Steve Winer Returns to Talk About Comedy, Mickey, and Shecky, Also, RIP Jerry Foley

hi I'm Steve wer you have no idea who I am but watch the Mike chis show because no one knows who he is either welcome once again to the Letterman podcast my name is Mike Chisum uh today we got Steve Wier the return of Steve Wier three- timer he's a three-time he's joined the three-time club uh two comedy writers named Steve in the in the in the three-time club is that Darren Cox may have appeared three times yeah I think he probably has I'm trying to think of who all is in the three- timer Club anyway Steve Weiner uh again go back and watch his first two episodes uh especially for those who like late night with David Letterman uh because Steve was there at the very beginning and uh I just uh I love Steve I love Steve and his wife Lori um you know Candy and I have become very very good friends with them and and they're just uh heart friends now now the timing um of course uh not super not it's not coincidental um we had a really amazing phone conversation on March 10th and March 10th is the anniversary of Rick Shan's pass passing I wouldn't know Steve if it wasn't for Rick and um we've talked about Rick and he's a he's a huge part of of this show and and and and so the conversation that I have with Steve is uh it's got a lot of Rick in it and and we're gonna show a clip actually we got some permission uh and so thank you very much for that permission um to show a clip of from backfest that was uh Rick's uh Memorial I highly recommend everybody go on to the Letterman Channel and and and look for uh Rick sheckman Memorial on shefest uh it's I think it's about a 40-minute video or something like that might even be a little longer than that and it's the entire service and and it's so good and there's so many videos that are sent in by Letterman alumni um but also the other areas of Rick's life um and the clip that we're going to show is actually the clip of Alex Bennett and in it he talks about uh Steve it'll make sense it's going to be inserted right into the perfect part of the episode where we we talk about that and then we go into other stuff too of course um we talk about Steve and and and he Compares uh when he was at the Mickey Mouse Club to Letterman um and and it's a lot of very cool apt comparisons uh he got the gig there because he worked for Letterman he and Carl tman worked for for for Letterman and we just it's a catch-up session with a couple of friends now um this is Uncharted water for me in this regard I I got a I got a I got an issue an apology I'm not sure uh I I don't know but I I I want to air on the side of caution um and I want to talk about something else that happened in the Letterman uh Mythos uh this week and and and it's going to be inelegant and I apologize for that but uh I'm just going to do it um the day that Rick passed was March 10th U March 10th is my birthday um and I'm I'm not a big birthday surpr if you if you go back I tell the whole story in in the tribute episode I do it for Rick last year uh but I'm glad that I will always always always I'm not a huge birthday guy I don't celebrate my birthday very much and and and and and I'm really glad that I'm going to know every year um the day that Rick passed um and and and my goal is uh that every year uh on that day I'm going to talk to people who knew him uh I'm gonna say something about Rick Rick was all about transferring knowledge uh he was a you know one of the world's foremost ciles and and old Hollywood knowledge the amount of old Hollywood knowledge that was in his head is just um uh in some circles I would say unparalleled and not be exaggerating when I say that um and so he likes to transfer the knowledge I'm going to transfer the knowledge of Rick I'm going to transfer the knowledge of the gratefulness I feel for him of what he did for this show the show wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Rick and uh and and and and and his friendship and he and I have you know we got to know each other during the pandemic and I just I just appreciate him so so much and I will always do that and and on uh on on my my birthday um on that day I will always want to say something about Rick so that day was a melancholy day and and Steve uh Wier and I had a a really nice phone conversation Steve and Lori and and I had a really nice phone conversation that day and a couple other people who knew Rick and I connected back and forth in a few different ways and it was Oscar day and so we all watch were watching the Oscars some of us on PVR some of us live uh or DVR we call them pvrs up here in Canada DVR um but anyway um so we're watching the Oscars and we're going back and forth and we're talking about Rick and and and suddenly um I get a couple messages at the same time uh from a couple different people um that Jerry Foley had passed away and now I'm gonna say this please go to the Letterman Channel and watch uh two things Jerry Foley's favorite moments and then uh the the the the retrospective that Walter put up I am so grateful he has this footage oh my goodness am I grateful that he had this footage uh of Jer and um I met Jerry in person twice and we uh exchanged probably half a dozen to a dozen emails back and forth all complimentary by the way Jerry just uh you know he he's a little shy about coming on here but he was getting around to it in fact not tell tailes out of school there is a decent chance that he was going to be our two-year anniversary guest um minor in comparison to how the sorrow that we feel for all of the friends and family uh for Jerry Foley I I it was it was a gut punch to see that he had unexpectedly passed away and um I I just I'm I'm I'm the empathy and sympathy that I feel for everybody um who knew him whether it was personally or professionally uh is boy oh boy is it was it ever was it ever sad and and it was weird because we were reflecting on Rick a few of us and and then suddenly it was like oh my God this happened and um people started posting about it on social media um this is where I'm going to I'm going to apologize I'm just GNA uh as people were saying it there was a couple little uh pieces of of of misinformation that were possibly going to get out there and whatnot and and and so um I put a post up in the Letterman podcast Facebook group and it was just simply um you know what I can even I can even throw it out there and read it uh because it's true to this day it's it's it's it's exactly the words that uh that I felt and and and wanted to say um but where I I I feel like the apology is uh necessary is that it might have been premature um it might have been better to wait for other people to post even though when we posted this a lot of folks were already POS in stuff on on Facebook about Jerry's passing and and we just kind of weighed in and and this was the message that we put uh we've just received word that legendary Letterman director Jerry Foley has passed away suddenly we're devastated by this news we will certainly be a venue for any and all that want to send well wishes and empathy to the entire David Letterman family from the David Letterman fans uh thanks to Tom Yang for the photo is a photo of Richard Simmons uh Richard Simmons giving Jerry Foley a kiss and Jerry with a big grin on his face but kind of a it's a very funny photo um and anyway we we just talked about that and then I I said Can someone please post a photo of of of of Jerry and Rick sheckman they passed away on the same day um when I posted that I thought it was okay to do that uh because lots of other people were posting and and whatnot and we just wanted to man alive I I was getting a whole bunch of messages from people and and it was just one of those things where it's like oh what do you do and and when somebody passes away and and not making this about me or us except for the fact that it's like oh us posting that um it might have been premature and if it was I apologize for that it certainly wasn't out of a need for any sort of uh self-aggrandizing or or anything like that it wasn't that wasn't what it was about even a little bit um and I'm really uh that that I I feel terrible that he's gone um this is a guy who took over for Hal gurny I mean and and when you watch the footage that Walter uh in company uh shot um on the Letterman Channel he tells the story and I'm so grateful that he was there to tell the story because how do you fill those shoes and he he tells the story of how he got there um he was at live at 5 how cool is that he was at live at 5 and he wanted to see what was going on at the Letterman like he said he I I believe the analogy he he like a kid with his face pressed up against the glass because he was doing a new show and over there they've got a llama Letterman across the hall and I just I can relate to that so much and I think so many of us can relate to that so much you just wanted to be part of that club and and and he wanted to be part of it by joining the family by actually using his amazing skills to be part of that and he got in there as the technical director and and uh he talks about when the show moved to CBS and the big risk that it was um for him to to move from a career standpoint potentially because it wasn't a guarantee that the CBS show was going to go long term and he had all the seniority and all that and and and then just and then he talked about the honor of of of of taking over for Hal and how it happened and and I'm so glad that his story is out there um we've talked a lot about him about Jerry and and and and and tangentially if you want to um go down a rabbit hole uh Tim Kennedy's episode Amy uh Sharon hum' episode Daniel fl's episode and they were all right around each other he talked about Jerry a lot in those um and uh I think it's just good that we remember this stuff and I am I feel terrible that this happened I feel terrible uh for for for everybody who is is feeling this loss and I just want to say um we're sending you as much positive energy as we possibly can uh boy Mike great be the downer uh how can we how can we replace this you know what RI made Rick mad this made Rick mad uh and I I I enjoyed making um I didn't enjoy making Rick upset but but uh this Sarah to the Letterman podcast good luck with this I used to have this on the set uh one time Rick got upset with me about this show uh he would always give me notes and things and one of the things that he one of the notes that was the most stern was he told me in in in other words to get that picture off the set which I could still go back to and I can remember that and uh um I miss Rick very very much and uh March 10th is a weird day um now in in in this uh Letterman world and I just um I'm grateful that I have a place that I can kind of talk about it and some people will understand and for those who don't that's okay you enjoy the conversation with Steve Wier it's hilarious uh Steve is one of my favorite people he can make me a bunch of these writers that I've become friends with uh can make me belly laugh uh Steve Young can do it um Steve O'Donnell can do it Steve Wier can do it and then others as well can can can do it as well um but uh it was really nice being able to connect with my friend and talk a little bit about our friend and um we miss you Rick we miss you uh please enjoy this episode of the lman podcast featuring Steve Weiner my friend it is so good to see you again I just I appreciate you so so so much and uh you and your girl uh I don't know if she's around today or if she's out putting the broad in Broadway is she no she's she careful she's hiding backstage back in her room can yeah I certainly I'm not certainly not the first person to say did she put the broad in Broadway uh that's got be something it's it's a joke on the line yeah yeah it is it is uh it's so good to see you I appre you so much um we had such a nice phone call the day of the Oscars did you watch the Oscars I did watch the Oscars is that that's you like old Hollywood right so have you watched every iteration of the Oscars basically back for the last 4 50 years at least I guess as long as I've been alive I have yeah I I think I have I can't remember any of them but you know but I saw them whenever they show the same the same clip of the David ni in The Streeter I always remember that so show that year this year's uh this year's offering it was a good you know for for them it was a good show it moved well you know the the Kimmel was was reasonably funny yeah uh there wasn't any the biggest the only really bad thing is is the uh is the in memorium section and they screw that up every year and I don't know like a lot of people have said I don't know why they just don't pay TCM to use their version because they do it so damn well yeah uh you know that but but but that's the only thing that they mess up every single year and the rest of the show was fine so uh you know I I I thought they did a good job the immemorial um the the mess up that I've heard about is people were saying okay well the camera kept cutting away from the people that were being memorialized yeah no the camera was never the camera was never near where the the screen was they were showing these dancers they had gotten and really you know who wants to see dancers you want to see these people and then then they they kept the last frame to put about like 20 more names all in one one you know one card but they were so far away you couldn't read them begin to read them so the whole thing seemed to me it just seemed like a really badly handled thing the only thing they did this year is they they didn't I think they had the mic off on the audience because you know when whenever they do that it becomes a contest who gets more Applause and that's always pretty offensive I think I don't think it was on either either was not on this year or they had told the audience strictly not to not to applaud one of the other um you and I talked about this just before we hit record and whatnot but I think it's worth throwing out there because I mean what one of the things that that the the Catalyst of of of us talking that day um it was the memorial of one-year Memorial of of our boy Rick of of of she's passing and and uh it's funny uh candy and I will watch the Academy Awards many times we will kind of skip through or whatever but this year here I was like oh is there a world where Rick sheckman could be on the inmemoriam part because of his the being you know I I don't know if there's somebody who was more educated in old Hollywood living uh you know in this time and place uh certainly with the perspective that he had it would sure have been nice to see his name up there but I guess you got do you have to be a member of the academy for that or no I don't think so but I think no not at all because they do people all over the world are not members of the American Academy no I mean I think I think Rick's part of film preservation was sort of under the the radar if you know what I mean in the sense that he preserved film himself but he never wrote he didn't write about film and he was not he never T about it and he never I mean the things that that would a film historian or a film archist would do was a little outside of Rick's area so it doesn't really surprise me that he wasn't there uh I don't think it's a slight against him in anyway no of course not of course not you know I mean for example I'll be interested to see if if David Bardwell makes it next year David Bard will was a great great film writer wrote about and a great historian a really great guy he was also when he just first started at the University of Wisconsin Madison he was my senior adviser for the thesis I wrote about Chuck Jones so I you know I knew him when he was very young and I I liked him very much and everybody