Friends Of The Show Volume I Part I

all right yall thought that I might be fibbing this is proof right now the Letterman podcast we have one sponsor one sponsor only but it is rert G and the hello Deli thank you very much for sponsoring our show rert it's my honor Mike welcome to the Letterman podcast I am Darren Cox I know people who have watched every single episode would know me I'm the guy who was on the first episode and I've been on some of your favorite episodes but um I'm here tonight as part of the friends of the Letterman podcast podcast special and uh yeah I'm here to talk about anything and and everything Letterman related I have my Letterman rayall Lanigan t-shirt on that I got when I was in Indianapolis and I'm so excited to be here Mike how are you I'm doing great Darren this is fantastic it feels like it's gonna be a night off for me right how's your podcast going man how's the irritable dad syndrome irritable dad syndrome uh if you go to irritable Dad syndrome.

comom you can get a mug that looks just like that one you go to Hello Das deli.com you can get a mug that looks just like this one is all I'm saying or like that or like yes I got that one right there too I was prepared prepared for that see it there you go now you can see it there it is yeah so uh irritable dad syndrome is is my podcast I co- host it with my buddy Mike Odell and we just recorded our 230th episode if you can believe that congratulations man congratulations September will make five years and uh you know your podcast is a guest driven so you're always having on the show that uh have something to do with David Letterman which is true absolutely absolutely fantastic yep and uh Mike and I it's uh our podcast is basically um we try to find joy and humor everywhere we go and so we gather on Tuesdays usually on Tuesday and we talk about the people we meet the places we go yes and um it's one of the most popular questions people ask is do you guys ever run out of things to talk about and no we just we just don't we've known each other for a long time we're very comfortable we're very symbiotic uh we have the we share the same brain yes so and you two have a phenomenal uh a phenomenal um uh you have a you have a great camaraderie that you two you have you have two chemistry and holy cow it's Friends of the show Steve Weiner's showing up holy crap oh my gosh it's Steve Weiner now he may sit in the background and just watch or he may join on I'm not sure but uh our boy Steve Wier OG writer for Late Night with David Letterman he was there at first discovered Calbert De Forest and uh and there he is right there and also we have tell telion historian Allison lips coming on board so right away we've got friends of the show showing up well fantastic yeah I know surprise so yeah it's been a little over a year since you and I met personally we've known each other for a long time since I was on your uh first episode yes sir we went to Rupert's uh hi Allison how you doing hi I'm good how are you nice to yeah welcome to the show I am Darren I'm your uh I don't know what I am tonight you're the host of the show man taking over you're hosting the Letterman podcast congratulations yes yes it's about damn time um but no it was it was over a year ago where Mike you and I got to finally meet each other in person we met at rert retirement party yep and that was absolutely amazing The Producers we met the writers we met the uh the staff and all those people I kept I was convinced that someone's going to come up who are you and then ask please leave sir and but that never happened and uh but the next night when we went out to dinner we went with the three Steves Steve Young Steve Wier Steve O'Donnell and there's right there by the way hey Steve how you doing hey hi guys Mike you are you holding places because all of us that you see on the screen are gonna be moving to Canada in January come on up we got we got room uh we got Tim Horton we got Tim Hortons so you'll introdu I'm fully expecting I'm fully expecting that uh that uh your prime minister will be building a wall hey Steve I don't think you've met Allison lips alisp pay for it I hope Canada pays for it because this country's not gonna have any money Allison is a TV historian and she stutters under David ban culie oh okay I know of him never met him yeah want to have him and Alison on the show at the same to mention that every time you know Mike no I choose to I want to it's not a have to it's a definite want to Mike only judges women by the men they know it's one of those things wow it's a joke expect to be S people be sarcastic that was excellent that was absolutely excellent but finally this is turning into a roast I'm sorry I didn't hear that one let it turn into a roast if that's what it's gonna turn into yeah um yeah Darren you were saying so it was like a year ago just over a year ago that we were all in New York together we ago in October and I was going to say Steve my wife and I still talk about how uh lovely it was meeting you and your wife having dinner thank you we feel the same way we had fantastic time right where where uh R Giuliani used to eat when he could afford to eat out and in the diner that was featured in season two of uh only building yeah it was playing a place on the west on West as6 Street it's actually on East as6 Street and I we noticed now when we were walking up Broadway from 86 there's now a little tiny restaurant on Broadway near 86 Street called the pickle which is what they called it when the the Mansion uh they changed it to a restaurant called the pickles so now I guess that they didn't copyright that name so they're going to have to deal with that super smart yeah yeah think so super smart so yeah that was a year ago um hey hey so I'm the Canadian here that's just coming to the party hey so good week this week everybody oh lovely I don't think we've had a better week in this country's history my God gosh there's nothing but roses and and butterflies and it's just been lovely I know Dave wife and I we've been holding hands and skipping up and down the street so happy wake up every morning looking for more new thing we're doing gonna have to see today so happy I can't stand it you know what I'm happy about another person is coming into the room oh we're we're we're gonna have Mo two-thirds of my dream will realized look at this guy Steve and he's out there he is there he is hey Steve hello recording in progress okay we're going already my friend how are you oh I'm fine how are you and well I'm good two out of my three uh the dream of having you know I want to have an episode that's called three comedy writers named Steve and we've got two of the three right here unfortunately Mr odonnell uh has other plans tonight and he told us he said uh send my hellos uh what the hell send my love uh that blend of personal and professional admiration combined with an ineffable affection that just cannot be Quantified so that's from Steve O'Donnell so he is a part of this tonight and he says hello to everybody oh he could have Quantified it he was just no I the metric system down here that's there you go he's lost his Quant fire haven't we all I think we all did this week my friend um I gotta go get my quantifier hold on okay good thank goodness put it oh here it is oh there we go that's the great quantifier right now and and that's and that's exactly what Steve O'Donnell is also doing right now I suspect he's drinking a martini I don't blame him that looks good on you young that looks really good on you that just a very nice glassy you got a lemon wedge in there it's oh no a lemon wedge that's an amateur move this is the lemon twist o the lemon twist yeah well I was a bartender a thousand years ago but I think it's common knowledge that you cut a strip of peel off the outside of the lemon and then twist it releasing the pungent Citrus oils across the top of the drink there you go hent Citrus oils holy crap St scientist I think most Li wrer has a fallback job in case the the the business doesn't work out so uh Mike not to be nosy but what the hell are you doing what is this project is this part of your podcast or is this just you screwing around yeah no this is this is uh it's an experiment that we're all a part of uh some of us know it some of us don't um I've always wanted to have a SE a segment of the Letterman podcast called friends of the show and I thought the idea would be we just kind of get together and and uh and shoot the bull uh maybe talk about maybe have a couple potential loose topics uh there's a picture I want to show everybody and get everybody's reaction at some point but yeah no it's just one of those things where we kind of just get together and and and uh who knows the magic that can happen it's like improv except uh conversational loose topics what is my ex gonna be here that that was improvisational right there so Steve Young if I can say again uh a few weeks ago uh Steve graciously allowed me to play the Sheep song on my podcast heritable dad and it was it was it was a hit 45 second wonders I loved it I loved it you have a unique way of playing the bass by the way I've never seen anybody uh uh pluck the bass like like you do I like the sound that you got out of it but coincidentally You released that song and then um you know there are people who it's like you know I got a guy who can fix my cable and I got a guy who knows how to do this and I got a guy so a friend of mine who she is a professional makeup artist here in Cincinnati area and she reached out on Facebook she has a farm and a couple of stray sheep stumbled onto her farm and she's trying to find someone who owns these sheep and she had them for two or three days and nobody claimed them so she reaches out on Facebook and says I've got these sheep does anybody want them I happen to have a friend a guy who has a farm with goats and a sheep I called him he contacted her and I made a sheep connection and I'm very happy to say that but it happened the same week You released your sheep song so I think you had something to do with that yeah there are currents of history that are converging very mystically and cosmically here but not to overgeneralize the Midwest but is this a common thing where just sheep show up and no one knows where they're from it's the first I've heard of it okay yeah I mean I just and I didn't know she had a farm I knew my buddy over the past two years they moved uh and acquired one and then started doing doing that