Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin Part 2

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

In this conclusion of a 2-part episode, veteran screen actors Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss talk about sharing the stage with their children, celebrating 60 years of marriage, casting the comedy classic "My Favorite Year" and filming "The Stepford Wives," "Westworld," Diary of a Mad Housewife" and "The Parallax View." Also, Mel Brooks produces "The Elephant Man," Orson Welles intimidates the cast of "Catch-22," Paula's mom chats up William S. Burroughs and Richard lists his favorite Paula Prentiss performances! PLUS: "Captain Nice"! Elsa Lanchester! The genius of Michael Crichton! The irrepressible Bill Macy! And Richard and Paula remember friends Yul Brynner, Buck Henry, Jack Klugman and George Segal! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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New episodes Sundays. Watch free on CBC Gem. Hey everyone, Frank here, and this is part two of a pretty special interview with actors and longtime married couple Richard Benjamin and Paul Apprentice. As I said last week, it was too hard to chop anything out of this one. It was so packed, so we made it a special two-parter. And as promised, part two offers a little bit of everything. We remember Yul Brynner and Jack Klugman, two great actors that Richard worked with. Paul and Richard talk about their longtime pals, Buck Henry and the late, great George Segal. And Richard tells us about Orson Welles visiting the set of Catch-22,

which is memorable, and as discussed last week, a pretty terrific Mel Brooks story. We talk a little bit of Stepford Wives with Paula. As I said, a smorgasbord, a little bit of everything. So enjoy. Gil and I hope you guys get a kick out of this conclusion of our interview with the great Richard Benjamin and Paul Apprentice. Paula, Jack Cassidy, could he be a handful?

Oh, he was fabulous. He was very, very funny. Charming guy. In real life and everything. Very charming. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, he was great. Not difficult because we'd heard things. We'd heard he could be. Yeah, he was great. Not difficult because we'd heard things.

We'd heard he could be. Oh, he was never difficult. He was wonderfully outrageous. Yeah. But not difficult. You know, we love character actors. He striked me as last of those big movie star guys. Yes, yes, yes. You know, like who just loved being a celebrity. Yes, yes, yes.

You know, like who just loved being a celebrity. Oh, yeah, he did. He loved it. Yeah, he absolutely loved it. It's great to see them on YouTube, and it's great to see these great character actors of the day like Charles Lane and Jack Rushton and Harold Gould and Strother Martin and Alice Griswold.

Harold Gould was my teacher at a women's college I went to in Virginia. Wow. He was a teacher. Wrote his dad. Yes. Yeah, Valerie Harper. Yes, that's right. And he came out to Hollywood.

It was fantastic. Yeah, and had a nice career. Very nice. Alice Gould, our friend John Astin. It's great. But it's interesting, Richard, because had it been a hit, and had you had a five or six or seven-year run. Yeah.

That's the thing about this. The thing to know is that you don't know. You don't know anything. The road not taken. I got a couple of questions here from listeners that wanted to ask you guys questions uh rob martinez richard why did you turn down the uh turn down a role in the towering inferno well which i didn't know well me either uh i've never heard that he's probably got the wrong actor but i'm i'm but i But I'm interested if it's coming up again I can put out that fire

Come on They don't do the same research we do Also from Rob Paula can you tell us anything about being in the Parallax view Oh that's great Yeah I can Working with Walter Was uh yes was was wonderful i don't mean walter warren warren yeah because he was very particular about what takes he liked and

didn't like and we did several takes for that first film first movie in the film. And it was great working with him because he was so detailed and he wanted so many specific things. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I sure work with him again. Here's another one for Paula from Michelle Mantinen. Paula, do you consider The Stepford Wives to be a horror film, a black comedy, a thriller, or some combination?

As a woman, I find the movie hilarious and terrifying at the same time. That's exactly right. Yep. I think it's hilarious and terrifying. Could you not... Was it that Catherine Ross couldn't bring herself to stab you in the climax and that...

I heard Brian Forbes had to do it. No. This is the bullshit you read on the internet. Yeah. No. And Richard, getting back to Goodbye Columbus for a second, you worked with the great Jack.

