June 11, 2025 • 32 mins
Radio star Tim Conway Jr. joins Arroyo Grande for a funny, heartfelt, and never-before-heard look at life with his legendary father—the comic genius behind The Carol Burnett Show, McHale’s Navy, and more.
From Easter Sunday chaos to horse track math lessons, we dive into stories of family, clean comedy, and quiet wisdom. Tim Jr. reflects on fatherhood, the fading art of family-friendly humor, and why his dad’s gentleness offstage mattered just as much as the laughs onscreen.
Sewing, slapstick, and surreal dreams with dad—this episode is a tribute to a legacy that still makes people smile.
PLUS: Chosen Hoodie Giveaway! We're giving away 20 Chosen hoodies as Season 5 drops on Netflix. Subscribe and send your screenshot to raymond@raymondarroyo.com to enter.
🔔 Subscribe for more inspiring conversations: Arroyo Grande, available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and everywhere you listen, watch & stream.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He was one of America's comic geniuses. But what was
it like to live with the great Tim Conway. I
talked with radio and podcasting star Tim Conway Junior about fatherhood, comedy,
and growing up with a legend, all on this edition
of the Arroyo Grande podcast. Come on, I'm Raven Arroyo.
(00:30):
Welcome to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to the show. Now,
turn the notifications on. Turn them on so you know
what's coming. I don't want you to miss this content.
We're creating great stuff here and things that I think
are really important, not only now, but into the future
for you and those around you. Now to our deep dive.
I loved and interviewed the comic genius Tim Conway several times,
(00:53):
and I thought, with Father's Day coming, it would be
fun to talk with his son. Tim Conway Junior, hosts
his own drive time radio show in Los Angeles and
his own podcast. Tim is the spirit of his dad,
and we talked about carrying the family legacy, fatherhood, and
so much more. Tim, I wanted to interview you for
(01:14):
so long. Oh I love no, no, no, no, I
love your work. I've listened every time I'm out here
in traffic. I have fowled in traffic jams during rush
hour because you can't go anywhere, so all you can
do is listen to Tim Conway Junior.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I do very nice of you. I want to
go back because of lack of other station.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, well, I don't you know. My Spanish isn't so good,
so you know you're the only thing available.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And by the way, and we're going to.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Talk about him. Sure.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I loved your father. Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean I never met him.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Loved Oh that's good. I'll send you my notes on him.
Let you know what happened. Well, like most kids have
hard working dads.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
But real quick, and you did you interview him up
on Beverly Glenn. Yes, there was a big house in
that house okay, all right. I was with him day. Yeah,
I'm not that Yeah, you're kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I drove him there a lot. As a matter of fact,
he picked me up and I had and I and
he says, that a new sweater because he told me
to where a sweater?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, I said, we're a sweater at these days.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I said, how'd you know what's new? He said it
had the cellophane.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
On a large, large, large lunch. He was quick, hilarious,
he was great, loving. His comedy was so loving. Growing
up in Ensino, tell me what it was like growing
up as one of six siblings, six kids, yea, six
kids in the valley, in the in the Conway household.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So my dad had to, you know, he had to perform.
At the very beginning of you know, moving to from
Tarzana to Encino, I knew that my dad had six breakfasts,
six lunches, six dinners, plus my mom, plus our housekeeper
eight you know, twenty four meals just to you know,
just every day, just to supply twenty four meals.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So he worked a lot. He worked a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And I remember pitching a perfect game at West Valley
Little League. And I was probably about ten or eleven
years old. Six innings, no runs, no hits, no airs,
and I just mowed them all down. Went home. I'm
still in my Red Sox uniform. My dad comes home
from the Carbinet show, you know, a couple hours later,
and I said to him, I said, Dad, I picture
a perfect game.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Thing.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He goes, oh, that's great. Odd tease called me tea tee.
That's great odds, unbelieve. I wish I was there. I
can't wait to see pictures. Maybe there's video of it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And I said, I think I've got something here, and
he sits me down. He goes, you're not that good?
