Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Classic: John Amos

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

GGACP bids a fond farewell to our late friend and 2-time guest, “Good Times” and “Roots” star John Amos by revisiting this memorable interview from 2016. In this episode, John reminisces about everything from his days as a struggling comic to his breakthrough role on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to working with Eddie Murphy and James Earl Jones in “Coming to America.” Also, John remembers Ted Knight, cuts up with Tim Conway, shares the screen with Lena Horne and moves into Archie Bunker’s old house. PLUS: Famous Amos! The cinema of Yaphet Kotto! “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”! Praising Ernest Borgnine! And the mystery of the misheard theme song! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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toys. Trivia and dirty jokes. An evening with the boys. Once is never good enough for something with the voice Once is never good enough for something so fantastic So here's another Gilbert and Franks Here's another Gilbert and Franks Colossal classic Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Ferdorosa.

Our guest this week is a celebrated and versatile actor, writer, producer with a long list of credits you've seen his work in films like Die Hard 2, Ricochet, The Beastmaster, American Flyers, Let's Do It Again, Coming to America, Medea's Witness Protection, The World's Greatest Athlete. Medea's witness protection, the world's greatest athlete. Memorable TV appearances include Maude, Sanford and Son, Love American style, Future Cop, the A-Team, Hunter, Two and a Half Men, all about the Andersons, Men in Trees, the West Wing,

and of course as the TV weatherman Gordy Howard on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. From 1974 to 76 he starred in a groundbreaking situation comedy Good Times as the strict but lovable James Evans. And in 1977, he was nominated for an Emmy for his outstanding work as the adult Kuntekinte in the landmark ABC miniseries Roots. In a career spanning more than five decades, he worked with Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Red Fox, Bruce Willis,

Eddie Murphy, Charlie Chapman, James Earl Jones, as well as former podcast guest Ken Berry, Ed Asner, and Dick Van Dyke, just to name a few. Please welcome to the show one of our favorite actors in the pride of East Orange, New Jersey, the multi-talented John Amos. Thank you, Gilbert. Thank you. You started actually as first TV. The main thing was the Mary Talamore Show. No, it was work before that. He started actually as first TV the main thing was the Mary Tala Moore show

No, there was work before that. He was a writer first. Yeah local basis It was it was the Loman and Barclay show on which was first a radio show Then NBC gave him an hour and a half on Saturday nights and they experimented they formed an ensemble group that included myself Art Metronano, Craig T. Nelson. Art Metrano, that is a great name. We talked about that. We love Art Metrano. I mean just everybody was getting started at the time.

It was a wonderful time to be breaking into television. You wrote in both radio and television. Yes. And who were some of the who were some of the other people you were working with? Oh, Joni Gerber. She was an incredible voiceover artist. Michael Bell. He was an incredible voiceover mimic.

And Rudy Toluca, Craig T. Nelson, my goodness, McLean Stevenson, Paul McCauley was one of the writer performers. And we had a lot of fun. We had to we had to have fun. We weren't making any money. Loman and Barkley was a popular radio show. It was a very popular radio show, very popular radio show.

They were like the Clavin and Finch on the East Coast, you know. Right, right, right. Mm hmm. You went from there to writing for the Leslie Ugg radio show. They were like the Clavin and Finch on the East Coast, you know. Right, right, right. You went from there to writing for the Leslie Uggum show? Not directly, but it tracked pretty much that way. Yeah, I got the job writing for the Leslie Uggum show and I had the audacity to ask the producers if I could audition for one of the roles and they said, no, you're here as a writer. They said, what role did you want to audition for?

I said, I'd like to audition for the role of her husband. Well, ultimately it was done by a fine actor by the name of Lincoln Kilpatrick. And that was my first time ever meeting Leslie Uggams and all the other wonderful actors that I was later to work with years later. Right, everybody was on that show. Everybody. Yeah. I just got a flashback of the Leslie Uggum show.

Now, did she have a recurring bit called the Sugar Hill Gang? Yes. You've got a great memory. Yeah. That's right. That spawned the, as some people say, it really created the good times thing it spawned out of that But what it was was a little 15 minute segment on a family that lived in Sugar Hill

And it was Leslie and her TV husband Lincoln Kilpatrick Johnny Brown Oh Johnny from good as in there Buffalo, but he was known to Oh, Johnny Brown. Oh, yes. The comedian from Good John. He was in there, Buffalo Butt, he was known to his... Right. Bookman. And yeah, boy, you got a good memory, Gilbert.

That one stuck with me. Yeah. And what was the... Oh, God, now this is gonna kill me. What was the song? It was a hit song that they'd play whenever that bit started. Whenever Sugar Hill came on? Yeah. I can't recall.

Well, we'll have our researcher look it up. Oh, God. But everybody- This is gonna kill me. Well, you come up with it. Yeah. Everybody was on that show, Sammy Davis and Jim Neighbors and Johnny Mathis. Everybody.

Don Knotts, even Sly and the Family Stone. Right? We crammed a lot into that short run because we got canceled almost immediately. What was it like 16 episodes or something it wasn't a long one. Well we were slated for 16 but I think we only did eight or nine something like that. Right. Yeah. But everybody loved Leslie Uggum she was America's sweetheart along with Mary Talamore. So Leslie never stopped working. Thank God.

Yeah, she's still around too. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. She's appearing in that new series, Power. Oh, is she on that? Yeah. Great. Did you work with Bob Einstein on the Leslie Uggum song? Yeah. Yeah. We just had him on.

Yeah. Is that right? He was our previous guest before you. Is this where you come just before you die or what? Everybody's coming through here. We've only lost two guests out of 120, John. I was originally going to call the show the Before It's Too Late Show. But... Bob Einstein did a lot of variety television.

Yes he did. In those days. Yes he did. And okay, so how did you then make it over to acting? From from well from the writing writing comedy it was not that hard a transition for me I don't think because you know you when you comedy, you have to act out the bits. And so I found myself going on auditions and getting more acting jobs than I was getting writing jobs.

So I stayed with it. So far, so good. They haven't found me out yet. But you work with Lorenzo Music. You remember Lorenzo Music, Gil Cartland, The Door Man? Absolutely. Absolutely. On the Uggum Show. And as a writer on the show did you work out sketches with the guests?

Well that's what they saw in you and that's what I was hired to do according to the producers but again that was the case where the show got canceled after I think eight or nine shows but they paid for the whole season so I was very very happy about that and so it was all over in about eight or nine weeks but that was the job I was supposedly hired for was to help introduce guests and to write little bits for them make them comfortable with the rest of the cast and somehow they saw something in you and they suggested this project that they were working on. Actually, I went to... Yeah, Lorenzo Music or Jerry Music at that time, he hadn't changed his name to Lorenzo or whatever. At any rate, he said, let's have a little dialogue. So we had lunch and he said, you know, Dave Davis and I are creating or involved in the creation of something called the Mary Tyler Moore Show and we think you'd be right for

one of the characters. So you know, you hear a lot of talk and I said, yeah, that'd be great. Fine. Meanwhile, I got a job, you know. So this is real, okay? And as it turned out, I was called in to audition for Grant Tinker, who was the producer of the show. And her husband.

