WEBVTT - David Letterman and Michael Douglas 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:04.920 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:09.640 My chance to talk with artists, writers, policy makers, and performers, 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.520 to hear their stories. What inspired their creations, what decisions 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:18.800 change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. There are 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.040 perhaps a handful of performers who, through talent and circumstance, 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.080 transcend the expected limits of their medium. Both of my 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.840 guests today have done just that. Michael Douglas has played 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.680 some of the most iconic roles in film over the 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.000 past thirty years. He's challenged the way we think about 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.080 power and sex, family and relationships. I don't know what 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.040 you're up to, but I'm gonna tell you it's going 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.160 to stop right now now. It's not going to stop. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:47.920 It's going to go on and on until you face 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.760 up to your responsibility. Responsibility. I'm pregnant. I'm going to 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.480 have our child, Alex. That's your choice. How it has 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.360 behing to do with me? And as Douglas has reigned 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.520 as one of the kings of the movie screen over 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.680 the past thirty years, my first guest is considered one 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:18.320 of the kings of the smaller screen. It's when David 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.800 Letterman started Late Night. In The New York Times said 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.360 he was quote more of an acquired taste than most 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.319 comedians unquote. Now it's time, ladies and gentlemen for a 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.720 segment of this program. But we like to call stupid 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.480 pet tricks. We grew up on Johnny, a true gentleman 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.840 who could deliver a smooth set up and punchline, occasionally 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.960 helped by a wink. But suddenly, with Late Night, the 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.200 ultimate punchline was the fact that some gap toothed, unknown 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.360 smartass even had a show. His pet tricks were stupid 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.920 on purpose, and so was he. Tune in and you 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.080 might catch him lowering himself into a water tank wearing 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.760 a suit made from thirty four hundred alcas El taples. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.040 We have the oxygen here, and I have been asked 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.680 about twelve times by various members of the staff to 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:10.520 remind you don't try this at home. I know you 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.040 have the nine hundred gallon tank. I know you have 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.840 the oxygen. I know you have the suit of oxy 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.120 cell sers and a staff of a hundred people. Today, 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:25.040 David Letterman is an institution. His show has changed American comedy, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.960 and after thirty years, he's changed as well. I do 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.080 a lot less work than I used to do. I 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.120 just got to a point where I have no patience 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.320 for meetings, so I don't go to any meetings. I 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.400 can't make decisions anymore. I don't like making decisions. You know, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.000 we have a dozen producers. They can have the meetings 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:42.880 and they can make the decisions, and I'll just come 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.240 down and somebody tell me what to do and we go. 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.560 And it was different before. Yeah, I used to be 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.880 involved in everything big and large. I don't think that 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.080 was necessarily good, but at the time I thought it 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.000 was what was required. When you had your own show. 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.240 You had to had to have everything you know in 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.160 your view and certainly influence each little choice the guests 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:03.880 that are on the show. Do you still help select 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.680 the guests or someone else takes the people who select them. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.040 Occasionally I will think of, Oh, I heard about somebody 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:10.520 that did so and so. Could we look into that 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.000 and this and that? Very little, very little, I mean, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.320 these people do that. We've have the good luck of 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.680 these people who haven't been together for a long, long, long, 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.760 long time. They all know what the expectation is. Of course, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.480 when you're in that situation, the bad version of it is, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.399 Oh God, it's the same thing. It's the assembly line. 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.560 We're just building the same car over and over and 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.880 over again. You feel that way sometimes Sometimes I'm the 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.240 biggest defender of that. I'm sixty five. I don't have 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:37.240 the energy I had when I was thirty five. There 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.520 are certain things I like about the show now that 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.000 I like more than before. As I like talking to 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.720 people and the opportunity to learn something, or if I 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.360 have a natural curiosity about somebody, I really look forward 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.760 to that. If I have something that I know is 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.040 going to be silly and stupid, and I want my 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.320 authorship out there on this something silly and stupid, then 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.320 I get eager about that. But in the old days, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.360 we just were going twenty hours a day. We'd be 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.280 out on the streets, We'd be going to New Jersey, 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.040 would be up all night shooting, and there would be contests. