Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Episode #28: Micky Dolenz

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

Gilbert and Frank visit the George Burns Room at the historic New York Friars Club, where they’re joined by actor, singer and musician Micky Dolenz for a fun and fascinating look back at “Monkeemania” and his own unlikely journey from 1950’s child star (“Circus Boy”) to 1960’s pop/rock icon. Also, Micky drops in on a “Sgt. Pepper” recording session, makes movies with Jack Nicholson and Frank Zappa and hits the town with fellow “Hollywood Vampires” John Lennon, Keith Moon and Alice Cooper. PLUS: Lon Chaney Jr.! Micky’s mom meets “The Creeper”! The Monkees take on “Faust”! Harry Nilsson quits his day job! And Sgt. Bilko sings “Yesterday”! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 19 years, they're back. Frankie Munes, Brian Cranston, and the rest of the family reunite in Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. After 10 years avoiding them, how and lowest demand Malcolm be at their anniversary party, pulling him straight back into their chaos. Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. A special four-part event, streaming April 10th on Hulu on Disney Plus. This is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, at the legendary Friars Club.

Today, we're joined by an actor, musician, singer, director, radio personality, and one of the stars of a historic groundbreaking TV show. He also happens to be a genuine show business and pop culture icon. Welcome the drummer and lead singer of the monkeys, the great Mickey Dolans. Whoa, what an intro. Could you louder? A bit louder. Well, I figure you're old. I know the hearing.

What? Yeah. Great pop. Popcorn? Popcorn. Popconaka. What? A popcorn icon icon.

A corn. A popcorn. Pop acorn. You're basically turning into Jerry Lewis. Yes. Funny, I just did that character. About a month ago, I just did a play in Connecticut at a Somerstock theater, a very famous one called the Iverson Theater.

And the first Summer Stock Theater in the country, and I did a new play by Mike Reese, a writer for a producer for The Simpsons. We had him on the show. You're kidding me. Yeah, he was one of our guests. He wrote this new play. I read it. I begged to do it. I did it at Everton with Joyce the Witt from Threes Company, wonderful, wonderful actress.

And I don't know why they thought of me, but I played an 84-year-old Jewish comedian. And I don't know where it came from. I was channeling Shecky Green and Rodney Dangerfilling. Hey, that's comedy. We did this wonderful play, a two-hander with me and Joyce. Joyce and I, excuse me. And we just finished. And to rave reviews, I'm told, I don't read reviews, but rave reviews.

And I don't know where that comes from. Jerry Lewis. I was brought up on Jerry Lewis and Shelley Burman. and, you know, Danny Kay, Red Skelton. What was the name of the play, me? Comedy is hard. And it's about this 84-year-old Jewish comedian in a wheelchair. And Joyce DeWitt plays a Broadway diva in a wheelchair, and we're in a home.

It's like very Neil Simon-esque. Wow. Oh, it's just the funniest thing. And it's funny that you mentioned Shelley Berman. Were you in a Shelley Berman movie? I absolutely was. It was called Keep Off My Grass and a very gallant attempt like in the, like in the, who would have been early 70s or mid-70s, to do a movie about weed and about these hippies and a bus. And I don't remember what it was about much.

But to do that back then, it was, I thought it was kind of weird that they even got it made. I don't know how or distributed. But Shelley Berman had never directed and he was asked to direct. and I loved him and frankly he was one of the reasons I agreed to do the movie because I was a huge fan

I mean that was a little before your time right I remember Shelley Berman I wear your seat belt so only the top half of you flies through the front of the plane oh God

remember that you should do phone bits oh yes and Shelley Berman, I think, always hated Bob Newhart because he felt that Bob Newhart stole the phone bid. So they asked me to do this movie playing this like weird hippie kid. It was just post-monkeys.

And I played this like weird kind of hippie, you know, kid that wanted to grow weed or something like that. It was an okay movie. It was, you know. But I'll never forget, Shelley, who was, so funny and I just adored him but he'd never directed before and hope he doesn't mind me tell him he lives where I live near right near where I live hope he doesn't mind me telling this story but he got on the set and it never directed anything and this was when there were real cameras

like B and C's you know the 35 millimeter thing on the dolly and the tracking and stuff and these cameras had a huge lens thing and a high yeah and the first day of shooting he goes and he looks in the looks in the wrong end of the camera. Anything. That's a bad start. And the cinematographer has, excuse me, Mr. Berman, that's the other side of the camera. You know, since you mentioned Jerry Loesmick, we have to talk real quick about how your parents were actors, which I found out doing research, and that your dad, George Dolans, worked with Dean and Jerry.

Oh, absolutely, and scared stiff. But he'd done a lot of work. I mean, even before that, he... He did pretty well for himself. He was off the boat, Italians. He swam from Cuba to get to the States or something like that. Some, you know, a crazy story. And wanted to be an actor and worked his way in the restaurant business to Los Angeles.

And then he was doing plays and local, I guess, stuff in L.A. in the early 40s, met my mom, who was also an actress. they met doing a play. Your mom's name was Janelle Johnson. Janelle Johnson. And they met doing a play. He was working as the Mader D at the Trocadero, which was a very, very famous upmarket, big-time club restaurant thing like the Copacabana or something in Los Angeles.

And the story goes that, and he was in trying to get acting work, and he was in the men's room, and Howard Hughes walks in. I guess they're taking a beat again. And Howard Hughes asked him, what are you doing? He says, I'm an actor, and he signed him. Right, sign him to RKO. Yeah. Signed him, too.

