Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - In Memoriam 2020

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

Gilbert and Frank are again joined by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Michael H. Weber for a loving look back at some of the artists and performers who left the stage in 2020, including Carl Reiner, Kirk Douglas, Diana Rigg, Buck Henry, Regis Philbin and Olivia deHavilland. Also in this episode: Sean Connery improvises an iconic line, Fred Silverman makes TV history, Matty Simmons co-founds the National Lampoon and the world bids farewell to Mr. Creosote. PLUS: Burns and Schreiber! Stiller and Meara! The art of Mort Drucker! The genius of Fred Willard! And Gilbert and Frank salute a member of the ACP family! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Partner Sun Life. The world is yours to create. Hi, I'm Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre. Well, another year has come and gone. And as we all know, the year 2020 was difficult with significant losses, including many people who contributed to the culture. And because this podcast is about paying tribute, we're going to spend a little time remembering some of the unforgettable artists and performers who left us in 2020, including a few who appeared on this very show. Here, as always, to lend a hand with our annual In Memoriam show is our friend and fellow

entertainment historian, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of films like The Disaster Artist, 500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now, and the fourth in our stars, Michael H. Weber. Guys, thank you for having me back. I still wonder if the only reason you guys invite me back for this, I'm the only regular guest who's not a member of the AARP. But I appreciate the invite. It's you and a few others. It's you and a handful of others. I always like in memoriams. I do, too.

Like, my favorite, that's my favorite moment. Although the Oscars always fucks it up. They do. So the one time I was nominated and I got to go to the Oscars wearing my orange wedge pin. Yes, you wore your orange wedge. I couldn't make it through the show without going to the bathroom. And I ran into the lobby. And, you know, they put a seat filler in your seat and

the whole thing and I and and you have to kind of run through the lobby it's a whole thing and I didn't get back in time so I and and I didn't know what was coming up next in the show and I I missed the in memoriam of the one time I got to go to the Oscars which is my favorite part also so I had to watch it from the I watched from the hallway, waiting to go back into the auditorium. So it was a bummer. But they always fuck it up. Well, they always leave out key people. They'll film a singer and an orchestra, and in the back, there's a screen.

And you can't see who's on the screen. You know, TCM does a nice job, actually. They do. Every year. Yeah, they do the best one because they don't have time constraints. They don't have to worry about a commercial break. So it's, you know, usually the TCM one is anywhere from like four to eight minutes, which is great. Where you just, they always leave people out of the Oscars one.

And it's a bummer. It's really, let it be as long as it needs to be, which is, I guess, what we're doing here. And what's that show, 2020? Yeah. I saw them do one. They did a good one. They did, really?

Yeah. I didn't even know they had an in-memorial show. Yeah, the Oscars could watch them and learn something i think the screen actors guild uh does one the sag awards does one and probably the emmys does one i haven't watched and for me it has to have those moments where the actor says something that now has a double meaning oh that's interesting the actor says something that now has a double meaning. Oh, that's interesting. Where the actor turns around and goes, well, it was all worth it.

I'll see you again sometime. Yeah, with the Oscar ones, they do tend to leave in an occasional line of dialogue. Yes. Yeah. But the TCM ones are so artfully done and the music is so well chosen. They just do the best job.

Well, which leads us to our show. And we've, I think this is the fifth one, Gil? Oh, I don't know. I've lost count.

It may be the fifth. It may be the sixth. Michael has been here. Is this your third with us? I think it's my third. And I probably told that AARP joke last year. us? I think it's my third. And I probably told that AARP joke last year. Yeah, I think it's my third. 2020 was a horrible year. I think there's a consensus about that. And we lost, as Gilbert says, a lot of people, a lot of wonderful,

irreplaceable people, including... See, but 2020—not 2020, yeah, 2020, the year. It's a horrible year, but, you know, you could say it's over with, but then you could say, well, what about Chinese New Year's or Jewish New Year's? That's true. It's invented. That's true. Yeah. Good point.

I didn't know you were going to be so philosophical tonight. Yes. invented. That's true. Good point. I didn't know you were going to be so philosophical tonight. Shall we start paying tribute to some of these wonderful performers that we lost? And again, I will preface by saying, you know, we never get to everybody just like the Oscars don't. And believe it or not,

yes, we have time constraints too because we only have 90 minutes to do it. We get to a lot of names. But don't. And believe it or not, yes, we have time constraints, too, because we only have 90 minutes to do it. We get to a lot of names. But don't worry. It'll feel longer. Inevitably, somebody, someone of value, if not several people of value, are left out. So we'll try to—every year we try to get to the big names, and we try to get to some writers and some directors and some behind-the-scenes people. And this year is no different. But let's start with an icon and an Oscar winner.

And that is James Bond himself, Sean Connery. A legend. A legend. I mean, it's, you know, of course there's James Bond, but the man who would be king, Murder on the Orient Express, Hunt for Red October, The Untouchables, Zardoz. I mean, it's so many. Did you say Zardoz? Zardoz, come on. You were on a roll there.

I thought he was in a diaper. You were on a roll. Actually, you know, Connery is the only James Bond to win an Oscar. That is correct. For The Untouchables. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes.

And if you were anyone who is old enough to see James Bond when it was Sean Connery, you can't accept anybody else. No, no. You can't accept anybody else. No, no. You know what his favorite was? That he said his favorite of all his Bond films was To Russia With Love, which I think is my favorite of his as well. Interesting.

Which Robert Shaw was in that. And Lottie Linya. The trouble with those Connery movies is that they don't, the misogyny does not play anymore in this day and age. And as much as I love them, as much as I love Goldfinger and Dr. No and From Russia With Love and a bunch of them, I hate myself for saying this. When you watch them now, by our current movie watching standards, they're a little slow. Yeah, they are. They're slow and they're a little slow yeah they are they're they're they're slow and they're talky

they're very talky and i know that that's you know a a function of time and but you watch a movie like casino royale mike and how and how fast it moves well nowadays they're the energy of it and nowadays they're built around the action set pieces they're built around the trailer moments back then it was you know uh it it in some ways um the spirit of the original movies felt closer to the spirit of the books because the books were sort of that kind of uh had that sort of tone um i i read something really interesting when i was when i was just sort of doing a deep dive on on on connery's life he improvised the line bond james bond i didn't know that it was yeah it as the legend goes it was scripted he he goes i am james bond which is nothing it's so flat yeah that's nothing and uh and he came up with Bond and The Pause, James Bond, which is awesome.

In a very interesting life, actually, too. And outside of Bond, and you named all those films worth seeing. I will add the Lumet pictures, The Offense and The Hill, and Peter Hyams' Outland. Oh, that very strange movie with Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick. Family business. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not one of his finest hours.

The father's Irish. His son is Italian. Right. And his son's Jewish. Right. That's right. That was a lot to buy. With a Jewish guy playing an Italian, a Scotsman playing an Irishman, and a

Wasp, an Irishman playing the Jew. And they're all doing it for this scheme to help out this Chinese guy. See, this is a pattern on all the In Memoriam shows,

Mike. We get about five minutes into it, and we just start trashing people's choices. You know, it's the spirit of this show. Come on, everyone knows. Of course. Also, a movie, Wrong is Right, from the 80s. I don't know if you know this picture. No. Richard Brooks movie, a black comedy worth finding.

In the research, I found thatan fleming himself was not sold on connery no no i guess he wanted carrie grant yeah well carrie grant playing yeah playing a brit i guess he was a brit uh so one other uh i found him you guys might remember from past years i love um reading about that sort of alternate history of hollywood when you find out like oh they were almost in this movie they passed on that movie and with connery there's a ton of them they're fascinating connery was the first choice ahead of steve mcqueen for the thomas crown affair and connery said no and they went to steve mcqueen um connery turned down the uh richard part in jurassic park and he turned down Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

Wow. By then he was hardly working. I know, I know. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting, too. I was saying he had an interesting life before he got the big break as Bond. Oh, don't forget, too, Gilbert, Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Oh. He was a lifeguard. He was a laborer. He was an artist's model. the big break as Bond. Oh, don't forget too, Gilbert, Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Oh!

He was a lifeguard. He was a laborer. He was an artist's model. A nude artist's model. He was a coffin polisher. He was a bodybuilder. Jeez. And he did some theater. He took some theater roles. He did some bit parts in TV series. He did

Darby O'Gill in 59. And I think it was Cubby Broccoli's wife over, as I said, over the objections of Fleming himself who was sold on the idea of Connery as Bond. A role he

felt immediately typecast in. Yeah, he spent a long time trying to get away from it then. Yeah. People should see these other Connery pictures too. And while we're talking about Bond, we lost Honor Blackman this year, Gilbert. Pussy galore. Yes.

And also Michael Lonsdale. I'm jumping Bonds, but he played Drax, the villain in Moonraker. Oh. Veteran British actor. Yeah. And even though it happened in 2021, we have to mention Gilbert's favorite Bond girl, Tanya Roberts. Yes.