Oh, yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. Could you tell us a little about him? Well, you know, he, again, here's a 12 Angry Men and all of these incredible movies of that of that period, Sidney Lumet and all that. And then all of a sudden you're working with, you know, a legendary actor and a wonderful actor. And again, it's like, you know, you did the wonderful impression of Mason.

It was the same with Mason and Klugman. It wasn't like you were acting with them. It was like it was real and it was there. And that Klugman was like that too. You had no choice but to be in the moment with them because they were alive and not acting. It seemed like it was really happening. That was a wonderful experience working with him. And Mason was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. I was going to save this question to the end of the show, but I'm going to ask it early.

Paula, what's your favorite Richard Benjamin performance? Did that happen the other night, honey? Sorry. I meant on screen or stage. Do you have a performance of Richard's that you watch and you say, just damn, that's good? Oh, I got it right there, so I don't have to go watch any movie. I got him right there, so I don't have to go watch any movie.

How about the creep he plays in Diary of a Mad Housewife? Yeah, that was cool, wasn't it? A little too convincing, Richard. Well, she said to me, don't bring that character into this house. She actually said that to me. Because what I was doing, I said, oh, I learned how to make a Caesar salad. And these things are very particular to me. She said, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.

That's great. Same question, Richard. Do you have a performance of Paula's that is special to you or that you're particularly impressed by? Here's the thing. I think there's too many to actually single any out. However, when you mentioned Paralyx to you, I mean, I thought she's completely brilliant in that. Yes.

And that's not a comedy, you know, because she can do both brilliantly. I love her in Man's Favorite Sport. She's so alive and loose and funny. And someone told me early on, I learned early on, do not, during He and She, I would make a suggestion to her about a line reading or something or a way to do something and i quickly learned that's a mistake um because what goes on in there is something so special that you can't mess with it you just can't mess with it uh it's it's alive in there and what comes out is the truth. Um,

so there, there's, there are so many. I like Bobby, uh, Paul, you're crazy. You're crazy.

Would be singer character in last of the red hot lovers. It's great. With, with Arkin, you're just bouncing off the walls and every, every man who's ever been single has dated some woman like that. And you like working with Alan? We had Alan here.

He's great. Absolutely great. Yeah. And also the character in Stepford Wives was also named Bobby. Were there protests? What was the reaction to Stepford Wives was also named Bobby. Were there protests? What was the reaction to Stepford Wives? Were certain women protesting? I know certain feminists it rubbed the wrong way.

Well, there was something about it, but I guess it hadn't been brought to my attention. I didn't feel those things. Another actor we've had on the show that we wanted to ask about because we thought he was terrific, and that's Bill Macy. Oh, late great Bill Macy. Yeah, great.

Absolutely great. Yeah. He was so great in Favorite Year. Yeah. I had a wonderful cast in Favorite Year, and I had Selma Diamond, who I said, if I can't get Selma Ritter I'll have Selma Diamond the best the best the best and Joe and everybody in that um that was like a dream and it was Paula's idea to cast uh Peter yeah um because she had worked with

him in um What's New Pussycat uh but um was a dream, that whole, again, you know, it's luck that I would get that, you know, thrown my way, you know. Macy was here. We had him on the show. We lost Bill, I guess, a year ago. And he was here twice. And we got to know him, and he was so happy to do the show, and he was so excited to do the show and he was so so excited

that we were recalling things and bringing things up that he hadn't thought about in 50 60 years but he was but he was also brutally honest yeah yeah yeah he really kind of let it he didn't he didn't seem to have much love for tony curtis which he made no which he made clear to us. Oh, I see. And I remember my wife and I went out to L.A. and we gave Bill a call. And he said he'd meet us at the hotel, but first he has to make a stop and pick up some whitefish. And we were sitting in the lobby of this hotel, and he's eating. That seems right. He was lovely.

He was lovely. On the subject of my favorite year, which, you know, and shout out to our mutual friend Norman Steinberg. Yeah. And that whole wonderful cast. But you must tell the story of trying to cast Bologna because it's so funny. Oh, yeah. So Mel says, Mel Brooks says, okay, get Joe Bologna. He'll be Sid Caesar.

Go get him. So I call Joe and I said, there's a movie we're doing, and we would like you to look at this part. And he said, well, what is it? And I said, well, I'll send you the script. Okay. So I wait a day or so. I call him. He said, well, I read it, but I'm very flattered, and thanks so much for thinking of me.