who know who's known him over the past I don't want to say how many years but a lot of years have all said he remained a really great guy so be interesting to see if he turns up in there because I don't usually see critics you know writers names there so that that that Rick would sort of fall in that broad category of the people who might be just under the radar there's so many names they have to put up and look they miss some really major ones this year so uh and they do it every year they miss some major ones so I don't think we can really hold them to to to account on this yeah it is it is a thankless job in so many ways because uh the glaring you know they get so many people and it's like oh yes we got this one we got this one but the one that they miss is the one that they get uh they get recognized publicly for I loved the monologues of of for each uh actor supporting actor I loved I loved the way that they described and you had a past uh nominee or a past winner come up and and describe uh the nominees in a in a very a well-written way I don't know who wrote uh this year's Oscars but I thought they did a fantastic job uh in in in that aspect of it yeah they did they did make the the speeches that that they gave to each actor seemed personal to the actor who was saying it so I would believe that at least they were involved if they didn't write the final text if they spoke to them perhaps and you know before the before they organiz the writer organized it into his speech that would be my guess since it had to be you know timed and put it out put on the monitor yeah so that would be my assumption of how it was done but it came across very well I thought it was very good you know the the the the question is if you you do that every year you're going to run out of people who are alive to do do it at some point but uh right now it seem to work very well and they got a nice range of of people from different eras too and to do the presentations of the in that sequence I I totally agreed and and and I thought the music was really really good uh you know I thought it was really neat how tongue and cheek they did the the the the traditional Oscar's piece and it was Ken and but the the Ken Barbie song I thought that was absolutely spectacular they did a great job yeah and and uh bringing in the old and the new uh together and and and and I thought I thought like you say Kimmel you know interesting thing about Kimmel ties Johnny Carson now and I mean there's something that uh you know Jimmy Kimmel has uh he's the Elder Statesman in in in late night now you know obviously hu huge Dave worshipper and and and you know probably call himself a student of Dave and um you know but then there's this this this thing that Johnny had from late night host and the idea that Kimmel is the guy I mean it probably doesn't hurt that the Oscars are on ABC but it totally explains why why it's him but but that well he did good too though he did did no he did I no absolutely he did good I mean you know I I it's a tough gig because you know there's there's a certain am certain you can go so far and not too far I mean the thing is is to balance everything off you don't want to do you know what they've did which is to try to turn the Oscars into your show yes so you know you so I think you know he he was wise to keep the Matt Damon joke to the very end uh you know I mean I don't watch his show I mean the only time first time I ever heard that that was running gag was on the Oscars the first time he did it so now I know it only because because of the Oscars um but I think it's a wise move he's got the right moods for this kind of thing you know I think he's he's he is the right guy for this kind of show I mean there are other people could do I think Co Co bar could do it if CBS had it too I don't think I think he'd be just fine y you know yeah I think you're right I I I do I I think Jimmy's got Jimmy's got that little bit of mischievousness to him that I think uh is is is extremely endearing um the Oscar was weird for me I'll get to that in a minute here because it was very emotional but I'm just let's talk about the actual substance of the show The inserting of the of of the Trump joke uh was a master stroke in far as I'm it was a good joke it was a strong joke if he didn't if he didn't some somebody whether it was he or one of his writers came up with that at the last minute you know I I would not have gone out with that material unless you had some strong joke and that was a really good one absolutely it's so simple like so in and out the of words was incredible on it like it was just a uh my first words out of my mouth was wow I wonder who wrote that um right it was such a weird day and I mean I you know I don't want to focus too too too much on this uh uh you know being it was it was the anniversary of Rick's passing and and um and and at the time when I was watching the Oscars you know I had a a call with you and and and a bunch of us there was a few of us probably six people that I had kind of gone back and forth with with a similar tone I can't believe it's been a year and and just you know a little a little bit of reflection that kind of a thing and then as it's happening I'm watching the Oscars with candy and and these notes are coming back and forth we find out that longtime director uh uh Jerry Foley passed away yeah and and and and all of us we were talking about Rick and suddenly the discussion suddenly started shifting and we were talking about Jerry and it was a shock that a year to the day of Rick passing uh Jerry Foley passes away you know now you did you ever cross path no you didn't okay no no how was how gurny was there the entire time I was there yeah and Hal is still very still with us I think you told me that he's 99 now yeah he's in his 90s yeah absolutely just somewhere birday is in his his late 90s um and uh but boy what a shock that was and and and really really sad and and obviously we uh um you know there's been a lot of uh very very beautiful tributes that have been put up and we're putting as many of them as we see up into the the Letterman podcast Facebook group but um yeah he uh Jerry I don't know if he would have been at live at five because live at five was going when you were there right across the hall uh yeah was he was he doing that show yeah I think he was yeah there's a there's a very cool I highly recommend everybody go to the um uh the Letterman YouTube channel and and and and Walter and Company had this amazing archived footage of Jerry that they fit into a tribute and it tells the story of of of when he was at live at five and and how his sensibility is very much of what you guys were doing across the hall very very much much so and and he said he was like a kid looking at the GL looking at the glass seeing the Llama walking into the studio or something like that knowing he had to do what he did but wanting to be over there and uh um you know and and that just uh I love that by the way I I don't know if you got to see a lot of that when you were there or not but the aspect of of of across the hall there's live at five going yeah we I remember very well I don't remember doing a lot of material directly using them or not but um I I used to remember the guests would go on their show that you know I would see coming in the hallway like and and I was corrected recently by I think of course by Don Don Giller that I I was on the assumption that both Drew baramore and and Henry Thomas had been on our show because I remember both of them in the hallway but but turns out that that Henry Thomas I definitely was on her show at Drew bore I guess had done live to five so I my my memory would been had sort of conflated the two together uh and that Drew bmer was not on the show at that point um but I very vividly remember her in the hallway and we also had there are some other kind of people that who came down the hallway to do that show that had not done our show like Ginger Rogers was on that show when we were there and Janet Gainer I saw come in once to to do that show uh so you know that they were the shared thing uh the shared area so if you're in the hallway you know you saw both both things going on uh and and what a device that uh that you all could take advantage of you know the fact that that was happening and and and and it became uh an early uh legendary in my opinion bit of of either messing around with the people at live at 5 or or someh interfering with the show or having a whatever you know uh Bob Bourne uh with the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup you know I've talked to Bob Bourne on my other podcast and and uh and and one of his favorite moments from his glory years as a New York Islander was uh when they were messing around the live at five and Dave stole the Stanley Cup and put the Stanley Cup on his desk and for a moment there Bob Bourne and whoever he was with I don't know if it was bossy or or uh whoever it was that he was with they know where the Stanley Cup was they walked across the hall and there it is on Dave's desk and uh little little moments like that just um yeah I think most of that happened after I was there I don't remember specifically doing a money live at five bits but again I'm sure Don Gill will correct me yeah he what what is it I I try and um I try and emulate the uh the succinct statement you have about Don Giller and and memory um that he is he is your he become the show yeah he's become all of our Collective memories because most of us you know are have gotten old and we can't remember what we did yesterday uh so that you know remembering back then it turn yes I mean he's corrected stories that I've told for for 40 years that I've been telling incorrectly for 40 years and starting to get a little sick of it but but no but I mean really it's it's useful to have that although there's things I still can't figure out that I know happened that have to reparse on the basis of what he said and they must have happened in a different way but did definitely happen yeah no and I appreciate that about him as well um uh somebody was asking me about uh about his involvement in this show and and and how it is and I and I said to I said to them I said well I I I think uh that he probably I don't want to put words in his mouth but I think he probably wanted to have nothing to do with the show until uh the frustration of inaccuracies boiled over to the point where he had to get involved just to correct everything um and and you know we talk about Dawn as an archist we talk about I'm gonna I'm going to leave Rick here in a second but we're going to show a clip uh pants uh you know thank you very very much we've got permission here to show part of uh shefest which we went to last year that's Rick's Memorial and um and our friend Alex Bennett uh uh spoke there and it's and it's ironic to me uh because you know there were videos that were sent in and it was such a beautiful uh beautiful memorial for him it was so perfect in a movie theater and and and and there was well not just any movie theater Film Forum which is a which shows you know is an archive dream it they show all the greatest lost movies and a lot of the Contemporary ones too so it was that's one of the best places it could have been thank you for saying that that's exactly right and and I said to uh uh to Kathy Maverick cockus and to Randy graic you know that that that event was um you know I talk about how candy cooks with love and that's her secret ingredient that's her Silver Bullet that that that the other technical Chef isn't going to have candy cooks with love uh that event was produced with love like like right from the guts love and it was such a beautiful beautiful event um and and and so uh you know there's there's there's uh footage of people uh giving their uh you know their their message to Rick and then there speakers and and it was back and forth and it was a a beautiful uh experience that was Taylor Made perfectly for Rick um you had David Letterman send his video in and then you had Alex Bennett come up so two right broadcasters and and when Alex came up one of the things that he did uh during Rick's Memorial was he he highlighted you he highlighted you there before you do this why don't you tell do do you want to tell the people a little bit about who Alex Bennett is and what what his contributions are to the industry so people know in case they don't people have heard me talk about it and you add anything that I missed so Alex Ben I and I'm gonna say this because I know it pisses him off Alex Bennett is a radio Legend and uh I love I love telling because he is now he's a radio living legend not dead he's still around he's still doing well like both of us it's you check on a momentary basis time to time see if we're either of us are living and like and both of you have uh formidable uh other halfes um and uh Alex is just that he's I I I got to know Rick and Alex at the same time because when Rick and I and our friendship was forming I think part of the way that he sort of vetted me was he invited me on to Alex Bennett does a pop-up show every single week now this is a guy who has had he's been everywhere in radio um you know he he did at old school you know started in the Bay Area traveled across the country uh worked in Texas worked in Florida worked all over the place uh back to the Bay Area to New York and and and uh wmca I believe developed quite the following um started to do some uh some impish type things and and I wouldn't go so far as to say a shock jock but but certainly um Howard Stern uh did a lot of things out of the AL been at Playbook any ways uh and and when Alex was actually uh let go from wmca uh there was a protest the next day of a few thousand people that were outside the studio and I mean we're talking the earlier 80s here you know before Stern and and right um you know did some other stuff you know midnight blue and all that sort of stuff went back to the West Coast uh Live 105 I believe Sam Fran and camel camel K KML camel radio yeah yes had a studio uh in his Studio where an audience could come in because he had so many standups that would come in right and and and uh really again this is a time right now it's it's it's it's so hard to Fathom that because we've had you know satellite radio and then podcasts where stand-ups are accessible all the time well it wasn't like that back then and so as stand-ups would come through the Bay Area they would make a point to go on Alex's show and it was a very different interaction with all these different stand-up comedians and so you have these uh so Alex I mean is is a plethora of stories when it comes to standup and whatnot when you got him and Rick together uh Rick who knew old Hollywood and they're they're you know very very close friends for 40 years Rick who knew old Hollywood and then also his Letterman experience and then Alex with his experience it was a lot of fun every single week to listen to these two go back and forth and trade these War Stories from back in the day and uh and and then also you know comment on on on current happenings of the day so so so Al what did I miss about Alex there no that's pretty good I mean he you know you think of all the Legends and the people he knew and all the people he spoke to I mean you know he has a picture given to him by John Lennon you know on his wall I mean he's got because he knew all the Beatles he knew all he knew everybody who went through that you know was popular part of the popular culture at that time or and for quite a few years very I think he was friends with Robin Williams in San Francisco and with other people like that you know he he is what you said a radio Legend whether he likes it or not yes oh love it thank you um yeah and so um let's tell