Passing away officially today. I once did a Hollywood Squares with her, and she still looked totally hot. As did you, I heard. Yeah. as did you i heard yeah and and tanya roberts is in that category i call hot jew piece of ass he was a jew what what better tribute on the day of her passing was she the only jewish bond girl or was was barbara bach there was there was that... Wasn't Giggles Gazoo a Bond girl? No. You mean Gal Gadot?

How did she say her name? Gal Gadot. Wait, Gal Gadot was a Bond girl? I don't know. I don't think so. There was one named Carol something. Carol Bouquet? Maybe.

Maybe. It was... She was a hot Jew. From For Your Eyes Only. Here's another legend. Kirk Douglas. Oh, yeah. Another Jew, Gil. Yeah, yes. Acer Danielewicz. If I'm getting that right.

We could spend two hours just talking about his career and then another two hours next week. There's just so much to get into. And talking about his career and then another two hours next week. There's just so much to get into. I mean. And talking about his fascinating life. Oh, oh, I mean, Spartacus, Ace in the Hole, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I love Gunfight at the OK Corral. Paths of Glory. Seven Days in May. Seven Days in May.

Lonely or the Brave, which was his favorite movie of his. And Gilbert's favorite, Ace in the Hole. Yes, that is terrific, Ace in the Hole. So ahead of its time. Totally. Did you guys read his book? Did you read The Ragman's Son? No, I've never read it.

Fascinating read. I read, there was one part, and he told it in an interview. Because Kirk Douglas was a movie tough guy, everybody wanted to start fights with him. And one time he was in a restaurant and a guy came up to him and said, I could kick your ass. And Kirk Douglas said loud enough for the restaurant to hear,

anybody in this restaurant could kick my ass. Wow. I guess he was sensitive about his height. He was only like 5'8", but on screen he wanted to portray himself taller. That's like he was teased for it by, I think, like Burt Lancaster. I always think when I see those Kirk Douglas performances, Gilbert, too, it's impossible to not think of the impressionists of the day, like Beiner and Frank Gorshin and David Frye,

doing those Kirk Douglas impressions. Yeah, Frank Gorshin used to always do it together, of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Yeah, yeah. And switch the faces back and forth. I think a versatile actor, too, in the end, you know? There's a Mankiewicz movie, too, Mike, called There Was a Crooked Man.

Oh, I've seen it. Yeah, excellent. Really, really good. Three-time Oscar nominee for Lust for Life, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Champion. Yes. And a movie that I wish would have been good. You know, those movies you go to and say, I hope this...

And that was like him and his son, like an in golden pond kind of movie. What was the name of that thing? A family thing or some keeping it in the family or something. It was, I think, three generations of Douglases. I read one really interesting thing about his career. So he made this movie with Martin Ritt in the late 60s called The Brotherhood, this mafia film. Do you guys remember this? Yeah, I know this picture.

Oh, yes. So The Brotherhood was a big bomb for Paramount, so much so that they were so close to passing on Mario Puzo's The Godfather. They had the manuscript, and they almost let Universal have it because they were so convinced that audiences didn't want to see a mafia film because Kirk Douglas' The Brotherhood was a bomb. Fascinating. Crazy.

That movie was called It Runs in the Family. Oh, yes. And the Douglas picture from that era that I wish were better was Tough Guys, the one that reunited him with Lancaster. Exactly. The last of their eight movies together. Yeah. With Eli Wallach.

Yeah, you want that to be much better. But what a great body of work. And we'll leave out Saturn 3, made by Stanley Donovan, with Farrah Fawcett. Yes. But, you know, the guy survived a stroke. He survived a helicopter crash.

He was kind of indestructible. What age did he pass? What was he, 104? He was 103. 103. And because he passed away, I think, after Olivia de Havilland, he was the oldest living Oscar winner. Now it's Eva Marie Saint, if I have my facts correct.

There you go. We should try to get Eva Marie Saint on the show, Gilbert. Kirk Douglas went on the Academy Awards after his stroke. Yeah. And it was like, still, this guy's a star. He was a movie star. One of the last Golden Age movie stars. And since you made the segue to Lola of De Havilland, and I don't have to, maybe the last actress of the Golden Age, unless you want to count Ava Marie Saint,

who's sort of maybe a generation younger or a half a generation younger, Mike? Yeah, I think so. I mean, Olivia de Havilland was a star in the 30s. I think she was the last living major celebrity of the 30s. Like, I mean, it's just crazy. Robin Hood, Adventures of Robin Hood, obviously Gone with the Wind, The Snake Pit, The Heiress, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Gilbert's Favorite. And they go on and on. She famously sued Warner Brothers.

Do you know about this? The DeHavilland decision? No. To get out of her... They would sign a star to a seven-year contract but then hold them well beyond the seven years. Well beyond the terms and the length of the deal. And force

them to do parts they didn't want to do. Correct. I believe she was loaned out to Selznick in the first place to do Gone with the Wind, if I'm not mistaken. And obviously famously fought with her sister for nearly a century. Joan Fontaine. Well, they didn't get along as kids. Right.

That feud apparently went back a lifetime. And they were nominated for an Oscar in the same year. And I believe Joan, let's see if I'm piecing this together, Joan Fontaine won for Suspicion. Does that sound right? That does sound right. She lived in Paris for many years. Yes, she kept the feud going for a long time. And she was litigious.

She also sued Ryan Murphy. For feud? Yeah, for the way she was portrayed in the movie Feud by, I believe, Catherine Zeta-Jones. I think she was a five-time Oscar nominee, and she won twice. I totally botched. She won twice. Quarantine fog. Kirk Douglas got an honorary Oscar.

He didn't win a competitive oscar so i oh i bungled that douglas kirk douglas uh there was a famous thing of him including dalton trumbo's name and spartacus yeah which has been disputed by trumbo's family douglas gets a lot of credit for for being one of the people to break the blacklist and you see that story a lot but i i believe correct correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, I believe from those family challenge that they challenged it. Oh, so what's the true story? He was kind of like second.

Like, he was waiting for someone else to kind of go first, and then I guess the legend grew afterwards that it was, you know, Kirk liked to tell the story, I guess, that he did more. But, you know, who knows? Well, in that case, fuck Kirk Douglas. Oh, God. We're glad he's dead.

You can only say that about somebody 104. Or 102. Staying with actresses, Dame Diana Rigg, guys. Emma Peel. Yes. Of theel. Yes. Of the Avengers. Died at 82. And very good in the hospital,

the Arthur Hiller movie. I like that picture. I'd forgotten that picture. Yeah, I forgot she was in it with George C. Scott. I believe nine, she was a Tony and an Emmy winner, nine nominations for Game of Thrones.

She will always be remembered as the sex symbol and the feminist icon, Emma Peel. Great job of laughing at herself in the Ricky Gervais show, Extras. Yes. By the way. Yeah, I thought she was great.

I wish she had done more American films, more Hollywood films. Yeah, it seems like she was mostly doing work in the UK and then theater work, but she could have done a lot more here. Yeah, but seems like she was mostly doing work in the UK and then theater work. But she could have done a lot more here. Yeah, but that character, that Emma Peel character, is a character that stays with— I loved that show as a kid. Did you watch that, Gilbert, The Avengers?

Oh, yeah. With Patrick McNee? Yes. Here's an actress. Gilbert, you did a—I think you were on Two and a Half Men. Were you on Two and a Half Men? Yes. Did you work with Conchata— No, no, no, no, no. Oh, you were on Two and a Half Men. Were you on Two and a Half Men? Yes. Did you work with Conchata Farrell?

No, no, no. Oh, you were on Anger Management? Yeah. Okay. Well, Conchata Farrell passed away from Two and a Half Men. Oh, yes. Very busy actress. LA Law, a million movies.

She was also in Hot El Baltimore. Very, very versatile actress. Very sad, too, at the age of just 57 um kelly preston passed away this year very strange one kelly preston yeah she had she had cancer you know very funny there's that legendary story about her i guess or she was 16 when she saw greece have you heard this story no she went to see gree with, I think with her family. I could be getting some of the details wrong. But she was 16 and she came out and she pointed to the poster with John Travolta.

And she sort of announced to the people she was with, I'm going to marry that man one day. And she, years later, married John Travolta. Wow. Ooh. Wow. Gilbert, you better point to a Scarlett Johansson poster. Yeah. Yeah. Quick. Do it quick.

She was, were you almost in The Experts, Gilbert? Yes. Were you almost in that movie where she met Travolta? Yes, that was where, and it's so funny. I was flying out to L.A. to audition for The Extras. The Experts. I mean, The to L.A. to audition for The Extras. The Experts. I mean, The Experts. Yeah.

And I found myself sitting next to Mike Nesmith from The Monkees. And he said, you know, what are you reading? And I said, oh, it's The Experts. It has to do with this, this, and this. And Mike Nesmith goes goes sounds like a piece of shit i love that story i can't get enough of that story well day our pal dave thomas was in that yes and that was the movie where she i believe co-starred she may have met him previously but co-starred with travolta that was one that was one of those movies that, in the early days of cable, was on constant rotation at weird hours.

