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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.

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Speaker 1: My guest today is the one and only producer Bert Sugarman. Bert,

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Speaker 1: good to have you on the podcast. So you just

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Speaker 1: put the Midnight Special up on YouTube? How did this

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Speaker 1: come to happen after fifty years or actually forty nine years.

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Speaker 1: About a year ago, my wife said to me, what

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Speaker 1: happens to YouTube? So many of our friends and our

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Speaker 1: younger friends, all our YouTube YouTube. Why don't we put

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Speaker 1: the Midnight Special on YouTube? Thought about a little bit.

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Speaker 1: It seemed like the right thing to do. Talk to

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Speaker 1: our son. He loved the idea, said go for it,

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Speaker 1: and here we are Bob. Okay. Those in the music

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Speaker 1: business know they're huge rights issues. Did you have all

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Speaker 1: those rights issues in the original contract to do whatever

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Speaker 1: you wanted with Midnight Special? Or do you have to

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Speaker 1: go back to these acts and get the rights? Well?

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Speaker 1: I had the rights from the get go, but to

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Speaker 1: go back to as many acts as we've had on

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Speaker 1: the show, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds would

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Speaker 1: have not been practical. But then years ago, in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy two to nineteen eighty one or two, we really

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Speaker 1: did get the contracts working right and signed properly, and

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Speaker 1: I have every single one of them that I have kept. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so is every performance from the Midnight Special on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: Not yet, that will come in the future. Some performances

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Speaker 1: are and we've put them up early, but as time

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Speaker 1: goes on. It's only been two weeks since someone had

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Speaker 1: to type in Midnight Special TV show to find our channel.

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Speaker 1: But now we're ready to go, and every Monday we

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Speaker 1: had new songs, new artists, new people, and it's been fun.

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Speaker 1: And I read the comments and I really really enjoy them.

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Speaker 1: The comments are terrific. They're intelligent. They're people who said

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Speaker 1: I was ten years old and watched that show and

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Speaker 1: hit under my covers with a little small TV, and

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Speaker 1: I remember so much of it. And other people say

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Speaker 1: that I'm just getting used to it now for my

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Speaker 1: own family, and it's very exciting to me. It really

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Speaker 1: is truly exciting to go back and look at some

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Speaker 1: of those performances. I remember of the over four hundred

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Speaker 1: ninety minute shows, I was at every single show and

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Speaker 1: down on the floor with the artists. So how are

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Speaker 1: you so pressing to get all these musical rights, because

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Speaker 1: this has certainly been an issue in movies when they

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Speaker 1: wanted to go to DVDs to streaming, they could include

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Speaker 1: certain songs. Do you just have a good lawyer or

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Speaker 1: did you see the future? Well, maybe a combination. But again,

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Speaker 1: the performance on Midnight Special, I have the copyright too.

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Speaker 1: If it's a matter of the song. On occasion I

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Speaker 1: have to go back on the song and take a look,

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Speaker 1: or someone will contact me and say we have to

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Speaker 1: give you the rights to this song or charge you

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Speaker 1: or this or that. And when that's happened, which hasn't

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Speaker 1: been much, when it's happened, we've worked with them. But

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Speaker 1: the performances, I have the copyright too. And the show okay,

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Speaker 1: if one goes on YouTube, there are many performances from

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Speaker 1: the Midnight Special that are not on your channel. So

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Speaker 1: are you compensated on that? Are you planning to take

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Speaker 1: those down? What's going on there? Well, from what I

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Speaker 1: understand from YouTube and our attorneys, we have the right

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Speaker 1: to take them down. Somebody has a club with an

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Speaker 1: awful lot of people on and I called him up

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Speaker 1: and talk to him and after having a great phone

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Speaker 1: call with them, we're going to work together. He's going

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Speaker 1: to let his fan club know about what I'm doing,

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Speaker 1: which is terrific. And he's building that fan club and

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Speaker 1: I'm behind him. So we've got a good relationship. But

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Speaker 1: they have to subscribe to the Midnight Special TV show

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Speaker 1: to come on Mine. No issues. I've not run into

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Speaker 1: any issues that I've been unhappy with so far. Now

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Speaker 1: there are many different deals with YouTube. Did you negotiate

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Speaker 1: a deal with YouTube? Or is just this the straight

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Speaker 1: compensation deal that YouTube gives. I know that our attorneys

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Speaker 1: have been in touch with YouTube, know them, talk to them,

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Speaker 1: have other deals with them, and I'm not really versed

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Speaker 1: on that yet. I will be in the future. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's go back to the origination of the Midnight Special.

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Speaker 1: How did it come together? Johnny Carson was on at

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Speaker 1: that time every night until one pm and or one am,

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Speaker 1: actually one in the morning, and I would watch the

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Speaker 1: Tonight Show and then I had to look at one

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Speaker 1: in the morning an American flag and something like that,

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Speaker 1: which was beautiful. But there was no television. There were

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Speaker 1: no movies all night. There were no television shows, and

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Speaker 1: it made me wonder, what the heck I'm up. I

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Speaker 1: can't watch any more TV. I'll read a book and

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Speaker 1: I did that often, but I thought, what could I

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Speaker 1: put on there that people could be interested in? And

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Speaker 1: I thought music. Music, music, that's what to put on.

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Speaker 1: Johnny always had on comics that were terrific occasionally some

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Speaker 1: good musicians, and I came up with the idea of musicians,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to put that show on. And the

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Speaker 1: first person I actually talked to about it was Johnny Carson.

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Speaker 1: He was my neighbor and he and I played tennis

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Speaker 1: two three days a week before he went to work.

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Speaker 1: And Johnny would go to work around five thirty and

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Speaker 1: shoot that show around six. And I started talking to

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Speaker 1: him and mentioning that I was thinking of putting a

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Speaker 1: TV show on, and he said, well, if you do that,

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Speaker 1: that'll help my last half hour. Obviously, my last half hour,

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Speaker 1: the ratings kind of go down as people Paul fall asleep,

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Speaker 1: but they may stay up to watch your show, and

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Speaker 1: it'll be good for me and good for you. Develop it,

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Speaker 1: work on it and tell me how I can help.

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Speaker 1: I gave it a lot of thought, talk to some

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Speaker 1: friends about it, and I went to NBC and told

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Speaker 1: him when I had mine, I expected a wonderful, warm

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Speaker 1: welcoming because I knew them all at NBC from the

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Speaker 1: president down, and I had put television shows on NBC,

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Speaker 1: but I wanted to be on NBC to follow Johnny

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Speaker 1: And the immediate answer was no, No, we can't do that.

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Speaker 1: They'll never show up. Those rock people they're they're on

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Speaker 1: drugs and they're drinking, and they're bands are falling apart.

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Speaker 1: They'll never come. I said, they will come. Maybe one

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Speaker 1: or two or three might not come, but I think

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Speaker 1: a group of them will come. Well. Meeting. After meeting

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Speaker 1: and talking to the right people, a friend of mine

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Speaker 1: said to me, you know, Bert, NBC and everything everybody

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Speaker 1: else in that business wants to be on the good

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Speaker 1: side of the FCC. Why don't you talk about getting

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Speaker 1: out to vote? Because remember last year, eighteen year olds

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Speaker 1: were voted to be able to vote, and not many

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Speaker 1: of them are right now. I thought that was a

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Speaker 1: wonderful idea. My next meeting with NBC, I said, listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to have my host and some of the

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Speaker 1: guests discuss the fact that we want to get young

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Speaker 1: people out to vote, and you'll be a real help.

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Speaker 1: They're an NBC that really did get their attention. Bob.

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Speaker 1: Once I said that, they started thinking more seriously, and

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Speaker 1: they were still on the fact that maybe all the

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Speaker 1: acts wouldn't show up. But all right, how do how

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Speaker 1: do we solve the problem? I said, I'll tell you what.

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Speaker 1: I will pay for it. I'll do the show at

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Speaker 1: your NBC studio and I'll pay for it. You will, yes,

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Speaker 1: I will. Well, we own the tonight show, I know,

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Speaker 1: but you won't own this one. If you want me

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Speaker 1: to pay for it. You want to pay for it,

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Speaker 1: you'll own it. We don't. We are not sure it's

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Speaker 1: going to work, but if you're going to pay for it,

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Speaker 1: we'll give it a chance. What about the advertising time,

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Speaker 1: I said, I'll sell it. I will go to some sponsors.

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Speaker 1: I've got sponsors from all the different shows I've done,

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Speaker 1: and I'll get advertising. I will sell it. It can't

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Speaker 1: be too expensive that time, because it's never been on before.

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Speaker 1: How do you sell advertising on one thirty and two

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Speaker 1: and two fifteen in the morning. Finally, after I'm going

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Speaker 1: to say, three months of meetings, it got put together. Bob.

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Speaker 1: So at that point in time, what did you budget

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Speaker 1: for the initial show? I budgeted about one hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty thousand to do the first show, and I also

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Speaker 1: felt that if I went to the record companies and

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Speaker 1: asked them about the acts as well, they would want

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Speaker 1: the axe on because if you're on television and these

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Speaker 1: rock acts really they toured, they traveled, they flew around,

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Speaker 1: they were in busses. The country acts especially were always

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Speaker 1: touring live. But I felt that the record companies could

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Speaker 1: help me get the acts because they knew that next

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Speaker 1: day Saturday Sunday money they would start selling more records.

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Speaker 1: So they were helpful, and I thought for one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty thousand I could put that together as well

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Speaker 1: as sell airtime to some sponsors. I had used, example,

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Speaker 1: Chevrolet for a lot of my shows, and I went

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Speaker 1: to them and talked to him. There was a fellow

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Speaker 1: whose name is well known. His name was John Delian,

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Speaker 1: and John Delian I can't remember at this moment if

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Speaker 1: he was still at Pontiac or had moved to Chevrolet,

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Speaker 1: but he thought the idea was great because he said,

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Speaker 1: young people have an influence on their parents about what

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Speaker 1: kind of park car they buy. So there we went,

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Speaker 1: and that helped me sell the time, and I built

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Speaker 1: a show around it. It was one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars of your own money, which is like a

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Speaker 1: million dollars today. Did you ever think of taking in

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Speaker 1: a partner or you wanted to go all in on

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Speaker 1: this yourself. I really wanted to do it alone. I

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Speaker 1: had been doing television shows and really game shows for

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Speaker 1: years and years, a lot of specials, and I had

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Speaker 1: made some money and done well with it, and I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do it alone. I felt that I had

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Speaker 1: an idea of it. I was creative with it. I

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Speaker 1: love rock and roll, I love country music, all kinds

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Speaker 1: of music. I just really loved so much deep in

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Speaker 1: me that I thought I'm gonna do it myself and

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Speaker 1: not have somebody tell me what not to do. Okay,

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Speaker 1: you get the green light? Was the show already formatted

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Speaker 1: or did then you say, well, now I've got the time,

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Speaker 1: let me figure out how to do it. That's exactly

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Speaker 1: what happened. Now I've got the time, how do I

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Speaker 1: do this, Let's go. I brought a couple of people

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Speaker 1: in to talk to about it. Some of them have

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Speaker 1: had terrific careers. Dick Ebersol, the name of NBC. Dick,

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Speaker 1: was a friend of mine. When he came from the

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Speaker 1: East Coast. He actually stayed at my house for a while.

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Speaker 1: When he first came out there, I knew him well,

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Speaker 1: and Dick was absolutely terrific. He then went on to

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Speaker 1: go to NBC and run sports for them for years

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Speaker 1: and years and years. But Dick was involved in suggesting

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Speaker 1: acts and timing on. It was great. Another fellow named

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Speaker 1: Kenny Erlick, who now is the producer of the Grammy Show.

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Speaker 1: Another fellow named Rocco or BC, a young guy that

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Speaker 1: came in who knew a couple of the acts. We

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Speaker 1: all sat around tables, and Susan Richards was the booker

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Speaker 1: with Titia Fine, and Tisha still books the Grammys. And

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about back in nineteen seventy two when we

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Speaker 1: did this show in August of seventy two, the pilot,

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Speaker 1: we talked about who might be the host, why this

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Speaker 1: person should host it. We had to get some people

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Speaker 1: who could talk because we wanted to talk about get

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Speaker 1: out to vote, And over a couple of weeks we

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Speaker 1: came up with a show. And I did some of

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Speaker 1: the softer rock earlier following the Tonight show, and the

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Speaker 1: harder rock would come on at one forty five maybe

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Speaker 1: or later. I thought those people might be up a

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Speaker 1: little bit later, and that came the first show. But

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Speaker 1: then we had to find a host. Okay, tell us

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Speaker 1: the story. Well known producer at the time named Jerry

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Speaker 1: Weintraub knew I was working on this show, and he said,

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Speaker 1: I've got a young guy named John Duchendorff. And he said,

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Speaker 1: John's name is being changed now. He's just come out

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Speaker 1: with one or two records. They've done very well. We're

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Speaker 1: calling him John Denver. Beautiful voice, whitebread looking, young fella,

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Speaker 1: not rock and roll, with funny looking and tattoos on

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Speaker 1: his forehead, none of that. He'd be a great host. Well,

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Speaker 1: he brought him over. I met him and liked him,

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Speaker 1: and he actually sang some works in the office, some

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Speaker 1: things he wrote, and he was terrific and he could

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Speaker 1: talk and enjoy the conversation. I started asking him about

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Speaker 1: Get Out to Vote. He knew about it. He said, oh, yes,

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Speaker 1: I can talk to some of the acts about that.