And he did one big movie called, I think, what's it called, Vendetta? I can't remember. But he was under contract for a number of years, and, of course, never worked, because Howard Hughes never made any actual movies except one or two. He went to making a few films with Edward G. Robinson. He made Bullet for Joey and Donna Reed and Henry Fonda. I think that was like after the Howard Hughes thing. He made, oh, he made quite a few movies.

And then his big, sorry? Oh, no, I would say, oh, go ahead. His big claim to fame would have been the Count of Monte Cristo, the series in the 50s. No, Frank and I were talking that your mother was in a movie with the great Rondo Hatton. Yep. The Bruteman. Yeah. Yeah.

And for those who don't know Rondo Hatton, he was a guy suffering a disease called Acrimegaly. That's right. That made people grow really big. Elephant Titus is the slang. The elephant man is about that. So he was like a guy who needed no makeup for horror films. Didn't he exposed to some kind of gas in the war? That was this thing.

That wouldn't cause that disease. No, I think that's genetic DNA thing. And so he got horror parts, the poor thing, because he had these deformity. And I think the English guy in the general. Jefferson's. Like, oh, George, that guy had had it. Oh, really? You mean Bentley? Mr. Bentley. Yeah.

Interesting. I think that was what they called Elephant Titus, which the elephant man, you know, famous. Gigantism. What's his name, John Merrick? John Merrick. I believe that was the same thing. My mom used to talk about that, and she talked about that actor, and she said, yeah, she did that movie. So she was an actress, yep, and they met.

And then she started having kids, and she bailed. out of the entertainment, you know, part of it. But my dad, you know, went on and I had a wonderful five-star restaurant in Los Angeles and did the Count of Monte Cristo series. About the same time, I was doing circus boy. So your showbiz kid? Oh, I'm born and raised. I mean, I thought everybody's father was an actor.

Well, on, you know, on parent day, they'd say, what does your father do? He gets shot by fake bullets and falls off a horse. Because that's the first time I saw him in a movie called Wings of the Hawk. I don't know if there was a Howard Hawks movie. And he was like this evil Mexican captain something in the Spanish-American War. And he's like getting shot with all these fake bullets and falling off a horse. And I'm there going, Daddy, you okay? Now then jumping ahead, after the success of a hard day's night,

and help they decided to do I guess an Americanized Beatles Well it depends who you ask You know The

It's not That's not From when I understand That's not exactly What happened Don't contradict me It's my It's your show

My fucking show Gilbert Yes you're absolutely right Okay End of interview Goodbye If I get your name wrong, we're going to just take that way. The story I heard was a little more complicated, but essentially, yes, that is what happened.

But the story behind that is, I think is very interesting. Bob Raffleson, who was kicking around town as a writer, director, guy, and he had worked as a roadie or something for a pop, a folk band, a folk. group in the early 60s or late 50s even and he had been trying to pitch this show around LA a TV show about the behind the scenes roadies of a folk group touring you know and he'd been to Mexico or been all around and he tried to pitch this show and it didn't fly nobody wanted to do it and then the Beatles hit and he hooked up I guess with Bert Schneider whose father happened to be Abe Schneider of Columbia Pictures and the Beatles came out

and the whole pop British invasion and the whole hippie culture and they said let's take your idea and just put them in bell bottoms instead of jeans I guess or something and make it about this particular generation and culture but somewhere along the line they said but it's got to be funny

and it's got to be lighthearted and so they they model the humor and the sensibility much more on the Marx Brothers than the Beatles. And it was actually John Lennon. Oh, did I drop that name?

Who said to me once, like the monkeys, like the Marx brothers. And ultimately, it was, he got it. Yeah, he got it. Yeah. And there were a lot of people that got it. You know, Frank Zappa got it. He was on the show. And so those kind of people got it. It wasn't so much about the Beatles or like the monkeys was a television show about a band, an imaginary band, that wanted to be the Beatles, but never were. We never made it on the television show.

We were never successful on the show. It was the struggle for success that spoke to all those kids out there, all that generation that were in their garages and living rooms and basements, trying to be. be the Beatles. And we had a poster on the set of the Beatles, and we would throw a darts at it. But that's kind of what it was about. It was much more musical theater. It was like a Marks Brothers, a 30-minute Marks Brothers musical on television. There's different stories about the origin. I mean, I read something today that Ray Folsom, like you said, was trying as early as 62. And

of course, Hard Day's Night doesn't happen for another two years. If, in fact, that's true. I also read that they tried, originally there was an impulse to do it with an existing band, like the love and spoonful. Yep, that's true. I heard that. They were looking at, that was, but by that time it was casting. They already had the idea. The pilot script had been written. I have the pilot script. My character in the script is like Steve or something, you know, on Biff or Bongo or something. and they were looking at that, you know, and the audition process was, you know, intense. It was, it was, I remember it as almost being months. It probably wasn't, but for an audition process for a TV series, it was intense. I mean, it went on, excuse me, I was up for two or three different pilots that year, music pilots.

Uh-huh. Pop music, they were one about a folk group like Peter Pillar and Mary that actually, went to pilot and I can't remember the name of it but it did go to pilot but didn't sell and then one about like a surfer band like the Beach Boys I was up for that and then another one like a new Christy minstrel's big

family the mighty wind a great movie big family thing with all these singers and stuff that I think eventually kind of became Partridge family years later I suppose loosely loosely but on the cowsills, the Partridge family. Yeah, and this was, you know, I think, well, pre-cow sales would have been 65.

