Wednesday, August 31, 2016

MDolenz Hour Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQ-dT2KHjc&feature=youtu.be

Some notes from the great interview above!

You can hear Micky talk about remembering the audition.
4 different pilots about Music:
Surfing Band (Beach Boy)
Peter, Paul & Mary: "The Happeners" (went to Pilot, must exist somewhere!!)
Randy Sparks, Mighty Wind
"The Monkeys"
Biff, Bill, Joe, Frank+character roles
He knew the security guard, cameraman Irving Lippman, the schoolteacher!

Marx Bros, Jerry Lewis, Donald OConnor
Will Rogers
Harpo
Remember them Screening Marx Bros, Laurel & Hardy, very specifically they did NOT 3 STOOGES "We don't want it to go there. Never gonna hit each other, never gonna make fun of each other,"
One for all, All for one
Julie Newmar was the closest to jealousy
Marx Bros more than Beatles "Day at the Races"
Touch of Monty Python-preceding it, wearing drag
Old Hollywood & Marx Bros did it all the time

Which episode do you remember shooting?
All in order
It's all the same episode, it's 52 half hours of 25 half hours
I remember PEOPLE, Julie Newmar, Stan Freberg (History of US), Rose Marie, Hans Conreid
& Crew
BIBLE???
Comedy NOT TOPICAL & NOT satirical!!
vs Laugh In
(TOO on-topic, "have to have watched the news that week to get the references")
Written for 14 year olds
Worked on a couple of different levels
Devil & PT
(Also Frodis)
>>>WORDS YOU can't say on Network TV, George Carlin
MD: We were never successful, it was about the "struggle"
Everyone was "trying" to be the Beatles
TV show about a band who wanted to be the Beatles
(and went off the air when they became it, HEAD was the nightmare inversion of it)
Driving around happened during lunch, we need B-roll footage
Bob Rafelson-singlehandedly
He was a roadie for a Folk Group???
Lightning in a Bottle> You can't take it apart only because of one element (can't reduce it to a formula)
Bob Showed Mike "A Face in the Crowd" & said that was what would happen
"Masters of their own Destiny"-NBC was worried & wanted a Manager, tested badly & nobody could tell the boys apart
(reinforce the ID of each boy, you could cheer when you saw the printed word of their name)
"I don't know where they got the money for Easy Rider"

How did HEAD feel filming vs the tv show?
As different as you can get
Rather than make a 90 minute episode of the Monkees
which would have been QUITE commercially successful
Jack Nicholson,  we all fell madly in love with him, so charming & charismatic
OJAI
He went away & crafted the marvelous script

Andrew Sandoval & John Hughes come up
Rosanne Welch asks the first question, can I give you my book?
The actors got with the flow, cast bc of spontaneity & improvisational nature
Caused problems, created environment, "Nuclear Fission" radioactive material, MUST contain it
Juggled between letting us bounce off the walls
Improv exercises, they encouraged us, "Whaddya got?"
When there was another actor, we tried to pull back bc the other actors were doing their lines
What was your favorite episode?
I don't remember them as episodes?
Remember some scenes a little bit, so fast, so intense
Don't film the episodes in order
Start on Monday-Wed, Thurs-Fri-Mon, a few days off
A revolving door of other people & costume changes
Andrew:
Bob had toured in the 50's, met Schneider
Event where they showed HEAD, Bert said he was a big Monkees fan
Jacki Cooper was a big supporter
Goin Down in Blu Ray, 35mm film elements
SONY VAULTS

"We SAW THE BEATLES at Dodger Stadium" 44:22 (in NYC!) (Aug 28, 1966)
Learned how to hit my leg & snare at same time bc couldn't hear the snare drum (still plays that way)
Peter carried Pete Seeger's autograph in his wallet for decades bc such a big fan
Hey, I did a movie about you (That Thing You Do)
"It must be summer">> Such a Monkees song!  Do a cover of it (Adam Schesinger's song)
Rivers loves writing to instruction





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