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Speaker 1: So I said, you know what, Jerry, Let's have him on,

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Speaker 1: but not have him host. Jerry said, no way. If

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Speaker 1: I could do something with Elvis Presley, I'm telling you,

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Speaker 1: this kid's going to be a major star, and you're

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Speaker 1: going to look back and say he was the right one.

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Speaker 1: So Jerry talked me and do it, and John Denver

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Speaker 1: was the host of the very first show. Okay, do

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Speaker 1: you remember who was on the first show. Well, we

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Speaker 1: had Mama Cass, Linda ron Stat and the Everly Brothers Argent.

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Speaker 1: We had some great acts on that show. I called.

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Speaker 1: Some of them had little trouble with the agents, but

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Speaker 1: then the record companies pushed and they helped. And then

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Speaker 1: on one or two of them, when I told Johnny,

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Speaker 1: he said, I'll book them a week in front and

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Speaker 1: just sit there and talk to him and we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about what's going to happen to the show. And they

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Speaker 1: get on and Johnny was extremely helpful, very supportive, very

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Speaker 1: helpful and a good friend of mine. So it worked

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Speaker 1: out well. And that's how the first show obviously did

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Speaker 1: absolutely terrific because the NBCM immediately came to me and said,

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Speaker 1: this is working. Everybody liked it. The FCC liked it

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Speaker 1: because get out to vote, all of our executives liked it.

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Speaker 1: The ratings were there. When can you start and do

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Speaker 1: a weekly Well, I said, give me a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks to think that over. So I really started terrific

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Speaker 1: and I said I need five or six months. Let's

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Speaker 1: put it on late January, early February, and that's what happened. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's go sideways for a second. To Johnny. He had

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Speaker 1: his public persona and then he had his off screen persona,

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Speaker 1: and different personalities have been described since you knew him

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Speaker 1: so well. What was Johnny like off camera? Johnny was

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Speaker 1: an extremely competitive person. The days that we weren't playing tennis,

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Speaker 1: he actually went into his downstairs what he called his

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Speaker 1: man cave, and he played the drums and he was

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Speaker 1: absolutely terrific at it. Johnny was much of a loaner,

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Speaker 1: very much so competitive a tennis We had a wonderful

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Speaker 1: time playing and if he didn't win, he was very

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Speaker 1: very vocal about it. He wanted to win every game.

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Speaker 1: I was less vocal because I wanted to promote the show.

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Speaker 1: But we had We really did have some laughs in

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Speaker 1: a great time, and I enjoyed him a lot. Do

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Speaker 1: you remember how you met him? Let me think back

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Speaker 1: to that one. I don't think i've been asked that question.

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Speaker 1: I think I met him pulling into the driveway where

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Speaker 1: I was pulling in in a fancy car, and he

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Speaker 1: had his little Mercedes Coop that he drove, and he

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Speaker 1: wanted to take a look at the car I was driving,

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Speaker 1: and he came over and visited and introduced himself. Of

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Speaker 1: course I knew him and he knew me because I

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Speaker 1: was the neighbor. And we sat there and talked. We

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Speaker 1: literally sat there for over an hour just talking generally.

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Speaker 1: And was he aware of who you were once you

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Speaker 1: told him what your name was. He didn't know which

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Speaker 1: shows I had produced, but he know I had knew

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Speaker 1: I had produced some, especially because they were at NBC

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Speaker 1: and I often used the NBC studio across from Johnny's

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Speaker 1: to do my shows, even though we never got together.

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Speaker 1: Then he knew the name and he knew I was around,

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Speaker 1: so it was he was comfortable with talking to me.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember what kind of car it was you

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Speaker 1: were driving? I do. It was called a Gia Gia,

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Speaker 1: a Gia four fifty SS that I was driving, and

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Speaker 1: he just loved the car. How'd you end up getting

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Speaker 1: that car? It's another show, Bob. I actually had that

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Speaker 1: car built in Italy, and I had fifty eight of

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Speaker 1: them built because I saw one on a cover and

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Speaker 1: Gia made bodies but not the engines. And drive frame.

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Speaker 1: And again it's a long, long story, so we'll do

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Speaker 1: that one another time. Okay, just to stay for one

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Speaker 1: more second. If you had fifty eight built, what happened

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Speaker 1: to the other fifty seven? They got sold? They were sold,

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Speaker 1: I would say roughly half of them in Europe and

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Speaker 1: half of them in the United States. And I had

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Speaker 1: a retail sales operation right on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills,

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Speaker 1: willsher and Cannon, the Ferrari dealer happens to be in

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Speaker 1: that building now, and that's where I sold him from.

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Speaker 1: And it did not take very long. I sold him

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Speaker 1: very very quickly. You remember what the price was, approximately

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Speaker 1: thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars. And do you still have

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Speaker 1: your Gia? I do? And was it a good car?

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Speaker 1: Irrelevant performance? A lot of these Italian cars are known

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Speaker 1: for being for breaking down. Shall we say it's another

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Speaker 1: it's another show, I'm telling you. But it was a

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Speaker 1: Chrysler drive train and it was terrific. And are you

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Speaker 1: a car collector? You just had that one experience with Gia.

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Speaker 1: I was a collector, Bob. At one time I had

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Speaker 1: sixty two cars and I collected them and enjoyed them

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Speaker 1: and loved it, and I know you enjoy the midnight special, right,

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Speaker 1: And what you do with all the cars over over

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Speaker 1: the period of years, I've sold about fifty five of them.

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Speaker 1: And what was the favorite car you ever had? A

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three Dusenberg. Wow. Okay. So this neighborhood we're

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Speaker 1: meeting Johnny is approximately where for those of us it was,

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Speaker 1: it was in bell Air. Okay, So you have this

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Speaker 1: relationship with Johnny you put on the show. I'm just

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Speaker 1: interested since you did the first show, when you sold

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Speaker 1: the advertising yourself, how did the economics end up working out?

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Speaker 1: They worked out well. I think on the first show

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Speaker 1: all over, I broke even and I was happy about that,

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Speaker 1: but I actually broke even. Okay. For those of us

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Speaker 1: who weren't in the business, there were a number of

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Speaker 1: shows at the time. There was your show, There was

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Speaker 1: in concert, There was ultimately Don Kirshner's show. Do you

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Speaker 1: believe you were the first? What was going on there?

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Speaker 1: They basically came after me. There was one for me,

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Speaker 1: and that was Dick Clark's show. And if you were

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Speaker 1: on Dick Clark's show, you were lip syncing. And when

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Speaker 1: I watched it, and I noticed that the voices and

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Speaker 1: the faces were not matched to the words always, and

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Speaker 1: I thought it was so great of Dick to be

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Speaker 1: able to do that so early and have some terrific

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Speaker 1: acts on. But I wanted everybody to sing live. If

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Speaker 1: they felt they couldn't sing live, I couldn't put them

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Speaker 1: on the show. That's how I felt, and that's what

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Speaker 1: I did, and everybody sang live, except just a couple

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Speaker 1: of over the years. A couple of acts were in

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Speaker 1: another country or somewhere, so they sent me a tape

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Speaker 1: a tape of them doing it, and I knew that

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Speaker 1: one or two or three of those tapes they were

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Speaker 1: lip syncing on their own tapes, and I would have

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Speaker 1: Wolfman Jack say something about that because I wanted everyone

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Speaker 1: to sing live. And I also had to go and

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Speaker 1: find the best audio people to work on the show

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Speaker 1: show for me who were working on records. They worked

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Speaker 1: for Universal, for Warners, for an M, etc. And I

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Speaker 1: would bring them in to help make the audio as

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Speaker 1: good as I possibly could. And that was really important

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Speaker 1: to me because I knew the acts cared about that. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So you know, even back then, an act would come

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Speaker 1: in for a sound check when they're playing a live

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Speaker 1: gig and the acts usually would not be good from

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Speaker 1: the very first note. So how long would it take

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Speaker 1: to record an act? Some country acts immediately they were

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Speaker 1: just ready. They had been the night before someplace, working

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Speaker 1: live on a stage and they were ready. A few

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Speaker 1: of the acts needed a little bit of time and

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Speaker 1: we were patient, and to tape a ninety minute show.

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Speaker 1: Of course that included commercials, so the show itself went

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Speaker 1: about one ten. We took about six hours to do

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Speaker 1: that show because of exactly what you're saying. Some acts

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Speaker 1: needed a little bit more time than others get the

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Speaker 1: voices right. I mean, I can just remember somebody like

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Speaker 1: Paul Anka, who was also on Dick Clark some years before.

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Speaker 1: He'd come out in the first note. He was sensational.

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Speaker 1: He just did it. He knocked it out and I

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Speaker 1: had him host a couple of times, and he was

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Speaker 1: involved in booking the acts and who they were and

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Speaker 1: who he wanted, etc. But there were a lot of

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Speaker 1: acts that just came out and did it. David Bowie,

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Speaker 1: I went to England and the Marquee Club was very

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Speaker 1: hot at the time for some of these acts and

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Speaker 1: the Stones etc. And I taped him there and from

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Speaker 1: the first note, David Bowie was on it, just on it.

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Speaker 1: During that taping in or the Little Things, you remember,

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Speaker 1: Mick Jagger came in and under his arm was merry unfaithful. Wow.

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Speaker 1: That probably might mean more today than it did then.

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Speaker 1: And then David had a long haired lady come in

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Speaker 1: named Dushenka, and Dushenka was just beautiful and sang. And

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Speaker 1: then I found out later that Dushenka was a man. Wow,

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Speaker 1: We've got some tape on that that's really really interesting

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Speaker 1: and we'll put it up on Midnight Special So rock acts,

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Speaker 1: we'll all acts at this point in time, are never

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Speaker 1: happy with their performance and they want to tweak it

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Speaker 1: after the fact. Did people who want to do that?

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Speaker 1: What was the Midnight Specials policy? I didn't find that.

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Speaker 1: I really didn't the acts when they came on. I

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Speaker 1: think they had rehearsed with the record companies before in

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Speaker 1: order to get whatever songs they were going to sing.

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Speaker 1: And of course many of them had number one or

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Speaker 1: top ten hits. They were ready, a lot of them,

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Speaker 1: a few of them that weren't, and we'd take a

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Speaker 1: half hour, forty five minutes whatever it took to make

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Speaker 1: it right. And the name Richard Prior, I know, of course,

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Speaker 1: you know. And Richard was a dear and close friend

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Speaker 1: of mine and I hadn't yet, but I had produced

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Speaker 1: Richard Pryor's for NBC television shows, and Richard and I

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Speaker 1: were dear friends, and he would come to a lot

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Speaker 1: of shows and if we were having a little issue

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Speaker 1: with an act of some kind or another, Richard would

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Speaker 1: knock on their door, walk inside, talk to him, relax him.

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Speaker 1: Nobody could believe that was in Richard Pryor, but he

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Speaker 1: did that, and he was hanging around the show. And

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Speaker 1: then I had three stages going at the same time,

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Speaker 1: and one would be lit and that's where we would shoot,

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Speaker 1: and the other two were kind of rehearsing quietly getting ready,

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Speaker 1: and Richard would be standing around getting the audience up

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Speaker 1: and happy because they were all sitting on the floor.

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Speaker 1: People lined up outside to come to the tapings. And

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Speaker 1: so I didn't have a lot of trouble like that.

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Speaker 1: I think I was fortunate, Bob. So it was all

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Speaker 1: shot in one day. Yes, yeah, at NBC. Yes, Okay,

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Speaker 1: what was the commitment? How many shows for the year?

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Speaker 1: When once NBC said yes, roughly forty eight. Oh wow,

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Speaker 1: so it's old school, Yes, yes, old school, and we

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Speaker 1: repeated about four shows. Okay, yeah. How did Wolfman Jack

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Speaker 1: get involved in sitting with that group of people that

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Speaker 1: I told you about? The Susan Richards, that Tisha, that

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Speaker 1: Dick ever saw all of them? One of them, I

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Speaker 1: don't know which one, said you know, there's a there's

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Speaker 1: a DJ that works out of Tijuana by the name

429
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 1: of Wolfman Jack. He's got an incredibly unique voice. The

430
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 1: artists are just crazy about him, and of course they

431
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: want him to play their songs. So if we could

432
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:48,879
Speaker 1: get him involved, the artists would like to come and

433
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: meet Wolfman they didn't all go to Tijuana, and he

434
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: would know them more apt to play their songs during

435
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: his DJ week. And then he was in a little

436
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:04,480
Speaker 1: thing all American graffiti, and because of it, I just

437
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 1: felt that was a great idea. They showed me some

438
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: pictures of him with a big smile on his face

439
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: and I loved it, called him, had him come out

440
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 1: to the studio, met him, and instantaneously we really connected.

