Speaker 1: Here we come. Welcome. How m to get funniest notes? Everyone?
Speaker 1: We mean monkey? Hey, it's Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Here's the thing. This song shaped my childhood and
Speaker 1: dad of millions of other Americans. Do what to do?
Speaker 1: The voice is Mickey Dolan's PEP seven Monkey out Ware,
Speaker 1: too business singing. It's nineteen sixty six, the year Timothy
Speaker 1: Leary tells America to turn on tune in. Dropout TV
Speaker 1: executives know they need to make programming that reflects the times.
Speaker 1: Enter the monkeys. Hey, that's a groovy button. What does
Speaker 1: it say? Love is the ultimate trip? Oh, that's a
Speaker 1: nice time. That's a grivy button. What does it say?
Speaker 1: Save the Texas Prairie Chicken? It was saved the Chicken,
Speaker 1: not stop the War. NBC wasn't about to risk a
Speaker 1: boycott of Bonanza after all, but the misadventures of four
Speaker 1: shaggy musicians in Malibu managed to be subversive anyway. The
Speaker 1: grown ups were stiffs, the sets were psychedelic, and the
Speaker 1: long haired bandmates just wanted to be loved. Artistically, the
Speaker 1: show used new wave film techniques and brought the audience
Speaker 1: in on the jokes. Two years before Laughing and Monty Python.
Speaker 1: Hey wait wait, how do I get up the doors locked? Peter,
Speaker 1: you can't expect the writers to know everything improvised. Besides,
Speaker 1: the music is undeniably great. Soon the fictional band morphed
Speaker 1: into a real band. They wrote their own songs and
Speaker 1: played their own instruments, and at the same time The
Speaker 1: Monkeys the TV show topped the Nielsen rating, the band
Speaker 1: topped the Billboard charts. The Monkeys got the formula just right,
Speaker 1: but the concept wasn't unique. Throughout the sixties, movie and
Speaker 1: TV bosses were desperately trying to bottle Beatlemania. Mickey Dolan's,
Speaker 1: with musical talent and floppy hair in abundance, was perhaps
Speaker 1: faded to end up in a band on TV. The
Speaker 1: question was only which one. There were at least three
Speaker 1: of the shows that pilot season that I was up
Speaker 1: for as an actor singer uh similar well in the
Speaker 1: sense that they were about music and about the young generation.
Speaker 1: There was a lot going on at that time. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just the Beatles, it was folk music, it was
Speaker 1: um all kinds of you know, youth oriented music. One
Speaker 1: pilot was a Peter, Paul and Mary type of group
Speaker 1: called the Happeners, it did not sell. Another was this
Speaker 1: beach Boy of surfer group, and another one was a
Speaker 1: big family, mighty wind kind of handle those thirty people
Speaker 1: on stage singing I got a Hammer Christmas, New Christmas.
Speaker 1: So it was in the air. It was in the
Speaker 1: air to try to capture this youth movement um and
Speaker 1: obviously exploit it for this medium of TV. That's important
Speaker 1: for people to well, in our case, for the first time,
Speaker 1: to really combine the power of television, radio and record companies. Now,
Speaker 1: it had been done before to some degree with Ricky Nelson.
Speaker 1: Once in a while some TV act would come out
Speaker 1: with a little single, but this was the first time
Speaker 1: that it was a concerted assault on the American consumer.
Speaker 1: The Monkeys was not The Beatles or an attempt to
Speaker 1: be the American Beatles. The Monkeys was a television show
Speaker 1: about an imaginary group that wanted to be the Beatles.