with chickens and goats and all kinds of stuff like that and God this is a great episode um I agree and if I may D digress for a minute M how would you be able to tell the difference Mike you can go like go out and get coffee or something we'll be F here I don't think I know Allison where where would I know Allison from Allison lips is yeah she's a television historian um you're at currently at Rowan right yes and you're studying you're studying under he who will not be named um yes understand any of this you got to speak in plain English what what is Rowan Rowan University is a school in South Jersey right outside Philadelphia okay and I am in the t television studies master's program there okay and who must not be named can I get initials so I can guess what we're talking David beon cool beond cool okay yeah I never would have guessed that yeah no I thought Rowan was the other half of Laughin yeah and what are you working on right now Allison you've got a you've got a fun you did The Mod Squad the other day yes uh that was I mean I spent so much time with The Mod Squad I stopped caring about The Mod Squad what so Alison my my main job I'm a I'm a producer for antenna TV I make promos for the classic Network I tell people what time The Jeffersons comes on and um we do antenna TV and rewind TV and I know exactly what you're talking about cuz I did a My Favorite Martian marathon and I love the show but after you know two weeks of my favorite martian it's like you need a break you you really do there've got to be some other pretty good martians let's try those also because everything is in academic jargon because it was a specific article it just one of those things where I love this and even I'm rolling the eyes after the fourth time of reading the article trying to oh I just come up with an arguments questions for everyone Mike again I can't stress this enough you can you can go lie down if you need to because will just bother these people until the electricity goes out it's exactly what I had in mind my friend hey I paid my bill so I'm gonna be here for a while all right Darren what time is the Jefferson on is it like at 5:30 no it's on at 900 p.m Eastern Standard Time again I would not have guessed that okay Allison yes I don't know much about The Mod Squad um is it Peggy Lipton Larry Larry was on that right after that it falls apart but you were talking about academic dgon was the show in an official sense ever called the modern Squadron unfortunately no it was almost called the Young detectives oh that would have been so great detect kids are lining up around the block to watch the detect oh yes that's exactly the point the article was about how there's a tension between what The Mod Squad was trying to do with appealing to adults who would have been very law and order against Vietnam at the time and youth who want like hip and happening people who represent them and how do you try to do both and The Mod Squad was the Compromise yeah smart it's old demographic vividly remembered when when when that show was on when I was young I I think they're probably trying to appeal to a younger audience I don't I don't know a single person in in my age bracket from that period who would have in the that was the last show they would have watched they used to do you could see the promos and said these are the least hip people on television trying to be hip it was were you then because you were already for this I'm pretty old now so what year show was that on like 68 yes I would turned I would have turned 15 and 68 yeah but for would have been it would have been red hot as an aspiration thing wow I want those Fashions I want to be able to drive I want to go to the beach without my parents it would have been just killer just wasn't the premise that these young people had been arrested for some minor infraction and they were given a choice we'll put the hammer down on you you'll never be seen again or you can help out the nice policeman by working with us to round up actual dangerous predators but but Steve it was 1968 these kids were playing the feds I mean you know which which who would be watching that in our in our age group it was I I can't speak you're very young I know I was three all I wanted was was and it wasn't even on and for another year but street but I I think it was a pretty canny triangulation of we'll get the old people saying yes the police must round up the the the evildoers and the young people younger than you perhaps because you are already uh full of hipster cicis but even younger wow they're attractive young people and and and and they're doing something that I 80% understand and it seems to be for a good cause but look at those Fashions I I had hipster cynic on my card for many years so you know yeah how is your card going same way my career is going okay you're a big winner yeah well we shall see you're starting to regret inviting me just not going to show no please do let's let's do this and and again that's is only two comedy writers named Steve ladies and gentlemen I imagine if there was a third uh there isn't but somebody else is coming into the conversation we have the official that's not Peggy lipon hey hey Paul the girls are here alive she dead um I don't want her coming in here if she's not alive the official Warren Zeon historian Adam anger is coming on to join in the fun uh there's our boy here oh he's Adam hunger is a very well put together guy the things he puts together uh including many Warren Zon Box sets and uh art pieces uh queen box sets art pieces things like that he's a a queen historian as well um both officially tied to both acts Warren Zeon and queen and and just an allaround good guy Adam welcome Steve Young Steve Wier Allison lips Darren Cox everybody meet Adam hey how's it going everyone quite introduction thanks Mike good Adam how are you good thanks Adam you seem to be among your many other accomplishments here an absolute genius when it comes to framing things you should holes that are around holes all your there filing cabinets that are organized better than you know the the most organized room in my house he has filing cabinets that are organized like that lot of very cool cool stuff in that uh in that that that man cave Museum that you have Adam lining up everything in the grid back there very impressed thank you yeah this is the this is the room my wife hates and my kids aren't allowed in sounds like things are going great and where I hide when I'm in trouble I noticed and Al Alison has the soft focused background which is really really elegant unless in fact the back of your room isn't is is soft focused so I don't a lot no I'm in my kitchen and I don't think you need to see the jar of peanut butter the can of Pam and the baking soda oh that are if things get really slow in this group we will be seeing those you painted a very compelling word picture there Allison I see it I mean there's also vinegar so we can make a volcano again as I say if it if it does can we please play what's in Allison's cabinets the Canam big oh yes float I once pitched uh an entire like like from the the late Show's South American franchise uh esta buente bu whatever like is it float in Spanish and it would be the same bit just everybody talks the whole time in what do you know it didn't go well yeah because everything's funnier in Spanish there you go yeah see I don't know you guys seen C floss have you seen what have you seen ctin floss I'm not so sure go ahead I know that name I've uh somehow missed out because you're so young you ever see Around the World in 80 Days the movie C FL is was very popular Mexican comedian who was the played part P part two with alongside David nans so he was he was being promoted here and they did a terrible job of figuring out because his actual Mexican character was not the character they made him play in the movies they turned him kind of a soft focus chaplain guy and S Focus again soft go we have a theme ladies and gentlemen congratulations uh and and then and but in in his Mexican films he was a very fast talking more of like a Bob Hope character yeah yeah I have definitely heard that name but thank you for bringing up what was the what was the Woody Allen movie where uh Robin Williams was in it and he was his character yeah and his kids are like Daddy's out of focus daddy uh I like I really like that one too and my mind's gone blank so yeah the older I get I'm I'm forgetting uh movie titles and people's names yeah yeah and I did when I was young so it's just getting worse I'm going to look it up you Talk Amongst yourself all right yeah Mike have you gotten a word in edge wise in the last 20 minutes I don't need to this is exactly exactly my mavian uh you know plan we're going to do a podcast where I don't have to talk at all now I mean it's just getting lazier and lazier this is great passive income somehow your listeners may prefer that oh God I I promise you the listeners are going to be so happy about this episode this is going to be great Adam any Warren Zon I don't know if I'm telling Tales out of school I don't think I am um I I'll I'll keep it a little bit ambiguous viously some very very amazing unique Warren zon performances uh were were were of course uh from the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater um be kind of neat if some of those uh performances could be released is it possible that we might ever get some of these things uh into our streaming services um it is possible um we've been working on a I've spoken about this publicly before so we can speak about it now okay all right um we are working on a box set um that collects his last three albums um so that'll be life will kilia my rides here my rides here and the wind um obviously um during this time Warren performed on Letterman um he did hit somebody during that time porcelain monkey was done on Letterman then of course the last performance where he performed mutineer um genius and head Thompson gun yeah um he also performed on the kilborne show which is also owned by worldwide pants um during this period he did two episodes so um we're hoping hoping to license that material um there's a company called M&K that owns the rights to those three albums um we have another record company that's looking to license that material from them we have some outtakes um I've been able to track down the Masters to Warren's last live concert um other than letter that was in Edmonton Canada at the Folk Festival so we do