the story of the birthday present because I don't think that was in the speech that Alex gave and we're going to show the speech of Alex here we'll cut it in here in a minute here but let's do the birthday present there's this this story got a little twisted in in the general point of all this I was he was a birthday Alex was a birthday present to me at one point originally uh I I had listened to to him on you know his talk his show and I don't last thing I do generally is is call radio talk shows because I don't have a desperate desire to hear myself speak on the radio uh but he kept talking about things that I knew something about so I used to call you know and we would talk about certain old comedies or old cartoons and he was in love with Chuck Jones's films as amay as I mentioned I actually wrote my senior thesis about Chuck Jones I actually did get to know him later on which was an amazing experience um but he was talking about the fact chucka did his first cartoon with the Warner Brother characters for about 20 years when when for CBS called to Connecticut rapid in kingarth his court and on the on the phone you know or on the radio Alex just saying you know oh I missed it I you know I messed up I didn't record it or whatever and I and then I called him said well I have I recorded it um and if you want to come and see it this is where he come and then of course again Lori being Lori she got involved and uh behind my back and arranged for Alex to come on my birthday so Alex was a birthday present to me so suddenly here was this guy I used to hear on radio and see on his public Tais talk show in our house he was still smoking in those days which I didn't appreciate but I I put up with it for him uh and we had a really nice talk and we we showed him the show and we became friends ever since so at some point down the line Al Alex seems to think that I that Rick was a birthday present to him I don't recall that was the case but I certainly did introduce Rick to to Alex at at some point because I knew they would get along yep and and of course they became very close friends there we go and then Alex refers to you uh during the memorium and what's that reference there and we then we'll play it after this well he it's what he says which is that I you know we we kept using writing jokes that required old movie footage and I say well I got the guy so I'd call him up and you know I say can you know you want to uh you know can we use your film we'll pay you for it and you know sure he did that and I was doing this like a couple times a week every week and I said you know at that point Rick was heading for a career up in the on Wall Street was going to be you and uh I said to Rick look if I could get you a job here would you be interested you know I mean you wouldn't have to stay here forever if you didn't want to and you know if you want still want to go on to whatever something else but it might be something that'd be fun for you to do for a while since you like the show and you like you know this this business he said sure and it took about a month I used to I would come into to Barry Sand's office on a regular basis and explain why Rick would be a benefit having Rick on staff would be a benefit of the show uh same thing with Liz Anderson associate producer going to her office and I did this every day or two for about a month you know as he was getting close yeah we're trying to work on we're trying to see what we can do and yeah we definitely want we're definitely interested and finally they book booked him they got him on the job uh Rick never got to Wall Street and as I always said I worked at on the show for about 13 months mons and Rick was there for 30 years oh great that's a hard act to follow uh ladies and gentlemen I'm Alex Bennett and uh I'm here here because and it seems weird for me to be here because about 3 months before Shey left us I was talking to him on the phone and I said you know I just realized I said I'm 83 years old and you're only 67 so somebody's going to have to speak at my Memorial and I hope you promise to well he broke that promise to me and I I I just I can't tell you how much I miss this guy uh I want somebody to stand up here Steve Wier would you stand up a second because this is the seed right here of my relationship with shecky what happened was about 45 years ago he invited me to shecky's birthday party because as he put it shecky was a fan of mine because I had a radio show and he would be thrilled by me being at his birthday party and he has always referred to that moment as me being shecky's present and I've always thought what a cheap gift anyway from that time on I can't remember my life without checky it wasn't one of those kind of relationships you know where you you don't see somebody for five years and then all of a sudden you see them again no Shey was in my life constantly for 45 years and when I look back on that it just it just amazes me that that amount of time has passed and that I knew him that long uh the the other thing that Rick did that Steve did and for all the Letterman people that are here none of you would have known Rick without Steve because what Steve did is he's the guy that lobbied to get Rick working with late night so really if you knew Rick you knew it because of Steve knew knew of him because of Steve it's just I to sit here and to try and coales 45 years of what was I consider my most important male relationship in my life is is impossible I mean there were every every day i' come up with different ideas about this speech and the kind of things that I would say and the kind of things I needed to talk about and there were just so many of them that I can't even begin to start here but I will tell you that what Rick did was he left me with a piece of information that really has been important to my life upon coming back from Antarctica I said to him did you see the Penguins and he said yes thousands of them and you know what the worst thing in the world is penguin I will never look at another David atenor documentary in the same way again but that was his advice to me you know years ago when George Gershwin died his best friend Oscar Levant who I'm probably nobody even knows who I'm talking about here uh was asked what he thought and his answer was yesterday George gerswin died but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to and that's the way I feel about shecky he left us about three months ago but you know I don't have to believe it if I don't want to so Shey is still with me at all times he's with me anytime that I see something on tele that I want to ask him about I go reaching for the phone and then they say he's not there so I look up in the air and I ask him the question uh this is a man who was I can't tell you the incalculable effect he had on my life and all the people around me and what I would like to do right now is something that I think is the ultimate Show Business Accolade if everybody would stand up and let's applaud for Richard sheckman okay so um you know like as as as as in the case of Calbert def farest I always feeling if I could just had managed both of them gotone 10 or 15% for the rest of their careers you know you'd have been set I'd be set set you would have gone down a different path though uh you would have gone down Rory's path not uh no I would no I would have just just take collected the paychecks and done something else I was going to do I mean you know this is all both of these cases this was not int intentional these were just cases I was bringing people in for them to appreciate I hope yeah in the case of calber as you know I told the story yeah marily and David had seen our movie the movie Carl and I made and said that we were looking for something like that guy from your movie and we said well that's the guy you're looking for yeah absolutely and I mean there's been a lot of calfor love lately um I don't know why like it's funny there are s there are surges of it and I've seen a lot of of Calvert stuff out there um lately and I just appreciate that so much and and one day uh we are going to do that uh where we go through King of the Z's together we're going to do that episode and and and I can't wait to do that because um it's really neat you know what uh I I I I saw a lot of Calbert stuff when I Was preparing for the Tom Snider episode we had Andre Snyder on right and and uh uh it was really fun watching an episode of I think it was Late Late Show I yeah I don't think yeah where where Calbert was a guest on Tom Snider show and and you think about that that introduction that you made yeah ended up getting him like all of this like crazy he certainly made more money out of show bues than I ever did so you go f so go figure no I I think I've told the story before and I probably told it on one of your other shows so I apologize if I did no no no tell but I do remember I remember the year that calri died and I was watching the Emmy Awards talked about immemorial as we were before and I believe it was the same year as Tom Snider and I remember Tom you know Tom's face and you know think coming up and here comes Calbert and I remember turning to laori and said I've had a very unusual life yes you know that that we took this guy Carl and I took this guy from you know who had been trying to be an actor all his life and had had no success and we made a start we made a star out of them you know we collectively us we and David and Merill certainly uh and uh that's weird to me still weird to me I still I still to that people really had had I mean I had a feeling you could get that people would like him and that it might catch on as an oddity uh but boy did it ever catch on what is the it Factor Steve like I mean there's so many unlikely uh folks that that that do capture some sort of what is it is it is it a Charisma is it a like you know what are some of the like like it's on paper why would he but he did and people just Absol Ely loved him well I always had a theory that people liked him because they knew he was doing the best he could you know what I mean I mean he was trying really really hard and he just couldn't quite get there and that in it of itself was appealing also he didn't seem like the kind of person you normally see on television if he was if he had more Talent as an actor you could imagine that type of character as part of the Preston Sturgis Ensemble or Howard Hawks but he was never good enough actor to be that he just had the right kind of personality so I think that we found a way to use what we could what what came from calv naturally and then then find a way to use it It's Tricky I mean I don't think I could do it again per se I mean when we were on the the uh Mouse Club on the Disney Channel Mickey Mouse Club around the third season there had there had been a guy who you know they employed in the park next to us in the Disney mjy Studio Park who actually was a comedian had been a standup comedian for years uh and and he was K they hired him to kibit in the park to be you know a funny guy for the for the park and he had a sort of spirit too that suddenly we car I said well we got to put him on the mouse club and we started putting him on regularly too and and we didn't really get the chance to build him all the way up but I could see we're beginning to get there but it was very different it was a different thing too because he did have I mean he brought he was on the ellan show Once but he he still had the kinoscope and brought it to us to look at um it was sometime in the 50s I think and uh he he had what was interesting about him was he actually did have a certain amount of talent but his Talent was a totally different style than what we were doing on the show so when when you put when we put him into a comedy sketch it was as if you were doing you know a Saturday night or SCV sketch and suddenly hunts Hall walked into the room yeah you know what I mean so is a different it's a different energy and we thought that energy was was a fun thing to put on our show on The Mickey Mouse Club and so I think we could have with time we could have built something out of him again of this guy but I don't I don't think it'd be possible to do Calver twice it would have to be somebody with like I said this guy has a different energy different aect that would come in if you start trying to replicate cover you realize there isn't there isn't another C no which may be the greatest thing you could say about him he was one of a kind absolutely um and and and and we're going to move off of Rick completely uh at this unless he comes up again organically but one of the things that I will tell you uh you know and he's always going to remain here somewhere whether he's on camera or not he's always going to remain in the studio um if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have met and and and to me um it was funny you know and I've I've talked about this conversation um I talked about it online a little bit I think I've talked about on the show we had this serious conversation before I started this show you know I was fighting imposter syndrome and all that stuff and Rick never he never did it for me in any way shape or form he only opened a couple of little doors and he just relied on me to walk through them entirely but one of those those things early on was the me to you and and and my wife and I um adore you and Lori thank so much like you are our heart I mean thank we feel the same way about you you and Candy thanks Rick like thank you you know that doesn't come along every day where friendships like this uh uh develop and if it wasn't for him and and he was one I looked back in I've been you know looking back into some of the emails he was one of the very first people that he recommended and opened up the contact info for uh at all one of the very first people was you right and and uh I want to ask your opinion why do you think that is 3:33 PM apparently according to my phone it's 33 just announced was 3:33 PM just let you know uh time for my medication I guess so by the way if you know when people always talk about an imposer syndrome never neglect the possibility that you may actually be an imposter because you just you know you never know for sure just just a it's just a thought okay I mean just keep keep in the back of your head could it could be a possibility anyway uh I'm not I'm not sure exactly what the question was I mean in terms of Rick introducing us together it's just that I think he knew me longer I don't know whether I don't know I mean I don't I don't have an answer to that question uh I mean I know I knew him for at least a decade before you know the Letterman show started yeah uh sure so you know so what ever happened beyond that uh I mean a certain amount of people that he knew in his life you know he had known already a lot of the people in the you know the film world people who who came to the to the to that uh Memorial were people that he met on his own you know people like Leonard Malton and and Richard banon and people like that uh and that was that was a different Circle I didn't know that Circle I mean I knew that Circle for Rick but but but there was another Circle that Rick knew through me so you know there was there were these two different circles and Rick was sort of the nex's point three circles if you consider the in sense the Letterman Ensemble themselves a third circle as opposed to something that I mean once I brought got him in there yeah he he became part of that show Way Beyond my point so that he knew all these people that I never knew yeah you know so so that was that so that was the circle um beyond that you know I always said look I could get him in the door but he's the one who made it who stayed there so he had the skill he had the ability to