Speaker 1: That's what it was about. It was the struggle for success,
Speaker 1: and that's I think one of the reasons it resonated
Speaker 1: with with so many kids of our generation are hungry. Yes,
Speaker 1: so many shows since you know, you see him, they
Speaker 1: come on the year. They're all beautiful, cute and lovely,
Speaker 1: and they're successful already. You know. The closest thing I've
Speaker 1: seen come around over the decades is Glee, which was
Speaker 1: a TV show about an imaginary glee club. But I
Speaker 1: gather they go and perform because they could, so rather
Speaker 1: than the old school Hollywood trick having somebody else sing
Speaker 1: your vocals in West Side Story or Sweet and Low
Speaker 1: Down Sean Penn, I mean, it was a beautiful movie,
Speaker 1: but of course he didn't play any of that. They
Speaker 1: had in mind that we were going to eventually go
Speaker 1: out on the road and perform, because the audition process
Speaker 1: was nothing like I'd ever been through before. You had
Speaker 1: to be able to sing, you had to be able
Speaker 1: to play an instrument, you had to improvise, you had
Speaker 1: to do comedy scene work on the screen tests. So
Speaker 1: they must have had in mind and you know that
Speaker 1: this thing selves. Then one day these guys are gonna
Speaker 1: go out on the road and perform. So after we
Speaker 1: got cast and started filming early days, early early days,
Speaker 1: I think, maybe before I had recorded anything, and they
Speaker 1: brought me to this apartment building and said, we want
Speaker 1: you to meet the writers who will be writing for you,
Speaker 1: and I go in and this little cubby holes like
Speaker 1: it reminds me of like a medical building where it's
Speaker 1: dentist here in a chiropractice. And it's like, hello, Carol, Oh, hi, Mickey,
Speaker 1: this is Carol King. She'll be writing songs for you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, oh hi. And she's sitting at an
Speaker 1: upright piano in a little cubby hole like the size
Speaker 1: of this little less less than the size of this
Speaker 1: little studio. And she has a woolen sack reeled the
Speaker 1: real tape recorder. And I remember that because I had
Speaker 1: the Zach same Carol, this, Mickey, and then Mickey this Carol, Hi,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? Nice to meet you. Hello, Hi,
Speaker 1: Oh David David Gates, This Mickey Dolan's he's gonna be
Speaker 1: singing and you're gonna be writing for him. David Gates
Speaker 1: from Brady Gates. Yes, my god, oh my god. Oh
Speaker 1: he wrote a big hit for us. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if you saw beautiful, but uh, Carol King at
Speaker 1: one point says, we gotta write some songs for this
Speaker 1: TV show in Hollywood, and Jerry Goffin goes off, sorry, okay,
Speaker 1: knock it Gates. And then I heard about all these writers.
Speaker 1: But you know, even in that day, the writers were
Speaker 1: not acknowledged like they are now. Whenever I do a show,
Speaker 1: I immediately acknowledge the writers that wrote this stuff, because
Speaker 1: without them, I'd be going, Yeah, when did Boyson Hart
Speaker 1: come into the picture? Very early? So boys and heart,
Speaker 1: we're trying out to be a cast as a couple
Speaker 1: of the monkeys. I have no idea why, Bob Eifelson,
Speaker 1: Burt Schneider, but you know how it goes. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got development from NBC or wherever. I'm sure they
Speaker 1: were all watching the screen tests and and making those choices,
Speaker 1: and I have no idea why they chose any of us,
Speaker 1: including me, but thank god I did. Um. But what
Speaker 1: was your musical d n A. I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you performed since you were a child, correct, and so
Speaker 1: what was your music? D NA? Rolling into that scenario,
Speaker 1: thank you because it is important to me. UM. I
Speaker 1: started out playing classical guitar Segovia kind of stuff as
Speaker 1: a ten year old or something like that. My dad
Speaker 1: got me into it and played me a Segovia record
Speaker 1: and I was like, there's no way one person is
Speaker 1: doing he said, and I got into it. I got
Speaker 1: really hooked. I got really passionate. My dad was actor,
Speaker 1: swash buckling kind of Errol Flynn character in the forties
Speaker 1: and fifties from Italy, so so old school, and he
Speaker 1: got me into playing a classical guitar. And I took
Speaker 1: lessons and studied and trained. But you know, I'm ten
Speaker 1: years old. Then I went to high school and I
Speaker 1: started going to parties and they would invite me to parties.
Speaker 1: I was this little geeky mascot, you know, but the
Speaker 1: girls would invite me to parties because I could play
Speaker 1: something on the guitar. Then they would say, do you
Speaker 1: know any Kingston trio? I'll be right back, hang down
Speaker 1: new hit do um? So I got okay at folk
Speaker 1: music Peter Paul and Mary my sister, and I would
Speaker 1: say at parties and stuff, and you knew you could sing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and my mom because my mom was a singer and
Speaker 1: great singer, and my dad was a great singer. But
Speaker 1: he was like a you know, operatic. He would do
Speaker 1: strangers in the evening evening you make she a strangiou
Speaker 1: but he would sing it walking through the living room
Speaker 1: in his underwear. So it's like, oh, that is so cruel.