I feel like I've seen it 50 times, but never once from beginning to end in one sitting. Yeah. I think Ari Gross got the part I auditioned for. Ari Gross, there's a name. What was your part? I wish I would have been if I passed. It's a name. What was your part? I would have been if I passed. I think it was a spy movie.

No, no. It was... Oh, the story is so horrible. It's like the Russians build an American town to learn how to, you know, sneak into America. And to teach them are these two guys.

One is John Travolta. I see. And it's the way I describe it is ten times better than really. Well, it's like a Cold War Truman show. It's very weird. She was wonderful in Jerry Maguire. Yes. And in other films.

One of my favorite performers, Anne Reinking. From all that jazz. Chorus line on stage and Pippin and Cabaret and Sweet Charity. And she's in Annie. She's in John Huston's Annie. Another Tony winner. Famously in a relationship with Bob Fosse. Her work

in all that jazz is terrific. Passed away at only 71. A rough year. Let's do some funny people, Gilbert. You've been dogged by rumors for years that you're a comedian. How about Jack Burns of Burns and Carlin and then Burns and Schreiber?

Yes, they used to do the cab routine where it was like, yeah, I'm from Boston. Yeah, huh? Yeah, huh? Did you ever see Burns and Schreiber mike i have i've seen clips yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and he was burned he was burnt with burns and carlin he was half of uh half of a duo with george carlin kelly carlin eulogized him she wrote uh that uh jack burns was one of the sharpest motherfuckers I knew. He shaped my dad's mind in unique ways. A versatile guy, hosted SNL, was a writer on The Muppet Show, co-wrote The Muppet Movie. Yeah, he was head writer of The Muppet Show, right?

He was. He was indeed. Two-time Emmy nominee. He wrote the show Fridays, which was the SNL competitor. And as Gilbert pointed out to me on the phone today, Gilbert, what else was he famous for? He was famous when Don Knotts left the Andy Griffith show. They needed a goofy

deputy. So he was the goofy deputy. Yeah, Don Knotts went off to do movies, and they brought Jack... poured Jack Burns in as a character named Warren to try to fill the unfillable shoes of Don Knotts, who had won something like 86 Emmys in that part. And it was short-lived. But Jack Burns was somebody we tried to get on this show, and we talked to Kelly about it, and he was a recluse. He was one of these guys that just dropped out of, I don't even know where he was living and toward the end of his life. Here's a

name for you, Mr. Weber, while we're saying on the subject of comedy who passed away at 77, Terry Jones. One of my favorite funny men. I loved Holy Grail so much as a kid. True story. I failed high school gym. And I had to make up gym over the summer because in gym class, I was so obsessed. I was watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail multiple times a week. And we were playing, I don't remember if it was softball or baseball, but when other people would get a hit, I would run the bases behind them,

simulating the coconut horses until I got thrown out of gym. And that happened so many times I failed gym. Nice work. He would be so proud. Mr. Creosote would be so proud of you. I wish I had been able to tell him that. Oh, and jumping backwards, Burns and Schreiber had a summer replacement show. That sounds right. What was that called? Probably the Burns and

Schreiber show. Well, they were on every variety show. You're too young to remember these, Mike, but they were on every variety show you can imagine. And their act was this weird kind of, you know, how do you even describe it? It was two chairs. They were wonderful. Avery Schreiber became famous, I think, for another generation as the pitchman for Doritos. Yes. He was the guy that would do the crunch.

And he pops up in a couple of Mel Brooks movies, I think. They were great together. Terry Jones, one of the funniest men anywhere, anytime. A writer, director, an actor, an author, a polymath. Directed those Python features or co-directed them. Wrote 20 children's books books i will recommend to people a series he did with palin called ripping yarns uh which is wonderful a titan of british comedy they called him and he was a welshman uh i have those python uh shows all of them on dvd and i

said to my wife the other day we really have to pull those out and watch them watch just watch them beginning to end. I have them all also. That box set is incredible. It is. And what an influence on my childhood. And as John Cleese said rather darkly when Terry Jones passed, two down, four to go of the Pythons. Oh.

That dark British sense of humor. Yeah. Here's one for you gilbert the master of the malaprop died at 93 norm crosby norm crosby one of those guys we love uh because they found one thing that worked we love those one trick those one-trick ponies, don't we? Yeah, and they built an entire career. Yeah, well, we've had a few of those guys, like Art Matrano, whose whole act was da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and Billy Saluga.

He doesn't have to call me Johnson. But Norm Crosby, although he was a joke teller, he had an act, that was his, like Gilbert said, that was his bit. Yeah, he had an act. That was his, like Gilbert said, that was his bit. Yeah, he makes up all the words. Right, right. You don't even see guys like that anymore.

Foster Brooks would be another guy like that. Yeah. Who had like one gimmick. But you don't see, I think Gallagher, of course, with the melons. But I'm trying to think of comedians. It's almost like ventriloquism. It's almost like a faded part of show business. Well, now because of YouTube and everything, I feel like you can't get away with just having one thing anymore

because it'll be out there so quickly and exposed. Maybe that's so. I will say... Noam Crosby I met a couple of times. Really nice guy. Yeah, we tried so hard. Gino was on that one for years. And we had dates and give us a date and we'll lock him in.

And it just didn't happen. I don't know that his hearing was there. He started back in the 50s on the Gary Moore show. He did Dinah. He did Merv, the Joey Bishop show, the Hollywood Palace. And then he was the host of his own show called Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop. It's on YouTube, by the way. There's a couple of episodes of Comedy Shop on YouTube.

There you go. They are an incredible time capsule. I'll bet. And I remember Cliff Nesterov talks about it in his book, the way they would sort of shoot out weeks of the show in like one day, which is why Norm's always wearing the same jacket. And when you watch these clips on YouTube, he'll introduce a comedian

and then he points offstage, but then the comedian comes out from the other part of the backstage because they're just cobbled together in post-production. Like those Dean Martin roasts. They're stitched together with bailing wire. But that show was sort of ahead of its time because it gave a boost to all these young comedians who really hadn't been on TV before.

I was looking at the list of Brad Garrett and Michael Keaton and Nathan Lane and Kevin Nealon and Gary Shandling and Arsenio Hall. They were all so young on that show. I think Brad Garrett was on here giving props to norm crosby for uh for giving him an early break and this was sweet gilbert in the obits and the tributes a lot of the obituary writers would use the wrong word in his honor yes which was which was very very sweet and i'm trying you know he was again he was probably the last well rich littles around binders around but he was one of the last of those old school comics, of that Jackie Vernon kind of Jack Carter generation.

I remember in the obits they said, his family has our symphony. Yeah, there you go. There were a bunch like that. We tried so hard to get them. We wish we had. But, excuse me, thank you, Gino, for trying so valiantly to book Norm Crosby. He slipped through our fingers, as did Jack Carter.

Here's a comedy name. Little over 50 years ago, an influential magazine was launched called The National Lampoon. And one of the co-founders was Matty Simmons. He also co-produced The National Lampoon Radio Hour and Lemmings and helped to introduce the world to Belushi and Chevy and Chris Guest and O'Donoghue and our pal Richard Belzer. He also produced Animal House and National Lampoon's Vacation. Influential

figure in comedy. Also the creator of Diner's Club. Wow. Did you know that? Isn't that fun trivia? And the dad of my good friend Andy Simmons. So there are some names. Lampoon, an important figure in the

National Lampoon and an important figure in Mon National Lampoon, and an important figure in Monty Python, and in George Carlin's career, and, of course, Norm Crosby. I didn't even know you knew Norm Crosby, Gil, or got to meet him. I just met him a handful of times, and really nice guy. What do you say we stay with comedy names?

Okay. Here's more funny people. Jerry Stiller. Yeah. Now, Jerry Stiller. Big loss. Growing up, you could not turn on the TV without seeing Stiller and Mirror. With him and his wife and Mirror.

And then when you think his career's over, he becomes Costanza. Frank Costanza, yeah, he had a whole second life. And then a third one on King of Queens. Yes, wouldn't his career just keep going? Yeah, he was an actor too. I mean, he's in The Ritz, he's in the original Hairspray, The Taking of Pelham 123.

I love that movie. Yeah, me too. And I think he's in this TV thing, an old one called A Memory of Two Mondays. That sounds interesting. Who did he play? I like some like mechanic or something or salesman. Interesting.

I remember, okay. I remember talking to Jerry Stiller. And he said, he once met Jack Guilford. And Jack Guilford said to him, you know what I see you doing? You should find a girl and you two make jokes back and forth. And next time, years later, Jerry Stiller run into Jack Guilford. And he said, yeah, I found this girl. I married her. And now we're a team.

And Jack Guilford said, I didn't say marry her. I said, fuck her. As always, Gilbert, with the heartwarming tales on the In Memoriam show. I would direct our listeners to listen to our Jason Alexander episode

for a lovely tribute to Jerry Stiller. Born in New York City. Local boy. He's one of those people. Beloved. Never heard a bad word about. Gilbert, you're right, though.

I saw he was, Stiller and Miro were on Ed Sullivan 36 times. How about that? Wow. 36. Yeah, that's a lot. And their act was usually them because it would be, you know, hi, I'm Saul Rosenberg. And she would go, I'm Mary Catherine O'Shaughnessy.