And her husband. Yeah. And Mary's husband. And, I mean, that was like heaven, because you knew the writing was going to be there. You knew that the cast was going to be superlative. It was just wonderful to be in that environment. You didn't have to worry about anything. The usual things that an actor has to, you know, are we going to get picked up? It was just wonderful to be in that environment. You didn't have to worry about anything. The usual things that an actor has to,

where are we gonna get picked up? It was a given. Once you got on the Mary Talamore show, it was almost like a ticket to ride. It was unbelievable. The chemistry, everybody was happy all the time. Right, Crooks and Burns ran a happy set. They ran a happy set, you know?

And Mary Talamore, you said, was easy to work with, I think. Yeah, very easy to work with. She's a consummate professional. I mean, there was no doubt whose show it was. It's the Mary Tyler Moore show. So she didn't have to fight for lines. And we had Ed Asner on. Yeah.

for lines, you know. And we had Ed Asner on. Yeah. And Ed Asner, although I don't know if he was ever like really friends with Ted Knight, I think there might have been tension. Ed Asner had nothing. You mean in real life? Yeah.

You know, the truth of it is, these guys were such good actors that when they got in character, you really did feel like somebody could get punched out at some time. Oh, yeah. Because he had a way of getting on Lou Grant's nerves. Right, sure. Whether or not he got on Ed's nerves or not, I don't know. But he had nothing but glowing things to say about Ted Knight.

It was hard to dislike Ted Knight. He's such a funny man. I mean, he was unbelievable. And he took such pride in the fact that people thought his character was really... Whenever he got a piece of fan mail from somebody that he had really pissed off, like a bunch of old ladies somewhere in Iowa, that's all they did was write letters about Ted Knight, and he would share the letters with us and they would say, write letters about Ted Knight and he would share the letters with us and they would say, can you believe this Mary? Will you believe the way these people are

talking about me? They are just disgusted with Ted Knight. I mean with Ted Baxter and I'm gonna have to change everything because I'm getting a lot of people in Iowa upset. You know Ed told us that he and Gavin McLeod were so impressed by Ted's ability to grasp a piece of comedy to do a scene. They would sit in the bleachers. They would sit and watch him and study him, almost with a sense of envy.

His timing was perfect. Perfect. And he was game. Whatever the situation was, he'd go along with it. You guys were funny together. I watched the two episodes that come to mind are Hail the Conquering Gordie, which is the one where you come back as a big success.

After making the big bucks. Right, and he's terribly envious of you. He's asking you how many kids you have. It doesn't matter. Is everything just as you remembered it? Everything. Say, Gardo, speaking of remembering, do you remember when we did the news together? I mean, as a team?

Yeah, sure, Ted. Did they give you any ideas? Ideas? Ted, aren't you supposed to meet Georgette for lunch today? Well that was over an hour ago, she's probably finished by now. Georgette! You got yourself a new girlfriend, huh? Oh, hey that's right, you don't know!

Ted got married last year. Well Ted got married, somebody finally trapped a silver fox. I tell you, the writing was there. Oh great. Wasn't the writing great? Just great. Didn't have to pander to the lowest common denominator. I mean these guys wrote, you had to reach for their material you know. The other great episode is the with you and Ted is the the good time news when you guys end up co-hosting. Do you remember this? Vaguely. Mary has this idea to do good news, and you guys end up as co-anchors.

I think I remember. And then Ted finds out that he's there to set you up, that you're the funny guy, and he's the straight man, and he resents it. He would. It's on YouTube. It's very, very funny. I got to check that out.

I still enjoy watching some of that. Excuse me, go ahead. Oh, no, some of this. Hold up. Oh, well. Go ahead. Oh, no, no. I was just gonna say... Well, you go ahead with what you were saying, Albert. I forgot. I got an upset. Okay. It's your turn.

Well, you're not the first of our guests. We just had someone on recently and once again, this person was, the conversation turned to the Poseidon Adventure and how much we all loved Ernest Borgneit. Ernie Borgneit. Oh, you bet. When you say Poseidon Adventure,

I figured that's who you were talking about. Yes, you bet. You know, I had the joy of working with him early on in my career. Yeah. I did a pilot, I guess you would call it, called Cleaver and Haven. We played two police officers, uniformed cops, but unbeknownst to me the third person in the car was a robot, was an android.

Future cop. A future cop, yeah. And I tell you, Ernie was something else, man. He was something else. I'll never forget working with him on that show. And at one point, it dawned on me who I was working with. And I was back in the neighborhood theater, watching him from here to eternity, or Bad Day at Black Rock.

And my mouth went dry, and Ernie looked at me. We were right in the middle of a scene. or a bad day at Black Rock. And my mouth went dry and Ernie looked at me. We were right in the middle of a scene. We were dressed as our police officer characters. We were about to go into the police station. And he looks at me and it's my turn to talk. My character's turn to talk. And I'm just sitting there like,

hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Like, it's going through my head. My God, that's Ernie Borgneid from Here to Eternity. Academy Award winner! And Ernie looks at the cameraman and he says, you guys can cut, I think the kid is up, he's watching me in the movies again. He had this great laugh, but he put me at ease, you know, made me comfortable. Didn't you also say you one time saw Ernest Bognine's face on a magazine cover?

And that scared the shit out of me. Yeah. But I think you said that that gave you like more of an ambition to make it. I said if this guy can get on the cover of a magazine, I should be able to make, I should be able to get a job or two, you know, acting. And everybody knows now Ernie, Ernie was a consummate actor, did comedy, drama, all of it. Best actor from Marty.

I mean, the man was serious. All I could do would be to learn. That was a blessing coming along when I came along. I got to work with some of the finest actors in the business. I worked on TV. I did an episode on The Funny Side where Jack Benny was the guest host. Wow.

Yeah, Jack Benny and Gene Kelly. Oh yeah, Gene Kelly was a narrator of that that. Gene Kelly was a narrator of that show. So you got to learn with legends. Who could not learn working with Jack Benny, you know? So I was blessed to come along at the time that I did, man. Today, I don't think I could learn too much from the kids that are coming along. How was Jack Benny to work with? Cheap.

Benny to work with? Cheap. No, he was a gentleman and the fact that you were working with Jack Benny, you know, and I'd grown up listening to him on the radio, he could do no wrong, you know. Everything the man did, his timing, if he just sat there and crossed his legs, you know, and said, or I'll test her, or, you know, crack you up. For no reason at all, you just crack up. Because it was Jack Benny, the legend. Bill Persky created that show, the funny side. That's right, Persky and Denoff. Persky and Denoff.

