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Speaker 1: Can'st play around. I'm buzznight and today I am so

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Speaker 1: excited to be in Seacoast, New Hampshire. I'm here on

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Speaker 1: this chilly morning to be taking a walk with Tom

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Speaker 1: bergeron Tom is the Best. He's an American TV personality,

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Speaker 1: game show host, TV host and comedian known for hosting

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Speaker 1: Hollywood Squares, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Dancing with the Stars.

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Speaker 1: Let's go take a walk with Tom. Well, Tom, it

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Speaker 1: is so great to be with you here in New

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Speaker 1: Hampshire taking a Walk. Thank you so much for the

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Speaker 1: time and the Taking a Walk series is all about

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Speaker 1: finding new friends and reacquainting with people and just having

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Speaker 1: a good old time. So thank you for having me

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Speaker 1: well my pleasure. And as I said you when you

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Speaker 1: first we first made contact. I love the idea of

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Speaker 1: this kind of a podcast, this kind of a casual interview.

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Speaker 1: I think it's I should mention to those listening. It

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Speaker 1: is really cold on this first day of March in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, and we're walking on a tree lined

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Speaker 1: street in New Hampshire. Earlier it was about nine degrees.

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Speaker 1: I think it's warmed up to probably a good solid

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Speaker 1: thirteen degrees. So I'm not that I'm second guessing my

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Speaker 1: agreeing to do this, but I hadn't anticipated mother nature

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Speaker 1: throwing a little speedbump. But see now that we're moving, buzz,

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Speaker 1: I'm warming up already. I pulled into the driveway and

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Speaker 1: I said to Tom, whose brilliant idea was this? But hey,

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Speaker 1: it's your podcast. Yeah, I know, I take the hit.

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Speaker 1: That's okay. So how do you use taking a walk

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Speaker 1: at a particular time if you're working on a project

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Speaker 1: or something like that. I mean, do you use walking

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Speaker 1: to kind of rushia and get into a groove on something?

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Speaker 1: Very much so, and it's sort of part of my

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Speaker 1: fitness regimen too. Out in California, there are so many

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Speaker 1: wonderful hiking trails, and over the past few years that's

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Speaker 1: been a regular part of my routine, usually on weekends

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Speaker 1: on a Saturday, hit some of the trails anywhere from

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Speaker 1: Santa Monica to Santa Barbara. Oh, it must be some

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Speaker 1: beautiful places. Their favorite spot. Yes, there's one called the

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Speaker 1: Ray millerd Backbone Trail that overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu,

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Speaker 1: and that is followed by a brunch at Paradise Cove

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Speaker 1: and Malibu and the mango mohitos that I feel are

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Speaker 1: my reward for hiking. I love it. I can just

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Speaker 1: see it, I could taste it. Yeah, Oh it's delicious.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome. Now I believe transcendental meditation is or

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Speaker 1: has been part of your life. Oh yeah, for about

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Speaker 1: forty years. Actually, yeah, it's a daily part of my life.

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Speaker 1: And it really started because of my temper. I never

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Speaker 1: directed it at anybody else, usually at myself or at

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Speaker 1: the sheet rock in my apartments when I was single,

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Speaker 1: but I thought that was something I had to get

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Speaker 1: a handle on. And also, meditation just keeps It's like

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Speaker 1: building a mental muscle, so you stay as best as

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Speaker 1: one can in the present moment of your life, so

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Speaker 1: you're not fretting about what you're going to do later

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Speaker 1: or what you did before and kind of missing what's

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Speaker 1: happening now. So it served dual purposes for me. It

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Speaker 1: helped me calm down a bit and be better at

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Speaker 1: assessing stress as it resented itself. Not all stress needs

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Speaker 1: to be treated equally, and it also helped keep me

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Speaker 1: and helps keep me present, which on television anyway, when

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Speaker 1: I do live television, you want to be present. You

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Speaker 1: don't want to be thinking about something else. Now, do

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Speaker 1: you still get the butterflies on live television? No, you

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Speaker 1: know it's interesting. I tell students who are just starting

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Speaker 1: out sometimes that energy you feel. How you label energy

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Speaker 1: is important. If you say, oh my god, I'm a

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Speaker 1: nervous wreck, or you say I'm really excited, you're having

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Speaker 1: the same energy, but you're labeling it positively and negatively.