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.680 And I can't do that show anymore. The more successful 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.520 the show has become, and the more successful you would become, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.960 do you find that in terms of programming the show 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.200 you have to rely more on stars. Is there a 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.719 kind of person It's it's completely different. In the beginning, 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.520 when we started the late night show at NBC. We 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.719 had a liaison between Johnny Carson and ourselves named Dave Tabbot. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.320 He had worked at NBC and then had become close 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.479 with Johnny, and so Johnny hired him, and he was 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:41.680 a guy who, honest to God, talked like this. Dave 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.640 came in to make sure there were no conflicts between 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.520 our show and the tonight show. He says, for example, 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.760 let's just say that Bob Hope is arrested for using drugs, 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.680 and we just all just just like, really, in what 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.360 universe is that all likelihood? And he says, you can't 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.880 then do chokes about Bob Hope And I said, okay, 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.480 all right, We'll got that. We were not allowed to 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.440 use do a monologue, and we were not allowed to 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.800 have an orchestra. And we also felt that a way 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.880 to distinguish ourselves, since Johnny had the big stars that 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.440 people really wanted, we would then kind of have French people. 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.560 That's exactly right, and so we sort of mind that 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.640 vain as much as we could. It was sort of 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.720 a fortunate coincidence that we were prohibited in that sense, 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.960 because we weren't really interested in having mainstream people on two. 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.560 You started in radio. Yeah, my first job was at 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.240 a radio station. You went to college. You went to 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.680 Ball State University has studied radio and TV. Why did 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.280 you study radio and TV academically? Um? You know, I 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.560 went to Ball State no language requirement and no math requirement. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.560 I mean it really saved me because I was academically 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:54.600 I was not very good early on. I was very 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.600 lucky that I knew how to save myself. Sophomore in 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:00.400 high school and I had saw end up for a 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.360 public speaking course and the first day you were supposed 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.479 to get up and extemporaneously speak for five minutes. You know, 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.440 everybody's twitchy and sweaty and worried about this, as was I. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.160 And then I got up there, the nervousness and the 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.520 twitchiness and everything dissipated. I loved it, and I thought, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.440 oh my god, maybe this is a way I can 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.159 distinguish myself. And I did you know, but had you 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.200 been the entertainer as a child in the household, yeah, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.400 sure to what except and my parents wouldn't put up 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.080 with it much. There was a fine line between being 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.360 oh isn't the amusing and being just and being a 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.960 wise ass and we don't like that. I can remember 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.440 my father was big and loud and noisy and always 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.960 had stuff going on, and my mother completely nondemonstrative. And 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.880 I can remember every Sunday night after dinner, my dad 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.960 would make popcorn and we would sit in front of 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.480 the TV and watch Ed Sullivan. And Ed used to 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:52.479 have this habit of, well, come on, now, let's really 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.479 hear it for him, and my mom used to say, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.600 I don't like the way Ed begs the audience for applause. 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:05.200 She was a connoisseur of television house and then she 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.520 was not a connoisseur. She resented the fact that somebody 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.760 had to be encouraged to support what they had, just 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.120 that Sullivan was whoring himself. And that's exactly right. That's 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.040 so you got to ball stating, you get this degree, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.600 what do you do after that? Well, through a friend 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.120 of mine at a the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis where 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.880 I lived, which was sixty miles away from where I 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.400 went to school and still is just about sixty miles, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.080 I heard that they were auditioning for they wanted a 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.440 summer announcer. So I went down there an audition. Never 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.840 having been in a television studio in my life and 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.520 got the job. I mean it was a fixed fight 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.720 because I had no business getting the job. I wasn't 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:46.160 very good, I didn't know what I was doing, I 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.840 had no experience, and they gave me the job. And 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.000 suddenly the bulb that was turned on my sophomore year 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.120 in high school now is burning white hot because it's 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.280 are you kid me? I'm nineteen and I'm going to 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.720 be on TV. I mean, it's preposterous. That was the 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.400 booth announcer. So I can't believe you said that back 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.640 when they had booth announcers on That's right, That's what 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.760 I did. These guys defined my childhood by the way. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.600 These were the guys. Uh. The principal responsibility was to 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.560 keep the program log. There used to be a lot 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.000 of technical glitches in television. Who had booth announcers who 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.200 would pick up the slack when something went Wrong's with 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.440 tape to tape, That's exactly right. A station break was 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.880 a huge process because you had a control room, you 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:31.240 had a director, you had two or three sixteen millimeter projectors, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:33.600 you had a slide chain, and you had the big 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.160 two and a half inch Ampex tape. Let's say you 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.880 had four commercials in a station break, then you'd have 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:40.679 to roll the tape. Then you'd have to count down 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:42.240 and roll the film. Then you'd have to go live 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.319 to the booth to read copy over a slide, and 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.920 then back to the film. And it was an enormous thing. 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.280 Summer job in in nineteen sixties sixty and I was 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.440 making a hundred fifty bucks a week. I got to 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.800 be the weekend weather man. I've never done that before. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.120 I got to read the news on on the morning 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.320 kiddie show. None of this would happen today. So I 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.679 go back to school now to my radio and TV studies, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.360 and all of a sudden, it's hey, there's duck Lips. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.200 We've seen him on TV, And oh my god, what 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.400 a progression that was for me. Now that was what 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.040 year I think I started there in sixty eight and 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.880 I stayed. And you avoid draft, and you avoid in 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.040 those days, you get the student deferment. And ball State 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.120 was prinsipally a teacher's college in those days, and so 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.160 it wanted teachers. It was chock full of guys who 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:34.080 wanted that student deferment, and also the teaching deferment. I 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.680 was not studying teaching. So the minute I graduated, I 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.840 was reclassified one A. Went from my pre draft physical 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.839 in April. They said, okay, we'll call you. And then 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.520 in the meantime before I was called, Nixon announced the 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.560 National Lottery. They were going to end the draft. They 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:54.760 were trying to step down the Vietnamese War. My birthday 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:56.599 was three forty two or something like that, at A 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.040 three hundred fifty six, So that meant even though I 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.400 was one A and had my pre induction physical and 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.640 was ready to go, it was over for me. At 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.440 the time, I didn't know how lucky I was. I 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.040 felt guilty because I had friends who had gone, and 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:09.640 I had friends who had been in the Marine Corps, 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.600 and I just felt like, these guys went, why shouldn't 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.680 I go? And then it dawned on me pretty quickly. 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.480 I had been among the really, really lucky. Yeah. What 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.920 was the political landscape like at Ballston when he went there, Well, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.480 it was just starting to Uh. I used to make 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.480 jokes that they would have student protests, but it was 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.160 to get the cafeteria cooks to wear hairnets. Uh. It 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.360 was not a hot bed. It was not Madison, Wisconsin. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.960 It was Muncie, Indiana, but it was starting and there 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.880 were sit ins and demonstrations, and you know, Bobby Kennedy 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.000 had spoken on campus, so it was starting. You mentioned 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.360 booth announcers, and I remember I did a YouTube search. 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:46.760 I wanted to find this guy that was literally the 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.120 voice of my childhood w R and he come on 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.360 and say, you know, uh next on Million Dollar Movie 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.719 Barbara Stan McTell's Gary Cooper where He Can Go and 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.040 Ball of Fire, and he just had this voice. It 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.600 was just it just haunted me. Well, that's interesting. You 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.520 mentioned that guy I had the little kid voice from Indiana. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:08.960 I wasn't that guy, but I still had to do 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:10.920 the job. And I can't impress upon you enough how 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.840 tedious it is to sit there for eight hours watching 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.600 programming and logging everything that happens. If you lose audio, 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.280 you have to log that. If you lose video you 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.280 have to log that. You have to log sign on, 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.920 sign off, every commercial, every station break. And at first 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.080 I was scared, silly, but then, like everything else, you 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.000 get accustomed to it and you become blase, and so 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.719 I would just start wandering the building. You know, it 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.160 was so embarrassing. They would will the booth announcer please 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.079 report to the announced booth, and oh my god, I've 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.280 missed the so and so. The main announcer was a 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:44.479 guy named Rob Stone, tremendous voice and a hopeless alcoholic, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.280 I mean a real alcoholic. I go hand in hand, yeah, 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:50.559 kind of. Certainly. In those days it was not uncommon. 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:52.640 He would come in and he would bring a point 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.960 with him, and so in the spirit of this, we 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.600 who were working the sign off shift, we would always 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.480 send somebody out for beer. Oh my, with this fun. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.719 In those days, you would do a five minute new 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.480 summary before sign off nightcap news, and then you would 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.520 do the the broadcast statement. You'd read that over the 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.920 slide of the station, and then they would go to 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.600 the national anthem with the waving fly. One night, a 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.600 guy in the props department, so I can reconstruct exactly 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.440 the station has pictured on the slide. We can make 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.280 it blow up. So as you're as you're reading the 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.320 thank you and good night and why not tune in 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.680 w LW overnight and blah blah this and so until tomorrow, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.000 goodnight and good luck. I have the thing. Come on. 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.400 Oh god, we were proud of ourselves. You know, we 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.960 really thought we had done something. Geez. Nobody ever said anything. No, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.440 it was bizarre. Nobody got fired, nobody asked a question 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.960 about it. Nobody said anything. But but what's interesting is 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.680 from school and then doing the job and so forth. 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.000 In the booth thing the comedy Gland is secreting through 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.480 the entire time. What are you doing for that? Meaning 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.040 other than blowing up the studio and in the sign 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.800 off we're writing or yes. I was looking for any outlet, 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.600 and it came for me doing the weather. I knew 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:07.920 nothing about whether you'd go downstairs and I'd have the 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.520 ap machine and the map would come over, the national map, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.600 and you would go to the big magnetic board in 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:14.679 the studio and you put the low system, and you 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:16.720 put the high system, and you put the occluded front, 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:18.760 and you put the rain showers, and so it told 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.360 you everything any time, but all that I could monkey 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.480 with that. I was very happy. I can remember two episodes. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:29.520 One I was had forecast sunny and dryet and we 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.480 we go off the air and blah blah, and I 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.600 go outside this this is horrible thundershower. The rain is 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.720 coming down in sheets and I was just twenty ft away, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:42.400 just oblivious of this, this uh, dangerous yes coming through, 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.880 this one of these violent Midwestern summer thunderstorms coming through 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.160 attacking the station. I got to be well known because 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.200 this Sunday Night show was on after the ABC Sunday 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.840 Night Movie. That was big programming. We got a bunch 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.080 of complaints, and this was when people were wearing a 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.560 bell bottom pants. I don't think he could buy regular pants. 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.679 Got a lot of calls about he's either not wearing 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.400 underpants or he needs to wear underpants. That's how I 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.719 distinguished myself. Do you want to clear that up? Now? 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.280 Were you wearing underpants? I was wearing DP. It was Indianapolis. 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.440 We were not talked to go out without our under 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.680 It's whatever problem was perceived was not mine. I sure you. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.800 And then where do you go from there in terms 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.000 of underpants and well, if you wish. I got tired 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.720 of sitting in the booth and tired of working weekends. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.800 And also they didn't they didn't want me there. They 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.200 would keep bringing in auditions for my job. That really 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.680 hurt my feelings. But I couldn't argue with them because 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.320 I didn't know what I was doing but the cumulative 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.040 effect of being on TV a lot. There, we get 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.240 this memo once from the search department, and of all 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.680 of the people, the the anchor team and whoever else, 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.160 I had the highest queue rating of anybody there, and 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.720 it was only by accident. Really, So I started looking 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.600 for a job. Some people I knew were coming in 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.480 to start up a talk radio station. So I went 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.520 to work at the new talk radio station with the 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.400 format it was News Talks Force w NTS. When I 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.600 resigned to quit give my notice to the general manage, 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.600 the guy sad and it chilled me at the time. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.600 He said, really, you're leaving this TV station to go 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.920 work for a brand new radio station. And I said yeah, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:18.920 and he said you will never be heard of again. 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:21.920 So I went to the station, worked there for a year, 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.720 realized that I had to make a move. Nobody would 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.440 would listen. It was a daytime station. This was tremendous. 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.880 They had a daytime license, which meant the radio station 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.120 come on when the sun came up and went off 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.320 when the sun went down. Literally yeah. And then the 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.240 winter we were off at three in the afternoon. I 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:40.920 had the midday shift and I come in at noon 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:42.560 and two hours later I'd be going home. It was 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.720 it was joy afternoon. And then in the summer. Conversely, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.240 you were on the like nine thirty or ten, it 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.160 was awful. It was Watergate, and and people assume, well, 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.320 the guy's got a talk show on the radio, but 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.160 he knows everything there is to know about Watergate, and 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.000 I knew nothing. I'd have to read endless pages of 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:05.120 wire copy. I remember reading it sorry about Gordon Stratching 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.160 str A C H A N. And his name kept 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.760 coming up, a special counsel, so and so, Gordon Stratch 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.400 and adviser of the White House, Gordon Stratch. And finally 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.000 the phones line up, and I, thank god, did I 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.160 say yes? He says, it's not Stratching, it's Strang. You're 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.160 mispronouncing the guy's name. I said, okay, thanks you everything, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.760 no click buzz, So there you go. Were you ambitious 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:27.880 during this time? Did you have an ambition? Yeah? I 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.200 wanted to. I really thought, um, I really thought I 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.520 could write half hours situation comedies. I thought I could. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.720 What did you watch? Well? In my childhood it was 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.400 completely different. It would have been stuff like Saturday Morning nonsense. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.200 Then as I grew older, you'd get to Mayberry, the 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.560 Andy Griffis Show, Ozzie and Harriett Nelson, the Nelson's and 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.080 that kind of stuff. And then later on and in 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.120 those days, it was all the Mary Tyler Moore things, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.040 the Bob Newhart Show, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.280 and I really thought, oh, I can write one of 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.360 those Mary Tyler Moore shows. And it turned out I couldn't. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.000 As you know, there's a template for writing those things. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.760 They use the template because it's successful. And if you 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:07.920 don't know the template and you think you can make 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.760 a better version of it, it's a very foreign object 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.199 to them. To you, you think, look, I've improved on 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.160 the template, but they don't want them. They want something. Yes, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.440 that's right. I mean we're talking about Mary Tyler Moore. 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.199 That's pretty good stuff. Smart and you're in l A 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.000 at that time. Now I'm still in Indianapolis and I 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.040 would be sending scripts and looking for an agent. Finally 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.360 a guy said, yeah, if you come to Los Angeles, 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.240 he said, I'll be your agent. So with that encouragement, 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.240 I just left. And I don't know about you, but 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:37.360 you know, your friends say, Okay, here you can meet 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.720 with so and so and and you can meet mel 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.359 Blank's son, you can meet with him, and and I 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.040 know this one, and I know that one. And so 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.240 you go out there with high hopes. I guess it's 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.520 like the Pioneers and the kind of stoga wagon and 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.560 they run out of beans. So within the first week 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.560 you run through all of your appointments and then you've 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.480 got nothing. Then your Shanghai. That's right on the show there. 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:01.600 I'm remember when I went to l A. I did 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.320 a soap opera at thirty Rock. The show was about 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:05.760 to go off the air, and I'll never forget this 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.679 guy that was the producer. He were in the hallway 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:10.439 and they asked me to extend my contract for a 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.000 few months. And he says that line to me. He says, 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:14.680 what do you think you're gonna do? Go out the Hollywood, 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.920 become a star in the movies. I'm walking down the 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.520 Hollies going, dude, listen to me, come back here. You 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.920 you don't walk away from me? And I walk away 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:25.080 from the guy and I go to l A. Now, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.399 were you ever haunted by that? Did you? Honestly? Did you? 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.240 Did you? Because of my case? I thought the guy 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.320 was I said, oh yeah, I haven't considered that. Well, 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.920 of course you do. You've been an enormously successful man. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:38.919 Did you ever dream you would be as successful as 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.280 you are? No? Never, No, And I'll tell you the 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.160 same for you, same for most people in this uh 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.159 in show business. You're just lucky enough to get to 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.600 do exactly what you want to do all your life. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:56.080 So that's the success coming up. David Letterman's own personal 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.399 Cinderella story. I drove in a pickup truck with my 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.360 wife to l A and three years later I'm sitting 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.359 next to Johnny Carson. That's not supposed to happen, you know, 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.960 it's just not supposed to happen, but it did. This 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.680 is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.000 This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.000 While other comedians struggled to find their way in Hollywood, 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.760 David Letterman clearly saw the path in front of him. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:31.320 For me, the road map to pursue was handed to 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.520 you via Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show. They would 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.600 have comics on. It would be David Brenner and they 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.000 would say, and there will be appearing at the Comedy Store, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.479 that seemed to be that the connection between the Comedy 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.280 Store and the Tonight Show was pretty close. So even 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.159 though you mind that facility that particularly, it was the 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.480 farm system for the Comedy Store, and great guys were 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.600 coming out and getting on and Steve Landsberg and on 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.000 and on. I say on and on because I can't 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.920 remember the name. So I just yeah, even though I 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:02.440 wanted to be a writer, because I didn't have the 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.560