Bill's still around, lives about 20 blocks from here. You're kidding. No, he was on this show. You've seen him and spoke to him. I talk to him all the time. Oh, well please give him my regards. He just turned 85. We absolutely will. give him my regards. You just turned 85. I'll be damned.

We absolutely will. Give him my regards. I sure will. Who were some of the other people you worked with? Early on, oh you name it, man. I mean, I got to do a Red Fox episode and Red had Slappy White and I think, yeah, I even got to do,

no, I never got to work with Sammy. I was thinking Sammy Davis Jr. He was on the Uggum show when you were there, but maybe you guys. Yeah, at that time we didn't hook up. I've worked with enough people to fill any Hall of Fame. Well, tell us about Red Fox. And I think if I'm not mistaken,

Lena Horne was on that episode. That's right. That's right so I got to meet two legends in one show in Lena Horne and red fox and Red was a red was a gentleman because it was Lena Horne, but he referred to as the a horn but he referred to as the horn. I said yeah right who's on the show this week? The horn. I said the horn? Yeah, Bob Einstein has some great Red Fox stories. I imagine. He told us a couple. Yeah, there's one that I've heard from other people. The one where he's sitting on the makeup girl? Yes, yes. I mean I've heard it two different ways. One he's sitting on the makeup girl. Or she's sitting on him. And yeah, and his head is under her skirt and someone says, runs in there and goes, Red, we're filming now.

It was Bob. Yeah, and Red sticks his head out from under this girl's skirt and goes, can a guy relax? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That was Red. You worked with everybody. Tell us a little bit about, we're going to jump around a little bit, but tell us a little

bit about working with Tim Conway on The World's Greatest Athlete. I couldn't keep a straight face because I'm a sucker for a good comedian and Tim is just a naturally funny guy. So he'd wait until they were pushing in on a close up of me and then he would ease his face into the frame. You know, and I'd be looking out of the corner of my eye, and here comes his face sliding into frame. I guess you have to see it to understand it.

He is easily, organically, one of the funniest people in the business for my money. I mean, he kept me crying. He almost got me fired, because I was laughing so hard at the inappropriate places that the director said come on You get you got to get a little serious here. This is a This is a Disney comedy Howard Cosell turns up in the world's greatest athlete of course Jan Michael Vincent Jan Michael Vincent poor baby

Yeah, yeah what what was was he in in shape back then? Oh, he was he was a Greek God Yeah, he was what he in shape back then? Oh, he was a Greek god. He was what you saw on the screen, you know? And, well, things took a turn for the worse. Yeah, with drugs. It's a fun movie. A lot of fun actors in there. Roscoe Lee Brown, too. Yeah, Roscoe Lee. And the ex-NFL star Joe Capp. Right Joe Capp was in it.

Yeah. We had a lot of fun in that movie. Tell us a little bit about and I'm not sure how much Gilbert knows about your early career as a football player, as a running back. Well let me put it to you this way, my friend. I kept running back and running back and running back. Well I dreamed about doing that because it seemed to me to be the only way I was ever going to be able to make a buck, you know, was playing football. And the first team I signed with was the Denver Broncos. And I signed with them because I went to Colorado State University, and they used our college campus as their training camp.

So I didn't have far to go to go to training camp. In fact, I think about four blocks from my house to the dormitory where they kept us during the training camp. I was only there for 24 hours. So that make it. That's it? Yeah, that was it. No, I pulled my hamstring before I got to training camp. I wanted it so bad, I spent the whole summer working out, working out, and I overdid it. And opening day, I pulled my hamstring running a 40 for time, so the next day, I was out of there. And over the course of the next three years, I would play for semi-pro teams in the Continental

Football League, the Canadian League, the Wheeling Ironmen, the Waterbury Orbits. Joliet Explorers. Joliet Explorers. Yeah, we explored all season long and never found one victory. It was, I tell you, I had it bad. I had the football joke. You really wanted to be a football player. I wanted it so bad, man.

It was like God was telling me, hey, John, I don't want you to play football. Can you get that through your head? You're not going to make it, no matter what league, what team you go out for, you're going to get cut, or the league's going to fold, or whatever. This is not what I got in store for you. So I finally got the message and it was funny.

Once I declared myself an actor, I went out for a commercial audition and it was for Schmitz Beer of Philadelphia. So I was totally naive as to the process. I didn't know what to do. And I asked my agent, I said, well, what should I do? He said, go to this address. and when they call you into the room if they ask you to read then read the sides and like he was saying please why do I well all

these guys I can't do it come to me anyway I went and I walked through the door it was said it was in Burbank and I walked through the door and the director looked at me and he says, that's it, that's what I want. I said, me? And it was for Schmitz Beer of Philadelphia and I got the commercial. And the part was for that of a football player. Okay? After getting cut from all these teams, I mean teams you never even heard of, in leagues

you never even heard of. You stayed out of it a while. I mean the dream was dying hard of in leagues you never even heard of you stayed out of the wild I mean I stayed at a dream was dying hard. Yeah, it died hard man. It died hard But when you you know, that's all you've been dreaming. I couldn't see myself doing anything else until It became obvious that I can't play football anymore. It just gotten too old right to beat up So I said well, I'll take a shot at stand-up comedy. You get the same amount of abuse. First of all, it's interesting that the Hall of Fame coach, Hank Stramm, told you that you had talent, but it wasn't for playing ball. He saw something else in

you. Well, what it was, after getting cut from all those teams Hank called me in his office and said John we're gonna have to let you go and I knew what that was it there was no there was no comeback from that you were gone dream was over and I had written a poem called The Turk which really tracked the life and death of a football player really tracked the life and death of a football player, the metaphorical life and death of a football player, as he aspires to and signs with a team, and then gets cut. In my case, it happened 13 times.

I mean, I was getting cut from teams you'd never even heard of, in leagues you'd never even heard of. But I still pursued it, and when I did get cut, Hank said, well, is there anything you'd like to say to the team before, yeah, I said, I'd like to read this poem. So I read the poem, the Turk, and when I got

to different parts of it, it got dead quiet in there because it was about them sure and what it meant if you pulled a hamstring or if you've got a bad toe or you know sprained a finger and you're a receiver something it's over you know what the Turk is Gilbert it's an expression in football what it's like an imaginary guy with what he's like a like almost like a scythe yeah he comes and he cuts you from the team that means that you're that and bring your playbook yeah it means you're done now from your football days you have a lot like a lot of athletes have

this they have lifelong injuries yeah so what are among your injuries I'm sitting here with a boot on my foot now. I wasn't going to say anything. The reason being is I tore my Achilles tendon. How did I do it? Real dangerous athletic act. I stepped off the curb at Dunkin' Donuts. No, but seriously, years ago, maybe 40 years ago, when I was playing ball, I tore it, and I guess it's still in there.

