Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 202. Ed Begley Jr.

Episode Date: April 9, 2018

Veteran character actor Ed Begley Jr. joins Gilbert and Frank for a loving look at the glory days of the Troubadour, the timelessness of "The In-Laws," the absurdity of Hollywood urban legends and the career of his Oscar-winning dad, Ed Begley. Also, Forrest Tucker takes a nip, Steve Allen checks into "St. Elsewhere," Harry Belafonte shuts down Rodney Dangerfield and Ed hits the rink with Charlie's Angels. PLUS: Wheeler & Woolsey! "Amazon Women on the Moon"! Mr. Warmth lowers the boom! Ed remembers his friend Peter Falk! And the unsolved death of John "Stumpy" Pepys!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're one stop for that sort of thing. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Furtarosa. Frank Furtarosa. Our guest this week is an author, director, producer, activist, environmentalist, and one of the most visible and versatile actors of his generation. You've seen him in dozens of popular movies, including The In-Laws, Cat People, Eating Raul, This Is Spinal Tap, Transylvania 65000, The Accidental Tourist, She-Devil, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Pineapple Express, and the recent Ghostbusters, just to name a few. You also know his work from popular television shows such as Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Columbo, MASH, The Larry Sanders Show, The Simpsons, Six Feet Under, The West Wing, Arrested Development, Better Call Saul, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. seasons, he played Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the acclaimed medical series Saint Elsewhere, garnering six Emmy nominations and a Golden, he shared the big and small screen with Alan Arkin, Peter Falk, Richard Pryor, Meryl Streep, Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson, and Jane Fonda, as well as former podcast guests, Ileana Douglas, Michael McKean,

Henry Winkler, Ron Liebman, and even me, Gilbert Gottfried. It's our pleasure to welcome to the show a man who's done just about everything a person can do in show business. My old co-star from that cinematic classic, Back by Midnight. by midnight. And a man who was once pulled out of a bar by a notorious party animal, John Bellucci.

The talented and ubiquitous... Ubiquitous. Ubiquitous. I knew that would fuck me over. Ed Begley Jr. Wow. Do I sound important from that?

That's really, I'm even impressed myself. You were very kind to cut out all the fat, to cut out all the stuff that wasn't quite as exemplary, but it sounds like I've had a hell of a career from what you just said. I'm impressed. Quite a resume. Quite a resume. Quite a resume. Well, adding fat to it, of course, we were both in, I think, Rodney Dangerfield's last film. That's correct.

Back by Midnight. Randy Quaid. Was Randy in it? Randy Quaid was in it, yes. Yes. Yes. Have you seen him lately? I haven't seen him in a while.

The last I heard of Randy Quaid, he was hiding out in Canada. With Evie, his wife Evie. Right. And he said that there was this group of celebrity whackers after him. And I'd like to get in touch with those celebrity whackers because they sound like a good time. I've got a list too. And so he was hiding out in Canada

and he held a press conference to announce that he's hiding out in Canada. I remember this now. It kind of defeats the purpose. What the hell was back by midnight? It keeps coming up on this show, Ed, and I looked it up today. It was getting out of prison

like on a hall pass kind of thing or something, or sneaking out of prison. I can't remember the details. I don't remember my part even. I remember the day I shot in a boardroom somewhere. You a character named robert wade and gilbert played a security guard right do you remember the plot other than getting out of jail no i i've i've never seen it and i i didn't read the script you know what i don't think I did either. I think I just read my part. I don't do that often, but I think I did it for this one. I read my part and went, okay, when is it? Thursday?

Fine. And someone told me, because it was, you know, Rodney toward the end and he didn't have the energy he used to. They said for the most part, he was like a big part in the movie he's allegedly starring in. Right. Like the other people were taking up the slack and he just popped in and out at times. He called me after that and he asked, he wanted a favor. Hey, I got to talk to you. I got to talk to you. Oh my God. Your dad, Odds Against Tomorrow. wanted a favor. Hey, I got to talk to you. I got to talk to you.

Oh, my God. Your dad, Odds Against Tomorrow. What a movie. Odds Against Tomorrow. Robert Ryan. Oh, Harry Belafonte. I got to play that part your dad played. It was great in the part, but I want to play it.

We're going to do a remake. So I said, that's a great idea. I encourage you to do it, Rodney. You need to get a hold of Harry Belafonte. I said, well, I know who has the rights. It's Harry Belafonte. It was a Harbell production. So contact Harry. You got to get a hold of Harry Belafonte. I said, well, I know who has the rights. It's Harry Belafonte. It was a Harbell production. So contact Harry. You got to get a hold of him for me. So I call up Harry Belafonte to see if he would release the rights to Rodney. You can imagine his response. He's a very nice man though, Harry Belafonte. He was very nice to me as he was on

the set. I visit on the set. Very nice man. man he was very kind and nice but it was a no i try to wrap my mind around rodney remaking odds against tomorrow right which is a great noir movie by the way yes it is dad's great net robert wise and and so you visited him on the set of the original well there was only the original yeah i visited them uh there in hudson new york where they filmed it had a great time met robert ryan harry belafonte and my dad to be on the set with him was always a treat whenever he brought me i was very excited to be there and this was uh great stayed in some wonderful little hotel that had a bunch of art on the walls about um rip van winkle you know it was one of those kind of Hudson places, Hudson River places.

It was very exciting for a kid. Then we went to the premiere there too. A car picked us up in Merrick, Long Island, and drove us all the way to Hudson, New York. A long trip, you can imagine. And we went to the premiere. And very exciting for a young boy. I think I was 10 or 11. Jesus.

Very exciting for a young boy. I think I was 10 or 11. Jesus. And now, Robert Ryan, he would always play like mean characters. Yes. And quite often, you know, bigoted, racist, and anti-Semitic characters. But he wasn't like that. He was not.

To my knowledge, he was a very nice guy, and my dad loved to torture him. He called him up one time that I remember. I was in the room. He called him up and did some crazy voice. Hello, is this Mr. Robert Ryan? Yes, this is he. You know, my dad had his number, obviously. I'm here.

This is the mayor of Hudson, New York, Phil Cutworth. And I remember meeting you there in Hudson when we did odds against tomorrow, and I'm in the neighborhood. I'd like to come by and see you and say hello. Well, I don't know that now's a good, well, I'm right nearby. I'm actually next door. I'm going to come by and say hi. And poor Bob Ryan is dying and trying to convince the supposed mayor of Hudson, New York, not

to come by. My dad starts laughing his ass off. And then Bob, Brian, you son of a bitch. You cocksucker. You fucking asshole. He did another good one with your dad on Dangerous Ground.

Oh, that's right. I forgot about on Dangerous Ground. Yeah. Another good one. That's a good movie too. Yeah, yeah. Your dad's in so many

of those good noirs. He's in Dark City, Sorry, Wrong Number. Oh, yeah. Sorry, Wrong Number. Another good one. Good in all of them. Sitting Pretty, Boomerang. Boomerang, City. Sorry, wrong number. Oh, yeah. Sorry, wrong number. Another good one. Good in all of them. Sitting pretty. Boomerang. Boomerang's another good move. Kazan. Yeah.

Full of angry men. Yeah. What I always remember is your father standing up going, well, you can't believe them. You know the way those people are. They're all liars. You know what those people are like? Come on.

You know the boy did it. Why is everybody looking at me like that? What are you looking at? And it finally came down. The last two big upstanding were him and Lee Cobb, I think. Oh, yeah. To the bitter end. Yeah, it's great because E.G. Marshall shuts him down.

He says, we've heard what you had to say. Now sit down and don't open your mouth again. Oh, that's right. That's a great moment. He shows so much range because he goes from being rageful to just being defeated and meek. And it's a wonderful piece. It is.

And what's so amazing about it is he's acting like racist. He's like a villainous character at that point and then when he's defeated you feel bad for him exactly yeah it's a wonderful turn wonderful job by sydney lamette a great script great everything about it a remarkable movie really we love that one you know i got a kick ed doing the research on you and you're talking about your dad your dad won of course won the oscar for sweet bird of youth by the way the course, won the Oscar for Sweet Bird of Youth. By the way, him winning, the footage of him winning, of Rita Moreno giving him the award is still on YouTube.

I finally found it. I hadn't seen it my whole life because I was in military school, and they wouldn't let me stay up to see it. So I had never seen it until like five years ago, three years ago. I can't remember. Somebody said, you know, there's a clip on YouTube. They sent me a link, and I saw it. I just loved it. Somebody said, you know, there's a clip on YouTube. Yeah. They sent me a link and I saw it.