How great is that?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
He was? Now your sister, Kelly, though, tells the story
of you all growing up. I interviewed Kelly. Oh good, yeah, okay,
all right, good, and she talked about the household and
that it was the funniest house in America. It was great.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It was great because my dad never yelled, and I
never hear him swear, really, never yelled at anybody ever.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
With six kids, six kids.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And five boys, you know, one an older older sister,
then five boys and all of us, you know, ady
D eighty HD O D D all. You know, a
lot of leaders flying around the house. But he never yelled.
I remember one day. My curfew in high school was midnight, right,
I had to be home at midnight, which is pretty good. Yeah,
(04:17):
back then in.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
The seventies, there was a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So I get home at about six thirty in the morning,
you know, drinking all night, smoking cigarettes. You know how
sixteen year old doing regular sixteen, right, and my dad
comes in, knocks on the door around nine o'clock and
he said, sometimes you get home last night? I said,
around eleven fifty eight ish, right around and there, and
he says, he goes, that's funny. He says, he's walking
(04:42):
out and he says, you know, the La Times gets
delivered at five thirty in the morning. And I said,
and they starts walking away. I said, what does that
have to do with me?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He said, well, your car's parked on it. Now.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now that's the way of him saying, don't.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do that again, right, you know, this is why he
did the private eyes. That is a private eye. I
love that. Your sister tells the story if you will
on Easter Sunday. She lies, yeah, but this is the
thing about the carrots. Somebody popping somebody in the eye
with a carrot. Oh, okay, what was that about?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
What happened was my dad had you know, there was
there was an Easter basket that we all wanted to
take a picture of and there was gonna be a big,
you know, a huge picture for next Easter to send
out a family picture of everybody. And so we had
the big Easter basket. We had all the kids, and
my dad brought home, brought out the carrots, and they're
(05:35):
all limp, you know, because they're sitting under light for
three hours. So he put them in the freezer. You know,
we all get them up, we all get back together,
and my brother takes one bang right my other brother's
eye and to go to the emergency room and go, hey,
my one brother stab my other brother, and the and
the eye with a frozen Carrot's like, ah, got five boys.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
This is a terrible line opener on Easter Sunday, No
doubt right, no, less.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We used to have a house account at the emergency room.
You know, when you have five boys, you're going to
be going there a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
He would take you all to the horse race.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, wait a minute, where did this come from? Well?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I was doing well in math as a third grader, right,
So he said, hey, he says, I'm gonna take you
to the track. I'm gona take you out of school
one day, take you to the track. That'she You're gonna
learn math. So I go to the track and he
everything is math furlongs the way of the jockey, trifecta, superfecta, exact,
how much the jockey ways the furlongs, how much the
(06:35):
wind play show. Everything is math. Everything at the track
is based on math. So after a day I sort
of picked it up and I got into it and
I became, you know, a little better at math. So
next day missus Bernstein's class third grade Matt, Billy and Tim,
your speech is today. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know,
and she said, well, you have three months to prepare it.
So I look at my backpack, and I have a
(06:57):
racing program. So I pulled the racing program out and
I said, and I taught go to the chalkboard and
I teach the third grade how to box an exacta.
If you like it five three, go three five five three.
In case it comes in three five, you have it
both ways. Principal's office calls my dad and said, hey,
that's borderline child abuse to teach your third grader how
(07:20):
exacta right how to gamble. And his response was, let
me tell you what child abuse is. He has it
three five, it comes in five three, and he doesn't
have it box.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's child abuse. That's a true story. That is so
lair but you still like the horse.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I still go, as my dad used to say, only
when they run. I go almost every Saturday and Sunday.
It's a dying sport. I understand that, you know, people
have moved on, but I have it. I go all
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It is a fund stay. It's great, it really is.
You know Louisiana Downs.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I mean you must have gone.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, New Orleans, Yeah, we go. We go to the
New Orleans Downs all the time. My grandfather used to
go and all his friends were there, so we still
when the season opens, we go. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It's an uncle, a grandfather, or father. They introduced you
to the track, and if you have a relationship with
any three of those, you you found your way to
the train and you keep going. It's like going to temple.
