. I mean he
(17:37):
went to the Conservatory of Music, and like in New York,
David didn't play an instrument as such. We could sing
obviously and played percussion. I was a guitar player, and
when they said you're going to be the drummer, I said, cool,
where do I start? Like I said in Circus Boy,
when they said so you're going to ride in an elephant, Okay,
(17:58):
where do I start? Us have said to Lloyd Bridges.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
When you started, you're gonna be.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Where do I start one?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
You never take a bandage.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
All below riot as the fun.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Someone don't understand them and you just may be the one,
Oh Membus.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Some One actor and musician Mickey Dolans. This album marks
the beginning of the band's self sufficiency. You're listening to
Michael Nessmith in nineteen sixty seven singing his own composition
you just May be the One. All the instruments are
the monkeys themselves too. At the same time as the
(18:51):
Monkeys were softening the edges of the counterculture, Andy Warhol
was doing the opposite. He made Four Stars, a plotless, unedited,
twenty five hour portrait of his friends and collaborators doing
drugs and having sex. That movie was also the debut
of Warhol's favorite beefcake star Joe Delassandro. But when the
(19:16):
juvenile delinquent turned pin up model showed up at the
factory in nineteen sixty seven, he had no idea who
his host was.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I had a couple of friends in New York that
introduced me to other people, and then one day one
of these friends said, Hey, I know this person that's
making these Campbell suit ca you know, makes the Cambell suit,
and I was thinking we were go in to eat
some soup, which I.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
Was all for, and you just made me the one.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
For a link to my interview with Joe Delassandro, text Joe,
that's Joe to seven zero one zero one. I'm Alec
(20:13):
Baldwin and this is here's the thing. My guest is
Mickey Dolan's drummer and vocalist for The Monkeys.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Walk still, don't you walk out? We've got things to say.
Chop out, let's set up the talkdout. Things would be okay.
Shut down.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
The pandemic has meant no twenty twenty tour, but you
can still hear his and Michael Nessmith's latest from the
comfort of your own confinement. Their album, called The Monkeys
Live The mic and Mickey Show, was taped last year
and is available on iTunes and Spotify. Their sound and
(20:56):
the love from the audience is as strong as ever.
Starting from just playing a band member on TV, it
took Dolan's time and hard work to build up his skills.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I had about a year and I studied very very hard,
and I practiced very very hard. It was rock and
roll just four four time. For the most part. We
rehearsed diligently. David Winters, speaking of a West Side story,
was the director of our first stage show, and all
of a sudden one day they said, your first gig
(21:30):
is Hawaii. I think they did that because if it bombed,
no one would know.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Off the coast of the United States, no Internet.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
They could bury it like nuclear waste.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yes, that was us Nucleois. Good name for a group.
It turns out we did pretty good. There's a live
in sixty seven CD which was not recorded to be
a record. It was some I think the sound guy
was just like holding a microphone up in the air
to capture it. But it's not bad. Only three of
us playing, you know. It is Mike, Peter and I
(22:03):
Davy just doing percussion and of course the vocals. But
it was a trio. It was a power trio. And
Peter would play the right hand he would play keyboard melody,
and on the left hand he played keyboard bass. Mike
Nesmuth always put it like when we went on the road,
it was like Pinocchio became a real little boy, And
(22:25):
there's a lot of truth in that.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
And how'd you feel back then? Were you happy?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
How did they feel? Were they happy the band or
the monkeys couldn't tell. I don't want to speak for them.
Mike nsamuth I know, and it's well recorded. He wanted
to play and sing a lot more. He'd been brought into.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The situation, had no idea what a series was all about.
They said. He said, I want to sing him play
in rotten my songs, and he did not have a
chance to do that initially. Eventually he did, and that's
when we had the palace coup prompted by him.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
What year did that happen.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I was sixty seven, I want to say.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Right around the time of the live show in Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Just after we had a palace coup, mainly because Mike said,
we can do this, Pinocchio can become a little boy.
He was frustrated, and I don't blame him.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
How'd you feel?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I didn't care one way or the other. I was
having a great time and I loved singing. It ended
up that I was. I think I ended up doing
the most of the lead vocals. Kind of by the fault.
Mike had avery and does still has a very wonderful
country western kind.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Of Oh man, it must have someone.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Have some.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, beautiful, we do that in our show. He and
I know Peter, like I say, could play like you know,
seven instruments, David great singer, but definitely the Krooner Broadway
kind of Tony Newley.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I read somewhere, Yeah, I read somewhere where they had
decided the powers that be that your voice was more
of the voice.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I was the only one that could go exactly yeah, yeah,
like I said that she loves me. You are really
good at this.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
So you have the coup, you get rid of Kershner.