Sure, sure, sure. But they didn't sell. But the monkeys, you know, who knows why, just like clicked. And they sold it. The audition process, you had to sing, you had to play, you had to dance, you had to improvise, you had to, they were heavily on the improvisation. Jim Frawley, who was one of the directors eventually of the show, wonderful, wonderful director and guy named James Frawley, won the Emmy for Alan McBeal pilot years later. He directed a lot of the episodes, and they brought him in after they sold the pilot and taught us improv because we didn't know.

So it was heavily weighted towards improv, but even in the audition process, it was an improv hold screen test and then lines and scene study and screen tests and then playing. my audition piece was Johnny Be Good on the guitar, because I was a guitar player. And, excuse me, interviews and then combining us with all the other characters. But by the time I remember the, you know, I was in school at the time. Yeah, we were, Gill and I were talking about it. You were leaving show business and you wanted to be an architect. Because you had been in circus boy. Yep.

And then after that, I think your parents decided... Yeah. Yeah. David? Dave, do you mind? A friend of mine. Yeah, that was... That's true.

My parents, you know, having both been in the business, but we lived a very non-business life. We lived way out in the San Fernando Valley on a ranch. And I had horses and, you know, my dad was old school, you know, like I said, off the boat from Italy. And we didn't live the Hollywood Beverly Hills thing at all. We, you know, I got up, you know, during Circus Boy and I'd go out and have to muck out the horses and stuff. And after Circus Boy, they sent me to an educational counselor, which that's what they said it was. Basically, it was a shrink. and I remember taking Rorschach tests and, you know, why are all these pictures of my mother?

And I guess he said you probably should get him out of the business now. Interesting. Or something like that. And because I was offered another show. So the story goes of a new show called Cabin Boy, which was about, I guess, a Treasure Island kind of boy. on a ship in the, you know, some kind of a treasure island thing. And thank God they took me out because looking back, you know, the initial success of a child star is not the problem.

It's the aftermath when at 13 year or a has been, you know, puberty is tough enough. When do you get the monkeys? I mean, there's a stretch there. Oh, yeah. I think, 10 years. I think Danny Bonaducci said being a child star is great. it's being a former child star that's terrible. Absolutely perfect.

And I know Danny, and that's absolutely perfect. A former child star, if you try, I think, it's a generality, but if you try to make the transition and live it and try to keep your career going and try to keep your thing, Shirley Temple is about the, well, and she just bailed. I'm going to be a different. Something else with her life, right? Yeah, that's the hard part because it's tough enough going through puberty and growing up and being a teenager for anybody to do it as a has-been and almost like a mascot, you know, this kind of novelty.

It must be brutal. And so my parents at some point said, no, he's not going to do anymore. He's going back to high school, going back to school. And I did. The next day, like the day after the show wrapped almost, I was back. at a public school, my blonde roots growing out from my bleached hair for the show. And I was back in school. And didn't do anything for years, showbiz-wise.

And I don't remember caring much. It was like, you know. And I just recently saw something on the internet that was doing one of these things saying, former child stars, look how horrible they look now. and it's like you look at the pictures and then now you go well they just aren't five years old anymore

yeah good old journalism yes so an ad goes old exploitive you know extra extra an ad goes out in daily

variety for this new show and you were what you're 20 years old and the audition by the way there's something I don't know if it's if it's all of your audition, but you can see on YouTube. There's black and white footage.

If you're sitting on a couch, strumming a guitar, with two guys I don't recognize. Yeah, right. Well, they were probably, that would have been about the last 16, maybe eight or 12, you know, audition, you know, people that were trying. Like I say, it went on, it went on and on, and they would narrow it down. You know, it was 16. I remember being about 16.

Before that, it was kind of cattle call. I didn't go to a cattle call because I had. I had already had my own series. So one had one's own private audition with producers and directors. No, the auditions are there. So what was your question? Now, they also made a big deal, like they always do. They try to create feuds.

So they would make it like, oh, like the Beatles looked down and hated the monkeys. But it wasn't like that. No, it wasn't the Beatles or us that did that. It was a good old press. The Beatles versus Monkey Things. No, it never existed. First of all, it was years, you know, culturally, two or three years in music and culture is a long, long time. We didn't have the same fans even.

The Beatle fans, we had the younger brothers and sisters of the Beatle fans. Because it was good. four years later, three to four years later, and the Beatles had gone on to other things. And like I say, this was a television show about a band that wanted to be the Beatles. So, no, there wasn't any feud at all. And you also sat in on a bunch of the Beatles albums like Sergeant Pepper. Yeah, whatever happened to that. That was really good, Gilbert.

And I just like, wow, man. So there's an ad placed in the daily variety that they're casting this show called the Monk. Was it called the Monkeys from the very beginning? Yes, but spelled, excuse me, but spelled normally just M-W-N-K-E-Y-S. And then some lawyer must have said, you can't spell it like that or you'll never be able to get ownership of any branding. So that's when they changed. Oh, I all that. There's always a play on the Beatles, misspelling Beatles, that they've spelled monkeys.

No, in this case, I think it was more about, interesting. But a lot of groups were naming themselves after animals. Right. Like the animals. Yeah, like that. Oh, that makes me remember something. And I don't know if this is total chobis bullshit.

But they said, um, uh, where one of the songs, one of the monkey songs, you go, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, no. Clarksville. Yes. Yes. Yes. Clark's.

And they said that was because the Beatles were doing, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't remember that, but that's a good one. It's a great one. I'll use it. I'll use it. Claim, it's true. It's a great story. That's a good one.

The best is to the Charlie Manson. And that story about you and the gerbil was... Well, just prove the Manson one real briefly now that you brought it up. Yeah, total bullshit. I made the big mistake once of doing a show back in L.A., back in the early 70s or something or whatever, and I was just screwing around. It was Rodney Bingham, I think, K.Rock or something. And I just made a joke.

