WEBVTT - David Letterman 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.360 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:08.720 When David Letterman started Late Night in The New York 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:11.760 Times said he was quote more of an acquired taste 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.760 than most comedians unquote. Now it's time, ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.439 for a segment of this program, and we like to 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:23.960 call stupid petricks. We grew up on Johnny, a true 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.000 gentleman who could deliver a smooth set up and punchline, 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.960 occasionally helped by a wink. But suddenly with Late Night, 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.600 the ultimate punchline was the fact that some gap toothed, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:39.040 unknown smartass even had a show. His pet tricks were 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.720 stupid on purpose, and so was he. Tune in and 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.720 you might catch him lowering himself into a water tank 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.160 wearing a suit made from three thousand, four hundred Alka 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.199 Seltzer temples. We have the oxygen here, and I have 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.840 been asked about twelve times by various members of the 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.720 staff to remind you don't try this at home. I 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.520 know you have the nine gallon tank, I know you 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.200 have the oxygen. I know you have the suit of 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.040 ox a Selzer and a staff of a hundred people. 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.760 Dave seized every opportunity to remind us that his big 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.360 network show was a ridiculous waste of time. But if 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.200 you were in on the joke, and a lot of 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:23.039 people were, it was also a stroke of genius. There's 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:24.680 a little something the boys at Late Night R and 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.680 D have been fooling around with. We call it sky bowling. Today, 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:33.560 David Letterman is an institution and has forever changed American comedy. 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.560 Before let him in, the extended drum roll was sincere. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.119 After let Himan, it would never be without at least 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:44.319 a hint of irony. His show changed America, and after 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.760 thirty years, Dave's changed as well. I do a lot 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.000 less work than I used to do. I just got 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.120 to a point where I have no patience for meetings, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.320 so I don't go to any meetings. I can't make 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.080 decisions anymore. I don't like making decisions. You know, we 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.600 have a dozen producers. They can have the meetings and 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.560 they can make the decisions, and I'll just come down 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.800 and somebody tell me what to do and we go. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.080 And it was different before. Yeah, I used to be 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.440 involved in everything big and large. I don't think that 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.640 was necessarily good, but at the time I thought it 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.560 was what was required when you had your own show. 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:16.800 You had to had to have everything you know in 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.680 your view and certainly influence each little choice the guests 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:22.400 that are on the show. Do you still help select 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.760 the guests? Throw or someone else takes the people who 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.919 select them? Occasionally I will think of, Oh I heard 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:28.720 about somebody that did so and so. Could we look 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.320 into that and this and that? Very little, very little, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.200 I mean, these people do that. We've have the good 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.040 luck of these people who haven't been together for a long, long, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.560 long long time. They all know what the expectation is. 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.600 Of course, when you're in that situation, the bad version 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.120 of it is, oh god, it's the same thing. It's 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.639 the assembly line. We're just building the same car over 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:50.600 and over and over again. You feel that way sometimes 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.320 Sometimes I'm the biggest defender of that. I'm sixty five. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:54.840 I don't have the energy I had when I was 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.040 thirty five. There are certain things I like about the 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.440 show now that I like more than before work, such 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.200 as I like talking to people and the opportunity to 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.680 learn something, or if I have a natural curiosity about somebody, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.000 I really look forward to that, or if I have 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.000 something that I know is going to be silly and stupid, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.560 and I want my authorship out there on this something 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.720 silly and stupid. Then I get eager about that. But 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.600 in the old days, we just were going twenty hours 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.720 a day. We'd be out on the streets, we'd be 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:26.760 going to New Jersey, we'd be up all night shooting, 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.560 and there would be contests, And I can't do that 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.240 show anymore. The more successful the show has become, and 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.720 the more successful you would become, do you find that 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.080 in terms of programming the show you have to rely 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.320 more on stars. Is there a kind of person It's 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.480 it's completely different. In the beginning, when we started the 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.800 late night show at NBC, we had a liaison between 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.800 Johnny Carson and ourselves named Dave Tabot. He had worked 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.640 at NBC and then had become close with Johnny, and 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.960 so Johnny hired him. And he was a guy who, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.440 honest to God, talked like this. Dave came in to 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.280 make sure there were no conflicts between our show and 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.600 