Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 238. Micky Dolenz

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

Singer, actor and pop culture icon Micky Dolenz returns to the podcast and holds court on a range of topics, including the early days of live television, the tense relationship between the Monkees and Don Kirshner, the lasting influence of "Head" and the secret origin of the infamous Hollywood Vampires. Also, Gilbert rides an elephant, Alice Cooper builds a catapult, Lon Chaney Jr. moves in next door and Howard Hughes scouts talent in the men's room. PLUS: Rondo "The Brute Man" Hatton! William "One Shot" Beaudine! Jerry Lewis takes a hard pass! Frank Zappa extends an invite! And Davy Jones shares the stage with...the Beatles? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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have heard of Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. This is Alfred Hitchcock, who said to me once, Grace Kelly, the most promiscuous woman I've ever known. I thought you ought to know that. And if you do, you're the sort who will love Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

Which it stands for Amazing Colossal Podcast. Da-da, da-da, da-doom. Now, seriously, folks. they dared me to do that. Now they're going to give me my... They're going to give me my... I'm sorry, you guys, please, just give me my pants back, will you? This is the studio. Anything can happen. Anyway, I was lured into being part of Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

And I'm here. And we had a great time. And we did it all and every syllable of it for you. That cavit is crazy. hi this is gilbert godfrey this is g Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. And I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and our engineer, Frank Berderosa. Our guest this week was crazy enough to return for another visit, and we're thrilled to have him back. He's an actor, singer, musician, director, radio personality, former member of the Hollywood Vampires, and one of the most beloved pop culture figures of the last half century. You've seen and heard him in dozens of television shows, including Peyton Place, My Three Sons, Adam 12, The Ben Stiller Show, The Drew Carey Show, Batman, the animated series, The Tick, Difficult People, and of course, as the title character in Circus Boy. He's also directed dozens of stage productions, television shows, and TV movies, and appeared on Broadway in Elton John's and Tim Rice's Ida.

Ida. Ida. Ida. I know it Aida. Aida. I know it had to do with my aunt. Yeah. My aunt Aida. Aida Gottfried. Yeah.

Yeah. He played my aunt Aida. He was totally in drag and he put on a fatty suit. He can do anything. You can do anything. And he's coming back as my other Aunt Rivka. Ida. And also Aida.

And also... I know, it's three syllables. I know that's tough. Three syllables is tough, but you can do it. You can do it. Don't interrupt me. That's very unprofessional. And also in feature films, such as Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween

and one of the strangest and most original movies ever committed to celluloid, the Jack Nicholson scripted Head. But it's his work as a singer and musician that's brought him the most acclaim as one of the four original members of the pop rock sensation known as the monkeys a group that sold millions of records starred in a hit primetime tv series time TV series and played to sold out arenas all over the world. His new album, along with his fellow surviving monkeys, Peter Tork and former podcast guest Michael Nesmith, with whom he's also planning a 2019 tour. It's called Christmas Party. Please welcome back to the podcast a genuine icon,

an artist of many talents, and one of our few guests to have worked with Lon Chaney Jr. Our old pal, Mickey Dolan. I'm going to need some more wine. If you don't mind, please. Welcome back, Mickey. Hey. Hello, and thank you for having me back it's fantastic i just realized

something we had on mike nesmith and we're having you for a second time so inadvertently this podcast has become a fuck you to peter tork i think peter would be quite happy you gotta ask peter to do it he's having his uh some health issues as you've probably heard yes how's he feeling uh okay i mean you know it's uh there are issues we get um along the way nez of course as you know had some pretty major issues uh well he's good he went out on the road he's doing his uh first national band tour good and um we're going out in march again to fill the dates we we missed and do a bunch more and then i think we're going to australia new zealand not that's not all confirmed yet but that's what what what we're going to Australia and New Zealand. That's not all confirmed yet, but that's what we're looking at. And so, yeah, Nez is doing pretty good.

Wonderful. So he's doing well enough to travel around the world. He just did, well, no, I think three or four weeks with his first national band tour. And I think he's going out again in January. First national band tour. And I think he's going out again in January. And then we do a national, international tour in March and April. So, you know.

I saw on the website that the Beacon in New York was one of your stops. Well, that was one of the ones that got not canceled but postponed. We'll be there. Excellent. And how's Peter doing? Well, you know, I haven't talked to him a lot. He's being very private about everything. But I understand he does have some health issues. And we just are praying and wishing him the best.

You were surprised to hear, before we turn on the mics, you were somewhat surprised to hear that Mike agreed to do this show. You were somewhat surprised to hear that Mike agreed to do this show. Yeah, Mike very seldom has done self-promoting publicity. Ever. We were very flattered because he had turned down doing David Letterman. Yeah, that's true. We hijacked him.

We used Gilbert's son as a secret weapon. He was in a hotel at the Chiller Fest signing autographs, and we sent Dara up with Gilbert's. I guess your son was five at the time or four, and we sent him up, and he jumped in Nez's lap, and we had him hooked. Well, did you ask him why he had dined to do your show? I think we shamed him. Yeah.

to do your show. I think we shamed him. Yeah. He has notoriously avoided doing self-promotional pressing. Yeah, my son was sitting in his lap the whole interview playing with his neck. He couldn't say no more. I don't want to hear any more of that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Okay. Now, like it said in the introduction, you worked. There was one episode where you worked with Lon Chaney Jr. Yeah. And- Rosemary. Also, Uncle Leo. Oh, yeah.

Len Lesser. Len Lesser. Yeah. But you, I love Lon Chaney Jr., and you said you also lived next door to him. Yes, absolutely. Tell us about Lon Chaney Jr. Well, I was, you know, four or five years old. My parents told me who he was and, yes, literally lived next door.

And they had a pool, which we did not swimming pool and so i remember my sister and i coco at four five six years old i had a there was a hole in the fence between the two yards in the san fernando valley and i guess that he knew my father i think they had actually worked in a movie together and um he said hey let, let him come over and swim in the pool. So we would duck through the fence and go swim in the pool and hang out. And we were obviously just little kids. And then lo and behold, 20-odd years later or something, he comes on the show on the monkey show and he remembered me and i remembered him how about that yeah lovely man very gentle sweet sweet man everybody was on that show

i think we talked we touched on it last time i mean we just mentioned rosemary julie newmar famously uh liberace your prank your pal zappa yeah yeah it was it was a place to be seen well it's a show to do at that time it was and yeah but well actually freeberg you know it there was a lot of people that turned it down interesting because they didn't get it and uh people that did get it like frank zappa who by the way i don't know if I mentioned this before. I probably hadn't remembered. Frank asked me to be the new drummer for the Mothers of Invention in the 70s. Very cool.

Late 70s, early 80s. And I called my record company, and they wouldn't let me out of my contract for the recording part. And I was kind of relieved because I don't think there's any way I could have kept up with that kind of, I mean, I've listened to Frank's music and it's like time signatures are 13-7. What is that? Well, you taught yourself the drums late. I don't know if people know that.