Speaker 1: With a glass of red wine and as anyway, So
Speaker 1: I've brought up singing, acting and the whole thing. But
Speaker 1: I think nature also has something to do with it.
Speaker 1: You know, there's the physicality of it. You're born with
Speaker 1: the physique to be a tennis player or golfer, and
Speaker 1: well that's it's a muscle. And so I think I
Speaker 1: was born with the muscles to do that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I could sing my After the folk music era, I
Speaker 1: started rock and roll and you know, started playing guitar
Speaker 1: and rock rock guitar and started going out with like,
Speaker 1: you know, cover bands, making the one night ers, you know,
Speaker 1: just doing you know, walking the Dog and Money and
Speaker 1: and the Beatles. And I talked to Ring about it
Speaker 1: when I interviewed him one day, he said, well, we've
Speaker 1: all cover bands, and it's true. I used to do
Speaker 1: a tune in my band called Johnny Be Good because
Speaker 1: I was a huge Chuck Berry fan. That was my
Speaker 1: audition piece for the Monkeys. How did they find you? Oh,
Speaker 1: since I had already had a television show as a
Speaker 1: child NBC, I was yes, one does not go to
Speaker 1: the cattle call. And the producers in Bob and Bird
Speaker 1: and my agent I had an agent. You know. I
Speaker 1: was doing guest shots on Mr Novak Peyton Place, usually
Speaker 1: playing the bad guy, that little thug, the kind of
Speaker 1: you know, creepy kid. Yeah, the creepy kid. Well, you
Speaker 1: could tell there was like the creepy kid thing. There's
Speaker 1: a little anarchy underneath everything you're doing. A little there's
Speaker 1: a little madness underneath everything you're doing under the under
Speaker 1: the whole monkey thing was a little bit of anarchy.
Speaker 1: Bob and Burt weren't much older, the creators, producers, they
Speaker 1: were not much older than we were. When I went
Speaker 1: to my first audition down on Gower there at the Screenems,
Speaker 1: I walked in and uh, there were these two guys
Speaker 1: sitting there in jeans and T shirts. I thought they
Speaker 1: were there for the audition, And that was Bob and Burt.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were part of that young buck new
Speaker 1: wave generation which created the Hollywood independent film industry with
Speaker 1: Easy Rider. So Bob and Burt were not much older
Speaker 1: than I was. And there's a wonderful chapter in Timothy
Speaker 1: Leary's book Politics of Ecstasy. Um, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you think about Timothy Leary, but he has like a
Speaker 1: half a chapter on the monkeys describing how essentially we
Speaker 1: brought long hair into the living room and made it
Speaker 1: okay to wear bell bottoms and have long hair because
Speaker 1: the only time you saw long haired kids in sixties
Speaker 1: six or seven on television they were getting arrested. So
Speaker 1: the monkeys came along and said, which is want if
Speaker 1: you have had a lone of have a fun. We're
Speaker 1: just trying to be friendly. And it was a tough sell.
Speaker 1: Bob and Bird, I understand, had a real tough sell
Speaker 1: at the New York up Front restaurant. NBC was nervous,
Speaker 1: but it represented all the kids out there that were
Speaker 1: of the same mind. The majority didn't want to throw
Speaker 1: bombs at people or you know, to them. It was
Speaker 1: just we wanted to just have fun and we loved
Speaker 1: the look. You know. The very similar thing happened with
Speaker 1: Harry Winkler in Happy Days. He may it okay to
Speaker 1: wear a leather jacket finally and write a motorcycle and
Speaker 1: he wasn't Marlon Brandon, I'm a Kiss of danger, A
Speaker 1: kiss of danger. Will Smith did a similar thing with
Speaker 1: Dress Prince. He said it's okay to be a young
Speaker 1: black gyro and sing wrap music. Well, the monkeys did
Speaker 1: the same thing. So and then did you mention Easy Writer?