I just loved it. It was so great. He thanked his agent. He does. He thanks Richard Brooks and his agent. But he really goes out of his way

to thank his agent. But I was telling Gilbert, where did he carry his Oscar? Because this is fun. He carried it around with him in the car. He had it in the trunk for a while

and then he had it under the driver's seat in this little velvet. It comes with like, they give you a little velvet sleeve for it, with a little tie at the bottom. Wonderful. And he carried around and he was very generous with tourists and people. You're Ed Begley,

I seen you, I saw you in 12 Angry Men, I saw you in Sweet Bird of Youth. Oh my God, can we get a picture? Yeah. You want a picture with an Oscar? Oh my God, are you serious? Ed Begley's going to take a picture with us and the Oscar. He'd pull the Oscar out of the car and he'd hold it with him and they'd touch the Oscar and hold it with him. And I went, this bastard, when am I going to hold the Oscar? I'm his own son. I never, you know, I kind of grabbed it just to feel it myself, but he never mentioned, Ed, you want to

hold the Oscar? And he's giving these people, he doesn't even know their names from Oshkosh, he's letting them hold the Oscar. And we're flying back to New York from LAX. And he goes, okay, I got to go get some seats for us. You want an aisle seat, right? Okay. Here, hold this. And he gives me the Oscar. I was so petrified that he finally handed it to me.

Oh, Christ. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. I dropped the Oscar and broke it. I broke Daddy's Oscar. Is there any symbolism there? Wow. Wow.

What happens in a case like that? Does the Academy repair it for him? What happens immediately is my dad comes back, okay, I got you an aisle seat. What the hell have you done, boy? What have you done? You broke Oscar. Jesus Christ, what the fuck is the matter with you? I thought he was literally

going to kill me. There's more than one time in my life I thought he's actually he was taking me for a drive once. He was just upset about something. He was furious with me about something. Then as it turns out, he had gotten over that. He said, come on, let's go for a drive. And I thought he was actually going to kill me. He drove me out to this remote thing.

I thought, should I look in the back? Is there a bag of lye and a shovel? What's going to happen next? And he was just, no, what's the matter? You look funny. Okay. I love you, boy. What? Okay. I think one of my favorite stories is you're talking about how you used to love to go to the set.

And this is fun. Gilbert would get such a kick out of this that he would take you to visit his famous friends. And you were so young that sometimes you didn't quite appreciate it or you didn't even know who they were. Oh, yes. I had no idea who they were. We would go whenever we drove up to San Francisco. We'd stop in montecito there santa barbara area we'd stay at a hotel the miramar i think was a hotel it might still be there very nice hotel we'd stay there and then we'd continue on and the next day we'd get to san francisco but um

he'd also visit this elderly couple that i just i was always bored to tears that he'd stop and see this couple. They would talk about things I didn't understand. And, you know, then we'd get in the car and we'd go. And it was like, please wake me up when you're done. And then I realized years later it was Paul Muni, Paul and Bella. Unbelievable. Two people named Paul and Bella.

And I said, who are those people? We'd stop. That was Paul Muni, Eddie. One of the legendary great actors. One of the best actors ever. Scarface, Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Yeah, Fugitive from a Chain Gang. They both won Tonys for Inherit the Wind on Broadway,

Paul and my dad both. Then Paul left the play, and my dad went over the weekend, wound up doing for the next, after the Sunday matinee, then he wound up doing the uh tuesday he did paul's party switch parts did the other part which was kind of a hat trick i couldn't believe he did that didn't he also take you to a comedy club that's no longer in hollywood a couple of times the uh hollywood comedy club it was on highland the building is still there i believe it's american legion hall there on hollywood on highland right near building is still there, I believe. It's the American Legion Hall there on Highland

right near the Hollywood Bowl. And you'd go in there and there'd be sometimes, Miltie would be there and this one and that. Some people that I knew and some people that I just can't believe I got to meet. Some of the Keystone cops were still alive. One or more of them were still alive.

Unbelievable. Wow. Wheeler and Woolsey, one of them was still alive. Burt Wheeler. Burt Wheeler, I think, was still alive and he woulder and wolsey one of them was still alive burt wheeler yeah burt wheeler i think was still alive wheeler and wolsey yeah incredible incredible comics from vaudeville days great comics silent film classic comics the keystone cops and i got to meet them so i'm i'm a very lucky young man now were wheeler and woolsey the ones where one of them drew the glasses on his face i believe so yeah that sounds right it will see that's correct very good that's wow yeah that's very good this is the kind of stuff we talk about on this show ed good it's good these are our obsessions and you said you were in military school and you actually liked it. I loved it.

I don't know if the intention was to punish me. It was definitely to park me somewhere because he got married. He was married to this woman he met briefly and he needed to park his two kids somewhere. So my daughter, my sister went, his daughter, my sister went to one school out in Long Island, and I went to school up in Niagara Falls, and it was a Catholic military boarding school, the Triple Crown of Repression. So I thought, this is going to be terrible.

Triple Crown of Repression. But it was fantastic. It was these nuns, different than the nuns, kindergarten through seventh grade out in Long Island, they were like batting kids around every day, just literally blood, bloody lip, bloody knuckles, bloody nose regularly. And I went there, and these nuns, the Franciscan nuns, didn't hit anybody.

And they had a science class unheard of at the other school. They didn't want to teach science because it didn't really fit with the Catholic doctrine. Science didn't fit in too well. But this other thing, this great school called Stella and Agra, they had a science class and the nuns were very nice. And you're a kid. I was 12 years old marching around

in a uniform with a wooden gun. I was in heaven. Wow. I loved it. If it was punishment, it didn't work. I really liked it. And we also acted, if you could call it acting, in a cereal commercial together.

Yes, we did. Quaker Natural? Something. Something. Oh, no. Something not. Yeah, yeah. I think it was a Quaker Natural commercial.

I think that's correct. Did this get on the air, this commercial? Yeah. I must find it. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it did. And I remember, to show your professionalism, you didn't eat lunch on the set so you'd be able to actually eat the cereal. Wow, what a memory you have.

I think that's correct. That's ringing a distant bell. Wow, what a memory you have. I think that's correct. That's ringing a distant bell. Yes. And now I ate lunch, of course, because it was free. And I'm as far from professional as you could be. And what I went in for instead was they have the spit bucket. Because if you've got to eat food, you're usually eating the food like a thousand times a day under hot lights. So I'd eat it, smile, and they yelled cut, and I'd spit into the bucket.

That's what most people, most sane people, I can't believe I kept eating of it. Ed, you're such a pro. Well, I've been there with models that, you know, don't want to have too much food anyway, and they would have a three-finger salad after, you know, having too much of this stuff, and they'd be like, Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm fine. Let's do another time.

So you guys worked together twice. Twice. Back by midnight and a... And a cereal. Unknown cereal. I think we did one or more of those George Slaughter American Comedy Awards. You were at that more than once, I thought. Yes.

Oh, yes. Yes, I was at a few of those. Yeah, one of those was infamous. those was you remember the time were you there oh sorry go ahead no go ahead ed do you remember the time when professor erwin corey got up at the american comedy awards george slaughter's thing and he got up and he did that unbelievable bit that i want to get a clip of and just look just to study for the genius of it he came up on stage and ladies and gentlemen welcome please professor please, Professor Erwin Corey. And he comes out, nods to the audience,

and he has like these five-by-seven index cards, and he stands there. He shuffles the cards around. He shuffles them again. He does this for three of the most brilliant minutes, and it's a podcast, so I can't do any justice to what he did physically. But he then goes on for three minutes, at which point, after a minute or less, you're pounding the table.

Whatever he's doing, you're laughing so hard, he's saying nothing. He's clearing his throat at the three-minute mark. Three minutes of that, of saying nothing, other than clearing his throat and other sounds he then goes furthermore he was brilliant just brilliance just brilliant george might have a a copy of that if you check with him we had george here i will check with him yeah wow yeah i would love to see that somebody link about that he saves everything i'm sure he. And you worked on one of the great comedy films, The In-Laws. Oh, thank you.

I agree. That was a classic. Wonderful. Thank you. And tell us about Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. Let me say, first of all, Paul Reiser's a friend, and he had an occasion to do the Malibu Film Society thing where normally you come and you do a movie that you're in.