You're doing your own thing.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Does everybody sense that it's better and everybody's happy event
the well?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I can only speak yea for myself. Uh yeah. During
that period I had I guess you'd call it an
awakening or something, because up until that point we had
I'd been ensconced on the set from seven o'clock in
the morning makeup until eleven o'clock at night, where I
(24:57):
would be brought into RC Studios to record two or
three lead vocals a night because they wanted so much material.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Was you do the show during the day and record
at night.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, I had to. They needed so much material because
they wanted two new songs for every episode, and so
Boyce and Hert and Carol King and all these people
are pumping out massive amounts of material, and Carol come
over to my house. I'd go over to Diane Hildebrand
or Boyce and Hard and then to routine the stuff
(25:30):
and then go in the studio and just blow it
out at ten eleven o'clock at night. And that went
on for months because they needed so much material, this
material that is still in the can that we have
not released. We released an album two years ago called
good Times. One of the songs Me and Magdalena, written
(25:51):
by Ben Gibberd from Death Cap Quti is number seventy
six on the Billboard Hot one hundred for the entire
Highre decade. On this album called good Times. Very proud
of that. So anyway, I'm in the studio, you know,
or on the set basically twenty four seven. But I'm
(26:11):
only twenty one years old, so I'm just taking it
for what it is. I mean, I was had been
brought up to be a actor, entertainer, and you show
up at seven for your makeup wardrobe call, and you
do your job and you go home.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
It's the whole Judy Garland thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Now, but let me ask you that, Meaning you're twenty
years old and you're grinding this out, what was your
life like? Did you have a life?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Oh? Absolutely, meeting, I had a wonderful life, right, I
actually had a wonderful life. Well, again, I was used
to it. You know. I had a lot of this
series when I was ten, so I well knew what
I was getting into. It was almost like home for me,
because when you're ten, twelve, thirteen years old and you're
in those are very formative years. And I was on
(26:57):
a set with my mom and a bunch smelling electricians,
and so I went back to high school and that
was abnormal for me. I was like fish out of
water until I got The Monkeys, which is only a
few years later. When I went to the audition interview
for The Monkeys at Screen Gems, the same guy was
(27:19):
on the gate that had been there when I was
ten years old with Circus Boy. It was only ten
years later. This was home to me. I breathed a
sigh of relief being on a set.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
You were comfortable there?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Oh yeah, big time, Because before that I was on
my father's set when he was doing movies for Howard Hughes.
I didn't have to adapt. I just fell into it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And when the show ends, is there a thought for
you to say, I'm kind of done with music now
and I want to go back to acting or No,
were you now in your soul a musician?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
No. I was up for the FONNDS and it was
between me and Henry Winkler. I don't know if he's
ever told you the story. It was a mid season replacement,
just after the Monkeys, and I was up for and
went back for callbacks and it was between me and Henry.
He walked into the office Gary Marshall's office said, oh shit,
Mickey Dolan's is here. I'm never going to get this,
(28:17):
and thank god he did, because he wasn't much better
funds than I would have been.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I went for some interviews and I did a couple
of little guest shots on some shows. My agent would
send me out for little things, but I would go
into the office and they'd say, Oh, we don't need
any drummers, what are you doing here?
Speaker 5 (28:36):
So it was hard to get off from under the
shadow of the Monkeys.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, talked to Leonard Nimoy about that this classic problem
in our Star Street. Yeah, but I didn't worry about
it that much because the same thing had happened to
me after Circus Boy. I'd go to an interview and
they'd say, we don't need the show, and you're not
blonde anymore, what's there? I was used to that. But
(29:01):
also I had already started directing, and I directed the
last episode of The Monkeys, wrote and directed. I had
already decided I kind of wanted to get into production.
I had already been an actor since I was ten,
and I started a little film production company. But shortly
(29:21):
thereafter I moved to England. Had married a girl that
is English, and we went to England to do a
play at the Mermaid Theater, doing the Point by Harry Nilsen,
who was my dear friend at the time, and he'd
written this animated thing, and then it became a play
in London in the West End, and he said would
(29:41):
you come and play in it? It was a limited
panamime season and I went there with my wife. I
brought my reels what I had at the time. I
gave it to an English agent and all of a sudden, bang,
I get this gig at the BBC directing a drama,
a drama play, and I did it, and all of
(30:02):
a sudden, I'd gone to England for three months, stayed
for fifteen years. I directed big shows, long running shows
for the BBC, for LWT, for Grenada, for TIMS. I
loved it and I was doing something outside of the
purview of what I was known for. Over there. Within
a about a year, auditions, well, the not auditions, the interviews.
(30:27):
When I did an interview, it would say BBC producer
writer Michael.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Dolans, you became someone else again I did, from Circus
Boy to Mickey Dolan's to Michael Dolan's.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And back again.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
What brought you back? Fifteen? You love?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I'll give you the truth a divorce. I had retired,
actually I had tried to retire thirty five or forty
or something, big English rock and roll man, full time
staff of six, hunting in the winter and polo in.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
The summer, and the rock star life.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh yeah, and it was so boring. I was bored
to death because I wasn't working, I wasn't accomplishing, you know.
I'd wander around the grounds, seven or eight acres of
formal gardens and that helped, would tip their hats mourning
Governor morning, and I was like trying to hang out
with them, Hey, what's that morning, Governor. I got very
(31:31):
bored because I wasn't working. Came back to the States,
still a little directing Boy meets World. I did Pacific Blue,
but I kind of you know, I guess I kind
of got tired of that too. I don't know. I mean, here,
it's not the same in England I had, and I
still think it applies enormous amount of control. Over there,
(31:53):
the show runner is the producer director, not the producer writer.
