The Post Mortem of Julia Louis-Dreyfus with author Scott Ryan

once again welcome to the letterman podcast my name is mike chisholm i will be your intern ringmaster of this circus of fun and insight uh and and you know that's the title of the circus we're just uh as for the content well we're doing our best um this is another episode you know what i say that um this is another uh episode that we are shooting uh in a week where we've shot two other ones including one with tom dreesen and um the mark malkov episode just went up the new season of my next guest just came out at the time of this recording it is a good time to be a david letterman fan and uh i love saying that in 2022 in back in 2015 when dave left the late show um and and and halted uh that amazing run i wasn't sure that i'd ever be able to say it's a good time to be a david letterman fan ever again other than just looking back on things um the new content uh the idea of exploring old content with the new uh letterman youtube channel man there's lots of good stuff going on right now and we at the letterman podcast are capitalizing uh like the little entrepreneurs that we are but at the end of the day no money is ever changing hands we are just having a good time talking about dave and the legacy that dave and company left we've got a lot of amazing guests that are coming up the guest today is extremely special in my heart if you look at the trail of breadcrumbs that led to the letterman podcast this is probably the guy that dropped the first or maybe second one um and then a few more along the way for me uh that led to this um he is a phenomenal author he wrote in my opinion uh the greatest david letterman book that's out there um but he's also got a few other ones under his belt one that just came out and uh hit the hot new release or the top new release book it's a twin peaks book firewalk with me your laura disappeared uh he's also very very very heavily involved in the twin peaks community out there um just an awesome awesome resource when it comes to twin peaks you gotta check scott ryan out also within the last 12 months he released another book which was a national bestseller moonlighting in oral history scott wrote that as well i highly recommend that book if you were a fan of the show moonlighting or if you weren't if you're just a fan a fan of television or uh entertainment in general that book is in my i'm gonna throw this out there and say definitive uh the definitive history of a groundbreaking definitive series that many people now haven't really heard of but at the end of the day a lot of the shows and types of entertainment that we're watching today that are in vogue today the ground was broken for them by moonlighting bruce willis is a breakout role but it's way more than that highly highly highly recommended but this is a letterman podcast and let's go uh you know what let's not bury the lead i love this book i love this book so much uh for me if if someone were to ask me if i am lucky enough to make it to 100 years old and someone were to ask me hey what was the the best age of energy because we probably won't be watching tv by then it'll probably be ported into into a junction inside of our our head at that point or whatever but if somebody ever were to say to me hey what's the the golden moment of entertainment for you it would be the last six weeks of the late show the last six weeks of the late show was um incredible uh for me and and for many many other people when it comes to entertainment uh scott ryan has written a book the last days of letterman there it is again highly recommend it um that chronicles the last six weeks of the late show and a whole lot more uh we're going to do an entire episode on this i'll i'll tell you this straight up to the community of the letterman podcast um we i've been sitting here knowing that scott i've got a few guests who i've been waiting on and and trying to grow the community and uh to get to a certain point before i bring them on scott was one of those guys i did not know that within the first month i'd have tom dreesen on the show and and and that episode's about to air actually by the time this episode airs i think tom's part one will be out um and a whole bunch of other cool stuff have happened um and i was like okay you know what we're gonna do the post-mortem i'm gonna give scott a call and uh and maybe he can be a guest on the post-mortem and then what we can do is um then move him and do an entire last days of letterman episode after that this will be kind of a teaser for him well the new season of my next guest comes out and uh a moment happens in the episode that he and i are gonna discuss today uh on the postmortem um and he reached out to me and said hey did you see this moment and i'm like oh yeah i saw this moment it hit me like a slap in the face and he goes okay well i was watching it with my wife and when i saw it i'm like there's one human being i want to talk about this moment to so we shared a quick phone call yesterday wanted to save it for the podcast um and we're going to talk today in the post-mortem about the julia louis dreyfus episode this is the first episode i watched if you go to the the facebook group i throw a video up of me seeing the uh the the season appear for the first time scroll through all the episodes and i'm like yeah i think i'm gonna watch the julia louis dreyfus episode first turns out massive famous author who has come off the rock to talk to us scott ryan that was the first episode he watched too scott thank you for coming on the letterman podcast finally it's like the irresistible force versus the immovable object getting together thank you for being here my friend oh wait a minute i talked to what no one told me i talked to i thought i come on i listen you say nice things about me and i'm just like okay i listen and then that's it nobody said that i would have to also talk no no that's a different show that's that's the scott ryan an oral history show that's the one where you don't talk this one here okay that makes you talk um thank you so much for having me and thanks for all of the kind words i don't know if my face is going to be on the whole time you're talking because i kept thinking like you know don't don't make facial expressions but i made i made some at some point i tried to be as stoic as possible um and you know i just want to throw this out there when we when i come back to the last day's a letter man yes sir let's have somebody with me let's let's get shecky or or somebody you know brian tedda i think brian would come um absolutely my goodness barbara gaines of course would be like the end-all be-all but let's not say but i think it would be kind of interesting because i would love to know how all of those people feel five years down the road um i mean i'm not trying to produce your show okay i'm not stepping oh no feel free please feel free good because listen that beginning it was pretty long yeah we need to cut that no i'm just kidding um so this is this is fun and i did want to say it is true i there was one human that i wanted to speak to it wasn't you though i mean i'm sorry yeah all right i didn't i'm you misinterpreted that oh oh oh hey as long as i make the top 20 i'm a happy guy if when she's thinking back to her you know history of relationships if i'm in the top 20 i'm i'm you know right yeah you can't well you know you can't you can't if you're a man like you're never going to be in your wife's top 20.