Yeah, the Shiksa. The Jewish guy in the Shiksa, that was a big part of their act. You know, he also did a lot of work with his son ben stiller he's in the zoolander pictures a funny guy i don't think anybody made me laugh uh more than jerry stiller and as gilbert says a really a really much a loved guy a a beloved guy not not a uh not a disparaging word about him were you part of that jerry stiller roast gilbert for the friars no no okay that was yeah but he he was terrific terrific wonderful actor wonderful funny man fred willard is another one who passed away this year uh another guy you will not hear anybody say a bad word about

now fred willard i uh last time i saw, it may have been the last thing he did. It was Jeff Ross's historical roast. And I was Hitler. And he was God. Oh, that thing. What was that, the roast of Anne Frank? Yes. Yes. I can't believe you guys got away with that.

Fred Willard was so good in every Chris Guest movie. So good. And just incredible. He was great at playing those kind of out-of-it guys. Yeah. They were very pleasant people, but they were just out-of-it guys. Yeah, yeah. They were very pleasant people, but they were just out of it. Like Michael F. Fontaine in A Mighty Wind. Yes. And the character that he plays in Guffman.

We had two guests here recently talking about him. We had Balaban here, and Fred had just passed, and we asked Balaban about him, and we asked Brad Garrett about him because he was on Raymond. And, again, the guy was beloved and really admired by his coworkers. For his genius, I mean, he started as part of a comedy duo, Willard and Greco. Did you know that?

Yeah, it's in Cliff's book. I remember reading about it. Yeah. Doing variety shows. And he was one of those guys that made it look effortless. Absolutely. Like he wasn't doing anything. Fernwood Tonight. Those are all on YouTube, which are great.

Oh, Jerry Hubbard. Yeah. Yeah, he's wonderful. He's wonderful. I mean, he steals those. To me, he steals those Christopher Guest movies, likeuffman and Best in Show in particular. Oh, hysterical. Much loved guy. Again, working right up to the end on Space Force as recently as 2019, but did great work on Modern Family and on Raymond.

And, oh, the God, those Fernwood Tonight shows are so wonderful. Even Harry Shearer, I read a piece, an interview with Harry Shearer, where he was saying that he doesn't even know where the stuff that Fred Willard comes up with comes from, that it's just from another universe. All of these talented improvisers looked up to him. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast

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for your business. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. Here's some names of people that I think are specific to this show. I'm going to start with a guy who's in one of our absolute favorite movies. In fact, in my mind, it's a movie that kind of gave us the idea for this podcast. The movie is Broadway Danny Rose. I think you guys know where I'm going. Nick Apollo Forte died this year, Gilbert. Wow. Lou Canova.

Oh, wow. Lou Canova, a real-life cruise ship singer. a real-life cruise ship singer. I heard he kept trying to make a movie about just Luke Canoa, or about that character. Did he? In the research I read, Apollo Forte was saying he didn't even understand Woody Allen's movies, that he'd gone to see, he went to see Zellig.

Did you read this, Mike? No. He went to see Zellig and went, what the hell is this? He was not a fan of Woody Allen's movies, but he was the right guy. And as the story goes, Allen heard a song on a jukebox and thought, that's the guy. Who's the guy singing this song? He was incredible in a part that supposedly,

you could correct us on this, your old boss De Niro was up for, Mike. Oh, interesting. Wow. I don't know that I could have seen him pulling that off. No. Well, by the way, kind of fitting also, I think we lost Carnegie Deli last year. Oh, I think even before that.

Was it the year before? Well, recently, yeah. We're still heartbroken about that one. Oh, I think even before that. Was it the year before? Well, recently, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We're still heartbroken about that one. Same, same. But I also read that Tony Bennett

was up for that part and Danny Aiello who Alan had worked with. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we adore that movie. And the biggest fan of that movie in the world is Phil Rosenthal.

Oh. Let me jump. I was going to do some unusual guests, but I'm going to jump into writers and directors, since we have a screenwriter in our midst. We haven't talked about Alan Parker. We're going to do it right here. Director of Midnight Express. You bet.

Pink Floyd, The Wall, Birdie, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments. Yeah. Fame. Fame, yeah. Bugsy Malone. Yeah. Shoot the Moon, one I like. Oh, yeah.

I love The Commitments. Me too. Birdie. Did you mention Birdie? I did. I did. I love that picture. Angel Heart. Oh, yeah. Angel too. Birdie. Did you mention Birdie? I did. I did. I love that picture. Angel Heart. Oh yeah. Angel Heart. Yeah. Yeah. What a body of work.

Terrific filmmaker. Died at 76. A giant in the British filmmaking industry. Pink Floyd, The Wall. Did you say that one? I did. I did. I'll tell you, the guy worked in all genres. The guy did a little bit of everything. I think Mississippi Burning is an underrated movie. I do, too. It's great. Also, I find it so interesting, and I want to do a deeper dive on this. I guess he had a decades-long feud with Oliver Stone that they didn't like each other.

Because Oliver Stone wrote Midnight Express. That's right. And then Oliver Stone got, I guess, like a shared writing credit on Evita. But, like, they had a big falling out somewhere along the line and kind of... Interesting. Did not get along for decades, apparently. That would make a good season of Feud. A couple other directors.

Louis John Carlino, who wrote and directed The Great Santini. Know that picture, Gilbert? With Robert Duvall? With Robert Duvall, yeah. He also wrote The Mechanic. Charles Bronson picture. Oh, yeah. Yes, that was a good movie.

Yeah, and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace. That was with him and Jan Michael Vincent. Jan Michael Vincent, yeah. Oh, and Keenan Wynn. Very good. Also directed The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea with Chris Christopherson and Sarah Miles. Notable to Gilbert because it has a great unforgettable sex scene. How about Stuart Gordon, the director of Re-Animator?

Yeah, yeah. And the co-creator of Honey, shrunk the kids yeah that's a guy interesting background i guess he came from like the world of experimental theater yeah joe mantegna worked with him uh yeah yeah in the old days and then i guess reanimator was released without a rating uh which then like hurt its box office but it was sort of one of those early movies of the of the sort of home video era that like became like a a cult favorite um because you know it had no ratings so you could actually see it i love those reanimator pictures yeah yeah those were movies they all laughed at themselves

they're a blast any credit on honey i shrunk the kids so yeah he came up with that it was a co-creator yeah yeah another beloved guy um here's a native new yorker died at 80 and another body of good body of work uh joel schumacher costume designer turned himself into a director yeah he worked as a he was a window dresser for macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue. Then he worked in the fashion industry. And then he was a costume designer for movies before he became a director. He did the costumes for Sleeper, Woody Allen's movie, and The Last of Sheila,

and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, which is amazing. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Isn't it fascinating that directors can come from anywhere? Yeah. Falling Down is one of my favorite pictures. It's great. I love that. Isn't it fascinating that directors can come from anywhere? Yeah. Falling Down is one of my favorite pictures. It's great.

With Michael Douglas. Oh, Michael Douglas, yes. I also admire Schumacher because, you know, he made two Batman movies, Batman Forever and then obviously Batman and Robin, which did not work out. No, to put it mildly. He kind of owned it. Like, he did a lot of interviews later in life where he talked about, like, you know what? The buck stops with him.

And, you know, you don't see that a lot with directors. And he took a lot of responsibility, probably even more than he should. I think with the last one, with that Batman and Robin debacle, he was really being pushed around by the studio. Is that the one where Batman had nipples? Yes. And the cock piece Batman had nipples? Yes.

And the cock piece. Bat nipples. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right. He was self-deprecating about it. He would say, I'm the guy that put the nipples on the Batsuit. Yeah.

But I think that after Tim Burton's dark take uh on batman returns that that the studio was sufficiently freaked out and wanted to go campy so i think that schumacher was was being bullied by the studio a little bit or at least dictated to but he made a lot of good films before then you said falling down st elmo's fire the lost boys yeah i like the incredible shrinking woman yeah uh and he wrote dc cab uh i think he directed that too uh and wrote car wash which he didn't direct but uh uh another very very interesting career um let's see here here one of gilbert's favorite movies and one we've talked about a lot on this show is Crossing Delancey. Because that was one of the few romantic comedies that didn't have some totally far-fetched plot.

Like, oh, to get $100 million, you two have to pretend you're married. Mike, quick, let's write that one. Gilbert, I'm stealing that now I'm stealing we're stealing that and writing it Crossing Delancey which we had Peter Riegert on the show obviously and we had on the pickle man we delved

into the pickle man but she did other things Hester Street with Carol Kane which is a terrific movie those two are my favorite and I guess there's a story about studio executives described those movies as too ethnic oh there you go gil yeah but he's right it's it's one of those rom-coms that you actually believe oh yeah oh yeah um and and the legend goes spielberg helped get helped her get it made

like the studio was like the studio was sort of dragging their feet and i guess at the time spielberg was still with amy irving and spielberg heard about the trouble she was having with the movie and he called universal and and and just like that the the the movie moved forward and and uh And just like that, the movie moved forward. And, you know, I know it was a big hit at the time. It's a good movie. Yeah. It's a smart movie, a movie that doesn't insult your intelligence.