have a stereo soundboard of that and um gentleman by the name Matt cartsonis who was on stage with Warren that night is working on cleaning that up and we're GNA try to demix it and then remix it and if that works out well we'll use that um if it doesn't we'll use the soundboard um but that's the plan um wow there were some stumbling blocks and some things that were going on that were that's kind of holding that up but seems like we have this back on track um hopefully and there we don't have release dates and we don't have timelines but it'll be nice to see it um by the end of next year um I think National sandwich day is like November 3D or something so that'll be kind of good enjoy every sandwich you almost imagine the uh the advertisements for that yeah but that's in the works um there's no guarantees with that though um next year um I can't get specific but Warner is going to be releasing a few things um that have the fans have been asking for um I can't say anything more than that okay um but we'll have some good zon releases for next year and um I think last time Mike you and I talked I was currently going through um Warren's Personal Collection of cassette tapes um I think it was 185 cassette tapes I just got through all of them so some of them are outtakes and overnight mixes and soundboard concerts um so there's some answering machine tapes um there's some junk in there um so there's some material in there that could be used on future uh releases as bonus tracks there's some really good soundboard concerts um that are releasable it'd be good Record Store Day type things y so yeah the future looks bright um the great thing is the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame um nomination brought a lot of ears and eyes to Warren um I have access to the Spotify streaming and it went up tremendously um after that just because of the press and of course he didn't make it in but who cares um it got his name out there so there was some renewed interest um and you know it it's kind of a cottage industry it's not like he's the Beatles or queen that it's not a big organization and his um catalog is spread across four or five different record companies so some of this gets a little dodgy um but we have some good things uh coming out in the future oh that's fantastic does he who control an estate or how does that work yeah there is an estate and everything goes through his son Jordan and his daughter Ariel um Jordan is the person I work with the closest he's the person I reached out to to start working on the zon stuff um and then obviously we get approval from Ariel we get idea an input from her um but Jordan's the person I Mo mostly deal with um we we talk and chat pretty much every other day um he's a lovely guy a sweetheart of a person um really sarcastic really funny kind of what you'd imagine Warren zon's son to be right um but he's a great guy he also performed on Letterman a few times he was on with the wallf flowers he performed solo twice and he was on with his dad one time so there's some history there with uh Letterman too yeah what always amazes me when I know when when Tom Petty passed away they released a bunch of songs out of the Vault and I'm like why weren't these hits why why did they hang on to them it amazes me how something wasn't deemed worth album worthy at the time but then they release it you know 30 years later and it sounds amazing I mean Tom Petty wrote leave Virginia alone that Rod Stewart recorded and after Tom died then they released it I'm like what what was wrong why would they not release that so I can't only imagine what Warren stuff you know what stuff Warren recorded that he held on to for whatever reason what's interesting is listening to his outtakes there I wouldn't say there's any like amazing undiscovered Treasures I think he was pretty economical in the way he wrote and recorded um because just one guy for the most part he had some co-writers and things um but I don't think there's a huge Treasure Trove of unreleased stuff um there was an album that came out 20072 2008 called preludes that had a lot of unreleased stuff on it um and there are a few things in there but it I don't think it wouldn't be anything that's completely mind-blowing or mind altering or you you can understand why they didn't make the last cut and a lot of those ideas ended up becoming part of other songs too um with the work I've done with Queen obviously they had four writers in the band there's a treasure TR unreleased things but they just didn't fit into the current album they were working on where better ideas came up and also you have the the situation with songwriting royalties where all members of the band have to be represented to some degree um so there's reasons why things don't end up coming out were there any interesting covers that you heard War Zeon Singh in any of the uh tapes that you found any covers um there are some officially released covers um a certain girl back in the High Life Again Steve Winwood song which is amazing that's a really amazing version of that song trying to think if there's any covers nothing comes to mind Mike um there could be but off the top of my head nothing sticks out yeah yeah my family and I we were watching this is us and um back in the high life was used on an episode of This Is Us and my wife is like that's hold on that's not that doesn't snw yeah that's not Winwood it all and I said no that was that was zon Warren zon did a cover of that yeah there there's a cool um longm was on but anyway it was on a TV show yeah there's a cool remix of that back in the high life version um that was released on a promo CD that Peter Asher remixed and it's really hard to find so on this box set that we're hoping to do um that'll be on it too yeah um the other fun thing about that box set um basically that that album um that cover comes from it's called life will kill you um Warren basically recorded the album himself at home using D tapes and basically turned those tapes over to um Paul CER Sean Slade they're the guys that produced radio head they added drums to it and produced it and made it more of a band sounding album um the great thing is we have his original dat tapes and we have kind of like the um acoustic unproduced version of it and that's going to be something we want to include in the box set too they sound amazing I love that stuff I love yeah that's fantastic um and when did you say are we talking release early 25 no not early 25 for that there's still a lot of work to do on that all right um it would be nice if it was late 25 but I can't I I can't I'm not in charge of those things and there's still a lot of work to do um but it's on the docket to do and there's work currently being done on it you've done the graphics for the uh the CDs themselves and the the book and all that sort of stuff right that's got to be so gratifying to see that thing come out it will be um what's kind of sad the record company he was signed to at the time um emis is the name of the record company um they've since gone out of business um but all the raw material that they had is gone so all the artwork all the raw art all photographs um they're gone the master tapes the multitracks all of it is gone so what we've had to do is try to go to producers Paul CER being one um he had stereo dat tapes for us um that may be better quality um they were able to rescue um the wind off of a very old computer and old version of Protools and get that reassembled um it looks like they're going to be able to do that for my rides here too um but it's amazing that all these things just went away um you think especially it was only early 2000s and um we're redoing it so we have all the fonts we l the colors we're able to get the photographs we're kind of remaking everything the way it was um so that'll be very rewarding um even just from a historical standpoint to have everything kind of reconstituted and reput together and being the way it should be it's funny I'm going to Pivot here a little bit just actually quite a bit but you just said the word history and I was just looking around at the panel here that we have so far and everybody here is involved as a history Keeper in some way shape or form in their particular uh genre like I think of Steve with industrial musical Steve Wier wrote for Criterion and is a literally an encyclopedia when it comes to cinema over the years and and and and what Allison's officially doing the gig she's going to be Dr lips and have a doctorate in this thing eventually Adam of course you and Darren working for True um you know keeping keeping uh the the spirit of these old shows alive and then you know me trying to do the thing with the whatever the hell it is that I'm trying to do here it's interesting the P I think it's about some it was a TV show that was on in the evening or something Steve did you ever see um Warren zon did you ever have any encounters with him of any sort you guys ever did any pieces did you uh not that I recall although I I do remember uh this must have been fairly I don't know in the early 2000s am I remembering this right uh Mike and Adam you would know after Warren's last appearance on the show did he give Dave a guitar yeah yeah he did um Dave talked about it um with the audience one time when do performed yes um I think it was a online thing um dos performed they did a zon cover he said that um after the show um Warren came he went down to Warren's dressing room or however the building was laid out and Warren um snapped up the car in the case and hand it to Dave and said take care of this for me I yeah that sounds right because I don't know if it was shortly thereafter or years afterward but I remember uh up near Mr Letterman's office there were the Warren of anti Chambers and annexes similar to King tutt's tomb where there's the outer zone and this tomb and the and the the all the gold amulets the canopic jars and all that but but there was like this sort of end of Raiders of the Lost Arc room full of stuff that had just accumulated Priceless stuff signed and given by people but I remember I don't know if it was Mary or Joanne showing me some stuff but there was the case with this guitar from from Warren zon and I thought how poignant and it's it's wonderful that it is here and nothing can dislodge that the Elegance of that story but at the same time as an aspiring guitarist I thought oh it' be too bad if no one ever played it again not not a big concern in a world in