That's right, you know, you keep going just to keep
their memory life. We used to go on Thanksgiving. I
use my dad and I would go to on Thanksgiving
for they ran an early card at Hollywood Park and
we'd have a turkey dinner. The best turkey dinner was
(08:19):
at Hollywood Park. So be me and my dad and
eight hundred homeless guys, you know, all eating turkey dinner. Together.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was love it well. My producer Chris has such
a fond memory. I interviewed your dad several times at
the house, right and as we were setting up, so
knock at the door. There's Mannix.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know, there's Mike Connors.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Mike Connors, the actor, Mike Connor's there. And my producer
was just like, oh my god, you're Mannix and you're like, yeah,
Mike Connors, my normal neck.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Can I come in?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It was your dad's birthday. Oh, that's great. And he
comes in. He gives your dad a little card and
they talk for a minute. He leaves Steven Dy bringing
the sweater to your dad. It's like, what is it
like Dean Martin show was going somebody a guest stark game.
But it was so there was a sense of community.
Tell me about that. Growing up in that environment, my.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Dad never really hung out with a lot of celebrities
as much he did later on in life. But he
came from Cleveland, so he related more to the guys
doing the lights or the electric you know, electrician, or
the guy doing you know, lifting the cameras.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Whatever he was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
He had more in common with the guys behind the scenes,
because that's what he did. Yeah, you know in Cleveland,
and those were racetrack guys. Those are guys you know
that know you know how to get a drink where
if you need one.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You know, those are the guys that that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Moved money around and and and and they.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Get things done. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, they work with their hands, not with their heads.
Actors and actresses work with their heads.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And my dad was always.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Uncomfortable around people like that, you know, He'd rather be
around guys work on their hands. Yeah, and and he
always and because he worked on his hands, he was
a finished carpenter.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I mean he literally built out the entire.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Interior of his house and Encino, he.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Built the bar, the shells, everything and you and he
really raised duel and Nsino, so you weren't in the
middle of the Hollywood glitterati, right.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Like for instance, he was a big Rams fan. They
were in Virginally in Cleveland, and when they moved to
La I became a Rams fan as well. And we
used to go to Sunday games. And then he had
six kids, so he couldn't go spend every Sunday with
me for four hours and then spend another Sunday with Patty.
He just didn't have enough time. So one of his friends,
McLean Stephenson from Math, of course, was also a RAMS fan,
(10:32):
And I said, Dad, look, I know you can't go
every week, but McClain goes, can I go with him?
So I go with McClean Stephenson's down to the coliseum
to these games. McClean stephen has has like nineteen beers
during this game. So he get back in the car,
he gets pulled over. He gets a duy. Back in
the early seventies, it was a ticket, and they said, hey,
be careful and you move on.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You kept going.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We get back to the valley, he gets another one right,
gets pulled over again, but he's McLain Stephens, so they
don't get ticket right. And I never told my dad
that story until I was forty five years old, because
if I knew, if I told my dad that story,
he would hurt his relationship with McLean and I would
come out.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
What I love about this. And the first time I
heard you on the radio, I thought, this makes perfect sense.
Your dad started in the radio. That's right, That's what
he did. And not only was he working the show,
he was the guest. He would do rotating voices and hello,
I'm ready to do. All the characters we later knew
him for, he kind of coined them when he was
(11:33):
in radio. Yeah, he had. He loved radio.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know. He got most excited in his life for
doing radio when he got a call from Larry King
or Michael Jackson, who used to be the morning guy
at KBC.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
He was very excited.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
He would get up at five, you know, four o'clock
in the morning to go do radio, you know, to
go local radio. He loved the immediacy of it. He
loved the fact that there's you know, like like you,
there's one person who's telling you what you should do.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
In this room.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
When you go to Fox News, there is eight hundred people's.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And they're all in your ear exactly like you're mad.
But that's why this is so great.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You can do whatever you want. You have the freedom
to do whatever you want and nobody's telling you what
to do or you know, what to wear anything.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And it's in the moment. Yeah, I didn't get the
relaxed memo. Thanks no casual Friday here, But do you
feel you're carrying his torch a little bit? I'm carrying
on the family tradition.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I hope not. I hope not. I don't. I don't think.
I think there is a little bit of pressure there.
But he never put any pressure on for me to
do that, not at all.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I know, But that's not my question.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
My question is, I mean, you didn't understand it. Maybe
that's the tradition of my family. I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You don't understand. Let me clarify. You have a get
You're very quick, you're funny. It's not filthy or dirty humor.