do that to do the job and to become a great success on that CH I think he knew we would like each other I think he think he knew that okay so that was the question I I hope so I think he did he had a pretty good ear for that kind of thing or eye yeah um and and and the other thing too is I one thing I do know is that he uh he felt your contributions to the show were significant you know and again we talk about the glass breaking that you know and didn't intend for it to become an iconic like you but didn't know one really mediocre joke that I'm known for as opposed to the ones that were really good that nobody can remember except for the rabbit shaving cream dispenser that that came back on several uh um anniversary and shows after I left the show I didn't even know about for another 10 years yeah uh that they that they had done that several more times that that that one people's vaguely remember but other than that that's it toss and and Calbert and and uh know but but again you know the the the skeleton of the show like that is the that's you know what it's hung up on so so that that's probably it too but I do think that he thought that we would like each other and I do very much um I want to talk about you talk about Mickey Mouse Club here uh and and I'm glad that you did because I want to talk about the trip that you you you took you took a trip to California okay I'm doing this for your benefit only because you want to do it did you want to show that clip of Alex's before you move to change the subject because I'm no no I'm just gonna cut I'm no I'm GNA here I'm gonna edit it in yeah I've gotten I've gotten marginally marginally uh higher skill level uh at this thing and so I can put pictures in I can put I can put videos in and all that sort of stuff so stumbling forward so I'm yeah I said this to you I think off the air so I don't think I'm repeating this uh for the audience if you really really want to honor Rick with the letter the Letterman way yeah I think over time the picture behind you should change I mean you should have like a mustache one day maybe glasses you could black out but never say anything about I've tipped it but then no who's going to watch the third show with me so no one will know so that you know the um you know just change it without like never comment on it just change it bit by bit over a year or so and then replac with like a picture of Douglas Fairbanks or somebody you know like see what happen that would be be Banks would be perfect uh I did that you know I used to do that um now you know somebody caught it uh and and you know it's not funny anymore once somebody catches it it says in the bottom corner here the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisum I used to spell podcast wrong and I mean for like like almost a 100 episodes it was spelled wrong differently spelled wrong every single time and and and an eagle-eyed viewer uh Andrew Andrew AER uh he he he messaged me one day and he had discovered the show and it was one of these guys that um you know when you discover something and you and you you just decide to go down the rabbit hole I think we're at episode 90 something and he watched all of them in like a three- week period and would give me notes and would give me back like he's just just rabid fan for it and and about I don't know 20 or 30 episodes in he's like hey did you know that podcast is spell like all right you caught it you win it's like Marvel with the no prize back in the day awesome you're getting it so now we've got to do something different and maybe something is different happening I don't know maybe there is something new but uh but really good idea with the with I I heard when I first entered my name into the zoom the very first time I I just mistyped it and it's been there ever since so if anybody spots that my name is wrong then now they'll that's why it was not intentional it to be funny it just was an accident oh that's so funny I just thought I thought it was you in the other half the ls I mistyped it I wrote I think it comes up as wi and drr or something because D and the E are still pretty close together never bothered to fix it I uh one of the things I love about you is how much you make me laugh like like and it's funny young does the same thing like like like uh Steve Young was on uh last week again and and and um I told a story about how uh he he he showed me or let me listen to some of the songs the long form songs that haven't been released yet that he's recorded and one of them in particular uh uh uh he had me in his apartment I was literally doubled over laughing and I couldn't stop laughing you do the same thing to me and I appreciate that one day one day the other thing too is I want to I want to have even if it's only one episode I want to have a podcast with you o' Donnell and young uh three comedy writers named Steve and it's just basically that like that night at the diner where the three of you just start riffing and going off I love how you guys uh can do that I should warn you that my experience with you're gonna have to be a really good host that day because my experiences with with three of these guys particularly I see I've seen Steve FL down a lot more than I've seen Steve Young CLE seen him a couple of times uh both all of us are like comedy people and we tend to talk at the same time to get try to get our material in so it's going to take you real real hard work to separate this and to make it coherent otherwise I don't want to I don't want coherent I want that like that well I'll tell I'll tell you an Alex P story then in that case since came I I we one day when Alex was still working on his radio show here he actually had did a couple times he just had Rick and I come up to the studio to be on the show yeah and when we were doing that we it wasn't like being on the radio we just started talking the way we would talk you know over lunch or something these are the this is at serious at the serious Studio no this was we're talking about 100 years ago back you know the 80s gotcha so um and I remember we've been we were all probably all talking at once which we do when we're in the same room yeah and everything was going fine and you know we started taking calls from from listeners and some woman came on and says I only wish you people could hear yourselves they're talking over each other we can't understand the thing this is terrible you know I mean this is unprofessional and and basically Alex told her to screw off and hung up so it's like you know that was the that was that's how worked out so that that's what happens so you'll know there almost there almost isn't an episode of this show that goes by where somebody doesn't lamb base me for for us talking over each other and I I have to I have to gently kind of just go okay not an interview show conversation show and in conversations it my it my uh experience those are the funnest conversations those are well that's that's where the fun is a good talk show is a good good convers is a conversation that's what I think yeah I mean it really is I mean that's what Alex has always done it's what others Alex Alex in fact I am in fact quoting Alex who said that to me at one point it's not an interview it's it's a a talk show is a conversation he said that to make first so uh that's very much the idea and you do a really good job of it oh I I appreciate that well it's it's it's it's it's easy um like that night so so the night before we went to the diner this was a lot of fun uh rert and Irene came over and it's great because you and rert never cross paths not even close no but yet we're there at your place and immediately a connection is made with him and Lori from the past of how how close they were in in going to school and all of that and then you guys start talking Irene's talking to you about Chuck Jones it was so great and it's just that that was one of those nights where we're all just talking over each other having fun lots of laughter uh that was kind it was funny for me because yeah it was funny for me because as you know I you know I hardly ever watched the show after I left yes so which is not atypical of people when you know spent any time on a show Y and so I literally had never seen any of the routines I knew he was the fixture I knew he was a regular but I have to this day never seen any of his routines from the show that as best my memory goes so I asked him what it what you know what exactly he did on the show and he started telling me about the bit that he did where Dave would tell him what to say to people and I said I said I I admire your bravery because I you know I wouldn't have wanted to do that he told me there was a time when I guess he's just I'm sure he's talked it over with you probably on this program about that he almost got that a guy came after him with a knife at some point that was the last one that was the very last one hasn't he hasn't told the story here and me and Irene are trying to Cordon him uh uh to to to to to get him to tell that story here and we will we'll we'll we'll make it happen to edit it out if he doesn't want it told yet or if you don't want it out you cut edit out I spill the beans take anything away from no no all good one amazing amount of courage did for him to go out there it's easy for Dave to sit in the truck and make those remarks but to actually have to to be out there and actually do this stuff and say these things this crazy stuff da just telling him oh you know it was so good it was it was it was just um sure it was funny and I was talking to uh um uh I don't know if you know John Beckerman or not but he uh writer on the show for a long time uh brief for a brief time the headwriter wasn't a wasn't a super fit at the headwriter part because he's just such a creative um do you remember the show Ed yeah buling our lawyer okay so he created that show with Rob Bernett and and and and and uh uh John um was the architect of that uh of that bit with rert and and and uh it was um it was so cool because he said they they they involved a guy later on by the name uh of lard I believe it I think it was Leonard terer yeah Leonard terer and and and so um Leonard had the same deal he had the same deal and he's he's a a bigger guy and bald and very um you know uh kind of the same sort of a Charisma that Calbert would have I would say just completely different and he would have rert and him interact with people and then there was this one time he said where they were sitting at a table somewhere I don't know if it was outside the library or or wherever but it was outdoors in New York and Dave just started making them have a conversation with each other mhm and it's it's it's literally him playing the par and and it's not them interacting or bothering people right and he said it's the most meta thing that he's ever seen and uh it was just it was it was such a unique uh I'll I'll try and find that clip and send it to you because it's a it's it's a it's it's a really uh interesting one um when you think about the mechanics of having these two characters it's like playing with action figures almost in real time um just a lot of fun you guys didn't do a lot of um going to Mickey Mouse Club again because I want to talk about that I want to I want to talk about your trip and all that stuff too uh you guys didn't do a lot of public like everything was scripted everything was in the can with you guys right yeah for the most part they would sometimes send send the the Musketeers into the parks to interview kids and stuff like that the one of the first things I I ever pitched we when we were asked to do a page before we got the you know when we were being considered for the job we were come up with a bunch of ideas and I thought well you know anything where the kids could talk real real kids to talk for real might be fun so I came with the idea of something called Donald s box with the premise being that you know Donald Duck is always complaining and moaning about whatever so if we put a beak you know like a beak up and you could sort of talk through the through Donald de's mouth you could say k could say anything they wanted to say so they would take this thing to the park uh they switched it around I me they had to speak to the beak so he was talking to the but I always thought it was better idea if the kid would like literally come up to Don Duck's mouth and speak through his mouth to be able to say what to bother him doesn't matter the bit work so they did things like that and they did they certainly did stuff where they would take you know they would have real kids you know go out with real kids and do one something or another or go to talk to real kids but it wasn't like a staple it wasn't a major part of the sh right right right um do you enjoy the the searching for the found comedy or do you prefer the art of of writing an awesome piece and then seeing it uh translated through some who uh you know performs it well I don't have I mean personally I don't have the kind of Courage that Dave would have and people like that have to go out and do this stuff you know so if we come you know my feeling is I like anything that works anything that we think of you know I mean you know you know that that I mean it's really Mar's setup her starting but you know Carl and I you know were sort of responsible for Alan Al the man and his Chinese food because we because Merill had asked us to ask everybody to look look in your neighborhood and see if you can find celebrity fot in in restaurants and I came we came in after a weekend I said I don't know which had said it first but one of us said I on the inside I found a restaurant a Chinese restaurant with pictures of Al Alda in the window and and then Carl or whoever seem spoke second said You Know Carl would have said well on the west side I saw a picture of alen Chinese restaurant with pictures of alen Alda in the window so Merill came in and said we told her the thing and Merl said literally said in that so the bit would be Alan all de man and his Chinese food that's how Qui she thought uh and so that so yeah that was great but you know once that once the idea was out there it was all in David Merl's head so we had nothing to do with it anymore and that's great I mean I I love doing that you know anything that works it really just depends on what comes into your head at that mind you know this any show that works five days a week or any show it's a machine it just chews stuff out continuously so you it's you don't think of what kind of thing you want to do you just think of things to do and I hope that they'll work and there somebody will be interested in doing them so oh go ahead I'm sorry no I pitched I mean we pitched ideas for Street pieces that that they didn't want either that I still think had potential but you know it's like but that's like the same thing when you know not not every joke is picked you turn in in the letman days we would turn in everybody would turn in like 10 jokes to page which they might use to yeah so that was that's how that show worked the Disney show worked a little differently because we were doing full sketches therefore once once Allen had passed the sketch we knew that some version of was going to go on the air and it would be ours how many uh that's a that's a great question actually I don't care that we bounce around it's fine that we Bounce Around um you know SNL obviously is in the news because SNL 50 is coming up and and and you talk about that SNL uh you know for for for people who have gone down that rabbit hole understand that the the dress rehearsal uh you know you you've got all these sketches and and and some them make it to dress with the intention that they're not going to make the show right and make that work um I'm curious because