I always separated the person and the persona. I always knew that the fans, the girls, the industry, the magazines, they were in love with Mickey Dones, the drummer on the TV show, not with me. I'm going to try this a different pathway. And hopefully we can bring out some fresh, interesting information because I know you've talked a lot about certain parts of your life. But I'd like to talk about some of the other parts of your life too. So, uh, Monkeys break up in 1970 was the breakup because the series guy canceled or were you breaking up and then the series got like how did that sequence work? Well, the term breakup itself is just incorrect. A group's breakup, the Munkies was not a group. It was a cast of a TV show. So when the show went off the air, when it was canceled, when the show was canceled, the cast did what all castes do when your series is canceled. You shake and you wave and you, you know, you go, you're married away. You stay friends, possibly with some of the other cast members. But it's like William Schattener and Leonard Nimoy didn't hang out every day going, be me up, Schaden, be me up, or Leonard. So we did stand touch and there was some post series music that had to be completed. There were some albums that had to be completed. And a couple of tours that had to be completed that we were already contracted for. But the bottom line is the monkeys was never a group. Well, you can argue that it became one. Sure. We went on the road. It was a TV show about a group. Okay, so maybe a better way to ask a question is, the day you wake up, whatever that day is in 1970, something. And you go, right, that's done, what's next? Like what's your mindset at that point? Well, I only speak for myself. Yeah, I'm only interested in your perspective. Yeah, because I'd already been in the business at that time, 15 years from my first series when I was 10. I was used to having a show canceled. I'd already had one canceled when I was a kid after three years.

And so I kind of knew exactly what to expect. Are you in your mind at that point, and even now, are you an actor first and a musician second? You know what I mean, like what's the pecking order in your brain? Actor. Or actor. So the first thing you want to do is I need another acting. Well actually,, no, at the time, I already was fed up with acting. It had been 15 years. I wanted to direct. I wanted to write and direct and produce. I'd always been fascinated with behind the scenes. And you would even as a child, you directed the last episode and wrote. And that's the direction my mind was going. Okay, that's kind of what I'm after. Production. And I started a little production company, Dolan's Productions, which still have today. And I did a couple of commercials, did the documentary a few things, started working, trying to get that going. I think I kind of knew intuitively. I wouldn't get a lot of acting jobs. I mean, I went to a couple of auditions I remember right after the monkeys. And I remember one I walked in and the producer, whoever said, what are you doing here? We don't need need drummers. I'm like, okay, thanks. I'm so good. I'm such a good actor. You played that part really well. But having set all that, you know, yeah, we did become a group in every sense of the word of touring and recording. Yeah, I'm more interested. I'm, because, you know, again, back to we've been interviewed a lot of times. People tend to focus of the bright lights. I'm in many ways more fascinated with what happens when the bright lights go off. How people react, not to adversity, but a new challenge. Got it. I was used to it, like I say, I had a show that was canceled, kind of knew what to expect. And frankly, after those three, four years of just intense being in the eye of the hurricane for three, four years. And it was just intense, not just filming the show, but then recording at night and then going on the road and touring and all that. I just wanted to kick back and have a beer for a couple of years. And that's essentially what I did. It happened to by coincidence or not fall into the same couple of years that I was hanging with my best friend at the time Harry Nielsen and when John Lennon came to town. So I spent a lot of time with them and I'm told I had a great time.

But I was happy to do that. I had been working my butt off. The show ran for two years, but we did 52 episodes or 56 episodes in two years. days that's's like a six-year run for a series today. It was intense and warmed me out, and I wanted to get into producing and directing. So that's what I kind of focused on. Started a little company, did some commercials and stuff. And then I got very lucky. I was asked to buy my friend, Harry Nielsen, to go to England to star in a musical in the West End that he had written called The Point. Right. And my wife was English. As it turned out, I just married an English girl. So I could work there. The play was only a little pantomime season thing, three months, staying in Harry's flat. And I got lucky. I met an agent, a literary agent, and I said, I don't know, I'd like to direct and stuff. And what do you have? And I had some stuff sent over my monkey episode and things. She got me a gig at the BBC, directing drama of all things. And I never looked back. I did that, went on to LWT, all English television companies. One of those stories, I went over for three months and stayed 15 years, just directing and producing and writing. So you felt over there they were more receptive to your skill set and it was less about this opening. Oh, and it was interesting. First of all, the monkeys was much more appreciated and respected in many ways in England and in the states. That's fascinating. Over the decades, I learned that. I realized that. I observed it. And I think I know why. Because here, that idea of kind of a wacky sketch comedy.

You had to live in- Goon's Club.

It was the Goon,

yeah.

That was the Goon show.

Yeah, Goon's show, sorry.

Yeah, Goon's early, early, that was radio.

Yeah.

And, but that didn't exist over here really.

In movies it did slightly with like the Marks Brothers,

but on television, not at all, especially the improv improvisation. And the monkeys came along and of course a lot of it was improv. They taught us improv to do the show. But American critics, I think the kids got it, the fans got it obviously. But the TV people and the critics, they didn't know what to make of it. But in England, that was a tradition already. The goodies, the then Monty Python, of course, and then all those kinds of shows. So yeah, I was well instantly well received and created my own shows,

co-wrote shows, developed shows,

very successfully for years, and it was wonderful

because shortly after my second or third show

premiered, I was known as Michael Dolan's, by the way.

That's another story. Instead of Mickey, that was because the first, one of the first big shows that I produced and directed and co-created was called Metal Mickey. By coincidence, it was the name of a robot. And it was old very classic theme a Out of place weird fantasy of alph kind of more can mendique and Out of place weird my favorite Martian I get you bewitched in a very domestic straight Situation,. Okay, got it. Classic, which I brought to the table. The robot's name was Mickey. Oh, so... He's coincidental. Yeah. And he had a puppeteer running him. And every time we were on the set rehearsing, somebody would go, oh, Mickey, both of us would turn around. So my boss said, why don't you just use Michael, which is my middle name? And from then on, I was Michael Dolans. And after a while, articles in the paper, in the Daily Mail, and times or whatever about my new show would say, Michaelan's producer director is announcing rather than

Mickey Monkey X Monkey Mickey Dolan's and that was very refreshing. So like you said, you stayed 15 years. Were you intrigued by the sustain of interest intrigued by the sustain of interest in the monkeys.

Because in 76 you did, Dolan's joint, Dolan is Jones' voice and heart. Try to say that three times fast. And I didn't, I have that record. And obviously, voice and heart, great writers, strongly associated with your success in the monkeys. And, monkeys. And so, and I'm not saying it was a nod to where you'd come from, it might just been, this is the relationships that sustain. But even that, because when you guys did some shows and that, I'm not crazy, right? When you did Boyce and Heart. Boyce and Heart. Dolan Jones. They're in God's flesh. Dolan Jones, Boyson Heart.

Thank you.

I need you to have fun.

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