But no thank you. This isn't for me so i call i said oh i'm sorry to hear that are you sure yeah i'm sure yeah um i tell mel mel he said no he's mel then standing up and jumping up in the air, said to me, unacceptable, unacceptable. I said, what's unacceptable? It's unacceptable. Call him and tell him. He's got to do it. I said, Mel, he doesn't want to do it. He said, unacceptable. And now he's actually running around the room saying this. I said, okay. So I called Joe. Listen, I talked to Mel, and he really would like it. We all want you to.

He said, listen, I'm so flattered, but please, please take it. It's a no, okay? Let's make it a final no. And no. Okay. I go back. Listen, Mel, this was final. He said, absolutely not.

Unacceptable. It's unacceptable. Now he's on a chair jumping up and down. Call him. I said, he doesn't want to do it. I said, this is getting embarrassing. Call him up. I called him. I said, Joe, I want to do it. I said, this is getting embarrassing. Call him up. I called him. I said, Joe, I'm so sorry to bother you, but Mel is, you know, he's insistent.

We all are. And I know you've said absolutely no. And he said, please do not call me anymore. This is getting embarrassing and humiliating for all of us. It's definitely no. Are you sure? Because, you know, he said, don't call me anymore. I go back.

Mel, this time he said, don't call him ever again. Unacceptable. It's unacceptable. Call him. I said, he said, don't call him anymore. Unacceptable. Call him. him anymore. Unacceptable.

Call him. Joe, the fact that you even took my call and everything, we just want to say, he said, I'll do it. When do we start? I love that.

That's a great showbiz story. I go to Mel. He's committed committed he's going to do it said yeah yeah so yeah sure uh i mean it's it's i learned a lot about producing working with mel dan what do you think i don't know Stan, what do you think? I don't know. He is a legend. One of the biggest stars ever.

He's one of a kind. A guy like this is irreplaceable. Replace him, Leo. You can't. Too risky. He's out. King! You can't. Too risky. He's out. King! You're right. This is too risky.

You can't take a chance with something like this. Look, King, you're a big star now, and I'm sure you always will be. But suppose, just suppose, and I know this is never gonna happen, but suppose someday you wind up like this. I hope nobody does to you what you're doing to him. Dump him. Thump him.

Who are you to talk to me like that, you little Jiminy Cricket pest bastard? All right, he gets one more chance. No! Yes! Yes! So is Mel as totally insane as he appears to be? Along with being a genius, yes. I mean, it's not insane.

It's on another level. And it's always funny. It's always funny. And he's, you know, he's very perceptive. And also, when you think of some of the serious pictures, you know, that he's done, I mean, he's, you know, he's got a wide, wide range. Oh, you mean like Elephant Man and pictures that he produced? Yes, yes, yeah. He's got a wide range

of interests and stuff, but at the bottom of it, there's this level of always funny. Paula, you've worked with Richard a bunch of times in Catch-22 and He and She and Saturday the 14th, SNL. What did you learn from working with your spouse, good and bad? Actually, it's always good.

It's such a relief for me in real life. No, that's not true. And it's such a relief for me in real life. No, that's not true. Can he be a little bit of a diva from time to time, or is he all professional? You're under oath. I remind you, you're under oath. If you want to make 60 years, honey, let's give the right answer. Yeah, which leads me to this question from a listener, Dan Fisher.

Please ask these wonderful people, how the hell does anybody stay married for six decades? And throughout the swinging 60s and the sexual revolution of the 70s yet, that is my way of congratulating these people on their 60th wedding anniversary. Mazel Tov. Holy cow. And do you have any advice, he says, for someone who's only been married 27 years? Yes. I would say get into everything that comes along.

Can you elaborate? I can't believe it. No. That's why I love her. There's no way of knowing what that means. And that's why I love her. Yeah. There was a Village Voice article about you, Paula, a couple of years ago. And it was called, what is it?

Paula Prentiss Pursues Her Own Orbit. And I love that title. I love that headline. Is that true? Is that fair to say? Oh, yes. Yeah, I think so. Tell us something, Richard, about Westworld. And Gilbert, love this, that you had to take it because you said for a Jew from the Upper West Side, this is his one shot to be in a Western.