And it's little. It's a little movie. Yeah. And it's smart. And sweet. And it's no, like, weird, complicated plot. No high concept, Gil. Yes, exactly. She also made a terrific TV movie

with Robert Preston and Mary Tyler Moore called Finnegan Begin Again. That was the first ever HBO movie. Was it? It's very good. It's very good. I'm a huge Robert Preston fan. And Chili Scenes of Winter is a good movie. I like Between the Lines.

So do I. She had a nice career. She really did. She died on New Year's Eve. It makes me laugh that her husband, I guess, financed Hester Street. But before that, she was meeting with potential investors. And one of them said, I'll back your movie if you change it from Jewish to Italian Wow

Interesting Well I remember Maybe Peter told us that A story like that happened with Martin Scorsese when he was making Mean Streets they said we don't want an Italian. Black movies are big now, so could you make an all-black cast?

I think I had heard that story about Crossing Delancey. Also, Yvonne Passer. I know you know this name. Mike, a member of the Czech New Wave. Yeah. Worked with Milos Forman, wrote Loves of a Blonde, wrote Fireman's Ball, and directed a terrific Jeff Bridges, John Heard movie called Cutter's Way. Oh, Cutter's Way is terrific. I actually, I have a double DVD that has chilly scenes of winter and Cutter's Way on it. There you go. There you go. He also made a film called Haunted Summer that's pretty good

and a movie called Creator with Peter O'Toole. He directed a handful of American films. Very, very interesting filmmaker. I'm going to go through these writers too really quickly. Harriet Frank, who with her partner Irving Ravitch wrote Hud

and Ombre Gilbert, two movies you like, and Norma Ray and Murphy's Romance and Stanley and Iris. She worked a lot with Martin Ritt. Good films. Yeah, excellent. Gilbert, we've talked about Hud on this show. I want to mention another screenwriter, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Out of Africa and Absence of Malice died, Kurt Ludke. Ronald Harwood out of South Africa, who wrote The Dresser and The Pianist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a very good movie. And a very sad movie.

While we're talking about screenwriters, let me throw in Murray Shiskel, who's one of the co-writers on Tootsie. Yes, and I have a personal connection to Murray Shiskel because he was a grocery boy in my grandfather's grocery in Brooklyn. And my father knew him much of his life. And there's a funny story attached to that, which I will tell briefly. life. And there's a funny story attached to that, which I will tell briefly. Since you bring Murray up, he had a play called Love, L-U-V. You know, this was turned into a movie with Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk. And he, my father and Murray stayed friendly over the years. Murray got himself a law degree and then taught himself to write plays. He got a law degree as a fallback and taught himself to write plays. He had a play opening on Broadway, and he

invited my dad to come to the opening. And my dad was sick at the time and had not worked in a while, and my dad was actually too ashamed to go to the premiere, to the opening night, because he didn't have his shoes were beat up. This is really kind of a heartwarming story. Yeah. And he didn't go, and my father was too proud

to tell him the reason. And my dad had a thyroid condition. He was very ill and couldn't work. And wound up not going, and they had a falling out. And I spent the next, when I found out, when I got into writing and I found out about his relationship with Murray, I said, well, don't you think you should pick up the phone and call him and tell him the real reason? And my father was too proud. And my father never told him the reason.

And when my dad passed, I said to my wife, I should pick up the phone and call Murray Shiskel and get some closure and tell him about that night. Tell him what happened, why my dad never went to the opening of his play, which he obviously was hurt by. And sadly, I never got to it either. So when Murray died, I said to my wife, well, there goes that opportunity. So all those years, and maybe he forgot about it, but my dad knew him as a kid. My dad was sort of a gold brick and did not want to do any work in my grandfather's grocery store,

and Murray did all the work. Wow. There you go. My grandfather was very fond of him. Huh. I will say that. But they both went to their graves not knowing, never having that conversation, which is, I guess, a sad ending, but an interesting story.

Here are some other writers. David Geiler, who wrote Parallax View. Oh, wow. Yeah. Coming out on Criterion soon. Terrific. Yeah, a new edition. He also wrote Myra Breckenridge,

but we won't hold that against him. You know, I've never seen Myra Breckenridge. You're not missing anything. No, I know. It's picked as one of the worst films ever made. He also wrote Southern Comfort, a good movie. Oh. I believe Walter Hill.

Do I have that right, Mike? I think so. Wait a minute. With Powers Booth, I think. That was the one that's similar to Deliverance. Yeah, it's good. Keith Carradine. I haven't seen it in ages. Yeah, it's good. Keith Carradine. I haven't seen it in ages.

Yeah, Walter Hill. William Link. Walter Hill. William Link died, Gilbert, the co-creator of Columbo. Oh. And who was somebody I was going to invite on the show. With Richard Levinson. He co-created Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.

As well as Mannix and Ellery Queen. He was part of Levinson Link, a long-time collaboration. A couple of sitcom guys who are legends. Earl Pomerantz. You know the name? No. You've seen it on a million shows. He wrote Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore

Show, Sanford and Son, Rota, The Tony Randall Show, Cheers, The Larry Sanders Show, The Cosby Show, and he was a friend of podcast guests Ken Levine and John Marcus. Jeremy Stevens, the three-time Emmy-winning writer of shows like Fernwood Tonight, which we just mentioned. And Everybody Loves Raymond. While we're talking about writers, I should just quickly say Terrence McNally and Larry Kramer.

Terrence McNally, Larry Kramer, absolutely. Let's get them in. And Saul Turtletaub. Gilbert, former partner of Bernie Ornstein, who did this podcast a couple of months ago. And Ornstein and Turtletaub wrote

for Carol Burnett. They wrote That Girl. They wrote Sanford and Son, a show they ran. They did a million things. And we wish we met the man. So thank you for getting in Larry Kramer and Terrence McNally. I should have had them on my list. That's it for... And again, we will always leave people out,

but those are the writers and directors we wanted to mention. Quickly, another couple of important writers, and this isn't necessarily a big showbiz figure, but Pete Hamill. A legendary New York figure. Brooklyn born, a high school dropout who became a major newspaper

columnist, actually won a Grammy for writing liner notes for a Dylan album. I just read his book, Why Sinatra Matters, and it's great. There you go. What a writer. Also wrote screenplays, wrote Doc, the Stacey Keach movie about Doc Holliday. He wrote a movie

called Badge 373 with Robert Duvall. And he famously dated some fascinating women like Shirley McClaine and Linda Ronstadt. And I was a student in his class at the School of Visual Arts, which is another reason that I bring him up. Wow.

And I got to know him a little bit, and he made a great impression on me. And another man that I got to know was Drew's dad, the late, great Bruce J. Friedman, who we have to talk about. Gilbert, did you ever meet Bruce J.? I think you did. I think you met him at the Society of Illustrators

the night that Drew had that caricature show. Yes, probably. For his portraits book. One of the smartest, funniest, most versatile writers of his generation. He wrote plays,

scuba-duba, steam bath, scuba-duba, steam bath, of his generation. He wrote plays, Scuba Duba, Steam Bath, Scuba Duba, Steam Bath, of course Steam Bath, novels, Stern, and Mother's Kisses, and About Harry Townes. He wrote more than a dozen books. And his short story, A Game of Change of Plan, became what?

Heartbreak Kid. Became the Heartbreak Kid. Oh! That's right. Which actually was about his own marriage. Or at least inspired by his own marriage. I love his memoir, Lucky Bruce. It is so great. It's still in print. It's just a wonderful book.

A terrific writer who did a lot of different things. The Lonely Guy's Book of Life also became the movie The Lonely Guy. The Arthur Hiller picture with Steve Martin and Gruden. And he's an accredited writer. I guess he was the first writer on Splash. The first writer on Splash. He wrote Stir Crazy. The first, I think

I guess the second Wilder Pryor teaming after Silver Streak. One of the masters of American black humor. Our condolences go to Drew and Josh and Kip, our friends. He had a great line about screenwriting. I love this. Take the money, scribble a bit, and enjoy the room service.

He was not really a screenwriter. He was a novelist and a playwright at heart. And as I said, one of the masters of black humor. I met him several times. He was very, very nice to me. And I had a famous lunch. Drew and his wife Kathy were nice enough to invite me to a lunch out east. And at the table was also David Newman, the writer of Bonnie and Clyde.

Whoa. And Superman. And Kurt Vonnegut was there. Oh, my God. And it was a day I will not soon forget. Wow. And here's another name on this list, as long as we're talking about great New Yorkers. And this is a man who has a connection to Gilbert because I believe he drew Gilbert,

and that is the late, great Mort Drucker of Mad Magazine. It's like, and when you see later Mad Magazines, when Mort Drucker was no longer the artist there, you could see all these artists were influenced by his style. Absolutely. Absolutely. Some of them aping him outright. Another New Yorker, a Brooklynite.