it's always going to be your girlfriends and then the husband comes like much late much down the kids and now for you the grandkids like you're way back that well it's it's it's it's the truth uh before we get to the letterman of it all uh release week for the twin pete's book went very very well to say the least i i is i'm not overstepping when i say that no it was it it's honestly humbling it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the love that david lynch fans have for firewalk with me the name of the book is firewalk with me your laura disappeared and it's a look at the 30 years in on this masterpiece of of a film and the reason i want to do a book about this and don't worry letterman people we're gonna get to it okay this is one second this is a podcast we got all we got all the time in the world we sure do um you know firewalk with me bombed yes like it was a huge bomb let's look at it this way in 1992 dave was big and nobody was on letterman for fire walk with me yeah they didn't promote the movie on on letterman did they no they didn't you know so that just lets you know that you know not one person came on to promote firewalk with me on on letterman um so it bombed but here we are 30 years later and many consider it lynch's masterpiece and that's sort of what the book is looking at it's it's not all of my books you know the letterman book the moonlighting book the twin peaks book it it's not plot based i'm not just telling you what you already know i'm not we're not looking at something you can watch i mean if you want to watch the movie go watch the movie you can watch me these are interviews with the people that created the things the art and it's how it was done and it's a look at the creation of art that's that's what i like to write about well and let's bring it back to letterman because uh the reason that uh the last days of letterman is my favorite um letterman anything really out there uh including the show by the way i like your book a hell of a lot more than i like this show my book is going to last longer than the show i mean with the show you know damn right it is a couple decades i like it so much because it's not just a retelling of those six weeks which were magical and full of magical moments and uh and and and summed up uh was the coda of an amazing piece of broadcasting music um it was a phenomenal time when you just watched it and i mean the book even talks about how you you know you were given back a pvr and and you before you gave back the pvr you had the last six weeks and you decided to watch all of them or a dvr i guess as you say down south some canadian there's one of the things uh what does the p stand for in pvr uh a personal video recorder oh see it's digital digital video recording video recorder i mean personal see we have no nothing's personal and private in america that's why we don't we don't have that they don't want you to think that they're not mining your data no no no so we don't get that of course not um but you wanted to watch the last episodes because you had them there sitting there in glorious hd on that little box before you give the box back and then that sparked it and the moments were amazing the entertainment was awesome but the way you presented it was by going to all of the people uh who are not not certainly not all the people but a great number of this podcast is about not just dave it's dave and company and you went to a great number of that company and had their perspective on things and it was just it's so beautiful and you get to know a lot of these people um through their retelling of the last six weeks but again so much meat on that bone we will get to that bone later right now we're going to talk about the uh the new the new season of my next guest uh and would you agree with me now i think you and i have the same level of enthusiasm for dave and company um would you agree good time to be a day fan right now hey well i actually really liked what you said in your intro about the fear that certainly i had in 2015 that dave was going to follow his mentor johnny carson and disappear and and we were never going to see him again i mean when he said thank you and good night i i honestly thought i would never see him again i really did i there was no part of me that thought he was gonna be out there like this um and i don't i don't know i have a mixed feeling about my next guest um i i there's parts it's it's so close to being what i think he can do but i don't think he's there yet which is really kind of funny that it is season four is it really season four using four now they're they're they're fairly short seasons they are but still you know um you still like i don't know there i i think that dave has become intellectual in in the right way and when he leans into that that's when those episodes fly and when he pulls out of it to me that's when those episodes don't i wish he was taking a stronger look at solar power uh the environment the things you know the west the things that dave actually cares about yes um and when he when he leans towards pure entertainment i don't know that the shows go as well like that episode very early on with um the senator i'm gonna boy i wish i was more intelligent but i think it's it's it was louis or is it congressman where they talked about him going over the bridge john lewis yes yes i can't remember he was a senator or a congressman but and that was on president obama's episode i believe like he tied those two things together season one he really did that he almost had right on many of the shows two different guests in the same episode that had some sort of a link to each other and i thought like oh my gosh this is going to be but they've sort of given that up over time i think i think the pandemic has had something to do with that i think they've been really uh like one of the one of the questions that i i want to talk about in the post-mortem here with with our different guests is is you know the idea of even doing it in front of an audience versus going tom full tom snyder uh and just doing the long form you know two chairs alone like we're talking about with with julia uh the episode we're gonna talk about today they're in two chairs on her property in santa barbara i believe is where where where a big chunk of that was set and then of course a remote i i assume a chunk of that has to do with the pandemic of course i'm sure it does um it's interesting because i didn't notice there wasn't an audience with julia louis dreyfus that is so funny like you're right they there used to be an audience of course there used to be uh i've sort of forgotten that i mean i did love seeing dave take questions the pre-show because i used to love that i mean that's when you're seeing dave be dave and i'm i'm not saying that dave shouldn't be funny that's not what i meant yeah but i'm just saying like i think he has so much to share and one of the things i miss about late night television is that dave was intelligent and i'm not cracking on any of the people that are on i'm i'm honestly not no no yeah yes and i miss that um you know there was a huge tragedy in america this week that's that's disgusting and then i see every host weighing in on it and i'm just not sure i need to hear them weigh in on everything like it was different when dave was doing it um i don't know it's it's weird right now i think so blend of uh news and entertainment for some reason it works with letterman i don't know that it it works with everybody well i think for me if i'm gonna if i'm gonna weigh in on what you just said there i've watched a lot of