He certainly could have done the movie he was in with Peter Falk. He did a movie with him that was good, and he was very good in it. Peter was, as always, great. He chose to show instead a movie he was not in, Paul Reiser did, called The In-Laws. And I hadn't seen it since maybe I saw it a second time in the 80s. It came out in 79. We did it in 78, came out in 79. And I loved it then, of course, in 79. I saw it again, maybe in the 80s, loved it still. And this was a year ago or so and it held up so well i couldn't believe it and as to these two guys to peter and alan i still talk to alan from time to time i talked to peter throughout

his life he was born on september 16th as i am as i was and uh a few years apart of course but we would have our birthday together regularly with shara with his wife sharon and my wife and uh ingrid and then later my second wife rochelle we would get together and have times with him just i just feel blessed to have known him and to still know alan arkin to the nicest funniest guys and you look at that movie the in-laws and just take one scene that scene we're in that diner that new york diner wonderful it's one of the best scenes why they play it like it's like it's strindberg they do not play it like it's a comedy they play it like the two wonderful actors that they are and it's hysterically brilliant because it's real

you know it's just there's a reality to that movie with all the absurdity that's going on they keep it 100 you know udahagan real or whatever way you want to look at it just it's shocking how well it held up you committed a federal crime of course it's better the treasury department is on the case so what happens if you get caught we won't get caught not if you stop the week you get caught, is the agency going to come forward and say it's okay, he works for us? No. No. No.

I'm out in the cold on this one, Shell. If I get caught, they shred my records, they say they never heard of me, and it's 20 years in the slammer. What about me? I was the one running through the streets with that goddamn thing. I was the one in the gutter. And you were tremendous, Shell. The way you handled yourself, I can't tell you how impressed I was. No, I mean this. It's been something I've been wanting to say. You were sensational, Shell. The way you handled yourself, I can't tell you how impressed I was. No, I mean

this. It's been something I've been wanting to say. You were sensational, Shell. And it's an act of friendship that I will remember for as long as I live, which could be about an hour. So what do I got, an hour and a half? I've heard you say that, that that's the way to play comedy, like it's Chekhov, like it's Strindberg. I think so. And you look at the people that you really, and again, there's stuff that happens that's absurd. Harold Lloyd is hanging from the hands of a clock, but he makes it real. And Buster Keaton made it real.

And these great actors, they make it real. And there's a time to spike out from that carpet of reality you lay down, like even in the in-laws, serpentine, Shelley, serpentine. You know, and they're running in zigzag angles and that's wonderful. carpet of reality you lay down like even in the in-laws serpentine shelly serpentine you know and they're running in zigzag zigzag angles and that's wonderful but that level of reality you take the great comic actors also like dabney coleman always plays it totally 100 real and it's brilliantly funny buffalo bill was brilliant oh yeah never played it for laughs and they didn't

write it for laughs they wrote it for reality and it's one of the great in my opinion comic half hours in history buffalo bill he's a genius and i think george burns said yes on burns and alan he liked hiring actors because the actors believe it yes that's interesting that's always compelling to watch and and it's really a great rule to abide by. A funny thing happened, though, when we saw The In-Laws, because it's a re-release now on DVD. I only had it on VHS when I saw it again in the 80s. I had a tape copy, and it looked rather poor quality, of course, but it looked like it did the original film

version, but then I saw the DVD re-release, and the movie was very good, but my hair was blonde in the movie, which it shouldn't have been. My hair was actually red in the movie, but somebody turned a dial somewhere when they did the re, they went, this is not Ed Begley's hair color. You gave us a little glimpse of your Falk impression, Ed, so we have to put you on the spot because it's just that good. Could you? Could I ask you something? That guy, the guy that was in the movie with me that played Barry Lutz,

what the fuck is his name? No, the big albino guy. What the fuck is his name? Ed Begley. That's right ed begley jr what a pain in the ass he was what a five-star pain in the fucking ass perfect thank you now peter fall and it's sadly the time period we're living in, like the public got to witness him after he was suffering Alzheimer's. Like it made it all over the Internet. I didn't see any of that. I didn't know till this moment that that footage was out there.

And that's unfortunate. But where was he in this footage? Where did they capture him? He was out there and that's unfortunate but um how what where was he in this footage where did they capture him he was out in the street you know i think in la and oh yes he was looking for his car i've heard about this now that you mention it yeah and he looked really like out of shape and his clothes were rumpled up and he's yelling at people to get away from him. And it was, you know, it's a horrible thing because that's the time period we live in. I know, it's a shame that that's out there,

but it is, but fortunately it's so greatly outweighed by the incredible things like Price of Tomatoes and in-laws and all those. Oh, the great race the blake edwards picture that he's just oh everything wonderful incorporated robin and the seven hoods yeah you know even that little pitton it's a mad mad mad mad world he manages he makes it his own he makes it his own minutes of screen time if he jumps off the screen dabney and i were very good friends with peter and we went to visit him after we had heard of his condition.

But he went in, and he didn't seem to know us at all. And after Shara was there for a while, his wife Shara, after a few minutes, it seemed to me that he didn't know it was her. And we were watching. We were just talking to him and just trying to engage with him and what have you. And we kind of gave up after a while. We talked amongst ourselves, and then we talked to Shara and talked to his caregiver. He was very nice.

And then he looked over and went, oh, yeah. Oh, yes, yes, yes. He would point to Dabney and me, and he knew us. And it was such a gift. That's great. It felt so good that we had come. That's great. Okay, just when the show is starting to get good,

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Enjoyed your way. Available right away. I don't know his fucking name. Godfried? Gilbert Godfried? Is that it? Godfried? That's it.

Okay, now I'm supposed to do this now? If you wouldn't mind. Yeah, okay. Hello. Hello hello my name is M. Emmett Walsh one T in the Emmett and I want to

thank you for watching and listening to Gilbert Godfrey's whatever it is he does and they pay him money for it.

Gilbert and Frank, what's your game now? Can anybody play? And now back to the show. Was that set crazy, Ed, with Dick Libertini doing the Senior Wences thing and Arkin and Falk? I mean, was it? Another great actor, Richard Ligatini. Love him. We're sorry we didn't get him on this show, yeah.

I know. Everything that he did, you know. The one with Peter Falk and with Lily, that wonderful... What was the one where... Oh, All of Me. They trade spirits or something. Yeah, the Carl Reiner movie, All of Me. Yeah, very good, All of Me yeah very fun very good all of me

very very good he was so wonderful in that everything that dick did was wonderful and he brought so much to this character this and he played it big but real again you know it was very large what dick did in that movie but i found it to be totally believable because he came from that place of he was an actor he was a comic comic actor, but he just always impressed me. We were very good friends, Dick and I, and I'm just proud to know him. Was Arkin improvising a lot? I've heard you say it was a little bit like jazz, like what he would do. There was a wonderful script there, this brilliant script by Andrew Bergman, of course.

And they did the original takes with that but I seem to remember there was some times when they would certainly in front of the firing squad there was some scripted stuff that was great but Alan and Peter added some stuff when they were there in front of the firing squad and Alan is you know weeping

and kind of it's just so god damn funny he's talking about how few women he's had in his life exactly being in kind of with a blindfold on. It's just so goddamn funny. He's talking about how few women he's had in his life. Exactly. He's regretting

that he didn't have, that he didn't get laid more. And I heard that it was Arkin who came up with the idea just that he was watching Peter Falk on a talk show. And he called up his agent or manager and said, I want to work with Peter Falk on a movie. And he goes, well, what kind of movie would you like it to be?

And I go, well, it's me and Peter Falk, and Falk annoys me. And that's what they had to write a script on. It was a great idea. Alan's a very smart man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What two great guys to work with, and so early in your career. I'm so lucky. I'm so blessed to have worked with them and to still be in touch with Alan.

He just sent me an email the other day, and we talk on the phone occasionally. I'm very good friends with his brilliant son, Adam Arkin. Oh, yes. Son Adam is a great, great actor. Fan of his, too. And now a great director, too. And tell Arkin to do this podcast right away. Oh, we're dying to get him.

Yeah, he's the best of the best. Your pal William Daniels has also been elusive. Two people we want to get on this show. Well, I'll help. I'll talk to both of them. I just saw Bill the other day. I saw him not 48 hours ago. Bill and Bonnie are great friends.

We love, Gilbert and I, we talk about the graduate, the parallax view, even Captain Nice. Yes. Captain Nice, he was great. Buck Henry. Look, it's the man who flies around like an eagle. Look, it's the man who hates all that's illegal. Who is this man with arms built just like hammers? It's just some nut who flies around in pajamas.

That's no nut, son. That's Captain Nice. How the hell did you just do that, Gilbert? I'm now more impressed than ever with your career. That's really very impressive, young man. He sang it for Buck Henry, who was also impressed. I just saw Buck the other night, too. Buck's a dear friend.