Speaker 1: You know, we had Russ Tamblin in here to record
Speaker 1: a show with us. And what's interesting, as I asked him,
Speaker 1: how his career rolls after he does a West Side
Speaker 1: Story and then within a matter of a few years,
Speaker 1: a handful of years, Oh, that's crumbling. As you said,
Speaker 1: everything starts to change, Easy Rider. The anti heroic period
Speaker 1: of film making Nicholson's career as born, well, Nickolson had
Speaker 1: his first I don't know, I don't want to say break.
Speaker 1: He was a B movie actor. Uh. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if you heard of the monkey movie called Head. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, written by Nicholson and us. We did get
Speaker 1: credit eventually after the Monkeys showing off the year. Um
Speaker 1: Bob introduced this to this guy called Jack Nicholson who
Speaker 1: was doing the movie but wanted to write. And we
Speaker 1: just fell in love with him, I did. I can't
Speaker 1: speak for everybody else, but he's was and his one
Speaker 1: most wonderful, charismatic, funny, intelligent guy that I had ever met.
Speaker 1: And uh, we welcomed him with open arms and he
Speaker 1: hung out with us for like god months, it seems like.
Speaker 1: And then we all got together up in Ohio at
Speaker 1: the inn in Spot and we I got film with this,
Speaker 1: I got actual film of us sitting around you choreographing
Speaker 1: what this movie was going to be about. Because uh,
Speaker 1: obviously as a movie, we didn't have to stick to
Speaker 1: the NBC standards and practices thing, which was pretty brutal.
Speaker 1: But The Monkeys wasn't about that anyway, it was not
Speaker 1: our place to do that. At the time. We left
Speaker 1: that to laugh in into other shows. I had no
Speaker 1: objections to that. It was wide demographic, young kids thirteen
Speaker 1: years old. So we went up and wrote this quacky
Speaker 1: script and uh, they took that created this movie Head,
Speaker 1: which I love. I mean, I don't get it still.
Speaker 1: And I wrote part of it and I wrote parts,
Speaker 1: but it's Quentin told me it's like his top five. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was our little kind of breakout, you know,
Speaker 1: and fans hated it. But now now it's become this
Speaker 1: little cult thing because at the time, you know, they
Speaker 1: would not let us even touch upon anything political social
Speaker 1: that was NBC you know, standards and practices. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure it was only just after they let Ozzie and
Speaker 1: Harriet sleep in the same bed or something like that,
Speaker 1: But I've been described for people to hear it from
Speaker 1: your own mouth, this journey everyone's impression. Who knows about
Speaker 1: that period of you know, your careers and television, that
Speaker 1: your lips sinking another band was playing and you're simulating correct,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's not accurate. First of all, we sang
Speaker 1: all of it, every note. We didn't live sync. No,
Speaker 1: you only live sync when you're doing a music video. No.
Speaker 1: But the recording process was was different, and I know
Speaker 1: that Peter, for instance, wanted to go in and play.
Speaker 1: Mike wanted to. But when we first were cast, they
Speaker 1: had already recorded a lot of tracks. Um, they hired
Speaker 1: the Wrecking Crew, which I'm sure you've studio band. They
Speaker 1: were these studio cas played all the tracks for the
Speaker 1: Beach Boys, for Association for the Birds. I frankly didn't care.
Speaker 1: I mean I approached it like I was doing a musical.
Speaker 1: I was an entertainer, singer, actor. The Monkeys was like
Speaker 1: a Mark's Brothers musical, And it was John Lennon that
Speaker 1: first made that comparison. The Monk This was a little
Speaker 1: half hour marks both as musical. But what I'm looking
Speaker 1: for is, eventually you do play yeah, what's around the
Speaker 1: time when you're sitting there and you guys are playing
Speaker 1: and you say, wow, we're there. When does that happen?
Speaker 1: That happened in Honolulu in nineteen six or seven. But
Speaker 1: the prelude to that is that we start rehearsing because
Speaker 1: they say we want to go on the road. Won't
Speaker 1: take the sack on the road, And that is why
Speaker 1: they hired actor musicians. Mike plays incredible twelve string. Peter
Speaker 1: plays seven instruments. God rest his soul. I mean he
Speaker 1: went to the Conservatory of Music, and like in New York,
Speaker 1: David didn't play an instrument as such. We could sing
Speaker 1: obviously and played percussion. I was a guitar player, and
Speaker 1: when they said you're going to be the drummer, I said, cool,
Speaker 1: where do I start? Like I said in Circus Boy,
Speaker 1: when they said, so you're gonna ride an elephant? Okay,
Speaker 1: where do I start? Like they must have said the
Speaker 1: Lloyd Bridges when he started, You're gonna right? Where do
Speaker 1: I start? Never take a bandage? The riot as the
Speaker 1: fun someone do understand them and you just may be
Speaker 1: the one. Actor and musician Mickey Dolan's This album marks
Speaker 1: the beginning of the band's self sufficiency. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Michael Nesmith in singing his own composition. You just may
Speaker 1: be the one. All the instruments are the monkeys themselves too.