letterman over the years i got a lot of weird stuff going on in my head when it comes to that stuff and making connections i think it's because uh dave from the very very beginning and johnny carson same thing dave probably inherited this trait from johnny uh you know dave would make a point to say i'm a registered independent um i i don't you know i just look at things and he would come at it not with a per with a with a a preordained perspective but a curiosity i i remember when he had one of the pauls on i forget if it was uh around or ron uh it might have been rand paul and i think about it and and dave as he listened to him talk um he allowed he allowed uh mr paul to articulate and then dave just flat out said you know what i don't have enough information on this to even really weigh in on that i appreciate that so much about him that he would come at somebody uh with a with a with a strong point of view politically or or social socially whatever the opinion is and dave would come with curiosity and i don't think a lot of these hosts these days do that certainly his successor at the late at the late show uh if you want to call it the late show still i mean i think it's a completely different thing now um you know mr colbert he's got a pre-ordained opinion of things and and it's this is right this is wrong other than you know the the the extreme moral things that would happen somebody dying a tragedy happening dave really never voiced opinion he more asked questions right well i also think that i mean i i have no idea how it is in canada because i'm an american and we didn't no one's told us there's other countries um but in america right now unfortunately on a lot of issues there's only one side because there's just some horrible things going on overall and so i think it makes it a little a little more difficult for these hosts to not pick a side because like you know i don't know you don't want to get too political and and nobody likes it but so i i don't know what day i don't know that dave could have remained neutral from 2016 till now i i think things would have changed you know one of the things that i always thought was fascinating and it doesn't mean anything but i like thinking about it and believe me we'll get to we'll get to this oh she's coming she's coming you know like everyone's dying for my next guest like this is what people are really tuning in for i always thought that it was such an interesting moment in history that the monica lewinsky event happened after carson yes never had to hear carson make jokes about you know now looking back we all know those jokes should have never been made to begin with sure but everyone was making those jokes those were the jokes like whether it was right or wrong that sexual act became a late night joke and carson never had to deal with it i love that dave never had to deal with trump as serious candidate i mean he did one joke right towards the end but nobody i mean trump was not a candidate and nobody really thought so in the way that carson is free from [ __ ] letterman is free from trump and you know i find that really refreshing and i'm glad i didn't have to cover that in my book or live with that you know yeah um i don't i don't even if i think this is true i don't think i used the t word in my book like i could be wrong because i know he did make one joke about him but i don't think i put it in the book yeah i don't i don't i don't remember it if it was it was just it was very inconsequential um well even on dave's very last night you know uh the bit i love the bit um uh jokes we would have done tomorrow night or material we would have done tomorrow night and and it was hillary uh some sort of financial impropriety or something like that very very very harmless compared to what you would see even not even a year later because no months later months later the world changed in 2016 he he retired uh you know midway point of 2015.

um and and i i just i agree with you by the way it was senator al franken who was on one of the final episodes which i believe you did chronicle uh where his prediction was that dave would uh become an eccentric recluse and that was the fear that we all had right um and it's neat watching him evolve in my next guest now and he's got another series coming out i went down to la for the taping uh where he's where he's helping to break new stand-ups called that's my time with david letterman that's about to come out i think june 7th it hits uh it hits netflix um very cool to see dave evolving how he is right now one of the people who are in your book that i'm friendly with as well uh pointed out to me the other day it's really cool watching dave do research on these guests like like he's talking he's like he said to me he goes you know i'm a person in my uh a man of my 60s i don't really know billy eilish at all but after the interview i was excited about some of the things that billy's doing and it was because of the research dave was doing whereas on the show you know they it was a machine they had all the pre-interviews and all that kind of stuff so dave's exercising different muscles now as he does the long form and and for me personally i mean who was the first guy that dave hired in the 12 in the 12 30 spot it was tom snyder and i watched every episode of tom snyder from the premiere to his final episode and when the episode was over i would go upstairs get in bed put my headset on and listen to him on the radio he did a half-hour radio thing yes that it was kind of a post-mortem and unlike our postmortem they actually discussed the episode that they were on there to talk about well um i loved it i mean i loved the tom snyder show i heard they're making a documentary about him and i'm so happy uh that that'll happen speaking of which um i gotta i i gotta tell you some stuff off camera about uh uh tom driessen being on and i didn't tell you very much about it on the phone yesterday just because of the i know you share the joy that i share having tom dreesen on this guy uh they're doing a documentary on tom actually and and whatnot i mean you talk about historic comedian and we can go you and i could do an hour on tom greeson i mean my god the first black white comedy duo with tim reed coming up and then going to the comedy store with dave uh you know dave blossoms over to johnny carson uh uh tom dreesen blossoms over to frank sinatra both dealing with mega stars of the day like there's so many comparisons to make and whatnot i i'll tell you this and i know you'll appreciate it and many of the viewers or listeners whether listening in their ear holes or watching on their eyeballs will appreciate it too because tom is kind of revered as well he's really kind about this stuff it's almost like i discovered my favorite uncle that i never knew was around it's like mom said oh yeah this is my brother tom holy cow uncle tom you're the greatest guy in the world and it's funny that it's uncle tom but anyway he uh he's been messaging me since we did two and a half hours he's been messaging me since he's been giving me advice on um on the social media on on some of the things that we could do with the interview i pull this clip out and put a a clever uh you know a minute and a half here and put a clever headline on it and put it on the tick tock i'm getting social media advice from tom reason which is like amazing but how bad is our social media if i'm getting advice from thomas yeah i mean i don't know if this is if this is a good thing for you that you might be showing that maybe you're lacking i might have considered that should i be on that you know