441
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 1: He was always always a favorite of mine. He and

442
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 1: his wife, Lew were wonderful people, and wolf Man was there,

443
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: and he would call acts to come to do the show.

444
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: If somebody was shy, he'd get him on stage, or

445
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: he'd talk about him on his radio show. Come on,

446
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:36,880
Speaker 1: you gotta come out and see me on this night

447
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: I'm taping and you gotta be there, things like that.

448
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 1: So Wolfman was part of my life for those ten

449
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: years and a welcome part. And in terms of ratings,

450
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: although at that lead time, it's a whole world unto itself.

451
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,439
Speaker 1: Did it Bill? Did it fade? Over the ten years?

452
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: What were the ratings? Like? The ratings seem to get better,

453
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: and I think what we call sets in use, and

454
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: I think that what happened is sets in use were growing.

455
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: So I was part of that and part of the

456
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:13,880
Speaker 1: Tonight Show afterwards. And for a while I was the

457
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 1: only thing on the air after one pm and one am.

458
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,880
Speaker 1: I keep saying PM one am. That was it. And

459
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,439
Speaker 1: then later all of a sudden you saw some people

460
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 1: talking doing not podcasts but videocasts a little bit, and

461
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: you had a couple of alternatives. But I was the

462
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: only game in town. And so if you like music

463
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 1: and Wolfman Jack all the acts we had, the music

464
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: was being promoted by the record companies themselves. So it was,

465
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: I must say, a party, and I never missed a show.

466
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: To what degree did Johnny going to an hour affect

467
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 1: the show because you were on a half hour earlier

468
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: that after that, it did not affect it, And I

469
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 1: was fortunate that that happened. But I'm glad you mentioned

470
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: that because I was concerned talked to John about it.

471
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: He was tired. He was just getting tired of doing

472
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: it constantly, constantly, didn't know where he'd find the next act,

473
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 1: the next person. So as you probably know, he had

474
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,920
Speaker 1: a lot of regulars who were wonderful there. Don Rickles

475
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: was a regular, and some of these people were just

476
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: wonderful regulars because he was tired. So I was fortunate

477
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 1: that he did talk about the show even after when

478
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: it was not my lead in. John talked about it,

479
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: and of course he beat me at tennis all the time. Then,

480
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: to what degree were in concert in Don Kirshner's rock

481
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: concert competition? They were not. Donnie Kirshner was a very

482
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: good friend of mine. I adored him. We talked about

483
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: the acts, and I would always say, look, if you

484
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: go back to the East Coast near New York go

485
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: to rock concert. It'll be great for you. He did

486
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,479
Speaker 1: the same thing for acts coming out the West Coast,

487
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: and I never looked at them as competition. I just didn't.

488
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: Some of those shows, like in concert, had to lip sync.

489
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 1: They couldn't get quite the audio that I did. And

490
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: one of the reasons was because I had the sound men.

491
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 1: So many of the records were coming out of Hollywood,

492
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,040
Speaker 1: out of the recording studios in Hollywood, a few of

493
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: them in the Valley, and there was a guy named

494
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: Bill Cole who everybody said, can you get Bill Cole?

495
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: And I kept saying, no, I've asked Bill, he just

496
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to want to. And in the pilot, the

497
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: pilot was done by a fellow named Bill Davitski, who

498
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: was very well known. He did it, but he couldn't

499
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 1: do it anymore. He was too busy during records and

500
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: then fortunately starting a show too, I had Bill Cole.

501
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,080
Speaker 1: So the acts were as happy as can be, and

502
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: they love the fact that the sound was sensational. Okay,

503
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: this is a business that's reactive, So at first you

504
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: get a certain number of acts and as you say,

505
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 1: then the records start to move on Saturday and Sunday

506
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: did then the relationships change such that acts were hounding

507
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,719
Speaker 1: you to be on. That really happened. Of course, if

508
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: he looked at the top six or seven acts in

509
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: the world, they all they came and they did it,

510
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: but they didn't hound me. But other than that, it

511
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: wasn't a matter of hounding. An example, somebody said to

512
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: me one of the I think it was Susan Richards, said,

513
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: you got a book Christopher Cross. Well, who's Christopher Cross? Well,

514
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: this record company is saying that he is going to

515
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: be the next big thing. We've heard of. His record

516
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: coming out, I believe was called Sailing and listen to

517
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 1: this and listening to it it was absolutely terrific. Well

518
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 1: what does he look like here? Let me get a

519
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 1: picture from the record company. Took a look at Christopher

520
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 1: Cross and he can sing. Let's book him. So I

521
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 1: would put him on at two fifteen. He wasn't well known,

522
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: but he just knocked it out. I mean I could

523
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: see the audience sitting on the ground there and the floor,

524
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: and Richard Pryor there, etc. And a comic or two

525
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: that we had a Steve Martin would say, Wow, this

526
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 1: kid is fabulous. And that's what would happen on new acts.

527
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: I did put them on often for the record companies

528
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: because they wanted to break them, because they believed in him,

529
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,960
Speaker 1: and they were usually right. Okay, so you said you

530
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: were there at every show. A lot of people don't

531
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: know how these shows are ultimately created. What were you

532
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 1: doing at every show? Well, the director, who was a

533
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: Stan Harris or Dick Eversol or Kenny Erlick or Rock

534
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: or BC whatever, they would be upstairs directing. I would

535
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: basically be on the floor, but moving from around the

536
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: dressing rooms, talking to the acts, making sure they were comfortable.

537
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 1: Did they have anything they wanted? If they drank something,

538
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: whether it was a mountain dew or whatever it might

539
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 1: have been, did we have enough for them? Could we

540
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: do anything for the people who brought them over? Just

541
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: make everybody comfortable. I guess you'd call me the executive

542
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: producer and I would walk around and if I saw

543
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 1: something that I didn't like, if it might be a

544
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:26,920
Speaker 1: drug or something, I made sure that I put a

545
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: stop to that immediately and would not allow that that

546
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: didn't happen often NBC could not believe it, but it

547
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: didn't happen. Often, and I was a floor manager. Then

548
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 1: what I was doing was making sure everybody was ready

549
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: to come out on one of those three stages. Next,

550
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: when we went live, you talk about drugs, What about alcohol? Yes,

551
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 1: same thing, same thing, And you know, you can't really

552
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: control it. You can't tell somebody who's twenty five years

553
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: old what to do or how to do it. But

554
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,719
Speaker 1: they wanted it. They wanted to look good, and especially

555
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 1: they wanted to sound good. And then a lot of

556
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: them brought their own sound people and they went and

557
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: talked to Bill Cole about what they wanted a little

558
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: more trouble here and this part of it, and cut

559
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: it down to bass over here, and here's what I

560
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 1: want you to do here. And Cole was a pro

561
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: at it. And so when an act like that, who's

562
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 1: a hit on records, is happy with their sound, the

563
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: evening goes, well, okay, how did you end up getting

564
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: comedians on the show? That stem from Johnny? Johnny said,

565
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: you know, I break it up off and with a comic.

566
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: You know, it might be a Rickles, it might be

567
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: this one or that one. So I decided I'd do

568
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: the same darn thing, and the comic might be a

569
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: little different For me. It might be a George Carlin.

570
00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: Steve Martin was young and new. Then Bill Caused was on.

571
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: Andy Kaufman was on, and I just had fun with him.

572
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: It was just like a little bit of a break.

573
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 1: For some people it might have been a bathroom break.

574
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: Other people it might have been a music break. But

575
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,439
Speaker 1: I at home and I just thought, that's terrific. Theyre

576
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: if they're fun. Everybody loosens up a little bit. The

577
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 1: music can stop for twenty thirty minutes and everybody relax

578
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: a moment. And it worked out well in the studio

579
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 1: as well. Now this is fifty years ago, and the

580
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 1: younger generation may not be able to comprehend. It aired

581
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 1: once and then you couldn't see it again. Right, It

582
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 1: aired once. I did repeat some shows because I did,

583
00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: as I said, about forty eight a year, and that

584
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: was it. That was it, and I put him away,

585
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: locked him up, and for whatever got me really seriously late,

586
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: after about six or seven years, I decided that I

587
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 1: was afraid of the tape. Johnny had told me that

588
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,360
Speaker 1: some of the tape of his early shows, which he

589
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: didn't really own because NBC paid for his show, the

590
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: tape went bad, and they looked, try and look at

591
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 1: an old show or in our act to bring back,

592
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: and the tape went bad. So I looked for the latest,

593
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: which I did then I have done since then, put

594
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 1: on what they call hard drive, and now it's all protected.

595
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: Every bit of it's protected. And every time we had

596
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,439
Speaker 1: a signed contract, they went in these boxes and took

597
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 1: care of those things and stored them in storages that

598
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: I paid for. And you were that much of a

599
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: music fan at that time. You were just shy of forty,

600
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: which sounds young when you're on the other side of it.

601
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: But that was an era where it was you say

602
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: was driven by twenty five year old Well, I think

603
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: I started around thirty two or thirty three is where

604
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: I started. And then of course, obviously age went, but

605
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: the music stuck with me, and I was a major,

606
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:07,280
Speaker 1: major country fan as well. I respected the country acts

607
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: when they came in and talked, and I remember sitting

608
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 1: down with Loretta Lynn and knowing that she wrote most

609
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,359
Speaker 1: of her songs. How in the world you do this?

610
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: She said, Well, you know, he'd come home drunk at

611
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: night and I'd just sit there all night and he'd

612
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:26,480
Speaker 1: give me a little whack on the side of the head,

613
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 1: and I'd write a song, and if you listen to

614
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:34,839
Speaker 1: those songs, that's what happened. It's exactly what happened. She said.

615
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 1: It was life. And then when one or two people

616
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,240
Speaker 1: got killed in these plane crashes, and I would write

617
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,360
Speaker 1: very much about them, how I loved them, and what

618
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:48,920
Speaker 1: happened and how I lost them. And it was wonderful

619
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: listening to that. And then somebody like Chris Christofferson, who's

620
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: still around. I don't think he's ever really been appreciated

621
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: for the songs he wrote, some of the songs that

622
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,560
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash covered in George Jones and whoever it might

623
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 1: have been. Chris just had a way with lyrics, and

624
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 1: you know, I put on my dirt, my clean his

625
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: dirty shirt, remember some of that stuff that was all

626
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:18,320
Speaker 1: out of Christofferson. So sitting with these people I really

627
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 1: really enjoyed. I think I learned a lot from them

628
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 1: about their life and how they banged around and how

629
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: Chris said he worked in a hotel in Nashville when

630
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 1: he went there, and just these stories about these people,

631
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 1: where they came from, how they were brought up. I

632
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: was just knocked out by it. And it made me

633
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 1: just be so sympathetic to where they came from, and

634
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:46,719
Speaker 1: they remained good, good people. Okay, to the degree you

635
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,480
Speaker 1: can slice and dice. Tell us about a couple of

636
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: peak experiences on the show. I had never gone on

637
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:58,279
Speaker 1: camera and never wanted to. I felt that I was

638
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: always behind the camera, not in front of the camera.

639
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:05,759
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, I'm sitting out there with

640
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: the audience and I'm watching it, watching an act and

641
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: he was getting a record, he was getting a gold

642
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 1: record on stage, and he said, where's Bert. I don't

643
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: want this record company to hand it to me. I

644
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: want I want Bert Sugarman to give it to me.

645
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: I said, no, no, no, I don't really, I don't

646
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 1: go on camera. I just I just don't. But let's

647
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 1: we'll tape it with a record company and I'll make

648
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: sure we shoot it beautifully. And Jim Croach he said

649
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: to me, well, then I'm leaving. What if you can't

650
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 1: hand it to me, and you're the boss of the

651
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:53,399
Speaker 1: show and I'm your star here, I'm out of here.

652
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: I said, where are you going? He said, I'm going

653
00:38:56,239 --> 00:39:00,760
Speaker 1: to my next gig. Are you serious? I'm very very serious.

654
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:03,799
Speaker 1: I got up out of the audience. I took the

655
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 1: record from the record person and I handed it to him,

656
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 1: made a little speech for him, and that's in the show.

657
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 1: And I gave Jim Crochey his gold record and he

658
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: said to me, I love it. I love you coming

659
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:20,080
Speaker 1: up and doing this, and you don't know how much

660
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: I appreciated Bert. And I want to come back and

661
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: host again. I said, you got it, no question, you

662
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 1: will come back and host, give me some dates your

663
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 1: free and will do it. And unfortunately he was then

664
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: killed in a plane crash, and so he could never

665
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: do that again. So it started out as the Midnight Special,

666
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 1: but ultimately was build as Bert Sugarman's Midnight Special. How

667
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,319
Speaker 1: did that happen? I didn't realize that was ultimately. I

668
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: thought that was in the beginning. You know something that

669
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,839
Speaker 1: I don't know about it, Bob. Well, as I say,

670
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:02,880
Speaker 1: my memory only works so well. But when you go

671
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 1: on YouTube, it does say Bird Sugarman's and on some

672
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: of the early videos I think it doesn't. But let's

673
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,120
Speaker 1: leave that alone for a second. So where are you from?

