The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: Richard Karn and his Washington Huskies

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Richard Karn of 'Home Improvement' fame joins us to preview tonight's huge game for his Washington Huskies as they chase a National Title. He also talks Home Improvement memories, Family Fued, Pen15, and, of course, NFTs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. I saw it wash over Dan's face when I just said you have a head coach in Washington that most people who follow the sport don't know his names. And I could see Dan like, I just don't know. I just saw it. Yeah, I just, I don't don't ask me. I just saw it. Yeah, I just saw that would have been a fun game to play. Cause two got just just set it in here. And I don't know his name. He was on goal. I can smell you this year. That's beginning of the watching Washington.

Like, do you know his name, Billy? It's a car. I'm going to call that game the Shane Steichen game. The name of this coach. Can you hear me yet? Hello, Mr. Karn, how's it going? Thank you so much for doing this, sir. Well, I had the wrong thing or whatever.

They didn't send me the zoom. They sent me a podcast thing. I'll make sure that person is fired. Yeah. No, you don't have to go that far. No, they're done. Beheaded. They're gone.

It's too late. Fire them and then behead them or behead them and then fire them. Whichever one you want. I can't. I can turn it up. I can turn it down. I can turn it left. I can turn it right.

What do you want? You're perfect. You're perfect, Mr. Carn. Congrats. I'm being totally conned us. Can you hear us now? Is that better? Yes. The person the person talking in your ear right now is the person that's going to be fired. So it's all right. You don't have to respect them. What whatsoever. All right.

Can you hear us? Okay, Richard. I can hear you. I can hear you. Perfect. Congratulations on your Huskies. Today is a massive day for you. My name is Mike behind me Is a shipping container and that's Dan Levittard here. You're somebody that we've wanted to talk to for a while We're glad that Washington has made its way into the college football playoff final because it gives us an excuse to shoehorn you in here Well, it took a while. Are you guys you guys are ready? We've been going down. Oh, okay, very good I didn't realize that Richard, thank you for being on with us before we get started here in earnest Would you be kind enough to grab for me the Richard Karn book over your left shoulder at some point during this

I'm gonna want you to give me a A little passage from that book, but for those of you who do not know many years ago Richard Karn was seen wearing a purple Washington Husky sweater on home improvement, and it is the first known time that anyone has ever worn a Washington Husky sweater on national television. I stated I made them do that too, but the writers loved the idea because, you know, they were the Huskies. And Al was always somebody that they considered very husky. And that was, so that was all that you needed to take

that and ride it into the sky with your Washington allegiances. What do you remember of your time at Washington? This was late 70s and how strong is your school pride? Are you going to be a crazy person this evening? I grew up in Seattle. I mean, I go back to when we had the PAC-8. I mean, before all of this nonsense, I mean, PAC-8, 10, 12, now are the PAC-2. I don't know. I watched Sunny Six Killer throw, killer shots.

I saw everybody warm on. My dad had season tickets. I'm a big, big fan. I went to the University Washington for five years, two years undergrad, three years graduate, and I've seen a lot of football games. It's really, really fun. I mean, after we were national champions, and oddly enough, we had to share the national championship with Florida. But we got sanctioned by our own league. The NCAA didn't throw the book at us. It was the Pac-12 teams like USC and UCLA,

but said, three years, no recruiting, three years, no television. For, I think we gave Billy Joe a deal on a truck. I think that was the big thing. Quaint times back when you can get into the game with just a truck. Dan you mentioned the home improvements wetter was also seen in home improvement that Tim also was a Michigan fan. So it's a Darby. It's a home improvement Darby today between Washington and Michigan. It's true. Well, he was central Michigan, but you know, he wore all the different colleges of Michigan. I mean,

that was that was one of the things he loved doing. And you know, since he was doing that, I said, well, I'm going to Washington. I'm, I'm going to put on my, you know, my colors. What will you be like tonight? How does this work? Are you, uh you are you someone who's crazy with passion? Will you yell at referees? Do you yell at television? How does this work? You know, I have been known to do that. Referees have a really, really tough job these days. I mean, I don't know if they've figured out exactly what past interference is anymore. You know, I think we're just going to Aussie rules. You know, I think we're just

going to Aussie rules, you know, Aussie football rules where you can just climb up the, you know, the receiver over his back and knock the ball out. It's going to be really interesting to see how much they let them fight, you know, claw out there because

Washington will have their throwing game. Do you believe that Penex is your favorite athlete in the history of the school? Or do you have somebody that you believe would top that? I love Penex. He has a weird release. And it's not something that you normally see in the NFL. They like a really quick release. I'm sure if he goes on, he's gonna have to learn something like that, but I just love his demeanor in the moment. He's really good and confident, and I love that.