I know that one of the uh The Guiding lights or the principles of your uh tenure on on Mickey Mouse was that it's going to be SNL for kids kind of a thing that was kind of the that's what that's what they asked us they wanted we said amongst ourselves that we wanted to try to be SCV for kids we had a higher thing uh and it did US injuries in terms of getting material out but even though we supported this because you know it hasn't really changed much over 50 years I mean SNL relies to a certain extent on what are known the Traders refillables which means taking a basic sketch and redoing it with certain replugging certain elements but basically doing the sketch over and over again and audience is like that I'm not saying that's necessarily a wrong thing personally I it's not my favorite thing because it always feels a little lazy to me and alen said felt the head writer on Mouse felt the same way so we would use the SNL approach whereby we could create ongoing characters but we had a have to do a fresh context for them the way okay so but that's harder so you know that that's hard and you know there are plenty of times where we would sit there and say what did we go why why did we fight against doing redoing SCH but you know because we have to come up with more material um so that's I would personally I like that better and one of the reasons you know and I'm sure look I'm not going to comment on current SNL because I don't watch it right and have it for a long time right I stopped watching it in part because I just got tired there's a certain point whereby what I used to call pava's School of Comedy kicks in yeah which is that a sketch could be go on that show once and not necessarily get a lot of big laughs MH but they would repeat it over and over again and an audience will when they recognize something they will laugh because of the familiarity sure of course and I'm not saying again I don't want to feel like I'm sitting here I'm like not badmouthing SNL they've been on 50 years for a reason you're not no you're not we're deconstructing it and we're analyzing what we're doing it's a style that doesn't that gets tiring for me as a viewer yes because when I've seen a sketch then I I basically I don't want to see it again I'd like to see something new so I remember well hold just to just to make that point for before you move to the next one like like like I think when Wayne says Schwing and everybody laughs it's the same mechanism as when fony walked into the scene for the first time before he did anything and the audience erupted or Kramer uh Kramer does his entrance and then everybody erupts into Applause to me those two things are the same thing it has nothing to do with Schwing being funny well also those are that to to Really split hairs even more finely than we were doing yeah those technically are really what I would call catchphrases yes and catch catch phrases have a long history in common yes catchphrases aren't necessarily in of themselves evil although you know so I mean shows like and again here I'm not criticizing these great great shows but nor Norman Le show shows used to use them like crazy absolutely dite you know but so that would be but that didn't necessarily mean that the rest of the show wouldn't be fresh yep but there there was a there's a rhythm in certain SN sketches whereby yes the catchphrases are there but you basically know what the structure of the sketch is if you've seen it before so it's more than just the catchphrase okay you know what's going to happen basically yes and I mean I remember exactly when I decided to stop watching and I'm I'm probably setting myself up for people to say horrible things about me you have no taste and maybe you're right and I'm not I'm not criticizing the performers but I remember the first episode of the year that it was a good cast Phil Harman Dana Carvey all these really talented people but I remember the first church lady sketch okay now somebody have to research this for me yep but I don't remember getting a huge amount of laps that first night maybe it did maybe I'm wrong this is my memory but I remember literally sitting there and thinking if I keep watching the show I'm gonna have to see the church lady every week for the next five years and I just didn't want to anymore and I basically said I'm done and part of that though is your instinct that oh God this is gonna catch on like part of it too is is noticing the character that Carvey created and F character it's a great character if you would watch if you watch that satv yeah you know if Edith prickley would be on or who was the head of the station that that uh uh name was station so long ago now Joe FL played but all these characters they would be in a different context when you would see them again it would create its own Universe where they could relate inter even though they were basically doing a sketch show they could continue with Johnny Laro had this running thing about the crane shot that he wanted but they would build it in different ways so they finally Paid It Off by giving him his big crane shot uh those that kind of stuff I adore so it's not characters I don't like okay it's not creative and again the people on SCV are wonderful I don't find out about them till till they leave the show usually yes and suddenly I'll discover yeah yeah yeah right and I oh they had and that's always been their greatest strength that they find the best possible people and they become huge stars and they're deservingly so they had the they had the call the best people for this sketch that kind of comedy in the in the world so again I am not the moment downplaying at Saturday Night Live except as something I want to watch you only have so many hours in your life and I stopped it at some point and for me that was the right choice yeah I I appreciate how respectful you are um you're you're extremely respectful and and and uh you know yeah but also because I've heard Lauren Michael can get people killed so I I've heard that I don't know that it's true I've heard the rumor I just want to make you know you have to be very careful in life okay pick these you gotta watch out for these Canadians um yes well they are tough um it's gonna be 50 years for that show and and uh you know the the it seems to be that um uh you know he we had Bill Carter on the show here a couple weeks back and we talked about that and by the way I don't know have you seen late nighter yet I don't know if you no you told me about it but I haven't had a chance to look at oh yeah we talked about on the phone that's right yeah yeah crazy love it it's interesting you know uh but Carter well I'll get to late nighter in a second I guess but but but Carter uh talked about how you know lawren hbet to get to 50 and then after 50 we're not sure what's going to happen right after that with the show um it's going to be very interesting to see if that institution I mean I'm certain it's going to you know the Curiosity factor for the first couple years for sure it's going to be very interesting to see if that if that show can uh can continue without Lauren yeah I I I admit I will be very curious and I might try turning tuning it in depending on how it goes because a a new a young person you know younger perform uh producer like you know showrunner uh might have whole entirely new ideas and I think any show a show that goes on the air for three years can gives new ideas much less one that's on the air for 50 years and I think the the the possibility of maybe Reinventing that show they say well maybe they don't want to reinvent the wheel but maybe you do or maybe at least want to take take some changes and redecorate the wheel you know and put it in different way and I think that would be really really interesting yeah you know that I mean I would like to see what where it goes from there me too I would like to see a young person take good charge of it and see what happens um the the there's rumors all sorts of rumors about one of the more prevalent ones is Seth Meyers is that Seth Meers will step back oh oh that's interesting you know and it is but it's funny because it's almost like he does two jobs because Lauren not just is the the the showrunner of this show and I mean you know I'm watching a couple weeks ago and and that the way they do it now is um uh especially they'll do the longer commercial break but in the longer commercial break they'll come back for a second and do a little bumper of showing what's going on on the stage you know as they're setting the as they're setting up props and all that sort of stuff and and the actors are getting queued and you might even hear uh you know uh uh you know the director okay yeah hit your marks now or whatever and then it goes to a couple more commercials and they come back and here's the sketch and and they did one of those and there's Lauren standing there in the midst of all the chaos there he is like he is the showrunner like you said right but he's also kind of the Zar of late night on NBC now you know The Tonight Show and Seth like like there's that part of him too how in the world do you deconstruct that I'm certain NBC is pretty excited just the way that when Carson retired you know they were kind of excited to get their Tonight Show back to get their franchise back ownership and all that kind of stuff but were they that I mean that was that that was a tough one I mean that's a good question because obviously they fumbled that one or at least my people except that then they didn't because then Jay Leno turned out to be the right choice in terms of the financial unpopularity but a lot of people thought they fumbled it and they certainly were you know there was a great deal of chaos and you would have think they've had they had all these years they knew Carson was going to go you would think they would in better better position not to have that kind of chaos so it's it's I don't know I wonder what what's going on back there as you know Lauren Michaels 50th year comes up and whether he's I mean he's made noises about leaving I don't think he said definitely that he's going to leave maybe you know you've heard more than I have yeah uh but but uh I don't know yeah I don't know it'll be interesting but he I my my guess is I don't know whether he'll try to keep the company together well you know will Jimmy Fallon say oh then I want to I be I want this to be my show from here on in you know he might want to take over the way the way Carson did at some point and the way that Dave did after you know I mean when I was at at Letterman it was Carson Clark Carson NBC production sorry y because it was something Carson NBC productions and then Dave wanted to run it as well he should have and I wonder if jimy found will do the same yeah it's going to be really that that's the part like like like um and that's the part where NBC regardless of uh if they put the right host in and all of that stuff the thing about NBC at that point is they got their franchise back right whereas it was it became Carson's you know Carson had so much power and so much leverage the fact that they got it back and to a certain degree you would think the Tonight Show and late night and SNL might be something similar I I don't imagine Broadway video would be the uh would be the um you know the producer of all these th shows moving forward but maybe maybe that's what they're trying to structure maybe there is some sort of succession of the way things there may well be le le Michaels may have an entire plan sketched out of what he wants to do yeah uh literally have no idea I mean it's it's it's I think it'll be really really interesting and I just know that bill Carter is already getting ready to write the book I hope so I said that to him when he was on I said when's the third book coming and and and he wisely said um you know I need to have something that is compell like it where it's in your face it this is what we have to write about you know and this will be it I I think so I think so late night is all um interconnected now in so many different ways you know Stan Stewart's manager is the same manager as Kimmel which is the same manager as Co bear like like you know Lauren Michaels all of these things are are interconnected now his first book was of course with with with Carson Leno Letterman the second book you know it hits you in the face oh my God this brewhaha that has happened with Conan O'Brien and and and and and Leno and and all of that all of the players involved I mean it that's what he said the third book will come the third book will come when there's an event like that that hits you in the face and it's like you you have to have it um but we have seen something uh pop up here late nighter late nigh.

comom and I I hey I endorse it as a fan I'm just throwing it up out there endorsing it if if if uh if something Beyond fandom shows up moving forward that'd be great too but but but as a fan every day now we get a newsletter in your email or you can go to the site late nigh.

comom and there's the happenings of late night and it's all organized in one place and it's it's it's super cool one of the things that Carter said and I'm super curious about your perspective on this um when it comes to television um you know obviously there's a dilution the streaming services of changed things the uh you know everything has changed you know Cinema is completely different now uh because of of of streaming and the way distribution works and all of that but one of the things that keeps television kind of how you and I remember it for this next generation is the appointment um the appointment events that happen on television sports is a big one of course uh and then you know uh the other one which you know the the uh the I think it was the NFL the AFC Championship what ever was the biggest it had ever been 50 million viewers or whatever uh and then every day late night and and the different late night hosts and what they say and the different stars that are on the happenings the water cooler moments that might happen from it let me ask you a question because you probably may even understand this better than I do at this point yeah I'm under the impression right now the fair amount of what of the late night traffic is not people watching it at the Times they're on but by watching bus pieces of it on YouTube the next day or you know some other thing and if that's the case that's not appointment TV either well that see the thing is that this is where it's uh it's the the line is blurred because very much all of these shows you know um I would say James Cordon uh uh you know you recently left and and Taylor Thompson came on and and and and and uh is doing uh something different there but but but but the thing that Cordon did was he got really good and all all the shows try and do it they come up with these viral moments they try and come up with these moments that are replayable on YouTube and and and and and and that's the water cooler thing it's not even so much the next day talking about it at the water cooler it's sending videos to each other oh my god did you see the the sketch they did or this moment on one of the shows um but what L that's a different kind of thing that's a different kind of thing than than you know everybody sees the Super Bowl at the same time if they're watching the Super Bowl okay that that Collective communal experience used to be a huge part of Television is basically restricted to now to sports because nothing else has that kind of cloud the award shows used to but not but the audience for award shows have really shrunk so there's nothing we don't get that kind of excitement over award show anymore that you used to get uh you know again this one of those ancient history stories there used to be three