A lot of New Yorkers. He also designed the poster for American Graffiti. Very good. He sure did. He drew those Bob Hope comic books, Gilbert, The Adventures of Bob Hope. Oh, my God. He was one of the artists on those, the longest tenured mad artist. I think more than 400 articles and mad pieces.

Wow. I believe he drew Mr. Gottfried. Yes. Weren't you illustrated by Mort Drucker? Yeah, because they did a beverly hills cop too there you go i think you're in another piece i think you're also in a piece called if comedians comedians telling old jokes do you know this piece i'm talking about i think he might have drawn you twice there's a couple of times he drew me yeah which was an honor he won every award a cartoonist and an illustrator

could win his work hangs in the natural national portrait gallery uh charles schultz was an admirer um and i love this too when johnny carson was interviewing michael j fox on the tonight show and he said when did you know you made it in show business and And he said, when Mort Drucker drew my face. Oh, that's awesome. And that great. Uh, I never got to meet Mort and, and all the years that I worked, uh,

that I freelance for mad. I know Jaffe. I knew sir. I met Sergio. Um, I never got to meet, uh, Mort,

uh, much to my disappointment. Let us, uh, those are some great names. Now here's a name.'m gonna throw i'm gonna throw a name at you guys quickly go fred silverman great name oh i mean you want to there i mean without fred silverman there might not be this podcast i mean considering the amount of shows

you guys have talked about over the years that he programs true i mean that's true mary tyler moore all in the family mash the jeersons, Laverne and Shirley, Love Boat, Hill Street Blues, Cheers. You know, it's the shows he programs. Pink Lady and Jeff. He had a great career. Unbelievable. He had a great career.

We wanted him on this podcast. It never happened. He's on Mark Malkoff's podcast. He did a great episode of the Carson podcast with Mark that I will direct people to. Yes, legendary. He belongs on a Mount Rushmore of TV executives. Also, Super Train. You're not talking about his legendary flops.

Yeah, I went with the hits. Yeah, the Bob Newhart show, Hawaii Five-0. You said these. He was behind the great rural purge at CBS where they canceled Petticoat Junction and Green Acres to put on more sophisticated fare. But I think his crowning achievement for him was Roots. I saw that in an interview. That makes sense. Two quick things about Fred Silverman, and that's a great name. Thanks for bringing it up.

Another Gilbert connection. Gilbert, he was the EP of Thick of the Night. Wow. Yo, I remember I ran into him there. We really should have had him on here. That is a missed opportunity. And he gave Scooby-Doo his name.

Yeah. Two of the guys credited with helping to create Scooby-Doo, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, both died this year. Which is interesting. And still, the story goes that they were

afraid that this show about kids solving mysteries was going to be too intense and too scary for kids. So they decided to put the emphasis on the dog. And that Silverman was taking a red-eye flight and listening to Sinatra in his earphones. And Sinatra was singing stranger and strangers in the night and when it got to the end gilbert the scooby dooby doo or maybe it's dooby dooby doo but somehow it became scooby doo and it's also why the the lead character in scooby doo uh or the the male hero, is Fred. Because of Fred Silverman. That's amazing. How about that?

How about that? Okay, we got to get to a big name, and that is a man who did this podcast, and maybe arguably the biggest guest we've ever had on this podcast, the late, great Carl Reiner. Comedy Mount Rushmore. I don't know where to begin. Carl Reiner on this show said he always wanted to be an Irish tenor. He sang us an aria. Yes!

He sang us an aria. He was terrific on this show. Where do you begin with this guy's career, Michael? Nine Emmys. A wonderful writer, a terrific director. Oh, God, the jerk and the comic and Where's Papa and All of Me and so many. The Sid Caesar. I mean, he created arguably the best situation comedy in the history of television and was a writer and performer on arguably the greatest sketch show in the history of television, and was a writer and performer on arguably the greatest sketch show

in the history of television in one career. And Gilbert, arguably one of the great stray men of all time. Oh, a 2,000-year-old man. Yeah, and he wrote books, he wrote novels, he was a sought-after actor. I mean, what a career. He conquered every medium over and over and over again. That episode you

guys did with him really was the epitome of that, the idea of you guys barely scratched the surface. I know. I mean, he gave us, he was 95 years old at the time. I think he died, what was he, 98? When he passed, we thought he'd go on forever.

He gave us 90 minutes. Finally, he had to lie down and take a nap. The poor guy was 95 years old, but he gave us everything he had and sang. And you could have done, obviously, as you say, we could have done six shows of them. Oh, my God. Seven, ten shows. I feel, Gilbert, too, like having Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner on this show, you know, they were big moments. They were turning points.

What I remember is we did some interview, you and I, and we were talking about the legendary people we've had on the show. And in that interview, we let down Dick Van Dyke. I don't know how we did that. Well, after 350 shows, you get a little lost. I can't say enough about Carl Reiner's career. And I read all of his books. And I love the stories that he told on the show.

And we were just blown away that he even agreed to do it you know and just like a funny guy a nice guy a nice guy another loved guy and the kid from the Bronx who wanted to be an opera singer did okay for himself

amazing I can listen to that episode over and over again I will listen to it in my dotage and as long as we're talking about podcast guests we lost um let's mention too don wells marianne from gilligan's island who did this show and uh and just passed away another much loved person now she came to a sad end it wasn't it i think covid i think so i believe so terrible or to put her into a home or i don't know about that but i know she had i know she had died of covid uh she was great with you guys she just jumped right in and and played ball and it was

she was a lot of fun that those stories about stories about Jim Backus being super cheap was so funny. Really, she was great. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we owe that one to Gino. She was very, very sweet. You know, you see these people pass away, and then you see them posing for pictures on social media

with everybody in the world. And you realize how accessible she was and how many people loved her. We have to thank our friend Harlan Bull too for making that episode happen. As long as I'm talking about GGACP guests, we lost two great ones, Buck Henry, Orson Bean. Let's start with Buck, who was a dream guest for us.

Gil? Yeah. Both of them on our show. Yep, yep, yep, yep. By the way, Buck Henry, just for the fact that he confirmed the Pat McCormick helicopter story alone is just great moments

in Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast history. How do you wrap your mind or your arms around the career of Buck Henry? You know? Get smart. Captain Nice. Gilbert sang the Captain Nice theme to him. How do you wrap your mind or your arms around the career of Buck Henry? You know? Get smart. Captain Nice.

Gilbert sang the Captain Nice theme to him, which he was thrilled by. Ten-time SNL host. A script doctor. An Oscar-nominated screenwriter. Again, a sought-after actor. You know, co-wrote and co-directed Heaven Can Wait. That was a fun episode. It took like, I felt like it took him a couple minutes to sort of loosen up a little when he was with you guys.

And then he got rolling. He was, he was, he was suspicious of us. And then he was the guy behind the hotel clerk in the graduate. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that you could, I could be corrected on this, Mike. I don't know. I could be corrected on this, Mike. I don't know that he had ever written a screenplay

when Mike Nichols gave him that job. No, I don't think so. He knew him as an improviser. Hell of a movie. Also wrote Catch-22. Hello. And Day of the Dolphin. And the Day of the Dolphin. George C. Scott.

Yeah, and a terrific movie called To Die For for Gus George C. Scott. Yeah, and a terrific movie called To Die For for Gus Van Sant. Excellent. Yeah, and, you know, he was in poor health when we got him on the show. He had had a stroke

sometime earlier. Our pal Alan Zweibel helped secure him for us. But, you know, he did the show. He was in a wheelchair. Like Mike says, he was a little bit... He was a little guarded

at first it was not sold on us yeah you guys won him over and then it felt like it could have gone for on for hours after that but he really got he was he was then full of funny stories oh my god here's another guy that that had a little bit of of curious energy when he was on the show with us and also a little bit skeptical of us and that's Orson Bean who died at 91 died tragically actually being hit by a car in Los Angeles he was amazing though Dallas Burroughs is his real name

born in Burlington, Vermont another renaissance man, a comedian an author, an actor a TV personality, a game show personality acted in films like Anatomy of a Murder, a famous Twilight Zone episode, Gilbert, right? Mr. Beavis? Oh, yes, yes. And who was the devil in that? Oh, God, I don't even remember. Was it the devil episode or the, I think I'm confusing two episodes. He grants him a wish to be important.

We need Rayburn here to look that up. He did 200 episodes of The Tonight Show. How about that? I love that he talked about being blacklisted with you guys. He was blacklisted, sure. Which is amazing. He claims he was blacklisted because the girl he was dating at the time was a communist. We got him to sing the baloney song, which was a podcast achievement.

And to bring the show down a couple of levels, Orson Bean said he and Dick Van Dyke were pals when they were struggling actors. And they used to go to the zoo and watch a monkey masturbate. There you go. Nicely done. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast, but first, a word from our sponsor. At this exact moment,

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I'll segue into Brian Dennehy and some of these character actors that I have here on my list. Two-time Tony winner, played everyone from Bobby Knight to John Wayne Gacy. A terrific actor. The first time I saw him

was in the movie 10 with Dudley Moore. But long career, FX and Silverado and Gorky Park and Cocoon. And I think he won two Tonys

for playing Willie Loman. Yeah. Yes. Said to be among the best to play the role because Gilbert hasn't gotten to his Willie Loman yet. He hasn't done that. I love this. He said he chose to live in Connecticut because the biggest celebrity in town was the guy who played Big Bird. Which I assume was Carol Spinney, but apparently he had no tolerance for the Hollywood lifestyle.