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Speaker 1: So I'm sure early on I have a sense memory

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Speaker 1: of the first time I actually was on the radio

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Speaker 1: when I was seventeen, and my heart was beating like

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Speaker 1: a jackhammer at years late. Now, whenever I'm on television,

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Speaker 1: I'm excited. I wonder what's going to happen. In the

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Speaker 1: years I've done live TV, I'm like a kid on

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Speaker 1: Christmas morning, I'll usually meditate ahead of the show. Back

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Speaker 1: when I did the dancing show, I'd meditate between the

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Speaker 1: dress rehearsal and the live show, and my feeling was

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Speaker 1: I'm ready for anything out there, and I couldn't wait

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Speaker 1: to see what would happen, even if an occasional dancer

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Speaker 1: fainted or people rush the stage or whatever. Now take

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Speaker 1: us back to the mean streets of Haver and your

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Speaker 1: beginnings that were, you know, the radio piece, and infinitely

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Speaker 1: how it all led to Hollywood. I often say that

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Speaker 1: my career only seems logical in hindsight. It has all

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Speaker 1: of the trajectory or logic of a hostage note, you know,

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Speaker 1: cut up and paste it from different magazines. But at seventeen,

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Speaker 1: I always knew I wanted to be either as a

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Speaker 1: broadcaster or performer on stage. And when I was in

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Speaker 1: high school in Hayroll, Massachusetts, I found out that an

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Speaker 1: English teacher was a part time newsman at the local

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Speaker 1: radio station. So I endeavored to be his best friend,

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Speaker 1: got in his public speaking class. We actually did become

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Speaker 1: really good friends. Later he introduced me to the station

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Speaker 1: manager at the local radio station, and I got hired

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Speaker 1: part time with no experience really other than just a

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Speaker 1: lot of energy and desire. And I remember planning to

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Speaker 1: go to Emerson College to get a degree in broadcasting

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Speaker 1: and hopefully get a job in radio. But as a

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Speaker 1: senior in high school, I had a job in radio already,

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Speaker 1: so I didn't want to leave a job in radio

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Speaker 1: to go to school to hopefully get a job in radio,

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Speaker 1: So I stayed working at the radio station. The station

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Speaker 1: manager at one point said I didn't hire you for

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Speaker 1: you to not go to college. So and he took

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Speaker 1: sort of a paternal interest in me. He said, if

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Speaker 1: you don't go to college, I'm firing you. So I

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Speaker 1: ended up going to the local community college and taking

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Speaker 1: theater courses and such, and kept the radio job and

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Speaker 1: ended up working with a and starting a mime company,

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Speaker 1: right me one of my theater teachers at Northern Essex

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Speaker 1: and another friend. So a buddy of mine had the

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Speaker 1: best because I was doing a morning radio show in

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Speaker 1: Haveril and then in the evening I'd be performing with

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Speaker 1: this mime company. So a buddy of mine said, it's

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Speaker 1: the weirdest thing because when we hear you, we can't

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Speaker 1: see you, and when we see you, we can't hear you. Great,

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Speaker 1: did that teach you also like kind of improv? Well, yes,

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Speaker 1: both the radio and the theater did. Actually they're really

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Speaker 1: complementary in that way. But I'd always loved the silent

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Speaker 1: film comedians Chaplain, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, you know, people like that,

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Speaker 1: and so mime was the closest approximation of silent film

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Speaker 1: comedy that I could get to. And interestingly, I cite

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Speaker 1: a teacher I had some years later in South Paris, Maine,

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Speaker 1: Tony Montenaro, who had studied with Marceau and was probably

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Speaker 1: one of the most influential teachers in my life, to

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Speaker 1: the extent that I often say my best broadcasting teacher

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Speaker 1: was a mime because he really taught me how to

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Speaker 1: be present on stage. I keep going back to that

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Speaker 1: term because it's important to me, but the idea of

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Speaker 1: really being, as Tony would say on the deck when

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Speaker 1: you're performing, good morning. I have a neighbor, good morning

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Speaker 1: walking a fine looking dog. Are you doing, hey, buddy,

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Speaker 1: the walk of the day with the dogs? Yeah? Oh yeah.