I hired writers here.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
The producer writer is the more powers.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
That's the show warner. Over there, I'd go in and
pitch an idea, and unlike over here, where it has
to go through you know, God knows how many network
development executives, they would just say, we rather like that idea,
here's the money, go ahead and do it seriously, and
(32:26):
I wouldn't hear anything for weeks. I'm like, is anybody
out there?
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Am I doing? Okay? Is enormous amount of responsibility but
also freedom, and that's why we get these amazing shows
out of Britain to this day, because they don't fuck
around with you.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Now when you and Nesmith go out on the road,
now you go period periodically, you guys are out there,
and when you're out there, like, how does it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Begin the show? Do you come together again?
Speaker 7 (32:56):
Mike?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
First of all, I sang most of the leads, and
Mike wrote some incredible tunes for the Monkeys, and after
it's probably a lot more musical. We have an incredible band,
ten piece band. It's different, but the hits are there
because the people want to hear the hits and I've
always acknowledged that, and I do them as they remember them.
(33:20):
It's very important to do that so they can sing along.
Peter Tork, God love him, you know, passed away last year,
and Davy Jones passed away a while ago, a few
years ago. Yeah, the Monkeys thing will go on, you know,
with or without me, because a the music was you know,
(33:40):
so special, and the show. You know, the thing about
the TV show, the smartest thing they did, those producers
is that it was not topical and it wasn't satirical
like I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners, or it was
about these four guys that were living in this situation
(34:01):
in Malibu in Malavik and wanted to be successful, and
we never were on the show. That's I think one
of the reasons why it stands up.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
My last question for you would be music today. You know,
contemporary music. Are you a fan of much contemporary music
or it's not in your life as much?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It's not in my life at all, Not that I
have anything against it, but I kind of I guess
I kind of dialed out with Sinatra and classical guitar.
In the morning, my wife and I listened to Segovia
and in the afternoon we listened to Billie Holiday. I mean,
(34:38):
you know it's you know, because I do it for
a living, you know it's I don't keep up. I
must admit. I'm sure there's lots of wonderful stuff out there,
but no.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
You have how many kids? Oh?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I have four? Have four kids that I know of it?
Speaker 5 (34:54):
What do they do? Are they anybody?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
They're all having grandkids. Two of them are in the
entertainment industry. One is a photographer and mom stay at
home mom, and the other is the chief officer for
thirteen African nations for the Clinton Foundation, trying to eradicate malaria.
(35:17):
Working from where She lives in DC but goes to
Africa frequently.
Speaker 7 (35:22):
How many girls?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
How many boys?
Speaker 1 (35:24):
All girls? And now two grandchildren and a third at Christmas? Beautiful?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Not bad for a long.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Haired Wardo America.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I'm going to.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Back up all the pain. I'm going to cap in
in my heart. I'm gonna catch me in the fastest chain.
I'm going to make me about news that's okay.
Speaker 7 (35:48):
Tama's going to be an other day.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Heyy man, I don't care what you say. Jama's going
to be. Tama's gonna be. Tama's gonna be an up day.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Mickey Dolan's youth culture icon grandfather. That third grandchild was
born right on schedule over the holidays, a healthy baby
boy currently sheltering in place with.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
His mom in Washington, d C.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Tama's going to be an day.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Tomorrow is gonna be another day. I'm Alec Baldwin.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Here's the thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
Speaker 6 (37:13):
Well, I ain't gonna think about you because I ain't
no use nomore. I'm gonna make it firm about you.
I just like out it before I'm on my way.
Tomorrow's gonna be another tape.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Hey, Hey, hey, Hey, I I don't care what you say.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Tomorrow's gonna be, Tomorrow's gonna be, Tomorrow's gonna be another tape. Okay, Hey,
I'm not a day. Okay, Tomar's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I'm not day.
Speaker 8 (38:03):
Yeah,
You we come walk now, mystery yet funniest looks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Everyone weaving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Okay with the monkeys.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Peep Hey, Hey, it's Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Here's the thing. This song shaped my childhood and that
of millions of other Americans.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
You are glad to do.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
The voice is Mickey Dolan's.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
So something Ever the monkeys pep saving monkey ound where.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Too busy saying.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's nineteen sixty six, the year Timothy Leary tells America
to turn on tune in drop out TV executives know
they need to make programming that reflects the times.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Enter the monkeys. Hey that's a groovy button. What does
it say?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Love is the Ultimate trip?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Oh that's a nice time. That's a groovy button.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
What does it say?
Speaker 7 (01:03):
Save the Texas Prairie Chicken?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It was save the Chicken, not stop the War. NBC
wasn't about to risk a boycott of Bonanza after all,
but the misadventures of four shaggy musicians in Malibu managed
to be subversive anyway. The grown ups were STIPs, the
sets were psychedelic, and the long haired bandmates just wanted
to be loved. Artistically, the show used new wave film
(01:29):
techniques and brought the audience in on the jokes two
years before laughing and Monty Python.
Speaker 7 (01:36):
Hey wait, wait, how do I get in if the
door's locked?
Speaker 8 (01:39):
Peter, You can't expect the writers to know everything improvised.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
He.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Besides, the music is undeniably great. Soon the fictional band
morphed into a real band. They wrote their own songs
and played their own instruments, and at the same time
The Monkeys, the TV show topped the Nielsen rating, the
band topped the Billboard charts. The Monkeys got the formula
(02:06):
just right, but the concept wasn't unique. Throughout the sixties,
movie and TV bosses were desperately trying to bottle Beatlemania.