Oh, yeah, everybody auditioned for the monkeys, you know, Stephen Stills, Paul Williams, and Charlie Manson. Right. And everybody took it as gospel, and now it's urban myth. I love it. Didn't Peter Tork get the part because Stephen Stills recommended him? Yes, that's true. Interesting. I'm trying to imagine Stephen Stills and the monkeys.

Yeah, right. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. So, oh, we are talking about, but you actually, aside from going to these to sit in on the Beatles making their albums, you all were also friends yeah eventually I mean initially I met Paul oh did I drop that name

I met Paul I was more like a I was there on a press junket to England promoting the upcoming tour and the publicity people you know wanted to do a monkeys meets Beatles thing and

Paul graciously had me over to his house and Abby Road I mean on, in Mede Vale for dinner, and we just sat and chatted and took a few photographs, and then he invited me to this recording session the next day for that album, Sergeant Bilko. And I... That was the album they did with Phil Silver.

Hey, I hate the bad day, yesterday. And I'll tubbles in the phone. I love it. Bill Silver's does yesterday. And I was like so, I mean, I was such a huge fan. First of all, I mean, I was just a huge fan, Beatle fan, of course. And I think I had an autograph book. All I could do and not to get is autograph. And they invited me to a session for a bunch of stuff they'd been doing.

at Abbey Road And the next day I went And I tell this story Actually even in my solo show I I think I was expecting Some kind of Beatlemania Fun Fest freak out

Psychogello You know Loving Bein thing So I got dressed accordingly With my Paisley bell bottoms And my tie-died underwear And my little linen glasses And my hair and beads

And curls and the limo picks me up in the middle of the day, and I get there at like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I look like a cross between Ronald McDonald and Charlie Manson. There you go. And I walk in, and I'm like, sheets to the wind. And there's nobody there.

It's the Abbey Road Studios, and there's just the four guys, fluorescent lighting, like my high school gymnasium, and they're just playing. And it was John that looked up and said, hey, monkey man. That's what he called me, monkey man. You want to hear what we're working on?

And I'm like trying to be so cool, you know, my best hip-wise. Yeah, John, cool, man, yeah, right, far out, man, yeah. And they played the tracks to Good Morning, Good Morning, which they were working on, the tracking of that. and then we had tea and we sat down and chatted and then an interesting thing happened that I remember to this day the guy from EMI in a white little suit comes in with tea four o'clock and boom puts the tea down on a little card table everybody has tea like in ten minutes or so john linen says oh right lads back down the mines wow yeah and didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, and I know, now I realize how they managed to produce that much

incredible material. They just worked their butts off 24-7 for those years. And I heard even later that it was John. He was the one that would say back down the minds. He was the taskmaster, huh? Interesting. You know, that northern England work, you know, working class mentality. And they just sat there, you know, by themselves, just, I'm sure they partied, but.

But at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, they were there just playing and playing and playing and playing. It's interesting. You tell an interesting story about when Monkey Mania first hits that you were in a mall? Oh, yeah. When you first had this realization that? You heard that? Yeah, I saw you on Oprah. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. It's a good story. Well, watch Oprah. I don't like to repeat myself. No, it's a great story. It was December of 66. The show had been on the air for three months, September, October, four months. And we'd been in sconsed, of course, in the filming.

We were 24-7, six days a week, filming the television show, rehearsing, recording at night, rehearsing. So we never got out. And we'd heard that the show was on the air and that it was a pretty good reaction. And the record, of course, we knew was like number one. But had no personal sort of interaction with anybody in Hollywood that in those days didn't happen much anyway. You guys were in the bubble. Yeah, we were in the eye of the hurricane and didn't know it. And so Christmas came along.

We had a week hiatus for Christmas. And I jumped in my little Ford, you know, my sorry, Pontiac GTO, which had given me, which they eventually took back the bastards. Really? It's not right. They took it back. They took the goddamn GTO back. And I got my little shopping list, and I went down to the mall in the San Fernando Valley.

The same mall I'd shopped at all my life, my parents and my sisters for years. And I had my list, and I had about an hour or two to go and do my shopping, because I had to go up north to see my parents and my sisters. and I get on my car and I go through the big sliding glass doors or whatever and all of a sudden I hear screaming and people start running towards the door and I think it's a fire and I start going yes this way don't panic and I hold open the door and don't panic don't run you know and then of course I realized they're running at me all these kids and I was really pissed off. I'm like, I got to do my shopping. And I couldn't. I had to get in my car. And I hired my roadie to go do my Christmas shopping. And suddenly it was on. And that was the first inkling I got. Yeah. Then when we went on the road, of course, you know, it was pretty apparent. Obviously, we lived in a little black box, which is the black box in the movie head, is the black

box of us living in from limousine to garbage entrance of hotel to, to, elevator to room back to garbage entrance to elevator to black box to that's what that's now now here's another one that i'm sure's bullshit but you can tell it and claim it's true that when they did the movie head they were planning they were talking about doing a sequel so just so they can advertise from the people who gave you head absolutely true absolutely true we joked about that we absolutely had had a great laugh over that and i think bob and bert would have probably

gone ahead and done that if there had been another movie and um that was a wonderful experience i i love the movie you know i don't i'm still not sure what it's about entirely well i mean first of all a totally unknown screenwriter by the name of jack nicholson yeah Right. Bob introduced him one day. They must have met somewhere, I guess, and we're hanging out.