Upper West Side is only—this is his one shot to be in a Western. I'm going to be riding a horse out in the desert. I'm going to be drawing against Yul Brynner with a six-gun. How's that going to happen? Oh, and that brings up Yul Brynner. What was he like? Oh, he was great. He was really who people thought he invented himself, you know, but that invention was all real. It was completely real.

One day he asked me to go with him to lunch when we were breaking right near the studio there to a sushi restaurant that he loved. And he said, I know about this kind of food. You know, I've spent time in Japan and all. I thought, well, this might just be another story. And when we walk into the place, there's the people behind the counter. Oh, Mr. Brindison, and now in fluent Japanese, just to all the people in the place and ordering and everything. He was an inspiration, really.

He taught me a lot of things. And he loved being there. He absolutely loved being there. There was a day he wasn't called. And he showed up at the studio and came onto the soundstage, and the ADs, the first AD went over to the second AD and said, did you call him? And he said, no. He said, well, somebody must have called him.

He said, I didn't call him because he's here. He said, you know, there's going to be hell to pay if somebody has called him in and he doesn't work today. And the first AD went to him and he said, gee, Mr. Brenner, we're so sorry. Did you get a call to come? He said, no. And he said, well, why are you here? And he said, I can't think of a better place to be.

How about that? He loved being there. He loved making movies and he loved being there. And we had a great time. He loved making movies, and he loved being there. And we had a great time. He taught me how to shoot a six-gun without blinking. He taught me all these kind of things.

He was a wonderful man. And we saw him in his last performance of The King and I. He was The King and I. And he was dying of cancer. But he said, when we went back there to see him afterwards, and when you saw him in his dressing room, he was almost half the size that he was on stage, you know. And he said, the King gives me life. Wow. Wow.

Yeah, he was doing it because it gave him something. What an electric performer. You know, Crichton was a visionary. I'll say. Looking at how he was limited by the special effects of the day, Richard, and I'm watching it the other day, and I'm thinking, my God, had he lived to see HBO's Westworld? Had he lived to see CGI and computer technology?

At the time, trying to get a shot through a robot's point of view was a nightmare for him. Really a guy who was, again, ahead of his time. Way ahead. And yet it's true, you know, all the technical things, but the original ideas are Michael's. I mean, this thing to this day of, you know, relying on machines and, you know, all of that, that was him, you know, right from the beginning. He was a real visionary and also a pretty wonderful guy. Did you shoot those Roman scenes at the old Harold Lloyd estate? Yes. Yeah, we did. Wow. We did. Yeah, we did. And we went, Paul, you came out in the desert when we were out there. Yeah, we had a wonderful time.

A movie that holds up very, very well. You know, Richard, my favorite year is turning 40 next year. Good heavens. As you probably know. We should do, and we will. We love this. If you're up for it, we love this movie so much. We'll get you and Norman and find Jessica Harper and Mark, and we'll do a panel. Oh, that'd be great.

We'll do a reunion panel. I would like that. Won't that be fun? That'd be a lot of fun, yeah. That'd be great, Jessica and everybody. Just to see everybody again. Yeah, that'd be great. Tell me, Paula, about

getting to act with your son. With Ross. On stage. Yes, that's right. We did that. Well, I've managed to act with my son and with my daughter in two separate plays.

Oh, I forgot. And Prentiss, yes. Yeah, uh-huh. I don't know. It was just wonderful. When we went to Northwestern, it was the theater that we were interested in. So I always had that in the back of my mind. Maybe we could do

those kinds of things together. And you know, when they were doing Majority of One, right, with Ross? Is that right? No. Did you do All My Sons? We did All My Sons. No, but you did, I think Majority, he was in that. We did

All My Sons together, but just you and he and somebody and the nice uh other fellow you played against of course my information's been suspect today but i have i have glass menagerie mrs warren's profession which i think you did with prentice that's right and all my sons but maybe okay well all my sons we did at shadowlands which we all did together but i'm pretty sure the reason why i'm pretty sure i was in the audience i did a little theater here on pico and ross is in it with paula and um ross looks a great deal like me and i that. I'm sitting in the audience, and there are some ladies behind me, and they say, well, Paul Apprentice looks very good.