Mickey Dolans, with musical talent and floppy hair in abundance,
was perhaps faded to end up in a band on TV.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
The question was only which one.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
There were at least three other shows that pilot season
that I was up for as an actor singer similar
well in the sense that they were about music and
about the young generation. There was a lot going on
at that time. It wasn't just the Beatles, it was
folk music. It was all kinds of youth oriented music.
(02:50):
One pilot was a Peter, Paul and Mary type of
group called the Happeners. It did not sell. Another was
this beach boy of surfer group, and another one was
a big family mighty wind kind of hind those thirty
people on stage singing I got a hammer, ye New Christimer.
(03:11):
So it was in the air. It was in the
air to try to capture this youth movement and obviously
exploit it.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
For this medium of TV.
Speaker 8 (03:21):
That's important for people to remember, well, in our case,
for the first time to really combine the power of television,
radio and record companies.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Now, it had been done before to some degree with
Ricky Nelson. Once in a while some TV act would
come out with a little single, but this was the
first time that it was a concerted assault.
Speaker 7 (03:44):
On the American consumer.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
The Monkeys was not The Beatles or an attempt to
be the American Beatles. The Monkeys was a television show
about an imaginary group that wanted to be the Beatles.
That's what it was about. It was the struggle for success,
and that's I think one of the reasons it resonated
(04:08):
with with so many kids of our generation. If you're hungry, yes,
so many shows since you know you see him. They
come on the other they're all beautiful, cute and lovely,
and they're successful already. You know. The closest thing I've
seen come around over the decades is Glee, which was
a TV show about an imaginary glee club. But I
(04:31):
gather they go and perform because they could, so rather
than the old school Hollywood trick having somebody else sing
your vocals in West Side Story or Sweet and Low
Down Sean Penn, I mean, it was a beautiful movie,
but of course he didn't play any of that. They
had in mind that we were going to eventually go
(04:55):
out on the road and perform, because the audition process
was nothing like I'd ever been through before. You had
to be able to sing, you had to be able
to play an instrument, you had to improvise, you had
to do comedy scene work on the screen tests. So
they must have had in mind, you know that this
(05:16):
thing sells, then one day these guys are going to
go out on the road and perform. So after we
got cast and started filming early days, early early days,
I think maybe before I'd recorded anything, and they brought
me to this apartment building and said we want you
to meet the writers who will be writing for you.
(05:36):
And I go in and this little cubby holes like
it reminds me of like a medical building where it's
dentist here in a chiropractice, and it's like, hello, Carol, Oh, hi, Mickey,
this is Carol King. She'll be writing songs for you.
Oh my god, oh hi. And she's sitting at an
upright piano in a little cubby hole like the size
(05:58):
of this little less less than the size of this
little studio. And she has a woolen sack reel to
reel tape recorder. And I remember that because I had
the Zach same Yes, Carol, this, Mickey and Mickey this Carol. Hi,
how are you doing. Nice to meet you. Hello, Hi,
Oh David David Gates. This is Mickey Dolans. He's gonna
(06:21):
be singing and you're going to be writing for him.
Speaker 7 (06:23):
David Gates from Brady Gates.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, my god, yeah, oh my god. Oh. He wrote
a big hit for us. And I don't know if
you saw beautiful, but Carol King at one point says,
we got to write some songs for this TV show
in Hollywood, and Jerry Goffin goes, oh fuck, oh, sorry.
Speaker 7 (06:42):
It's okay. So it's David Gates.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And then I heard about all these writers. But you know,
even in that day, the writers were not acknowledged like
they are now. Whenever I do a show, I immediately
acknowledge the writers that wrote this stuff, because without them,
I'd be going, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
When did Boys and hert come into the picture?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Very early, so Boyce and Heart were trying out to
be a cast as a couple of the monkeys. I
have no idea why, Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, but you
know how it goes. I mean, you got development from
NBC or wherever. I'm sure they were all watching the
screen tests and making those choices. And I have no
(07:29):
idea why they chose any of us, including me, but
thank god I did.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But what was your musical DNA? I mean, I know
you performed since you were a child, correct, Yeah, and
so what was your music, DNA? Great question when you
went rolling into that scenario.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Thank you, because it is important to me. I started
out playing classical guitar Segovia kind of stuff as a
ten year old or something like that. My dad got
me into it and played me a Segovia record, and
I was like, there's no way one person is doing alright.
(08:07):
He said yes, and I got into it. I got
really hooked. I got really passionate. My dad was a actor,
a schwash buckling kind of Errol Flynn character in the
forties and fifties from Middle Lisa Old School. And he
got me into playing a classical guitar. And I took
lessons and studied and try, but yeah, I'm ten years old.
(08:31):
Then I went to high school and I started going
to parties and they would invite me to parties. I
was this little geeky mascot, you know. But the girls
would invite me to parties because I could play something
on the guitar. Then they would say, do you know
any Kingston triol. I'll be right back, hang down new
hit do? So I got okay at folk music Peter Palm,
(08:57):
Mary my sister, and I would say at parties and stuff.