He was a B-movie actor. You know, he'd done a few little movies. Yeah, we had Roger Corman on the podcast. He did a few of the movies. And Bob introduced him one day to us and said, this is the guy named Jack Nicholson. He's a actor. He wants to do some writing. And I think he'd be a good collaborator for our movie.

We had decided, sort of on mass, we did not want to do. do a movie because the idea of the movie had come up and we didn't want to do a movie that the idea was we did not do a movie that was just a 90 minute version of the television show an episode excuse me an episode of the tv show and we all sort of bought into that you know i did certainly i said yeah and that's good idea let's do something let's get out of the box you know a little bit because on the TV show it was so highly, highly restrictive in the censorship. And, you know, you couldn't mention anything. You know, like, faulty towers, don't mention Zafour!

We couldn't mention any. I mean, it was highly, highly restrictive. If you remind me, I'll tell you a story about one of the episodes, the censorship. So the idea for the movie came along, and we were like, wow, that's cool. And Bob brought in this guy named Jack Nicholson, and we just all absolutely fell in love with him. He's so charismatic and so funny and so genuine and real and honest and just wonderful, wonderful character. And so we all were like, yeah. And we'd agreed we're going to do something different.

So we all go out to a golf resort spa in California for a weekend, Ohio. and we're all going to create this movie together. And there's tapes, and I have film of us all sitting around, Jack and the four of us, and a couple of, you know, and Bob Ravelson, of course, and Birch Schneider and a couple of, you know, rowdy guys. And we start talking, and we just talk and talk and talk and talking, and it went on for days. And then Jack took all of that and meeting me and spending time with me, my family and Mike and Peter and David

and crafted, you know, that really amazing, weird weird script. It's weird. It's nothing like the series. I mean, not only that you had free reign to do much more than you could do in the series, but I mean, the anti-war stuff. Well, in the series, like I say, it was NBC,

and back then the censorship was just brutal. There was a the best story that I have about that is we did an episode called The Devil and Peter Tork. Oh, sure. And it was... We were talking about Monti Landis before. He played the devil. And it was obviously damn monkeys.

It was Faust. And there was a line in the script where Peter gets, you know, seduced by the devil in Monti Landis. And I say something like, well, Peter, you can't do that. You can't sell your soul to the devil to play the harp. Because if you do, you'll go to hell. And the censors came back and said, you can't use the word hell. You cannot say the word hell in primetime network television at 730 on a Monday night.

And Bob Ravelson, I heard, he went back to New York. He, like, fought and he just, like, beat him up. He just, like, he fought for this. He said, do you kidding me? It's Faust. Right. And they refused, and they refused. So if you watch the episode, I think what happens, if I can remember, is that when that line,

comes up, I say something like, but Peter, you can't do that sell your soul to the devil, because if you do, you'll go to that place that you can't mention on network television. That's funny. And I heard, too, during the making of head, as well as other times, that you and Jack Nicholson and, you know, the monkeys and Jack Nicholson weren't exactly saying no to drugs. I never got that much into drugs. I was drinking a little bit, and I smoked a lot of weed, and if you consider that, heavily into drugs. But that was about it.

About the time that the monkeys was over and all that was passing, like cocaine had never even got into the equation yet. By the time cocaine started coming in, I was gone. I had moved to England. So basically, it was just weed and drinking. And not even that much drinking. It was more weed. I can't speak for Jack. There's some talk that he was on acid when he wrote the script.

Oh, no. I definitely had done a couple of acid trips. Thank God touch wood. I'd never had any serious side effects or anything. I did the head. big you. And I do not recommend that to

anyone. It's way too risky, obviously. But, you know, I can't speak for anybody else, but I never, you know, first of all, we were, I was too busy. I mean, there wasn't the time. What kind of days were you guys putting in? What kind of days were you putting in? I mean, you were learning songs. You were doing a TV series.

Well, it was a typical sitcom shooting schedule, for starters, which was six or seven in the morning till seven or eight at night, you know, so 10, 12 hours easily. And then we had, or I usually had to go in the studio, or David, we did most. Through the lead singer, yeah. Yep. And we'd go into RCA, and I would often record three lead vocals a night in one night, the lead vocals. And then on the weekends, we were starting to rehearse for the for the for for for for for for for for sure so for two to three years there was just not a lot of time then I'd go home and get in my workshop and and build shit you know and like I built a a gyrocopter in my in my workshop so there

wasn't a lot of time during that period post monkeys those early 70 years uh John's lost weekend years with Harry Nelson and Alice yeah tell us a little bit about that the The Hollywood Vampires. I'm told I had a great... Funnily enough, the Hollywood Vampires was a softball team. Interesting. It was a... Alice had started it because we were all into sports.

I was playing tennis and Alice. We were playing sport. We were like out there playing softball. Trying to picture you and Harry Nielsen and Alice Cooper playing softball. You should look up your Nielsen stuff early 70s. He was a... He was a huge basketball player and really good. I mean, he was tall.

He six, two or three. He would play all the time every week. I was into tennis. I was doing tournaments. I became like a B club. I got to about a B club tennis player in the early 70s. And Alice said, let's start a softball because we love softball. We play on the weekends.

And play like, you know, against other companies. or LAPD, you know, or we played, I remember once we played a bunch of these kids that were in, in a, like, a juvie camp, you know, they were like borderline, you know, juvenile delinquents. And I remember this really clearly because they beat the shit on. This is bizarre. We were a bunch of, like, rock and rollers, you know, trying to play softball, and these are, like, hardcore. But they were really good. So this was all about, like, you know, softball and playing, and we play.

were serious. I mean, we really played hard. Then we would go and party at the rainbow and, you know, have a post-game kind of thing. But, and it was a lot of fun. It was great. But, you know, in answer to your extra, extra. Just speaking for myself, I didn't, you know, touch wood, I think I always had a governor. You know, I would like go up to the edge of the cliff. and then something would like, you know, suck me back and say, nope, too far. My mom always used to say I had a guardian angel.