i hate to do this no no a little bit i think you're right i'm sorry i'm getting a text here wait a minute i hate to stop the sh no it's from tom dreesen oh tom is texting me he just told me to get a microwave to help um to help uh microwave food this is a great he really is on the forefront of i mean this is incredible i didn't know tom dreesen had this kind of ability wow advice from tom dreese and i'm i mean this is i mean what a nice thing oh my god technological advice from tundra it was yeah yeah i mean anyway he's he's now also suggesting get a vcr don't watch shows when they're on record them this is ah this guy he knows what's going on this is incredible oh we're uh i i love that tom dreeson is giving you social media advice did he tell you about hashtags do you know about hashtags no we're gonna get to hashtags we're gonna get the hashtags he's gonna ask tom about hashtags he will go on and on and on um and i can't wait for that either and we'll uh we'll we'll conference you in on that too oh you don't have to because i on a podcast uh it's incredible the um let's get to julie louis dreyfus yes let's so we're here for serious business that only took us a half hour now here's my thing i'm gonna i first want to say that i abhor well like i abhor the times we're living in because you know you get judged and people misinterpret everything you say and you know my heart is in the right place for everything that we're going to discuss in this we're not criticizing anyone but recently i got the opportunity to host a week-long david lynch film fest and do all the q a's in front of a audience and it was just incredible we had dwayne dunham who edited empire strikes back i got to do jawa and boba fett jokes and charlotte stewart and richard green from mulholland drive it was just incredible well someone came up to me afterwards and said oh my gosh you were so well informed but funny you know who you reminded me of david letterman oh my god stop and i was like what did you say to that well i was like that thank you like that that's what i that's everything i want you know like i want to be funny and um and enter you know and entertaining and educational at the same time you know to go up and then there was another time that that the movie wasn't playing and they had 10 minutes of nothing and i said to the guy well what are you going to do and he said we'll just have people sit there i said nah give me the mic and i just went out i went in the crowd and i just improved and it was just it was so much fun and um i'm just bringing that up to say that i was raised by dave like i don't think i don't think this is me per se like of course it is my doing but it's because i watched dave every day from from a teenager you know to an old bastard yeah so that that has informed me and dave really matters to me yes tom and i talked about that i told him uh you know when i was going through my divorce uh and and any time really i've been going through ups and downs my favorite time of the day was the first segment after the opening remarks of the monologue later on where dave would just talk to camera and it would just be dave talking to us and that was my favorite part of the entire day um and and it helped me get through stuff and when you talk about formative years and being yeah yeah and and it's ridiculous to say it but to some people except for people who understand dave letterman was my walter cronkite right you know and i know you feel me definitely i mean he he shaped me and it's not like you know something creepy i imagine dave wouldn't like that and by the way when you get dave on the show because someday you're going to i'm the co-host buddy damn right damn right i mean i'm going to be because i and i was i wanted to like make fun of us i want him to beat us up i want him to rough us like come at us you know i want all that uh because again i'm not of 2022 where you can't make fun of someone like please you know yeah by all means come and get me i'm glad you brought it up because you know right here uh first off first off you know my best friend which uh again me and tom had an argument about you can't really see my face but dave right there in that moment is using me as a comedy speed bag and you can't look but i'm kind of like the cat that just swallowed the canary as the entire audience in that moment is laughing at me one of the greatest moments of my life i can you even imagine just sitting here like like if he was using us as a comedy as comedy speed bags on this show i don't even know if i could respond i'd just be so happy i'd just be oh no i would too i'd go after him i'd take a swing back at him um but um and that's what i want to talk about that's uh there's our segway that's our segway right there in this episode which i thought was fantastic and i love julia louis-dreyfus there you go 2022.

me too um dave asks her about her grandpa and you know as dave does man he asks questions and specific questions and wants more detail and of course she doesn't have it because who would you know i don't know what my grandpa did in the war and i really i a joke keyed up and then 2022 came in and i had to push it back down which is cool um and um i can't wait for the pendulum to swing back a little bit because there's a lot of wit that is being uh left on the table because of because of that definitely and so um he asked her how many runs his grandpa made and she says you know i don't know 68 and he says i was 81 and she goes i was going to say that he goes well it was 105.

and she says [ __ ] you yeah and gives dave the finger and i i mean i just sat there [ __ ] you david letterman [ __ ] you johnny carson [ __ ] you steve allen i mean [ __ ] you jack parr huh no i didn't like it and it's i am not a prude i am not against bad language and jew and i will say that julia's bit of humor is to be a little rough and mean uh you know later in the episode dave is fishing and she's like what the i think she might even swear again actually you know i but i can't exactly quote her because i didn't re-watch it before this but she says like what he's gonna fish i thought this was supposed to be my interview you know those are jokes and she's playing a bit she doesn't care that he's fishing and i also get that she's not really saying [ __ ] you david letterman like [ __ ] you and die that's not what she's doing um she doesn't have a comeback no and that's where she says [ __ ] you that's right you got me it's a you got me is what it is right yeah but just think like that's what dave did for years i mean dave busted out everyone i mean you know especially actresses that and again you know 2022 police i'm not i'm not saying that actresses are different than actors but i'm saying a lot of young actresses were not prepared to go on letterman yes and he ate them alive it wasn't sexist it was about not being prepared that's right you go on national television and dave took offense to that because you were not preparing and so he came at you now it's not that he never went after he certainly went after justin bieber and um you know famously even though it was fake joaquin phoenix and uh who is the idiot from uh chicago the the corrupt um oh my god uh blah blah blah boy a [ __ ] or something i think i wanted to be on here in the worst way while you're here in the world's way like right from the start yeah i mean so it was nothing to do with sexist but i feel like most famously it was paris hilton and people like that but okay hold on look i think it's sexist even a little bit i think that anybody who would athletes dave took a different approach to