I hate low humor.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I hate low I'm with you. I'm a Brian Reagan
fan Maniscalco.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Great comed real comedian. That's right, and you can you
can suggest things without getting explicit. That the four letter
words cheapest joke, and they're the easiest joke. But it's
becoming the norm. Your dad was the opposite. Yeah, never swore,
never swore, was clean, funny, it had a little educationally right,
but never a curse word, never filth. He never went
(13:13):
to the gutter.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I've always been I wanted to be kind and gentle
to people, and I think it's paid off. Not I
wasn't looking for monetary reasons, but I mean for an
audience to enjoy what we do without the fear of
nudity or language or anything that. Of course around my
house there is, but certainly not in the air. And violence,
a lot of violence, a lot of violence.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
OK, we won't get into that run.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know, he used to travel around the Midwest doing.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The circuit, the you know, the Broadway off Broadway circuit.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And you go to Akron, Bowling Green, Columbus, Louisville, you know,
I Detroit, and you go around the Midwest, because you
know he would they would sell out four or five
thousand seed arenas. You know, Tim Conway's coming to town. Yeah,
and he was in a play called Wally's Cafe. And
the circuit was you would go from one theater to another,
to another, and then another a different play would follow, right,
(14:05):
and you would always announced at the end of the play,
thank you for coming. Next week's show Rose Marie, Right, yeah,
exactly right. But the next week's show was going to
be the best little whorehouse in Texas. And he wouldn't
say that on stage. He would say, next week, come back,
You're going to see the best little blank house in Texas.
He wouldn't even say that word wow. In the title
of the play, wouldn't say this.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Do you feel you're carrying any of that legacy? I
don't mean to burden you, but you look what you
do on radio, what you do on podcasts. It's clean, fun,
it's engaging, and everybody can listen to it. You can
listen to it on the way home with your kids.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Okay. I understand that you at your great relations to
still do with your dad. Yes, okay, So when you're
growing up, you didn't want to get a DUI because
you don't want to embarrass your dad. My dad told
me this at a very young age when I got
my license. He said, if you get an accident, call me.
If you get in kind of trouble, call me, you know,
call me an anything. Anytime you're in jail, because you're
(15:02):
going to be in jail, call me, he said. Accept
if you get a duy, don't call me. That's all
he had to say. And I and I and I
and I never got it. I knew what that meant.
Don't drink a drive, don't embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He was.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I was in the National Inquirer when he was in
the Carabernet Show, and it said Tim Conway's oldest son
is a gay drug addict. And my dad comes in
to my bedroom with that article and he gives it
to me. Goes, hey, he goes, I didn't know you're
doing drugs? How great is that?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Tell me? He was the king of the understatement and
the slope. And then he just wait, that's right. That
takes real confidence. That's right, real talent. Waits can't wait
that long.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But I didn't want to embarrass him as a kid.
And now that I have my own daughter, I don't
want to embarrass her. And she came along right as
he started, you know, his decline, and I never got
a break Raymond. I never got a couple of years
where I could stretch out and get in trouble with
the law and move around a little.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Wow. Tell me about those Carol Burnett years. Obviously, he
was a star long before mckail's Navy, and he had
done a string of television. You know, he was all
over television, but the Carol Burnett Show, which was a
guest star, never a regular player. He was.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
He wasn't regular until later on, the last three years
he was practically the star of the right against almost
every week.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Why did that work? I know you knew her too.
She would come in another house.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I think it worked because they all had the same
sense of humor, you know, Harvey, Carol, Lyle VICKI and
my dad where they all were clean, and they all
just you know, it was one big family. And and
you know he used to just love breaking Harvey Corman up.