Now, also, before I forget, you had, when you were with the monkeys, you had the most amazing group of songwriters. Can you name some of them? Neil Diamond, Neil Sadaka, Neil Armstrong. Really? Blue Moon. Really? Hey, that's comedy.

My wife's going, oh, not that stupid line again. Mickey's wife is here. I've got to laugh, honey. Give me a break here. Well, Carol King and Jerry Gougham. I did a tribute album recently, if I can plug something, King for a day. It's a great record. Yeah, a tribute album to Carol King and Jerry, of course,

and her other songwriter partners. Berman, Cynthia Weil, I mean, Neil Sadaka, Paul Williams. Carol Bearer Sager. David Gates. John Stewart from the Kingston trio. John Stewart, wrote Adrian Believer. Oh, my God.

And Harry Nilsson, like I said, that's a great story. Harry Nielsen. Was Boyce Hart? I'm sorry. And Boyce and Heart. And Boise and Heart. The first huge hit, Clarksville, the theme song.

That's right. monkey theme and Boyce and Hart not only wrote some of the biggest hits we ever had they produced the early biggest hits we ever had Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart you could all almost give them credit for the sound not even almost they created the sound of the original early monkey songs Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart not only wrote but produced and created that sound that was them and they deserve an enormous amount of credit for that. And they wrote Stepping Stone. Yeah, I love that one.

I mean, oh, you know, just unbelievable great hits. And I always, oh, go ahead. I'm interrupting you. Oh, go ahead. So two or three albums later were doing headquarters when we'd fought for the rights to do the music and all that stuff. We should just tell our listeners that was the first album that were you guys had creative.

control. And you got Kershner out of the picture, Don Kershner, and you did your own thing. Right. Headquarters. Headquarters. And the Palace Revolt. And we're in the studio at recording and doing it all. And the publisher at the time from the publishing company brings in this kid called Harry Nielsen.

And Harry was working at a bank at the time. And he told me years later he was doing check and clearance. is at some bank and van eyes or something. And they brought him in and they said, this is a guy here in Nelson. He has some songs. And he sat down at a piano and for some reason I so remember this. And he played cuddly toy. And Davy, after he finished the song, Davy says, I'll do that song.

Well, years later, Harry tells me, because we became very, very close. He says, I walked out of the recording studio on the publisher. said to me, you can quit the bank. That's great. And he did, and, of course, he went on to, like, you know, incredible stuff. He was a wonderful, wonderful guy. I was just out of nowhere thinking, I always thought that the theme to friends was nothing more than a reworking of Pleasant Valley Sunday.

Yeah, it's true. And I can't remember who it was. I went and visited the set at one point, and I can't. I can't remember who it was, producer or somebody said, you know, we ripped off your song. And I'm like, hey, it's okay. It's cool. Great song. Yeah.

How did you become the drummer, Mickey? Because you weren't a drummer. No, as a guitar player, I started out playing classical guitar, Spanish guitar, like at 10, about 10 years old. My father had introduced me to it, and I loved it. I was like under Segovia and stuff. And then when I got into high school, I remember I'd go to parties and I'd bring my guitar and I'd play some Segovia. And the girls would go, do you know any Kingston Trio? And I was like, okay, by the next party, I hang down your head.

Duly, hang down your head. And so I figured that was the way to go. And then that sort of morphed into rock and roll. And like I mentioned, my audition piece for The Monkeys was Johnny Be Good. But then when they cast me, they said, you're going to be the drummer. And I was like, you know, but I'm a guitar player. And they said, we have enough guitar players. Because Mike, of course, a great guitar player.

And Peter is incredible musician on like nine instruments. You know, he plays everything all at the same time. And they said, no, you're, cast you as the drummer. And I approached it like I did with Circus Boy when they said, you're going to write an elephant. I just said, where do I learn? Where do I start? And I went into fairly intensive lessons playing the drum.

But I'd also, you know, been a musician. I could read music from playing the guitar. And I'd been in bands. I'd had some like rock and roll kind of cover. band. Is it Mickey Dolan's in the one-nighters? Mickey Dolan's on the one-nighters? Because it was one night, but it was

fully... And there was another one, the missing links. Oh, yeah. I got fired from the missing links. Coincidental, the missing links on the monkeys. I know. I'm crazy. Yeah, I got fired. I remember I was the lead singer. And it was five pieces,

four guys in the band, and I was the lead singer. And one day, we were playing a cocktail lounge in a bowling alley in Englewood, California. And we went back to their, they had a motel.

I lived in L.A., so I was home, but we went back to the motel and they said, we have to let you go. We can't afford a lead singer. The other guys can sing and you're not playing. I wasn't playing at that time. I was just singing. We can't afford it because

you know, we get $75 a night. Split four, five ways. It's tough. And I was heartbroken. And I was going to architectural drafting school at the time and doing this on the weekends. And I was, I crushed and I went back to my little apartment in the valley. And about, I don't know, a couple of months later, I remember the drummer, I kept in touch with him. And he called me and he said, how are you doing?

I said, I'm okay. And I said, how are you doing? He said, oh, you know, we're okay. were doing a bar mitzvah. And I said, oh, cool, cool. Are you doing, you know, money and, you know, Johnny be good? Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, oh, yeah.

He said, what are you doing? I said, ah, not much. I'm going to school, doing architecture, drafting. And I was up for this show. I don't think it'll probably make it. And he said, what is it? I said, oh, it's this show called The Monkeys. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast.

