I Interviewed Micky Dolenz of The Monkees

Micky Dolenz and me.

The summer of 1986 was probably one of my most favorite summers ever. I was 13 years old and all was right with the world. That summer I wasn't going away to camp that year, which was cool, instead I was attending an outdoor Monkees concert at Jones Beach on July 17 (now known as my husband's birthday).

That year I began writing articles for Newsday, our local Long Island newspaper. I was a kid editor for Newsday's kid-friendly column, appropriately titled, Kidsday. Pat, the editor in chief who ran the column, knew how crazy I was for the '60s bubblegum group, The Monkees. Every time we spoke, I'd beg him to hook me up with concert tickets.

I wasn't just a fan of The Monkees. I was insanely obsessed with them. I attended conventions. I ran a quarterly fanzine (my dad helped with the printing and mailing) with over 160 members. I had every album, magazine, photo, collectible, you name it, I had it! I had every episode of The Monkees show taped at least twice on VHS. I knew the lines to every song, every episode and their movie Head.

One fateful day, Pat called and said my wish was finally about to come true. Sure, he could offer me second row tickets to their Jones Beach show, but I'd have to earn them. Ugh. How? "We need you to interview them!" Pat said nonchalantly. I nearly passed out. My first big assignment. They were my most favorite band at the time next to Howard Jones and Tears for Fears of course. Wow!!!

The only Monkee who agreed to the interview for whatever reason, was Micky Dolenz. This was fine by me, Micky was my favorite member of The Monkees. I asked Micky questions about himself he was surprised I even knew about. I gave him a handful of things to autograph for me and asked him for a hug. I was sure it would forever be the best day of my life. In some ways it was the best day of my childhood life. As an adult, my wedding was the best day of my life.

I'm Audra Lee (or Audra Levi)! See You Next Time on Kids Beat!

Remember Audra Levi & Kids Beat?

The other day, Jesse at NotWorthMentioning.com asked me if I remembered Kids Beat and Audra Levi. At first I was slightly confused, but a search on YouTube brought it all right back to me.

In 1983 (one of my most favorite years) TBS began airing teen and tween-produced short news bits during their morning TV show lineup. The news topics were kid-friendly which was important as it held our interest. The one thing that sorta got on my nerves though was the super peppy, kinda Jappy Audra Levi. Some wonder if she went by the name "Audra Lee" although maybe because of her hyper intonation "Levi" sounded like "Lee"? Whatever. She was a tad annoying.

I don't think it was Audra's fault. Hey, if I was a kid doing a weekly TV news broadcast, I'd be hyper and excited as well. I too was a child journalist, only I was behind the scenes doing kids reporting for New York Newsday? I would have killed to be on TV like Audra.  So yeah, I think she was just too "into" it or something, you be the judge.

Audra "Lee" Levi Today

The once Kids Beat anchor has since graduated from college (1997), is married (her new name is Audra Levi Priluck) and is apparently very involved in her sorority Alpha Chi Omega. You'd think someone involved in showbiz would easily make friends--sorry I'm so anti-sororities. The idea of forced friendships makes me sick.

Audra went on to do production work on TV shows including Mad About You, JAG and King of Queens,  So... stalker that I am... I found Audra on Facebook but don't worry I won't try to add her. I just thought it was cool and it kinda reminded me of this blog post I did a while back about celebs becoming regular people.