I remember going to the Carol Burnett Show when this
(16:46):
girl had broken up with me and I was depressed
out of my mind.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The first time a girl says, you're.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Out and I'm talking to my dad and he's saying
to me. He goes, you know, never pursue anybody that
doesn't want to hang out with you. And he's actually
put on pantyhose because he's the he's he's he's dressing
up as as a woman for his schedule. So he's
putting on makeup and telling me, you know about the
about don't pursue a woman, don't do that, Yeah, how
(17:13):
to get how to keep a relationship while he's doing
his hair and his eyelights.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He was such a carricter.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It was great the Cara Burnett Show. You know, still
to this day. Here's a quick story. There's a sister
station in Los Angeles called KLAC, and they do a
benefit every year for paralyzed Veterans of America.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Great charity.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So James Worthy, you know, one of the stars and Lakers,
comes in and I'm never starstruck with anybody. So I
go to James Worthy. I say, hey, I just want
to meet you. He says, what's your name? I told me,
he said, your relation to any relation to Tim Conway
said yeah, and he stops and he says, I've won
championships in high school, i won championships in college. I
(17:52):
won championships in the pros. I made more money than
I could ever spend, and I would give all of
it away like a goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I'd tell us, I give all of it away.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
For ten more minutes in North Carolina with my grandmother
watching the Carol Burnet Show.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Oh my, how great is that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I mean, you know, they never met, and he has
that kind of attachment you feel somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Everyone felt that way. Oh.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
We were the New York Yankees of comedy at the
time because everybody was so in tune with the other person.
Nobody disliked somebody. We all loved each other. We couldn't
wait to get there on Monday. When you came in,
you knew the script right away. You couldn't wait to
get to the wardrobe and you know, the makeup and
everything just it was.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It was a wonderful one.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And it's attributed to Carol, because if you're the headman
or the head woman, that's where it begins. And if
you're annoying, that show is going to be annoying.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
First time I met him, I thought, in fact, I
remember he opened the door and I just stood there
for a second because it because you knew him from
the time you were a child, right, and the joy
joy is such a rare thing, tim when people bring
you joy, I think you're right, Yeah, that's what. And
when I asked him what was the secret to the
Carol Burnett show, he said, love. We loved each.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Other and it brings me joy. Fox News brings me joy. Boy,
about that, boy, you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Have a real low tolerance or joy, real low tolerance
for joy. But thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Goodness, I watched that scene and unseen all the time. Well,
it's one of my favorite things on fire. You're very kind.
You don't like hearing that You're like me. You don't
like compliments. And it's great, very nice.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's always very tight, well prepared, great video, great comments,
and always original material.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Only a pro would know that. Everybody else thinks it's improvising.
Don't tell them again.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It is. Well, it is this exact second, it is
and every beats very beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well Laura, and Laura knows how to move with me,
and that's Finding a good partner is the hard part.
That's right, and you either have it or you don't.
Here's we were talking about this content that drew generations together,
and your dad throughout his career, whether he was on
SpongeBob or The Carol Burnett Show or Michael's Navy, the
whole family could congres get, or his own show from
his own show, the Tim Conway Show, for everybody could
(20:04):
congregate around that material and those shows. Why have we
lost that too? Well?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
You know what I think where we lost a lot
of it is streaming. You know, I mean when when
we were kids. I'm a little older than you are,
but when we were kids, you had on the on
the Tuesday two weeks before Christmas, you had to be home,
Rudolph was going to be on Frosty and you had
to be home to see that. You didn't weren't home
to see it. You're you're missing it and you didn't
(20:30):
see until next year. Right now, everything is immediately available
at all times at all times, so you never have
to sit with your family to watch anything that you
don't have. There's a no appointment watching of TV unless
it's a sporting event we have to watch live or
a high speed chase in Los Angeles, and you know
those are the two things you got to watch live.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, you need to see them lost, that's right, But
how do we get them back?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
With all these phones, it's individual watching. You said, yeah,
everybody's watching individually. You don't have a communal experience, right,
which is a heartbreaker.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know, you're familiar with casting offices, how they work.
Everyone gets together. A friend of mine's a casting age.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Where is this going?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And I go to visit the other day. He's got
a room full of you know, twenty five women who
are in their thirties. There are going to be a
young mom and some soap opera and everything. And in
the old days, and you know this because you're you
know a little younger than I am. In the old
days you would go to a casting meeting to to
communicate with the other actors. Hey, who's going where? What
(21:32):
was they looking for? And you network? Now I went
to that, I went to visit my buddy. Every person
was looking at their phone, no contact, nothing, silence but
before phones, like oh I saw you in this. Hey
is this guy looking for somebody? And I'm not good
for this, but you could be good for this. Nothing
nothing that's over, you see.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And I would argue that camaraderie that your father had
with that huge group of talented people Bob knew heard
and Rinckles and and Carol Burnett, that Steve and Edie.