And they said, yes, but that Richard Benjamin looks incredible. I can hear them say this. He is the spitting image of you. He is. Ross, what do you know? I assume you both were. Richard, you were interviewed for the Mike Nichols book, for Mark Harris' terrific book. It's a good book.

That's what I hear. You know, here's the thing. I haven't read it yet. A lot of my friends have read it. Am I quoted in there? You are. In five or six different pages. Paula is as well. Well, I guess we were, but I don't remember that. Or maybe he used them from other sources?

Maybe, because our friend George, you know, Siegel, who just passed away. Yeah, we're going to ask you about George. Yeah. Called me when he said, I said, have you read the book? And he said, I'll read any book that's got Richard Benjamin running through it. So I thought, I'm in there, but I don't remember being interviewed by him, Mark Harris. I don't remember that. No, I don't think I do. Maybe it's from something else. I hear it's really good.

Maybe it's from something else. I hear it's really good. Well, you're talking about, he's talking about Catch-22. Uh-huh. And that you had a pre-existing relationship with Nichols. Yeah. And that you would, I'm trying to remember it now because I read the book months ago. But we did want to ask about Catch-22 because that's a set you were both on together.

Yeah. Memories of Orson. You know, we've had you are the – let's see, Gilbert. We've had Bob Balaban was here. Peter Bonners was here. Buck was here. Austin Pendleton was here. Oh, good.

And the two of you. So we're slowly recreating this cast. Yes, right. Oh, yes, yes. It was quite something. So Orson, Mike, Mike came to us before Orson arrived. He said, now you know me as who I am, but when Orson is here, I may appear to be a completely different person.

You may not recognize me at all. Just wanted to let you know that. So Orson comes, and he is dressed in his General Dreidel general's uniform, and we get, the cast is all called together by the first AD, and he said, now, we've got this message that Mr. Wells does not want to be approached by anybody in the cast, talked to at any time except when we're actually shooting, so please keep your distance, and we thought, oh, that's too bad you know Citizen Kane and all these fabulous movies and all of these things we can't talk to him about any of that no no just keep your distance he'll be here for two weeks and then you know be gone so now

we're sitting there all of us out in the middle of Wymas in the desert. It's 110 degrees and we have umbrellas over us, but we're at a distance. He's sitting alone under his umbrella, about 30 feet away or something. And after a couple of hours, a second AD comes to us and said, Mr. Wells is quite upset. I said, why? Nobody's talked to him. We haven't bothered him. We haven't gone near him.

He said, well, that's the thing. He wonders why everybody is keeping away from him. He doesn't understand. Is it something you think he did? We were told to stay away from him and we said well who told you that it doesn't matter who told us we're telling you we're all why do you think we're all over here so so all of us we've got these little camp chairs and we all scuttle over right up to him with our chairs and everything and begin this, you know, nonstop stories and conversations.

And what he doesn't know, he starts in a story about Leland Hayward, who was a, didn't he produce What's New Pussycat? Might have. Anyway, a big producer. His daughter, Brooke Hayward, who I think was going with Buck at the time, is sitting right there with us. And he launches into an incredibly complicated story of all kinds of things that happened with he and Leland Hayward and very particular things, scandalous things and all of this. And he finishes.

things scandalous things and all of this and he finishes and then brooke leans over and she said mr wells i'm brooke hayward i'm leland hayward's daughter and i don't think any of that happened and he said you know you may be right i mean you know. Paula, did you meet Orson too? Did you find him strangely intimidating or larger than life? Larger than life. Yeah. He wasn't intimidating, but he was there for sure.

And once we all opened up, it was, you know, just all these fabulous stories and all of these things. And he also left. When he was gone, Mike decided he needed some kind of shot or something of Orson in the background, but he was gone. And they said, we'll get somebody a body double. I just need him in the background. They said, well, there might be a problem. I said, why? Well, because of Orson and his good size, we only made one

General Dreidel uniform and he left wearing it. We don't have the uniform anymore. He's got it. Hilarious. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast.

But first, a word from our sponsor. You guys have been very, very generous with your time. We want to just ask you quickly, since you brought up George, before George passed, we lost Buck a couple of years ago, and since you were here. You both knew him well. Just a couple of words about the great Buck Henry from two people who were close to him.