which we're flooded with uh 100 million guitars a year being built but still I thought I I don't have the chops or the resonance to touch that thing but I wish somebody would yeah where is the doesn't Dave also have a guitar from Eddie veter I think so yeah he probably has a hundred guitars he probably has a barn devoted solely to music instruments given to him by people so Steve Dave doesn't strike me as a Sentimental or nostalgic or collector kind of person what do you think he does with things like that is it in his storage shed somewhere is in his basement I don't know it was always to to give him something heartfelt and unique for a a birthday or Christmas gift you just didn't know really what what its disposition was going to be because he got such a flood of things from people on the staff and concentric circles of people who cared about him and liked the show and were friends of the show so you just knew that your little contribution was going into this flood and it was probably noted and cataloged and then maybe it was similar to the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc some football field size basement full of crates somewhere but I will say often enough through my odd instincts and Affinity with with Mr Letterman's uh sensibility I could sometimes actually make his eyelids snap open wow where did you find that oh my God I gotta talk to you about this so that that worked out well enough for me I didn't feel like I'd just thrown something into a black hole most of the time he would always give people notes did you ever get thank you notes Steve oh yes I probably still have a few of them dear Steve thank you for item X I will enjoy it I will display it proudly in My Den or office will great in the storage facility and then it's like the initials of the uh the uh assistant who had typed it but I think he really did dictate them and sign them he Barbara Barbara gains accidentally signed her own name oh no Barbara was not in that department first year or so I've got on a pretty good authority that Mary has an incredible letter Man and Mary many times Mary will sign things uh I've had a because shecky actually told me uh when I got my picture signed um I wasn't present when it was signed but it was I was like in the Next Room kind of a thing and the next day I got an email from Shi saying oh and by the way just so you know uh Dave actually did sign it it wasn't Mary so I thought that was kind of cool yes there there was that ambiguity of people develop the these the forgers art and craft to a high enough degree that yeah I wouldn't I wouldn't put money on any particular signature but you did get to here like from the inner circle yeah that one was real yep now I was about saying my my Late Show book of fun facts is autographed I I won that because when they when it first came out if you submitted a fun fact and they picked it then you get the autograph book I never even thought that Dave it might have been forged oh I should have submitted a fun pet fact then I would have gotten a free book you would have gotten a free book how many of those things were yours I think we asked that question before a whole pile of them right oh well I I think I was decently represented though that was kind of the the weird straight-faced that was exactly in my wheel my wheelhouse so yeah fun facts I remember one great there was one that got a big laugh from the audience and then Dave sort of riffed on it was at a 1978 Congressional hearing officials from Craft Foods admitted that they had no idea what was in Cool Whip and and the audience laugh that day went into this I don't know hey Mike can I take it for a secondos please do so not to uh ignore the other guest but Steve I have a question for you how did you come how were you able to write The Simpsons how did that come about for you uh like some many things in in TV or movies or probably any professional World it begins to some degree with connections there were people on simpsons's writing staff who I knew from college and who said oh yeah Steve Young yeah we like him and at one point in the mid 90s I was in so much of a a hazy unaware Silo of just oh I work at this David Letterman show that's all and I had a an agent at the time who said you know it would be wise to have some different credits on your resume so you're not just this one thing who do you know well I don't know I don't know um no I do know a few people at The Simpsons perfect I'll reach out to the next thing you know oh yeah we'd love to have Steve Young write an episode and that was in the days when they did maybe two episodes of season that were freelance they were still heavily gone over after the first draft by the whole staff but they did have a few Outsider Steve O'Donnell may have written two he was a sort of gold Elite Platinum Plus member of that yeah I I was able to Parlay uh some dim sense that I should be doing something else plus connections into that little uh thing which I still once in a while get a little residual check for and that was in the era before The Simpsons was a writer Guild show and all the writers in that era were not making a dime for from repeats and my agent said I'm going to negotiate your deal on this thing as if it is a writer Guild show so you will get residuals it's possible that that helped tip the scale and I like a year later all the Simpsons writers went to Fox and said we want to be a writer guilded show we want the animation animation still fighting for that the writers go yes most animation has not done it but Simpsons and a few other shows they said we want the repeat money we want the health insurance we want the pension and fox said oh we don't want to give you that and the writer said you can fire all of us and you can hire other uh people who will be human beings who can like put fingers on keyboards but you will not really have the Simpsons anymore and fox said I guess you're right okay fine but it did not spread as far through animation as everyone had F an endless endless fight with the writers they'll try to get that for them and get get them unionized it's a shame really I mean I I was asked uh our mutual friend Hillary Rollins and I were asked to write a friend friend of ours was working over on Doug which was a show a kid show about a oh blue face for no particular reason that I could ever figure out um and I best friend the the he said it's just a favor he said please I need you know I need all the help I can get so he wrote this thing and I think we I wouldn't even remember we we got paid for it we got paid once and it really was like it was like bus Fair it was unbelievable you know it just but and people have been fighting for it and it's just never happened Eternal by the way I will say one thing about Doug the kid with the blue face h loidal silver well now we've got an answer now you should have written that episode the origin story oh believe me I pitched it many times his agent wasn't that good your agent was your agent was trying to get your union salary that's the problem don't want to hear that crack poot stuff he's just blue forget it never no one cares why he's blue just shut up so I had to well he actually go ahead Allison I believe he actually mentioned in an episode that he's African American which is very not a direction you would expect it to go into because I'm of that generation where I grew up watching Doug and other Nickelodeon shows and Disney one Saturday morning so that's I know we take artistic license but I'm gonna uh I would love love to see some documentation about which part of Africa produces people with the blue skin and I'm not gonna press much but I know there's the White Nile and the blue Nile we'll say okay it's from the lower Nile I guess I I this is what it feels like to get cancelled here it is great you can't great podcast Mike great just another service we provide here on the Letterman podcast I I should point out that I got the best Note most en enjoyable note Hillary and I got the most enjoyable note I've ever gotten from a producer of on a script that we submitted um we had I think we'd seen like one or two episodes of so we just wrote what we thought was funny based on the characters and we got the noteb from the guy who cread that show whose name I forgotten that our script had to be written was and this is a direct quote too funny so you know if you're GNA go down that's the way I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten that can you dial it down guys please I'm trying to get it tonight Mortals are not equipped to deal with what you're out here you will kill us all I'm still stuck on the idea that there's footage somewhere of Doug you know maybe at a desk talking to somebody and there's a jar of collodial of water you know around the Silver Rod thing making the collodial silver mom says I gotta do this every day we were told that the guy who was running the show was in fact Doug was based on his life and I've seen pictures of he was not blue no not blue no hey um clue it's his friend sker are you an avatar no I'm not a goddamn Avatar Allison's right skater's blue Doug's not Doug call Allison Doug no wonder he didn't like our scpt chist we just for 10 minutes and we were wrong as I'm not convinced I want to see data I have a just I can just imagine the person who's like you know what I'm going to give the Letterman podcast I'm going to give it a try and like there 15 minutes into this whole goddamn show is about Doug Rick sheckman and this will Mike you'll like this Rick sheckman and Alex Bennett and and I when Alex Bennett had one his old radio shows he invited Rick and I on one night and we were basically talking like we do all we did offscreen which is all at the same time and all over each other and it was going fine we were very happy and we got they started taking phone calls okay and this woman says I only I wish you could just hear yourselves you're all talking at the same time and no one knows what you're saying and this is embarrassing and it's so unprofessional and and Alex said ah screw you and he clicked her off how could you hear her if you were all talking over her no we stopped we stopped to hear the people call in oh that's that's the only time we stopped okay good impenetrable chaos was your theme okay it has always been in career terms too um I I do have a couple of things that there is a there is a semblance of structure and uh I want to share a photo and I want to see if anybody is it Doug and