No, I didn't. I had teachers. I had Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, John Carlos. I had to learn fast. And yeah, you knew how to play the guitar. Yeah. But then they said, you're not going to play the guitar in this year. You're going to play drums.

Yeah. Well, like when I was 10 years old and they said, you're going to play drums yeah well like when i was uh 10 years old and they said you're gonna ride an elephant in circus boy i said fine where do i start and i learned to ride an elephant very quickly it's not that that difficult um uh but uh in the monkey situation my audition piece was on guitar. It was Johnny B. Goode. Yeah, right. Chuck Berry.

Yeah. But eventually, when they cast me, they said, okay, and you're going to be the drummer. But being a child of Hollywood and television and understanding the whole deal, I said, fine, where do I start? I could read music because of playing the guitar so i wasn't starting from square one i mean i i'd been in uh rock groups i had my own cover band mickey and the one-nighters because it was only one night but boy was it a great night and wasn't there a missing links Wasn't there a Missing Links? Wasn't there a band?

And the Missing Links, that was another name. And I was the lead singer and doing cover tunes, basically Chuck Berry, Money by Barrett Strong, Walk on the Dog, Lucille, all that 50s, 60s cover band stuff. And who were some of the people who were writing the Monkees music back then? Total unknowns. I mean, people that never, ever wrote another song in their lives.

I don't know what happened to them. There were people like this girl called Carole King and her partner Jerry Goffin. There was this guy, Neil Diamond. Whatever happened? There was Paul Williams. There was Neil Sadaka.

There was Carole Bayer Sager, Diane Hildebrand, Boyce and Hart, who wrote the biggest, including the theme song, and also produced the stuff. I don't know what happened to these. John Stewart, Daydream Believer, one of the original Kingston Trio. That's right.

Harry Nilsson. I don't know what happened to these people. One hit wonders. One hit wonders. Gone. Disappeared forever. So they were just basically like studio musicians. Yeah, doing these songs.

Well, they were writers. They were at the Brill Building. Yeah. And that was not coincidental. A little bit of industry side note. Screen Gems Columbia Music was a subsidiary of Columbia Screen Gems Television, which was part of Columbia Pictures. Columbia Pictures was at that time run by Abe Schneider, whose son, Bert Schneider, produced The Monkees. But more importantly is Jackie Cooper was the head of Screen Gems Television.

And so he got it. The Jackie Cooper. The Jackie Cooper. From the Rascals. Oh, yeah. Wow. And he got it somehow. I don't know.

I met him. When I met him, I'm like 19 years old. But I was a fan. I mean, I remembered him. Sure. like 19 years old, but I was a fan. I mean, I remembered him. So between him and Don Kirshner and Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson,

Paul Mazurski, who wrote the pilot. Larry Tucker. Larry Tucker, his partner at the time. They just, I guess, they just got it.

They, you know, green lighted a pilot and, you know, rest is hysterectomy. It's sort of getting ahead a little bit, but I was going to ask you. Oh, sorry. I was going to ask you, at what point did you realize this thing is going to take off and my life is never going to be the same?

Well, that's a great question because it had happened to me actually once before. When I got the Circus Boy gig. I was in the business through my parents already, and my father was doing quite well. And so I understood a little bit, at least, about the business. So at 10 years old, and I remember this quite clearly, I had gone for auditions. I'd already been on a few auditions. In fact, I have some prenatal work coming out on ultrasound. Really?

It's very hot. I'm going to look for that. It's in a grainy and black and white. I want to remind our listeners, too, before you go on, that your father was a very accomplished character actor, George Dolan. Absolutely. Tell us about your parents. Okay. What they've done.

They both were in showbiz. That was our family business. They met doing a play in Hollywood. My mom had come from Texas to be a star. Janelle Johnson. I'm sorry? Janelle. Janelle Johnson. I'm sorry? Janelle. Janelle.

She'd driven out from Austin, Texas to be an actress. My father had been born in Italy, had escaped Mussolini, basically, I think, jumped ship somewhere. We're not even sure, but got out of town. Ended up in Cuba, then Florida, then all over the place. Wanted to be an actor. Short story, he ends up in Hollywood in the restaurant business because he knew that. And he was the maitre d' of a very famous restaurant called the Trocadero back then. very famous restaurant called the Trocadero back then.

And the story is he was in the men's room taking a pee and standing next to him is Howard Hughes, who says, you're a really good looking guy. You're the maitre d' here, right? He says, yeah. He says, and I'm an actor. Signed him to a contract. So all of a sudden we move into the Bing Crosby mansion in Toluca Lake. Because in those days, you got a contract with anybody. And you had a shitload of money.

So he signed with RKO first, right? No, it was Howard Hughes. Oh, yeah, Howard Hughes was RKO. Right out of the bat. Right out of the bat. Out of the bat. Right out of the bat. Out of the gate. But only made like one or two movies because Howard Hughes only made one or two movies. And eventually we moved out of that place into a more reasonable place. But that was my life.

I only knew that. I mean, I went to the set with him. I thought everybody's father was an actor. And what movies was he in, and who did he work with? Well, the biggest ones would have been Vendetta, the Howard Hughes movie with... Give us a hint. Oh, you know, the woman that Howard Hughes invented the broth. Jane Russell.

Yes. And then his biggest claim to fame, I think, would have been The Count of Monte Cristo. Yes, he was The Count of Monte Cristo on television. For the television series shot in England and very successful. But he worked with everybody, Edward G. Robinson and Elizabeth Taylor. He's in The Last Time I Saw Paris. My Cousin Rachel, Richard Burton. Scared Stiff, which Gilbert enjoyed hearing, a Martin and Lewis movie.

Did you ever try to get Jerry Lewis on the monkeys? He came, funny, you should ask that question. I had totally forgotten. One day, we were told, I remember, because they were looking for directors, because we were killing directors. I mean, actually, a couple had heart attacks. It was like really bad. That's a whole other story. And all of a sudden, one day, Bob and Bert said, Jerry Lewis is coming on the set.

Consider directing. And I was like a huge fan, huge fan of the delinquent, those early journalism. And I remember just like, oh, my God. I mean, how nice. And my understanding is he said, I'm not going to work with these fucking idiots. Because we were off the wall. I mean, Bob and Bert and Jack Nicholson and James Frawley out of Second City.

Sure. Emmy Award winning. He's still around, James Frawley. Oh, of course he is. Yeah, yeah, we'd love to get him on this show. He directed many, if not most of the great episodes. Funny man. He was brought in early times

uh to teach us improv um and i remember our little i'd never done improv as as a you know actor guy it was like throw the ball back and forth and do the thing and you're the you know you're this and you're that and make up some i i was always very uncomfortable with with uh improv and still am i you know drew has has asked me a number of times in the old days and people have said oh come on oh drew carries asked you to be on his show well he did he did and yeah and and i know all of them and i'm chicken shit i just i just don't know any of those skills. I've never trained in them. I can have a couple of glasses of wine in a bar and be really funny.