networks and a couple local stations and you were going to watch what was there so the the mass audience didn't have a thousand choices plus what they could get on social media yep for their consumption Yep this it's a whole different world now so you know and I don't think I don't think those that's ever coming back this the the water cooler moment as such is coming back well where where where late night is kind of the late night shows are kind of a hybrid of this is is is is yes they have these uh prepared things or or whatever that may go may go viral what not but it's it seems to be and I mean you know shout out to Johnny Carson on this one here it seems to be the monologues that seem to be the appointment uh uh uh part of of this television uh experience still that that that many people they want to know like and I think that's where late nighter sees their uh their Avenue you know Carter as an editor at large there and I love that bill Carter has a place consistently where we get to see or hear either him directly or his influence when it comes to late night I don't know if there's anybody who is a more foremost expert on it than bill um you know he certainly seems to be the guy that it's so great that we can see that the late shift just celebrated the 30-y year anniversary for goodness sakes um and the monologue so so you get this newsletter the next morning and it's like here's what was said on Kimmel's monologue here's what we said On's monologue any big moments that happen and and and and uh you know that's kind of what you're talking about it's the next day review of it rather than people staying up and watching it all and and trying to see it but it's all summed up and so I I I find it to be a very fascinating uh premise and and as a fan of late night I'm so excited about it and I hope is there any is there any sort of sense this early of how well it's doing is there a lot of people looking at it or is become thing I know there viewership is bigger than the viewership of this show already which isn't really Michael I mean it's exactly exactly no they've got uh they've got a very robust they've had a very robust uh uh start and um you know I I it's funny you talk about that um I gotta watch out a little bit you know we put up a we put up a Facebook post um about about Jerry's passing and and it went late late nighter Shar and it's like okay all right you know um you know I don't know if I if we put it up too fast or whatever it was but but but uh um you know it's it's I find it I find it fascinating that uh there is something where a conversation like this could get reported somewhere um which which I wasn't really used to before uh but I'm very very excited this venue is there for those of us that love late night so anyway I highly recommend you check it out um yeah I will it's super super cool uh I want to talk about your trip you got a chance to reunite and have you done have you shot the podcast already have you done already done the oh the no yeah we just did the other one we did yeah a couple days how' it go but it's interesting because because he wasn't the interviewer and I'm gonna go B on and maybe Lor will bring an amen to me because I I want to give him a plug I will post it on my social media for my tens of friends so and we'll post it for our for our for our as well because it was more General kind of podcast and he and he was ask so he was asking some interesting basic questions like how did you know how did What Would day be like what would you write and how would you hand it in how would it be decided and things like that so it was a it was a it was an interesting I think it covered some different kinds of material and also fit a lot more in because he was interested talking about the mouse club which we more than we've just gone into that on any of your shows uh a little bit because he's friendly with Jennifer Mill one of our Musketeers who I saw Lori and I saw with him a couple weeks ago I hadn't seen her for a while she hadn't been in New York for a while um and uh so yeah no I think it went okay but we we you know I don't know are you talking about the trip to California is that what you well we're gonna get to that too but but but uh because that that podcast was spawned from the trip to California wasn't it uh no this he's been doing this for no he's been doing this for some time I me I meant you guys talked about it no not because of no it wasn't the California trip because we did this was last about two weeks ago Jennifer was in town to play she was at Lincoln actually appearing Steven Schwarz is and I forgot the name of the show laori do you remember she's going to write it down for me uh she appeared at Lincoln Center apparently knocked Stephen Schwarz and the audience over with her performance which does not surprise me at all she's great talent and we were going to run deu at have lunch at the Metropolitan Museum uh have a nice they have a nice dining room not Dan dining area there and she brought a burke I believe is his first name brought Burke along uh I'm getting this now uh Burke Allen and his his podcast is he's a publicist and his show is called Big Time talker he's been doing it for some he's been doing it for some time but we we talk all three of all four of us with Lori we all talked for some time there and at the end of it Burke said would you you know I'd like to do my podcast and I I'll go anywhere you know for you know I'm a cheap date so I happy to do it uh and uh I think it's a little it was a little bit different I wasn't sure how where I was going to go either but you know the the fact that Burke doesn't know as much about this as say you do coming in made for a different different set of questions and you know may I I hope people will find those interesting too because they were actually very procedural questions you don't always think about if you don't know you know what I mean and how does how was this you know the writing on the letter different from the writing on the mouse club how was it different from something else that you did you know and all those things and and everyone was completely different except that both both of them were office jobs but other than that there was they were handled a completely different way yeah you know so there is that difference um the mouse club and I'm I'm so grateful that you had that experience and I I I love I love listening to you talk about it I mean you know again I I I think that there is uh there's so many behind the scenes stories and and and and whatnot about that show and the history of it there's a rich history there uh I said to you I think someone needs to you know I think it would be cool if someone did a podcast whether it was a limited run or or whatever I said too I mean some of them have Jennifer's doing a podcast and several of the other MK have done podcasts I would like to see somebody like you the equivalent amount a real serious fan of that show and they're all in their 40s now know and you know that and I would like to see them do that because the interviewer who is an outside perspective asks sometimes a different set of kind of questions than somebody who's on the inside would yeah and I really would like to see somebody do that look you know I'm not going to take up the a lot of your letter maner time no no take it up take it up but I will I will say that what I have not expected and we none of us expected when we did the show was that this would have that that show would have the kind of impact for the people who watched it that the Letterman show had for the people who watched yes see know what I'm saying I did not none of us expected that I'm not saying just me none of us did you know we came back we all came back I mean I won't go into great details but the when we came back from the show I remember my agent saying don't even put on your resume because it won't do you any good and some years after that I talked to one of the Musketeers who said said to me my agent told me the same thing and over the course of the years I found out that all of their agents told them the same thing every one of them and the thing is now now this show is being talked about by the people who remember it in kind of the same terms that the the Letterman show was being talked about something that was hugely important to them yeah they remember you know I thought if people remembered well when you're a kid you remember the kid you had the mousketeer you had a pressure on or this side you know that I figured that might happen but they remember the comedy better than we do like the way you remember things from the Letterman show better sometimes better than we do they remember the the the comedy you did on the show we were trying to do the best comedy we could we were never trying to we never tried to write down anybody we just tried to write stuff that was funny period not funny for kids but just fun period and but that was for us because we would be bored if we were you know any other way but the fact that it did seem to register people that there were people who got it and really understood that what we were doing I didn't really realize to like a year and a half ago I didn't get to get sense of the extent of this is I think I I don't know if I told you the story I may have in private I'll try to tell it fast uh one you don't have to tell it fast man you just be you my friend okay we about a year and a half ago uh well a little bit was it was around December uh a musketeer that I've had that we had a all had a long relationship with named Lindsay Ally Who uh actually helped write a I worked on a one woman show with her when she first got to New York and when she was in her 20s that we did uh in the at Lor beachman theater in 46 street she came back to New York do a show her current show which she she's done on her own which is a wonderful show in a nightclub here and we went to see her Lori and I would to see here and Bob Stein who was Robert Klein's music director who did the songs for Lindsay's show he was there and Ben rimau who directed the show who was actually running this nightclub and booked her in in the first place he we were all three of all of us who were involved the creation of that show Lindsay's show were there and at the end of the show and it was a great show Lindsay was fantastic as she always is at the end of the show Lindsay sort of introduced us from the stage and then did a song that one of the songs that Bob had written for our show one of the original songs he' written and that was that so bear in mind it was dark in that room I I don't think if when she introduce anybody could pick us out of the crowd but she introduced us so we went back we you know we got to s for a minute before but we want to talk a little bit longer so they had given her a little room with a bar that where she could greet people so you know people were coming one after the other to to talk to Lind again we were just were waiting for that to B be over us so we could talked her a little more length yeah so I was sitting down and Hillary Rollins who who who worked on the Mouse Club with with me who had also been there that night she was there whose daughter is she by the way Jack Rollins producer executive producer of of Late Night with David lman had every other great comedy you've seen in the last 50 years of show the greatest in history sorry sorry the last 70 years of show or show anything you loved until maybe the last 15 years everything before that that you really loved in comedy that was really HP if it wasn't Lauren Michaels I promise you it was it was Jack uh and and uh in any case Hillary Hillary was there and so so we're sitting there talking and and I think Hillary had gone out for a minute so I'm sitting there and Lori saying a little banket or waiting for Lindsay to be through and this 40ish woman comes up to me and says are you Steve Winer and I said yeah like you know I was a little afraid it's like what is this about and and she says and she starts talking about the Mickey mous and all those right she knows everything about and suddenly and Lori is the one who counted them I don't didn't count them 11 people are surrounding me oh okay would come to see Lindsay's show and they're all talking it they're all like asking a million questions and they're both so excited now you know Lori so immediately she invites them all to brunch and it just goes to the territory right the gift of hospitality uh your wife wrote the book yes so and we couldn't even do it in one we didn't have room for them in one week so we had to do it over two separate what Sundays um but they you know they've like become really really good friends of ours now and uh one of them I mean and a lot of them became I mean uh one of our one of our friends from that group now a really good friend Patty Chong Adams became an imagineer for Disney in part because you love the show uh and when we were out in California just a month or so ago uh she got us onto the the Disney Studio Lots which I always dreamed of going because I was a Disney kid and to actually be on the studio lot where she now works was very exciting and uh we also met met up in the in in the Disneyland when we went out to Disneyland while we were there we met there and she bought another mouse up fanom meet us so we you friends at I don't want to single her out particularly but just left off the top of my head all of these people and as as we you know we were all sing to each other and Hillary came in we got involved after and you know they seem normal you know I mean yep I mean I will point out that the that they don't these are not New Yorkers no these people these people came in from all over the country to see Lindsay perform this tiny little nightclub in 42nd Street because they loved her so much okay and I were sitting at home and it was sort of raining saying well I guess we have to go you know it's Lindsay so it's it's raining yeah we'll go what the hell like these people flew all over the country to and they know each other because they turned up at all the same events okay they they go to the mous ceteer events uh and you know Disney didn't doesn't didn't know and I don't think this day knows how big this show was I don't think they got it at all yeah but the but a number of them went into various careers in part because they love the show so much um this out was not none of us were expecting yeah you know I mean it really this is a huge surprise to the Musketeers surprise to the production staff to all the all the people I've spoken to it's kind of amazing I mean I sort of thought there was a chance it would happen with Letterman yes because I knew I knew it was a hip show and I knew if it was successful Y and we tried to make the Mickey Mouse Cub a hip version of the Mickey Mouse cuup we that was what they told us they wanted they didn't know what that meant we had to figure that out ourselves but we had a great group and we figured it out and I thought we had delivered that but I didn't necessarily think that people would pick up on that element of it or that it would have any kind of life after that the original show yeah that's been proven over the time but this show you know there was one in the 70s which R about 12 weeks or something and the only thing they remember is that that show is that Lisa welchel was on that before The Facts of Life uh but otherwise other than that nobody really remembers that show and we could have gone down that hole ourselves I don't think I'm not blaming the people did that so I'm sure they did the best they can they could but there was no reason to suspect you know we were doing a very different kind of show than the original show yes and that could have gone either way there could have been people who also said