Great. I think that's the perfect adjective for him. He was always, always funny and very sweet and very sexy. Very sexy. Now, I hope I'm not coloring outside the lines here, but Lorraine

Newman told us that she went to his house and she saw, do you remember this, Gilbert? That he had some kind of sex swing in the house. Sounds about right. That sounds right. That sounds about right.

That sounds absolutely right. Possibility for sure. The thing about him being so witty and sharp and everything, but underneath was a tremendous sweetness. And what I learned, because we were about to work on something together, actually, his main thing was being original. When you look at all of his work,

what he couldn't do, wouldn't do, was imitate anything. It had to be original for him to be interested in it, involved in it. And we had wonderful times together. A trip down to Chichen Itza and all that, remember? Yeah, we had a wonderful trip together. All of it, yeah. What a legacy and a body of work.

And he was compromised, obviously, when he came here to do the show. But he gave us an hour and a half of his time and his stories. And Gilbert, wasn't that special? Yeah. He was definitely getting weaker. but boy, he had the memory. And he still was funny. And he still pissed off that CBS put another superhero spoof opposite Captain Nice. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Mr. Turibio. And Paula's sister was in that. Anne Prentice, yes. It's a terrific song. And Paula's sister was in that. And Prentice, yes. Yeah. And Gilbert will now sing the theme song, won't you, Gilbert? Look, it's a man who flies around like an eagle. Look, it's a man who hates all that's illegal. Who is this man with arms built just like hammers?

It's just a nerd of poison. Round in pajamas. Round in pajamas. That's no not son. That's Captain Ince. Excellent. There's no other place where we could hear this except right here. That's for Buck.

I'm pretty sure. That's for Buck and for Anne. Yeah. Thank you. And lastly, your friend and Paul, your co-star. Did you work with him as well, Rich, with George Segal? Yeah, I do. The last married couple in America.

Oh, I'm sorry. The last married couple in America. My bad. We only knew each other 50 years, right? You know, we tried. We're very proud of the people that we've been able to book on this show in the seven years that we've been doing this. You obviously get what this show is about. It's a labor of love.

We love sitting with people like you and recreating the past. It's just wonderful for us, yeah. Thank you very much. But boy, George was the one that got away. Right, Gil? Well, he would have loved it. I wish I had known because he would have loved it. We asked Ron. Ron and Jessica, I think, asked him for us too.

Uh-huh. Leibman. And we just couldn't close the deal. I remember, though, hearing or reading an interview that George Segal, as much as he said he looks like he's having fun on these interview shows, you know, taking the banjo out and playing it, and he says he's doing a performance of a guy having a good time. I think I could have gotten him here because I would have driven him.

If I could have picked him up and put him in a car, I probably could have gotten him. I'm sorry I didn't think to ask you sooner. Because that would be more his thing. Oh, what do you mean? I have to go downstairs and get in my car? I don't think so. They don't make them like that anymore. No.

Yeah, we would have loved to have yeah i think our favorite gilbert and gilbert's favorite in mind and of course he did wonderful work whereas papa you directed the tv version yes yeah great and that you know we loved uh no way to treat a lady yeah yep yes and he could do anything before we jump off, because, Richard, because Gilbert worships the Bride of Frankenstein, and Elsa Lanchester was directed by you in the Where's Papa pilot. So great. Anything you can share? Well, she was, you know, first of all, she was totally, you know, there and with it and sharp and everything. And she was just fabulous.

And Marvin Wir worth produced that and um in the beginning as you know like with the movie the son tries to kill her yes uh dressed as a ape or you know and tries to kill her and then he shows the he shows the pilot to ABC, and they say, is this woman crazy? So he said, well, we can't have any crazy mothers on this network. And he said, well, let's say she's eccentric. They said, nope, she's crazy, and we're not picking this show up. So, you know, it's like, didn't they know what we were making there? But she was, you know, the idea of working with the Bride of Frankenstein,

I mean, you think in your life, you're growing up on the west side of New York, and you're a kid, and you think, let's see, let's see, one day I'll be working with the Bride of Frankenstein. And they say, yeah, put him away, You know, just take him and put him away. As a film buff like you, I mean, that's catnip. That's a thrill. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

Yeah. Yeah. Look at these people. Look at this journey from Northwestern University where it's taken you both. Oh, yeah. We're very blessed. We know that. We're very blessed.