Sir Ian Holm died at 88. Yes. Shakespearean actor. Oscar nominee for Chariots of Fire. Terrific actor. Obviously, he was amazing in Alien, Time Bandits, Brazil. Brazil. Naked Lunch.

Fifth Element. Yeah, Joe Gould's Secret. Love that. Ignite, one of my favorites that I just talked about. Lord of the Rings, obviously. Ratatouille. What a career. Interesting.

He played Napoleon three times, but also he was who Kubrick wanted to cast as Napoleon in his sort of epic that he never got to make. Yes, check the Malcolm McDowell episode, wanted to cast as Napoleon in his sort of epic that he never got to make. Yes, check the Malcolm McDowell episode, because Ian Holm apparently did not forgive Kubrick for dicking him around for months on end. A name for Gilbert. Big Night is a movie, by the way, that I've recommended on this show.

Amazing. And another terrific Ian Holm movie is The Sweet Hair After. Yes. People need to find these movies. Gilbert John Saxon, one of your favorites. Yeah, he was one of those that, he did a couple of quality films, but he would grab anything,

anything that was a quick paycheck, and he was always good. He always brought the movie up. Such a badass in Enter the Dragon. Badass. Oh my God, yeah.. Such a badass in Enter the Dragon. Badass. Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah, and Black Christmas he's in. He did a million TV shows.

I think he was in 200 projects in a 60-year career, which is staggering. And Gilbert Italian, Carmine Oriccio from Brooklyn. All right, I'm no longer a fan. Exactly. Another paisano, Renny Santoni. That was a name that came up that we discussed a couple of times. Like, let's get Renny Santoni. I don't think he was in good health.

Speaking of Carl Reiner and Enter Laughing, Renny Santoni. Also in the Porn Broker. Oh, yes, yes. He was the junkie selling the radio. Yep. And he's in the episode where he's Poppy on Seinfeld. Sure, sure. Poppy pees on the sofa.

Poppy peed on my couch. He had a whole other career on Seinfeld. He's also in a classic Odd Couple episode as an Eskimo quarterback from first season. Wilford Brimley, speaking of curmudgeons. And a guy who hated the Jews. I don't know, but I can't confirm that. He did? I heard Wilford Brimley hated the Jews, and I was so upset because he seems like such a nice old man

he was a singer he was a musician he played the harmonica he was a rodeo rider he was a bodyguard for howard hughes wow the fun shit you find doing research i loved him in the natural sure the thing doing research oh my god i loved him in the natural sure the thing john carpenter's the thing there's that um there's that meme that's gone around it's so funny that that wilford brimley was he was only 50 when he made cocoon and tom cruise will be 60 next year and is still jumping out of planes how about that how about that i i was reading uh i read numerous uh wilford brimley obituaries trying to see how many times i could find the word curmudgeonly and it kept it it kept coming up over and over again and the diabetes commercials of course that's right and and and i i read

wilford brimley articles to see how much Jew hater came. And what a Gilbert's favorite actors and a name Michael brought up over the phone. Alan Garfield slash Alan Gurwitz. He was he was in the conversation. Very much so. Gene Hackman. And the stuntman. And wasn't he in beverly hills cop too

yes yes yes he was uh he was like the captain yes police yeah yeah uh also uh the cotton club yes and the brinks job and nashville and bananas and putney swope he plays an exacerbated screenwriter in the stuntman a movie i love that i've talked about with you guys on the podcast before. And he's terrific in it. Good movie. Really good movie. Lots of 70s films. He'd been sick for years.

He had a stroke in 1999. And he disappeared from the screen. Another local product, Gilbert. Newark, New Jersey. Terrific in the conversation. One of those actors, one of those characters One of those actors Character actors who define the 70s

Definitely Yes, yes I want to get quickly I want to mention a couple of TV icons Regis Who I worked with a few times Gilbert, I know you worked with Regis Yeah, I did his talk show a couple of times

He was really nice. Really nice, really funny. I wrote for him for several Friars roasts. Would not do any dirty jokes. Would not work blue. He's the most film TV personality of all time. 17,000

hours on television. He's in the Guinness Book of World Records. Surpassing you downs who also died this year and uh regis philbin survived working with joey he did we we invited him on here when we first started the podcast i don't i don't know if he knew what a podcast was uh i don't know if he wanted to talk about those joey bishop. Probably not. Oof. Could not get him. So wait, what the story was what? Joey Bishop kind of threw him under the bus when Regis left the show?

Repeatedly. Oof. Yeah, he was the sidekick. A sweet man, and I loved being around him. And in my documentary, they found a clip of Regis imitating me. Oh, you know, we should have pushed harder to get him and here's another renaissance man another guy we should have gotten on this show another guy i worked with james lipton uh oh geez writer actor host lyricist he was a pimp yeah he was a pimp in the 50s. That's what I wanted to say. He said he was. In France.

In France. He claimed to be a pimp. Who knows if it was part of his legend. He claimed to be a pimp in Paris in the 50s. I can't believe he was 93 because he looked the same for 30 years. He colored his hair. Still, he looked the same. He produced 12 Bob Hope specials, Gilbert.

Wow. Oh, I wonder if Joyce was one of them. Yeah, me looked the same. He produced 12 Bob Hope specials, Gilbert. Wow. Oh, I wonder if Joyce was one of them. Yeah, me on the one with Jack Frost. He was a blast. I worked with him at The View a couple of times. Inside the Actors Studio was viewed in 89 million homes in 125 countries.

And terrific show. Oh, amazing. Wait, Gilbert, they never had you on. Gilbert, how were you never on Inside the Actors Studio? Oh, yes. We couldn't come to terms. What is your favorite word? Yes.

What is your favorite curse word? I would love to have heard the Bernard Pivot interview with Gilbert Gottfried. A couple of names really quickly, too. We should mention Alex Trebek, speaking of the Guinness Book of World Records. 36 years hosting the same show. Astounding. 8,200 episodes over 37 seasons. Did a lot of important charity work.

Talk about longevity. Five Emmys and a Peabody. His closing message, he fought his illness with much courage, and his closing message to his fans was actually quite beautiful. His closing message to his fans was actually quite beautiful. Our guest, Neil deGrasse Tyson, called him the patron saint of geeks, which I kind of like. Did you ever meet Alex Trebek, Gilbert? I once very briefly. You should have been on Celebrity Jeopardy.

Oh, you know what was, you know what I remember? Oh, you know what was, you know what I remember? I found out ahead of time that I was one of the questions on Jeopardy, which I was so excited about. Well, this podcast was a question on Jeopardy. Yeah. A couple of years ago. And, but then there was some terrorist attack, not the 9-11. And see, this is why I don't like Osama bin Laden.

Because you didn't get to see your Jeopardy episode? No, they preempted it. I'll bet you that if you and Dara reached out to the producers of Jeopardy, some nice person there would send it to you. Yes. Would send you a DVD. Yeah, I distinctly remember that one being preempted. There was a story when Trebek died.

Long before Jeopardy, I guess, or maybe not long before, but in 1971, he was almost hired to be the host of Hockey Night in Canada. Wow. And one of the bosses overruled the people who were going to hire him because they didn't like his mustache. Ha ha ha. Can you name one other game show that Alex Trebek hosted? Classic Concentration, a show I loved as a kid. I loved that show.

I would have also accepted The Wizard of Odds. Very good. That one I don't remember, but I loved Classic Concentration, which I feel like was on the air for like five years maybe. Yeah, sounds right. We're not going to do any music guests, Sue, in the interest of time. We'll save that, I think, for a Patreon episode,

but Little Richard and Eddie Van Halen and Adam Schlesinger and Kenny Rogers and Ennio Morricone. I mean, you want to mention Morricone for his movie contribution. I mean, 400 scores for movies and TV shows. 400. Oh, we left out Robert Conrad.

Robert Conrad, sure. And we left out Lyle Waggoner. Yes. Yeah, a couple of things about his fortune in the like those trailer trucks correct that actors would stay in star wagons they were called yes yeah also auditioned for batman for the part that went to adam west of course and he was the first playgirl centerfold lyle waggoner originally hired as an announcer on The Carol Burnett Show, and then his role expanded. Also a good straight man.

And Squiggy died. Yeah, David Lander. We should mention David Lander. I want to mention Chadwick Boseman. Oh, let's do that. Who was only 43. And, you know, no one knew he was battling stage 3 colon cancer for four years. No one knew he was battling stage three colon cancer for four years.

Obviously, you know, became an icon playing Black Panther, but was tremendous in 42 playing Jackie Robinson in Get On Up playing James Brown. He played Thurgood Marshall. Two movies. Two movies last year he was in. Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, which is on Netflix. And I urge everyone to see Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which he's in, which is also on Netflix. And I have no doubt he'll be nominated for an Oscar for it. With Viola Davis. He is.