Speaker 1: At the same time as the Monkeys were softening the
Speaker 1: edges of the counterculture, Andy Warhol was doing the opposite.
Speaker 1: He made Four Stars, a plotless, unedited twenty five portrait
Speaker 1: of his friends and collaborators doing drugs and having sex.
Speaker 1: That movie was also the debut of Warhol's favorite beefcake star,
Speaker 1: Joe Delessandro. But when the juvenile delinqu went turned pin
Speaker 1: up model showed up at the factory in n he
Speaker 1: had no idea who his host was. I had a
Speaker 1: couple of friends in New York that introduced me to
Speaker 1: other people, and and then one day one of these
Speaker 1: friends said, Hey, I know this person that's uh making
Speaker 1: these gamble suit can you know makes the candle sup?
Speaker 1: And I was thinking we would going to eat some soup,
Speaker 1: which I was all for, and you just made me
Speaker 1: the one for a link to my interview with Joe Delessandro,
Speaker 1: text Joe, that's Joe to seven zero one zero volley.
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and this is here's the thing. My
Speaker 1: guest is Mickey Doland's drummer and vocalist for the Monkeys,
Speaker 1: still to walk out things to say, let's do things. Okay,
Speaker 1: the pandemic has meant no, but you can still hear
Speaker 1: his and Michael Nestmith's latest from the comfort of your
Speaker 1: own confinement. Their album, called The Monkeys Live the Mike
Speaker 1: and Mickey Show, was taped last year and is available
Speaker 1: on iTunes and Spotify. Their sound and the love from
Speaker 1: the audience is as strong as ever. But starting from
Speaker 1: just play a band member on TV, it took Dolan's
Speaker 1: time and hard work to build up his skills. I
Speaker 1: had about a year and I studied very very hard,
Speaker 1: and I practiced very very hard. It was rock and roll,
Speaker 1: just four or four time. For the most part, we
Speaker 1: rehearsed diligently. David Winters, speaking of the West Side Story,
Speaker 1: was the director of our first stage show, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden one day they said your first gig
Speaker 1: is uh Hawaii. I think they did that because if
Speaker 1: it bombed, no one would know of the United States,
Speaker 1: no Internet by nuclear waste. Yes, yes, that was us Nukulo.
Speaker 1: Good name for a group. It turns out we did
Speaker 1: pretty good. There's a live in sixty seven c D
Speaker 1: which was not recorded to be a record. It was
Speaker 1: some I think the sound guy was just like holding
Speaker 1: a microphone up in the air to capture it. But
Speaker 1: it's not bad. There's only three of us playing, you know.
Speaker 1: It's Mike, Peter and I Davey just doing percussion and
Speaker 1: of course the vocals. But it was a trio. It
Speaker 1: was a power trio. And Peter would play the right hand,
Speaker 1: he would play keyboard melody, and on the left hand
Speaker 1: he played keyboard bass. Mike Nesmuth always put it like
Speaker 1: when we went on the road, it was like Pinocchio
Speaker 1: became a real little boy, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: truth in that. And how do you feel back then?
Speaker 1: Were you happy? How do they feel? Were they happy?
Speaker 1: Couldn't tell I. I don't want to speak for him.
Speaker 1: Mike Nesmuth, I know, and it's well recorded. He wanted
Speaker 1: to play and sing a lot more. He'd been brought
Speaker 1: into the situation, had no idea what a series was
Speaker 1: all about, they said. He said, I want to sing
Speaker 1: and play and wrote my songs and he did not
Speaker 1: have a chance to do that. Initially, Eventually he did,
Speaker 1: and that's when we had the palace coup prompted by him.