Another genius. So great. What a comic. Ed, do you have any memories of being in buddy buddy with with uh billy wilder's last movie i do um you know i can't believe that i got to work with a great billy wilder you know i just played a cop i had like a line or two very simple scene we shot it in riverside california no it's santa ana now that i think about it uh it doesn't matter please tell me the difference between riverside and santa ana not that i can remember

in either city you'd say are you sure we're there but the inland empire but it was uh so much fun to be on that set i didn't have any scenes with walter mathauer Lemon, but I'd met them both and just loved them both. I.A.L. Diamond was on the set as well. Izzy Diamond. Director's chair. And advising Billy about this line or that, kind of working things out, and it was just

pinch-me kind of moment. It was fairly early in my career. It was 1980, I believe, that we shot it. I can't remember when it came out maybe 81 81 yeah and yeah and uh working on the set with billy wilder and to be there in the same movie and paul apprentice who i see all the time was in it as well yes we had paula was we had richard benjamin here yeah rich Richard's a dear friend of mine. I see Paul and Richard often. And Dana Elkar was in it, I think. Oh, sure. Dana Elkar.

You know him, Gilbert. From, I think it was on MacGyver. Oh, okay. Dana Elkar. He did a million things. Million things. Yeah. And this surprised me.

You used to be in a comedy team with Michael Richards. This is correct. We went to college together, and everybody at Valley College in the San Fernando Valley was trying to do and failing to do a Michael Richards impression. He was just so incredibly funny, and somehow he took to me, and we had a comedy act. We went to the Troubadour and did a Monday night hoot night thing and then doug messed doug weston wanted to manage us and we started to have some momentum we went to the ice house and played the ice house we went um to the comedy store the week they opened it was still sammy shore that was running

at that point it was not uh yet mitzi mit property, well, it was community property. It was always our property and his, but he was running it. Sammy was, and Rudy DeLuca was there. The very funny Rudy DeLuca was there, too, was part of that. And we went on stage, me and Michael, in Greek male dancers' outfits with little, like, balls

hanging from these skirts, little, like, I don't know where we got those. I do remember now where we got those. We got the, I do remember now where we got the costumes from the costume department of Valley college. We borrowed them, went on stage with roller skates and these Greek dancers outfits. We had no routine at this point.

We just get up there and wing it. I mean the balls, but Michael was so funny. It was a huge problem with a, with the act, huge problem. The problem was Michael was so goddamn funny, I'd regularly have to turn upstage and kind of rock

and not let the audience see him come back. What do you mean by that, sir? I challenge you. I shall not abide by this. You know, and come back and try to participate in the scene, whatever Michael was coming up with. But he was so brilliant back then. It was every bit as brilliant as Kramer and, you know,

Marblehead Manor and all the other many things that he's done. On Fridays, he was brilliant back in the 60s, 1968 when I met him, and is still brilliant to this day. What did you guys call yourselves? Vladimir and Estragon. Vladimir Estragon. College students. Of course.

Yeah, of course. And you said your father really didn't push you in to show business or open any doors for you. And it was, you're correct. That's right, Gilbert. And it's one of the best gifts he gave me to not help me because I had the entirely wrong attitude growing up. I literally didn't understand why he wouldn't just get me an episode at the minimum or even better yet a series, you know, get me a Gunsmoke, get me a Perry Mason, a regular job. Lassie, I would be very good as Lassie.

Johnny Provost, wonderful kid, but I think it should be me. And I had no training. Imagine the son of a plumber going, that looks easy what you do. You kind of fit the pipes together, right? I'm ready. I'll ride in the truck today and do, you know, you guys stay in the truck. I'll just do it. I'll do some plumbing.

Had no idea. And I went out and interviewed starting at age 10, got nothing ever because I didn't know what I was doing, then finally took some classes, what a concept, studied a bit, and got a job like right away on a My Three Sons. But I still was resentful because I had that wake me when I'm famous attitude that some people have. You know, I didn't want to put in the work,

and so I wasn't getting enough work as an actor so I became a camera assistant because I just wanted to make money obviously and I wanted to work in the business so I was an assistant for a while and then Jim Brooks from room 222 at that point he was a head writer and Gene Reynolds gave me a job on room 222 I did one then I did another and another and that was a head writer and Gene Reynolds gave me a job on Room 222. I did one, then I did another and another, and that built a little momentum. And I started to work as an actor back around 1970. And sadly, it didn't really start to work until my dad passed away. He didn't get to see me work much as an actor. That's too bad. I've heard you say, it's just kind of sweet, Ed. I've heard you say he helped you in ways that you didn't realize. Exactly. He would have me run lines with

him which was a favor to him i was helping him too i'm running lines but during the course of that you know this one look at the stage direction eddie this guy he's very still and he says you know uh scared you know just you just it'll help me if you played a little more scared you know and he was giving me an acting lesson without calling it that. And it was so wonderful that he did that. I love my old man, and I miss him still. I love going through these old credits. Adam 12, Room 222, The Immortal with Christopher George. Oh, yes.

One of those fugitive knockoffs. Wow. That's right. The FBI maud, Nanny and the Professor, Mannix, Ironside. Charlie's Angels. On roller skates. Nanny and the Professor Mannix. Ironside. Charlie's Angels. On roller skates. I skated my way through that one. Okay.

Explain that plot to me. Roller disco was popular. This is 1979. Okay. It's a big time for roller disco. So I'm at a roller disco place. I was at Flippers or I was at that place we used to skate with Helena. This woman, Helena, had a club called Helena's in the 80s,

an actress, Helena Caliñotes. And she had this, she and I actually together had this Monday night skating thing at the Sherman Square Roller Rink. And I think they might have even come there, these producers of Charlie's Angels, to find, you know, people who sk she heard they heard there was actors there and I skated pretty good in that at that point I still skate a little bit but I skated okay they went and they had seen me in a few things I said you want to would you be interested in doing a Charlie's Angels I went absolutely so I went and skated on Charlie's Angels. If you've seen the episode, you've got to see a few scenes of it.

Just look at the clips at some point. It's really beyond ridiculous. It's one of the flimsiest plots you've ever seen. We've got to write an episode about roller skating, so we'll have a girl get kidnapped at the roller rink. They're in a competition. She and her boyfriend, played by me, and she'll be kidnapped and what's that about?

Just, I mean, people were clearly very high writing these scripts. There's so much fun stuff here at this particular point of your career. Do you remember being

an evil Roy Slade? Vividly. Gary Marshall, Jerry Belson script? Correct. It was such a funny script by Gary and Jerry. Such funny people. Oh, everyone's in it.

Everybody's in it. Mickey Rooney. My scenes were with Mickey Rooney. I had one scene. It was with Mickey Rooney. But the script was hysterical. I thought, this is going to be a winner. This is the funniest thing I've ever read in my life. It was a pilot only and never saw the light of day again. They just didn't get it. They went, what?

What is this? It's too hip for the room jerry bells is one of the funniest guys i've ever met when the wonderful writer and his dear friend harvey miller died harvey miller passed away years and years ago now 20 years ago or more and jerry was still very much alive himself then and he kicked in with i think jim brooks let's say and gary marshall the three of them picked up the tab for the memorial you know for the food and what have you in the hall whatever they did there's some food and what have you and they all they split it three ways and on the memo line of jerry's check he wrote business death i love jerry belson's movie, The End, the Burt Reynolds picture.

Oh, right. Yeah. Everything Jerry did was great. Like, Gary, another funny guy, too. Very, very funny. And Jerry Paris, who directed Evil Roy Slade. That's right. That's right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you knew Don Rickles. I was so proud to know Don Rickles. I got to think how I met him now. I met him at some function. It doesn't matter what now that I think about it, but he had worked with my dad, and he was so kind about my dad, and I love hearing about my dad, as I still do, and he just decided he liked me because he just tore me apart right away. I can't remember what he said. You know, you're probably not going to win an Oscar, Ed.

There's no probably about it, you know. You're not going to the podium, okay? Do you understand? You don't have it in you. You're lucky your dad fed you, for Christ's sake. Look at yourself. You just came out. And it's like, what?

I mean, it's a great moment when Rickles comes after you. I mean, there's no higher praise. What an honor. He cares enough to attack you. So funny. So great. I saw him as recently as, when did he pass? Is it a year ago now?

Maybe a little less. A little less. I saw him maybe a year and a half ago. There's a thing for a wonderful artist, Ed Ruscha, and he was friendly with Ed as I am. And he went there, and we talked at length on that night i loved him barbara is a wonderful lady his dear widow barbara is fantastic we send her a lot of love there's these these credits from this period and i've heard you

be interviewed about some of these things i mean cockfighter is that where you befriended uh harry dean were you in harry's gay bondage movie oh no that's another movie i'm sorry that was with harry dean stan actually we now that i think about it that was the first time harry and i worked together we didn't work together much oh you were friends before about it huh you were friends before that movie we were friends from meeting at the troubadbadour and then Tannes. I see. You know, you would go back and forth between the Troubadour and Tannes in the early 70s to see where the attractive young ladies were and where the, you know, the fun was. And there was a lot of fun there.