sker it's not it's I'm pivoting can you all see this yesl Merl okay oh yeah you already about I showed you Allison Allison Allison knows about this already but if you can look uh Merl Marco Merill and if you look that's there's a pickle can we tell what uh I figured Steve Weiner might know what this is but I don't know I know what that is I know exactly what that is I don't know hacks Merill is gonna be on an episode of hack playing a character called Merill how amazing is that that's great hack is such a great show it's a fantastic show really incredible show just so why is pickle touching her cantaloupe that's bothering me now oh can I see that again what happened yeah yeah yeah we'll see it again oh now is it a euphemism now my mind's gonna be thinking about that all or is that cheese I don't I think that's pickle that's a pickle no that's is that a cucumber or a pickle is it blue well cucum hairs pick should not be near the fruit even I know that I think that's cheese cuz that's that's red sauce oh I don't know that's melon that's melon this is the worst just when you think this week can't get any cheese Paul you got any music the uh I put that up that was on uh Merill Mar substack which I highly highly recommend I'm actually starting a substack channel uh in the next week or two here I'm going to start writing stuff explain to me I hear this phrase and I've never felt older than when I've had to say these sorts of things but I know like substack is things where people do things but is it like a website or do you have to like sign up for it somehow yeah it's an app and a portal that you can sign into on your computer or your phone yeah I know and and I me explains everything I'm telling you 11-year-old Mike would be so disappointed if he understood in his adult years what the word portal would mean the most biggest disappointment ever 11y old yeah no teleportation nope just get to look at content that's right that's right um substack is a place where writers can go and write and they can uh develop a following and people can um it's got sort of the uh uh the business model that um oh help me out here what's a patreon that patreon has similar but people can come and view the content for free and there and then there are people that can also subscribe and pledge and and so Merl you can't see all content for free no that's true there's some there's some that's uh um you know different they have different platforms that's right but Merl's is uh she writes stuff some of it is in the form of graphic novel some of it is in the form of text and then a photo a clever photo that matches here and there or just a a story an anecdote um and you can subscribe and if you want to pledge you can but either way you're seeing the reading the genius of of Marl Marco and so that picture went up this week because she was saying Hey listen I'm sorry there's no post this week uh and and and you know it was a disappointment message saying you know I'm reeling from the election and that the the season of silliness U that went on down there um and then saying this is the reason why there's no post this week and that picture was up and it's like I my imagination just went off the idea that she's playing a version of herself on that show uh got my imagination going imagine if there was a spin-off and you had like a Curb Your Enthusiasm type thing and it was Merl Marco to me that just is absolutely delightful sounding and if we're going to get even a taste of that on Hacks I'm a very very happy guy so Mike a few years ago can do me a favor mik can you give me the option to share my screen uh yeah I think so I'm gonna send a request all right hold on this is maril Marco related I promise so three or four years ago um ah there we go you got her man Jordan and I had a call with Marl Marco Jordan Zeon wanted to do a podcast with Merl Marco and he commissioned me to make a website for her and update her website this is what I came up with and we spent a long time working on it and we talked to Marl a lot and such a nice person everything you'd want her to be yep and then Jordan and I just stopped being interested in it and I'm sure we wasted a ton of her time wow yeah it's one of those things you wake up and you have a really good idea and you start on the idea Y and then you just don't follow through with the idea what are the connections uh between Jordan and Merill like what are the used to date Warren there we go there there it is that's how Jordan knows Marl Marco she dated Warren zon for a little while oh wow I did not know that I did not know that Jordan has pictures of the two of them mini golfing and um I have pictures of their scores from the mini golf that they did and um Merill destroyed Warren on the mini golf course oh I like hearing that that sounds that's that's great yeah but there's pictures of the two of them getting into his Corvette and going on a date or whatever and so yeah they were uh together for a little while there we have but um yeah she was wonderful wonderful to talk to so bright so funny um way smarter than me way funnier than me just everything you'd want her to be she was great and then we wasted her time Steve Wier you loved working with Merill the best I mean it was you know there was my my first gig in television and she is just you know you if you actually fulsomely compliment her or anyway it's almost it's not hip enough on some level so I feel like I should be doing something funny but I really owe my career to her and today of course but but I you know Merill was just a great personal work with she she was very supportive of all the writers um she was um she herself was funnier than any of us so it was just always trying to go get to be that funny um yeah I me I really I ow her everything you know I I can't say we became friends but I you know didn't become friends with David either so you know so so but I but you know she was very really important to me and she treated Calbert well I guess I mean she was endless she and David were both so amused by Calbert you know it was H I'm sorry I didn't hear all right anyway no they they were just they they were just both very amused by him so that they could he could do no wrong which of course he only did wrong but his doing wrong was what made it right I mean that you know I don't know if I ever told the story on on on any of the podcasts but you could write stuff I was Carl and I used to write stuff that was just a little bit off so it was just like you know not way crazy but he would then do things himself that you couldn't create as a writer I remember we were doing a we had a Melman bus ad that we' written and the first line was remember Mel M or not the first but the line was remember m e l m an spells Melman and it was written on the card m- e- Dash Etc so Calbert go stand is standing there and he says remember Melman spells Melman he just saw it as a stretch thing oh God we couldn't have written that we couldn't have come up with that I mean it's like you have to be in another dimension to think that like that U I mean you you you know this the famous Christmas Story either I'm sure I know I told it everybody else who was there probably told it uh but that wasn't even his fault it was the only thing that that you know he he didn't have the script he no one ever gave him the script and he didn't know he was supposed to you know most people would have stopped if they the camera came up and they didn't know what they were doing Cav just tried to improv through it which was hard and and uh he finally W up say he supposed to be reading the night before Christmas and he say and they said and everybody had a Merry Christmas ho ho ho that was his adlet um I mean what Santa and the kids are all around him and the book is in Spanish the kids were bored they were like leaing through things trying to see if the packages were real you know it it as as Dave said on the air it was magic you know and then the next night he had Barbara and Jude on who were in charge you know the producing that segment each one of them thought the other one had provide had gotten script up for him so they they both were wrong and and the I guess it was David's idea that they would would appearer on camera in Shadows like somebody on 60 Minutes who were guilty but you couldn't show them because you know they were witness relocation program and it was it was great it couldn't couldn't have been better yep Steve you wrote for Cal as well right not that much he was already kind of becoming a lesser and lesser element on the show by the time I showed up and and there were probably and this was 1990 and and by the and he was around certainly in the NBC era and then less and less he was more like a prop by the CBS era what did he open the show by saying this is CBS that he did one of the few scripted things I could ever remember him doing on the the newer show I think later years he wasn't able to handle much dialogue or anything like that and he would just be this sort of non-talking comical human shaped item that would come out right please welcome Harry kiss Ander and then and then Calbert would block out that clip that clip just resurfaced with u you know Johnny Carson's last appearance and Calbert walks out as Johnny Carson and it was great oh when the show was in LA that week yeah yes Los Angeles but uh Mike you may have had me on at some point when I told the story when I was hired in 1990 I think I had seen the show less than anyone who'd ever been involved with writing and like I I'd only seen a handful of episodes and then I was hired and then for like two weeks I watched it okay I got to catch up and then suddenly I'm in this room with all these comedic Olympians who've been there for years and they know every bit of minutia about the show and what's been done and they kept mentioning this name that I didn't understand they said what if Calbert does this what if Calbert does that and I finally said excuse me I'm sorry I know I'm new here but who is Calbert yep because on TV and I vaguely knew this he was Larry Bud Melman but you had to be a hardcore fan which I was apparently not in order to real so I but I I I was charmingly guileless enough in my stupidity that people kind of took me under their wing and said oh that's so adorable this guy doesn't know all right we'll tell well he was a he was more of a constant PR presence in the in the early times yeah I mean he he he'd be on something several times a week and uh you know