Your dad didn't sing, but he was. They were close.
They were in the same circle, and they communicated with
each other, and they loved each other. That's right. They
(22:13):
fill in for each other when one got sick on
the road or they in Vegas, Tim would fly in
and fill in for them. That world is gone. I
think you're right. We suffered because of it. Yeah, I
think you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And you know there have been shows where you know,
you know, that kind of camaraderie has existed. Everyone loves Raymond,
you know Seinfeld friends. But I don't know where that
is today. I don't know. You know, the office is another,
you know, perfect example where that it seemed like a family.
It seemed like everybody, you know, it was at each
(22:43):
other's throat on age, but they were all very close.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It was great. Tell me about Licorice Pizza, which you
appeared in.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Thank You.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The Paul Thomas Anderson that's right now, Wait a minute.
Was he a neighbor of yours?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
No, he wasn't a neighbor, but my dad when he
was growing up in Cleveland, his first job at Channel
five was with Ernie Anderson, you know the voice of
the Love bo that d voice Ernie Anderson is. Paul
was my dad's best friend and they came out from
Cleveland together to make it in Hollywood. Well, Ernie Anderson's
son is Paul Thomas Anders.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I didn't know that. Yeah, is it true? I was
at Is it true? He's named after your dad? The
middle name the Thomas is it might be. I would
have to look that up.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's right. Yeah, the real name is Thomas. But I
was at Ernie Anderson's house when Paul Thomas Anderson came
home from the hospital when he was born. So I've
known the guy since he was two days old, and
it's his first movie he's put me in. How about that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You know the guy for forty eight years? Vic the director? No,
you know what he did?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
If he did a movie called Cigarettes and Coffee very
early on about Las Vegas, and he asked me to
be in that movie. And I said, Paul, I'm not
an actor. You need actors. You got to get really
good actors to be in your stuff because you're gonna
get one or two shots here in Hollywood, and that's it.
Don't put your friend to go out and get great actors.
And I think I made his career for that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
You did? You did? Tell me about audio content, this
is your world. Tell me about the power of the
audio format and how it's exploded in podcasting.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It really has hunh it's a different animal.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It really is great.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The guys that I grew up listening to were Bob
Miller of the Kings, Chick Hern of the Lakers, obviously
Vin Scully of the Dodgers, and I'd listen to those guys.
Paint a picture of where I was at. I was
punished a lot as a kid. Raymond, I don't if
you know that.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I'm getting that vibe.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And I used to have a green bedspread, and I
would put masking tape as the foul lines and then
for three bases and home plate. And I was also
a baseball card collector, so I'd listen on my Emerson
headphones to Vin Scully and I'd.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Take the Reds play the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I'd move the cards around the field and I
could see the game while listening to Vin.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Scully all in your head, and I was at the game. Wow,
to what do you attribute this? People say, Look, our
attention spans are shorter, news is getting tighter, to our
segments are three minutes in length. Yet what you do
is ours. These podcasts go on for I don't have
the time to listen all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I'm with you. I love the podcast, but when I
turn went on, it's three hours, I'm like, who has
that time?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You got a beard by the time it's over.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
But I bet you do this, and I do this,
and most people I think too. I listen to every
podcast in double times.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I do triples, triple. Oh. I can live It's munch
can Land at my houseband right, but you can pick
it up. I can pick it up. I can get enough.
I can get enough. Do you tell me about the
power of humor? You use it every day? And why
do you think people are so they're attuned to it?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, I don't know where humor comes from. I you know,
because like diabetes and skips a generation. So I'm screwed
when it comes to that. Not But I don't know.
I think it comes obviously, it comes from you know.