The muscle memory or whatever you call it, it's still in there. It's one of the weakest parts of my body. It's still my Achilles. So I stepped off the curb just last week and tore it again. But the injuries go on and on and on. I'm so glad that the NFL has taken a hard look

at the injuries that the mental injuries and the cerebral injuries that players incur as a result of sometimes a very fabulous career. Usually the more aggressive guys are the ones that suffer the most damage because they're sticking their head right in the middle of it and they're just now getting to the place where they can attribute a lot of the symptoms that guys are displaying to the trauma they suffered earlier on in their career, when it was usually just overlooked. I remember when I first started playing ball,

the helmets we had, you might as well wrap a piece of cardboard around your head. You definitely were gonna have some post-trauma, you know? Well, you didn't have any of that. You didn't have a concussion protocol or none of that in those days. Nothing, nothing. Just go back in.

They just, come on, come on, shake it off. Let me tell you, shake it off. I've heard both athletes, especially football players, and also dancers, like some wind up crippled later on in their lives. Dancers, because you know, when I worked on those variety shows I would meet all the dancers that were coming through and doing their special numbers and you could hear them warming up. It sounded like somebody was shaking dice, you know, their bones were rattling and they

had so much ligament damage. It's a tough profession with a short life span. Football and professional dancing. It's funny because I always used to look at dancers saying oh they must stay healthy their whole lives from there but then I started finding out you know they suffer this same injuries as athletes. That's it. Did you find your song? OK. I still don't know if this is the one.

But this is, put a little love in your heart. Is that it? Jackie DeShannon? That doesn't sound right. Doesn't sound right to me either. Doesn't sound right to me either. So it's unanimous. I say it's a waste of time.

Keep looking. There's a song that might have to do with sugar or something. And it wasn't honey sugar sugar. Sugar hill. He's obsessed. We'll come up with it. This is horrible. We'll come up with it.

I think our listeners would be curious to know what your standup was like. My standup when I first started, it was like, who is this guy and why is he up there? Did you write your own material? That's my career. I wrote my own stuff. And it was interesting because I was really just working out whatever came across my head. I couldn't hire a writer.

I didn't know any writers. And so I would just get up and wing it. And whatever I thought was funny usually wasn't when I first started. Did you do clubs here in the village? I started in the village. The very first stand-up gig I ever had was at the Cafe Wah. Wow. Legendary club. Wow, still standing. Still standing. I didn't, you know, get it torn down. So at any rate, let me see, Godfrey Cambridge was working up the street. Bill Cosby was getting started on his comedic career.

Touche. Okay. And all sorts of... Dick Gregory must have been around? Dick Gregory was around. I think Dick was already touring a little bit. Mort Sall maybe. Who else was there? Mort Sall.

Woody would have been down there, right? The Blue Angel and some of those? Yeah, all the comedians that were making the circuit, they would start here in New York City. And that was beautiful because you could go and see some of the best emerging young comedic talent in the world, all right here in Manhattan. It's terrific. So you got up and how many times did you attempt this?

After the first night, it took me about a month before I could get up to courage to do it again, because it was painful. It was really painful, but I tried it again. And then I would look for encouragement from my buddies that I'd grown up with. I'd ask them, I'd say, I'm working in a club. What are you doing? I'm working in a club. Are you serving drinks? No, well, hell, can you get me a drink?

I might be able to get you a drink. Well, if you guarantee me a drink, I'll come. And that's the only way I get my friends to come. So they're paying me all of, I think, $4 a night at the cafe while, in fact, everything I made went into drinks. Okay. Ginger ale costs a buck and a half,

so I was broke by the end of the night. Gilbert, Gilbert was 15 when he got on stage at the stand up for the first time. Yeah, first time I got on a comedy stage. Well, you were a deranged child. Yes! You could say that. What was the club, Gil?

What was the venue? Was it not in the city? I had thought it was the Bitter End, but then my sister, who went with me to the club, said it wasn't the Bitter End. She doesn my sister, who went with me to the club, said it wasn't the Bitter End. She doesn't remember the name of the club. Was it in town or on the outskirts? It was in Manhattan.

Interesting. In Manhattan, yeah. There was a club called the Bitter End, you know that? Yeah, that's still there, of course. But she says it was a different place. I wonder what club that was. They'd have all these places that would pop up. Right? I remember.

It's like. So we're talking about the late 60s in your case. Yeah. Yeah. And I haven't written anything new since then. Yeah. I can attest to that. So jumping around, you're on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Yeah. And you find out that there's a pilot, that there's a Norman Lear project. Right. That's pretty much the sequence of events. You're working on the show and I was going into my second year and then slowly but surely building up Gordy to where they're now and I'm liking it. Always enjoyed the Gordy episodes.

I'm with a hit show, where am I going? So I got the call, said Norman Lear would like to see you and Miss Roll had insisted on having a husband on the show. So I went in and I read for her and for Norman and got the job. So far so good. And you are, you said, like as far as knowing about Norman Lear is that you had seen the original pilot episode of All in the Family. Yeah yeah. Yeah. I saw that the original pilot

episode now that's important because the stars that went on to be in the series that we know they they weren't in it. Rob Reiner, he wasn't in it. And Sally Struthers. Sally Struthers wasn't in it. So the Nucleus family that we came to know wasn't in that episode and the material, I couldn't believe it. When I heard the language coming out of this character's mouth and his racial attitudes, I said, you can't put this on television. I mean they showed it to me and my manager was Wally Amos of all people. Really? A famous Amos Cookies.

Wow. Wally was my personal manager. So he called me and he said, I want you to come up to my office and take a look at something. This is a pilot that they're going to produce. I said, you can't put this on here, look at it, look. What's that guy's name? He said Archie Bunker, oh no, this'll never work. You can't, the language is too strong. And was I wrong or was I wrong? That's how innovative it was.

That's how groundbreaking it was. I just could not believe that they were gonna do this, and of course they did. Norman Lear was a genius. He's a bona fide genius. I was so lucky to work for a guy that had his finger right on the pulse of what people were laughing about, what they were serious about, the whole nine yards. He had his finger right on the pulse. He knew just what was coming and what was gonna work. Very fortunate to have worked for that man. So you had luck in two

series, one the Mary Tyler Moore show, where it was all totally professional, extreme talent to Norman Lear. From Brooks and Burns to Norman Lear, it's a nice company. No doubt. And Esther Rowe, you said she was from real poverty. Oh, Esther didn't get her first pair of shoes that were her shoes because she had a number of siblings. I don't know how many children there were in the family when she grew up in Florida. Her own personal shoes, she didn't get until she was 13.