You know, it was the Eagles were hanging out there at the Troubadour at that, and not just hanging out, being on stage there and great people. Irving Azoff, the manager, was there too, and David Geffen was there, and Joni Mitchell would be there at the Troubadour, and Bette Midler played there, and Elton John played there, and they'd go back and forth. The people would go to Taunus and the Troubadour, and I'd seen Harry Dean in different wonderful movies that he did,

starting with Paul Newman. What's the movie? Cool Hand Luke. Cool Hand Luke, yeah. And Cisco Pike, I think, had come out already by then, and so I befriended Harry, and he started inviting me by his place after last call to watch something called The Z Channel.

You'd have this big box, a big plastic tuner box. It was like before there was Showtime and HBO and all that, there was something called the z channel it was an early form of cable in la and so harry had that we watched these movies on the z channel after we had gotten drunk at tana's and i used to get really drunk in those days so i'd pass out on his couch wake up the next morning and walk back to my place and uh and we finally got a movie together called cockfighters so we go to to georgia we were in macon georgia i think and right away i walked into the lobby of the hotel and harry was

there i said thank god there's another homosexual on this movie i feel comfortable and harry laughed his ass off and from that moment on we were really great friends but we're there like we're there like four or five days and i finally said to harry i said harry we get a call up tana's because it's been like at the troubadour nobody would miss you but at tana's we were there every single night at the bar there's a guy guido from italy and this italian mater d guido i said we better call guido or michael at the bar the the Yugoslav bartender. We better call them and tell them where we are. They may be worried about us.

You know, gone for five days. It's unheard of for us not to be there for five days. So I call up, and Guido answers. Good evening, Thomas. I said, Guido, it's Ed Begley. I'm here with Harry Dean. We're out of town. Oh, thank God.

We're going to call the police. We were going to call the police tonight. I swear to God, we're going to call the police. So why were you going to call the police? We thought you you fall asleep watching the z channel with the gas on by accident we thought you were dead i mean they literally thought we had died there was no other possible explanation for not being there for five days the two of us not just one or the other occasionally he'd get a job or i'd get a job but the two of us gone together they thought we had died together on the couch. As long as we're talking about the partying days,

and we put it in the intro, who were you trying to out-drink when Belushi yanked you out of the bar? Two times I tried to out-drink a real champion. One time I tried to out-drink the brilliant musician and songwriter Harry Nilsson. That didn't end so well either. I tried to outdrink the brilliant musician and songwriter Harry Nilsson. Oh, boy. That didn't end so well either. But then I tried to outdrink Jack Nicholson's kind of father figure,

Shorty George Smith, this wonderful guy that was married to what Jack thought was his aunt, was in fact his – Right. No, what in fact was his aunt. He thought it was his sister lorraine uh shorty was married to lorraine and so uh shorty came to work he had a part in the movie and he would drink he was uh he worked on the railroad he was a brakeman or something on the railroad and he would still you know stay well oiled under any conditions and certainly waiting around to act in a bar in Durango, Mexico, he just, he would drink a lot of vodka.

So I, I challenged him to a drinking contest. And at some point, uh, I, you know, woke up, you know, with, with Shorty George gone and, you know, pool of, you know, bodily fluids, you know, on the seat next to me. I was just like a wreck. It didn't work well. And then finally, Judy Belushi and John grabbed me by the collar one day when I was trying to out drink Shorty again and said, you've got to see some of the town. You're going to kill yourself. I was too far gone for John Belushi is the point.

Wow. Too much parting for John. So I know I was in quite a state. Oh, my God. John Belushi thought you were like something to worry about. Something to worry about. I'm concerned about Ed. He's too wild.

Wow. One night we drove this car into a ditch. We were driving to or from Jack's house in some rented car, a car we had borrowed from the Teamsters. And I was driving, I'm pretty sure. And we went down. It was a muddy road or what have you. Went off the road and into a ditch and couldn't get it out. Teamsters had to tow us out.

We got a lot of shit for that, rightly so. Those were the days. You spent some time with Nielsen, Harry Nielsen? He was a very good friend. Harry was a great friend of mine, and I was proud to know him, and a brilliant, brilliant singer-songwriter. One time in New York, though, we had been drinking all day, and then he said, do you want to get together for dinner?

I said, sure. He said, meet me back here in an hour. I'm going to go freshen up. We're going to go have dinner with some friends that live in Manhattan. I said, okay. Meet him back there. We get in a cab and we go to the Dakota. We start to go up the elevator. I started to think and I went, no, it can't be. Going up to this floor of the Dakota, open the door. Hello, how are you? Here's Yoko. I'm John. What's your name, lad? Hi, it's Ed Begley oh my god Yoko it's the bloke

for Mehdi Hartman Mehdi Hartman look at and they were all like John Lennon is asking me like fan questions about Louise Lasser and Mary Hartman Mary Hartman I'm trying to keep my face from cracking so wow that's the kind of pal that Harry Nilsson was he introduced me to Ringo and to John and so many people. He was a great friend. What a talent. More people should know about his music and about his wonderful singing voice. Whenever the Beatles were asked, who's your favorite artist,

they all said Harry Nilsson. Harry Nilsson. Yeah. And they all loved him personally because he was one of those guys, some people when they get drunk, they get nasty, they get whatever they get. The drunker he got, the nicer he got. He was the sweetest guy that ever lived. And I remember Harry Nielsen had that cartoon, The Point, that I think both Ringo did a narration on one of them.

And then I think Dustin Hoffman. That sounds right. Both of those sound right, actually. Tell us this, Ed. About one of your heroes played your father on St. Elsewhere. Oh, you're talking about Steve Allen? Steve Allen. Yeah, tell us about Steve and and by the

way looking at those St. Elsewhere episodes somebody loved the old Steve Allen show because Louis Nye turns up and Tom Poston everybody and just did they have they had nearly everybody I think I Bill Dana turns up Poston they had Bill Dana yeah I think they had every single person I don't think they had Don Knotts Don K Knotts they kept trying to get, and he was busy with other shows, and he couldn't do it. But every single other person, and I, like the writers and producers, like Mark Tinker, Bruce Paltrow, all of them, John Macy, Tom Fontana, were all huge Steve Allen fans.

I had this treasure my dad had gotten for me. He had a signed picture of Steve Allen, and one day they announced to me that my father is going to be in an episode they're going to have a character of my father actually be in the episode it was going to be Steve Allen and Jane Meadows were going to be my parents I couldn't believe it it was a huge moment they were so nice to me I became friends with them I remain friends with them we talk on the phone a lot and uh what a treat to know them whoever was I don't know if it was Fontana or who it was, but Shelly Berman turns up, Chuck McCann turns up, Dick Shawn.

These guys were fans of older comedians. They were, big time. They had very good taste. And one thing that I always think about, because you were talking about the drinking going on, and that's that Hollywood years ago ago and show business in general, it was like there was no such a thing as alcoholism. Everybody was just drunk, seemed like.

It would be a regular occurrence where you would say the prop guy, you know, listen, in this scene coming up, we're at the bar, make sure you put some real whiskey in. I need to just calm down. Okay. And the director, not the director, the producer, nobody, or even forget about just alcohol. Alcohol was ubiquitous. People would regularly drink in a scene or drink, had nothing. There wasn't a bar scene at all. They'd just be nipping, you know, before the take and people would regularly do coke on the set. before the take and people would regularly do coke on the set. I mean, it wasn't like

the way it started to be in the 80s. If you're wired, you're fired. Just say no to drugs. That started in the 80s. Before that, it was like, if you don't do blow with the director, what's the matter? Are you a narc?

We got a narc here on the set. What's wrong with you? You don't want to do blow with the director? People would worry about you if you wouldn't do drugs with somebody. You never offered drugs on a movie set gilbert and all your travels no and it's like interesting i heard like i mean i was on hollywood squares for a while but i remember they said with the original hollywood squares like so many of those game shows, they would have someone with a cart wheeling around like alcoholic beverages.

Yes. They wanted you relaxed. Just relax. Let me get somebody to get you a drink. That's the way it was back in the old days, too, with, you know, like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. You know, you need some pep pills get them some pep pills they got a scene to do you need to relax go get some sleep here's some

sleeping pills they were they both got addicted to medications because they would the studio would give them medications to get through another day they do whatever it took to get the shot to get the day to make their schedule and they were little kids they were kids at the time that they were giving speed to and sleeping oh yeah it was very common i remember i'm working with forrest tucker on this pilot we did a pilot together forrest tucker had a cane i gotta have my cane in the scene but there's not we don't really need the character shouldn't i need to have my cane okay so the character's got a cane like a walking stick not really a cane a walking stick and he had it with him at all time then i realized why it had a cap on the top and then the walking stick he had these vials so he could poke a drink just before

the take or in the middle of the take if he was off camera for a second if he walked camera off camera for a moment he would uh take a poke from this cane, this walking stick that he had. It was a walking stick with a hollow middle. Wow. And it had a generous amount, like two flasks worth of liquor in the walking stick. And he was actually great the whole time. He was drinking, never flubbed a line, nothing ever went wrong.