I know that a lot of people ask you about home improvement and improbable show that had an improbable run, but I want to ask you about your even more improbable run, I believe, as the host of Family Feud. I know, that was really kind of came out of left field. I have no idea how that happened. I had done a game show the year before where I was like one of the panelists on to tell the truth. And you know, and I had fun and when they asked me if I wanted to go on and do it when the show got picked up, I went, no, you know, game shows are kind of weird. I'm trained as an actor. And then the next year they come back and say, well, would you like to host? And I think it all happened because Al Roker didn't want to leave New York. They really wanted Al Roker.

So they just, I guess they went down the list to the next Al. What's more underrated to you, pen 15 or pen Roman numeral nine? Don't you love pen 15? I mean, those women are so good they are so funny and you know I got the joy of playing her dad who is in his own right a world-class drummer you know Peter Erskin was with the weather report I mean he was a giant in his field and they had me in a steely-dand cover band called stealing Dan which incidentally I saw in concert last Friday.

Well, our friend Lucy was here. Did you see it? I did. I saw you. You were way down there. Why don't you say hi to him, Lucy? Richard, a couple of years ago, you got the internet very excited that they might have the opportunity to purchase Richard

Karn NFTs and then there is a quote from you that I'm reading and I hope it was you that gave this quote because I'm not even sure that this story is all together real but it said that you gave NFTs some consideration but then ultimately decided against it and a lot of people were disappointed because I wanted the Richard Karn NFTs. What happened with the NFTs? I, you know, what it, it, it, it, it, it sounded like a great idea at the time. And then as I got into it, there was such a melee on, on line of people that loved that I was doing this, people that hated I was doing this. And it was, it was a little much.

And I put something out there, not thinking that it was going to be that, And I put something out there not thinking that it was going to be that, you know, world shattering. You know, tried to pick my words succinctly. I took a picture where I didn't even look at the whole picture because my fingers look like sausages in a glass and threw it out there. And this stand-up comedian, and I can't think of his name. He was on a sitcom a couple of years ago. He just took it and his million followers

to a whole other level, I mean, a whole other level. So, I am. Of hostility? Of hostility that somehow Richard Karn doesn't deserve to get into the NFT fight and make some extra costs. No, no. He was like glowingly accepting of you know, he thought that this was the

best tweet in the world ever that I said something succinctly and you know how I really felt without thinking about the gigantic repercussions of you know modern media. I want to get a little more into the family feud experience, though, because you not understanding how it happened is funny. And do you find yourself with some ravenous jealousy because Steve Harvey took what could have been yours,

which is just years and years of syndicated money for what I don't think can be very hard work, but maybe I have this. Well, you are working on the weekends. So, you know, there's that. Is it hard work, then? Do I have it wrong? Because it, Game Show host seems like a great gig. I don't know why you wouldn't want it unless, unless you're, because you're an artist or you're a thespy, and you, you may have thought Game Show, I mean, Game Show's are kind of cheap. They're kind of silly. you may have thought game shows, I mean, game shows are kind of cheap, they're kind of silly.

Well, you know, it's like it's like how we tell our children as they're growing up, you can feel, you can decide how you feel about something. And once I was on board, I was on board, I was having a lot of fun. I grew up, you know, I watched Richard Dawson do the show years and years ago. In fact, when I was in college, we would make fun of it. We just make up the, show me chicken necks and just make huge jokes about it. And then the reality is how many years later, I'm on stage with the NASCAR drivers, parts of a chicken come up, and chicken ne next shows up. And I wanted to stop. I just wanted to stop the

whole show and tell them how oddly funny this is. And I just under my breath, I went, well, you know, Kevin, because Kevin and I would make fun of this years before I'm doing it. I said, Kevin, this one's for you. Show me chicken next. And it was up there. It was absolutely up there. One of my favorite game show host memories is Richard Dawson. It was one of the answers. I think it was 100 people surveyed,

named the most famous people in the universe. And the nominee was Richard Dawson. So he really, well, he was able to go, show me, me. You don't get many chances to do that one. Can you tell me about the home improvement surprises the things about that show that you couldn't have foreseen certainly you had a run how long was the run as the number one? We had an eight-year run we really we had a great run and I tell you what, we were people's choice eight years running.

We were not the critics choice, but we were the people's choice. And eight years we won that award. I think the only ME we ever won was for lighting. We were a tape show that had, you know, an impeccable lighting. That can't be what you remember from the great life. It was, but that can't be what you remember most fondly

about an eight-year-old. What I remember, what I remember is, is, you know, theater had been my life up until all of a sudden doing this TV show. And so, you don't mess with theater. You don't change, you know, unless it's a brand new play, but then the playwright is there. So you're not messing around with that. And also, you know, when it's a brand new play, but then the playwright is there. So you're not messing around with that.

And also, when it's cast, it's cast. And we had Francis Fisher's for the first three days. And it didn't work out the way the writers were envisioning. And then they brought in Pat Richardson, which freaked me out because it's like, how disposable are we? And then I saw why. and I went okay, all right This is this is a medium where you know writer producers really have a take on what they want out there and how it's getting done

And I wasn't the original Character either Stephen Topillowski was supposed to pay Tim's assistant. Earl Heimann wasn't supposed to play Wilson. They had another guy who was agent thought that his clients shouldn't be only half seen. There were a lot of surprises and a joy to go to work every day, a joy. I mean, we got to do a little 20-minute play every week. It wasn't even hard to memorize the lines.