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Speaker 1: Our oldest daughter has a little dog that I refer

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Speaker 1: to as my Granddogger in California, and I am so

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Speaker 1: smitten with this dog. Yeah. Sometimes they get a little

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Speaker 1: funky in the cold, but so do I exactly like

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Speaker 1: this this morning. First ample, how did you end up

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Speaker 1: to w mj X, oh greater media station with our

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Speaker 1: friend Peter Smite Well, Peter, who m I oh a

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Speaker 1: great debt to and he never fails to remind me.

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Speaker 1: I was working at WBZTV and WBZ Radio my talk

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Speaker 1: show on television, people are talking got canceled in ninety three.

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Speaker 1: BZ Radio went to an all news format, sort of

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Speaker 1: shifting out from under me. So I ended up going

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Speaker 1: to I was still doing interviews during a new news

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Speaker 1: hour on television, but I was offered the morning show

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Speaker 1: on Magic on MJX, and I did that. I signed

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Speaker 1: a one year contract, and I remember saying to Peter,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's some other things kind of in the

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Speaker 1: wind job possibilities. He said, Look, if your ship comes in,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to get in your way. Well, about

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Speaker 1: nine months later, I got offered the morning show on

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Speaker 1: this new cable network called FX in New York, and

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Speaker 1: I also got an offer from the late Roger Ales

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Speaker 1: to join a cable channel called America's Talking. It was

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Speaker 1: an easy decision to not go with Roger Rails. And

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Speaker 1: I remember Peter saying to me when I told him

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Speaker 1: about the FX gig, you know what I told you,

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Speaker 1: I'd honor if your ship came in. I didn't expect

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Speaker 1: a fleet. Now are we here in the background. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you pick it up. We've got some

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Speaker 1: forestry work going on. Yeah, this is the authentic nature

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Speaker 1: of that's right. Taking a walk, I called him ahead

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Speaker 1: of time, I said, start song some wood. So anyway,

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Speaker 1: so Peter, graciously, and I think, putting himself at odds

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Speaker 1: with his own bosses a bit, let me out of

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Speaker 1: the contract and I went to New York co hosted

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Speaker 1: this wonderful morning show on FX called Breakfast Time, which

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Speaker 1: is still my favorite experience in television. Oh wow. And

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Speaker 1: so whenever I see Peter, I thank him and he says,

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Speaker 1: yes you should. Well, you know, it was sort of

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Speaker 1: unheard of for a station like Magic to have, you know,

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Speaker 1: a high personality morning show. I wasn't high then, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't legal. Oh I see what you're saying. Okay, sorry,

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Speaker 1: I went went somewhere else. Yeah, it was sort of

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Speaker 1: it was a different tactic, but yeah, it certainly. I

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Speaker 1: had just come to town and people loved it. People

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Speaker 1: loved the station and they loved what you did. And

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Speaker 1: then you left town. Yeah. Well, of course radio was

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Speaker 1: my where I started. So for me, it was almost

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Speaker 1: a natural evolution. And Peter and Don Kelly, who was

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Speaker 1: the program manager, they gave me a lot of rope,

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Speaker 1: I have to say. I I Don would call me

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Speaker 1: into his office periodically and say, you got to stop

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Speaker 1: fading the songs halfway through, so you can do bits,

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Speaker 1: I said, I said, well, I think they got the

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Speaker 1: gist of it. I love it. So so then what

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Speaker 1: after the FX experience led you out to California? It

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Speaker 1: was again here we go back to the hostage to

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Speaker 1: note logic of my career. So I'm doing this morning

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Speaker 1: show on FX, and we thought of ourselves as the

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Speaker 1: farm team for Fox. You know, if you do well

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Speaker 1: on FX, maybe the Fox Network would like to do

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Speaker 1: a version of the show. That's what happened. Unfortunately, the

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Speaker 1: executive who greenlit the move left and went to Paramount,

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Speaker 1: leaving us in the hands of somebody who wasn't as

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Speaker 1: crazy about our format when we got to the network.