because they're athletes they're not professionally in front of a camera in any way i think anybody who was professionally in front of a camera needed to be sharp many times at that time during those times and it's evolved since then um i think sometimes actresses might have gone down a bit of a different route as to how they acted when a camera turned on in interview situations would play a bit of a different character whatever but there were also guys who did the same thing he would test anybody who was in the other seat i think it just sometimes became noticeable with actresses who might have um relied a little bit on you know their looks or a part or one certain one dimension whatever that dimension was for them right dave would jump on that but it just got noticed with actresses and my point is none of them said [ __ ] you oh that's for sure um except matano well that's the thing the madonna thing yeah is a different thing she didn't say [ __ ] you but i remember i don't think she actually said [ __ ] you dave no she just kept saying [ __ ] yes and i haven't watched that clip in in a while i did save it i mean i recorded it and i remember there was a pastor there was an old couple in the audience front seat and dave they kept cutting you know blessed i'm sorry i'm sorry yeah and you know and and and also let's man if we were if again if this was professional thank goodness uh we would have those people's face up to to make you look because that's how america was reacting to someone saying the f word was it 15 times or something like that in a seven minute segment or something um which now seems ridiculous because oh late shows are all about the f word now i mean it doesn't matter they bleep it non-stop um so it was a fake thing but i do remember madonna saying that she actually was scared for her career that's how much power dave had at that moment there you go that's exactly right um now i i've that moment by the way because i want to i i want to echo what you said that was the moment where you you said hey there's a there's a human that i want to talk to about this thing and and somewhere down the list is mike chisholm yeah you were not you were the number i wanted to talk to you immediately because i wondered if it bothered you it bothered it it i felt it yeah it hit me like a slap in the face when i heard it like i was i it was the first episode i watched and uh and and um as as it happened i was like whoa uh and and and it was it was processing and i'll tell you what helped it in the moment was um i knew how much dave loved veep and i know how much dave appreciated the colorful language because of how clever it was and they even referenced that in this episode when they got to that part with julia in her career when they started talking about veep and how well it was written and and and dave even brought up the uh the profanity but it wasn't profanity just for the sake of being profanity it was and and julie agreed she said yeah it was really really really well written and it was written in and all of that um and then when i rewatched it especially after our conversation i i went in and looked at a couple things even in the cold open julia swears she dropped it she swears throughout the whole the whole thing the whole thing so it's not like it's inconsistent it's not like it's but you're right it's a you got me [ __ ] you like that's that's what it was it was like two buddies kind of talking even though they hadn't talked this is an interesting thing to me um i don't know if this is just showbiz or if this is legitimate my my inkling is to go it's legitimate he said the last time they talked was when she came on dave's last show and did the that iconic line on the top 10 list he said that they said that was the last time that they saw each other i'm sure it was to get that level yeah and to get that level of comfort um where she felt that she could do that or i don't even know if she felt that way it was pretty instantaneous uh that was remarkable to me well and you know again it's it's not against her no it's it's against our society it's actually against us is is what got me and you know there's an episode of the crown which is also netflix because this this show is sponsored by netflix right so we have to go from your lips to god's ears you only mention netflix is from what you told me beforehand i mean we're hoping for a grant from the chub group but that's only because i like saying chub group i don't even know well who doesn't you know i remember uh um tom dreesen once told me say chub group as many times as you can and your podcast will get extra hits i mean and i was like tom like you're incredible um it's us who have who have removed anyone being held up now let's take it okay 2022 we're gonna let you back in the room okay because we put people like harvey weinstein and all of these horrible men we let them have this power that nobody was speaking to them that they steamrolled through and did horrible things okay yeah but this isn't that this is dave is a is a legend yes there aren't a lot of legends you know if i'm interviewing barbara streisand i'm and she busts me and i say oh this person wrote that song she's like no this person i would say [ __ ] you barbara you got me like what are you talking about yeah like you're not gonna say that i'm not gonna say that to um you know it's kind of sad robert de niro let's say you know you're not you're you know de niro or jane fonda or whatever any of these legends can you imagine saying [ __ ] you betty white right i tried to come up with a comparison after you and i spoke briefly with joan rivers ever okay so imagine joan rivers and johnny carson didn't have the rift and it was near the end or whatever would there ever been a scenario where joan rivers would have said that to johnny carson that was the only comparison i could come up with carson i don't know i don't i don't think so i i just think the reverence would be too much and i just wonder if dave looks for people that don't look at him with that kind of reverence every once in a while for a grounding or i mean do you think do you think that moment even phased david no dave thought it was funny he laughed and maybe it is funny sure um i think it is funny it's funny because dave got her like like the the joke i'm saying is her is her saying [ __ ] you funny that's the question but i think that makes the joke that much funnier though because he got that reaction out of her like if she would have said you know 81 oh i was gonna say 81 oh 106 actually oh you got me i don't know if it has the punch that like he got her and and i think what we're talking about is the payoff for him getting her right whether or not it was misplaced or not i mean it is interesting but what i was going to say about the uh netflix is and there was an episode of the crown where and i i tried to find the episode and i couldn't because who cares but the queen does a thing about decorum and she just talks about what happens when a society loses decorum and i'm not putting the royal family up as as the perfect family of society of course i love the idea of decorum and i think dave had that like if you went on and you didn't dress up dave busted your chops i mean part of going on the late show was having a decorum that he kind of kept from johnny which also had a lot of decorum and that is gone now yes on all the talk shows and i actually love seth meyers i really enjoy uh seth meyers but you know he stopped wearing a tie and i think it works and it's okay like if andy sandberg was on there and he said [ __ ] you to seth meyers i'm okay i