But if you say, okay, three, two, one, hit it, like Ryan. Yeah, they're great. I can't do that. They're gifted. I can't. So I can't say to you, okay, you're a farmer, and it's a musical. Can I get some more wine? It's going to be one of those.

And yet your dad worked with Jerry twice. Oklahoma where the wind. There you go. He gave it to you, Gil. And the corn is high as an elephant's butt, and you can't... You know, I rode an elephant. You did? Yeah.

During one of the big Disney parties for Aladdin, they had a big parade in the park. It was a saddle on the thing? Yeah. How did you get on it? Yeah. They put a saddle on it. You had a saddle? Yes. Wow.

I didn't get a saddle. You both rode elephants. I had to climb up, well, of course, on a ladder. And I didn't want to ride the elephant. I was scared. And they kept asking. And I could say, no, no, I'm scared. That's way up in the air.

Wow. And then finally they said, oh, entertainment tonight and a few other TV shows are going to be filming. So I said said all right you have a picture of this yeah i'm sure that wow yeah it it it's not difficult because they they're very broad they have a large back and you ride the neck part actually as you remember uh the toughest thing for me as as circus boy was that they had this wool kind of circus turn of the century outfit, you know, custom made, you know, from Western costume. And the hair of an elephant is about the diameter of a pencil lead, right? And so if they don't shave it, it becomes stubble.

But the stubble becomes pencil lead stubble. Wow. And I would get on the elephant. They'd say, okay, mount up and throw me on top. And I'm like, ow! Because there was this stubble coming through of a quarter of an inch. And it was going through my outfit, my costume. It was really uncomfortable.

And I very clearly remember, okay, get him off. Get him off the elephant. And they called a handler over. Arky Arkansas was his name. Old school handler and he took a blowtorch my god to shave the elephant and the elephant liked it i mean i mean their skin is two and a half inches thick i mean the epidermis is two and a half inches thick. Wow. And the elephant is going, oh, yeah. Oh, baby.

Because we're feeding him Baby Ruth candy bars in the wrapper. In the wrapper. Archie Arkansas would say, he loves Baby Ruth candy bars. And I would like try to open. He says, don't bother. Just give him nothing. So I'm giving him Baby Ruth candy bars. Andgy Akron sauce, shaving him with a blowtorch. And the elephant's going, Bimbo's going, oh, Baby Ruth, mama, yeah.

So Bimbo was one elephant. No, there were a couple because they would outgrow the part like me. I mean, I outgrew it eventually. Sure, sure. We started with a little baby elephant, but they grow up pretty fast. And one thing Frank and I are certainly fans of, your mother worked with Rondo Hatton. In The Brute Man. Yes. Yes. Your mother didn't make many films. No. I think she made two. certainly fans of your mother worked with Rondo Hatton and the brute man. Yes.

Yes. And mother didn't make many films. No, she made two. No, I should tell everyone out there, look up Rondo hat and you'll recognize him mostly as a mask. Every Halloween and every store.

Yeah. It was the creeper. Yes. Well, he had, uh, uh, acromegaly correct he did you're absolutely right yeah and she made a film with him she did a couple of other small things and then she met my

father and uh like i mentioned earlier they'd met doing a play together and got married and had me and then being old school Italian, he said, my wife is never going to work again, you know, that kind of thing. My understanding is I think she had some issues with it over the years. I mean, what she could have been. Yeah. Auspicious debut. I mean, she worked with Claudette Colbert and Shirley Temple and, yeah. But having said that, we were blessed, my sisters and I, myself and three sisters.

We had a stay-at-home mom. Oh, yeah. For our entire lives. That's nice. And you can't beat that. And your mom managed your career at a certain point when when circus boy took off you see was your grandmother running your fan club well uh that was later but okay my mom i had to have someone on the set gotcha and my mom was my set mom it must have been an extra

reward for her to see your success oh yeah big time oh i'm sure yeah and then i made her my business manager in the monkeys she saved my ass so many times she stayed in the business yeah in that sense yes i mean i said when i got my first big monkey check which was like six figures you know you know in the 60s a lot of money and i didn't know what to do with it i know and i said mom hey well yeah what do you want to do and uh so i made her my business manager uh essentially and i just gave her the checkbook. I gave her everything, and she ran and saved my ass. I mean, invested in things and made a lot of money eventually in later years. A lot of work for her, but I made it worth her while.

You've got a stay-at-home mom and a savvy manager. Oh, boy. Win-win. I can't tell you. Win-win. So that worked tell you. Win-win. So that worked out really well. Really well. Gilbert, you'll appreciate some of the actors that were on Circus Boy before we move off of Circus Boy.

Slim Pickens. Yep. Okay. Emil Sitka. Yeah. Wow, from the Three Stooges. Yeah. This one will hurt you.

You love birds. Billy Barty. Yep. Oh! Oh, a few times. A few times. Okay, here's my connection there. I once auditioned for a Mel Brooks movie, Life Stings, and they were all saying, forget it.

You have this part. Everyone loves you. You are just exactly who we had in mind. That typical Hollywood. Bullshit. Yeah. loves you you are just exactly who he had in mind that typical hollywood bullshit yeah and and so so then i said okay so when will i be shooting this and they said oh they're going with someone else and i said they're going who and he said billy party i laugh every time. And you're now polishing the mouthpiece to your luger. Yeah.

Yep, Billy Barty. Oh, there was some... Jesse White? Yep, Jesse. Oh, great. Sterling Holloway? Sterling Holloway. I remember him really well

in the balloon episode. Wow. Oh, jeez. I remember him really well in the balloon episode. Wow. He was wonderful. We had some wonderful guest actors on that show. And you all remember Sterling Holloway. Sterling Holloway. Unless I'm, yeah. Who was, I hope I'm not fucking this up.

I won't say anything Because I think I'm fucking this up Wasn't he the voice Of Winnie the Pooh Sterling Holloway Yes I believe he was

Yes I believe so Yes Yeah I believe so Yes Yeah And Robert Lowry

Who's Your co-star Who's interesting Because he played Batman in a serial In the 40s Oh my god One of the first

Batman Yeah he's one of The first Batman Noah Berry Jr. Of course Noah Berry Incredible actor Wonderful man Yeah the 40s oh my god over who one of the first batmen yeah he's one of the first batmen noah berry jr of course noah berry incredible actor yeah wonderful man yeah went on to be a rockford's dad correct and he really took me under his wing because we had mostly scenes together because he he's the one that had adopted me uh my parents, the Flying Falcons. Yes. No,

the story. Stop laughing. The backstory of Circus Boy. This is serious, sad shit. Your girlfriend. Stop laughing. I'm out of here.

