Micky Dolenz: Pacific Blue Interview

MICKY DOLENZ: Monkeeing around with a new TV show

Drummer Micky Dolenz has traded his Monkees suit for a hip mayor’s
duds in the new TV series Pacific Blue.
The show, which has been described as Baywatch on bikes, chronicles
the adventures of a hunky police bicycle patrol in Santa Monica. And
Micky’s having more fun than a barrel of monkeys making it.
In one of the first episodes, which airs on the USA network this
month, the 51-year-old star mediates a dispute between puritanical
townspeople and nude beachgoers.
That was child’s play compared to escaping his Monkee past.
Twenty-eight years after the show about a Beatleslike rock group
went off the air, Micky says he still has trouble getting acting roles.
“After the Monkees, it was impossible to be taken seriously as an actor,”
says Micky, who chronicled his experiences on the hit ’60s series, in the
1993 book I’m A Believer.
The Monkees – Micky, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith –
broke up in 1968.
Reruns and a revival in Monkees madness thanks to MTV brought Micky,
Davy and Peter together for a reunion tour in 1986.
“I could just stand there and chew gum and the fans would go wild,”
says Micky.
“And to think it all came out of a mere two year run on TV. I’ve
had dinner parties longer than that.”
In 1990, Micky divorced his wife of 14 years, Trina, who gave him
three gorgeous daughters, including actress Ami Dolenz.
Micky’s also had his own rock band and starred as Vince Fontaine,
the smarmy DJ in a touring production of Grease! Last May, he opened a
one-man art show in Philadelphia to sell his acrylic paintings.
But even if he has success in other areas, he knows he’ll always be
best known as a Monkee – and that’s fine with him. He’s even talking
about launching another Monkees reunion tour this year.
The Monkees are to the Beatles what Star Trek is to NASA,” he says.
“They are both totally valid in their own contexts.