wish i'd have picked a female comic i'm gonna do it again okay amy poehler is on there and seth burns her and she says [ __ ] you seth it's fine that's seth and amy sure yeah absolutely um we talked about that you know who was it oh eddie brill eddie brill was on and and he talked about that because you know there's a guy who might have been on stage uh of the ed sullivan theater longer than you know most almost anybody uh definitely in the uh uh and he talked about when they were told to wear it wasn't just suits it was uh he would wear like sometimes black on black on black and dave was like no no let's let's keep it classy let's do the white shirt and the tie and all of that and and yeah there was a semblance of of civility and dignity you look at the audiences at the beginning compared to the end oh reminder to tell you about the netflix audience that i uh when i was in the audience a few weeks ago and tell you about that i'll tell you about that off camera it's very very interesting about the first two rows um yes there was a culture that was um expected chappelle talks about it he got bumped his first night that he was supposed to be on letterman because he didn't have a tie and uh and and and i just it's interesting watching the evolution happen i'm not complaining about it like an old man saying get off i'm not either i'm i'm not mad at julia no i don't think she's a bad person i actually thought it was a great interview and i thought she talked more than i'd heard her share and talk before i've certainly seen her interviewed a lot of times i don't think she did something horrible i'm not trying to cancel her i'm just saying as someone who maybe maybe let's let's go from dave's point of view dave would say look you two idiots i'm not that important sure you guys have put me in a place that i shouldn't be okay but that's hard you know yeah to me he matters like he's he's our johnny carson yeah i mean he he is the the pinnacle for me yeah um i don't think any i know no other performer had more of an influence on me than david letterman i mean that's just me and in all the right way i don't try to be like dave although if my kids do something dumb i might say oh i guess i'm stupid it's a dumb guy voice i mean you're bound to do that but i don't you know uh do the high-pitched voice for my son so you know i don't i didn't steal all those bits and look at my dave cup it is it is really oh that's great that's worn in it it's worn and i mean it's i have new ones that i won't even use we're gonna get one i'm not sure which we're gonna get for the studio we're starting to get a pencil collection now uh we've got we've got that we've got a couple uh i don't know if you've ever watched jay ryan's late night playset shout out to jay ryan the other ryan uh part of this late night playset got a couple of from his show and he actually gave me uh this is an original cvs cbs pencil before they actually named but could it be a cvs one as well can you get a vaccine from it oh god if you could get a vaccine from it my god that's right uh the letterman podcast now brought to you by the good folks at cvs um when you can't get a chub bump was that whatever you wanted to get chub bumps this is why i love you the chub bump god damn scott um there were other moments of the episode which uh which i loved i this is where i look at julia right now um by the way also with the [ __ ] you dave thing part of that i thought about this after after we talked uh there's a cancer survivor talking right there um i think that when you got she she in that entire episode you want to talk about somebody who um you know doesn't give a [ __ ] about the things that don't matter uh i i think many times cancer survivors are are that that type of personality they evolve into that because presents um they've had a scare of their life and uh i mean even listening to her talk about it you can tell uh really present in the moment and and and gonna be her no matter what uh loved that when uh you know loved her vulnerability when she was talking about going through it during veep accepting right an emmy and then the very next day finding out her life is uh going to change no matter what the degree of how much it's going to change uh completely in the unknown and what human loves to hear change and we don't know how much it's going to change um i think that uh that that seeing them catch up and talk with the the frankness whether or not some of that frankness slapped us in the face because of some of these things that we commentate on um i thought she was a great guest for that as well oh yeah i mean i mean it was it was her story is incredible uh and and you know we gotta let this go but i just wanna say one thing sure you flip those you flip it let's flip it for a second yeah she she gets dave i would bet anything dave would have said [ __ ] me over [ __ ] you you know what i mean like it's not that she says [ __ ] no and i'm i'm i'm calling her out on but it's something about putting it on dave you know you could say [ __ ] me another great thing is well [ __ ] my grandpa and his last 20 runs you know he phoned those in there's there's ways to to go besides taking a comedy legend again you know [ __ ] you lucille ball i i just don't i don't know yeah but again we're we'll move past that um let's give her props that eminem story was incredible that she told about fishing with her son then go to the oil tanker yeah that was a great story and she told it well and i've been thinking about it and i was thinking like isn't it fun how like we're all the same like if you go anywhere it doesn't matter she's a multi-millionaire yep if somebody gives you an m m you're happy as can be they didn't catch any fish but we got m ms and it was a great day like i loved that yeah i thought that was great um yep and i loved her talking about seinfeld and the way that they did it wasn't just rehashing i mean it was it was a great episode i i thoroughly enjoyed it i love when dave brings back people from the late show like he has a connection too i mean i love that well you know it's interesting um i took a video myself i don't think i think i've posted it but uh i took a video myself of that reaction to her talking about being on the last top 10 list and that icon in my opinion iconic line one of the very funniest uh lines on the whole thing you know thank you again for letting me part of it this disappointing series finale i probably stepped on it right there and then jerry's reaction which was really good and then dave started asking her that the reminiscing was great and then date and i this is where i started the video of myself so i'm like oh this is gold this is the stuff that as an enthusiast i'm very excited about um and then they started to talk about the series finale of seinfeld and at that point i said oh man it sounds like julia is uh reciting notes you know what was the expectation for why was it considered so disappointing and she's like you know i don't know i think people expected more i think they it sounded like she had said that a thousand times before that was the only part of the interview where i thought that the rest of it i thought was fresh and insightful and all that but as she said that i even said in the video oh it sounds this sounds like she's talking off notes well i you know i can't help but make everything about myself because why wouldn't i but when they talked about it i thought oh are they gonna you know can they mention the book because in the book i talk about how that line came to be and that was a very that was the most contentious line in the top 10.