It was just we just worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, shot it Friday and it was out there. Have you had anything in work that has been that kind of joyous? Well, Penn 15 was joyous in a very different way because it was almost like doing a little independent movie. You know, it's only the people that were in the scenes you were there. like doing a little independent movie. You know, it's only the people that were in the scenes you were there.

So you didn't have a cast camaraderie the way we did with home improvement. After 20 years of not doing theater, my son was born the first season. So I didn't wanna do theater, I didn't wanna go away every night and miss story time or bath time or whatever. So I didn't do theater for 20 years and then when I went back to do theater again, it was, you know, I, it's like skiing, you know, when

you're young, you can ski, your legs will keep you up there. And then when you're older, you can't lay back on your, your legs because you have to ski correctly. You have to ski over your skis. And with acting, it's the same thing. You have to pay attention because, you know, memorization comes a little harder to an older brain. And that was really fun getting out of my comfort zone and doing theater again. What would surprise people about things they don't know about keeping a show number one for as long as you guys had it at the top of popularity.

Um, I, I, I don't know. I, you know, the writers worked really hard. I mean, we had 12 writers. They would, um, they would put them put in groups of two to go write it and then come back and group write it after the read, read through on Monday. Uh, tool time usually wasn't, uh, we usually rehearsed Tooltime on Monday, because it didn't change a lot, but the jokes would change, and I learned over years to fight for a joke that they wrote,

or except that one of this one's not working, but the writers did an interesting thing. They didn't tie it to a specific time. They didn't tie it to a specific time. They didn't they didn't do Politics they didn't do things that were popular at that point except for maybe close and hairdo But other than that they kept it kind of in this world where it could be anytime any anytime And your opinion how do you stop Blake Korum and that Michigan rushing attack? Our defense is is not rated, you know, very high.

Yeah. I believe our best defense is just scoring more points than they do. I was going to say stunts, but I like that. Score more points than them. Stop Blake Korum. I'll pace them. Yes, just score more than they do. You know, I and not to give

credit to our defense because they they are good. They I mean they work they work really well but you know remember the last time we faced Michigan we had we had Napoleon Kaufman back there and you know we had some stellar some stellar defensive players but also you you couldn't climb on the receivers as much. You know, there was, there was a little more decorum as far as what pass interference entails. Richard, you really got this up your ass with this pass interference.

Like you seem super pissed off about these changes. You're not good with how this is being officiated. It seems like something that makes you deeply unhappy. Well, you know, sometimes it comes down to the game. It changes the game. It changes the momentum. It changes the score. It changes, well, you know, what's going to happen?

And sometimes these are, it feel arbitrary. Like, you know, there's holding on every game, on every play there's holding. When you choose to call it, when it's just so obvious, or I don't want it to be arbitrary, but, you know, when it's your team, it feels arbitrary. When it's their team, you go, yeah, that's right.

They were doing that. Richard, I'm gonna need you to calm down. I'm gonna need you to settle down. I think you'll be, you know, I've got five hours to calm down. You need to pace yourself. Like I don't know if you're nervous. I don't know whether you're reasonable about these things. How do you experience like are you?

Are, is this the highlight of your day? And you can't wait for it to start because you're going to get some joyful enthusiasm from the silliness of sports, mattering and mattering in a way that make you insane about pass interference penalties that are. I'll tell you what all the heavy listing has been done. We are in the national championship. So whatever happens is really up to those. 50 kids

that are going to play and their kids there their kids that are now being able to get paid. To do this and if they're going to get paid to do this. And if they're gonna get paid to do this, they should sign contracts saying they should play the whole season and even the bowl games. That's how I feel. This is gonna be difficult to sustain though. You're gonna need to get deeply involved

in their NIL program to keep feeding this monster and what better way to help fuel your NIL program than with your own NFTs. Yep, we can bring it on. Yep, we can bring it back. I think NFTs have come and gone. I don't know if people want to spend money on something that's so easily

downloaded on the computer. In retrospect, you had the right call and you saw it before anyone else. You did. But Richard, car and NFTs have not come and gone. They never came and they need to in order to fund the program. So it may maintain these heights.

Congratulations on your season, Richard. I'm not gonna get you to read from that book, a paragraph from that book, a random paragraph from the book. Yes, there it is. Yes, yes, Richard. There we go. Karn, what is that? If you read this small print,

it's how I remodeled my home for just under three times the original bit. Richard, good seeing you. Thank you for making the time, sir. Well, thank you. Thank you. I don't do a lot of these because it seems like sometimes it's the same old thing,

but this was a lot of fun. This was hearing. Yeah. Good oaks. Way to go us. Show me. Go dog. Go dog. Go dog. Go dog. Go dog. Yeah, go dogs way to go us show me me Number one answer. Thank you Richard you guys take care