The rest of the shoes that she had, she had to share with her brothers and sisters. And some of her brothers had big feet, so... You know? Anyway. She brought that humility to that character, and she brought an understanding of what life would be like if the Evans family had grown up in that poverty. So she was a wonderful, wonderful actress. She was wonderful to work with and she always gave me the feeling that we had grown up, part

of us had grown up together. We knew each other because she was from the south, my relatives were from the south, my mom and dad were from, both were from Alabama. And so we had that link, you know, that unspoken link, and it worked. The magic that we had between us as a couple worked for... Real chemistry. Yeah, it was real chemistry. When we would chastise the kids, we'd really be chastising them

because we knew how important it was that these kids living in the Cabrini Green apartments have something to emulate that was worth emulating, you know? Give them something to shoot for. And it was understood. We never talked about it a great deal. We just went ahead and did it. And fortunately, more often than not, the writers would hit the mark. Daddy? Yeah? I want to apologize. For what Michael? For thinking Cletus was a hero. I acted just like a kid. Oh that's alright son, you didn't know no better. But I do know one thing for sure, when it comes to heroes there's only one in this house.

Hell it's nice of you to say that little brother. JJ I was talking about daddy. Now Michael as much as I appreciate that, I ain't no hero. You don't have to be no hero to catch a chump like that. Now I think son, if you're talking about heroes, you're thinking about people like Martin Luther King or Thurgood Marshall or Medgar Evers. And James Evans Sr. Right on, but James Evans Sr. you didn't say that, Nick. You've been outvoted. You've been outvoted. And then, well, we have to hit upon this one, Jimmy Walker.

Yes, we have to hit upon this one. Hard and often. Subtle. Very subtle. I had never, I tell you, the first time I saw him, I thought that they were doing a benefit for a biafra or something. I didn't know. I'd never seen anybody that thin. He was thin at the time. Very, very, I mean he was emaciated.

He was almost transparent. And the first time I saw him was in the studio at NBC. I said, wow, is he here to plug one of those starvation shows? They said, no, no, he's a comedian and he's, you might be working with him. I said, I don't think so. I don't think he's gonna be around long. No, he was incredibly thin. I'd never seen anybody that thin and alive in my life.

And we didn't have too much to do. There was some game show or something that they wanted us both on. I think they just wanted to see what we'd look like together on camera, one way or the other it worked out all right. And Jimmy and I had our differences because he will tell you, he's the first one to tell you, he never considered

himself an actor. He said, I'm a comedian, I'm a comic, and I'm not into acting, I said, yeah, but it'd be nice if you'd learn the lines and you know, like. We gotta do this, you know. This part of what I do is called acting, okay? And he did have a great sense of comedy. I give him that. And he was funny. He was a funny, physically a funny guy. There was no way he was going to do one of his dynamite poems and not have the audience break up. So that's nice when you create those moments, those savers.

If this guy says dynamite, none of us have to do anything for another minute and a half, two minutes, maybe a page and a half. We can coast. So yeah, let him have all the dynamites he wants. But eventually you and Esther, I think, felt like the show was going from like really making a statement to like just being like, you know, him doing. Yeah, I felt like we, after a fashion, we started to pander to the lowest common denominator.

With, you know, anything for a laugh. Put chicken hats, you know, anything. And you remember that show had some very relevant subject matter at different times, and that's what was capturing that audience. We were doing episodes on gang violence, JJ getting shot, seniors being forced to eat pet food because of economic constraints,

teenage pregnancy. We were touching on some very serious subject matter and it was getting people's attention and people were appreciating it because nobody else was addressing these things on television. So we had something going for us and it had its time, it had its moment, you know, and then it was over. And you said around that time you weren't very diplomatic. No, I was, what you might call an asshole. I believe the term they used was disruptive influence. Yeah, they called me a disruptive influence.

I was still having flashbacks to football, you know, in of all places. So if you have a difference with somebody in a comedic situation, you just say, hey, let's try it this way instead of, no, let's take this shit outside. So anyway, it took me quite a while to mature and to get to the point where we could have discussed our creative differences without me wanting to go outside. And yeah, I was a little bit off the farm there for a while. Tell us how you found out you were no longer, your services were no longer. Yeah, it happened not unlike the way it does with football.

You get that magic phone call. I was at home, we were on hiatus from good times. I think we were into our second year and the show was doing phenomenally well. The numbers were good. So I get a phone call and they say, John, JD Joe, Norman's assistant is on the phone she'd like to talk to you I said okay something is about a rehearsal or

something yeah JD this is John and I can hear she's very cold yes John Norman's here he'd like to speak with you okay hello John hey Norman how are you I'm fine big John John I got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first? I said, it's your dime Well, John the show's been picked up for it. That's a good news been picked up for another full season Well, that was a foregone conclusion. We were in the top 20 top 10 maybe even some polls So that didn't surprise me said they're not a news. Yeah, Norman, you won't be with us. Nothing from me. Why don't you have anything to say, John? No. It's your show.

Good luck, Norman. We'll see you around. Click. That was it. I was extended the phone call. That's how they let me know that I was killed off of good times. And I never felt it. I really never felt the pain of being cut from the show because there was almost a seamless transition from that show six months down, or six or seven months down the road to Roots. And that changed everything for me as an actor.

So blessing in disguise, really? It was absolutely because had I continued in good times, I would have missed out. I wouldn't have been available for Roots. And that established me as a dramatic actor. And so far, so good. And when was the next time you spoke to Norman Lear? God, I bet you it was the better part of two, good two years.

And he came to me with another project. Wow. And we did, we did the pilot. I was playing, I was taking, the character was taking over the office of a recently deceased incumbent congressman. And I can't recall the name of the show but it didn't fly it was it I thought it was a pretty damn good pilot and it had a lot of political

as you can imagine what a Norman Lear show it had a lot of political overtones and I thought it had a shot but it didn't make it. In fact Norman and I did two more pilots together. Wow. Neither of which flew. Well, then eventually you did 704 Houser Street. Yeah, 704 Houser Street, right, where we move into the Archie Bunker House, my family.

And my son is a conservative Republican. Right. Norman was really, he was really mixing it up. He was having a lot of fun with the chemistry in those days. And then I think the time that you saw Norman after not seeing him, not speaking for years, you said to him, hey, I would have fired me. Yeah, that's true. I told him we went to a Gathering it in Vegas. I think it was and we were honoring Norman for his work that he'd done in television

And I told him in the audience Looking back to John Amos I was then I would have fired me too Who needed to put up with that much aggravation? You know the aggravation I was bringing, I was giving him agitator every day, you know, but I thought that was the way that you got things done. I didn't appreciate the professionalism that goes into a long career. I do now. Long periods of unemployment have a way of getting the message across. I watched a 704 Hauser on YouTube and also kind of ahead of its time. Yeah, it was. Isn't that young interracial couple? Exactly. And it's treated rather casually. Yeah, exactly. I mean,

it was not the reason for the show. Right. It was just one of the key ingredients of the show. It was not the reason for the show. It was just one of the key ingredients of the show. And was it Cindy Williams? Was I think Maura Tierney from News Radio. Maura Tierney, right. Maura Tierney. Yeah. And now you're kind of in the crusty

Archie Bunker role a little bit. How about that? Yeah. How about that? It must have felt weird. You're now on the Archie Bunker set. You're thinking back to this pilot that you saw a million years ago. It felt weird, all right.