Speaker 7 (09:01):
And you knew you could sing?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, my mom, because my mom was a singer and
great singer, and my dad was a great singer. But
he was like a you know, operatic. He would do
strangers in the you make see a strange, but he
would sing it walking through the living room in his underwear.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
So it's like, oh, Dad, that is so cross with
the glass of red wining?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Is that anyway? So I'm brought up singing, acting, the
whole thing. But I think nature also has something to
do with it. You know, there's the physicality of it.
You're born with the physique to be a tennis player
or golfer, and well that's it's a muscle and so
(09:51):
I think I was born with the muscles to do that.
So yeah, I could sing my After the folk music era,
I started rock and roll, and I you know, started
playing guitar and rock guitar and started going out with like,
you know, cover bands Mickey and the One Nighters, you know,
(10:12):
just doing you know, walking the Dog and money and
and house like everything like the Beatles Stones. I talked
to Ring about it when I interviewed him one day.
He said, well, we've all cover bends, and it's true.
I used to do a tune in my band called
Johnny Be Good because I was a huge Chuck Berry fan.
That was my audition piece for the Monkeys.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
How did they find you?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Oh, since I had already had a television show as
a child.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
NBC, you were circus.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I was, yes, one does not go to the cattle hall.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
NBC knew you and the.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Producers and Bob and Bird and my agent. I had
an agent, you know. I was doing guest shots on
mister Novak Peyton Place, usually playing the bad guy, the
little thug, the kind of you know, creepy kid. Yeah,
the creepy kid. Well you could tell it was like
the creepy kid thing. There's a little anarchy underneath everything
you're doing. There's a little there's a little madness underneath
(11:14):
everything you're doing. The under the whole monkey thing was
a little bit of anarchy. Bob and Burt weren't much older,
the creators, producers, they were not much older than we were.
When I went to my first audition down on Gower
there at the Scringems, I walked in and there were
these two guys sitting there in jeans and T shirts.
(11:35):
I thought they were there for the audition, and that
was Bob and Burt. I mean, they were part of
that young buck new wave generation which created the Hollywood
independent film industry with Easy Rider. So Bob and Bert
were not much older than I was. And there's a
wonderful chapter in Timothy Leary's book Politics of Ecstasy. Don't
(11:57):
know what you think about Timothy Leary, but he has
like a a chapter on the Monkeys describing how essentially
we brought long hair into the living room and made
it okay to wear bell bottoms and have long hair
because the only time you saw long haired kids in
sixty six or seven on television they were getting arrested.
(12:20):
So the monkeys came along and said, which is what
if you have had a lone to have our fun.
We're just trying to be friendly. Yeah, And it was
a tough sell. Bob and Bert, I understand, had a
real tough cell at the New York The Upfront upfronts YEP,
NBC was nervous, but it represented all the kids out
(12:43):
there that were of the same mind. The majority didn't
want to throw bombs at people or you know, to then.
It was just we wanted to just have fun and
we loved the look.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
The very similar thing happened with Harry Winkler in Heavy Days.
He made it okay to wear a leather jacket finally
and ride a motorcycle. And he wasn't Marlon brand I'm
a kiss of danger. The Kiss of Danger. Will Smith
did a similar thing with Fresh Prince. He said it's
okay to be a young black guy and sing rap music. Well,
(13:17):
the Monkeys did the same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
So and then did you mentioned Easy Writer? You know,
we had Russ Tamblin in here to record a show
with us. And what's interesting is I asked him how
his career rolls after he does a West Side Story
and then within a matter of a few years, a
handful of years, all that's crumbling. As you said, everything
starts to change, Easy Writer, the anti heroic period of filmmaking.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Nicholson's career is born.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Well, Nicholson had his first I don't know, I don't
want to say break. He was a B movie actor
and Gorman guy Corman and I don't know if you
heard of the monkey movie called Head, Yes, of course,
written by Nicholson and us. We did get credit eventually
after the Monkey's showing off the air. Bob introduced this
(13:59):
to this guy I called Jack Jack Nicholson, who was
doing B movie but wanted to write. And we just
fell in love with him, I did. I can't speak
for everybody else, but he was and is most wonderful charismatic, funny,
intelligent guy that I'd ever met, and we welcomed him
(14:19):
with open arms, and he hung out with us for
like god months, it seems like. And then we all
got together up in Ohai at the Inn and Spot,
and I got film with this. I got actual film
of us sitting around and choreographing what this movie was
going to be about, because obviously as a movie, we
didn't have to stick to the NBC standards and practices thing,
(14:44):
which was pretty brutal. But The Monkeys wasn't about that anyway,
it was not our place to do that. At the time.
We left that to laugh in into other shows. I
had no objections to that. It was wide demographic, young
kids thirteen years old. So we went up and wrote
(15:04):
this wacky script and they took that created this movie Head,
which I love. I mean, I don't get it still,
and I wrote part of it, and I wrote parties
Beyond You, but it's Quintin told me it's like his
top five. So that was our little kind of breakout,
(15:25):
you know, and fans hated it. But now now it's
become this little cult thing because at the time, you know,
they would not let us even touch upon anything political,
social it NBC, you know, standards and practices. I'm not
sure it was only just after they let Ozzy and
Harriet sleep in the same bed or something like that.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
But I've been described for people to hear it from
your own mouth, this journey everyone's impression. Who knows about
that period of you know, your careers in television, that
your lip syncing another band was playing and you were simulating.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Correct. No, well it's not accurate. First of all, its accurate.