And then for the last half of the shooting, he had to go do this. He claimed this was a reason. I don't know if it was true. He said, I've got to do an Iditarod race in Alaska. You're kidding. You're going to do an, yeah. And you can't be drunk for that. You got to be sober to do something like that with the dogs and the ice and the snow so uh he got sober for the last few days of the shoot and he was a wreck as you can imagine wow because he had been drunk for the past 30 years and now he's got three days of not drinking poor forest was not in good shape old hollywood gilbert you're very well behaved ed brings up forrest tucker and a walking stick. Yes. And you didn't say anything. Okay, Forrest Tucker is also famous among the classic, well, Milton Berle's the king. Oh, I know where you're headed with this.

Okay, go ahead. I think it has to do with being well endowed, correct? Yes. Well, Tucker was legendary. He was, apparently. They said one time on the golf course, he got down on his knees and hit the golf ball with a stick. It was a gimme putt, right? I hadn't heard that.

I hadn't heard that. I hadn't heard that. Wow. I kind of hope that's true. Richard Kine told us that story. We're going to assume it's true just because we want to. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast after this. If they hear you, they want you. Run.

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What about this, Ed? What about, this is an odd, forgive me for bringing this up. Early in your career in 1978, you have any recollections of making a movie called Record City? Vividly. The cast.

Because the great cast, tell me, I remember it pretty well myself. You tell me what you got. For starters, you got Frank Gorshin playing a rabbi. You could end there. Oh, my God. Exactly. Jack Carter, Kinky Friedman, Harold Ciccata, who was Oddjob in Goldfinger,

Gallagher, one of your favorites, Sorrel Book. Oh, yes. Ruth Buzzy. Yes, Sorrel Book. Dean Martin's Uncle Leonard Bar. And last but not least, our friend Larry Storch. Oh, jeez. Larry Storch, what a cast.

We shot it in Eagle Rock, California, and I found a bar nearby since I was still drinking at that time, so I was able to make it through the day there because of a bar nearby at Eagle Rock. But we shot it at an abandoned record store, maybe out of, I can't remember what happened. It was some storefront there on Colorado Boulevard. We shot there for a while, and it was shot on videotape, and not like three-inch, you know, good quality videotape like not like three inch, you know, good quality videos,

tape like they shot at that, at that time, the old days they would shoot, you know, the Hollywood squares or what have you on, on big three inch tape. It was shot on like three quarter inch tape. So the quality of it was not good.

This is a motion picture. They're going to release in the theaters. And they actually premiered it in some theaters and people were like asking for the money back going why i can watch tv at home back then tv was it wasn't hd obviously it had 525 lines you know it just looked like some bad old footage and it was footage was shot like a few months before and it looked like hell so it So it came and went very quickly. But what a cast. Any memory of any of those characters, of Jack Carter or Gorshin or Leonard Barr? I remember being on the set with them.

I remember being well-oiled and trying to get through my lines and not get fired. I remember one day I had forgotten that it was videotape and that there was a booth and people were watching in the booth i was in front of the cameras they're getting the final setup and tweaking a light of the focus or something i started going talking some fake swedish voice i went in the hunter left in the hunter and the record city piece of fuming dog shit that hand the phone there a jim aub, little moron. Turn the phone to him, and get me the fuck out of here.

You know, and doing a mixture of, you know, fake Swedish, and then finally I feel behind me some hands move a little bit

to the left, Ed, and somebody was angrily moving me around. It was Jim Aubrey, the guy who was producing and directing it, who was watching in the booth.

I forgot that there was a booth because it was electronic. I went, I'm clear to make some disparaging remarks in front of the crew because everybody else you know felt that way he was a guy that was an executive at cbs and he uh decided he was going to make a movie and this was a less than stellar production to say the least and everybody thought it was going to be a complete joke and i guess it was but i didn't know that he was watching from a remote that's how well oiled i was i forgot what format that's hilarious well that jim aubrey i think was the legendary guy who was who was in

bed with a mob the you know that story i didn't know that part i know he was a guy that when it was changing from the golden age of television yeah you know to i know he was a guy that when it was changing from the golden age of television yeah you know to something else he was a guy that approved all those shows like green acres right and beverly hillbillies he was the bailies of balboa bailies of balboa with paul ford that's right oh my god who remembers that show i'm more than a little impressed frank well he was it's the kind of stuff we talk about on this show, so don't be. But Cliff Nesteroff came and told us a story about Jim Aubrey, which I will go back and double-check, and I'll send you to you.

It's interesting, but I think it's a mob story. Might be. You look back on your career – I mean, obviously, the people, the giants you've worked with we read on the list, but you got to work with these fun oddballs, these oddball characters. Like you did – this is a question that we actually got from one of our listeners, Big Daddy. He says, this is one of the things I wanted to ask Ed.

He worked on those Dexter Riley Disney movies with Kurt Russell, but he got to work with iconic character actors like Joe Flynn, Pat Harrington, Jim Backus, and Fritz Feld. Wow. All true. What great actors. And I was like, you guys are a huge fan of each and every one of them. So to work with them and get to know Joe Flynn.

Joe Flynn was fantastic, of course. McHale's Navy and a million other things. He was just great. To be on the set with him was extraordinary. I just loved him. And I still see kurt on occasion i know kurt and goldie a bit so i get to see them you were in all of those you're in the computer wore tennis shoes and yep nanny and the nanny and the oh wait no it's called uh charlie and

the angel charlie and the angel with fred mcmurray and yep and you you uh here's another story that's popped up maybe once or twice on the podcast you worked with caesar romero oh he's in the computer war tennis shoes he's in the computer war tennis shoes that's correct right now do you know anything about caesar romero he was a gay gentleman i believe yes was joe flynn and and according to legend caesar romeroero. I'm going to study Ed's face as you tell us. Would gather up a bunch of boy toys and they'd surround him. And he, some people claim he'd be standing ankle deep in warm water when he did this. I don't know. ankle deep in warm water when he did this.

I don't know. But he would be, at least from the waist down, naked. He'd pull down his pants and underwear. And the boys in the crowd would throw orange wedges at his ass. And this is what Cesar Romero was turned on by. It sounds too far out. It sounds like way too much work for Cesar. Or as my dad called him, Butch Romero.

Butch? You're working with Butch Romero, huh? Yep. Butch? Cesar Romero? Oh, yeah, Butch Romero. You're working with him. Good luck. I'll have you know it. One time, I lived near, huh yep butch who's caesar romero no yeah butch romero you're working with him good luck

i'll have you know it one time go ahead i lived near uh vineland and ventura at that time and there was a place there called the valley house it was a gay bar they also had laundry machines there and i lived nearby and i didn't have laundry machines so i would regularly do my laundry there one day i went i'm gonna go into a bar. I've never been in a gay bar, so I'm going to go in and get a beer. And I got a beer, and everybody was very nice to me. It wasn't nobody bothered me, what have you. I was about 21 years old at that time. Finished up my laundry and went home.

The next day I went to work, and Joe Flynn was in the scene. So, Ed, hey, how are you doing, Joe? I saw you yesterday at the Valley House. What are you doing there? I'm doing it. Yeah, sure. You're doing laundry. Yeah. They got some speed queen machines there. And I understand now what you were doing. You're doing a spin cycle, huh? No, I was actually doing laundry. Sure you were. With a beer in your hand. No, no. I was waiting for the spin cycle to finish, and I got a beer. I was trying to talk my way through with, explain my whereabouts to Joe.

Now, there's a pro, a man who can take your Cesar Romero story, pivot on a dime, and turn it into a just as good Joe Flynn story. Oh, but I don't mean to not finish up with Cesar Romero. It just sounds too far out. It's like the thing with the gerbils and Richard Gere. It just doesn't sound right. It sounds made up. We've had several people, you're among them, who work with Cesar Romero. We had Frankie Avalon

here. We had Adam West, Julie Newmar. None of them would confirm the Cesar Romero story or had even heard of it. The only argument I've gotten on the Cesar Romero from other people was that some people believe it wasn't orange wedges. It was tangerine wedges. That's as far afield as they'll go. But just keep in mind, you know, there's crazy things that happen that might be true,

but also there are people out there, and that's what I think happened with the Richard Gere fabrication. I believe it to be untrue myself. I have no verification that it's true or untrue, but I believe it to be untrue. It's like taggers. You get to tag your specific thing. Whoever started the, I believe, fictional account about Richard Gere, they know that they did it. And they went, this is a story that's worldwide. I did that.