I am fucking. You're making fun of my parents dying in a fucking trapeze accident. That's so cruel. Corky is adopted by a clown played by the great Noah Berry. I'll try to take this seriously. Bring everybody up to speed on Circus Point. That was the pitch to Columbia's Screen Gems.

Right. From the producers. They bought it. There's this little kid. His parents die. He gets adopted by a clown. Great. Pilot.

Boom. Anyway, Noah Berry Jr. was unbelievable. Loved him on the Rockford Files. He was the father. Yeah. Terrific. Wonderful actor. Lovely man.

And Robert Lowry. And as you say, Pidge Berry. Pidge Berry. Another great character actor from the 40, and Robert Lowry, as you say. And like you, came from an acting family. Pidge Barry, another great character actor from the 40s and 50s. Pidge Barry was his name, a cowboy kind of character actor. And we had some great people on that show. Is Monk, now I was about to say Monkey Boy. Is Circus Boy playing on antenna TV? Can you find it? I believe it has.

Yeah. I don't know. I always got a kick out of the Porpoise song when there's that reference to, there's that veiled reference to you and Circus Boy riding on the elephant's back. Backs of giraffes. Backs of giraffes. Yeah, it's a fun little inside joke. While I nudge Gilbert awake,

listen to these words from our sponsor. Are you speaking? Bet mode activated. The Scorebet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news. Yeah, hey, who should I take in the Boston game? We'll be right back. The Scorebet. Trusted sports content. Seamless sports betting. Download today. 19 plus. Ontario only. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connexontario.ca. Happy holidays, everybody. It's Mario Cantone and you're listening to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. I just shit a pod on a podcast. Gil and Frank went out to pee.

Now they're back so they can be on their Amazing Colossal Podcast. Kids, time to get back to Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Podcast. So let's go. So you had a taste of fame. I mean, you and Davey, who also was a child performer, you guys were the two monkeys that were most likely to adjust easily. And tell us what Davey Jones, what big show he was on on what big night. Yeah, that's a fun connection.

Oh, you know about that? You've done your research. First time anyone's ever said that to me. Well, I have told the story before, but I'll tell it again um 63 4 60 february 64 february 64 um i was in just got out of high school frankly uh my father just passed away i was a bit of a loose end uh hanging out running around san fernando valley in a american graffiti-esque sort of zeitgeist oh wow that paints a picture yeah and um a friend of mine uh said i i got a portable uh uh television black and white portable you can plug into your car and we knew he'd stole

it immediately but you did you plugged it into the cigarette lighter this 64 and you put the antenna rabbit ear little antennas up on the roof and a little cable came down and you had a little eight inch black and white television and we went to a place uh in the valley where i grew up called bob's big boys hamburgers oh yeah very famous still there right not that one oh not that one the one in burbank still there the one in burbank is still there the other one got torn down And we were there getting served by the girls in the car hops, getting burgers and stuff. And somebody said, Beatles are on Ed Sullivan. And we'd heard that this was going to happen. There was a buzz in the air that's the only thing i can really remember is that there was a buzz in the air

about this english thing beetle thing something happening and sure enough we tweak the little rabbit ears on the top of the car and this little black and white image comes in and it's uh the beetles on ed sullivan and this other little kid doing a song from oliver which was on broadway at the time named davy jones and we turned it off yeah the beatles are over you know right yeah but years later of course it becomes playing the artful dodger davy he was he was the artger, man. One of the best, if not the best, Artful Dodgers ever. It's great trivia, too, because people knew, obviously they knew they were watching the Beatles. They didn't know they were watching a monkey, a future monkey.

That was still, well, it's actually, funnily enough, it's only two years. Two years away. Two years away. Can you imagine? Yeah. And two years. Did Daveyy no i've heard this i thought it was bullshit did davy not know who they were is that possible couldn't tell you yeah you'd have to ask him yeah he'd have to be as stupid as your corner not to know who they're No, I don't know. I have no idea, actually.

And here's some worthless trivia. David Bowie's real name was Davy Jones. That's good trivia. That's good. And worthless trivia is a great name for a group. Gilbert, you could be the front man of worthless trivia. Tonight at the Whiskey, worthless trivia. It's good for a gunfight.

This is my last comment on Circus Boy, only because this name has come up on the show recently. Do you remember a gentleman named William Bodine? Of course. William One-Shot Bodine, as he became, directed many episodes of Circus Boy. And a great director. How about that?

How do you know that? He directed Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. And a great director. How about that? How do you know that? He directed Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. He's a legend. Yeah, he was called One-Shot Bodine because if the actor fell over and hit his face on the pavement, he wouldn't do a second take. He'd go good enough. Because I became known 55 decades later as one-shot Dolenz in England when I started to direct English TV shows and movies.

It's not a great rep to have. Because then they expect it from you and they don't pay you and you they're expect you're expected to do it in one one take and uh so a lot of the shit that i directed is shit because i got known for being really fast we need to have this thing shot in 30 minutes get mickey dolan and so it's not necessarily a great a great rep um uh but that's true yeah he was he was very fast jesse james meets frankenstein's daughter i believe was also william william bodine joint yeah and we're fascinated by his career yeah he he's known for being like one of the shittiest directors ever. One of the what?

The shitty, one of the shittiest directors ever. He was prolific, though. Yeah. He turned him out. Yeah. Yeah, because he never

did a second take on anything. In my research, I found one other fun thing that we didn't have on you last time from your child acting days

is you played the son of Art Carney. Oh, you found that out yes i actually am quite proud of that little bit um that was playhouse 90 yes sir written by rod sterling wow how about that gilbert sterling yeah called the velvet alley uh starring art carney and leslie nielsen. And Jack Klugman. And Jack Klugman. Jeez.

And I was this little 12, about, in that year I would have been, you have to. Oh, God, I'd have to look up the year of it. Well, it would have been, it was post-Circus Boy. 59, maybe? Post-Circus Boy. Okay. So, yeah, 59. That is a great cast.

And I was, oh, my God, it was wonderful. And it was live. We're talking Playhouse 90 live TV from CBS Studios on Fairfax. And it was wonderful. It was so exciting. I mean, and it was directed by Frankendimer, I think. Yes, I think it was. That's pretty cool. Directed by. And a I think. Yes, I think it was. That's pretty cool.

Directed by. And a script by Rod Serling. He wrote the story and the script. Yeah. And it was a really interesting thing about a boxer and, you know, a wonderful, beautiful drama. So it was Art Carney, Jack Klugman. And, well, yes. And who else did we say?

Leslie Nielsen. Just to tie it into our show, Diane Cannon. Yes. And a young Burt Reynolds. In that? Yes. You've got to be kidding me. According to IMDB.