Yes. Chadwick is absolutely incredible in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. What a shocking loss that was. Nobody really knew that he was ill. Black Panther made $1.3 billion, the 11th highest grossing movie of all time, and the only movie with a black leading first build actor or a primarily black cast to make over a billion dollars i'm glad you brought him up i had a terrible terrible loss to for him with a big career ahead of him and oh my god in his 40s he his he wanted to play jimmy hendrix one day he had said

it was his sort of his dream and uh that one was heartbreaking oh yeah I met him once, and he was so warm and kind, and I really just, he had a wonderful reputation. It's really way too soon. Very big loss. Gilbert mentioned Squiggy, so we'll get him in. We'll squeeze David Lander in from the Bronx and part of the credibility gap with Harry Shearer. Met Michael McKean at Carnegie Tech.

They formed those characters, Lenny and Squiggy. Gilbert also has fondness for him because he was the voice of Jerry Lewis in the animated Jerry Lewis series, right? Oh, yes. Will the real Jerry Lewis please sit down, I think it was called. A writer on Laverne and Shirley first, and then the producers knew that, uh, that, that those guys could deliver. We had McKean here on the show turned up and used cars in 1941 and league of their own and twin peaks,

uh, another well-loved guy, um, that we didn't get to, uh, sadly, you know, a lot of these names are people that,

and it happens every year we do this show, right? Gilbert, we said it on the phone before we, we, we go through these names are people that, and it happens every year. We do this show, right, Gilbert? We said it on the phone before. We go through these names and we start kicking ourselves. Oh, so many of those. You know, but you just can't get to everybody.

One more I want to mention. Please do. The Star of the Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Exorcist. Max Fonsito. Yes, 90 years old. And when he did that movie where he was an old man he plays and he was like four yeah yeah um he he appeared in 13 bergman movies 13 um and he was one of only six Swedish actors to be nominated for an Oscar

and the only man, the only Swedish man Love him in Three Days of the Condor Yeah, yeah Oh, and Gilbert, you'll love this He was the first choice to play Dr. No and he turned it down so they went to Joseph Wiseman

Oh I do like that How about that, Gilbert? That would have screwed up your trivia about the only Jewish, the Jewish Bond villain. Yeah, they would have. There was him and Yafit Kodo. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I'm glad you're bringing up these names, Mike. There's a couple more we forgot. It's hard to get everybody in. I know, I know. I want to talk about quickly, my friend Katie Lazarus died at 44, which is also too young. She was a New York fixture, a writer, comedian. She hosted a popular show called Employee of the Month. And she had everybody on that show, Bette Midler, your pal Robert Redford,

Lin-Manuel Miranda. She was a sweet soul. She did 250 interviews. She would have been a great talk show host on TV, and she didn't get her shot. It's really, it's tragic. Did you know Katie? No, I never met her, but I had seen her. Her interviews were wonderful. Amazing. She was a good person we used to throw my my uh my writing partner evan uh wade and i um used to throw these these writers parties in the city gilbert you came to a couple of them yes comedy writers parties and she would come every year uh she was lovely um our friend robert smigel tweeted a lovely tribute to her which you can find um can i mention lynn shelton director of hump day your sister sister laggies another you know gone too soon really just an incredible director yeah she was dating mark maron yes uh a big loss and um

the last of our podcast guests that we lost this year that I want to mention, because we lost him shockingly and soon after we did the show. And that was Mac Davis, who died just a couple of weeks after we sat down to talk to him, Gilbert. And a terrific interview. Yeah.

At 78. I was in touch with Mac and his wife, Lisa. I was sending them posts from listeners, as I often do. They were really enjoying it. Somebody found these plastic musician collector's cups from the 70s, and I was just sending him all the stuff that people were finding. Our fans go crazy when we put these episodes up, and they come up with so much arcane, bizarre stuff, and I was sending them to Mac and Lisa, and he was really loving it.

An underrated talent. He wrote In the Ghetto and A Little Less Conversation for Elvis, as we covered, and Memories for Elvis. His own hit, Stop and Smell the Roses and Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me. And I believe in music. But he also wrote for Glenn Campbell and Kenny Rogers, who we also lost this year, and Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. And Gilbert and I did not know him, but we sort of sparked to him immediately, didn't we? Yes. We just liked him right off the bat.

Yeah. And he did that great Buddy Hackett impression he he he you know he had a little movie career he's in the sting too and and north dallas 40 there's a wonderful uh there's a new documentary on dolly parton that's on netflix right now and he's obviously a part of it and it's it's terrific i have to see that uh you know i get choked up talking about him because uh he just he got it. We got him. It was the perfect episode, and it was such a great example of what this show is all about. And, you know, buy the records.

Celebrate his work. Okay. One person we have to close with. By the way, as I said, we're really not going to get to many of the musicians, the great music names, although Mike did squeeze the great Ennio Morricone in, and we'll talk about him more. We'll do a Patreon episode and we'll get to all these musicians

that we're not going to get to. I could mention some of them quickly. You know, Trini Lopez, Helen Reddy, Little Richard, Charlie Pryde, Eddie Van Halen, John Prine, Kenny Rogers, on and on and on. Let me talk about Mike. Gilbert, I have to talk about McBeardo here at the end.

You know, we've been doing this show since 2014. Mike McPadden came into our lives. We, you know, we didn't our lives. We didn't know him. He didn't know us. But he was a fan of the show right away. And he reached out and he wanted to be a part of it. And he became such a big part of it. He was our Facebook guy.

He was our only social media guy for a while. Gilbert and I certainly were not going to run the Facebook page. We didn't know what we were doing. I had a conversation with Mike's wife this week, and she told me, Rachel, and she told me, well, he didn't know what he was doing either. He didn't know social media. He just wanted in. He just wanted to be a part of what you guys were doing.

He was such a fan. He was such a lover of movies. He was so passionate, even about bad movies. He came on this podcast and he did some episodes about... Oh, he loved bad movies. He loved a bad movie like Sextet with Mae West. And he published two books, Heavy Metal Movies, which we will urge people to get, and recently Teen Movie Hell,

which Gilbert wrote a blurb for. Get these books and get some insight into the man. He was so passionate about films and music and the things that he loved. And, you know, he was a big dude covered in tats. You know, he gave the impression of looking like he was a biker or a heavy metal guy, and he wasn't. He was a teddy bear. His tattoos were movie references. He was going to get a Gilbert and a Frank tattoo

at a certain point. He was just a sweet, warm fellow. Our condolences to Rachel and his brother John and his mom Jean. A big part of the show. I'll be missed. Very much. Mr. Gottfried.

Yes. Is there anyone else, as we run out of time here at the hour and 35 minute mark, that you want to squeeze in? God, let's see. Before we say goodbye. And by the way, Mike, anybody that we fail to mention, we will mention on Twitter. We will mention on Facebook. We will give these people their due. That's what this show is all about.

I just want to congratulate Julie Andrews for making it another year. She made it, Gilbert. Gilbert. Julie Andrews. You didn't kill Julie Andrews. I'm so sorry. We announced her dead a couple of times. I know.

Gilbert did everything he did to bump off. He could to bump off Julie Andrews. Sorry, Gilbert Gilbert she made it she's still with us we will continue this we will mention other people we're going to do a music episode for the Patreon people and then in a couple of weeks after that

we'll post it for everybody and Mike is not on Facebook but he is a demon on Twitter so we'll mention you and I will confer and mention all the people that we forgot or didn't get to. And we'll put a bunch of them, like Michael Chapman. Oh, yeah. The famous cinematographer deserves to be mentioned and some other people. And we'll do them on social media because we can't do a two and a half hour show here.

And that's it. And lastly, we lost Dame Vera Lynn at the age of 103. And I bring her up because Michael had a great idea for how to go out of this show with the song that she was famous for. So we'll go out on that and we'll dedicate it to the great Mike McPadden. Mr. Gottfried, that's all I got. So this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing

colossal podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre and our guest Michael H. Weber. and our guest, Michael H. Weber. And this has been our In Memoriam episode. He got your name right, Michael. Wow, I mean, that's the sign of the apocalypse. This is the first time you ever called me Miggly Wiggly, so I don't know what to do with myself. Thanks to everybody who makes this show what it is, and thank you to these great artists.

Enjoy their work. See the films. Read the books. Watch the television shows. Great contributions to the culture. Thank you, Michael Weber. Thank you, guys. As with every year, we love having you.

My pleasure. Thanks for being a part of this. Thank you. We'll go out on the perfect song. We'll meet again Don't know when Don't know when But I know we'll meet again

Some sunny day. Keep smiling through just like you always do. Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away. drive the dark clouds far away. So will you please say hello to the folks that I know? Tell them I won't be long. They'll be happy to know that as you saw me go,

I was singing this song We'll meet again Don't know when Don't know when But I know

we'll meet again Some sunny day We'll meet again Don't know where, don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through Just like you always do Till the blue skies by the dark clouds ¶¶

¶¶ Don't know when But I know we'll meet again Some sunny day