I started that. It's like a graffiti artist. Yeah. And I think that might be true with the oranges and Cesar Romero too. But I have no way to confirm or deny it. But you may be the one that started it, Gilbert. I swear to everyone out there, it is true. Okay. I can't, it is true. Okay.

I can't deny it, so. And, you know, I mean, with all rumors, and certainly the Richard Gere one is like that, everybody has a best friend or a cousin who works in the emergency ward. Oh, yeah. But none of them have names. Nobody's like, my name is such and such and I can now come. Nobody even with a muffled, you know, distorted camera and backlit. I worked, I was actually in the hospital there.

I was the one that had to help her. There's nobody that's come forth on some video anywhere in the world that actually was there. But they all know someone personal. They know somebody. Exactly. The ambulance driver, the doctor, the cop.

But I knew the fruit vendor. Get out of here. The green grocer? Yes. Who lived across the street from Cesar Romero. From Butch. I knew the president of Tropicana. He'll go on like this for hours, Ed, if you don't stop him.

He might have been sun-kissed, though. Here's one of your... Sun don't stop him here's it might have been sun kissed here's one of your son don't kissed here's one of your favorite that one of our favorite ed begley credits that gilbert and i were talking about before you before you came over uh son of the invisible man from amazon women on the moon oh thank you which you with you and carl gottlieb directing you so funny i just watched it again last night. You're very kind, but that is a funny, funny segment, and it holds up. Just me taking my clothes off always provokes hilarity.

Well, it's also so faithful-looking to James Whale's Invisible Man. They went to great lengths. That's the part that really got me in that it looks like one of those old movies. It looks exactly like it. Yeah, they did a good job. Carl Gottlieb and who's the producer? Robert. Oh, Robert Weiss.

Very good. Robert K. Weiss. Yeah. And in it, you're the invisible man. Such a funny premise. And you're going, here, let me take my pants off. Yeah. You ever see a shirt, make a phone call, and I think I'm invisible because the chemicals that I think made me invisible have just made me crazy.

And so I think I'm invisible. I'm 100% visible. I just take off my clothing and walk around like a total maniac. And you're there bare-ass going, look, my shirt is moving by itself. Gary Goodrow's in there, too, somewhere. He sure is. Speaking of the committee. The wonderful Gary Goodrow.

What a talent he is. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Is he still with us? Is Gary still with us? He passed. I think he did. He passed a while ago. I loved Gary.

Yeah, very funny. The committee, very funny. Carl Gottlieb, speaking of Carl Gottlieb, who we also have to get on this show, was Carl the one who wrote Christmas Carol 2 that you're in with Roddy McDowell and Paul Benedict and James Whitmore? Do you have a memory of this? He directed that. I think he wrote it as well, yes.

That was Steve Martin. George Burns' comedy. Yeah, that was... George Burns' comedy. Yeah, it was Steve Martin's Comedy Hour. Right. And he and Steve might have written it together. Carl might have written it with the staff or alone. There you go. I don't remember that important detail,

but Carl directed it for sure, and I believe he wrote it as well. What a talent he is. Huge talent. Iron Balls McGinty from The Jerk. Oh, yes. That's right. Carl Gottlieb.

And he wrote the screenplay for Jaws. Wrote Jaws. It was a great novel, of course, but he wrote the screenplay, and it was a fine screenplay. Yeah. And he pops up in Jaws. Yes, he does. Yeah. A very, very funny guy.

Can we ask you quickly, Ed, just you have your choice here because there's so much. I have so many cards that we're not even going to get to this stuff. Do you want to talk about your relationship with Chris Guest and those guys? And by the way, the scene in Mighty Wind where you're the Swedish-American who suddenly breaks into Yiddish. Thank you so much. That's some of my favorites. Truly wonderful. I love those movies myself just as a viewer i love being in

them i'm just lucky to know chris gastai i met his sister alissa years ago in the early 70s and through alissa i met chris and we became good friends and then he uh gave me an opportunity to to direct something in his he had a deal with showtime or somebody and i never was able to it was my first time directing and i didn't know what the hell i was doing i never finished it but it didn't stop him from being supportive of me so when he started to do these improv movies i was not in uh well i was in spinal tap that one right the very small part playing the drummer he thought of me for that it was his idea and rob's idea that i'd be in that i was happy to be in that tell ed you've never seen spinal tap go ahead tell him i dare you i never saw spinal tap which he told mckean when we had him here it's a pretty funny movie it still holds

up very well it's a you know another case of playing it seriously and that's why all the jokes land they don't play it for laughs. They have some absurd things going on, but they play it very, very straight, and it works well. So after Spinal Tap, he did a couple of movies, and I wasn't in any of those, but happy he was doing these great movies, and then he did Waiting for Guffman. I just couldn't believe how great that movie was.

Wonderful. And the next movie that he did, he had a meeting with me, and he said, I'd love for you to be in and play the hotel manager. So I just was over the moon happy to be in it, and I wound up being in, jeez, I think every movie that he's done since. I haven't missed one since Best in Show. So I'm a lucky guy to be his friend. Tell us about that scene, because I swear that Balaban is cracking up,

that he's breaking character when you're doing... Well, he was shocked, as I kind of was shocked, because I wasn't planning on it. I'm not sure if I did it to get a laugh out of Chris or why I did it. There was no reason I should be talking Yiddish. I'm a Swedish-American guy, and I have a scene in which I do a little fake and a little real Swedish.

But this is a scene where it's Bob Balaban, as you say, is in the scene. And I'm this guy who's a PBS kind of producer trying to ingratiate myself to this guy. And I figure what might be funny is the way many Goyish guys decide to ingratiate themselves to a Jewish gentleman. They start peppering, you knowering the conversation with Yiddish and I just kept throwing it out there, one after another one after another, bing bang, boom boom like a batting cage and he's running around like a Vildahaya

and the Shpilkas that I felt at that time it's a Mahaya to sit here like that, you feel like Mishpuka, I just kept one after another He's Swedish and Bob was not expecting that, so he was just sitting there trying not to crack up or trying not to react in any way.

But the look on his face is what makes it. What I do is fine, but what Bob Balaban does makes the scene work. It's great. And you've said that other directors would have said, stop, what the hell are you doing? But guests just knew to let you roll. You know, I just did it as kind of a surprise to me and everybody, to Bob for sure.

And then Chris said, that's great. We're going to move in a little tighter. Let's do that again. So I did it for the rest of the coverage, and he liked it. I thought for sure he was going to want an alternate version. He'd take off his headset and go, Ed, Ed, you're a Swedish-American character. Why the hell are you spouting Yiddish? Stop it.

Get back to the scene. Roll. Those Christopher Guest movies, it's like they're comedies, but it seems like they're so close to being tragedies. Yes. Two, the characters are helpless.ies. Yes. Two, the characters are helpless. Yes. That's one of the keys to them.

I agree. He gets great actors, Jane Lynch and Parker Posey, Michael Higgins. Oh, all of them. Fred Willard, Michael McKean. McKean, Catherine O'Hara. John Lake, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy. He and Eugene used to do all the heavy lifting with Best in Show

and with Waiting for Guffman and those movies. And they would write these things together. And for your consideration, and now it's Jim Pittock and Chris, but they do all the work. And then we all come in, me and Jane Lynch and Parker Posey, and everybody comes in and we just get to have a party because they've done all the work writing the outline. And then we just come in and decide we're going to be, you know,

speaking Yiddish or whatever we think is going to be funny or Chris will like. And they do all the work. It's really a treat. Speaking of, this is just one more question, too, from one of our listeners, and I want to get this in. This is from Don Motley. He said, Ed, your Dutch accent

in Shelley Duvall's Fairytale Theater where you played Rip Van Winkle's neighbor was excellent. How did you learn that? What a kind thing to say. Wow, I totally forgot I even did that. I didn't know that many people had seen that. I knew a guy that was from Holland,

so I just kind of tried to do it the way he spoke, and so I just kind of tried to do do it the way he spoke and that's very kind of him wow tell him thanks see people are paying attention to this this is a massive body of work I'm never going to get to half these questions on the cards I'm never going to

get to meet the Applegates or you know you want to layman I work with him still I just work with Michael layman a bunch of blunt talk episodes work with him many times uh this show betas great director yeah writer love heathers yeah heathers gill you want to ask anything about transylvania six five thousand since you're a uh you're a monster movie guy plus john beiner who was here on our show i love john is turns up in there and And your pal Norman Fell. Oh, my God.