674
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: Where were you born and where did you grow up?

675
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 1: Born in Beverly Hills. My father was a pharmacist, and

676
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 1: I lived in a one bedroom, a two bedroom apartment,

677
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 1: a tiny little apartment right off Sunset Boulevard, and my

678
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 1: dad would go to Sunset and Vine where he worked

679
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 1: in a drug store. And my wife and I recently,

680
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 1: just recently, we're looking through old pictures of her family

681
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 1: and my family, and I've got some pictures of my

682
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: dad would Tyrone Power, who wrote a note on this

683
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: picture saying, al you give me my prescriptions when I

684
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: really want them, And my dad would tell me that

685
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: Sinatra was in there all the time, Tyrone Power, all

686
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,799
Speaker 1: these major actors I'd always heard about, and they had

687
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 1: their own drugs, and he said, yes, we'd give them

688
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: a drug here, into something there and this and that,

689
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: and they came and hang around, and they were absolutely

690
00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 1: wonderful coming in the drug store that I worked in.

691
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: So I was a local. Then I didn't go to

692
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,840
Speaker 1: Beverly High. I thought it was a little snooty and

693
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:24,920
Speaker 1: the kids had money, and we didn't have too much

694
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 1: money off any kind. And so I went to school

695
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:32,240
Speaker 1: not far on Fairfax and Melrose called Fairfax High School,

696
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 1: and that's where I went to school and grew up there,

697
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 1: and then went to USC and didn't go to the

698
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 1: film school. And that's my that's growing up. Okay, So

699
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: were an only child. I was an only child, yes, okay,

700
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: And you've had a lot of success. Were you always

701
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,440
Speaker 1: the straw that stirred the drink that made things happen?

702
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 1: What was your personality in these aerience is growing up?

703
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: I think I could say nicely aggressive. I was a

704
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 1: self starter, extremely curious about whatever I was going to do.

705
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,279
Speaker 1: I was very very curious, and that led me to

706
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:21,359
Speaker 1: go into things like hamburgers, later, paper companies, cement companies,

707
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,240
Speaker 1: all just different kinds of things. Something about these different

708
00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: businesses appealed to me. Later when I was young, it

709
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:35,359
Speaker 1: was pretty much the same thing. I had friends who

710
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 1: were in the entertainment business. Glenn Campbell was a friend

711
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 1: of mine from the time I was very very young,

712
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:44,799
Speaker 1: and Glenn and I would travel and goof around. And

713
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,280
Speaker 1: he was not known then because he was a guitar

714
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 1: player for some of the major acts. He was known

715
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:53,759
Speaker 1: as the real guitar player in the studio, so he

716
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,799
Speaker 1: wasn't known as Glen Campbelly didn't have a TV show then, etc.

717
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:01,520
Speaker 1: I do remember Glenn's TV show in on the air

718
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: and he came to meet me in Aspen, Colorado, so

719
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: we could ski for a three day weekend. And John Denver,

720
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 1: this is later John Denver was having a party. We

721
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: ran into him and asked, but he said, look, here's

722
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: where I live, etc. Etc. Come on out to my party.

723
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 1: It'll be tonight. Well, it started snowing in the afternoon,

724
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 1: a massive snowstorm. So Glenn and I. I'm driving and

725
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 1: Glenn's looking and we're having trouble seeing the front of

726
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 1: our car. And he said, look, there's a light there.

727
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:34,359
Speaker 1: Let's pull into that light. We'll find something. This looks

728
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:36,919
Speaker 1: like a little ranch house. I said, Glenn, up here,

729
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,319
Speaker 1: you'd get shot. It's now eight thirty nine at night.

730
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: You just don't walk into something. He said, come on,

731
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: come on, you're a city slicker. Pull in. So I

732
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 1: made a right turn. I stopped about twenty feet away.

733
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,839
Speaker 1: He opens a car door, and I opened my door

734
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,840
Speaker 1: and I'm just standing in the door of my car.

735
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,800
Speaker 1: He knocks on the door and a little lady, probably

736
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:03,680
Speaker 1: seventy five years opens the door, looks at him. She said, hi, Glenn,

737
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,919
Speaker 1: come on in. Well, you could have knocked me down.

738
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: I started realizing the power of television there. It was

739
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 1: amazing to me. So we went in sat with her.

740
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 1: She had no idea where John Denver lived. We spent

741
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 1: an hour with her and went back home. Never went

742
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 1: to the party. Okay, so you go to USC before

743
00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,560
Speaker 1: you graduate from USC, are you already an entrepreneur? Or

744
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,280
Speaker 1: did that not starting to laughter? You graduated from college?

745
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: That started off after I joined a zb. I joined

746
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,080
Speaker 1: a fraternity and I was there a year and I

747
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 1: didn't like it. Everybody was drunk. I was stunned at

748
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,960
Speaker 1: that At USC, they were drinking every night and it

749
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 1: was it was a mess. They didn't study very much,

750
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: and I was not a real good student. I was

751
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,360
Speaker 1: what you would call a C student sometimes when it

752
00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,799
Speaker 1: was a something math, trigonometry, math, I was good. Other

753
00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:04,360
Speaker 1: that history, English, those wonderful things I barely got to see.

754
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 1: So I had to study and I didn't didn't want

755
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,000
Speaker 1: to stay, so I dropped out of the fraternity. I

756
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: wanted to graduate, which I did with that kind of

757
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:20,600
Speaker 1: a weak scholastic record. And then I just started looking

758
00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:23,800
Speaker 1: around TV trying to come up with something I could.

759
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 1: I saw game shows I thought were cute. How could

760
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:28,520
Speaker 1: I come up with one? And do one. I started

761
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 1: doing that stuff. So what was your first break? What

762
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 1: was your first show? First show? I can't answer that, Bob.

763
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact first show right now. I

764
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: had one cost celebrity sweepstakes. That was one of the

765
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 1: early ones. You're an outsider. How you go from outsider

766
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: he grew up in Beverly Hills to having a show

767
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:56,760
Speaker 1: on network television. Well, I had a lot of friends

768
00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 1: in the business. Ronnie Burns, who was George Burns's and

769
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:03,279
Speaker 1: great see Allen's son. Ronnie was my buddy Glenn I

770
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:06,359
Speaker 1: was with all the time. And I ran into a

771
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: lot of these young people that were in the business

772
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 1: at the time and would spend some time with them,

773
00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 1: learn a little bit, go on a movie set, going

774
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,800
Speaker 1: a TV set, And I realized that I liked TV

775
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:21,359
Speaker 1: much much more than I liked films, because you could

776
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 1: be working on a film and it was, as you know,

777
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:26,319
Speaker 1: a year before it came out by the time the

778
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:29,319
Speaker 1: editors finished six months later. And this and that I

779
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:32,360
Speaker 1: didn't like that you could do a game show, a

780
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 1: quiz show, and if you did it on Monday, and

781
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:38,279
Speaker 1: you taped a few of them, they aired starting the

782
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,560
Speaker 1: Monday after many of the mayor the same week. I

783
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: love that. I love that instantaneous thing happening, and so

784
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:52,280
Speaker 1: I just gravitated towards TV. A fellow named Chuck Barriss

785
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 1: was a friend of mine, and Chuck started the Newlywood Game,

786
00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,800
Speaker 1: the Dating Game, etc. And I bought those shows from Chuck.

787
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 1: He had been doing him a few years, got tired

788
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: of it, and I bought those shows and I produced

789
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:09,319
Speaker 1: him and I started working on those shows and I

790
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 1: owned them then, and then I created some of my own.

791
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:16,440
Speaker 1: I did a special call Miss Black America. There was

792
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: Miss America, and I did Miss Black America out of

793
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:25,239
Speaker 1: the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I enjoyed the Philharmonic, and

794
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:29,319
Speaker 1: when Zubin Maida was our conductor years and years ago,

795
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:33,960
Speaker 1: I produced Zuban Maide in the La Philharmonic. I had

796
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:37,759
Speaker 1: Jack Benny as a guest and got some emmies on

797
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: that show and did that. They just came out of

798
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:47,240
Speaker 1: relationships and this and that. Henry Mancini, how's that. Hank

799
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,960
Speaker 1: was a good friend of mine, and he's always said,

800
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,879
Speaker 1: you do all these shows? What should I do? I said,

801
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: do you be yourself? Come on. He had a wonderful personality,

802
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,320
Speaker 1: just so likable. He was just a terrific guy. And

803
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,919
Speaker 1: so I produced one year of shows with Hank, which

804
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:09,360
Speaker 1: I have protected and still have them, of course, and

805
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:13,279
Speaker 1: I enjoyed every single thing I did with him. So

806
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,280
Speaker 1: what you told me earlier really tickles my heart, because

807
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 1: he was a knockout man. He was terrific and things

808
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: like that. And I did things that have not come out.

809
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,920
Speaker 1: Did a show called City Versus Country. I did a

810
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:30,279
Speaker 1: bunch of those, and I would take country people from

811
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:33,520
Speaker 1: the south against city people from more in the north,

812
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,839
Speaker 1: and I would have them do athletics together and see

813
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,480
Speaker 1: who won. Just a silly show, but it went on

814
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:42,799
Speaker 1: the network and did well. I remember in seventy one

815
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:46,759
Speaker 1: and seventy two I used to produce the Grammy Awards,

816
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 1: and I remember how I got the show. I knew

817
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: a man named Bob Wood. Bob Wood at the time

818
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 1: was president of CBS, and I would see him socially

819
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 1: because of friends and liked and he liked me and

820
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 1: another man well known in the business named George Slaughter.

821
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:10,279
Speaker 1: George produced the Grammy Awards, but he didn't air him

822
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: till a week later. They were just shot on tape.

823
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:16,480
Speaker 1: I wanted to do him live, so I went to George.

824
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 1: I said, what do you want. I want to buy this.

825
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 1: He said, well, gimme X and you own it. It's

826
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: a pain to do it anyway. I gave him X.

827
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:26,800
Speaker 1: I owned the show. I immediately went over to Bob Wood,

828
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:28,440
Speaker 1: talk to him a little bit and said, I want

829
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,279
Speaker 1: to put this live on your network. He said, let

830
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,759
Speaker 1: me look at one of them on tape. Showed it

831
00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:35,560
Speaker 1: to him. He said, I like it. I'll bet you'll

832
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:37,839
Speaker 1: do a great job. I saw you do X and X,

833
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 1: and that's how I got seventy one and seventy two.

834
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 1: I did the Grammys live on CBS and they stayed

835
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:51,120
Speaker 1: live after that. Just unusual, unusual things would happen, and

836
00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: I would I don't want to say I fell into it,

837
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 1: but I was friendly and aggressive, and if I saw

838
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,440
Speaker 1: something I thought might work, I would jump at it,

839
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:04,360
Speaker 1: jump at it. So you were involved with Richard Pryor

840
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: from an early day before most people knew who he was.

841
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 1: How did that come together? I met Richard when he

842
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 1: was doing something at the comedy show and Sunset Boulevard,

843
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:17,600
Speaker 1: and I went late at night a couple of nights

844
00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 1: and met him, and I thought he was the best

845
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:24,400
Speaker 1: talent comedity talent I had ever seen. I went backstage,

846
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,800
Speaker 1: talked to him, introduced myself Tom, I've done some TV

847
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:31,719
Speaker 1: shows and this and that. And from that we met

848
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:33,799
Speaker 1: the next day and the next day and the next day,

849
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 1: and we just became pals, just became buddies. I know

850
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 1: Richard did drugs and I never ever, in all the

851
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: years with Richard, ever saw him take a drug. He

852
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 1: did not allow me to see him take a drug.

853
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: He respected me for that, and I respected him for that.

854
00:50:56,160 --> 00:51:04,080
Speaker 1: We did shows together. Boy one day he called called

855
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 1: me up and he said, can you come on over?

856
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,720
Speaker 1: And he had MS at the time. This is later,

857
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:12,279
Speaker 1: and he said, I've got a friend that'll answer the

858
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:14,520
Speaker 1: door that you've known for years and years and haven't

859
00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 1: seen him in a long time, but come on over

860
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 1: the house. And I said, I want to bring my wife.

861
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:23,439
Speaker 1: He said, okay, And my wife is a lady named

862
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 1: Mary Hart who was on Entertainment Tonight for twenty nine years.

863
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:32,399
Speaker 1: So Mary and I go over to Richard's house, knock

864
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:34,839
Speaker 1: on the door, and Mary didn't want to go. She said,

865
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:38,280
Speaker 1: Richard of all the people in twenty nine years. Richard

866
00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 1: was the worst interview I ever had, just horrible. I

867
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:44,080
Speaker 1: don't want to go, don't want to go, and I said,

868
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:46,360
Speaker 1: you gotta come, come on, you'll see a different Richard.