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Speaker 1: So that turned into a bit of a nightmare. That

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Speaker 1: was to be careful what you wish for scenario. But

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Speaker 1: at that time Good Morning America Rune Arlije was watching

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Speaker 1: the Fox version and came and offered me a pill

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Speaker 1: in ste on Good Morning America, also on that Fox show,

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Speaker 1: that ill fated Fox show. And I have to put

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Speaker 1: ill fated in quotes because a lot of what happened

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Speaker 1: as a result of it was good. I met Whoopee

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Speaker 1: Goldberg and we hit it off. So I end up

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Speaker 1: on Good Morning America doing fill in with the thought

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Speaker 1: that I would take over for Charles Gibson. That ultimately

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Speaker 1: didn't play out because the person that replaced Joan London,

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Speaker 1: a woman whose name mercifully escape Lisa McCree. She and

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Speaker 1: I had no chemistry at all, and so it didn't

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Speaker 1: pan out that I took over for Charlie. But King

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Speaker 1: World came to me and said, hey, we'd like to

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Speaker 1: have you an audition for Hollywood Squares in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: and I, you know, I didn't want to really move

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Speaker 1: to Los Angeles at the time, but I knew Whoopee

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Speaker 1: was one of the executive producers was going to be

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Speaker 1: the Center Square, and I thought, well, they're flying me out.

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Speaker 1: It'd be great to see her, you know. So I

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Speaker 1: went out not really expecting anything other than I'd visit

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Speaker 1: some friends and have somebody else pay for my trip.

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Speaker 1: And Whoopy and I picked it up where we had

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Speaker 1: left it off on the Fox Show, had a great

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Speaker 1: time in the audition. I was told later that they

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Speaker 1: thought I was the only person who auditioned who wasn't

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Speaker 1: intimidated by Whoopee, and I thought, how could you be

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Speaker 1: in two. She's a sweetheart. How could you be intimidated?

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Speaker 1: But so they offered me the job with the condition

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Speaker 1: that we move out to California, and I turned it down.

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Speaker 1: And then the next day they said, okay, we'll fly

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Speaker 1: you out and you would shoot that show five shows

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Speaker 1: in a day. Okay, So you know, I'd fly out

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Speaker 1: on a Friday, shoot ten shows Saturday Sunday, fly back Monday.

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Speaker 1: It was like a lucrative semi retirement. Were you living

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Speaker 1: in New York or Connecticut? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah wow.

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Speaker 1: But the grind of those shows in one day, that

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Speaker 1: must have really well. We shot it Friday to an extent,

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Speaker 1: but we shot it pretty close to live. So the

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Speaker 1: day would be I'd show up probably around laughter nine.

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Speaker 1: There'd be a sort of a group makeup area with

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Speaker 1: a little you know, breakfast, battels and things. We'd start

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Speaker 1: shooting at ten. By one thirty, we'd have three shows

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Speaker 1: in the can, break for lunch, come back and shoot

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Speaker 1: what were the Thursday Friday shows, and be out by

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Speaker 1: four thirty. Wow. So not that terrible, and the lunch

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Speaker 1: was always amazing. Would be made sure that all of

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Speaker 1: her guests were well tended to and so there we were.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get run over by an oil truck, now,

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Speaker 1: all right, ain't cropad and oil going by? But she

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Speaker 1: had it catered by Spago, and it was there were

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Speaker 1: video games next to where we ate. One of my

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite lunches. It was me and three

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Speaker 1: other people sitting talking. The three other people were Carol Burnett,

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Speaker 1: Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway. And I was saying to Harvey,

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Speaker 1: I said, now to Carol, I said, now, there was

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Speaker 1: Harvey right after you left the show the Carol Burnett Show.

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Speaker 1: Dick Van Dyke came on for I think it was

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Speaker 1: only half a season. He wasn't really there that long.