But first a word from our sponsor. Now, I got to ask you an important one for me. I remember being a kid raised on monster movies sitting in front of my little black and white TV at home. And watching the monkeys and Lonchini Jr. Yeah. Yeah, he was on the show. Well, we had a lot of great coast talks. Oh, I mean, we had a lit, we were talking before.

Oh, my, Rose Marie, Jerry Colonna. Jerry, we love Jerry Colonna. Can you believe that? So many people. Lon Cheney Jr., funnily enough, had lived next door to me when I was a kid in the Valley. And so I knew him and his family. And, I mean, you know, like I said, Rose Marie, Stan Freeburg. Wally Cox, Rip Taylor.

Well, I brought Rip Taylor, and I was a huge fan, so I cast him into the episode that I wrote and directed. And there were lots of others. Pat Paulson. Oh, yeah. Pat Paulson. And why was Cheney like? Who?

Lon Cheney. Well, he was just a lovely guy, very sweet, you know, funnily enough, those horror monster movie people are always the sweetest, nicest, you know, non-horror. It's always the good guys that are assholes. I've noticed that over the year. It's funny. All the heroes and the really beautiful, you know, like, want you new women or... Little assholes.

Can you name some? No. There's one great story about an actor, a wonderful actor who I admired so much named Hans Conrad. Brilliant character actor. And he did an episode, and he was Uncle Tenoose, yeah. Oh, on the Danny Thomas show. Yeah. On the Danny Thomas show.

And he used to pop up on Rocky and Bullwinkle. Yes. Yes. Yes, great character actor, voice act. Oh, wonderful. So he was on the show once. And just to set this up properly, one of the important elements, as I had mentioned, was this improvisational quality that they had inspired. They had trained us. Spontaneity, improvisation, which is wonderful. Back in those days, that didn't have a lot on network sitcom television. It was usually very scripted, and you'd, just read the lines and you'd go home.

But they had really, you know, created this environment, which was very, very spontaneous, along with Bob and Bert and Jim Frawley and, you know, a lot of the other, the writers and a lot of people that were involved. Jim Frawley was from Second City with Elaine May and Mike Nichols. So there was this whole, and they encouraged it. They trained us. So we would let loose.

And they would record all the stuff and then, you know, in the editing room, try to put together an episode. But the problem with that in those days and in that environment, it's a little bit like a nuclear reaction, you know, like a fission sort of reaction. if you let it go it burns it hole through the center of the earth like Fukushima and if you put a lid on it you kill it

goes away so there was this constant you know battle and I can only imagine what it must have been like for Bob and Bert and all these people to keep a lid but let it go keep a lid but let it go and try to contain it but not kill it and so

at times we would literally bounce off the walls we would would, you know, arrive on the set, and it would be like, we had all these separate little dressing rooms where we had our own little environment. And then the assistant director, wonderful guy named John Anderson, would come out and he'd go, okay, here they come. You know, all right, in three, two, one. And they would let us out, like a cages. And they're coming to the set, you know, take cover, take cover, they're coming, but that's what they wanted, you know, that we would come out of these

dressing rooms like, hey, it was like the Marx Brothers. They said they used to keep the Marks Brothers in cages. Well, I'm not surprised, but that was the dynamic behind the, you know, the show. So we would come out and just literally start bouncing off the walls. And most of the time, thank God, it worked and it was fun and everybody got it. But sometimes some of the old school people, you know, didn't. You know, they weren't used to working that way. And I remember Hans Conrad came on the show, and I was a huge fan of his.

And we had scenes with him, a number of scenes. And they show this, you know, this is on YouTube. I've seen it. You know, we're out there, and they're trying to record. They're trying to film this scene. And it's like, we're just like, hey, beloved, I'm going to give me. And Hans Connery is trying to do his lines. And finally he looks at the camera and he says,

I hate these fucking kids. They shut down the city. They stopped filming. And, you know, I don't even remember. But years later, I was so embarrassed. I was like, oh, my God, my hero, Hans Carter. And he hates me. But that's what they wanted.

That's what they had created. this like, you know, fire in the ballet? And trained actors just weren't ready for that. Well, some. Now, there were others. Rosemary, brilliant. She was in that episode. A couple.

Yeah. A couple of episodes. Stan Freiber. There were others that got it and were able, you know, and also we might not have been as. There were great comedians, too. Pat Paulson, Charlie Callis, Doodles Weaver, Carl Ballanty, Harvey Lembeck, lots of funny people. And trivia. Doodles Weaver.

Oh, yeah? Was the husband the uncle of Sigernie Weaver. Oh, wow. Yeah. Jerry Lewis came by one day, the set. Oh, yeah? He was touted to be a director. I don't even know if I've told that story.

No. I remember because I was, of course, a huge Jerry Lewis fan too. And one day I remember it was, you know, Bob or Bert said, Jerry Lewis was coming by. We're thinking about him as a director. And he came by, and I met him and said, hi. you're doing and and he said you know and then i just remember somebody saying yeah he doesn't want to do it i think i think it might have scared him a little bit he could have worked with two generations of

dolwinses yeah yeah i think it might have scared him a little bit because it was it was kind of scary like i say it was you never knew what what was going to happen it was you know and that's one of the reasons why it only lasted two years you know we only did two seasons 56 episodes well these days it would be four seasons. But back then it was... But it's a... You know, the show was ambitious, I mean, for its time.