It's strange. I said this is my punishment. Come back as a bigot. Let's talk a little bit about Roots and you got to tell Gil. Oh wait, before we get to Roots, I would be remiss to all my fans if I didn't throw in keeping your head above water, making a wave when you can, good times, temporary layoffs, good times, early credit ratings. Riff-offs, I think. Riff-offs, yes, good times. All right. Well, wait a minute.

Now that we got John. Ain't we sorry we ha-ow we happy we got it. Good times. We had two of the impractical jokers here, Brian and Q. You got that out of your system? Yes. We were trying to figure out what that one lyric was from the Good Times theme.

Do you remember that he stumped us on? Oh, that's right. Do you know? Contemporary layoffs. No, no, no. Let's hear it. Frankie, can you call it up? James Evans himself is going to solve this mystery.

From television city in Hollywood. Good times. Anytime you meet a payment. Good times. Anytime you meet a payment. Good times. Anytime you're up and under. Not getting hassled.

Not getting hustled. Keeping it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. Good times! Anytime you meet a friend. Good times! Anytime you're out for Monday. Not getting hassled, not getting hustled. Keeping your head above water.

Making a wave when you can. Temporary layoffs. Good times! Easy credit rip-offs. Good times! Okay, what's the next line, John? Hangin' in a johnner. Good times! Rip off good times. Okay, what's the next line John? I know it!

I know it. Hanging and adjoining? Living and adjiving. No, no, no. I don't think that's it. I think it's living and adjiving. Well, there's two theories. Yes. One theory is that it's hanging and jivin'. Hanging in a Jivan. Hanging in a Jivan. Or hanging in a Jivan. Okay.

And another theory is Q's theory. Not Q. We deal with an important subject. Yeah. I want to know what did Donald Trump have to say about it? What's his interpretation? Well, we have Hillary the jokers were claiming that it was hanging in a chow line, yeah Yeah, that's what I've I keep hearing all the time hanging in a chow line. Okay, that makes sense

That one makes more sense. I'll claims that it was hanging in a chow line. Okay. Okay, the mystery is will remain unsolved But we'll go with that one. Okay. Okay. Now let's ask about Roots. Yeah. Yeah, and you originally auditioned for a different part than the one you wound up with.

Right, the one that they, the character that they asked me to come in and read for initially, I wanted to do, and it wouldn't have been as pivotal character as Kunti Kinte, obviously, but I wanted to do and it wouldn't have been as pivotal character as Kunti Kinte obviously, but I wanted to do it nevertheless. So that got back to them and then they came back a second time and said, we'd like you to read for another character that was substantially more involved in the development of the play. And I said, oh yeah, I'd be glad to do it.

Now I'm beginning to see little references or they're alluding to the Kuntakinte character as I read this other character. So David got back and he says, well, would you do that? And I said, yeah, I'd be glad to do it. Now I'm really intrigued because I've been offered a job pretty much, but that character, Kuntukinte is still out there.

And I said, boy, whoever gets that, man, that is some piece of meat. That's gonna be a fine, fine role. And sure enough, they called me back in and they said, David would like you to read for the role of Kuntukente. And I just about had a stroke. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was like hitting the lottery, you know?

Sure. And all the things that, all the research that I'd done, not even knowing that I'd be ever offered a role like that, I'd gone to Africa a number of times on my own. I'd studied the dialect and the indigenous food, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Not just out of my own curiosity. Sure enough, I get a chance to use those memories

when David Walper offered me the job of quintalent roots. Girl, your name is Kizzy. You're from special people, baby Kizzee, special. And you're gonna be a special kind of woman, too. Your name means stay put. But it don't mean stay a slave. It won't never mean that. You is the daughter of the African Kuntikinte of the village of Jufure on the banks of the river called the Cambi Balango. The father of Kuntikinte is the Mandinka warrior Omoro.

His mama is Binta. Omoro was the son of the holy man, the rabbi Kuntikinte. You went for the, you were up for the wrestler part originally. And then did you read for Lou Gossett's part too, for the Fiddler? The truth of it is, I would have loved to have done the role that Louis Gossett did. I would have loved to have been part of Roots in any capacity. And that was certainly a memorable role and he justifiably won the Emmy for it. He's a marvelous actor, Lewis says. Because he's out of the old school. He knows what it is to give in a scene. Not to just hog the scene or try and steal the scene. But he's a stage-trained actor and he's sharp. He's as good as he gets.

Well, tell Gilbert that great story. Go ahead, Gill, I'm sorry. No, I was just saying, he said to you to be in the moment and experience what you're doing. We were sitting underneath the tree and the scene was, the scene ironically enough What you do we were set we were setting underneath the tree and The scene was the scene ironically enough where Fiddler his character passes away So we were setting underneath the tree and they were reloading the cameras and whatever and I said

You know, this is this is a real blessing man He said you better believe it he said we got to pretend that this is a real blessing, man. He said, you better believe it. He said, we gotta pretend that this is a real good piece of meat, because we're never gonna get a steak like this again in the industry. This is incredible. And sure enough, it worked out. I've never seen any material like that since then, including the remake of Roots. Once something like that is done,

it's like the great film classics like Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Why would you want to do that again? Leave it alone. You know from here to eternity. Leave it alone. It's been done. They're masterpieces. And yet they do try to remake them all the time. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately. Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast, but first a word from our sponsor. Tell Gil the wonderful story about you deciding that you had the right accent. They were questioning it.

And then you wound up, and an incident happened that convinced you that you had made the right choice. I'd been traveling to Liberia more frequently than any other part of the continent. And I'd just, what I called the pigeon accent, you know, I'd hear it and I'd emulate it. So I was with a friend of mine, his name is Charlie Mitchell, one of the locals in Liberia. And we were having a beer in what they called a Shabeen, which is just somebody's house. He's got a couple of barrels of beer and he's selling beer and maybe making a buck or two. So we're having a beer. And Charles, my friend, he was keeping an eye out for me because we were in some pretty rough territory. So Charles said, John, I see one guy, he's staring at you.