869
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:50,000
Speaker 1: He's my pal. I want you to see Richard with me,

870
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:53,359
Speaker 1: please Mary. So Mary came along, not happy about it,

871
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:56,279
Speaker 1: and I knock on the door and who opens the

872
00:51:56,320 --> 00:51:59,480
Speaker 1: door but Muhammad Ali And I knew Muhammed had met

873
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:03,879
Speaker 1: him early, and he also was not real well at

874
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:07,360
Speaker 1: the time. So we had Richard Mohammed there, and Mohammed

875
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: was great, and Richard was my buddy still, and he

876
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:15,480
Speaker 1: was a little bit weakly talking, and he said, come on, Mary,

877
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:17,920
Speaker 1: come on, Mary. I know I was with you one time.

878
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:20,880
Speaker 1: And Mary looks at me and she goes over and

879
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 1: sits next to him, and I go off with Mohammed

880
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 1: and Mohammed and I are talking for about thirty minutes

881
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:32,320
Speaker 1: in another room and I come back and see Richard

882
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: and Mary, and I swear to you, they both had

883
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 1: tears in their eyes. I said, what in the world happened?

884
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,680
Speaker 1: Look at the two of you? And Mary said, Richard

885
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:46,239
Speaker 1: asked me, who was the worst interview I ever had

886
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,959
Speaker 1: and I told him him, and I told him why

887
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:52,440
Speaker 1: and what had happened. And I was in Oklahoma then

888
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 1: on a talk show working and Richard came through early

889
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,120
Speaker 1: in the morning and he hadn't gone to bed, and

890
00:52:58,200 --> 00:52:59,759
Speaker 1: this is not where he wanted to be. And we

891
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 1: discussed it, and he put his arms around me and

892
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:05,959
Speaker 1: started crying and said, I oftentimes hurt the people I love.

893
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:10,000
Speaker 1: And I just started to crying. Here we are. And

894
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:15,560
Speaker 1: after that, when Mary would interview Richard for entertainment tonight,

895
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:18,240
Speaker 1: which he did, He'd always got a couple of hundred

896
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,919
Speaker 1: letters and she would go over to the house, oftentimes

897
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:25,680
Speaker 1: without me, and read the letters to Richard. They were

898
00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:30,920
Speaker 1: sent about him to the studio and they became best

899
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 1: best friends. At his funeral, he left directions that he

900
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: wanted Mary to be the speaker and the host at

901
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:45,200
Speaker 1: his funeral, which she did. And I loved him. I

902
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:48,360
Speaker 1: just loved him, and so did Mary, and he was

903
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,279
Speaker 1: a dear, dear friend till the end. I once gave

904
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 1: him as a gift, I gave him a miniature horse.

905
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 1: I had a ranch out in Hidden Valley and had

906
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:00,319
Speaker 1: a couple of miniature horses, and he admired when he

907
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,440
Speaker 1: came out, So I gave him one and his great

908
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: dane ate it the little miniature horse. You can't talk

909
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:13,400
Speaker 1: that story, and you can't make it up. I can

910
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:18,879
Speaker 1: hear him telling that story. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Bob, Wow,

911
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: there's some things that happened. They're just mind boggling. Now

912
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 1: you have a long history of being involved and married

913
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:33,080
Speaker 1: to very famous, desirable women. You talk about Mary Hart.

914
00:54:33,560 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: You were married to Mary. Mary is thirty four years married, Bob. Okay,

915
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:43,160
Speaker 1: but there were people before. Supposedly you were engaged to Anne,

916
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:47,080
Speaker 1: Margaret married to Carol Wayne. What's your magic for the

917
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 1: guys out there? Well, do us a trick? Oh wow,

918
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: Bob left Sets asked me that question. I don't think

919
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:02,640
Speaker 1: there's any magic except maybe me being me an. Margaret

920
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 1: was on stage with George Burns in Las Vegas. Ronnie

921
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: Burns told me about her, said, come on, let's go

922
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 1: see the show. My dad says, she's a wonderful, wonderful talent.

923
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:19,920
Speaker 1: I went up there backstage afterwards, George and Margaret, Ronnie

924
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 1: and I, and then she and I went out a

925
00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:26,719
Speaker 1: few times. You know, when you're around town, like that,

926
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,560
Speaker 1: and you're in different nooks, different corners, different shows here

927
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,400
Speaker 1: and there. You meet a lot of people, and you

928
00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:36,279
Speaker 1: have a few dates. But you had more than a

929
00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:40,360
Speaker 1: few dates. You say you're married. How'd you meet Mary?

930
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:44,360
Speaker 1: I had produced a movie called Children of a Lesser

931
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:51,040
Speaker 1: God for Paramount, and Paramount wanted the producers of three

932
00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:53,919
Speaker 1: or four of the films coming out that next year

933
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:58,400
Speaker 1: to go to Las Vegas to meet the theater owners.

934
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 1: They had a couple of thousand come to Las Vegas

935
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:05,640
Speaker 1: every year, and the producers would talk about their films. Well,

936
00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:09,280
Speaker 1: I get on a Paramount plane and I look across

937
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:12,440
Speaker 1: the aisle and there's Mary Hart, who I watch on

938
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:15,719
Speaker 1: TV every night and always saw it. Gosh, I'd sure

939
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:18,240
Speaker 1: like to go out with Mary Hart. And she's sitting

940
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:21,279
Speaker 1: alone with papers on her lap. I go over. I

941
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: sit down in the chair next to her, and I said,

942
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:26,239
Speaker 1: and there's only a few of us producers and then

943
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:30,359
Speaker 1: Mary and I said, Hi, I'm Bert Sugarman. Mary. It's

944
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:32,480
Speaker 1: nice to meet you, she said, Hi. Say can we

945
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:34,680
Speaker 1: talk to a few minutes? She said, no, we can't.

946
00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:38,640
Speaker 1: I'm going through all of these papers about your movies.

947
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 1: Of you producers who you are what the names are,

948
00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:46,080
Speaker 1: so I can't right now, maybe another time. Thank you. Well,

949
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 1: that was a great one. I went back to my

950
00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:52,280
Speaker 1: seat and sat there, and then on stage I couldn't

951
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 1: talk to her, just couldn't. And she was working and

952
00:56:56,680 --> 00:57:00,000
Speaker 1: I was getting ready for my speech. All these theaters

953
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 1: her owners, and that was the end of it. And

954
00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 1: going home, I went home a different I didn't go home.

955
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:09,759
Speaker 1: I went to New York, and I guess she went

956
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:13,439
Speaker 1: back to Hollywood, so I didn't see her for quite

957
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:19,880
Speaker 1: a while. And then what was next? Right next was

958
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:26,760
Speaker 1: I'm in New York laying on the beach, and my

959
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,720
Speaker 1: host at their house says, you got a phone call, Bert,

960
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:32,479
Speaker 1: come on, get up here. You got a phone call.

961
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:34,680
Speaker 1: I go up and it's a friend of mine at

962
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:38,640
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. Do you even know what the share party is, Bob, Yes,

963
00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:43,720
Speaker 1: I do, Okay. The share Party is where it's a

964
00:57:43,840 --> 00:57:47,880
Speaker 1: charity and everything goes to mental health and it's tied

965
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:51,080
Speaker 1: to Cedar sign I Mental Hospital, and the wives of

966
00:57:51,160 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 1: many male executives and a few of the husbands of

967
00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 1: female executives run this group called Chair and they give

968
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:02,960
Speaker 1: a party where you were tree Western clothes boots, guns

969
00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 1: and all kind of Levi's fun party to go to

970
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:10,520
Speaker 1: every year in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills, usually at

971
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 1: the Hilton. And this friend of mine says, listen, I'm

972
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:18,360
Speaker 1: going to the share party. And this is on a Wednesday.

973
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:21,560
Speaker 1: And he said, you know it's Saturday night. And he said,

974
00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:25,720
Speaker 1: I'm taking Mary Hart and Jackie Smith. I'm really mad

975
00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:28,479
Speaker 1: about Jackie Smith. I'm just I'm in love with her,

976
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:31,480
Speaker 1: and Mary's gonna come along. Would you like to join us?

977
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:37,720
Speaker 1: I said absolutely positively. Okay, he said I'll come by.

978
00:58:37,800 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 1: He doesn't even know where I am. He said, I'll

979
00:58:40,280 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 1: come by and pick you up about six thirty or

980
00:58:43,160 --> 00:58:46,000
Speaker 1: six o'clock and we'll go get married first. And then

981
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:50,680
Speaker 1: Jackie I said, great, wonderful. Well, I'm thrilled. I fly

982
00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:54,520
Speaker 1: right back to LA and we go by and pick

983
00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:57,600
Speaker 1: up Mary. Hi, Mary, how are you? Hi? Bird? You

984
00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:00,960
Speaker 1: never called me? Oh my gosh, what a start. Mary.

985
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:03,720
Speaker 1: I feel terrible. I never called you. Thank you for

986
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:08,120
Speaker 1: saying that. Okay, we go out that night. He goes

987
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:12,000
Speaker 1: over with Jackie, leaves the table, so I'm sitting with

988
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:14,600
Speaker 1: Mary and we talk all night long, had a great time.

989
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 1: Go home, drop Jackie off, drop her off. Next morning,

990
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:25,320
Speaker 1: about ten o'clock, my phone rings and it's Mary Hi Bert, Hi, Mary.

991
00:59:25,400 --> 00:59:27,480
Speaker 1: Weren't you gonna call me? We had a great time

992
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: last night. Of course I was gonna call you. How

993
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:34,720
Speaker 1: about dinner Tuesday? And Mary Hart says, how about dinner tonight?

994
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 1: I said, Wow, you have got it. I'll pick you

995
00:59:39,480 --> 00:59:43,160
Speaker 1: up tonight. We're going to dinner. We literally have never

996
00:59:43,240 --> 00:59:49,000
Speaker 1: been apart since that dinner. Wows that incredible love story,

997
00:59:49,120 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: and it's true, it's one hundred percent true. Thirty four years, Bob,

998
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:58,400
Speaker 1: thirty four years. That's a long record. Did anybody never

999
00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:10,040
Speaker 1: mind Hollywood? So you talk about producing children the lesser gone?

1000
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:15,840
Speaker 1: How'd you get into movies by reading a couple of

1001
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:19,959
Speaker 1: scripts that I like? I read the script. I didn't

1002
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: read the script. That's a real interesting question. Because I

1003
01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:27,760
Speaker 1: heard about the play, and I was in New York

1004
01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:30,360
Speaker 1: and I heard about the play, and I wanted to

1005
01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,680
Speaker 1: see the play. So I went to see the play.

1006
01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there and I see Norman Lear sitting

1007
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:40,720
Speaker 1: in front of me, Ray Starks sitting across the aisle,

1008
01:00:41,520 --> 01:00:44,000
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, Wow, these are two of the biggest

1009
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:48,200
Speaker 1: producers in the business. I knew them both, Ray extremely well,

1010
01:00:48,320 --> 01:00:52,760
Speaker 1: Norman Little and I watched the first half and it

1011
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 1: broke for fifteen twenty minutes. I went downstairs. I called

1012
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:01,760
Speaker 1: the playwrights agent Stan Cayman at William Morris and Beverly

1013
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:04,760
Speaker 1: Hills and the phone downstairs, and I said, I love this.

1014
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:07,720
Speaker 1: I want to buy the movie rights. He said, well, Bird,

1015
01:01:07,960 --> 01:01:10,240
Speaker 1: you may not know, but but Ray Stark is there,

1016
01:01:10,280 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 1: and Lear is there, and he named another producer I

1017
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 1: never heard of. And he said they're all there and

1018
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:17,840
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to hear from him. And I said,

1019
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 1: I want to buy it, and I want to buy

1020
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 1: it now, right now on the telephone. What does he

1021
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:25,280
Speaker 1: want for the rights the film rights? And he said,

1022
01:01:26,080 --> 01:01:28,280
Speaker 1: I don't know. Hold on, I said, not too long.

1023
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:31,520
Speaker 1: I got to go back. He obviously called the playwright

1024
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 1: and he called me back and he said, look, I

1025
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:36,680
Speaker 1: think from one of those guys he'd take three to

1026
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:39,680
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand. But you you've you're not known for

1027
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:42,959
Speaker 1: producing a film. He wants a million dollars. I said,

1028
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:45,720
Speaker 1: you got it. A million bucks, he's got it. I

1029
01:01:45,800 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 1: want the film rights, he said, but he's got to

1030
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:52,040
Speaker 1: meet you. I said, where is he? He said, New Mexico.