We sang all of it, every note. We didn't live sync. No,
you only live sync when you're doing a music video.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
But the recording process was different, and I know that Peter,
for instance, wanted to go in and play. Mike wanted to.
But when we first were cast, they had already recorded
a lot of tracks. They hired the Wrecking Crew, which
I'm sure you've.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
A studio band.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
They were the studio Cats played all the tracks for
the Beach Boys, for Association for the Birds. I frankly
didn't care. I mean, I approached it like I was
doing a musical. I was an entertainer, singer, actor. The
Monkeys was like a Marx Brothers musical, and it was
(16:58):
John Lennon that first made that. Compare the Monkeys was
a little half hour Marks Brothers musical.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
But what I'm looking for is eventually, oh yeah, you
do play. Yeah, what's around the time when you're sitting
there and you guys are playing and you say, he said, wow,
yeah we're there.
Speaker 7 (17:15):
Oh yeah, when does that happen?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
That happened in Honolulu in nineteen sixty seven. But the
prelude to that is that we start rehearsing because they
say we want to go on the road, want to
take the sack on the road, and that is why
they hired actor musicians. Mike plays incredible twelve string. Peter
plays seven instruments. God rest his soul. I mean he
(17:37):
went to the Conservatory of Music, and like in New York,
David didn't play an instrument as such. We could sing
obviously and played percussion. I was a guitar player, and
when they said you're going to be the drummer, I said, cool,
where do I start? Like I said in Circus Boy,
when they said so you're going to ride in an elephant, Okay,
(17:58):
where do I start? Us have said to Lloyd Bridges.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
When you started, you're gonna be.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Where do I start one?
Speaker 6 (18:09):
You never take a bandage.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
All below riot as the fun.
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Someone don't understand them and you just may be the one,
Oh Membus.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Some One actor and musician Mickey Dolans. This album marks
the beginning of the band's self sufficiency. You're listening to
Michael Nessmith in nineteen sixty seven singing his own composition
you just May be the One. All the instruments are
the monkeys themselves too. At the same time as the
(18:51):
Monkeys were softening the edges of the counterculture, Andy Warhol
was doing the opposite. He made Four Stars, a plotless, unedited,
twenty five hour portrait of his friends and collaborators doing
drugs and having sex. That movie was also the debut
of Warhol's favorite beefcake star Joe Delassandro. But when the
(19:16):
juvenile delinquent turned pin up model showed up at the
factory in nineteen sixty seven, he had no idea who
his host was.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I had a couple of friends in New York that
introduced me to other people, and then one day one
of these friends said, Hey, I know this person that's
making these Campbell suit ca you know, makes the Cambell suit,
and I was thinking we were go in to eat
some soup, which I.
Speaker 7 (19:44):
Was all for, and you just made me the one.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
For a link to my interview with Joe Delassandro, text Joe,
that's Joe to seven zero one zero one. I'm Alec
(20:13):
Baldwin and this is here's the thing. My guest is
Mickey Dolan's drummer and vocalist for The Monkeys.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Walk still, don't you walk out? We've got things to say.
Chop out, let's set up the talkdout. Things would be okay.
Shut down.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
The pandemic has meant no twenty twenty tour, but you
can still hear his and Michael Nessmith's latest from the
comfort of your own confinement. Their album, called The Monkeys
Live The mic and Mickey Show, was taped last year
and is available on iTunes and Spotify. Their sound and
(20:56):
the love from the audience is as strong as ever.
Starting from just playing a band member on TV, it
took Dolan's time and hard work to build up his skills.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I had about a year and I studied very very hard,
and I practiced very very hard. It was rock and
roll just four four time. For the most part. We
rehearsed diligently. David Winters, speaking of a West Side story,
was the director of our first stage show, and all
of a sudden one day they said, your first gig
(21:30):
is Hawaii. I think they did that because if it bombed,
no one would know.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Off the coast of the United States, no Internet.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
They could bury it like nuclear waste.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yes, that was us Nucleois. Good name for a group.
It turns out we did pretty good. There's a live
in sixty seven CD which was not recorded to be
a record. It was some I think the sound guy
was just like holding a microphone up in the air
to capture it. But it's not bad. Only three of
us playing, you know. It is Mike, Peter and I
(22:03):
Davy just doing percussion and of course the vocals. But
it was a trio. It was a power trio. And
Peter would play the right hand he would play keyboard melody,
and on the left hand he played keyboard bass. Mike
Nesmuth always put it like when we went on the road,
it was like Pinocchio became a real little boy, And
(22:25):
there's a lot of truth in that.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
And how'd you feel back then? Were you happy?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
How did they feel? Were they happy the band or
the monkeys couldn't tell. I don't want to speak for them.
Mike nsamuth I know, and it's well recorded. He wanted
to play and sing a lot more. He'd been brought into.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The situation, had no idea what a series was all about.
They said. He said, I want to sing him play
in rotten my songs, and he did not have a
chance to do that initially. Eventually he did, and that's
when we had the palace coup prompted by him.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
What year did that happen.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I was sixty seven, I want to say.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Right around the time of the live show in Hawaii.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Just after we had a palace coup, mainly because Mike said,
we can do this, Pinocchio can become a little boy.