It was wonderful. I remember to this day, oh, my God, I was incredibly flattered to be asked and then uh to do live theater essentially live theater uh was for me as a i'd already been an actor for like 10 years five six eight years i was jazzed i mean like jesus and carney was someone you admired well carney was yeah no one else i'd ever heard of no i think i probably would have heard of Serling because I was a Twilight Zone fan. Right, right. But nobody else. And how would they like to work with?

Well, I don't remember specifically moments. I don't remember any issues or aggravations. Do you have a copy of that, Mickeykey is there any way to find that i looked online you really i said there's a there's a version on youtube with corny it's very grainy well because they didn't i know that stuff i know they didn't even kinescope i know it would have been somebody like taking a movie of the television or something. Shame. It's a real shame. Because those Playhouse 90s, some of them, I mean, Requiem for Heavyweight.

I mean, there was huge, huge stuff out there. It's too bad nobody bothered. But they would throw the stuff away. Yeah, we had Dick Cavier. We were talking about how the first Tonight Show was was taped over with where groucho introduces carson and there's there's there's no way to get your hands on it there's no copy of it well no but they figured the tape was worth more than the show recycle them and i i think it was like you're gonna erase my show we're gonna tape over it with william bodine you haven't even taped it. You haven't even bothered to.

The mic is licorice. It's a prop. It's when with Ernie Koufax. Same thing. I think somebody called his wife. How do you know Ernie Koufax? Yeah. You're not old enough to know.

Someone called his wife, some worker on the set. A.D. Adams, yeah. Yeah, and said, come over here. They're burning all of his shows. I want to ask you a monkey's question. I find this stuff in research, and I don't know what's BS and what's real. Were you guys invited into the studio one at a time because you couldn't be? You were saying you were giving directors heart attacks.

Because if you all came in as a group, you became too unruly, you tried to crack each other up? There is some truth in that. Okay. They had the isolation? No, it's not as. Because you hear that about the Marx Brothers. It's not as dramatic as that. But there was some truth and is some truth in the fact, and to this day.

Like I think I mentioned before, they had encouraged us, indeed trained us, to be improvisational with Jim Frawley. Right. So when we did get together as a cast, and remember, we weren't a band. We were a cast. And they had encouraged, nay, educated, really said, you guys really got to get together as a troop, I guess, whatever you'd call it. So when we did, on a good day, we would be healthy and happy and everything would work.

On a bad day, so to speak, we would bounce off the walls. I mean, seriously bounce off the walls. And there was one famous example when we did an episode with a very famous actor, a wonderful actor named Hans Conrad. Oh, sure. Oh, my God. Uncle Tannous. Yes. Who I have, I was such a fan, I can't tell you.

But in those days, of course, actors like Hans Conrad would learn their lines and they would expect to come in and do their lines on cue. You know, action, boom. And, of course, we are off the walls. And there's a famous outtake of him saying, I hate these fucking kids. And I don't blame him. And to this day, I feel sorry. But it ain't my fault. The producers encouraged us to do this because what they would do is take the best of the shit and the best of the good stuff and the best of the outtakes and the best of this. And there were other actors and actresses at the time

who were able to go with the flow. Rose Marie is the best example I can think of. We did two or three, at least two or three shows with her. And she got it. And she was like right there for everything. So they wanted anarchy. They were encouraging you guys to just bounce off the walls and see what they got.

Yes. Yeah. They were. They encouraged, not just encouraged, educated. I mean, they trained us. Yeah, it's just fascinating. Because they wanted that idea. They wanted that feeling of spontaneity. Because that was the zeitgeist of the time. Yeah, it's the remnants of the beatnik yeah uh generation uh of

kerouac and uh and uh jack cassaday and all that idea of it's just you know and they wanted a counterculture show i mean you guys mess with the censors you had that famous episode where you were trying to where you i told you that one. Well, I know about it. I don't know if you told us the last time you were here. I know about it because it's a famous story where you couldn't say hell

on network television and you guys just decided this would be a good time to tweak the network and the sensors. Yeah, well, not just us. Remember those

Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider. Right. There was an episode called The Devil and Peter Tork, and it was Faust, essentially, based on the Faustian legend. Peter sold his soul to the devil. Remember it well? Yep.

To be able to play the harp, because he couldn't play the harp, but he wanted to. And so I can't remember who wrote the episode. We had some great writers on that series. But somebody wrote the episode that Peter sells his soul to the devil. Monty Landis. Love Monty Landis. Oh, my God. Incredible character actor.

And he comes back to the flat, the apartment in malibu our malibu beach house which begs the question how could we afford a malibu beach never got work yeah ever um so that's a whole other issue um so peter comes back says i can play the harp but peter how did how do you do well this guy gave me this contract and we see it and it's this uh the the contract with the devil and so the line in the script is and i think i was the one that was supposed to say it but peter you can't sign this because if you do and you die you'll go to hell and they sent it off to uh the script to standards and practices nbc new york and they came back you cannot say the word hell in primetime television ever and bob raffleson my understanding is that bob and bert said

wait a minute this is faust yeah are you kidding me damn yankees yeah well this was damn monkeys essentially right and um they said no he can't say it. So Bob went to New York, I understand, and flew to New York and argued with the standards and practices of the time. And they said, no, you cannot say hell in primetime television in 1966. And so if you look at the episode now, that scene comes up, and I believe I'm the one that says, but Peter, you can't do that because if you sign this, you will go to this place that we can't say on network television. Yeah, right. Fourth wall broken. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, think back how bizarre that must have been. Yeah. Well, the censors were all over us. I'll bet. And that's why when we did Head, we just said. That's it. We're going to do what we want. Did you dump a soda over kirschner's

head is that true too no not well with an amendment okay it was not a soda it was just a bit of ice okay that was the leftover soda um i but i gotta preface it by saying Donnie Kirshner now, especially in retrospect, was so responsible for so many great hits. He was the song meister of the Brill Building. Yeah, sure. He was Screen Gems Publishing Music. Donnie was the one picking from Neil Diamond, from Carole King, from who, blah, blah, blah. I don't know if you saw Beautiful, but his character is exemplified by the guy in Beautiful that says, we got this show, TV show about this band.

You got to write some stuff. And Carole and Jerry write Pleasant Valley Sunday. Right. So I have nothing but admiration for Donnie Kirshner. got to write some stuff and carol and jerry write pleasant valley sunday but right so i i have nothing but admiration for donnie kirschner he had golden ears golden ears he could hear those but i didn't know who he was because he was in new york i was in la and i was 20 years old and i'm in the midst of this i'm in the eye of the hurricane and this guy comes in once in a while in a suit you know looking like the vice president or somebody is that and he's like giving orders and kind of directing people around.

And I had no clue who he was at the time. Years later, I did. And so the way I remember it is that we were in the studio, and Mike was in the studio, Peter, and we were all there for some reason i don't remember why doing vocals or instrument and donnie who i had no idea who he was i don't even know if i'd been introduced um made some comment very technical kind of comment, like, you know, there's a little bit too much EQ on the bass. And, you know, I'm stoned. And we're all just like rocking and rolling.