i think that's a great story to tell right now by the way because it's it's so on point um well what's interesting about it is she was given a line about and i i don't remember that i i don't think anyone could give me the exact line but basically the joke was that dave was like her brother and there was something there and it just wasn't funny yep you know nobody can really remember what the line was and i don't think anyone wanted to totally sell someone out about who wrote it but nobody liked it right um and so julia went to jerry and said this is what they're having me say gary foley oh jerry seinfeld seinfeld and you know who else you're going to go to and jerry seinfeld says no that's not funny right and then they went up and they someone said well there was this other line that got cut during the day and they were like oh what you know that's a much better line and it was an intern it's just an intern not one of the main writers that came up with it it was solely an intern and so i thought they were going to discuss gal right yes because she gets two two of hers or in the last and bill chef was so excited by it i know her name's in the book because bill uh told the story which book was that oh the last days of letterman the final six weeks by scott ryan forward by bill scheft one of the greatest books of all time um and so i thought oh are they going to talk about it because i mean i heard from dave's assistant that dave liked the book that it was about his team and not him yep but i don't know if dave has ever read the book i doubt he has but yeah i just wondered if he'd say well you know i think there was a book about it it's never gonna happen but it would be best uh but you're right okay so yeah that line um and and some would say the funniest line of the entire top 10 list because you had jerry there too and his reaction was so beautiful it was a it was it was layered in how beautiful his reaction was because he even said really and really was like you know they did a bit about it on saturday live on weekend update every week like uh you know it was so perfect and julia was a part of that again though our best friend dave is our best friend on tv um they hadn't talked in seven [ __ ] years and you know like and it seemed in that moment like it's one big family and they're all happy and all that um i love how they by the way they went through julia's run on snl a little bit i thought that was now i'm old enough that that was my snl cast no yeah that was mine like i've known eddie murphy and and joe piscopo and all that's you're saying yeah like and oh you got a bad roll of the dice my friend i'm sorry to say that that's that's uh there are stronger casts that could be yours but what are you talking about like i i loved gumby and i loved um mr robinson's neighborhood and the guy used to do the uh he dropped the cards i can't do i'm not even going to try this tim tim krasinski or whatever yeah the doctor thing i loved all that stuff and julia did a bit that i've never seen anyone talk about but i've never forgotten it where she pretended to be linda ronstadt singing i can't sing what's new because she had an album out what's new that were all old songs and my mom had the album and i hated it and then you've got someone on saturday night live like making fun of your mom's album like it was you know so i've loved julia for many many years because i was 13 years old then when she was you were you were one of the folks when she showed up on seinfeld going hey hey yeah yeah right on i remember her yep she's from cyanide live so you know what when seinfeld started uh for me it was oh my god it's stanley spadowski from uhf looking at kramer uh he was in a weird owl movie and and and that was that was my that was my uh aha moment when i watched i thought it's interesting how you and i both have an aha moment from two of the uh from from two of the cast um i uh i also by the way i i'll tell you this about my next guest um i wore this shirt intentionally today i didn't give a [ __ ] about f1 until lewis hamilton was on a previous uh season of my next guest and then my wife and i got into the netflix show which is almost like crack because it includes the drama of sport and a whole bunch of these uh uh you know um larger life drivers and things like that and the gateway to that was david letterman bringing out lewis hamilton and saying okay the name of the show is my next guest needs no introduction in this country here uh maybe a little bit more than the rest of the world and then he brought lewis hamilton out i love when the new show makes me want to move and and look at other things that i've never looked at before and this episode did that in a few ways i knew julia louis-dreyfus came from i don't know what he is if he's a if he was a baron or or what but i knew that she came from significant old money or or or money that's older than her anyway and um and and her dad was extremely successful and all that sort of stuff this art collection this art curation that he has has built and whatnot i've actually gotten on the rabbit hole a little bit since watching the show um very interesting that julia would become an entertainer and and um when you look at where she came from what she became i found that very very interesting as well yeah and she's certainly one of the best comic actresses of this generation i mean there's no doubt about it it's really hard to find someone that's had the kind of success that she's had so um worthy of a guest i thought it was a great show i thoroughly enjoyed it i'm glad dave's back on tv i love the show i just wish it was i wish one time you know i'm not saying everyone i just i would like to see a scientist i want i want to learn a little bit more than i'm learning okay about the real previous seasons when um oh man and she's you talk about 2022 melinda gates is a little bit different now than she was when she was on the show she's viewed a little bit differently right now uh in 2022's eyes even compared to 20 i think she was on in 2019.

um yeah i think i i think you're right i think i think i think dave is interested in that i mean his first project after late show was that national geographic i know and that changed my like i learned so much from that about these states that made having solar power illegal um you know or not necessarily illegal but took away all the tax which virtually made it you know impossible to do and that's what i i want to see dave doing like shedding some light on those things um again we're not busting his chops dave doesn't know anything to anyone we're not saying that i'm just saying that that is his interest and that feels a little more relevant to me than maybe will smith well and someone um i'm a big personal development guy and and and i like going to see interesting people speak and ted talks and all of that stuff and and one of the things that david letterman has that many folks don't have in my sphere in my viewpoint is he can take something that many times people would find boring or they would check out to it and and he can make it entertaining and the word that i've dubbed for it that somebody gave it to me years ago listening to a speaker uh is infotastic dave is infotastic dave's curiosity is a bridge that can lead boring things to becoming entertaining insightful things and um i i don't know if he knows that he has that gift um but he certainly has these interests like you talk about and my hope is that after as the pandemic uh comes to a close we're in the i i believe i hope we're in the endemic now i certainly hope we are and and we can get back to things that's a little bit more uh business as usual hopefully having learned something pendulum swinging back all those all those analogies um that further seasons there will be that one or two people if it's a six episode arc one or two of them won't be in entertainment they'll be uh a culturally relevant uh human being and i think that uh there's a thirst for that and i love the fact that you're expressing that you're the first guest on on the letterman podcast who has expressed that but i certainly don't think you are the only one who feels that way oh wait a minute tom driessen is saying don't hashtag infotastic no one will follow it um i mean this guy he is incredible just the knowledge that dreesen has and and his willingness to share what's the percentage that you pay a manager i just need to know when i make my pitch uh it's twenty percent twenty percent to tom okay twenty percent okay because he's he's he's just always there and worth every penny um scott i can't i can't wait for you to see that episode by the way i know i'm very excited oh god do i have to see them though or can i listen uh whatever you'd prefer um i yeah i prefer to listen to a podcast i know we're living in the zoom age but um you know i'm gonna listen it translates either way i will tell you and and you know what off camera i can show you uh because he's given me permission that i can use them however i want he sent me um five emails of personal pictures of he and dave through the years um all the way up to like a