1031
01:01:52,760 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 1: I said, okay, I'll meet him for breakfast wear Los

1032
01:01:56,200 --> 01:02:00,960
Speaker 1: crucis New Mexico. I said, let me call me later

1033
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: and tell me where to meet him. I'll be flying

1034
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:07,000
Speaker 1: in private. I'll go there. Okay. I saw the play,

1035
01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:09,560
Speaker 1: said a load to Norman's said a load of Ray,

1036
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: how are you? What's doing? Went back to the hotel,

1037
01:02:14,040 --> 01:02:18,040
Speaker 1: checked out, flew to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I

1038
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:22,200
Speaker 1: had an airplane. Then flew there. I met the playwrights,

1039
01:02:22,280 --> 01:02:24,040
Speaker 1: sat with him for an hour. He said, we're going

1040
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:26,440
Speaker 1: to get along, but will you let me write the

1041
01:02:26,600 --> 01:02:31,240
Speaker 1: first draft to the screenplay? I said one hundred percent yes,

1042
01:02:31,680 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 1: of course. I owned the rights and that's how I

1043
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:38,360
Speaker 1: got involved. How long from that date till the movie

1044
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:42,840
Speaker 1: is made? Well, it was probably a year till the

1045
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:47,440
Speaker 1: film was made, but a couple of things. The next day,

1046
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 1: I get a phone call in La from my friend

1047
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:51,720
Speaker 1: Ray Stark. He said, I'm gonna do you a big favor.

1048
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 1: He said, I'm going to give you the million dollars back,

1049
01:02:54,960 --> 01:02:58,800
Speaker 1: You'll have nothing invested, and we'll co produce it together.

1050
01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:03,240
Speaker 1: I said, I can't do that. Ray, you're terrific. Well

1051
01:03:03,240 --> 01:03:06,240
Speaker 1: why not. You won't have anything invested, I said, I know,

1052
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:09,440
Speaker 1: but you're one of the biggest producers. You produce Streisand's films.

1053
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:12,400
Speaker 1: Everybody knows it. They'll never know me. I'll never get

1054
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:16,000
Speaker 1: a reputation of any kind. This is a quality film

1055
01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:18,960
Speaker 1: that I want to make, and I appreciate it very much,

1056
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:21,240
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to do that because I want

1057
01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:23,560
Speaker 1: my name out there so I get some reputation to

1058
01:03:23,600 --> 01:03:27,600
Speaker 1: make more films. He said, I get it, I get it.

1059
01:03:28,480 --> 01:03:31,280
Speaker 1: I then went back to New York and I wanted

1060
01:03:31,440 --> 01:03:34,720
Speaker 1: Robert Redford to play to play the star in it,

1061
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:39,320
Speaker 1: and Bob Redford and I were together for about two

1062
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:42,520
Speaker 1: weeks in a row, day in and day out, going

1063
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:45,160
Speaker 1: over what the play would be like and what would

1064
01:03:45,200 --> 01:03:47,680
Speaker 1: happen in each scene. And he was fabulous to work with.

1065
01:03:47,760 --> 01:03:51,960
Speaker 1: I mean, he was such a gentleman. And one day,

1066
01:03:52,040 --> 01:03:55,400
Speaker 1: sitting there after about two weeks, he said, Bert, I

1067
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 1: can't do it. You know where the lead climbs up

1068
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:01,520
Speaker 1: this tree and look at her and tries to make

1069
01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:05,040
Speaker 1: noise and get her attention on the second floor. I

1070
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:09,080
Speaker 1: said yes, he said, Bob Redford wouldn't do that, and

1071
01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:10,960
Speaker 1: I said, I know, but you're the character. You're not

1072
01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:14,120
Speaker 1: Bob Redford there. He said, no, but I've got to

1073
01:04:14,200 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 1: live with being Bob Redford. And he just wouldn't do that.

1074
01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:22,040
Speaker 1: He'd shoots somebody, he'd do this with Paul Newman, but

1075
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:26,040
Speaker 1: he wouldn't do that. I can't do it. I thanked him,

1076
01:04:26,040 --> 01:04:28,680
Speaker 1: We hugged, and I thanked him so much for spending

1077
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:34,080
Speaker 1: all that time with me. And that was it. So

1078
01:04:34,160 --> 01:04:39,440
Speaker 1: we cast it Marley Matlin. Yeah, this is Marley Matlin's

1079
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:42,560
Speaker 1: big breakthrough. How'd you end up using Marley? Because she

1080
01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:46,880
Speaker 1: came through with other non speaking and not hearing actresses

1081
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:50,560
Speaker 1: and there was a light about her. There was something

1082
01:04:50,600 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 1: about Marley that was absolutely amazing. Now you know that

1083
01:04:56,880 --> 01:04:59,800
Speaker 1: that was thirty eight years ago, thirty nine years ago,

1084
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:05,000
Speaker 1: and she was wonderful. And I will also tell you

1085
01:05:05,040 --> 01:05:09,360
Speaker 1: that last October Mary and I took Mary and her

1086
01:05:09,440 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 1: husband to a Dodger baseball game. We are still friends

1087
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:15,880
Speaker 1: with Marley. She's as wonderful now as she ever was.

1088
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:21,160
Speaker 1: But we met her. She went to god Debt College,

1089
01:05:21,200 --> 01:05:25,680
Speaker 1: I believe it part of Juilliard, and she just she

1090
01:05:25,840 --> 01:05:29,160
Speaker 1: was alive and then of course she gets nominated for

1091
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:33,040
Speaker 1: an Academy Award for Best Actress. I go to the

1092
01:05:33,080 --> 01:05:38,720
Speaker 1: Academy Awards and Marley wins Best Actress of the Year.

1093
01:05:39,640 --> 01:05:44,000
Speaker 1: Non speaking and non hearing lady. Nothing like that had

1094
01:05:44,040 --> 01:05:46,200
Speaker 1: ever happened, and I was so proud of her. She

1095
01:05:46,400 --> 01:05:50,240
Speaker 1: was wonderful. And if you've seen Coda, then you know

1096
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:57,480
Speaker 1: Marley was in Coda just terrific, as wonderful as ever. Okay, hey,

1097
01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:01,280
Speaker 1: the playwright, he wrote the original script. How close was

1098
01:06:01,360 --> 01:06:09,040
Speaker 1: that to the shooting script? Not that close. It was interesting,

1099
01:06:09,720 --> 01:06:13,560
Speaker 1: it was good, but it didn't quite hit me. And

1100
01:06:13,560 --> 01:06:16,760
Speaker 1: when we went over talking about it, he understood it

1101
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:20,240
Speaker 1: and he was terrific about it. He just I didn't

1102
01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:22,040
Speaker 1: know how he'd act. And I felt I did know

1103
01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:26,320
Speaker 1: because he was such a gentleman. But it just didn't

1104
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:30,280
Speaker 1: get there. And then after a couple of drafts and

1105
01:06:30,360 --> 01:06:33,160
Speaker 1: this and that, I felt we had it. Okay, you

1106
01:06:33,200 --> 01:06:35,600
Speaker 1: went on earlier than you were a TV guy. It

1107
01:06:35,720 --> 01:06:40,439
Speaker 1: was very immediate. Now you're working in the movies, are

1108
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 1: you still ultimately disillusioned because my interestandings, you don't go

1109
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,280
Speaker 1: on to make a whole bunch of movies. That's true.

1110
01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:50,880
Speaker 1: I made about five movies, and I really liked TV better.

1111
01:06:50,960 --> 01:06:54,480
Speaker 1: It was it suited my personality better, which was immediate

1112
01:06:54,640 --> 01:06:57,280
Speaker 1: and go for it and do it and aggressive, and

1113
01:06:57,360 --> 01:07:03,040
Speaker 1: so TV fitted better. But I had to deal with that,

1114
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:05,760
Speaker 1: and I had. Then I saw a script and I

1115
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 1: went to see a play called Extremities, and Extremities was

1116
01:07:13,000 --> 01:07:15,600
Speaker 1: absolutely wonderful. It was a story about a woman that

1117
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:19,040
Speaker 1: was watched by a man who wanted to get her

1118
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 1: and beat her and rape her. And he watched her

1119
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:23,640
Speaker 1: leave her house, go to work, come back and work,

1120
01:07:24,120 --> 01:07:27,320
Speaker 1: and so he goes and captures her, gets her in

1121
01:07:27,880 --> 01:07:32,040
Speaker 1: the apartment, and lo and behold, this woman turns the

1122
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:36,720
Speaker 1: tables on him and somehow you got to see the film.

1123
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:39,720
Speaker 1: What she does is take him prisoner, and it was

1124
01:07:39,760 --> 01:07:42,560
Speaker 1: fair a faucet in the film. And she did a

1125
01:07:42,600 --> 01:07:46,600
Speaker 1: fabulous job, just fabulous job. I did another film called

1126
01:07:46,680 --> 01:07:49,840
Speaker 1: Crimes to the Heart with Jessica Lang's Sissy Spacek and

1127
01:07:50,760 --> 01:07:52,919
Speaker 1: just some fun things that I did because I liked

1128
01:07:52,920 --> 01:07:58,920
Speaker 1: the scripts. And then I after that, I started getting

1129
01:07:58,960 --> 01:08:03,520
Speaker 1: out of that business and kind of leaving the entertainment

1130
01:08:03,560 --> 01:08:06,400
Speaker 1: business and going in some businesses, Like I say, I

1131
01:08:06,440 --> 01:08:08,720
Speaker 1: went in the hamburger business. How do you do that? Well,

1132
01:08:08,760 --> 01:08:12,440
Speaker 1: I did it when the hamburger business a little slower.

1133
01:08:12,480 --> 01:08:15,120
Speaker 1: What was the name of your hamburger, Jane? What were

1134
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:19,640
Speaker 1: you doing in the hamburger business? I went. I was

1135
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 1: in New Orleans and I had a meeting in the afternoon.

1136
01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:27,000
Speaker 1: I was in Nolands and I wanted to get a

1137
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:29,360
Speaker 1: quick burger and go by McDonald's. And I was driving

1138
01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:32,240
Speaker 1: by this McDonald's and I see in their line there

1139
01:08:32,320 --> 01:08:34,320
Speaker 1: was like twenty five cars and I didn't have that

1140
01:08:34,400 --> 01:08:38,000
Speaker 1: much time. And across the street was a little place

1141
01:08:38,040 --> 01:08:40,439
Speaker 1: that had a line on each side of the building

1142
01:08:41,080 --> 01:08:44,120
Speaker 1: double drive through. This is like nineteen eighty six, eighties,

1143
01:08:44,760 --> 01:08:48,240
Speaker 1: eighty seven, eighty eight, and I had never seen that.

1144
01:08:48,600 --> 01:08:51,160
Speaker 1: In the line were only four or five cars. I

1145
01:08:51,200 --> 01:08:55,640
Speaker 1: went there, I got a burger, I got fries, milkshake.

1146
01:08:56,439 --> 01:09:00,120
Speaker 1: I loved it. I ordered some more fries. Loved that.

1147
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:02,080
Speaker 1: You couldn't sit out inside. He had two or through

1148
01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:06,559
Speaker 1: tables outside. There was no inside. Small little building called Rallies.

1149
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:11,439
Speaker 1: Oh well, Rallies. So I went back that night after

1150
01:09:11,520 --> 01:09:14,479
Speaker 1: my afternoon meeting with a man named al Copeland, who

1151
01:09:14,479 --> 01:09:18,200
Speaker 1: owned some restaurants in New Orleans dinner restaurants and was

1152
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:20,880
Speaker 1: very well known. And I went back and I said

1153
01:09:20,920 --> 01:09:22,519
Speaker 1: the guy who's a manager, He said, I am, and

1154
01:09:22,560 --> 01:09:24,080
Speaker 1: I own it. Talked to him for a while, and

1155
01:09:24,120 --> 01:09:28,680
Speaker 1: I bought that store. You bought it? Yes, I bought it.

1156
01:09:29,600 --> 01:09:32,720
Speaker 1: And from there I started a chain called Rallies. And

1157
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:35,120
Speaker 1: after I had about forty of them, there was a

1158
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:38,600
Speaker 1: chain that was similar, double drive through called Checkers, and

1159
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,559
Speaker 1: that started in Alabama. I bought that and I merged

1160
01:09:42,600 --> 01:09:44,800
Speaker 1: it with Rallies, kept both of their names, and I

1161
01:09:44,840 --> 01:09:47,800
Speaker 1: went from that one store to about nine hundred and

1162
01:09:47,840 --> 01:09:52,080
Speaker 1: twenty stores and sold the two chains. How do you

1163
01:09:52,120 --> 01:10:00,559
Speaker 1: decide when to sell? Gut? That's it? Gut? Did I

1164
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:07,320
Speaker 1: want to continue to build them? Mary and I, and

1165
01:10:07,400 --> 01:10:09,840
Speaker 1: as I said, I had an airplane used to fly

1166
01:10:09,960 --> 01:10:13,760
Speaker 1: to two and three cities a day, because before I

1167
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:17,280
Speaker 1: built a store which was a Rallies or a Checkers,

1168
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:21,920
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the location, and I wanted to

1169
01:10:21,920 --> 01:10:24,280
Speaker 1: be on the proper corner, and I wanted to know

1170
01:10:24,320 --> 01:10:27,479
Speaker 1: what traffic was under thirty eight miles an hour going

1171
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:30,720
Speaker 1: by there, and I wanted to be near a McDonald's

1172
01:10:30,840 --> 01:10:33,400
Speaker 1: right if there was McDonald's close by with one drive

1173
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:36,280
Speaker 1: through who they'd always have a line and I'd get

1174
01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:40,200
Speaker 1: some of their business. And so I was really working

1175
01:10:40,240 --> 01:10:44,120
Speaker 1: at it, and I thought, that's enough, that's okay maybe now,

1176
01:10:44,160 --> 01:10:47,240
Speaker 1: and gut told me to leave it and do something else.