Yeah. And that's that thing of Paula. We know that. We're very blessed, yeah. And it's that thing of Paula. She's at Randolph-Macon Women's College, and she goes for a summer session at Northwestern and transfers. And you talk about the road taken, the road not taken.

I mean, and there she is and all of that. I mean, life is quite something. How much of your personal success did both your parents get to enjoy and experience? Well, my mother was around for a long time. In fact, she passed away when I was making the stiegel and paula was with her but my dad passed away uh for me before any of it but he knew paula oh and he saw paula's success and both of her folks saw your success um and her mother came out here to be with her when she was making Where the Boys Are. Paula, how did your mother react to her daughter from a small town?

I mean, she is that same. She's just wonderful. She's like that. She grew up in Archer City, Texas. That's what I mean, yeah. And she's always been like that. She was just funny naturally because that's who she was. How did she wrap her mind around her daughter becoming a movie star and being on a 60-foot screen?

She probably just thought, well, that's the way it should be. You know, she was a very, and it's where Paula gets it, I think, she was a very down-to-earth. You know, it didn't, when we, over at, Paula took her over to MGM and stuff, it wasn't, she wasn't impressed by just because somebody, you know, was, happened to be there, look at that movie star, look at that, it was who the person was. I see. And that's like Paula. So she thought it was, of course, wonderful, but if it made her daughter happy, that was the most important thing to her. And one night, Dick was doing a play, and we had an opening night party,

and William Burroughs was there. Wow. Because Terry Southern was there, and there were all those kind of connections. My mother sat next to William Burroughs and I thought, I wonder what this is going to be like.

She was having a delightful time. This is the fellow who I said I don't think mother's read Naked Lunch. Wow. They had a lovely time together. We looked across, and she's deep in conversation.

This fabulous lady who came, her folks came over here on the Mayflower, is in deep conversation with William Burroughs. I'd love to hear this conversation. I'd love to hear it. Did your mother, and your mother, Richard, did she brag on you? My son's a movie star. She, too, was, you know, wonderfully real. She was wonderful. Yeah.

And we were able to, you know, help her and, you know, get to do things for her after she had done so much for me and everything. So that was good. That's a nice part of success, isn't it, that you get to take care of loved ones that saw you through. When your children came to you, and Prentice is teaching dance, she's teaching ballet. Yeah. When your children said they wanted to be in the arts, how did you react? It was fine with me because Prentice always, she took dancing when she was five. And she, you know, always continued and teaches it and stuff like that.

And Ross has that one thing that he wants to do. And that's act. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. one thing that he wants to do. And that's it. That's it, yeah.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. His wife is a surgeon, and they met at Harvard, and Liz doesn't care, you know, if he wants to pursue that movie career, that's fine with her. I think we're just lucky. Yeah, we are. I think we're really lucky.

And he had a part in the Goodbye Girl remake, Richard? Pardon? Russ had a part in the Goodbye Girl remake? Yeah, Pardon? Ross had a part in the Goodbye Girl remake? Yeah, yeah, he did. He was in that group when they were doing Richard III with Jeff, who Jeff, of course, is great. Because we think Gilbert's son is going to go into comedy. I don't know if Gilbert's sort of bracing himself. What do we think, Gil?

I think he's right. Well, it certainly makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. How old is Max now, Gil? Oh, he totally makes sense, doesn't it? How old is Max now, Gil? Oh, he's 12. Oh, perfect, yeah. Yeah, but he's 12 going on 49. Yeah, yeah.

And he's a cut-up. Yeah, he sees his dad being so brilliant, so why wouldn't he want to do that? Well, Richard, as we wind things down, do you regret not giving Gilbert that part in My Stepmother's an Alien all these years later?

Well, I think back on it, I think Kim did a really good job. And she looked great in that dress. I'm sure Gilbert would have been sensational. Gilbert also lost a part in the movie Dick Tracy, which I bring up because I think you were involved briefly.