well you know where are the ears where's the stuff we loved about the old show because very there was versions of it but have been been changed in a way and we still had the Cals we still had uh certain we still had theme days there were sometimes there different themes the original themes but we picked up on a lot of that stuff but we then we turned it upside down and tried to find and you know we sometimes do sketches that parody what we were doing on the show the way we would do on Letterman to parody being on a talk show we would parody being on we' take elements of our own show that were straight and and do parodies of them on the same show okay we would do par and I'll tell I'll give you an example of one okay we we had a thing I mean there all these different albums it wasn't just the writers we had a incredible music department we had people we had little individual things that were you know remote pieces that were not F not like Dave funny but but they were they would send people out you know kids talk to kids in the park and things like that um and and there are all these different alums well there was a weekly thing called uh I want to spend a day with and they would find a celebrity and some kid would write if the kid would write in then say I'd like to spend a day with X and Y celebrity and they would try to match that celebrity up with the with the kid from home and then they would follow them around with the camera for a day so it would be a regular kid from the fan of the show and they would meet this famous person and they would do these things well You Know Carl and I thought we've got to make we got to parody this we we just have to because you know it's like it's just it's you know and and bless our great headwriter Alan silverberg who had the who was by the way as much a part of why the mouse C was success as as Merill was the part of white Letterman show success Allan B stat y it's Alan silberg is Fant was is fantastic and Allan loved it when we came up with these kinds of things so we decided we want to do that now one we had we had one running gag that Carl and I had come up with uh that that sort of kind of thing we would kind of do in Letterman we' done a sketch and one when we one of the props for the jokes in the sketch was a LIF side cut lies cut out of Alex tbec that was just a payoff for one of the jokes that there was this life-size cutout of Alex dbck and I I we said to Allan we just would sort of like like the picture of Rick sheckman and your thing we sort of like that thing to be on the set every now and then with no explanation in in other sketches you didn't have to you know and nobody ever refers to it and and then we said oh that's it that's it we want we we want to have I want to spend the day with the alra Beck cut out some kid has you know allegedly written in to to say they've seen it on the show and all they want to do is meet the alexer Beck cut out in real life that's all let's go on rides let's go water skiing let's go do the Y we do what it is it y to backtrack a little well so we got we got we sold that to Alan said great and then we said well please put we we need to put more of them so he started putting in more backgrounds he was turning up everywhere he' see his face in his window went behind you know in some scene or something he would just be there all the time I love ands so much yep so so we so there had been one okay wait for it they had been a day very often on the show The idea was that the kid wrode in they meet them well you know that doesn't always work you have to find out who's available so from time to time they would get somebody who became available then they would find some kid you know a real life kid who would be willing to spend a day with this person they got Donald Trump booked okay oh there you go and well and and we had we were a very political group yeah and we hated the idea a lot of us did not all of us to be fair there there were people who were fine with it but a lot of us really really hated the idea that that we were going to be promoting Donald Trump on the on the Mickey Mouse Club and this is before like this is 1982 yeah I was going to say yeah2 I'm sorry this was this was 199 9091 something like that 90 okay this was just the Apprentice even it's before he's this a m and and has anybody who grew up in New York City who lived in New York City during the 80s and you know 70s ' 80s and 90s knew how horrible th trop was as as as a human being as a businessman as everything else this not a surprise so we had one of our the the the assistant to one of our the people the executives on the show uh I'm not I I better I won't use her name not because I think she'd be ashamed of this because I know she's still very political but she's wonderful person but since I haven't cleared it with her I won't mention it she actually got a petition started to try to get him off the show and it was signed by it was signed by a lot of people wow well Disney didn't care and so this went on the air now I was trying and and I like to work when I do parody I think it's a lot of fun to work off a very specific script yeah you know I mean when the airplane the guys that airplane did it they based It On movie Zero Hour if you go see Zero Hour now yeah you'll see all the setups for the jokes that's all there you know and they they use that and then they come with their own jokes too they were independent but they're very often it's one of those things where somebody will do something in the sketch and you sit in the room and the payoff to that is this right so I grabbed this and brought it into the room and used it as a template very few people would would recognize it but if you saw if you saw the back to back the I want to spend a day with Donald Trump and then I want to spend a day with the octra back cutout uh the um I mean there's voice over in the original which which uh the kid says and the script by the way the kids were scripts were written for the kids even the real kids they might be interviewed but they had to do it you know a long so you know the kids said when I first found out I was going be spending the day with Donald Trump I got so excited I could hardly sleep and so I changed it into when I first found out I was going to spend the day with the Alex TRC cutout I got so so excited my mother made made me lay down with a cool towel over my head I mean I don't know if anybody still does that but parents used to do that and it was that it was that kind of joke and but a lot of it was like based off the Donald Trump thing and so he did that you know off the show uh so we would do things like that we parody I mean I don't even remember how this started anymore but we were what what the start the start of this was but basically the thing is that was the kind of Comedy we would do that we we called it the RO the rocking bln parts of the show in essence it was trying to find that same thing whereby if you watch rocking bul and you're already a hip kid you'll get a lot of more jokes than other people would do would do if you watched at the time there were jokes that the kids wouldn't get that they did on that show they had no compunction about it I remember my father explained some jokes to me that there was an episode where you remember what's him out of you and the the big un you know the big football things in Rocky B if you didn't oh yeah of course yeah there there's there's a scene where there's a sequence where they all have to pretend to be women they're all dressed like G be a women's football team yeah and Boris badenov is the is the football player and he's got an all women's team he says he says I can't do good impression but I will be the the Phil spal of the good now in 1960 whatever it was I didn't know who Phil spaly was my father said oh Phil spal had an all girls jazz band in the 40s yeah so you know they didn't care about that putting that kind of stuff on the air we we we could go that big on we couldn't go that hard to please on our show but we got around you know we tried to do those kinds of any case I guess the whole point of this which by the way is a Disney sensibility dis Disney does that in in in in in all of their biggest tent pole movies they they try and and have layered humor in in in there so so I think they do it now I'm not sure they were doing it I'm not saying that we instigated it but there wasn't that much of it when we were there so they like I said said they they came they told us when they were interviewing us look the reason they wanted Carl me is because the Letterman credit they were made no bones about it y you know they they just said that that's you know we want this to be a hip version of the show and that's why we want you guys y you know and uh you know that as I I've said before it was the best easiest job interview I ever went to because neither Carl nor I really wanted this job so we were very relaxed so when you're relaxed you know you don't screw up the job it do and we were fine uh so then we we got the job that we didn't want and we were sort of stuck with it we turned out to be a great job but we didn't know that at the time uh and and we didn't even know when we all started there says well they think they want hip to they know what that actually means yeah and so so we did do you know there were time I think we had to sort of educate them in a way to a certain degree I not that they were idiots but I mean we we would we we had to find out what that was and put it on the air and they had to let it go they had to give us little enough rope to let us try and to their credit they did certainly in the early days give us a fair amount of row more than I think we were expecting and I think after a certain point uh the show became a hit and uh then we sort of had a certain amount of theway still then this is all part of the history but that all changed in the fourth season but it's way too much to go into here if you ever want to do a podcast just about this show which really drive people away that would be where to go uh I think it's very clear that I don't care about driving people away um you know I can't you wouldn't have booked me again if you wouldn't have booked me for a third time if you were so um Here's my thought because we've talked about this a lot uh in in private as we just shoot the and all that Here's my thought um Disney plus has made fantastic three-part four-part five-part uh uh documentaries on things within the Disney Mythos um you know now that they own industrial Light and Magic they did a phenomenal light and Magic uh documentary that went through the early years of I and had a frightening amount of of of footage I could not believe how much footage they had for that uh they did the same thing with the imagineers and and the history of of Disney rides and things like that um I was trying between all of our conversations about this trying to think and it was always oh yeah be greatest they did a podcast if they did some sort of a um uh some sort of a an ongoing show or or or whatever that that told these stories I think they're fascinating I think you're right I think there is a market for it whatnot but now I I came up with the idea of of of of one of these on Disney plus imagine if there was a five-part on the history of the Mickey Mouse Club and I mean like like to me you've got the biggest stars in the world as a hook right right and the depth of stories like what you're talking about as as you know the steak and the sizzle right the big stars of course you know the timberlakes and the Britney Spears and all those of the world as as as the sizzle but what you just told me is the steak and and and I really think that that would be a uh I think a lot of people would watch it I think it's worth doing for sure to preserve that history there's not much I can't really say anything about that because there there was something I heard about that may or may not be happening and none of which I'm allowed to talk about okay all right uh so I don't know but that would I yes I agree that'd be a wonderful thing if it happened there's one other thing which would be wonderful which the fans have been demanding from Disney plus and writing in which they to run the shows again put the shows on the dam Network they got aing streaming service yes there is a hideous problem with that which we knew in 1989 92 everybody knew on the show which is that they wanted all the Contemporary pop songs that were you know we again music on the show was fantastic our kids were fantastic singers and dancers so I don't want I'm say it's just about comedy it was about everything on that show Absolutely they wanted that they wanted they wanted you know they had pop bands on they had New Kids on the Block they had all these guys you know they have a good Milly villy story if you read at some point if you're interested I want the mil story just passed away he just passed away the the guy who did all the music I I would love the M story all right I'll give you that in one second but but um yeah yeah yeah finish that part that's what the show and and we knew at the time and we said you know they they'll never be able to run the show again because of the music rights were going to be so expensive and that is exactly what has happened that you know they could clear the shows then but because they wanted every hit poop song of that period on the show they can't clear that music anymore they can't afford to clear that music so I don't I don't see any possible way to to run that show again unless they sound decid they want to spend buckets of money on doing that and I don't see to be fair I don't see why that's worth it to them now I mean the fans will tell you more of us will watch but I don't know if that's just they're saying that is enough for Disney plus you don't want to go to that trouble so it's a really tough thing it's a tough G you know it happens even today if you bought the Carol Bernett show DVD boxes that came out a few years ago most of the musical numbers are gone same reason it's not the full shows yes and and you see that on uh on SNL reruns and you see it on I think you used to see it on the on the Letterman A&E as well uh on some of that stuff they they would monkey with it that but that kind of thing you know uh I I have this thing in my head uh my one of the things that I want to do is is is is a secondary show or whatever called live on Letterman and and and have it just literally focus on the musical uh the musical aspects and and and the performances because we're talking thousands of unique performances from some of the biggest music in the world and and and there's got to be a way to get an apple or a Spotify involved with that because you have this unique performance of New Kids on the Block that is available anywhere else it was done that one time for that one event there's got to be a way that everybody can have their little piece and you can you can you can throw it out on the streaming somehow you know Mickey Mouse Club has their own their own channel on one of these streaming services that kind of a thing and there's got to be there's got to be a way to make that happen and and every too there is a lot of private Mickey Mouse stuff on on YouTube that the fans have put up but it would be nice to have you know the the the professional V quality videos instead of people's old VHS tapes trans you know translated uh to get it up there because you know they've got it they've got this footage uh let me tell if you want to hear Milly vanell story I'll tell you yeah so I I just want to make a distinction I said Rob fairing because because Milly vanelli the the the the front men were Rob and Fab I just said uh Rob faran died no it was Frank faran Frank faran made the music uh remixer