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Speaker 1: And Carol said, well, you know, we're friends. We did

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Speaker 1: a Broadway show together, but it just it just didn't

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Speaker 1: really work. And Harvey said you needed a jew. He

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Speaker 1: must just fell off. Oh my god, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Years later, Tim Conway and his granddaughter came to U

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Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars to sit in the audience. And

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Speaker 1: Tim was sitting right at the end of an aisle

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Speaker 1: near where I would go during commercial break to go

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Speaker 1: confer with producers and things. And I thought, oh, I

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Speaker 1: got to see if I can break up Tim Conway,

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Speaker 1: that would be the best. So I'm getting the queue

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Speaker 1: from the floor at the stage manager. They were about

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Speaker 1: twenty seconds away from going live now, and I decide

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Speaker 1: to do Tim's old man walk, yeah like that, which

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Speaker 1: is freaking out the stage manager because I'm not really

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Speaker 1: moving that fast. But Tim broke up. I thought, that's it.

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Speaker 1: That's it, That's all I needed. You could just yeah

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Speaker 1: leave the earth at Yeah, that's right exactly. That's beautiful.

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Speaker 1: Now do you still get excited when you meet, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, someone who you've followed and just admired, like

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Speaker 1: anybody recently that you've just happened upon that you go,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, this is exciting. Well, there are people

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Speaker 1: who became friends over the years as a result of

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Speaker 1: the Boston talk show. People are talking. I met Carl Reiner,

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Speaker 1: the late Carl Reiner, and we became good friends for

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Speaker 1: like twenty five years, and through him, I met Dick

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Speaker 1: van Dyke, who's a friend as well. As a matter

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Speaker 1: of fact, during the early months of COVID actually it's

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Speaker 1: probably by November of year one of the pandemic, I

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Speaker 1: actually went over to visit with Dick and his wife

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Speaker 1: Arlene because I had an idea. I said, Dick, I've

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Speaker 1: come up with a song parody to the Mary Poppins

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Speaker 1: song Let's Go Fly Kite, and I've rewritten the lyrics.

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Speaker 1: So let's all wear a mask. Let's all wear a mask.

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Speaker 1: Don't be a stubborn ass. Let's all wear a mask

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Speaker 1: and help fight COVID. Strap it behind your ear cover

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Speaker 1: both here and here. Oh, let's go wear a mask.

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Speaker 1: And so I pretended to be auditioning for his a

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Speaker 1: cappella group, which he really has the fantastics, and so

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Speaker 1: he said, Arlene shot it on her iPhone. So I'm

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Speaker 1: singing the song and Dick hears me singing. Then he goes, uh,

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Speaker 1: not bad. Leave your resume with a lady. That's wonderful.

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Speaker 1: But and I'll see William Shatner in a couple of nights.

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Speaker 1: He's coming to the Capitol Theater and conquered to to

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Speaker 1: do an event morning. So yeah, and he's been a

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Speaker 1: friend for years too. So and I think my wife

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Speaker 1: pointed out she says, you tend to gravitate towards people

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Speaker 1: you admired growing up who are in their eighties and nineties.

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Speaker 1: I said, yeah, it gives me hope it gets me. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I can be the young and hanging out like Bill

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Speaker 1: is ninety years old right now and he just went

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Speaker 1: up in Jeff Bezos's rocket ship recently. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: it's hard not to be inspired by genetic anomalies like that.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, when did you discover that you were funny?

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Speaker 1: I mean, how old were you? Yeah, that's a really

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Speaker 1: good question. I don't know. I don't know. It's the

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Speaker 1: way my brain works, to the extent that it does.

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Speaker 1: I've always had a sort of a tendency to wordplay

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Speaker 1: and to find twists and things or I think, but

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Speaker 1: I can't. I can't tell you when I when I

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Speaker 1: really discovered it, And some would argue that I'm not.

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Speaker 1: But her wife probably, Yeah, well she's a hard one

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Speaker 1: to make laugh. Yeah, if I can make lows laugh,

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Speaker 1: I know. It was a good, good ad lib. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it comes the oil truck again. There we go, some

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Speaker 1: another happy delivery in that house. There is warrant not

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Speaker 1: out here, but in that house. So you had this

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Speaker 1: period in time where you hosted literally two of the

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Speaker 1: most popular shows in America during that period, Yeah, for

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Speaker 1: about god decade and a half, I was host of

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Speaker 1: the America's Funniest Video Show for fifteen years and Dancing

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Speaker 1: with the Stars for fourteen years. And while I contend

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Speaker 1: that aff America's Funniest Videos will survive the apocalypse, it

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Speaker 1: and cockroaches will be the only things left on the planet.