Speaker 1: What year did that happen. I was sixty seven. I
Speaker 1: want to say around the time of Hawaii, just after
Speaker 1: we had a palace coup, mainly because Mike said, we
Speaker 1: can do this, Pinocchio can become a little boy. He
Speaker 1: was frustrated, and I don't blame him. How do you feel?
Speaker 1: I didn't care one way or the other. I was
Speaker 1: having a great time and I loved singing. It ended
Speaker 1: up that I was. I think I ended up doing
Speaker 1: the most of the lead vocals, kind of by the
Speaker 1: fault um. Mike had avery and does still has a
Speaker 1: very wonderful country western kind of man. Must have someone,
Speaker 1: have someone have a beautiful We do that in our show.
Speaker 1: He and I know Peter, like I said, could play
Speaker 1: like you know, seven instruments. David great singer, but definitely
Speaker 1: the crooner Broadway kind of Tony knew leave. I read
Speaker 1: somewhere yet, I read somewhere where they had decided the
Speaker 1: powers that be that your voice was more of the voice.
Speaker 1: I was the only one that could go exactly like
Speaker 1: I said, you know, you are really good at this,
Speaker 1: So you have the coup, you get rid of kurshon Er,
Speaker 1: You're doing your own thing. Does everybody sense that it's
Speaker 1: better and everybody's happy eventually? Well, I can only speak
Speaker 1: again for myself. UM uh yeah. During that period I
Speaker 1: had I guess you'd call it an awakening or something,
Speaker 1: because up until that point we had I'd been ensconced
Speaker 1: on the set from seven o'clock on the morning makeup
Speaker 1: until eleven o'clock at night, where I would be brought
Speaker 1: into in our c studios to record two or three
Speaker 1: lead vocals a night because they wanted so much material
Speaker 1: to the show during the day record at night. I
Speaker 1: had to. They needed so much material because they wanted
Speaker 1: two new songs for every episode, and so Boys in
Speaker 1: Heart and Carol King and all these people are pumping
Speaker 1: out massive amounts of material, and Carol come over to
Speaker 1: my house. I'd go over to Diane Hildebrand or or
Speaker 1: Boys and Hard and and uh to routine the stuff
Speaker 1: and then go in the studio and just blow it
Speaker 1: out at ten eleven o'clock at night. And that went
Speaker 1: on for months because they needed so much material. Um,
Speaker 1: this is material that is still in the can that
Speaker 1: we have not released. We released an album two years
Speaker 1: ago called good Times. One of the songs Me and Magdalena,
Speaker 1: written by Ben Gilbert from Death Capital CUTI is number
Speaker 1: seventy six on the Billboard Hot one hundred for the
Speaker 1: entire decade on this album called good Times. Very proud
Speaker 1: of that. So anyway, I'm in the studio, you know,
Speaker 1: or on the set basically. But I'm only one years old,
Speaker 1: so I'm just taking it for what it is. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was had been brought up to be a actor, entertainer,
Speaker 1: and you show up at seven for your makeup more
Speaker 1: drobe call and you do your job and you go home,
Speaker 1: the old Judy Garland thing. Yeah. Now, but let me
Speaker 1: ask you that meeting. You're twenty years old and you're
Speaker 1: grinding this out. What was your life like? Did you
Speaker 1: have a life? Oh, absolutely had a wonderful life. I
Speaker 1: actually had a wonderful life. But again I was used
Speaker 1: to it. You know. I had a lot this series
Speaker 1: when I was ten, so I well knew what I
Speaker 1: was getting into. It was almost like home for me,
Speaker 1: because when you're ten, twelve, thirteen years old and you're
Speaker 1: you know, those are very formative years. And I was
Speaker 1: on a set with my mom and a bunch of
Speaker 1: smelly electricians. And so I went back to high school
Speaker 1: and that was abnormal for me. I was like a
Speaker 1: fish out of water until I got The Monkeys, which
Speaker 1: is only a few years later. When I went to
Speaker 1: the audition interview for The Monkeys at screen Gems, the
Speaker 1: same guy was on the gate that had been there
Speaker 1: when I was ten years old, was a circus boy.
Speaker 1: It was only ten years later this was home to me.
Speaker 1: I breathed a sigh of relief being on a set.
Speaker 1: You were comfortable there, Oh yeah, big time, because before
Speaker 1: that I was on my father's set when he was
Speaker 1: doing movies for Howard Hughes. I didn't have to adapt.