few weeks ago um and i'm just like holy [ __ ] um here's here's one that i've been uh i've been throwing out there to some folks uh who are enthusiasts like you and i uh there was a you talk about the kevin durant episode uh you know basketball player and dave did some basketball stuff during the episode of the new season uh did you know that the comedy store uh when dave was in its heyday there with tom and and all those guys did you know that they had a basketball team and dave was on it yes i i think i think he brought the picture one time on the show didn't he i think i think you're right so so those pictures were sent to me and all that do you remember the name of the basketball team no i don't this is you're gonna love this the bombers perfect for comedians isn't that fantastic i i was oh god i was delighted by that um i'm delighted by you i am so grateful uh that that uh well okay and let me let me kind of dovetail uh the outro um you know come because we are semi-pro here uh we're gonna we're gonna we have stepped it up wow wow because we did not start pro and i knew the fact that the internet died in the middle of it also hurt us oh man hey don't talk about that we're gonna we're gonna fix that in post that nobody will even know they'll know but i was raised by dave where you make that joke that in joke for the studio audience oh we don't have a studio on it no oh god i don't know if you have any audience at this point but that's okay that's that's why it's a perfect time to get my website of uh scott ryanproductions.com or bluerosemag.com if you're a twin peaks fan but everything comes through scottreinproductions.com if you buy my letterman book from me i can sign it to you we don't even sell it for very much anymore um i'm i'm sure it's 14.99 or something and you know what's comical is i actually have no copies of that book right now because i had in chicago i sold some and i've been selling some so yesterday i sold the one off my shelf so i actually sold my book to ship it out because i do it so i've ordered another you know set in but i i was like gosh i think this really says something about me that i'm selling my book off my own shelf that is so different um right there you can't see what it is but guess what he uh he uh he inscribes he puts his signature on um his personal seal of approval do you know who bought that book by the way do you know does the person know that they bought the book off of your shelf no i almost signed it that way they actually were very kind they were from england and they bought a moonlighting a firewalk with me and a letterman book they bought all three of my books which has never happened to me before because my firewalk with me book has only been out for two weeks sure but i don't even know how they found out about me and why they did it but it it never gets old to me i you know my they can listen to me tell my story on your other podcast but you know this is a dream for me this was not my life just a short six years ago and it all got turned around by the kindness of barbara gaines saying yes to this book and now i run two companies and you know i get to write for a living and you know so dave you know i'm allowed to put letterman up there because that show did truly change my life uh without a doubt uh and then okay so this is where that trail of breadcrumbs that i alluded to at the very beginning uh happened so i have my experience on the show 2015 with you know my best friend right uh tom and i by the way got into an argument about really who is dave's best friend he he had some good points but i mean i got it in writing so right but that moment there in 2015 uh was a pivotal moment to me in that exchange i made dave laugh which was one of the greatest things ever and then when i discovered your book a couple years later and i read it the first thing i did was i'm like oh my god this is a guy i feel like this is a guy where there's some kinship and whatnot and i reached out to you and you were so [ __ ] cool um about somebody excited about you you reached out back you got me to tell you you know the version of my story back then before it evolved and and and gave me the audience and we shared again that last six weeks the joy of that last six weeks and that we were in the day of drought at that point there wasn't a lot of dave's stuff again props to don giller for keeping the keeping it alive um during those dark times uh all all praise to dawn with his infinite encyclopedia freakish knowledge of this stuff um but you were so kind to me and then it started happening that i started becoming friendly with some of the folks that you talked about in the book and and and all of these things started happening i swear to god this show wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you scott and i just well don't put it on me like don't try to blame me for this train wreck no no no no no no no i'm gonna send the lawyers who come after me your number no no it's back to that guy um no i i can't thank you enough and and we have uh you know combined on a couple other things and and um you know these three books aren't just the three that you've written it started with 30 something and and and scott luck uh tales and and and um all the other stuff that you have done and contributed to and helped usher other people to do other projects uh you are in many ways like dave uh not just with your wit and some of the other things that you do but also with the fact that you don't really take a lot of credit very well you're a force of nature and you have inspired all sorts of cool stuff and you've helped people myself included think bigger of themselves and think that they might be able to uh do bigger things you have taken the idea of saying why me and instead allowing people to think well why not me and i put myself squarely in that category so scott thank you for being you oh thank you that i mean you're right i i actually hate what you said because i i yeah i don't i i don't like compliments but i am trying to learn to accept them and um you know all i want to do is entertain and make people laugh that's that's it that's all i want to do what's that say about me i don't know but so i mean i'm blessed and thankful that i get to go on this journey and your friendship has meant a lot to me so i'm excited to come back and and we'll do we'll get someone to come with us and we'll really get into those last six weeks i think that'd be so much fun to do because i love love those episodes yeah and uh it all started with the montage we think about taylor from foo fighters who just passed and and it's just i think i i tom again not to make it all about tom but it was a big big moment um you and i are doing what he is doing with frank sinatra you know he's keeping the he's a torchbearer of of show business from a different time of a superstar of an icon from a different time and that's what tom is doing these days he's doing a stage show talking about frank um i want to be that guy for for dave i know that i'm certainly taught preaching to the choir uh when i talk about that everybody who enjoys david letterman read this book it will make you feel really really good uh thinking about what many consider uh a golden age of television no doubt but again in my opinion and this is where we're gonna kind of if you want to finish off on this exclamation point the greatest series finale in the history of series finales was the very last late show well the facts of life episode was pretty good too i mean i know i was clooney in that one i'm pretty sure clooney was in the serious finale of the facts of life i think so i think tootie died nobody died yeah they killed tooty and it was just amazing it was natalie wasn't it natalie well everyone thought it was cute but it was natalie no yeah um thank you so much for this and everything and i'm happy to come back whenever because i love talking about this stuff and i'm thankful that we could we could just break down this moment so thank you and as i said people can go to scottryanproductions.com or follow me at scotluckstory on twitter or facebook i'm i'm very accessible so yeah thank you and just come right up to the house it'll be fine um come right up to the house shout out to jay ryan uh thank you very very much uh scott for being on this episode that's another episode right there they uh they go really really fast um even with technical difficulties in the middle of them but i just love uh the opportunity to do this i love what it's turning into and i have no idea uh where it's gonna go i just know in this moment all the things that we're doing to collect the uh to have the collective love of david letterman an appreciation of david letterman and company uh archived in this place as we build this community it is a tremendous honor to be part of this that is another episode of the letterman podcast the postmortem julie louis dreyfus uh was the subject this time my name is mike chisholm thank you for being here thank you and good night and tom dreesen just texted me that you can use netflix passwords from other people and save money the guy's a genius