Oh, for a while I was, yeah. Yes, and Warren Beatty was telling me, oh, you're just, you're perfect. You're just what I'm seeing. Those are the words. Kiss of death. And then after I'm believing I'm going. Those are the words. Kiss of death. And then after I'm believing I'm going to be in this, my agent goes, oh, they're going with someone else.

And I said, who are they going with? And he goes, Dustin Hoffman. Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh. And because I want to know, like, at 3 o'clock in the morning in Hollywood, when they were going, hmm, Gilbert Gottfried of Cussing. Let's think about this. Yeah.

See, now, if Richard had stayed on as a director on Dick Tracy, you'd have gotten your shot. Yes, definitely. Definitely. No, no, he would have had Kim Basinger as well. Yeah, that could be. Test true heart. Yeah, that could be, yeah. Tess Trueheart, yeah. We will tell our listeners to see these terrific movies,

to see The Stepford Wives and The Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Goodbye Columbus and Westworld and Diary of a Mad Housewife, even though Richard's a terrible heel in that. And also the films Richard has directed, the wonderful Racing with the Moon and City Heat and Mermaids, which we love, and so many. And we will do that My Favorite Year reunion if you're up for it.

Well, that'd be great. That'd be great. It'll be fun for us. And your son's, what, still out there auditioning? Well, he just did something on Starz. He did a show. Yeah, he has a part on a show on Starz. And they've moved to Atlanta because Liz, our trauma surgeon, brilliant daughter-in-law, has got a wonderful job there.

But there's a lot of activity in Atlanta now. And so he's doing quite well there and we just had our new granddaughter April 22nd Sadie Ruth Schulman yeah Yeah. Yeah. And Paula decided after watching Gypsy that Sadie should be in show business, that Paula was going to be the Ethel Merman part, and she was going to get baby Sadie out there. Smile, baby Sadie.

Smile. Yeah. Let's create a dynasty. Let's create a showbiz dynasty like the Barrymores. Yeah. When will you guys write a memoir? Well, I have written something. Paula wrote a wonderful, it's not quite a, it's kind of a memoir, but it's beautifully written and stuff. And I've written something that somebody's looking at and I don't't know we'll see okay yeah okay we'll save some stories for the book okay thank you guys for this thank you for decades of of entertainment on behalf thank you for having us yeah we enjoyed it so much thank you i told paula how much i told

paula how enjoyable this will be and i was right thank. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Gil, you want to take us out? Yes. One more time. Hello, light. Goodbye, Colossus. Got a feeling that you're going to hear from us. Got a feeling that we're going to get a surprise.

Got that look in your eyes. Know where the boys are for Paula? No. Gonna get a surprise. Got that look in your eyes. Anyway. Know where the boys are for Paula? No. Do Connie Francis. Where the boys are. We had Neil Sedaka here on this show.

Yeah, yeah. A while ago. Thank you, guys. Thank you for everything. Thank you. And thanks for schlepping to Burbank. And we want to thank Land Romo again and Aristotle Acevedo for making this possible. Thank you, Richard Benjamin, Paula Ragusa. Thank you.

Yes. And this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And Frank broke my heart by telling me that you, Paul Apprentice, are a guinea. And the great Richard Benjamin, who to this day, I say, what? I wasn't good enough for my stepmothers and aliens? I'm sorry. We just went another way. So Paul Apprentice and Richard.

And happy anniversary, 60 years. Bless your hearts. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A warm embrace Two arms to hold me tenderly Where the boys are

My true love will be He is walking down some street in town and I know he's looking there for me In the crowd

of a million people I'll find my valentine And then I'll climb To the highest steeple And tell the world he's mine Till he holds me I'll wait impatiently

Where the boys are Where the boys are Where the boys are Someone waits for me. Till he holds me, I'll wait impatiently. Where the boys are Where the boys are Where the boys are Someone waits for me me Produced by Frank Santopadre, Derek Gottfried, and Starburns Audio.

Audio production by Aristotle Acevedo and John Murray. Editing by Aristotle Acevedo. Social media production by Greg Baer, Josh Chambers, Michelle Maninen, and Dino Corserpio. Website supervision by John Bradley Seals. Special thanks to Land Romo, Jack Vaughn, Daniel Spaventa, and Stephen Varley.