the tonight show. He says, for example, let's just say 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:13.120 that Bob Hope is arrested for using drugs and we 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.640 just all just just like, really, in what universe? Is 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:19.960 that all likelihood? And he says you can't then do 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.720 jokes about Bob Hope. I said, okay, all right, we've 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.880 got that. We were not allowed to use do a monologue, 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.720 and we were not allowed to have an orchestra. And 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.000 we also felt that a way to distinguish ourselves, since 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.479 Johnny had the big stars that people really wanted, we 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.640 would then kind of have fringe people. That's exactly right, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.000 and so we we sort of mind that vain as 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.560 much as we could. It was sort of a fortunate 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.360 coincidence that we were prohibited in that sense because we 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.919 weren't really interested in having mainstream people on two. Again. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:53.719 I don't know how effective it was in in terms 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.200 of programming. I don't know if people noticed the difference 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.320 and appreciated it or just thought, oh, they can't get 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.479 very good guests, and oh it's completely different. It's you know, 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.000 Broadway cavalcade of stars. And that's fine. I have no 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.240 problem with that. We're always fighting the Internet and they 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.120 seem to be winning in terms of the small guests, 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.280 the kid that swims out into the East River and 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.920 saves the cat, or but we're always so far down 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.120 the stream from that story. By the time it's all 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.479 over the internet that there's no point and put it 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.479 on you start. You started in radio. Yeah, my first 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.760 job was at a radio station. You went to college, 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.400 You went to All State University has studied radio on TV? 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.599 Why did you study radio and TV academically? Um? You know, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.279 I went to Ball State in those days, graduated with 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.000 I think it's a bachelor of Bachelor of Arts or 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.920 Bachelor of Science. I don't think science probably back then. 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:48.960 But no language requirement and no math requirement. I mean 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.599 it really saved me because I was academically, I was 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.520 not very good early on. I was very lucky that 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.000 I knew how to save myself. Sophomore in high school 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.200 and I had signed up for a public speaking course 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:03.520 and the first day you were supposed to get up 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.200 and extemporaneously speak for five minutes. You know, everybody's twitchy 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.640 and sweaty and worried about this, as was I. And 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.560 then I got up there, the nervousness and the twitchiness 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.800 and everything dissipated. I loved it, and I thought, oh 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.360 my god, maybe this is a way I can distinguish myself. 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.279 And I did you know, but had you been the 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.039 entertainer as a child in your house, in the household, yeah, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.440 sure to what except and then my parents wouldn't put 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.680 up with it much. There was a fine line between being, oh, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.120 isn't the amusing and being just and being a wise ass, 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.159 and we don't like that. I can remember my father 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.400 was big and loud and noisy and always had stuff 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.720 going on, and my mother completely nondemonstrative. And I can 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.840 remember every Sunday night after dinner, my dad would make 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:48.800 popcorn and we would sit in front of the TV 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.279 and watch Ed Sullivan and Ed used to have this 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.279 habit of all, come on, now, let's really hear it 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.520 for him, and my mom used to say, I don't 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.320 like the way Ed begs the audience for applause us. 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.039 So she was just completely standoffish by the notion she 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:09.000 was a connoisseur of television house and then she was 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.320 not a connoisseur. She resented the fact that somebody had 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.640 to be encouraged to support what they had just said. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.280 They Sellivan was whoring himself and that's exactly right, that's great. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:20.680 So you go to ball Statum, you get this degree 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.400 Bachelor of whatever. We don't know and what do you 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.880 do after that? Well, through a friend of mine at 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:29.680 a the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis where I lived, which 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.320 was sixty miles away from where I went to school 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.160 and still is just about sixty miles, I heard that 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.120 they were auditioning for the one of the summer announcer. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.720 So I went down there an audition, never having been 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.840 in a television studio in my life, and got the job. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.480 I mean it was a fixed fight because I had 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.040 no business getting the job. I wasn't very good, I 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:52.760 didn't know what I was doing, I had no experience, 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.880 and they gave me the job. And suddenly the bulb 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.400 that was turned on my sophomore year in high school 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.920 now is burning? Why top, because it's are you kid me? 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.240 I'm nineteen and I'm gonna be on TV? I mean, 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:10.160 it's preposterous. That was the booth announcer. So I can't 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.360 believe you said that back when they had booth announcers 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.120 on something. That's right, That's what it is. These guys 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.680 defined my childhood by the way. These were the guys. Uh. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.800 The principal responsibility was to keep the program log. There 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.040 used to be a lot of technical glitches in television 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.680 who had booth announcers who would pick up the slack 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.520 when something went wrong with tape to tape. That's exactly right. 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.000 Station break was a huge process because you had a 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.640 control room, you had a director, you had two or 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.640 three sixteen millimeter projectors, you had a slide chain, and 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.240 you had the big two and a half inch Ampex tape. 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.079 Let's say you had four commercials in a station break, 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:45.960 then you'd have to roll the tape. Then you'd have 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:47.520 to count down and roll the film. Then you'd have 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.640 to go live to the booth to read copy over 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.320 a slide and then back to the film, and it 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.040 was an enormous thing. Periodically, the FCC would come in 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.520 and check your your log. So it was a big deal. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.760 At a summer job in in nineteen six, He's sixty 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:02.480 and I was making a hundred fifty bucks a week. 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.760 I got to be the weekend weather man. I've never 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.360 done that before. I got to read the news on 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.880 on the morning kiddie show. And none of this would 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.199 happen today. You know, people are qualified to do that 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.120 job now, much earlier than I certainly was. You know, 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.520 like this was Ryan Seacrest university put him in any 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.280 job when he was nine or ten, he could have 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.600 done a better job than I'm doing now. But for me, 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.280 it was like holy cow. So I go back to 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.400 school now, to my radio and TV studies, and all 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.199 of a sudden it's he there's duck Lips. We've seen 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.400 him on TV, and oh my god, what a progression 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.760 that was for me. Now that was what year I 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.360 think I started there in sixty eight and I stayed. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.920 And you avoid drafts, and you avoid in those days, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.120 you get the student deferment. And ball S was prinsipally 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:55.040 a teacher's college in those days, and so wanted teachers. 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.560 It was chock full of guys who wanted that student 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.680 deferment and also the teaching deferment. I was not studying teaching. 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.320 So the minute I graduated, I was reclassified. One A 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.840 went from my pre draft physical in April and they said, okay, 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.720 we'll call you. And then in the meantime before I 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.080 was called, Nixon announced the National Lottery. They were going 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.680 to end the draft. They were trying to step down 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.360 the Vietnamese War. My birthday was three forty two or 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.560 something like that. Out of three hundred fifty six. So 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:27.360 that meant even though I was one A and had 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.720 my pre induction physical and was ready to go, it 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:31.840 was over for me. At the time, I didn't know 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.120 how lucky I was. I felt guilty because I had 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.240 friends who had gone, and I had friends who had 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.840 been in the Marine Corps, and I just felt like, well, 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.640 why met these guys went, Why shouldn't I go? And 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.079 then it dawned on me pretty quickly. I had been 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.360 among the really really lucky. Yeah, what was the political 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.160 landscape like a Boston when you went there? Well, it 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.640 was just starting to uh. I I used to make 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.640 jokes that they would have student protests, but it was 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.440 to get the cafeteria cooks to wear hairnets. But it was. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.760 It was creeping in. It was not a hot bed. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.600 It was not Madison, Wisconsin. It was Muncie, Indiana. But 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.920 it was starting and there were sit ins and demonstrations, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.880 and you know, Bobby Kennedy had spoken on campus, so 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.000 it was starting, but I wouldn't say it was. It 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.200 wasn't quite lit up the way it might have been 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.760 in other regions. You mentioned booth announcers, and I remember 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.520 I did a YouTube search. I wanted to find this 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.200 guy that was literally the voice of my childhood. W 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.680 r Andy come on and say, you know, uh, next 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.680 on Million Dollar Movie, Barbara stan mctells Gary Cooper where 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.959 he Can Go? And Ball of Fire and he just 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.320 said this voice, it was just it just haunted me. Well, 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.679 that's interesting. You mentioned that guy I had the little 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.440 kid voice from Indiana. I wasn't that guy, but I 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.200 still had to do the job. And I can't impress 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.280 upon you enough how tedious it is to sit there 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:52.400 for eight hours watching programming and logging everything that happens. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:54.560 If you lose audio, you have to log that. If 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.360 you lose video, you have to log that. You have 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.920 to log sign on, sign off, every commercial, every station break. 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.480 And at first I was scared silly, but then, like 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:04.760 everything else, you get accustomed to it and you become blase. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.720 And so I would just start wandering the building. You know, 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.880 it was so embarrassing. They would will the booth announcer 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.920 please report to the announced booth, and oh my god, 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.960 I've missed the so and so. The main announcer was 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:20.560 a guy named Rob Stone, tremendous voice and hopeless alcoholic, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.360 I mean a real alcoholic. Go hand in hand, aren't yeah? 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:26.600 Kind of certainly in those days it was not uncommon. 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:28.679 He would come in and he would bring a point 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.000 with him. And so in the spirit of this, we 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.679 who were working the sign off shift, we would always 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.920 send somebody out for beer, and we would be at 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.720 the station late at night signing off, and myself and 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.920 the director and whomever else was there, we'd be drinking beer. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.800 Oh my, with this fun. In those days, you would 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.240 do a five minute new summary before sign off nightcap news, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.840 and then you would do the the broadcast statement. You'd 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.080 read that over the slide of the station, and then 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.800 they would go to the national anthem with the waving flag. 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.000 One night, a guy in the props department, so I 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.400 can reconstruct exactly the station has pictured on the slide. 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.360 We can make it blow up, so as you're as 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.760 you're reading the thank you and good night and why 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.560 not tune in w LW overnight and blah blah this 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.200 and so until tomorrow, good night and good luck, I 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.200 have the thing. And so we did. Oh god, we 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:22.959 were proud of ourselves. You know, we really thought we 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.400 had done something. Geez, nobody ever said anything. No, it 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.880 was bizarre nobody got fired. Nobody asked a question about it. 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:31.600 You know. It was this cult of four or five 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.720 guys who had pulled this off, and we just thought, well, 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.199 this is one. It was fun, but to you wanted 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.319 but no nobody nobody said anything. But but what's interesting 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.880 is from school and then doing the job and so 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.240 forth in the booth thing the comedy gland is secreting 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.720 through the entire time. What are you doing for that? 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.160 Meaning other than blowing up the studio and in the 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.320 sign off or yes, I was looking for any outlet 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.120 and it came for me doing the weather. I knew 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.680 nothing about whether you'd go downstairs night have the ap 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.040 machine and the map would come over, the national map, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.120 and you would go to the big magnetic board in 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.199 the studio and you put the low system, and you 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.240 put the high system, and you put the occluded front, 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:11.240 and you put the rain showers, and so it told 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.880 you everything any time, but all that I could monkey 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.000 with that. I was very happy. I can remember two episodes. 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.040 One I was had forecast sunny and dryet and we 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.000 we go off the air and blah blah and I 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.120 go outside this this is horrible thundershower. The rain is 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.240 coming down in sheets, and I was just twenty ft away, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.880 just oblivious of this. This uh dangerous yes coming through, 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.400 this one of these violent Midwestern summer thunderstorms coming through 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.680 attacking the station. I got to be well known because 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.800 this Sunday Night show was on after the ABC Sunday 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.800 Night Movie, and in those days that was big programming. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.880 We got a bunch of complaints, and this was when 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.760 people were wearing a bell bottom pants. I don't think 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.480 he could buy regular pants. Got a lot of calls 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.760 about he's either not wearing underpants or he needs to 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.680 wear underpants. That's how I distinguished myself. Do you want 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:05.720 to clear that up now? Were you wearing underpants? Of 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.360 course I was wearing inderpendent. It was Indianapolis, and we did. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:13.160 We're not talked too without It's whatever problem was perceived 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.520 was not mine, I assure you. And then where do 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.040 you go from there in terms of underpants, and well, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.800 if you wish. I got tired of sitting in the 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.320 booth and tired of working weekends. And also they didn't 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.480 they didn't want me there. They would keep bringing in 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.120 auditions for my job. That really hurt my feelings. But 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:32.920 I couldn't argue with them because I didn't know what 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.720 I was doing, but the cumulative effect of being on 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.480 TV a lot there, we get this memo once from 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.840 the search department, and of all of the people, the 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.160 the anchor team and whoever else, I had the highest 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.120 queue rating of anybody there, and it was only by accident. Really, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.000 So I started looking for a job, couldn't get hired 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.600 out of the market. Some people I knew were coming 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.360 in to start up a talk radio station, so I 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.120 went to work at the new talk radio station. Format. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.960 It was News Talks Force w NTS. When I resigned 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.800 to quit give my notice to the general manage, the 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.680 guy sad and it chilled me at the time. He said, really, 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.160 you're leaving this TV station to go work for a 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.200 brand new radio station. And I said yeah, and he 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.920 said you will never be heard of again. So I 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.600 went to the station, worked there for a year, realized 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.080 that I had to make a move. Nobody would would listen. 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.080 It was a daytime station. This was tremendous. They had 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.240 a daytime license, which meant the radio station come on 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:28.440 when the sun came up and went off when the 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.000 sun went down. Literally Yeah. And then winter. We were 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.600 off at three in the afternoon and I had the 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:36.440 midday shift. I come in at noon and two hours 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.160 later I'd be going home. It was it was afternoon, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.400 and then in the summer. Conversely, you were on the 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:48.119 like nine thirty or ten. It was awful. It was Watergate, 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:49.960 and and people assumed, well, the guy's got a talk 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.320 show on the radio, but he knows everything there is 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.920 to know about Watergate, and I knew nothing, and people 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.960 wouldn't call in, and I'd have to read endless pages 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.280 of wire copy. I remember eating a sorry about Gordon 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.200 Stratching str A c H A N. His name kept 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.800 coming up, a special counsel, so and so, Gordon Stratch 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.439 and adviser of the White House, Gordon Stratch. And finally 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.080 the phones light up, and I, thank god, did I 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.199 say yes? He says, it's not Stratching, it's Strang. You're 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.199 mispronouncing the guy's name. I said, okay, thanks to everything. 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.800 No click buzz, So there you go. Were you ambitious 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.960 during this time? Did you have an ambition? Yeah? I 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.240 wanted to. I really thought, um, I really thought I 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.520 could write half hours situation comedies. I thought I could. 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.800 What did you watch well? In my childhood it was 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.480 completely different. It would have been stuff like Saturday Morning Nonsense. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.600 Then as I grew older, you'd get Mayberry, The Andy 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.800 Griffs Show, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, the Nelson's and that 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.680 kind of stuff. And then later on and in those days, 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:49.480 it was all the Mary Tyler More things, the Bob 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.520 Newhart Show, on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. And I 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.800 really thought, oh, I can write one of those Mary 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.320 Tyler Moore shows, and it turned out I couldn't. As 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.760 you know, there's a template for writing those things. They 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.040 use the template because it's successful. And if you don't 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.119 know the template and you think you can make a 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.640 better version of it, it's a very foreign object to them. 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.840 To you, you think, look, I've improved on the template, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.200 but they don't want them. They want something to Yes, 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.480 that's right. I mean we're talking about Mary Tyler Moore. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.280 That's pretty good stuff. Smart And you're in l A 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.040 at that time. No, I'm still in Indianapolis, and I 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.120 would be sending scripts and looking for an agent. Finally 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.440 a guy said, yeah, if you come to Los Angeles, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.280 he said, I'll be your agent. So with that encouragement, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.360 I just left, and I don't know about you, but 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.440 you know your friends say, okay, here you can meet 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.800 with so and so, and and you can meet mel 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.439 Blank's son, you can meet with him and and I 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.119 know this one, and I know that one, and so 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.320 you go out there with high hopes. I guess it's 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.600 like the Pioneers and the kind of stoga wagon and 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.560 they run out of beans. You know, they're in Salt 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.240 Lake and they've got nothing neat. So within the first 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.280 week you run through all of your appointments and then 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.560 you've got nothing. Then your Shanghai that's right on the 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.879 shoulders there. I'm in Or when I went to l A. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.840 I did a soap opera at thirty Rock. The show 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:05.239 was about to go off the air, and I'll never 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.159 forget this guy that was the producer. Here we're in 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.160 the hallway and they asked me to extend my contract 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.639 for a few months. And he says that line to me. 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:13.840 He says, what do you think you're gonna do? Go 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.160 out the Hollywood, become a star in the movies. I'm 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.880 walking down the homeies doing do listen to me? Come 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.159 back here? You you don't walk away from me? And 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:24.439 I walk away from the guy and I go to 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.040 l A. Now, were you ever haunted by that? Did you? Honestly? 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:29.840 Did you? Did you? Because of my case I thought 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.000 the guy was I said, oh yeah, I haven't considered that. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.159 Of course you do. Did you ever think you were 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:37.360 going to be? I mean, I don't want to get 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.120