Speaker 1: I just fell into it. And when and when the
Speaker 1: show ends, is there a thought for you to say,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of done with music now and I want
Speaker 1: to go back to acting or no, were you now
Speaker 1: in your soul a musician? No. I was up for
Speaker 1: the Fons and it was between me and Henry Winkler.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's ever told you this story.
Speaker 1: It was a mid season replacement just after The Monkeys,
Speaker 1: and I was up brot and went back for callbacks.
Speaker 1: And it was between me and Henry. He walked into
Speaker 1: the office of Gary Marshall's office said, oh ship, Mickey
Speaker 1: Dolan's is here. I'm never gonna get this, and thank
Speaker 1: god he did, because he wasn't much better funds than
Speaker 1: I would have been. No. I went for some interviews,
Speaker 1: and I did a couple of little guest shots on
Speaker 1: on some shows. My agent would send me out for
Speaker 1: little things, but I would go into the office and
Speaker 1: they'd say, we don't need any drummers. What are you
Speaker 1: doing here? It was hard to get from into the
Speaker 1: Shadow of the Monkeys. Yeah, talked to Leonard Nimoy about that. UM,
Speaker 1: this classic problem in our Yeah, but I didn't worry
Speaker 1: about it that much because the same thing had happened
Speaker 1: to me after Circus Boy. I'd go to an interview
Speaker 1: and they'd say, we don't need and you're not blond anymore.
Speaker 1: Let's I was used to that, right. But all so, UM,
Speaker 1: I had already started directing, and I directed the last
Speaker 1: episode of the Monkeys, wrote and directed. I had already
Speaker 1: decided I kind of wanted to get into production. I've
Speaker 1: already been an actor since I was ten, and I
Speaker 1: started a little film production company. But shortly thereafter I
Speaker 1: moved to England, had married a girl that is English,
Speaker 1: and we went to Um England to do a play
Speaker 1: at the Mermaid Theater, doing the Point by Harry Nilsen,
Speaker 1: who was my dear friend at the time, and he'd
Speaker 1: written this uh animated thing and then it became a
Speaker 1: play in London in the West End, and he said
Speaker 1: would you come and play in it? It was a
Speaker 1: limited panomime season and I went there with my wife.
Speaker 1: I brought my reels what I had at the time.
Speaker 1: I gave it to an English agent and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, bang, I get this gig at the BBC
Speaker 1: directing a drama, a drama play, and I did it,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I'd gone to England for
Speaker 1: three months, stayed for fifteen years. I directed big shows,
Speaker 1: long running shows for the BBC, for l w T,
Speaker 1: for Granada, for Tim's. I loved it and I was
Speaker 1: doing something outside of the purview of what I was
Speaker 1: known for. Over there. Within a about a year, auditions,
Speaker 1: well the not auditions, the interviews. When I did an interview,
Speaker 1: it would say BBC producer writer Michael Dolan's you became
Speaker 1: someone else again I did, from Circus Boy to Mickey
Speaker 1: Dolan's to Michael Dolan's and back again. What brought you back?
Speaker 1: I'll give you the truth. I'll divorce. Um. I had retired,
Speaker 1: Actually I tried to retire at thirty five or forty
Speaker 1: or something, big English rock and roll mansion, full time
Speaker 1: staff to six, hunting in the winter and polo in
Speaker 1: the summer, and oh yeah, and it was so boring.
Speaker 1: I was bored to death because I wasn't working. Um,
Speaker 1: I wasn't accomplishing, you know. I'd wander around the grounds,
Speaker 1: seven or eight acres of formal gardens, and help would
Speaker 1: tip their hats morning Governor morning, and I was like
Speaker 1: trying to hang out with him. Hey was that morning, Governor.
Speaker 1: I got very bored because I wasn't working. Came back
Speaker 1: to the States, still a little directing Boy Meets World.
Speaker 1: I did Pacific Blue, but I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess I kind of got tired of that too.
Speaker 1: I don't know me here it's not the same in
Speaker 1: England I had, and I still think it applies enormous
Speaker 1: amount of control over there. The show owner is the
Speaker 1: producer director, not the producer writer. I hired writers. Here
Speaker 1: the producer writer is the more. Yeah, that's the show.