So I'm telling him, he's staring at you. Yeah, do you know him, Charles? No I don't. Oh, what? John, he's coming this way. You walk, John, you're having a a machete I know what a machete And John the two guys with him they both be having machete oh you coming for your head John No, not today brother. Not coming for no head today

This guy evidently Thought I was a security guard, that had been his security guard when he worked in a diamond mine and was badly mistreated. And the guy said to me, he said, hey, I told you, when I reach outside, I'm coming for you. You treat me real bad in Bowman Hill diamond mine.

Now I'm coming for your head. I said, wait a minute, buddy, hold it, time out. I pulled out my wallet. I pulled out my wallet. I said, you see this? John Amis, Los Angeles, California. I'm a player, an actor, okay? I don't know who you thought I was, but I ain't him, okay? So you can put away the machete. He ain't coming for the head today. When I told the casting director at the Walper, when I shared that story with David, I said,

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. today when I told the casting director at the at the Walper when I shared that story with David I think he was satisfied that I'd made the right choice as far as picking an accent that would be believable. It was a great story. And that was the truth that actually happened that actually happened. I haven't used that accent since then Some great actors and roots to and one that we talk about Moses gun We've talked about on this show and I mean Richard roundtree and scat man and absolutely Chuck Connors and Vic Mauorrow and everybody's in that.

Everybody. Thomas Rossellala. Right. Another guy we love. Right. Names you don't hear anymore. Don't hear him. Guys that turn up in 70s movies that just we love Moses Gunn. Moses Gunn from the hot rock. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Moses had a had an enviable career. He played he had some important, and he was a fine actor. Lots of good people in that. Yeah, he was like, and I think he was an African in Hot Rock. I think so. Yeah. And Thelma Rossellala turns up in a great,

one of the Dirty Harry movies. I want to say it's the third one, The Enforcer. And he's just, I love those guys. Yeah. Oh yeah, the old character. Calvin Lockhart too. Calvin Lockhart. Turns out they're coming to America with you.

Yeah, right, we worked together. What was that series he had? He was a teacher? Oh gosh. Oh God. I know, we'll look that one up too. Yeah. I just love those actors and I love to see look that one up too. Yeah. I just love those actors and I

love to see them in 70s films. Yeah. Richard Roundtree, another one. It's funny when you look at like 70s movies, well like when I look at Bullitt was on. Yeah. Recently and you're in the police station and going, oh, him, him, him, him. You knew every actor. Norman Fell was there. Robert Vaughn. Oh yes, yes. And Don Gordon maybe?

Yes. Yeah, Don Gordon. Yeah, yeah. Love seeing those guys. Absolutely. Love Yaff at Kodo across 110th Street. Right. With Anthony Quinn

Yeah, I mean they don't they don't make them like that Raymond St. Jacques. Okay, Raymond St. Jacques another one. Yeah Now here's something I have to find out. I don't think he was born this way, but another Favorite topic was Yaffet Cotto in fact Jewish Well, that'd be a scoop. You know, I don't know. I believe he was. I believe he declared Judaism as his faith at one point. I'm fairly confident. I could be wrong, but I think he did.

That's good stuff. That's good enough for me. We should explain, John. He's obsessed with other performers who are Jewish. Okay. Well, wait a minute. I want to tell you something. I've been wanting to talk to you about it for a long time.

I told you to do another accent. Let's talk about coming to America and how it came to be. Oh, I tell you. You're so funny in in that I got the call from John Landis he says look I'm making a movie I want to talk to you about it come over to Paramount so I go to Paramount and no oh I think I think there is holding our website excuses John that says Jew or not a Jew and they have Yaffa Coto and thumbs up on Yaffet Koto? Jewish. Yeah, Jew.

We were right on that. Okay, good call. Good call. So at any rate, I go over to Paramount and I meet John Landis and a couple of the other execs involved in the film and John begins to tell me the story and I'm laughing just as he describes the different scenes and he says, I've got an elderly couple, they come over to the house and they're sitting there and they leave a big greasy grease stain, Jerry Curl stain on the couch and they get up.

So I fall on the floor laughing. I just think that's one of the funniest things. I said, you're gonna do that? He said, oh yeah, we're gonna do that. And I didn't get to read any of the script at all. He just would describe the scenes to me. And I said, I'm in, man. So he said, OK, terrific.

And as it turned out, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I knew the movie was going to be a hit. I was working on the film well over a month. And I'm standing outside in between takes on a break. Let's say a lunch break. And this character comes up to me and says, hey, you working on the movies?

So I said, yeah. He said, I don't know, what do you do? I said, I'm working in this movie called Coming to America. He said, what's your name? I said, John Amos. He said, I never heard of you. He said, you any good? I said, well, I'd like to think so. The guy's starting to get on my nerves now. What movies have you been in?

So I named a couple of them. Mary Taliband. I don't watch television. And the more I tell this guy, the more he busts my chops. Finally, I look at this guy and say, hey, look, you know, I only got a little time for lunch. You're getting on my nerves. How about leaving me alone?

Okay? And he says, it's Eddie. He's in costume. He got me. He got me. He really got me so pissed off I was getting ready to punch him out, you know? Was he in prosthetic makeup? Yeah, he had prosthetic, a different, no, I think he was chocolate browner, one of those characters.

Sure. Well, that was a joy though. You never knew what you're gonna spend the day doing, but it's probably gonna be laughing. And how was it to work with James Earl Jones? It was intimidating, that voice, you know? Sure. The first time I heard him really speak, we were in the rehearsal hall and we were just

doing a read through of the script. And there was a question as to whether or not one of the lines that I had was going to be appropriate. And I think the line was something to the effect of whatever it was, it wasn't working too well. So I changed the line and James says, yes, the other line was rather obtuse. I said, what? And Eddie said, all Eddie said was obtuse.

What? And Eddie said, all Eddie said was, obtuse. I mean, that's the way it went, man. So who could call it work under those conditions, you know? It was a joy. It was absolute joy. I've heard you say that about certain projects, certain dream projects, that when you know you're right for the part, Oh yeah. and the part is right, the part loves you back, That's right, and the part loves you back. there's nothing better. You can't do any wrong. You can't do any wrong.

They could tell you, you know, guess what, we're gonna pay you in yin. Okay. I don't care. I'm having too much fun arguing. Do people still come up to you and ask you to do certain dialogue from coming to America? They will do the line. They'll look at me like, how was that? Like, the boy has got his own money. In that movie, you work right across the street from McDonald's, and you've got a hamburger place called McDonald's that also has a golden arch. Oh, his is the golden arch. What are you trying to implore? The business of America is business. And you worked with those writers on SNL, did you not?

The Sheffield and Bloustein? Oh, yes, yes. Equally as funny, in real life I worked for McDonald's. The McDonald's Corporation. When I was up in Canada after I got cut from my last Canadian football team, I needed a job. My daughter was an infant at the time, so I applied for and got a job as a McDonald's franchise trainee.