And Time magazine, when Davy passed, Time Magazine, I can't remember the reporter's name wrote a wonderful review of the monkeys looking back and saying it was an ambitious show,

was a smart show. Have you read that chapter in Timothy Lerry's book? Politics of Ecstasy? No. It's a really interesting. Despite what you may think of Timothy Lierry.

It was very interesting. Politics of ecstasy is the book. And he writes a chapter about the monkeys saying, well, it's a long thing, dissertation, but essentially he says they brought the, they brought long hair into the living room and made it safe. Interesting. Because up to Lynn, if you had long hair and more bell bottoms or, you, you know, are committing crimes against nature. The only time you saw long haired kids and TV, they were getting arrested. And for the longest time, the monkeys were kind of like became like a punchline. Like they were this talentless group.

They were nobody's blah, blah, blah. And then over the years, people started really respecting what came out of the, well, like Mike Nesmith basically created music videos, it seems like. He created MTV. Eat. And today, people like Tom Petty, U2, REM, Kurt Cobain, Brian Wilson, Guns and Roses, all identify themselves as monkey fans. No accounting for taste. Yay! Tell us about the awards you got.

Tell us about the award you got. Tell us about the honor you got in New York City last night. Oh, it was lifetime achievement for Broadway, Rockers on Broadway. We've done it for years, 10, 15 years or something. raising money for Broadway Care's Equity Fights AIDS and now the Path Foundation and for Broadway dreams

and stuff because I got involved with it with Donnie Kerr who was actually my understudy in Aida when I did it on the road and we just became great friends and I started doing the shows with him to raise money it started out for

Broadway cares that's great And you were going to say something right before. I guess we were talking about, you know, how the monkeys have respect now. You know, I don't have any control over that. There were a lot of people at the time who just didn't get it. I call them the Hippoisee. And a lot of the people in TV and in the music industry,

because it's the first time that anything like that had ever happened on television. It had happened in films many times with West Side Story or people being cast into. And in films, Johnny, sorry, what was that movie about the guitar player? You know. Johnny Cash? The jazz guitar player. Oh, the Woody Allen movie? No.

Anyway, so in films, the tradition is ripe with fame and with other musical movies. But for television to do that in the early 60s was unheard of. There was nothing like that to meld music and TV and recording companies in the record industry. That hadn't really ever happened before. A little bit of crossover with Paul Williams and. I mean, not Paul Williams, Paul Peterson and the Donna Reed Show or Ricky Nelson. Sure. But to come out with this concerted assault on the American consumer where everything was connected.

And frankly, it pissed a lot of people off. You know, the record industry, as we know, at the time, was very, very powerful. And the radio industry was very powerful. And all of a sudden, this thing comes out of nowhere, left field. And I had this happen to me years later. Radio stations would say, fuck them, you know. They had to play the music. There wasn't any backhanders.

There wasn't any payolo. There wasn't any. They had to play this music. They had no choice. And they didn't like that. They were pissed off. And there was a lot of pissed off radio and record people that said, you know, because we hadn't come up.

up the chain of and done the deals and you know and it wasn't even us it will you know the four of us we were just hired hands it was the producers and NBC and RCA Victor all of a sudden there was this dynamic there was this train excuse the pun this inertia created by this television show and these radio stations and these record companies they had to play the stuff they had to sell it and they had to play it. And they were really pissed off. You know, because we hadn't, you know.

And now I also heard stories that when they were doing the reunions of the monkeys, and usually Mike Nesmith didn't want to be part of those. And, but I heard the three of you would get along for about

five minutes, and then you hated each other after that. Not true. No. No, not accurate. Do you have any brothers or sisters? Oh, yes. Okay. Do you get along with him your whole life?

Do you get along with him your whole life? Every minute of every moment of your whole life. When you're involved with people like that for so many years and such an emotional, intense environment, working off working day in day out no of course you don't get along for five decades for five decades of course you don't get along every minute of the day sometimes incredible creative differences

but that's usually what it was a creative difference and you hear about that all the time you hear about that with actors and a director in some stupid movie or bands I mean look at God love them the beach boys I mean or look at even Lennon and McCartney look at, you know, that is a national... Simon and Garfunkel.

Simon and Garfunkel. I mean, the list goes on about creative teams. Rogers and Harrstein. They don't joke about putting lyrics under the door. You know, come on. I mean, Gilbert and Sullivan. You know, that creative headbutting is, A, what creates the brilliance and

can destroy it and can cause it's part of the equation and that those creative you know differences can be problematic or they and they can be brilliant but they're like part of the equation

before we run Mick anything you want to plug or anything coming up you're still performing yeah I have a gun running business to a I understand it's so if If you're in Afghanistan and you need some 50 caliber row bars, I'm the guy to go to.

No, I'm doing solo shows. I have this wonderful furniture business with my daughter. Yeah, I saw that. I'm telling you it's one of the most wonderful things I've ever done in my life. I have a furniture business, because I told you I do shop work all the time. I have a wonderful business making, handcrafted fine furniture with one of my daughters, Georgia. I'm co-writing a book with my daughter, Amy. Amy, she was an actress.

Beautiful girl. She's out of control. And she now is a children's book illustrator, quite successful one, and we're doing a new book together. And I do touring and I do this. And the 50th anniversary in 2016. You never know. We might get together and see what happens.

I hope so. You never know. Well, I'm tired of talking to you. Yeah, you and me. And maybe the other monkeys didn't hate you, but I'll continue to hate you. Thank you so much, folks. Oh, Mickey, it was great. Thank you.

Thanks for doing it, Mick. We have been talking Gilbert Godfrey's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santo Padre, to the legendary Mickey Dolans of the monkeys. Thank you, Mickey. Thank you. Thank you.