You know, when you're a kid and you're in trouble,
you got to try to get out of trouble. You
got a quick thing quickly, you know. I was referred
(26:04):
to my my mom used to my dad just referred
to me as the artful dodger, you know, the guy
that could get out of anything. And you do that
through humor, you know, make people laugh, they want to
hang and you know.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're and you're moving right. But you've built a community
though in your show, you've built a community. I mean
Jay Leno called into your show one day.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, he comes in all the time. I mean, you know,
there was Adam Caroll on and.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
But it's a it's a community that reaches people of course,
we know, but then the wider community here that has
to be a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It's a lot of fun. We had a lot of
people in the news business who listen because they're in
the blue trucks, you know, out covering stuff and they
want to hear what's going on.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Tim. It's show prep. That's right, It show prep. You're right,
You're right, it's show prep.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And and and then so they listen to us and like, hey,
there's a you know, there's a fire in Hollywood, and
they are all, you know, moving in on the fire.
So you're right, it is show prep. But they help
us out as well, you know, because the news business.
I think news brings the community together because you know what,
you're Republican or Democrat. If there's a fire in Hollywood,
it's affecting everybody in that area. Okay, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You've got to show to do, so I got to
make this fast, okay, very quickly. Some royal grande questions,
I asked.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Oh good, are you ready?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right? Who's the person you most admire?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Probably my daughter? Why because she's the most perfect person.
And I don't know how that happened because her mom
spent a lot of time with her. I spend a
lot of time with her and she and she surprises
us all the time. And I would say that it
would be my daughter. She is the most beautiful person
(27:38):
inside and out. She treats people properly, she's nice to
her friends, and the greatest thing in the world. You know,
I was never gonna have kids. That we had a
daughter in two thousand and five, by a billion light years.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I get goosebum.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I was talking about it's a great thing ever did
in my life?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh? No, it makes you a man?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, and I'm real quickly, I'm somebody. She works at
a school and some kid was talking poorly about their mom,
and she said, hey, that's not you should never do
that in life. I don't know where she got that from,
not from me, not from her mom. She created that,
I would say, my daughter.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Well, she got it from the love of her parents.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Maybe maybe, maybe What is.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
The thing that Tim Conway Junior knows that no one
else knows?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh that's great that I never win at the racetrack.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
After all those years, after all that math, crunching those
darn numbers, and nothing broke.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
AM a loser at the track.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I lose all the time. Okay, what's the best advice
you've ever been given the best advice?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I would say, don't panic, you know, never panic, And
I told it to my daughter. Whatever happens, never panic.
It's not gonna get you anywhere.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
What's your favorite book and the last great book you read?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Ah Man? First of all, the racing form is the.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Is the wonderful Superman edition for right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Somebody asked me to write a book, I go, I
didn't even read them.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I would do it the old grutch Marks line. You
know I just finished a book. I think I'm gonna
read another one. You know. Final question, what happens when
this is over? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You mean radio or life?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I let you interpret it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Okay, Radio, we've done everything we needed to do. I
would feel if we walked away tomorrow, I'd be, you know,
totally happy with it, because you know, we got to
afternoon Drive on the biggest station in the biggest market. Incredible,
and we won number one on Barrett's US two years
in a row. And that's like the Bible of talk radio.
And so we've touched it. You hit the top, right,
(29:38):
But but after life, I can't wait to run into grandparents,
parents and run.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I think they're all up there. Me too, I do,
and I can't wait to see your dad and Harvey
Korman again, just to watch Harvey Corman break up and
not be able to hold it together for a second.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I quite often have a dream about my dad, maybe
two three times a month, where I go to the racetrack.
He's there, we spend the day at the race and
I'm going back down the escalator through the clouds. He
goes on, don't you just stay? I said, no, I
got a daughter, I got a wife. I'll see it
in a couple of years. Look, I bet that's like
a reoccurring drink. Really yeah, I can take an escalater
up to the clouds, go to the race track with my dad,
(30:13):
and then take a come.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Back, come back for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
It's weird, it's odd, it's a beautiful actually. But eventually,
you know, I'm gonna be staying up in the clos right,
Eventually you'll be able to stay at the track with him.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
That's not a bad way to go, that's right. Tim
Conway Junior, thank you are the best.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Thank you very much. It was so cool to have
me on. And I love you with Laura, I love
you back.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
So it's a mutual it's mutually beneficial. Doong with you.
Thank you, my friend. Great to see you. Okay, here's
the hole. What you do, what you show your family
is conveyed to your children and their children. There was
an antique sweetness to Tim Conway's comedy, and I think
you see that glow in Tim Junior. I also interviewed
(30:53):
his daughter Kelly several years ago. She has it as well.