but he was working and he was still I again I'm probably sure I told the story before but he was still working his day job which was a receptionist at a drug rehabilitation Clinic they never stayed up long enough to know he was a TV star so he would come in the you know he'd work he' work and I just kept imagining what if some drug addict who happened to have seen the show walks into the clinic wants to get straight and the first thing he sees is Larry Bud Melman behind the desk there's like only two ways to go there either you quit immediately or you run out and get a fix that's the only possibility you can't can't do you can't just take it normally but un is not supposed to collide like that yeah he he ultimately was had to leave that because they wrote about him in the Washington Post a profile and they told the story that he was working and he was still working at that rehab CL clinic and he had to quit because he was a civil service worker and you can't have two jobs when you're a civil service worker you can either be work in the clinic or be a TV star you can't do both it's against the law of New York how much of a dilemma was it was well you know I think he thought probably thought it over well he may have thought that the clinic was was a more permanent job which just quite possible would have been we have no idea I don't want to cast dispersions on his professional uh qualities but I can't imagine he would be a terrific employee at any organization NOP nor can I but again civil service work what can I tell you okay well there you go that's the best I got for you I me I never saw him there so I have no imagine him as a receptionist at all hold please well he didn't the laugh was opposed that wasn't him he never never did that off camera okay that was yeah I don't know remember how that started you guys I did go with him to the I think it was the 1992 Republican convention in Houston me and Maria Pope and Calbert and we shot some down at the Houston Astrodome or whatever yeah B Senor would have been running at that point versus Clinton versus pero probably yeah yeah look at this Canadian probably my medi uhh time spent with Calbert and I think there is some pictures somewhere in my files of old undi photos of me and calt on the floor of the Houston Astrodome going ah I somebody sent me a picture recently of calt young which is almost unimaginable uh you wouldn't particularly recognize him but uh you know you might but it was it was interesting experience you know none of us are actually friends with Cal close to Cal we liked him he's very nice guy perfectly Pleasant to be around but you know he didn't go out and had a beer with Cal after the show it's not a thing oh he was my best friend I'm this stepen everyone but you was in a close but you didn't know who he was so let's you know let's yeah and I caught up fast he was CH by my ignorance let's be I Calbert was best man at my wedding he was I heard that I married him beat down well Alison's kidney wow okay you there you went I need a little more of my uh to fire hold on very very good idea Qui questional as a fan yeah oh sorry Mike no no you go ahead Adam as a fan watching the show I love Calbert or bud so you everyone said that you know of course he appeared less and less um whenever the show moved to CBS as The Late Show um was it I don't want to say this so obviously characters like rert became a big part of the show uh mujur Sahel did um Calbert appear less and less because there were more characters to bring into the show or was it a function of Calbert was just getting older and could didn't appear on the show as much and that gave other characters the chance to be on the show or the two completely unrelated that's a very scholarly question Adam my it was it's just the way I wrote it down in retrospect I think it was probably both I think Dave consciously or unconsciously thought that Calvert stuff is so tied to the old show yes we love it we want the continuity but we've got new UN here but yes Calbert as I was saying was uh able to uh handle less and less in terms of tasks and materials I'll Point everybody if you wanna if you want to do a de a deep dive on Calbert one of the places to go um I really enjoyed his appear on uh The Late Late Show with Tom Snider it was a really good um appearance that he had so he did he did some long form with Tom and um he was uh not quite as perhaps unhinged as he was on the show but not nearly as hinged as you might think that that that was my that's my uh memory of it um that have been age thing too yeah probably was yeah it probably was I mean if he's on Snyder you know it's between it's it's it's 90 90 probably 97 I would think you know so 10 years before he before he went because I think I think he died in No7 um but Steve okay so you guys discover him you put him in King of the Zas how old would he have been and we you and I still need to do our King of the Z's episode I keep watching King of the Z's I I'll watch it when videos are processing and stuff because I've got it on the studio computer here uh we've got to we've got to figure out the way to present this yeah for people that's that's up to you I'm you know we'll be happy we'll figure that out but but how old would Calvert have been on I don't off the top of my head I don't know I'm guessing he would be in the area of like maybe his early 60s when he did early mid 60s when he first started on the show but that's purely a guess yeah so so King of the Z's 40s or 50s for sure well older he looked old he couldn't tell with Calvary because he looked had that amorphous age kind of thing like he he could have been 50s 60s or 70s when he first started it couldn't have been 70s but he like o Redenbacher or or Colonel Sanders he just had that look I don't you know who had silver hair by the time he was 33 or whatever and then had a very long Plateau oh I've been Steve Martin for 60 years that's Cal yeah yeah but another comedian I know had talented guy named Fred Newman I work with on a show Fred had white hair has had white hair all his life and he never he doesn't look like he's age today if you run into him now I I knew him in the you know I worked with him in from like ' 89 to 92 and I you know I saw him a few years ago exactly the same are you saying King of the Zas or king of disease thease king of disease it's not a very po movie that's a different movie it's much less Stephen King presents yeah no it was there was a book called King of the bees that was out around the time that that we came up with this thing and since our thing was supposed to be about an old movie studio that was a lowbudget movie studio that was the that that title light came to me immediately and it it just stuck and we never changed it uh it's it's if you see it it makes sense if you hear it people get confused but first thought best thought sometimes those instincts of oh you know in the first half second right the idea and title or joke is oh you know those are usually the best ones too if you have to work over it if you have to slave over it they're usually not that great you know it's like if you if if you're writing comedy you know the Steve the the you're basically trying to Muse yourself initially when you're writing you're trying to make yourself laugh so usually the things that come up with quickly are the ones that are going to be surprise to you so you know but there are also times when you come into work in the morning you don't feel funny then you have to put the damn thing together with glue and bits of professionalism pieces and and you always know the difference if you're really lucky the audience won't tell but you always know the ones that you really feel had faith in versus the ones that you had to do because there was a deadline coming up right um my late friend Hank BBE once had a quote and it may have come to him from someone else but he said a professional is someone whose best work is outstanding and whose worst work is acceptable and so on your uninspired day you still knew how to get it up to an acceptable level but some days the golden idea floated down on you and just thank well that movie was one of them I have my whole career and Carl was based off of thatth all these years later and as Mike knows I mentioned before it became a a recurring part of the tell ride Film Festival they are to this day still wearing t-shirts which have the name of our studio vuchi pictures on the side it's been 1978 is when that movie came out they I think they played it in 79 and it's been all these years and they said there are people now I've been told who no longer know what it refers to because become like part of the thing and it's I no one is more stunned than I was because when I look at the movie now I don't really like it anymore because it's too slow it's too slow it's not I mean I want more jokes more Pace I want to look better but people still like it and I'm happy because otherwise that it was the whole life my whole life came from that thing you have reached a pinnacle of civilization when your achievement is now enshrined somehow and yet impenetrable to Young impet you don't know why is a thing no one has ever explained to us what this is but we have to have it appar well I was hoping when we wrote it I think I thought wouldn't be wonderful if like Peter shley with PDQ Bach people started to take this as the sort of take the joke onto them and and pretend that you know they always pretend that PD cuak was real I thought it'd be great if people thought VB Studios was a real VB pictures was a real Studio this find out it's not real huh this is how you find out someday may you should watch the the movie it's yeah don't don't go that far you know and they but they do but they don't even know at this said I sort of thought it'd be nice if we were involved with that element when you know because shley and and pqac were inseparable we got separated somewhere down the line from this like so it went on without us and I told you the story I think that the story because it I really thought it was a I would never have known about it it was like 20 or 30 years after the movie had come out and I I got a phone call one day from a newspaper in toride who was writing an article about what they call the quirks of the festival first of all and he start he started talking about how do it feel to have your movie being such a big part of the ti right Film Festival he said what are you talking about he said don't you know