1177
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:51,559
Speaker 1: So it was obviously very successful. What was the thrill

1178
01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:58,360
Speaker 1: relative to entertainment personally? Major? Major? Because I enjoyed what

1179
01:10:58,400 --> 01:11:01,120
Speaker 1: I was doing. I thought the product was terrific. I

1180
01:11:01,160 --> 01:11:03,960
Speaker 1: had battered fries and I thought they were absolutely wonderful.

1181
01:11:04,720 --> 01:11:08,880
Speaker 1: And I told my staff in there, and they didn't

1182
01:11:08,880 --> 01:11:11,960
Speaker 1: all know me because I had so many, so I

1183
01:11:12,000 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 1: could go buy them and mystery shop, I could walk

1184
01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:18,880
Speaker 1: in make sure that John's were clean and the place

1185
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:22,040
Speaker 1: was okay. They didn't know I was. And I found

1186
01:11:22,080 --> 01:11:25,040
Speaker 1: out a few things. I found out that my managers

1187
01:11:25,040 --> 01:11:28,839
Speaker 1: were better as female than male. There was less thievery,

1188
01:11:28,880 --> 01:11:32,880
Speaker 1: almost none with females males. They would be given up

1189
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:35,360
Speaker 1: twenty burgers out to their buddies or this or that,

1190
01:11:35,439 --> 01:11:38,080
Speaker 1: and you had to watch that kind of stuff. And

1191
01:11:38,320 --> 01:11:40,880
Speaker 1: so I love to have female managers at the stores.

1192
01:11:41,760 --> 01:11:45,960
Speaker 1: And I just enjoyed the fries. I thought they were

1193
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:49,880
Speaker 1: really good, better than McDonald's and the burgers. We were

1194
01:11:50,000 --> 01:11:52,280
Speaker 1: careful to make sure we had the right amount of meat,

1195
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:56,280
Speaker 1: that it had the proper heat, and how we put

1196
01:11:56,360 --> 01:11:59,719
Speaker 1: burgers with automatic heaters on top of them so nobody

1197
01:12:00,200 --> 01:12:03,120
Speaker 1: ever get eat kohli or whatever. I enjoyed the whole process.

1198
01:12:03,560 --> 01:12:07,080
Speaker 1: I just really loved it. How are your arteries? Well,

1199
01:12:07,120 --> 01:12:11,519
Speaker 1: I'm still around today, right with you, Bob, And then

1200
01:12:11,800 --> 01:12:14,400
Speaker 1: mine are not that great. So you said you got

1201
01:12:14,400 --> 01:12:20,760
Speaker 1: in the cement business. Another another podcast, Bob. Okay, just

1202
01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:23,080
Speaker 1: I love talking to you too, because you ask me

1203
01:12:23,240 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 1: wonderful questions that really make me think back, and I

1204
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:30,120
Speaker 1: really appreciate that I do. But we've got another part

1205
01:12:30,120 --> 01:12:32,719
Speaker 1: of my life maybe again. Okay, but before we wrap

1206
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:36,800
Speaker 1: up a couple of things. With so much experience in hindsight,

1207
01:12:37,400 --> 01:12:40,559
Speaker 1: what do you think about today's television business? What do

1208
01:12:40,640 --> 01:12:43,640
Speaker 1: we know? Television drives the culture in a way that

1209
01:12:43,720 --> 01:12:47,559
Speaker 1: no other art form does movies or music. It's moved

1210
01:12:47,600 --> 01:12:51,519
Speaker 1: to streaming. There's a plethora of product. What do you

1211
01:12:51,560 --> 01:12:56,479
Speaker 1: think about today's landscape? I think streaming. I just think

1212
01:12:56,520 --> 01:13:00,920
Speaker 1: streaming is absolutely the way to go. There used to

1213
01:13:00,920 --> 01:13:02,599
Speaker 1: be a show that you could look at at eight

1214
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:05,439
Speaker 1: o'clock on a Tuesday night and it was wonderful. But

1215
01:13:05,520 --> 01:13:07,960
Speaker 1: the next Tuesday night you couldn't. You weren't in town,

1216
01:13:08,040 --> 01:13:11,000
Speaker 1: you were working, you had a meeting, you had a

1217
01:13:11,000 --> 01:13:14,479
Speaker 1: birthday party something, and so you'd missed the week's later show.

1218
01:13:14,600 --> 01:13:16,800
Speaker 1: Streaming you see him when you want to see him.

1219
01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:20,400
Speaker 1: I think that so many of them do it well.

1220
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:23,400
Speaker 1: Netflix has done it well. And the management and Netflix

1221
01:13:23,479 --> 01:13:26,800
Speaker 1: look back where they started from. You know, read hastings,

1222
01:13:26,800 --> 01:13:29,759
Speaker 1: ted surrenders. They started out with DVD's in the store

1223
01:13:30,560 --> 01:13:35,360
Speaker 1: and they're still putting out music and product and great shows.

1224
01:13:35,800 --> 01:13:37,760
Speaker 1: But a lot of them do you know, they're not

1225
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: just that paramount. Plus, my friends all watch Yellowstone love it.

1226
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:46,720
Speaker 1: Who are these people? Who are some of them? Who

1227
01:13:46,720 --> 01:13:51,120
Speaker 1: are the writers of some of them? It's just streaming

1228
01:13:51,240 --> 01:13:52,840
Speaker 1: is the way to go. And if I was going

1229
01:13:52,880 --> 01:13:55,400
Speaker 1: to go back in that business now, which I never

1230
01:13:55,439 --> 01:13:59,519
Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna do next, streaming is what I

1231
01:13:59,600 --> 01:14:03,120
Speaker 1: loved to do. Chess love to do. Make a show

1232
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:04,920
Speaker 1: that you can let ten of them out on the

1233
01:14:04,960 --> 01:14:07,640
Speaker 1: same day and people can watch all of them on

1234
01:14:07,680 --> 01:14:09,840
Speaker 1: a weekend if you love it, or watch them when

1235
01:14:09,880 --> 01:14:13,280
Speaker 1: they can watch them. So and there's so many gray

1236
01:14:13,320 --> 01:14:16,200
Speaker 1: have you seen Yellowstone, Bob tell you the Truth? That's

1237
01:14:16,240 --> 01:14:19,599
Speaker 1: one show I haven't seen. Yeah, it's worth looking yet.

1238
01:14:20,320 --> 01:14:24,799
Speaker 1: It really is. Kevin Costner's terrific. The show is just great.

1239
01:14:24,840 --> 01:14:27,559
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty three, and where it goes from there

1240
01:14:27,600 --> 01:14:31,880
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty three, all spinoffs, all terrific. I think

1241
01:14:31,920 --> 01:14:35,960
Speaker 1: that's paramount plus. But I'm pretty familiar with it. You know.

1242
01:14:36,000 --> 01:14:39,240
Speaker 1: It's kind of like succession. You fall behind and then

1243
01:14:39,280 --> 01:14:43,559
Speaker 1: it's monolithic to start up. And you know, I have

1244
01:14:43,600 --> 01:14:45,760
Speaker 1: a list of all the stuff that I'm watching. There's

1245
01:14:45,800 --> 01:14:49,240
Speaker 1: so much good television from around the world. Especially you

1246
01:14:49,360 --> 01:14:54,040
Speaker 1: mentioned that you don't know what you're doing next. Are

1247
01:14:54,080 --> 01:15:00,479
Speaker 1: you still actively involved in businesses? Absolutely, morning to night,

1248
01:15:00,560 --> 01:15:02,519
Speaker 1: seven days a week. You can call me and tell

1249
01:15:02,560 --> 01:15:04,160
Speaker 1: me you've got an ID and let's try and do

1250
01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:08,240
Speaker 1: it together. The other thing, especially in this era of

1251
01:15:09,160 --> 01:15:14,920
Speaker 1: financial unpredictability, you've made a lot of money. Where do

1252
01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:20,479
Speaker 1: you invest your money? I don't think I'll go there.

1253
01:15:20,960 --> 01:15:23,880
Speaker 1: I will tell you. The philanthropy is very important to

1254
01:15:23,960 --> 01:15:25,880
Speaker 1: Mary and I. Right now, Mary sits on the board

1255
01:15:25,920 --> 01:15:29,439
Speaker 1: of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. That's important to us. And

1256
01:15:29,600 --> 01:15:34,000
Speaker 1: there's a group of charities that are really really important

1257
01:15:34,000 --> 01:15:36,919
Speaker 1: to us. We're always looking for others and we focus

1258
01:15:37,080 --> 01:15:40,240
Speaker 1: a lot on that and if there's something that we

1259
01:15:40,280 --> 01:15:42,680
Speaker 1: can do in the entertainment business to make some of

1260
01:15:42,720 --> 01:15:47,920
Speaker 1: these things better known. While Vince Scully was alive, Mary

1261
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:52,879
Speaker 1: talked to Vinny and he was the voice of Children's Hospital,

1262
01:15:53,000 --> 01:15:56,599
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, and I have videotape of Annie and Mary

1263
01:15:56,720 --> 01:16:00,959
Speaker 1: on the floor at Children's Hospital with Paul Viviane, the president,

1264
01:16:01,400 --> 01:16:05,360
Speaker 1: playing with some kids whose hair is shaved because of operations,

1265
01:16:05,439 --> 01:16:08,439
Speaker 1: who are healing and this and that with these children,

1266
01:16:08,920 --> 01:16:12,600
Speaker 1: and that just gets my heart just so wonderful to

1267
01:16:12,680 --> 01:16:15,880
Speaker 1: see in Vince Gully's voice. And now a lot of

1268
01:16:15,880 --> 01:16:19,799
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Dodgers come over, and it's interesting because

1269
01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:22,400
Speaker 1: the six years olds, six years and seven and eight

1270
01:16:22,479 --> 01:16:24,479
Speaker 1: year olds, they don't know who the players are. The

1271
01:16:24,600 --> 01:16:27,400
Speaker 1: fourteen year olds that are in the hospital they do.

1272
01:16:27,920 --> 01:16:31,080
Speaker 1: So it's seeing some of them come over there and

1273
01:16:31,520 --> 01:16:34,479
Speaker 1: they're attracted to the little bit the older ones. So

1274
01:16:34,560 --> 01:16:38,040
Speaker 1: we just enjoy that so much. Now, you mentioned your

1275
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:40,400
Speaker 1: health is good. What's it like having so many of

1276
01:16:40,439 --> 01:16:46,600
Speaker 1: your contemporaries pass. It's depressing, that's what it is. I

1277
01:16:46,720 --> 01:16:48,479
Speaker 1: see some of them do, and I see some of

1278
01:16:48,479 --> 01:16:50,559
Speaker 1: them are alive. I talked to a fellow yesterday by

1279
01:16:50,640 --> 01:16:54,200
Speaker 1: the name of David Permott. David's been a producer around

1280
01:16:54,240 --> 01:16:57,639
Speaker 1: for years. He just called me and said, I saw

1281
01:16:58,080 --> 01:17:04,320
Speaker 1: the midnight special TV show on YouTube Bert fifty years congratulations,

1282
01:17:04,360 --> 01:17:07,080
Speaker 1: Why did you wait so long? And we were on

1283
01:17:07,240 --> 01:17:11,240
Speaker 1: for forty five minutes last night, late last night, with

1284
01:17:11,320 --> 01:17:14,920
Speaker 1: him telling me about a show that he's gonna stream now,

1285
01:17:15,520 --> 01:17:18,280
Speaker 1: which I can't tell you about. I wish I could,

1286
01:17:18,760 --> 01:17:22,880
Speaker 1: but it sounds fabulous and the star that he's got

1287
01:17:22,920 --> 01:17:26,080
Speaker 1: gonna be in that it's wonderful. And again, I just

1288
01:17:26,320 --> 01:17:29,800
Speaker 1: really enjoy streaming, whether it's looking Have you looked at

1289
01:17:30,080 --> 01:17:32,880
Speaker 1: by the way Succession there in their last year, right,

1290
01:17:33,360 --> 01:17:36,479
Speaker 1: And of course Mary and I watched Succession. Love it.