Playing my dad. It's like an Abbott and Costello movie. It is. Really? You and Goldblum. Well, it's classic Rudy DeLuca, you know, stuff. Rudy DeLuca is a very funny guy, and he wrote this wonderfully slapstick movie,

and they wanted Jeff Goldblum and me to be in it. And so I dove in first i wasn't being offered the lead in any movies at that point so i signed up and agreed to do it and signed a contract and i called up jeff i said jeff you're gonna do this i'm gonna do it do you want to do it you're gonna do it yeah i did it i just signed the contract they want you to do it too come on in buddy so we. We did it and then pretty soon Jeffrey Jones is doing it and Carol Kane's doing it and Joe Bologna's doing it and John Biden's doing it. Michael Richards is in it, Gina Davis. What a cast.

I wish you and Goldblum would make more movies together. You guys were a great duo. What a great friend. He's been so good to me. He had me on his TV series when he had that series when he was a friend. He's been so good to me. Had me on his TV series when he had that series when he was a reporter. He regularly, you know, thinks of me for things. He's a dear friend. I just got honored by the L.A. City Council.

They had an Ed Begley Junior Day at City Hall in the city of Los Angeles. They declared it Ed Begley Day, and he came down there. My dear friend Jeff came down for that. Bobby Kennedy came down. I love those guys. Ed, tell us about your podcast, too. That came and went. It was fun to do.

Is it done? It's done. We did it for a while, and I enjoyed it. It was a wonderful thing to do with my wife, and it was her idea. She wanted to do a podcast to get more of this environmental message and design stuff and health and wellness stuff out there. It was her baby, and I was happy to do it with her.

But we did it for about a year. I think it was about a year. And after a year, I just didn't have the time. You guys know how much time it takes to set this up and to do all the work to make it happen. It was a lot of work. And the people who helped us with it were great. They were doing all the heavy lifting themselves,

but I just felt bad because it was just time-consuming. It was good. It was eclectic. It was fun. A little bit of everything. Yeah. Here's the last thing I want to do. Gil, is there anything you want to ask Ed before I do these?

It was funny because you mentioned him before. Who? And in my documentary, you mentioned him before. Who? And in my documentary, I mentioned him. Fritz Feld. Fritz Feld. I can't do it. Yes. Can you do it?

Yes. I just did it. I can't either. He would always be like the maitre d' and he'd go, ah, your table is ready. And he'd smack his mouth and make a loud popping sound. A huge, perfect popping sound, which I'm not capable of. I just made a little bit of sound, but it's hard to do as it turns out. Did he ever play anything other than a maitre d'?

Did you ever see him in another role? I don't know. He was always like— Maybe a bellman. Maybe a bellman, right, for a hotel manager. Yeah, and it would always be, oh, right this way, sir. And he'd pop his mouth. Yeah.

This is one last fun thing, if you'll indulge us, Ed, because you are a trivia expert. You were a trivial pursuit guy in the day. Do you still play? I used to be good at it. My brains are not functioning the way they used to, but I'll give it a go. Okay. These are easy. Gilbert can even help you out.

These are just three quick ones. Who made the very first screen appearance, small screen or big screen, as James Bond? The first James Bond was, um, the first James Bond. Oh, come on. Shaken, not stirred. Nope. This was on television. On, come on. Shaken, not stirred. No, this was on television. On television?

Yeah. Okay. I thought Sean Connery was the first, but obviously I'm wrong. On TV? I don't know that. It was Barry Nelson. Yes. Barry Nelson.

It was Casino Royale. Correct. Done for television. Oh, my God. Casino Royale. And I saw that movie. How could I forget that? That's right.

Casino Royale. I forgot that. Barry Nelson. Okay, here's another one. This is President's's day or today is at least lincoln's birthday five actors who played abe lincoln okay daniel day lewis good raymond massey good um raymond massey daniel day lewis um oh man i'm running out of steam quick. Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda, very good. David Selby.

Yes. Walter Houston. Walter Houston. Walter Houston did that. I didn't know that. John Carradine. Yes. Sam Waterston.

John Carradine. Sam Waterston. Sam's a wonderful actor. And the man sitting next to me played Abe Lincoln. I didn't know that. I played Abe Lincoln. I didn't know that. What did you play, Abe? I played Abe Lincoln twice. The first time on The View, I came out as Abraham Lincoln.

That's right. Yeah. And then I did the big movie version as Abraham Lincoln in Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West. That question was asked in your honor, Gilbert. Yes, I was Abraham Lincoln in that. I got to see that. I love Seth MacFarlane. Oh, yeah.

I love you, Gilbert. Oh, thank you. Ed, this is a lot of fun. You have anything you want to plug? You're going to do another season of Future Man for Hulu? Maybe. We don't know what's going to happen with any of the characters, so I can't talk about it.

Okay. I hope we see me back there again. And I'm also doing a show called Compliance with Courtney Vance and Mary Louise Parker. And I just did some Portlandia that just came out. And I did, yeah, Curb Your Enthusiasm was just on. What else? I've been crazy busy, which I like.

I like busy. You were in, speaking of Larry David, you were in a rare Larry David authored SNL sketch. That's right. It was a very funny sketch. It was as funny as any curb or any Seinfeld scene. It was brilliantly funny in the Larry

David style, making a big thing out of something very small. Something very small escalates and escalates and becomes huge. And it was a very, very funny scene with an architect and this design for a building in Manhattan. It was great. One of the few sketches he got on the air.

Yeah. You guys missed each other because you hosted in 84 and Gilbert was a cast member in 80 or 81. Right. That's right. Yeah. You didn't miss anything with my season. You're the best.

I wish I had worked with you as well. Well, Gil. Well. I wish I had worked with you as well Well Gil Well I'm almost That's all I've got Well Unless you want to ask about Bob Crane Oh my god

Oh my god To think we were going to end the show Without asking you You worked with Bob Crane I'm super dad And he's in the Bob Crane, Paul Schrader movie. Oh, yeah. You played the reporter. The reporter in autofocus for Paul Schrader, who's given me more work than any other director.

Yeah, you're in Blue Collar, Cat People. Now, did you know anything about what Crane was doing? Nothing. We worked with him in, I think it was 72, me and Bruno Kirby and Kurt Russell and a bunch of other people worked with him in 72. Had no idea. Never heard any rumors, nothing.

It was Bob Crane from Hogan's Heroes and how great to work with him. We didn't have many scenes with him, to be honest. We had scenes away from him for the most part, but he was nice as can be and didn't hear any of that stuff until after he passed. I know his son a little bit,

and I started to hear some stuff about the fact that he might have been killed and hadn't just, I mean, clearly he was killed. He didn't hit himself over the head, but there was all kinds of theories about who did it, and I didn't know any of that. I didn't know any of that dark stuff at all. It's just one of the interesting things about a long career

is that you've been around so long, if you'll allow me to say, that you wind up appearing in a movie about a guy that you worked with 30 years earlier. I know. It's a strange journey. Yeah. To still be doing it after half a century.

I can't believe how lucky I am. This is 50 years now I've been working as an actor, and I just feel blessed as I did the first job I got. Well, we want to thank. That's nice to hear. And we want to thank Mark Malkoff. You did a great show with him, and that's where we got the idea to grab you and get you here,

and we're glad we did. Thank you. Thank you, guys. And the most important moment for me is when you said to me off the air that while working on the movie with Cesar Romero, you walked into his dressing room and there were a bunch of homosexuals throwing orange wedges at Cesar Romero. Wait a minute. I didn't say. Oh, my God.

Now. Oh, you said it was my mouth, but I know you're going to take that and run with it We live in fear of being sued by the Romero estate Ed Well the Romero estate The Danny Thomas estate Forrest Tucker Ed this was a real treat for us

Likewise Frank Likewise Gilbert So good to see you both Thank you so much for having me on thanks for doing it thank you our listeners will love this one this has been gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host frank santo padre and the very entertaining and talented and of course most importantly my co-star in Back by Midnight

that's right one of my finest jobs yes thank you Ed thank you Ed very much thank you Bill a lot of fun

likewise very much. Thank you, Bill. A lot of fun. Likewise. Robert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santopadre with audio production by Frank Verderosa Web and social media is handled by Mike Lee Padden, Greg Pair, and John Bradley Seals Special audio contributions by John Beach Special thanks to Paul Rayburn, John Murray, John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative.

Especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel Farrell for their assistance. Try getting me right Your face is okay But your purse is too tight I'm looking for a pound, no solution Bad checks, anything Give me some money Give me some money Give me some money Give me some money