it's like they everybody refers to the studio they all they have signs about it the office is called V I didn't know anything about now I thought he was putting me on because well the first thing he said was I'm calling you from The Daily Planet you know yeah said get clar Kent on the phone you know but I mean I thought I thought the whole thing was a joke he said no no this is for real and he put the he I talked to him about he put the article I got in touch with some really nice people let T arrive and they told me the whole story and no one had ever bothered to tell us I I remember when the movie played we got some luck out of it because it got picked up for Showtime it ran for two years of Showtime that's when Stu Smiley and rollinson jof jofy office saw the movie and eventually that led us to working on the Letterman show so it had done job which was to get us work but I thought it was gone I even remember one point I I was talking about it to Merl one day on the show and she said well you know at some point you have to let your student film go and I was fine with that and but it it's still alive it makes it absolutely stuns me well you guys were on panel and showed clips of the movie Yes on Letterman like Letterman interviewed both of you and you shows made they let it made it possible for us to make new clips with the show so we went down with Pete fat to to a a sound stage down in the village and Pete was only there because Carl would have been you know was directing this thing but Carl was not DGA so Pete had to be there so Pete would sit there you know with his his plaid jacket reading a newspaper in a corner and periodically You Know Carl or I would lean lean over and say what do you think Pete and you go all right with me and that was it that was peace part he was happy and that that's how the stuff got made I I actually think some of the stuff we did for the show was I mean it looked bad it was just more professional we were specifically trying to make it look bad yeah and we overdid it so the old clips really look like crap now you I think some of the jokes get lost but people still seem to like the damn thing and that's a compilation on Don Gill's Channel I believe oh you didn't know that Steve oh I was just GNA say you have no idea what you're throwing out into the universe and what will stay I think any number of us any one of us might be astonished decades from now like that's what people remember that I did ridiculous I thought I thought I had a masterpiece over here people like this weirdest stupidest most minor thing that blew up somewhere and that's true I I can't I can't say that's a bad thing because those random chaotic Domino effects like you were saying it brought you to such amazing places and Darren Allison Adam and and and even Mike I don't know what strange twists and turns you look back now on your own lives and careers say that makes no sense that never should have happened I've got like 20 of them and I'm sure you all have if it weren't for that minor Quirk and ripple in the SpaceTime Continuum where I met this person and they made that off-hand remark and that made me interested I would have a different life now absolutely true I think I told I don't know if I told you this story mik before but we had actually tried to pitch ourselves to the to the show letman show we had gone in we we got we got a meeting with with a bunch of there was like I think they called a what what they call a terror of Morris agents uh and it was like five Morris agents in a room and we had our movie had our movie a terror of managers I'm sorry I just love that line that's a great line the the the we brought our film and we B Point had been successful it had already gotten on TV and all that and it usually got a good reaction and we sat we put this thing into the you know VHS into the thing played the movie and it was death absolute death and they said at the end of says what do you want to do us to do with this thing uh we thought maybe Dave Letterman would would look at it maybe I don't know sort of you know There Staffing and you know oh the show's fully staffed already they said which I knew was a lie you know I already told was a lie and that's what I mean I said the same movie two years later was it two years after the morning show one and a half and the same movie and even that would never have happened if Ste Smiley had happen to have Showtime on and seen the movie so it's like it's all those little dominoes that you know your whole career can go this way or that way based on the weirdest things Steve's absolutely right about all of that yeah um on a local level I used to make local commercials at a NBC affiliate here in Cincinnati and I used to make commercials for this company called dryer vent Wizard and the guy basically all he does is he cleans people's dryer vents know the Dr V wizard you know vent wizard they're in Pittsburgh also yes um and so there he's always asking me we want to do something funny we want to do something funny because we all know dryers are hilarious right and uh lint Catch Fire and your house burns down it's not so hilarious it's there there's and there's three signs to know when you need to get your dryer no we're not going to go in that so it's it's there's a there's a a tall guy named dead and there's a short guy named ed and the short guy named ed is you could tell him we're going to put you in a diaper and give you a cigar and and these goggles and he would do it he would do anything you wanted him to doch and so he um and he kept saying what if what if we put me inside a dryer vent like you make me really small and he just he wouldn't let it go and I find like fine so we did a commercial where the dant wizard snaps his fingers and the smoke comes and then by uh methods of uh modern technology PRI we made him little and put him inside a dryer event he's like wow this thing is dirty right and I'm like this is what this is I was like I'm not gonna tell anybody that I made this commercial you know still to this day people talk to little Ed and say hey how long were you stuck in that dryer and they they loved it and they keep asking him about you know how he he got stuck inside the dryer wasn't it you know at first I'm like okay I'm giving the client what they want you know and I made it look as good as I could but I I'm not sure that I believed in at the time but it really they loved it you tapped into something Primal whether it's the tidy bowl man why is there a tiny man in a boat in my toilet oh my God I can't stop thinking about or the what was the the show in the 60s or Incredible Journey or something you got miniature people getting injected into oh yeah yeah yeah yes well fantastic void was the movie yeah that's what I meant fantastic void Incredible Journey what inredible Journey Incredible Journey was that three animals cat and a a dog and a cat dogx is the voice of the puppy yeah a cat a dog and a mouse and they were miniaturized and injected so but Darren you did stumble sideways into something extremely Primal there people are fascinated by oh my God what if what if a tiny person could be inside X like little kids are there people inside my TV I look in the back of my TV and see what's really happening there you you you you got into something there and I I will say I cannot be more uh strangely delighted to hear the phrase drier vent wizard because when I you know it's like I've got the dri vent Wizard's number right here on my phone call get him on the show but I was doing a tour of my industrial musical show and I was going into Pittsburgh I had a cool venue set up and I thought oh I should try to figure out what are some local podcasts and hip comedy blogs and whatever and I got on this podcast called y Jag offs which is like this Pittsburgh hello wheel the the very entertaining Two Hosts of it and the the is sponsored by drier vent wizard okay I looked into the podcast a little bit I checked out some of their episodes because you want to go on the podcast feeling like you're not a complete idiot so I got on there and we're having fun talking about Letterman and Industrial musicals and I'm coming to Pittsburgh and it's all great and they're saying oh we're so glad to have you here and I said I am just so glad to have even a peripheral connection to dryer vent Wizard and they just lost their because they couldn't believe anyone wanted to talk about drier vent wizard but I did Mike you're going to have do a whole show on this next oh I'm on it I'm on it list I think we're on that show right now this is it that's the title of the show dry vent wizard oh we got that if we can be serious if it takes more than one cycle to dry your clothes if your clothes come out smelling kind of musty or if the top of your dryer is hot to the touch it's time to get your dryer vent cleaned thank you fair enough but not educational Darren I like announc huh I like my clothes to smell musty there like way to keep the drier vent clean and safe and yet still have my clothes smell musty yeah normally I pay EXT I think you have to write to Downey for that one oh yeah Dow's got a special Pur clog mine for the mustiness yeah I think you're not alone there I think house be damned I would be musty kind of the the stealth OT smell of the 2020s yeah I want more mustiness in my life we've taken a corner here that I I I'm using the salmon cards tonight and and that was just in case odonnell decided to come on which by the way I he love that I I'm so grateful I'll get a message every once in a while from him because he watches the show uh and and and and we'll we'll send encouraging notes um we just went through episode 150 and uh he uh remind he he taught me a new word um do we know the new word do you know what the 150 anniversary word is do you know what that word is like there's a centennial went for 100 do we know what the 150 is is it beho it's not it's not jag off uh although it is now Steve Steve Young looks like it's got to be some combination of things like senta Demi meenal or something you're close yeah it's the uh it's the CES CES Centennial s sqi Centennial CES sesq Centennial is 150 so he wished us a happy uh cesit sentennial of of of episode 150 and then we got into I'm like hey when did you learn that word and he knew exactly when he learned the learned the word and was something from Cleveland Ohio and so any anyway um uh I don't know why I just wanted to say about Steve well I don't even know why I brought