1291
01:17:36,720 --> 01:17:38,880
Speaker 1: Have you seen poker Face? You'll get a kick out

1292
01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:41,519
Speaker 1: of that, you know, I know poker Faced. I've watched

1293
01:17:42,040 --> 01:17:45,559
Speaker 1: about a few episodes. I must say, I'm very into

1294
01:17:45,560 --> 01:17:50,280
Speaker 1: this foreign television. The Israelis in the Danes I find

1295
01:17:50,439 --> 01:17:54,200
Speaker 1: make you know, have the reputation of making the best

1296
01:17:54,640 --> 01:18:01,280
Speaker 1: international television like foud Oh found unbelievable. Unbelieve one of

1297
01:18:01,280 --> 01:18:05,960
Speaker 1: the best ever, right, and then the show that Homeland

1298
01:18:06,080 --> 01:18:10,439
Speaker 1: was based in Israeli show Schu Green. We're watching on

1299
01:18:10,560 --> 01:18:14,880
Speaker 1: Amazon right now, an Indian show South Asian, shall we say,

1300
01:18:15,479 --> 01:18:18,920
Speaker 1: called Fakes Farsi. It's really good. There's a new season

1301
01:18:18,960 --> 01:18:21,439
Speaker 1: of this English show. It's not in America yet. That

1302
01:18:21,560 --> 01:18:25,439
Speaker 1: I always say is my number one recommendation called Happy Valley?

1303
01:18:25,479 --> 01:18:27,920
Speaker 1: Have you seen Happy Valley? It's a crime. Oh, I

1304
01:18:27,960 --> 01:18:31,040
Speaker 1: don't even know the title. This is a number one

1305
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:34,040
Speaker 1: show in England. Mary sitting next to me writing that

1306
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:40,080
Speaker 1: down right now, Okay, how about Spiral Have you seen? Spiral? No?

1307
01:18:40,080 --> 01:18:45,920
Speaker 1: No is a French show co production with the English

1308
01:18:45,960 --> 01:18:50,559
Speaker 1: basically the best cop show you'll ever see on what streamer?

1309
01:18:50,600 --> 01:18:54,000
Speaker 1: Do you remember? I think you know? These things move around.

1310
01:18:54,040 --> 01:18:58,000
Speaker 1: I watch one or two seasons for free on Amazon.

1311
01:18:58,479 --> 01:19:03,160
Speaker 1: I think the restaurant m ac Mega hurts. Okay, Spi

1312
01:19:03,439 --> 01:19:07,960
Speaker 1: r ala absolutely. Now, let's be clear, since you're a pro,

1313
01:19:08,520 --> 01:19:10,840
Speaker 1: they don't make them every year, and they've now made

1314
01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:14,599
Speaker 1: the final episode, so when you watch the first season,

1315
01:19:14,720 --> 01:19:19,719
Speaker 1: the transfers won't be as possibly good, but they're great.

1316
01:19:20,360 --> 01:19:23,280
Speaker 1: I mean, I could go. The other classic show is

1317
01:19:23,320 --> 01:19:28,639
Speaker 1: called a French Village, which is another French show about

1318
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:31,519
Speaker 1: during the Resistance. If we know that one. Oh yeah,

1319
01:19:31,560 --> 01:19:36,240
Speaker 1: we know French Village, Yes, great and tremendous. The original

1320
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:40,439
Speaker 1: border in the Killing from Denmark. They've been remade as

1321
01:19:40,479 --> 01:19:43,479
Speaker 1: American shows. Mary is shaking her head. Yes and I

1322
01:19:43,520 --> 01:19:48,840
Speaker 1: can't remember it. How about Occupied? If you watched Occupied Occupied? Yes, Occupied,

1323
01:19:48,880 --> 01:19:52,400
Speaker 1: we know exactly I mean these show. How about Fauda?

1324
01:19:52,560 --> 01:19:56,000
Speaker 1: How about this last season of Fauda? Wasn't that amazing? Okay,

1325
01:19:56,200 --> 01:20:02,760
Speaker 1: explain that guy Duran so much charisma. He's like an

1326
01:20:02,800 --> 01:20:07,599
Speaker 1: anti hero because by American standards, they wouldn't even cast him.

1327
01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:10,960
Speaker 1: You're right, good, look, right whatever. You know that he

1328
01:20:11,040 --> 01:20:13,559
Speaker 1: used to be a bodyguard in America before he was

1329
01:20:13,600 --> 01:20:15,920
Speaker 1: the Starfire. I didn't know that his name is Lere

1330
01:20:16,080 --> 01:20:21,040
Speaker 1: and boys something. Wow, he's a star. It's just you know,

1331
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:27,679
Speaker 1: usually when the shows play multiple seasons, they get worse,

1332
01:20:28,560 --> 01:20:35,719
Speaker 1: but not this show, and it's sad. Second, Mary, come on, Mary,

1333
01:20:35,760 --> 01:20:39,960
Speaker 1: come on one second. We're not using the video so

1334
01:20:40,080 --> 01:20:43,760
Speaker 1: it doesn't just no videos. Just come up, just come

1335
01:20:43,840 --> 01:20:52,799
Speaker 1: take a peek to see you. We can television forever,

1336
01:20:56,600 --> 01:20:59,280
Speaker 1: you know. There there's just so many good shows and

1337
01:20:59,400 --> 01:21:02,160
Speaker 1: you and you see it there and I you know,

1338
01:21:02,640 --> 01:21:05,320
Speaker 1: a lot of people depend on the algorithm. I study it.

1339
01:21:05,400 --> 01:21:09,200
Speaker 1: I say, it's such an investment to watch these shows

1340
01:21:09,240 --> 01:21:13,280
Speaker 1: that I want to owe the other show that is unbelievable.

1341
01:21:13,880 --> 01:21:18,800
Speaker 1: Did you watch this French show The Bureau? No, no, no,

1342
01:21:18,880 --> 01:21:21,840
Speaker 1: we don't write it down on the Bureau. No. The

1343
01:21:22,000 --> 01:21:27,720
Speaker 1: Bureau is the French Cia. Okay, now I'm gonna warn

1344
01:21:27,760 --> 01:21:30,760
Speaker 1: you right up front. It starts off slow. It's an

1345
01:21:30,800 --> 01:21:35,280
Speaker 1: intense show, but it is just like a movie. It

1346
01:21:35,479 --> 01:21:42,320
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. The Bureau. Yes, okay, while we're talking, did

1347
01:21:42,320 --> 01:21:48,520
Speaker 1: you watch Borgan? Yes, yes, yes, unbelievable. There's this sweetish

1348
01:21:48,560 --> 01:21:54,519
Speaker 1: show called Bonus Family. It's on Netflix about a blended family.

1349
01:21:55,240 --> 01:22:01,960
Speaker 1: Really good. I don't know that one. You've watched narc obviously, yes, yes.

1350
01:22:02,280 --> 01:22:04,439
Speaker 1: Could I give you a book? I have a book

1351
01:22:04,479 --> 01:22:06,720
Speaker 1: for you to read, Okay, well, I know you. I

1352
01:22:06,760 --> 01:22:11,200
Speaker 1: know you'll love it. It's called Easy Writers Raging Bulls.

1353
01:22:11,360 --> 01:22:15,320
Speaker 1: I read it, of course, I read it. Okay, all right,

1354
01:22:15,720 --> 01:22:21,080
Speaker 1: Peter watched his name Peter begins, Yes, yes, Peter biskind right, right.

1355
01:22:21,160 --> 01:22:24,840
Speaker 1: I've even seen him speak about that really phenomenal Oh,

1356
01:22:24,840 --> 01:22:29,800
Speaker 1: this is a magical show Ethos. Did you watch Ethos? No,

1357
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:33,080
Speaker 1: we've seen it advertised, but have not seen it. Oh

1358
01:22:33,120 --> 01:22:39,120
Speaker 1: it's really intense Turkish show. Listen. I'll leave you with that.

1359
01:22:39,320 --> 01:22:43,519
Speaker 1: But uh, you know that's my highlight of the day

1360
01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:47,439
Speaker 1: watching streaming television. No. And I love these suggestions, honestly,

1361
01:22:47,720 --> 01:22:50,760
Speaker 1: I really do. But most of all, I like your

1362
01:22:50,840 --> 01:22:53,280
Speaker 1: questions because they've never been asked some of these before.

1363
01:22:53,479 --> 01:22:56,559
Speaker 1: And I really enjoy this, this hour or whatever it is,

1364
01:22:56,600 --> 01:22:59,719
Speaker 1: I love it. Thank you are you know you've been

1365
01:22:59,800 --> 01:23:03,880
Speaker 1: the air and done that. To me, that is fascinating.

1366
01:23:04,080 --> 01:23:07,040
Speaker 1: I mean we didn't go really deeply into it, but

1367
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: I know how hard it is to be successful, and

1368
01:23:11,960 --> 01:23:15,200
Speaker 1: most people are a successful saying, oh, it wasn't that

1369
01:23:15,320 --> 01:23:18,280
Speaker 1: big of a deal. Oh, believe me, it was. So

1370
01:23:18,360 --> 01:23:21,440
Speaker 1: I'm a student of the game. What is the personality?

1371
01:23:21,479 --> 01:23:24,400
Speaker 1: What the relationships? You know, I grew up on the

1372
01:23:24,439 --> 01:23:27,960
Speaker 1: East Coast and the East coast, it's all about where

1373
01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:31,360
Speaker 1: you went to college, who your parents are whereas in

1374
01:23:31,520 --> 01:23:33,599
Speaker 1: LA the most important thing is what kind of car

1375
01:23:33,680 --> 01:23:38,640
Speaker 1: you drive, which is just phone enough. But none of

1376
01:23:38,680 --> 01:23:43,400
Speaker 1: that matters. Everybody's a self starter and the people who

1377
01:23:43,439 --> 01:23:48,040
Speaker 1: have made it to the top. They're always very intelligent

1378
01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:51,200
Speaker 1: and they have an amazing story. I won't keep you

1379
01:23:51,240 --> 01:23:54,080
Speaker 1: any longer. Bird, it's been wonderful talking to you. Thanks

1380
01:23:54,080 --> 01:23:56,800
Speaker 1: for taking the time to speak to my audience. Bob,

1381
01:23:57,000 --> 01:24:00,559
Speaker 1: a pleasure visiting with you. Thank you so much. And

1382
01:24:00,760 --> 01:24:03,519
Speaker 1: as we say, you know I was watching last night

1383
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:05,280
Speaker 1: that I not that I haven't watched them. Some of

1384
01:24:05,320 --> 01:24:10,439
Speaker 1: these performances are just utterly riveting. I mean there's stuff

1385
01:24:10,520 --> 01:24:14,120
Speaker 1: you see. You know, forget the big hits, you know,

1386
01:24:14,200 --> 01:24:19,880
Speaker 1: like Linda Ronstad doing Long, Long Time, etc. But Redbone

1387
01:24:20,080 --> 01:24:22,679
Speaker 1: come and get your Love. I mean, I know that's

1388
01:24:22,680 --> 01:24:26,760
Speaker 1: on to see them perform that live. And there were

1389
01:24:26,800 --> 01:24:30,000
Speaker 1: a couple of old Jerry Wright doing Love Is Alive.

1390
01:24:30,120 --> 01:24:33,439
Speaker 1: That's my favorite song. And to watch him play you know,

1391
01:24:33,560 --> 01:24:37,720
Speaker 1: the keytar, the keyboard. You know, it's very hard to

1392
01:24:37,760 --> 01:24:40,160
Speaker 1: turn off. And I'm not blowing smoke up your Rearran,

1393
01:24:40,280 --> 01:24:42,840
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's great that this stuff is available.

1394
01:24:43,080 --> 01:24:45,800
Speaker 1: Well every week, every week on Monday mornings, I'm going

1395
01:24:45,840 --> 01:24:49,320
Speaker 1: to put up another ten or fifteen that are unique,

1396
01:24:49,320 --> 01:24:51,760
Speaker 1: and you love you all love them all. But there'll

1397
01:24:51,760 --> 01:24:54,360
Speaker 1: be some that will be favorites of yours. Okay, just

1398
01:24:54,479 --> 01:24:58,800
Speaker 1: to be very clear, because I was in preparation, I

1399
01:24:58,920 --> 01:25:02,920
Speaker 1: was going on you Tube to watch your channel. Specifically,

1400
01:25:03,040 --> 01:25:05,760
Speaker 1: you have to search to me on your channel. What's

1401
01:25:05,800 --> 01:25:09,880
Speaker 1: the name of your channel? Again? Midnight Special TV Show,

1402
01:25:10,960 --> 01:25:13,840
Speaker 1: So for those at home, go to Midnight Special TV

1403
01:25:14,000 --> 01:25:17,600
Speaker 1: Show for the authorized versions. Although Bert is very up

1404
01:25:17,640 --> 01:25:20,120
Speaker 1: to date, he doesn't want to kill the other people.

1405
01:25:20,120 --> 01:25:22,800
Speaker 1: He's realized in building the audience, he's in business with

1406
01:25:22,880 --> 01:25:25,960
Speaker 1: them and Bert. I'll leave it at that, Thanks again,

1407
01:25:26,600 --> 01:25:30,400
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Until next time. This is Bob left Sets