It's like midnight, you know, after we filmed the TV show for 10 hours. Long days. Yeah, long days. And so I had an empty paper cup of Coca-Cola or something with some ice in it. And just as an improvisational gag, which they taught me to do, I just went, donnie and i poured the ice over his head so it wasn't a whole cup of coke it was just the story's changed a bit of ice well you know fake news yeah yeah yeah uh urban myth and but he did ask me to come out into the hallway uh after that and he said you know you

i don't even know if you know who i am but um i do wish you would take you know treat me with a little more respect and i took that on board i was like yeah okay i'm sorry i was just fucking around uh you know they they tell me every day to fuck around so i don't know maybe there's cameras here and we're going to use it in the show i mean it was literally so it's hard to turn it off even when you stop even when you stop shooting impossible yeah yeah how did they pitch it to you? Impossible to turn it off. I'm sure. That's a really important idea. How did they pitch it to you?

Did they say this is Hard Day's Night, this is Lester, this is the Marx Brothers, this is... How did they present what they were going for? Were they that specific? I can only describe to you my experience, and I can guarantee you that if you talk to Mike or Peter, well, obviously not David anymore, but you'll get probably, you know Rashomon? Sure. Oh, yes. You get different versions. Hello.

Yeah. This is Monkeymon. Monkey Rashomon. monkey monkey monkey rushman because we were all totally unknowables we never knew each other we hadn't met but i will i will tell you my my version my story i was uh my agent called me up one day um i was enrolled in uh college doing drafting, and he said there's an audition for a TV show. And I wasn't stupid. I mean, I had been in TV shows. So I was doing television work in the summer between classes.

Peyton Place. My Three Sons. Yeah. My Three Sons. Yeah, My Three Sons. Mr. Novak. Right, Mr. Novak. James Francis. I was just making money. I mean, I could do that or either work at Bonds as a bag boy.

But I was in school. I was in college doing architectural drafting. And I figured if I can't make it as an architect, I can fall back on showbiz. So I get my call from my agent. Do you want to do this interview? It's another series this year, 65. Okay, I'll do it.

Well, I was up for four different series that year, musical shows. It was in the air. Oh, it was big time in the air because the beetle not just the beetles but beach boys and like the whole rock and roll world and uh one show called the happeners the happeners i was up for wow it actually it was peter paul and Mary, essentially. Not them, but... A folk trio. A folk thing. Yeah. Hour-long kind of drama thing. Went to pilot. I was up for it. I didn't get the part.

Did not sell in the overnights. Another one I remember being up for was Surfer Band, kind of a Beach Boy thing uh because they were huge i don't remember the name but i was up for it i went in did the audition and whatever uh it did not go to pilot uh and the other one i remember is a new christian minstrel Randy Sparks kind of, The Mighty Wind. You know that movie? Sure, sure. Yeah, the big 30 people on stage.

I got a hammer. Like a folk festival. Big folk groups. Big 30-piece folk. I can't remember the name of that one, but it did not go to play. All these music pilots in one season. Well, I was up for four. Wow. There might have been more, because it's 1965.

Right. And so the folk thing has hit. The rock and roll thing has hit. The Beatles have hit. It's like- British Invasion. rock and roll thing has hit the beatles have hit it's like british invasion every producer in hollywood in the world is like how do we capitalize on this uh uh miracle i mean how do we capitalize on this um and then there was this audition for the monkeys it was like

ben frank and i told you yeah Was there an in-joke, by the way, in that ad when they wrote... Yes. Must come down. Must come down for interview? Not a joke. Must come down for interview.

Is that Ray Fulson's gag? Absolutely. Did Paul Williams audition? Yeah. Yeah. To this day, he hates me. He's the best guy. I love him to death yeah i i um we're actually great great friends when i uh directed wrote the uh english musical uh bugsy

malone sure paul's paul i i engaged him to write three or four more songs. Right. And so we hung out a lot. I know him well. And he has never forgiven me because not only was he up for the monkeys, he was up for Circus Boy. Oh, my God. Oh, geez. You've stolen Paul Liam's thunder at every turn. Did they entertain the idea of using an existing group, Mickey?

Yes, they did. They start with a love and spoonful. Boy, you've done your homework. Well, we try. I love this stuff. They did. My understanding is they did. They did interview the love and spoonful.

I have no idea. I was not there, obviously. um i have no idea i was not there obviously and i have no idea why they made the decisions that they did make right but i suspect that between bob and bert jackie cooper and paul mazurski and all these other elements, these other entities, you know, having a musical sensibility is fine and great. And most bands, most groups have that because they grew up together, they are relatives, they are friends from childhood and they have a very similar uh sensibility and that's great musically not necessarily visually

the marx brothers were the most different, absurd characters you can imagine. They were not a group. They weren't a band. They were this cast of this, like, bizarre. Right, but they'd honed that for 30 years or 35 years. On stage. Sure, sure. On stage. 35 years.

On stage. Sure, sure. So Bob and Bert, somebody, and I'm assuming it was Bob and Bert and Jackie Cooper and whoever, said, this show, because no one will know who's who and it will all look very similar. So we need to go with very, very different characterizations. And my understanding is that they loosely thought, you know, one wacky, one Will Rogers, one Harpo Marx, Peter Tork. Right. One cute little guy. And to give the audience, you know, all these different sort of characters to identify with.

And if they would have put, because most groups at the time were brothers and cousins. Sure, sure. And sonically, of course, it was amazing. Visually, where do you go with it? You know, where do you go with it you know where do you go with the comedy and so somebody along the line must have said you know we need to like have these very very different characters the chemistry is lucky because you can't you you can't force chemistry or make chemistry but you know the four of you guys but what they did wisely were the screen tests

and they went on and this one what i was referencing earlier they went on for like i say to my mind it was like freaking months probably wasn't it was only a few weeks. But what they did is they kept putting us together with each other. I remember it starting out like at 32. Then it went to 16. Then it was like eight. And the videos you find on YouTube are the last eight. David, Michael, Peter, and I, and four other gentlemen.

And they must have been looking for that. Well, I know that's what they were looking for because I've done that since. It's an intangible thing, but I guess you know it when you see it. And I have done that. Yeah, as a director. As a producer. John Lennon paid you the ultimate compliment. I think John Lennon referred to the monkeys as the modern-day Marx Brothers. Yes, yes.

Well, you've often said that. He got it. Yeah. He got it. It wasn't the monkeys trying to be the Beatles. It was the monkeys being essentially the Marx Brothers. You always said the people you admired got it. Lennon, Zappa, the people whose opinions mattered to you. Well, to me.

Understood what you were trying to do. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even get it at the time. I was just picking up my check every week for $400. Oh, God. $400 a week. That's it.