for bonm and all that sort of stuff I I can go kind of deep on Millie vanil uh he just passed away so let's tell a Milly vanil story okay well it's not I mean it's it's it's if you known a little bit about their history that it's not the kind of story about how wonderful Milly vanelli was it's more like what things were like back first of all by the between the time that show first aired and the time there wasir going to be aired for the reruns in those days on the channel yeah it came out that these guys didn't even record their own music that's right and for the one and only time on the show they had to pull out pull it out of the rerun and replace it with something else I think that's the only time they ever made a major change like that on any of the shows when they originally air y um but the Millie vanil guys were a little bit different from what we were used to dealing with on the show and you know we we had an intern who was a local local fellow who uh Florida very nice very cleancut young man uh not quite used to the big time this kind of big time and um and he was put in charge of taking care of the milly Vil making sure they got into the Hotel making sure they got what they wanted etc etc something not not quite what he was expecting and our our produc our late producer Steve Clemens who's a sweet sweetheart he's passed away recently a few years ago now a very very good guy I like him very much any case he I heard this I wasn't in the meeting because they would always have the big production meetings we weren't invited to those but they had but um Steve Clemens uh our I won't won't give his last name our our production assistant who who had the job of caring for the milly Milly boys was named Tom and so Steve Clemens started the meeting says you know I got the office I I just found a very interesting message on my machine phone machine from from Tom and he wanted to know if uh if it was okay to pay for hookers out of petty cash you don't get that all the time on a Disney oh that's awesome yeah yeah that's that's a good it's a good good show a good story it was a memorable experience and the funny thing of course is most of us never the kid the people who worked on the show couldn't have cared less about most of these big these musical acts sure you know because they were not our generation so we you know everybody was like jammed up with New Kids on the Block there or some somebody we never even went over the rehearsal we just there's nothing who wants to go see this stuff you know oh that's fantastic uh and by the way what's the answer to the question are you allowed to pay for hookers out of petty cash uh I think I think Tom was reimbursed he did get reimb I don't remember if he actually took the money from C cop but I'm I'm sure everybody on both sides was taken care of was taken care of to at least some degree I know I do know for your history books I believe the Millville were asked to leave the Disney hotel they were booked into wow yeah I think that the case I don't want to be scarless if it's not true but I think that my memory was that was true didn't didn't get that with New Kids on the Block they gosh those young men were behaved I believe oh yeah yeah yeah yeah it wasn't the girls it was the moms uh that's what I heard that they had to um um I love you like we're 90 minutes like we're 90 minutes into this thing and and it it feels like this is like okay and everybody this is like when we talk on the phone or we just we just go go and go and go and go no it's it's the only people it's okay because the only people still watching are a derel who have you know who doesn't know what he's watching and a cricket who just happened to go by so it's fine it's it's okay you know I was I was a little worried that this was GNA become boring so I actually brought a deck of cards in case things got slow so oh good you know yeah you know it's one of those things you don't want to take any chances you might run out of questions do do a few magic tricks you know yeah yeah yeah yeah so you know it's a little known thing little known you're Canna wrap I know you want to wrap it's a little known thing but but there were two there were two skills you actually needed to get on the show at Le lman show at the time if you're a writer one of them is you had to be be a good write good jokes and the other one was close-up magic not many people know that was required you know you had to be good at that too you go in the morning you would go into Dave's office hey Dave where's the Queen of Hearts wh it's behind your ear and you know Mike the the look of innocent Delight that would pass over his face you would not expect it so it okay get control of yourself that we got you got to sign off yeah uh Dave is very well known for his he loves the closeup magic what's your card Dave I'll find it for you you never know where it's gonna turn up what about coins do you like coins coins we kept them that's the problem he would keep them all I believe this is mine right yeah I I I came in this oh God I okay yeah I love you so much hey uh there's one time Rick got mad at me I I want to say this there's one time Rick got mad at me and I'm gonna show you why oh yeah okay yeah one time not mad but like he he would always give me notes uh but and they were usually positive constructive here this was the one time that he got uh he got mad at me he's like take that off your sex oh yeah yeah I me too I told you the same thing you did you told me the same thing and that's what I was going to say I was going to say there was a commonality right there it's the same note uh by the way this is Sarah Sarah Palin's endorsement of the uh the Letterman podcast good luck with this the hell the hell with her come on um I thank you so much for okay thank you for being my friend and we love you so much thank you for allowing me to take advantage of our friendship and have you on here from time to time it will not be the last time this is the most exciting thing that happens to me in a given year so you have a pretty good idea what my years are like these days we're gonna figure out a way to do um uh three comedy writers name Steve we're gonna figure out we're gonna figure out a way to do some of these things and to expand some of these things and and and take you have to get us on separate mics yeah raise raise and lower the temp you know so people can actually hear what any of us are saying um I just wish you hear yourselves the Alex thing from the Alex oh I just wish you could hear yourselves you're so unprofessional all right I'm glad I'm making you laugh and proud of it uh you always do and uh I just I adore you I adore Lori my wife feel same too but we love you too oh and we we you know we're always happy when you come to New York to visit can't wait and the next time hopefully we got that little granddaughter with us because we can't wait you to her oh absolutely absolutely I just I love the idea that you have a granddaughter just just makes me so you I mean it's like I know there's a logical reason for it I don't I don't know how the much public knows about it but I still think it's kind of amazing so I I like the idea of it and here's the thing okay she's beautiful and she's athletic and she's all these things but you know what my favorite thing is she's funny she's funny she's got timing no she's got no she she's got timing she she she uh she if she knows something as a punchline she will she'll accentuate it like she's she's funny and and uh oh that's my favorite thing about her I I'm so grateful that she's funny um and uh and we're gonna we're gonna we're g tot that all together um I'll say I'll just do a real quick outro here and we'll say goodbye privately so um as you know uh this is why I do the show it's it's it's these relationships and these amazing moments these funny things and then to add Insight of course into the world of uh those who were part of the greatest body of broadcast work in history that of David Letterman and Company here is one of the founding members of the company uh in many respects Steve Wier a friend I just adore him so much that has been another episode of the Letterman podcast with Mike Chisum coincidentally I am Mike Chisum thank you and good night boy I know I am and that's why I was so excited when some quick thinking Engineers developed the shower phone the shower radio and now of course this it's the shower copier it's a stylish symbol of executive status with only a minor risk of electrocution oh Jesus God damn God the hell it's apparently cold water um the hell out of here all right all Elvis come on in come on in Elvis there he is El shut up you didn't see nobody here now Elvis and I we're just going to hang out here for a little while just until things blow over yeah that's right hey Elvis look here she's pretty you want her no but I would like some of that pie hey what the hell does this have to do with Elvis who is this guy he doesn't even look like Elvis oh I know it's Eerie isn't it he's uh that's my good friend Rick I know we didn't realize until we put the glasses on I don't want to embarrass you but uh are you drunk he's always drunk I'm sorry Elvis he's always drunk he's always drunk thank you very much go back to sleep in your pie the real star of the piece uh film coordinator Rick sheckman Rick come on out here Rick nice job you know what we needed there we needed some some footage of a guy getting into a car and getting blown up and you came through and got the footage of course it was old and it was grainy and it was obviously dated and the guy looked nothing like Paul but it worked in the piece and for your ongoing Excellence as film coordinator we're giving you cable television's highest honor the coveted Ace award congratulations nice job ladies and gentlemen this a whole couldn't be more pathetic so now if you were Elvis and you're still alive you could suddenly fall ill or get into some kind of accident why why take the chance that paramedics will dismiss you as dead for years play it safe and wear one of these right there it says I'm Elvis and I'm Alive medical alert bracelet thank you Elvis how are you feeling never been better Dave please help yourself to the hot Buffet oh great thanks how long have you worked for the wax museum thank you thank you very much yeah you know this this proves one thing not everybody looks good in a uniform no hey Shey you look great but it just seems to me like the people of Panama deserve far better than this Sham this farce this is no election this is an insult to democracy somebody should go down there and take care of this Nora guy and run all of those idiots out of office those people deserve far better than they're getting and I think somebody ought to do something about it oh oh my God something is gone just a minute I'm going to see who's behind it hey hey who who you know I was nearly killed out there what the hell happened a sandbag came down and nearly got me Biff was it you did you drop that sandbag no was it you no it wasn't me B Rooney was was it you are you sure General isimo Ramirez did you have anything to do with that sandbag are you sure did you have anything to do with that mustache all right but I'm going to get to the bottom of this I was almost killed out here uh getting a great shave is actually one of the best parts of my day and I I think one of the secrets although there are considerably many is going to the same Barber year after year and that's Enrique right there first he he drapes my face in hot towels and lets me relax and moisten up for a little bit there in the shop next using his own secret European shaving technique he he gives me a wonderfully close shave every time and finally Enrique's only own personal Blended Icy Hot After Shave lotion Believe Me Enrique is a skin care genius it's time for a morning roll call at crazy Paul's compound located right here in the game room of my house to all five Barrow cult activities include grating cheese asking strangers for gum we want gum and every Saturday night a 50s style socka it we thought we had something there we don't know look at that and it just goes on and on his next one is a guy dressed up like a cat this will make you sick look at that okay all right that is that seriously that's enough that's enough we're that's it just turn get it out of there seriously ladies and gentlemen this is Rick sheckman he is the film like I need to introduce him he is the film coordinator here at the uh at the late show and and this is interesting you actually have a new fall show this season that's right it's called the alma Precinct uh it's a police drama set in San Antonio but it's unlike any show you've ever seen roll it Hal hi my name is shecky I'm 43 years old I enjoy computers old movies and I've got a great sense of humor if you're a single woman between the ages of 21 to 50 please call me here with single connection extension 4538 thank you and now was that actually a scene from your new show not exactly Dave you don't even have a new show do you no Dave uhhuh okay and by all means don't worry about standing up straight okay you're fine okay Dave Rick sheckman everybody right there okay number seven film Court Ator Rick sheckman Jennifer Lopez is a Hellcat in bed I'm here with Rick sheckman and as you can see Rick is a very very big Star Wars fan and he has a a sword there for us Rick show us the sword how does that work it's not a sword it's a lightsaber for over a thousand Generations the Jedi Knights brandishing these lightsabers defended peace and Justice in the Old Republic before Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine joined forces to enslave the Galaxy everybody's name uh means something we got some guys right here uh we some fellows over there somebody you you start there Mike my name is Mike Baker and my great great great grandfather was a baker in a small Irish village interesting yeah that's how it works all right and you my name is Jack farmer and I am the direct descendant of the 19th century Scottish Dairy Farmers that's how that works that's Baker farmer Letterman it makes perfect sense yeah finally my name is Rick still a virgin at the age of 43 I'm also the direct descendant of the 19th century Scottish Dairy Farmers okay thanks boys nice job see picture that's Shey he's still in his Halloween outfit I'm here with Rick sheckman who is an avid fan and collector of Pokemon Rick welcome to the show thank you Dave why why don't you tell us uh just what exactly is the Pokemon Dave Pokemon is a group of 181 magical pocket monsters in alphabetical order you have Alakazam Blastoise Beedrill chansy Charizard Clefairy that's a rare holofoil jurados he's got a dragon rage level of 5050 and number nine film coordinator Rick sheckman all the Late Show merchandise is made with toxic lead paint mhm good fine thank you thank you very much Rick including his shirt well because of our close connection with the Coca-Cola Company we have the contest winner here with you tonight with us tonight and the Heidi Clum dress come on on here's the diet coke contest winner ladies and gentlemen take about thank you all right get out of here okay you're making us all it's time for who's taking a smoke break it's film coordinator Rick sheckman hey what are you smoking shy it's camel ultral lights heart pack it's one cool smoke hey that's great smoke them if you got them Shey I'm going to ask a staff member Rick sheckman Rick sheckman to put away the Late Show bear Shey put away the Late Show bear please there he is thank you Shey nice job that's the most exercise Shey has had in six years in 1989 Pennsylvania Congressman Bert Wallace was severely injured while trying to and a facts of his genitals a little help here hello a safety reminder from hul I'm stop help y