Speaker 1: Over there, I'd go in and pitch an idea, and
Speaker 1: unlike over here, where it has to go through you know,
Speaker 1: God knows how many network development executives um they would
Speaker 1: just say, we'd rather like that idea, here's the money,
Speaker 1: go ahead and do it seriously, and I wouldn't hear
Speaker 1: anything for weeks, like is anybody out there? Am I doing? Okay?
Speaker 1: An enormous amount of responsibility but also freedom, and that's
Speaker 1: why we get these amazing shows out of Britain to
Speaker 1: this day, because they don't funk around with you. Now
Speaker 1: when you and Nestmith go out on the road, now
Speaker 1: you go periodic, periodically, you guys are out there, and
Speaker 1: when you're out there, like, how does it begin the show? Mike?
Speaker 1: First of all, I sang most of the leads, and
Speaker 1: Mike wrote some incredible tunes for the Monkeys and Africa.
Speaker 1: It's probably a lot more musical. We have incredible band
Speaker 1: ten piece Van. It's different, but the hits are there
Speaker 1: because the people want to hear the hits and I've
Speaker 1: always acknowledged that and I do them as they remember them.
Speaker 1: It's very important to do that so they can sing along.
Speaker 1: Peter Tork got love him, you know, passed away last year,
Speaker 1: and Davy Jones passed away a few years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Monkeys thing will go on, you know, with or
Speaker 1: without me, because a the music was you know, so
Speaker 1: special and the show. You know, the thing about the
Speaker 1: TV show, the smartest thing they did, those producers is
Speaker 1: that it was not topical and it wasn't satirical like
Speaker 1: I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners or it was about
Speaker 1: these four guys that that we're living in this situation Malibu,
Speaker 1: in mala and wanted to be successful, and we never
Speaker 1: were on the show. That's I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why it stands up. My last question for you
Speaker 1: would be music today. You know, contemporary music. Are you
Speaker 1: a fan of much contemporary music? It's not in your
Speaker 1: life as much. It's not in my life at all. Uh,
Speaker 1: not that I have anything against it, but I kind
Speaker 1: of I guess I kind of dialed out, uh with
Speaker 1: Sinatra and classical guitar. In the morning, my wife and
Speaker 1: I listened to Segovia and in the afternoon we listened
Speaker 1: to Billie Holiday. I mean, you know, it's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: because I do it for a living. You know, it's
Speaker 1: I don't keep up. I must admit. I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: lots of wonderful stuff out there, but no, you have
Speaker 1: how many kids? Oh? I have four? Four kids that
Speaker 1: I know of it? What do they do? They? Anybody?
Speaker 1: They're all having grandkids. Two of them are in the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry. One is photographer and mom stay at home mom,
Speaker 1: and the other is uh, the chief officer for thirteen
Speaker 1: African nations for the Clinton Foundation, trying to eradicate malaria,
Speaker 1: working from where she lives in d C. But goes
Speaker 1: to Africa frequently. How many girls? How many boys? All girls?
Speaker 1: And now two grandchildren and a third at Christmas? Beautiful?
Speaker 1: Not bad for a long haired widow America. I'm going
Speaker 1: to pack up all the pain. I'm gonna keep then
Speaker 1: in my heart. I'm gonna catch me in the fastest train.
Speaker 1: They're gonna make me a nice dot. That's okay. Toma's
Speaker 1: gonna be in other day. Hey, and I don't care
Speaker 1: what you say. Toma's gonna be. Toma's gonna be. Toma's
Speaker 1: gonna be in a day. Mickey Dolan's youth culture icon grandfather.
Speaker 1: That third grandchild was born right on schedule over the holidays,
Speaker 1: a healthy baby boy currently sheltering in place with his
Speaker 1: mom in Washington, d C. Mom's going to be an day. Hey,
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is gonna be another day. I'm Alec Baldwin. And
Speaker 1: this is here's the thing. Well, I ain't gonna think
Speaker 1: about you because they ain't known you Stone boys. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make it fine without you. I just like I
Speaker 1: said before, I'm on my way. Tomor's gonna be another day. Hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: and I don't care what you say. Tomorrow's gonna be.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow's gonna be. Tomorrow's gonna be another day. A he he,
Speaker 1: I'm my day kah to gonna be ex