Wow. Oh, my God. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast after this. Now, and how did Head come about? Sorry? Oh, the movie. Yes. Oh, sorry.

We're jumping ahead a few years. Sorry, you mean the movie? Yes. Well, because I also heard that I, and I don't know if this is true, I hope it's true, that i and i don't know if this is true i hope it's true that the reason they called it head is so they could make another one and advertise it as from the people who gave you head absolutely right another great i remember that from that is absolutely true from what I remember from the day one. Yes. Well, the short story is after the show was canceled for whatever reason, Bob and Bert came to me.

I can only speak for myself and said, we want to make a movie. Abe's father is the head of Columbia Pictures. We think we can get the financing. But we want to do something maybe a little different than what we have done on the show. Because on the show, we couldn't say hell. Sure. Yeah, sure. the show we couldn't say hell sure yeah sure and and we couldn't talk about anything else political social it was and that looking back that was a wise decision uh what it was not the

platform that was not the platform to make statements and stuff. And I think that's one of the reasons it's lasted so long until this day is we didn't make topical satirical statements. That was a smart decision. Very smart decision, yeah. But when the idea for the movie came along, I just can speak for myself. Bob, I guess, came to me and said, well, he introduced us to Jack, Jack Nicholson. He was a B-movie actor at the time. And he was just so funny and so clever and so intelligent and so smart and it was just like i fell in love with him i wanted to have his children i'm like oh my god this is the greatest

guy i've met in you know years and he spent time with me and my wife and my family and Mike and Peter and David. He got a sense of who and what it was. He and Bob must have obviously, you know, spent a lot of time together because I had signed off on, okay, I'm happy to do a movie that is not a 90-minute monkey episode.

In retrospect, of course, that would have been incredibly more successful, but it would not be the top five movies of Quentin Tarantino. Right. Or Edgar Wright. Well, you guys were trying to break out. You were trying to do something different, and you've done. You know, I'd like to think that I was thinking that. You weren't.

No. Yeah. I was just going with the flow. Bob and Bert and Jack and everybody were like, hey, let's just go for it. I had nothing to lose. I was this huge fucking star. I was this huge fucking star. I was like, let's do something different, guys.

That was the sensibility of the moment anyway. Right. They'd done that with the monkey show. Right. They'd done that with the show. The show itself had like broke all the barriers and so i'm now 22 23 and i'm like yeah fuck it yeah let's do it let's go for it and uh we sat down with each other and with jack uh and bob and i have. I have actual film footage of this meeting. Wow.

I'd love to see that. No sound, but a little tape recorder. And we sat down in a hotel room in Ojai for a weekend, and we talked about what we wanted to do, what we didn't want to do what we'd be comfortable doing what we it was this total karawackian on the road sort of jack cassidy i mean looking back that's what we were doing it was this just chain you know what do you call it the stream of consciousness stream of consciousness thank you yeah um and out of that jack to his glory

uh wrote this incredible screenplay i'm not sure how much bob had to do with it, frankly, but I would think probably a bit, a lot maybe. But Jack just went away and after meeting us and being there and seeing the whole monkey thing from like every aspect, and he went and wrote this, you know, I think, really amazing screenplay. And so here's my thoughts. At that time, the only kind of 60s hippie kind of movies that were being made were, and I love them to death, Peter Fonda and- Oh, the Psych Out and those kind of things the psych out

and the freaky far out freako the trip the trip the trippy which I remember

watching this is not what it's like what it's like is in here it ain't out there all the experiences all those sensibilities all those moments all that is you know essence that zeitgeist again, it was here. In the head.

In our heads. Yes. Not out there. That's what the press and the, you know, fake news. Yeah. They were like

taking pictures of, you know, VW vans with flowers. I never saw a fucking VW van with flowers, ever. There probably was one, but that was not what it was about. And Jack, God love him, and Bob and Bert captured the reality of that time.

That movie is the only movie I've ever seen that captures the moment. Everything else is Roger Corman. Sorry to Roger, but I you know, I love him. He's a great filmmaker. But everything else was bullshit. So the real experience of the 60s and what you were living. I think that movie, and I only had a very small part to do with it. Fascinating.

I think that it captured a couple of things. And I haven't, wait a minute, I haven't even started. It not only captured the sensibility of the moment, but more importantly, it captured the idea and Bob and Bert and Jack and Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper and Martin Scorsese, the idea of the deconstruction of the Hollywood studio system. This is what was their goal. I did an interview for a Raging Bull. Oh, Easy Riders and Raging Bull. Yeah.

Good book. Yeah. Great book. And now looking back, I didn't even think of this at the time, but looking back, this is what was the intent. At that time, as you well know, if you weren't part of the hollywood studio system

you could not get a movie even made if you did if you're lucky to raise enough money like billy jack or somebody sure it didn't matter you couldn't get it distributed you were fucked you you couldn't the you know you're not going to get 30 screens you're not going to get one screen you're not getting not getting shit and bob and bert and peter and uh dennis obviously and uh uh they're all in the movie head by the way sure they this is my take on it they said this is our out clause this is our way to break out of this fucking locked in hollywood studio system abe uh bert's father is abe at columbia We can make a movie that, and it was cheap, $250,000, $300,000, something for head.

But we can make a movie that like, you know, sets a different sort of parameter. I mean, it's like all of a sudden, here's something different. And that is, you know, what what the movie was and they took that money they made easy rider that's right and that people forget that an easy rider of course totally deconstructed the hollywood studio system it created the independent film industry i got a question here from somebody loosely connected to that movie. You know, Victoria mature,

Victoria mature his daughter. She, I told you we're going to be on. She says, please ask Mickey, uh, at the premiere of head in New York, there was some kind of art installation.

Was it an Andy Warhol thing? Does he have any memory of that? Absolutely. Look at you. Absolutely, I do. Andy Warhol was a fan, a big fan. He got it. Another guy who got the monkeys.

He got the monkeys, the whole pop culture thing, you know, I mean, way beyond my sensibilities at the time. But he was a big fan. He came up to me and introduced himself, you know, like Frank Zappa, like others. John Lennon. I bet Harry got it too. Oh, yeah. Another smart guy.

Harry definitely. With a wicked sense of humor. Harry definitely got it. And, yeah, I do remember that, yeah. Look at that. You got a vivid memory for all of this stuff. For my age, right? Can you talk a little bit about your adventures with the Hollywood Vampires, which I think

Gilbert is fascinated by, with Mr. Nielsen and Mr. Cooper? Absolutely. Alice lived next door to me. His name was Vince, actually. Was it Vince Fournier? Yeah. Yeah. And we became friends. He recorded in my studio his demo album, a couple of them.

We just became friends and hang out and stuff. And played golf together. My ex-father-in-law, an English duffer, taught both he and I to play golf. Of course, Alice is now like a three, a handicap or something, or better. well, I got three and a handicap or something or better. And I'm not good at all. But one day Alice says, and he lives next door to me. He moved next door to be next to me.