He was frustrated, and I don't blame him.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
How'd you feel?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I didn't care one way or the other. I was
having a great time and I loved singing. It ended
up that I was. I think I ended up doing
the most of the lead vocals. Kind of by the fault.
Mike had avery and does still has a very wonderful
country western kind.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Of Oh man, it must have someone.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Have some.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, beautiful, we do that in our show. He and
I know Peter, like I say, could play like you know,
seven instruments, David great singer, but definitely the Krooner Broadway
kind of Tony Newley.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I read somewhere, Yeah, I read somewhere where they had
decided the powers that be that your voice was more
of the voice.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I was the only one that could go exactly yeah, yeah,
like I said that she loves me. You are really
good at this.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (24:26):
So you have the coup, you get rid of Kershner.
You're doing your own thing.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Does everybody sense that it's better and everybody's happy event
the well?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I can only speak yea for myself. Uh yeah. During
that period I had I guess you'd call it an
awakening or something, because up until that point we had
I'd been ensconced on the set from seven o'clock in
the morning makeup until eleven o'clock at night, where I
(24:57):
would be brought into RC Studios to record two or
three lead vocals a night because they wanted so much material.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
Was you do the show during the day and record
at night.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, I had to. They needed so much material because
they wanted two new songs for every episode, and so
Boyce and Hert and Carol King and all these people
are pumping out massive amounts of material, and Carol come
over to my house. I'd go over to Diane Hildebrand
or Boyce and Hard and then to routine the stuff
(25:30):
and then go in the studio and just blow it
out at ten eleven o'clock at night. And that went
on for months because they needed so much material, this
material that is still in the can that we have
not released. We released an album two years ago called
good Times. One of the songs Me and Magdalena, written
(25:51):
by Ben Gibberd from Death Cap Quti is number seventy
six on the Billboard Hot one hundred for the entire
Highre decade. On this album called good Times. Very proud
of that. So anyway, I'm in the studio, you know,
or on the set basically twenty four seven. But I'm
(26:11):
only twenty one years old, so I'm just taking it
for what it is. I mean, I was had been
brought up to be a actor, entertainer, and you show
up at seven for your makeup wardrobe call, and you
do your job and you go home.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
It's the whole Judy Garland thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Now, but let me ask you that, Meaning you're twenty
years old and you're grinding this out, what was your
life like? Did you have a life?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Oh? Absolutely, meeting, I had a wonderful life, right, I
actually had a wonderful life. Well, again, I was used
to it. You know. I had a lot of this
series when I was ten, so I well knew what
I was getting into. It was almost like home for me,
because when you're ten, twelve, thirteen years old and you're
in those are very formative years. And I was on
(26:57):
a set with my mom and a bunch smelling electricians,
and so I went back to high school and that
was abnormal for me. I was like fish out of
water until I got The Monkeys, which is only a
few years later. When I went to the audition interview
for The Monkeys at Screen Gems, the same guy was
(27:19):
on the gate that had been there when I was
ten years old with Circus Boy. It was only ten
years later. This was home to me. I breathed a
sigh of relief being on a set.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
You were comfortable there?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Oh yeah, big time, Because before that I was on
my father's set when he was doing movies for Howard Hughes.
I didn't have to adapt. I just fell into it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
And when the show ends, is there a thought for
you to say, I'm kind of done with music now
and I want to go back to acting or No,
were you now in your soul a musician?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
No. I was up for the FONNDS and it was
between me and Henry Winkler. I don't know if he's
ever told you the story. It was a mid season replacement,
just after the Monkeys, and I was up for and
went back for callbacks and it was between me and Henry.
He walked into the office Gary Marshall's office said, oh shit,
Mickey Dolan's is here. I'm never going to get this,
(28:17):
and thank god he did, because he wasn't much better
funds than I would have been.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I went for some interviews and I did a couple
of little guest shots on some shows. My agent would
send me out for little things, but I would go
into the office and they'd say, Oh, we don't need
any drummers, what are you doing here?
Speaker 5 (28:36):
So it was hard to get off from under the
shadow of the Monkeys.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, talked to Leonard Nimoy about that this classic problem
in our Star Street. Yeah, but I didn't worry about
it that much because the same thing had happened to
me after Circus Boy. I'd go to an interview and
they'd say, we don't need the show, and you're not
blonde anymore, what's there? I was used to that. But
(29:01):
also I had already started directing, and I directed the
last episode of The Monkeys, wrote and directed. I had
already decided I kind of wanted to get into production.
I had already been an actor since I was ten,
and I started a little film production company. But shortly
(29:21):
thereafter I moved to England. Had married a girl that
is English, and we went to England to do a
play at the Mermaid Theater, doing the Point by Harry Nilsen,
who was my dear friend at the time, and he'd
written this animated thing, and then it became a play
in London in the West End, and he said would
(29:41):
you come and play in it? It was a limited
panamime season and I went there with my wife. I
brought my reels what I had at the time. I
gave it to an English agent and all of a sudden, bang,
I get this gig at the BBC directing a drama,
a drama play, and I did it, and all of
(30:02):
a sudden, I'd gone to England for three months, stayed
for fifteen years. I directed big shows, long running shows
for the BBC, for LWT, for Grenada, for TIMS. I
loved it and I was doing something outside of the
purview of what I was known for. Over there. Within
a about a year, auditions, well, the not auditions, the interviews.