Steve up there but I a lot of cool things come out of Cleveland I I know I probably spoke to you about the first time I got to Cleveland uh had two short films in the Cleveland Film Festival but happily and tragically one of Steve's Elder siblings in his family of 10 had just passed away and he was coming into Cleveland exactly the same time and I had a wonderful afternoon with him giving me the odonals ey view of of gritty Blue Collar Cleveland as as changed as it was 60 years later or whatever but a lot of it was still there that guy's a National Treasure uh he really is and speaking of we're we're not uh oh so I remember now why so we have this inside joke about salmon cards instead of the blue cards there sammon cards when he did his uh um uh favorite moment segment you know he was talking about how how how hosts have to have a blue card they have to have a blue card that looks like this and he goes but sometimes it could be salmon at which point I immediately rush to the stationary store to buy salmon cards I've written two things on this one here so far the first one is the inner chamber of the am of the anex that's the first one so thank you for that Steve the inner chamber of the annex I can imagine that's just a and then the drier vent wizard of course is the other thing I've written down so yes I do believe we've done some good in this show here so far you don't have a window behind you Mike to throw it I don't I don't uh there's one right there and in fact it looks like the studio is going to be getting a bit of a of a remix of a Renault here and I believe a window will be included in a version of the studio moving forward but what I was going to say was we won't we're not getting the dryer vent wizard uh sadly that is a get that I think is too far but a get that I do believe is coming on is somebody you mentioned there Steve oh go ahead go ahead Steve yeah I think I can make some calls I the Jack offs to the rescue and there should be a t-shirt of that um I think we're going to be getting Ste smiley on the show Steve that'll be W there's a guy I haven't talked to in 35 years yeah it'll be an interesting one we were on the phone not too long ago talking about the Rollins project and uh he was telling me stories because he was Dave's kind of man that was with Letterman back in the day like when he helped you know Dave while he had his first appearance on The Tonight Show and and and really early stuff and manag Dave early on and has a a ton of stories that are appropriate for the show um and then of course you know the full circle coming back and being one of the uh principles on everybody love Loves Raymond all these years later and it was just funny how these full circle moments happen so it'll be very interesting to have him on the show hey goe just say Stu and and Roy rosard Rosengard who I also knew know well uh produced the r Raymond and Rory is gonna be coming on the show too he and I have going back and forth soory know I know we want to have him on and he always has nice things to say about you too as well when he's a great guy yeah and he manages guys like Brian rean and a couple other um Ray Romano of course and a few other comedians who have been uh you know great friends to late show and and and hopefully of course you know with some of these people coming on the show there'll be stepping stones that lead to some of these other folks as well lots of lots of gas left in the tank for this show uh um and places that we want to go I have a question yes sir Allison how did you cross paths was Mr Chisum oh what's the is he also a super fan of Mod Squad or is that just that's the next podcast fire tonight Mike sent me we've talked about this on a past podcast a message on Facebook that made it into my spam folder and I eventually just opened it up and I'm like wait a minute this is the Letterman podcast guy so after feeling him out and making sure he wasn't creepy we became friends and it's so one of those weird things where I am a lot younger than a lot of the Letterman like big Letterman fans so while I know who Calbert Forest is I didn't see any of the episodes he was on when they first aired because I would have been well not born yet for the NBC negative 18 years old I believe yes and then by the time I was watching Letterman regularly I was in high school so we're looking at 2005 2009 God we are so old and close to Death Christ almighty yeah I go to school with people who years younger than to so Mike you you you mentioned Johnny Carson briefly and I was gonna I wanted to talk about this I was um at antenna TV one of the jobs that I do is uh I do promos you know this week on Johnny Carson and then I find uh four uh notable guests and then I go through and I grab Johnny's audio Jonathan winners uh Mr Robin Williams you know and then then I place it on there and then makes a a 15-second spot and I'm going do you ever put your voice in as and try and get it by in the promo where it's actually you and not Johnny I'll try that okay I will do and please send it to us I cannot wait to see that that's going to be great but there was an episode with Terry gar and so I was like I've got to put Terry gar on there and I'm going through and I'm watching the episode again and one of the things that I've and Steve and Steve Dave in retrospect seemed to have more control over his show than Johnny did because this episode I'm watching with Terry gar um Mel Brooks is also on and good luck trying to get a word in when Mel Brooks is on on the down the couch you know he's Johnny's trying to ask Terry gar questions and M won't stop butting in and you know and okay yeah it was entertaining but you know Terry Gars on The Tonight Show and I you know and of course she just passed away and I was kind of wanting to hear more from Terry gar and I'm just here I am telling M Brooks shut up this episode that years ago and then I found an episode with Bonnie Hunt and the same thing with uh Jonathan wyers was also on the uh on the couch next to her and just she could barely say anything they were just being so funny and Johnny just sat there you know and just let everything happen and he would do that with Buddy Hackett with George Goble with Dean Martin or whatever if the if the other guests decided to do their thing probably varied I mean I certainly wouldn't have any firsthand knowledge but I read a biography of Bob Hope a few years ago and if you remember Bob Hope used to come hey I was Rock tap special I just saw I drop in is that wild is that something yeah huh Carson hated that he didn't like hope he didn't like the that that he was dropping in uh he didn't you know he just he he thought Hope was kind of a selfish performer and how he felt about you know those other guys you just mentioned I don't think if he weren't being amused at that moment that he would let it go but that's just as a viewer I don't I don't have any knowledge for any other way yeah I don't know I just kind of I thought Mel Brooks was kind of stealing Terry's Thunder you know Dave didn't had one guest on at a time that made a differ too I think you know so so there wasn't that opportunity for people to to bust in all the time that's tricky when you have a lot of people on the couch you know to control it as I know there's there's the famous you know say it Steve go ahead as I was going to say as I'm proving here tonight one determined loud mouth can can derail an entire proceeding by refusing to stop talking well just not your problem is Alison won't shut up that's the problem you say also uh I think Chisum could run a tighter ship here he could mute me I choose not to mute anyone um because it would be a mutiny I don't even know what that means okay that's perilously close to being a joke perilous and didn't but didn't quite make it but it came I didn't notice does not qualify yeah I have Mike if you'll allow me to send you a picture yes sir on on the chat function yep coincidentally and I was thinking of the of you for this because this is a joke I cannot put out under my own Banner because it it is simultaneously clever and stupid but I was thinking oh you're the perfect guy for this I was gonna send this to you and you put anonymously on your web page or Facebook or whatever I'm gonna all right you're starting if you get this in the chat and you put it up on on the screen I will do a late show or late night Chiron quiz bit of material for you here it comes oh I like that I like this idea all right I'm waiting I'm I've got the chat open and I'm I'm looking for oh here we go send it just direct message to you only have you received it I have received it in the space it bounced off the satellite it did okay uh do we want Wiz do want sh scen sharing the screen I will do the audio for this all right okay so let me just uh get back to all right we're gonna I believe we've got her right here okay here we see a an example of rural stream management B how Brooks are routed under Countryside roadways see Culvert DeForest yes I finally learned his goddamn name over if Paul was here right now they'd be going there it is right there that anything Paul no no I don't think that's anything I know commercial we we should have a behind us but really what else could I do with that I I saw this thing in the woods up in Connecticut and I thought oh Calbert Calbert Calbert oh my sh it is in a forest Calbert Calbert De Forest you know who' love this I gotta send this to Chisum I can't put this out it'll ruin me but Chisum will like it there you go all right we're going to stop it there so uh this first friends of the show episode of the Letterman podcast went uh Beyond even the expectations that I had uh we went well over three hours and and and and it was only the very end of it where where people started to tap out um but but I mean we filed it at six o'clock I'm I'm Western time they're all eastern time and so they're all at nine o'clock and by the time we're done it's almost midnight and we're having fun doing it so so that was great uh our first episode our first V you know uh friends of the show um volume one I guess we'll call this but part one um I'm sure Roman numerals are involved in uh in how we will categorize this particular episode uh it was very very fun to do this with these people uh we'll put next week we'll put up part two and take it from there uh this has been another episode of the lman podcast with Mike Chism coincidentally I am Mike Chism thank you and good night overcoat and Underpants