Alice Cooper did. Alice did. Because we knew each other. And we built this like kind of launch thing. What do you call it? A catapult where we would send beer cans into each other's pools. And Alice babysat for my daughter. Wow.

When Samantha, my first wife, would go out of town, and if Alice was in town with his wife at the time, I have pictures of him babysitting my daughter, Amy, with a can of bud. And we became very, very good friends, very close. And he would record in my little demo studio. I have the original Only Women Bleed. I love that song. Yeah, amazing.

And then one day he said, we should start a charity baseball, softball team. And that's what it started as. The Hollywood Vampire started as a charity baseball team. I know, and people laugh and they go, you've got to be kidding me. Oh, my God. It was a softball charity.

If you look and you find any photos of us i wish to god i had wow this damn shirt it was a baseball shirt with a vampire thing we were doing charity baseball softball events with the fire department, with another record company, with the police department. We were raising money for charity. Myself, Alice, Harry, Albert Brooks, you know, whoever. And we would play these local softball games trying to raise money for charity. And then we would, you know, finish the game, usually lose charity and then we would you know finish the game usually lose and then go to the rainbow bar and grill and get hammered

the intention it was well intentioned original intention was we did, we did raise money and we played the police department and the fire department and we would raise money for local law enforcement. a boys' school, what do you call it? Not a boys' school, a detention. Oh, like a reform school? Yeah, thing, up in the hills above L.A. And they challenged us to a softball game. And so we went up there, me and Alice and whoever. Peter Tork played. He's actually a really great athlete. Keith Moon wasn't playing, was he? Because he was sort of an un athlete keith moon wasn't playing was he because he was a

he was a he was sort of an i don't remember him okay but i do remember uh uh uh albert albert brooks uh-huh and alice and myself peter um tork um a few others that actually were, you know, okay, okay athletes. And we went up to Angeles Crest Highway and to this boys reform place. And we just got the shit kicked out of us. These kids just beat the shit out of us. We made the point. I mean, it's like, and we raised a little money, and then we went to the rainbow and got hammered.

That's just hilarious. But this is how it started. So it was not a drinking club. You're making news. I want to go down on record. It did not start out as a drinking club. It started out as a charity softball team. That's fascinating to me.

To raise money for local causes. I love that. Go ahead, Gil. You have something? No. I was going to say, as we're winding down, Mick, tell us about the new album. Tell us about Christmas Party. As we're winding down, tell us about the new album.

Tell us about Christmas Party. Well, after the incredible success of Good Times, which was this last album. Monkey fans, please get it. It's great. Oh, my God. You'll be glad you did. You know, who 50 years later, five decades later, gets a top 20 album. The equivalent I worked out mathematically was that if in 1967, Enrico Caruso had a top 20 album from 1917.

That's mind-blowing. Or Eddie Cantor. What an analogy. Yeah. I worked the math out. So the fact that a 50-year-old act gets top 20 pretty cool album alone, that is, and I feel so blessed to have you know all these writers uh

and jibbered uh alan partridge rivers cuomo i mean oh my god i i feel so so blessed and well the new one yeah yeah yeah the christmas one now so after good times the record company, of course, wanted to capitalize on it and chase it up. I did not feel comfortable trying to do Good Times 2 immediately. It would have been a lot of work and very difficult decisions. Because a lot of the material that we had found was archival. And there was some, and there is some. And we may do that, but I just didn't. I thought, you know, we just got this.

It's still on the charts. Yeah. And, you know, what are we going to do? Resurrect some other Davy Jones old vocal? It just seems a little bit. Do something different. Yeah. So someone at Rhino said, how about a Christmas album,

which we had never done? about a Christmas album, which we had never done. And I, as sort of the de facto lead singer, I said, wow, that's a cool idea. Because it is not this kind of attempted follow-up, number two, good times 2, Batman 2. And so we reached out. Adam Schlesinger essentially reached out to Rivers Cuomo and to Andy Partridge and to the other writers and said, what do you got? And we did find stuff from Davey. Right.

From the 70s. And Nez came up with a beautiful version of Snowfall, which I love because I remember my mom singing it in the 50s. Originally, it was instrumental. I like Tony Bennett's version, but I haven't heard the instrumental. That was the original. There wasn't lyrics. In the 30s.

Interesting. I'd like to hear that. I think the 30s. I think 30s. I'd like to hear that. It was just an instrumental. And someone, I can't remember the name. I probably have it here somewhere, wrote the lyrics.

And so Nez does that. It's beautiful. And I do a couple of, you know, I think pretty cool tunes. I heard the single, Unwrap You at Christmas. It's good. What do you say, Gilly? Wow. We'll plug the album one more time, the Christmas album, Christmas Party.

Thank you. And Nez Dolan's dates coming in 2019. Yeah. The confirmed dates are March. The makeup dates from the last tour. Thank God, Touchwood, Nez is healthy. And eight more. Fantastic. Yeah. is healthy and and eight more fantastic yeah

we we can't do more than two or three a week we're we're both way too old and ugly

okay so first of all before anything else Peter Tork if you're out there you have to get well and come on this podcast. Yes, please, Peter.

If you're hearing this, I hope you are well. Please come on and meet with my friends here. It is so fun, and it's not far from you. He's in Connecticut. Oh, good. We'll even send an engineer to him. Please. We'll interview him right in his living room.

Make it easy for us. Please, please, please, please. Absolutely. They would so love to hear from you. I hope you're well. And to you, Nez, I know you're recovering and you are also well. That's wonderful. Yes, we love Mike. In fact,

both of you get extra healthy and come on together. We'll make news. And fuck Mickey Dolenz. In your dreams, Skiver. In your fucking dreams. You wish never gonna happen. Answer that phone, Mick

Thanks for doing this So, yeah It was a blast So, uh Yeah Mickey, Peter Best of health to both of you That was Mike and Peter

Mike and Peter Oh, fuck it all I gotta get to sleep Peter You get Well and do this show. Mike, you get well and do a return visit. Absolutely. And I want to thank Mike Dawkins, too, for helping with research.

Go fuck yourself. Thanks for making the schlep. Thank you, Mickey. I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas. You're the gift for me. I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas, you're the gift for me. I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas, under the Christmas tree. I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas, dream of nothing more.

So dear Santa, when you write my letter, please drop at my door Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre, with audio production by Frank Verderosa

Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair and John Bradley Seals. Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to John Fodiatis, John Murray, and Paul Rayburn. Just to spend them on your sweet lips. So I'll decorate the place with light and cheer Knowing Christmas Day you will be standing here

I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas Your bucket for me I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas Under the Christmas tree I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas Dream of nothing more So dear Santa, when you read my letter Please drop it at my door

I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas. I can't wait to unwrap you at Christmas.