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Speaker 1: The Dancing Show was a surprise. The success of that,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the early years, was a surprise to all

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Speaker 1: of us. You know, I think we all thought it

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Speaker 1: might be a fun summer show, but none of us

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Speaker 1: really thought that it was going to become the you know,

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Speaker 1: for those first five to seven years especially, you know,

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Speaker 1: a show watched by twenty twenty five million people every week,

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Speaker 1: and you knew when the end was was there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's chronicled. You did the interview with Ubsagy and so

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Speaker 1: you pretty much knew this was Yeah. I think there

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Speaker 1: were personnel changes. They brought in a different producer on

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Speaker 1: the show, there were some network people who had come

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Speaker 1: on board, and it was becoming increasingly clear that we

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Speaker 1: had different ideas about how the show could be best produced.

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Speaker 1: And I just felt, particularly back in twenty nineteen when

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Speaker 1: we were on the in the fall on the cusp

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Speaker 1: of an election year, that the show should be a

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Speaker 1: respite from the divisiveness and the political angst that was

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Speaker 1: so prevalent and still is, sadly, and they just felt

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Speaker 1: they wanted to go in a different direction, as we

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Speaker 1: say in the business. And yeah, it was pretty clear

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Speaker 1: that And it wasn't the show that I loved in

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Speaker 1: those early years from twenty eighteen, when that new showrunner

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Speaker 1: came on board, I could tell the end was near.

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Speaker 1: But you know, it was a great run and continues

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Speaker 1: to be one of the great gifts of my career.

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Speaker 1: So now you've got some cool stuff brewing. Yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about that. Yeah, Tic Tac Doe. Well, yes, we

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Speaker 1: shot a pilot for a reboot of an old game show,

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Speaker 1: which amused me knowing because I have a lot of

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Speaker 1: Tic Tac toe experience with Hollywood squares. So I guess

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Speaker 1: I was a logical guy to come to. Peter Marshall's

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Speaker 1: retired and John Davidson has his club Sandwich in Sandwich,

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Speaker 1: New Hampshire. Let's get burger on. So Harvey Friedman, who

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Speaker 1: was the executive producer of both Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy,

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Speaker 1: is producing this along with me and Steve Moscow from

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Speaker 1: Village Road Show. So we did the pilot back in June.

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Speaker 1: We are still waiting for NBC to give us the

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Speaker 1: official green light. I told Harvey, I said, Harry, I said,

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Speaker 1: you know, if our pilot was a fetus, it's in

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Speaker 1: its third trimester, they better have a birth announcement sooner.

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Speaker 1: I'm moving on. So there's that possibility. Also with William Shatner,

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Speaker 1: We've got a deal pending with Phillage road Show for

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Speaker 1: a movie script based on a real life occurrence of

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Speaker 1: my sister and I buying back our family home. And

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Speaker 1: so we're looking to make a version of that story

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Speaker 1: into a holiday movie. And yeah, So it's just I'm

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Speaker 1: enjoying the ability now to kind of pick and choose

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Speaker 1: things that amuse me and engage me in ways that

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Speaker 1: I might not have been able to do earlier. Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that you indulged me. Oh, this was

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Speaker 1: fun in this walk. I thought this was going to

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Speaker 1: be a lot more painful. Buzz. I really have to

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Speaker 1: be honest, thick. When I texted you earlier this morning

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Speaker 1: when it was nine degrees, I thought, what the hello

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Speaker 1: were you agreed to do? But it's been easy, peasy,

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Speaker 1: this has been great. I really appreciate you taking a

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Speaker 1: walk with me. Tom Burger on My Pleasure Buzz of

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Speaker 1: Pleasure Taking a Walk with Buzznight is available on Spotify,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And there

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Speaker 1: was that that was really easy, that was great,