(30:27):
When I did an interview, it would say BBC producer
writer Michael.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Dolans, you became someone else again I did, from Circus
Boy to Mickey Dolan's to Michael Dolan's.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And back again.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
What brought you back? Fifteen? You love?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I'll give you the truth a divorce. I had retired,
actually I had tried to retire thirty five or forty
or something, big English rock and roll man, full time
staff of six, hunting in the winter and polo in.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
The summer, and the rock star life.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh yeah, and it was so boring. I was bored
to death because I wasn't working, I wasn't accomplishing, you know.
I'd wander around the grounds, seven or eight acres of
formal gardens and that helped, would tip their hats mourning
Governor morning, and I was like trying to hang out
with them, Hey, what's that morning, Governor. I got very
(31:31):
bored because I wasn't working. Came back to the States,
still a little directing Boy meets World. I did Pacific Blue,
but I kind of you know, I guess I kind
of got tired of that too. I don't know. I mean, here,
it's not the same in England I had, and I
still think it applies enormous amount of control. Over there,
(31:53):
the show runner is the producer director, not the producer writer.
I hired writers here.
Speaker 7 (32:00):
The producer writer is the more powers.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
That's the show warner. Over there, I'd go in and
pitch an idea, and unlike over here, where it has
to go through you know, God knows how many network
development executives, they would just say, we rather like that idea,
here's the money, go ahead and do it seriously, and
(32:26):
I wouldn't hear anything for weeks. I'm like, is anybody
out there?
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Am I doing? Okay? Is enormous amount of responsibility but
also freedom, and that's why we get these amazing shows
out of Britain to this day, because they don't fuck
around with you.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Now when you and Nesmith go out on the road,
now you go period periodically, you guys are out there,
and when you're out there, like, how does it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Begin the show? Do you come together again?
Speaker 7 (32:56):
Mike?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
First of all, I sang most of the leads, and
Mike wrote some incredible tunes for the Monkeys, and after
it's probably a lot more musical. We have an incredible band,
ten piece band. It's different, but the hits are there
because the people want to hear the hits and I've
always acknowledged that, and I do them as they remember them.
(33:20):
It's very important to do that so they can sing along.
Peter Tork, God love him, you know, passed away last year,
and Davy Jones passed away a while ago, a few
years ago. Yeah, the Monkeys thing will go on, you know,
with or without me, because a the music was you know,
(33:40):
so special, and the show. You know, the thing about
the TV show, the smartest thing they did, those producers
is that it was not topical and it wasn't satirical
like I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners, or it was
about these four guys that were living in this situation
(34:01):
in Malibu in Malavik and wanted to be successful, and
we never were on the show. That's I think one
of the reasons why it stands up.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
My last question for you would be music today. You know,
contemporary music. Are you a fan of much contemporary music
or it's not in your life as much?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
It's not in my life at all, Not that I
have anything against it, but I kind of I guess
I kind of dialed out with Sinatra and classical guitar.
In the morning, my wife and I listened to Segovia
and in the afternoon we listened to Billie Holiday. I mean,
(34:38):
you know it's you know, because I do it for
a living, you know it's I don't keep up. I
must admit. I'm sure there's lots of wonderful stuff out there,
but no.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
You have how many kids? Oh?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I have four? Have four kids that I know of it?
Speaker 5 (34:54):
What do they do? Are they anybody?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
They're all having grandkids. Two of them are in the
entertainment industry. One is a photographer and mom stay at
home mom, and the other is the chief officer for
thirteen African nations for the Clinton Foundation, trying to eradicate malaria.
(35:17):
Working from where She lives in DC but goes to
Africa frequently.
Speaker 7 (35:22):
How many girls?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
How many boys?
Speaker 1 (35:24):
All girls? And now two grandchildren and a third at Christmas? Beautiful?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Not bad for a long.
Speaker 5 (35:32):
Haired Wardo America.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I'm going to.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Back up all the pain. I'm going to cap in
in my heart. I'm gonna catch me in the fastest chain.
I'm going to make me about news that's okay.
Speaker 7 (35:48):
Tama's going to be an other day.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Heyy man, I don't care what you say. Jama's going
to be. Tama's gonna be. Tama's gonna be an up day.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Mickey Dolan's youth culture icon grandfather. That third grandchild was
born right on schedule over the holidays, a healthy baby
boy currently sheltering in place with.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
His mom in Washington, d C.
Speaker 6 (36:23):
Tama's going to be an day.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Tomorrow is gonna be another day. I'm Alec Baldwin.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Here's the thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
Speaker 6 (37:13):
Well, I ain't gonna think about you because I ain't
no use nomore. I'm gonna make it firm about you.
I just like out it before I'm on my way.
Tomorrow's gonna be another tape.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Hey, Hey, hey, Hey, I I don't care what you say.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Tomorrow's gonna be, Tomorrow's gonna be, Tomorrow's gonna be another tape. Okay, Hey,
I'm not a day. Okay, Tomar's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I'm not day.
Speaker 8 (38:03):
Yeah,
Host
Alec Baldwin
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