And I'm working at McDonald's during the day, and we weren't doing any business because they were just introducing the chain to all of Canada. So I had like 20 crewmen with nothing to do. So I started getting them songs and dances rehearsing. Oh, that's right. You wrote song parodies about McDonald's. And people would come up there and say, what is this place? I'd say, this is McDonald's, we sell hamburgers. You never sell anything. What do you got all these people dancing and singing around? You say, do I have this right? You took like music from West Side Story. Right. And you... A bun like that could cause a trouble. A bun like that could ruin a double, stick to your own bond specifications.

I was damaged goods in those days. And you also, and we have something here that you've also talked about. This is scary. What's this? Frankie, speaking of McDonald's. Oh yes. Scrub the bottom and top. Nothing's so clean. Oh, yes. Nothing so clean. Adnan Burger Machine.

Look at the floor. When we finish what then? You smile all over again. Tell me what does it mean. And McDonald is great. You deserve a break today. So get up and get away To McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's! Okay? Fantastic!

You still remember it! Oh yeah, absolutely! Absolutely! Here's the killer. I walk into Tom Hanks' dressing room. I go to see him in Broadway. I walk into his dressing room and he breaks into that song of all the things in the world. What was that? 1971, I think? What, when we did the commercial? Yeah, 70-71.

Oh, it might have been early than that It could have been 70 71 and you're and talk about being an athlete you're like leaping over the counters Familiar faces in there right Anson Williams, right Anson Williams Robert Ridgely. Okay, remember that actor? Absolutely and Johnny Hamer, I think is his name. The guy that played Zale on MASH, if I have the actor's name right. I think he's the guy in Annie Hall that does the bad comedian. Fascinating to see those faces. I tell you, little history there. That was great. And you remember every word of it.

Yeah. Gil, what else you have for this man? After that. Retirement, right? Yeah, I don't think anything could top that. Tell us about Halley's Comet. Halley's Comet came about as a result of me falling in love with the idea of something that happens once every 76 years and the last time it came through our solar system it inspired me

to write a fictitious piece about the comet itself and it's very simple premise I portray an old man this is a one-person show now. It's a one-man show. It inspired me to write a one-man show about a man who has lived long enough to see Haley's comic come twice. Once as a 10-year-old, sitting on his father's shoulders in a part of deep rural south, and a second time as an octogenarian, he's gotten up in age now and he's sired a family, and he's seen all the things that mankind has seen, you know, two world wars, etc.,

all the things that have happened to us politically and generationally over the last 76 years of his life and he sets out on an early morning to see the comet as it makes its cycle through our solar system again he wants to share with the comet everything that has transpired in his life since they last saw each other so it's it's it's been a wonderful ride for me because I love the stage so much I think if you're a compulsive performer, most of us comedians are, everyone's told we just have to have the live feedback from an audience. And when I present my own words to that audience and they appreciate it and I'm storytelling,

that's nirvana. That's as good as it gets, you know. You just portray an old man who's reflecting back on his life and the audience is enjoying it and moves them in different places to tears, to laughter. I've had people wet themselves laughing so hard. That's a nice compliment. I peed, man, I peed. It must have really been good then. So I've been enjoying that and lately, that is lately in the last year or so, my manager and I have been working on putting the elements together to make it a film.

After touring with it for 20 some odd years in every imaginable venue. I don't know how many countries overseas, how many states, a minimum of at least 40 dates, various states throughout the United States. And I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it. The old man's got a lot of sense, you know. He's got the sense that comes from having lived as long as he's lived and seeing everything that he's seen. So it works. And do you have a foundation? Yeah, the Haley's Comet Foundation, exactly. What I do through my foundation is I love to sail and I love the ocean.

So I try and teach, I set up programs for young kids, the younger the better, at a certain age, cutoff age, to learn not just how to sail, but to learn all the possible job opportunities that exist in the maritime industry. It's one area that most inner city kids don't even think about. They never even get to see a boat, much less how am I gonna get a job on a boat if I've never even seen a boat so I'm enjoying it good

for you and I'm getting tremendous support from some well-established veterans and Donald Trump is not involved well well I think that should be it. Oh good, well I want more, more, more. You sang those song parodies with Steve Allen. You guys did your homework. I mean man. We do a little bit of digging here John.

Yeah. What was that like? That was heaven. I mean, Steve Allen was always one of my favorites anyway. When you grow up in the age of television that I did, you look forward to the Steve Allen because you know they were going to come up with something fresh. So when I was invited to do his show, he started talking to me, but I didn't realize the guy loves song parodies

and he loved that kind of thing. That was his weakness. You know, he when I I told him, I said, well, I wrote a whole bunch of parodies set to the music of West Side Story about McDonald's. He said, you did? Like he didn't know that already. And then he got on the piano. He knocked out a couple of tunes, and I ad libbed some lyrics. Oh, let me see. I feel queasy and uneasy. I feel queasy, uneasy and sick

because I just ate my 13th cheeseburger real quick. Stuff like that. That's great. It's a some journey, John. You're a kid born in Newark, raised in East Orange, New Jersey, want to be a football player. Somehow you end up working with Steve Allen and Jack Benny and Sidney Poitier and Lena Horne. It's hell of a ride. What a ride. And sitting here talking about Gilbert Gottfried.

The biggest thrill. Okay. So this is when I know I've arrived. Anybody could work with a Steve Allen, but Gilbert Gottfried, now you're talking. This is talent here. You will not get more flattery than that in your career. See, I think now with that accent you could be Tevye. Why not, Boobie? Why not?

So, I guess we should wrap up. Yeah, we could keep talking to this man about all the people he worked with. Great, great stuff. You worked with Art Carney in a TV movie about Alcatraz? I sure did. I totally forgot about that. Yeah. Right.

That's what we're here for, John. Yeah. Remind me. Written by Ernest Tideman, of all people. Yeah. House. And Shaft. Okay.

And Alex Karas was in it. And Telly Savalas was in it. Whew. Well, you've got some good stories about that. Hey! Hey! Everybody, and you work with your favorite Gilbert, Tonya Roberts. Oh my god!

Oh yeah, we worked in the Beastmaster together. Oh wow, she, did you, were you in any- What? What? Did I, did I, did we, what? Now he's interested. Wait, were you in any scenes where she was naked in it? Cause she was doing a lot of naked...

Also Jewish. Yeah, Jewish. Almost. No, almost naked. Oh, almost. Right category, almost Jewish. This has been a treat, John. Thank you. Work for me too, guys. Thank you, buddy.

Okay. So I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host Frank Santo Padre once again at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Ferdorosa. And we've been talking to who? John Amos. Writer, director, actor, producer, everything. John Amos.

Thank you, man. This was great. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.