Just to give you a sense of this, Tim Conway,
I'll bet you didn't know this a tailor. He could
sew clothes and all kinds of things. And the first
time I went to the house, this is what greeted me. Now,
is this your normal attire? One in this room?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yes, I come down here and relax.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I have a bedspread ut out of.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
The same materials, so I'm comfortable wherever it's on.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
My Thanks to Tim Conway Junior for reminding us that
joy and humor go on, they become a legacy, and
that fathers need to make both present in their families.
Before we go, we have a special offer for you.
I'm giving away twenty of these chosen hoodies as the
fifth season arrives on Netflix. How do you get one?
(31:43):
It's very easy. Subscribe to the Arroyo Grande podcast. Now
send evidence that you're a new subscriber. A pick or
a screenshot is perfect. Then send me an email at
Raymond at Raymondarroyo dot com, Raymond at Raymondorio dot com,
and we will pick winners at random. These hoodies everyone,
I've given one to love them my own family. They
(32:06):
want more. I won't give them to them because I'm
giving them to you. Subscribe and you might win a
free hoodie. I hope you'll come back to a Royo
Grande soon. Why live a dry, constricted life when if
you fill it with good things, it can flow into
a broad, driving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I'm raiming at Arroyo.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Make sure you subscribe. Like this episode, Thanks for diving in,
and we'll see you next time. A Royal Grande is
produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is available on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts
He was one of America's comic geniuses. But what was
it like to live with the great Tim Conway. I
talked with radio and podcasting star Tim Conway Junior about fatherhood, comedy,
and growing up with a legend, all on this edition
of the Arroyo Grande podcast. Come on, I'm Raven Arroyo.
(00:30):
Welcome to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to the show. Now,
turn the notifications on. Turn them on so you know
what's coming. I don't want you to miss this content.
We're creating great stuff here and things that I think
are really important, not only now, but into the future
for you and those around you. Now to our deep dive.
I loved and interviewed the comic genius Tim Conway several times,
(00:53):
and I thought, with Father's Day coming, it would be
fun to talk with his son. Tim Conway Junior, hosts
his own drive time radio show in Los Angeles and
his own podcast. Tim is the spirit of his dad,
and we talked about carrying the family legacy, fatherhood, and
so much more. Tim, I wanted to interview you for
(01:14):
so long. Oh I love no, no, no, no, I
love your work. I've listened every time I'm out here
in traffic. I have fowled in traffic jams during rush
hour because you can't go anywhere, so all you can
do is listen to Tim Conway Junior.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I do very nice of you. I want to
go back because of lack of other station.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Well, well, I don't you know. My Spanish isn't so good,
so you know you're the only thing available.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And by the way, and we're going to.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Talk about him. Sure.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I loved your father. Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean I never met him.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Loved Oh that's good. I'll send you my notes on him.
Let you know what happened. Well, like most kids have
hard working dads.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
But real quick, and you did you interview him up
on Beverly Glenn. Yes, there was a big house in
that house okay, all right. I was with him day. Yeah,
I'm not that Yeah, you're kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I drove him there a lot. As a matter of fact,
he picked me up and I had and I and
he says, that a new sweater because he told me
to where a sweater?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, I said, we're a sweater at these days.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I said, how'd you know what's new? He said it
had the cellophane.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
On a large, large, large lunch. He was quick, hilarious,
he was great, loving. His comedy was so loving. Growing
up in Ensino, tell me what it was like growing
up as one of six siblings, six kids, yea, six
kids in the valley, in the in the Conway household.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So my dad had to, you know, he had to perform.
At the very beginning of you know, moving to from
Tarzana to Encino, I knew that my dad had six breakfasts,
six lunches, six dinners, plus my mom, plus our housekeeper
eight you know, twenty four meals just to you know,
just every day, just to supply twenty four meals.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So he worked a lot. He worked a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And I remember pitching a perfect game at West Valley
Little League. And I was probably about ten or eleven
years old. Six innings, no runs, no hits, no airs,
and I just mowed them all down. Went home. I'm
still in my Red Sox uniform. My dad comes home
from the Carbinet show, you know, a couple hours later,
and I said to him, I said, Dad, I picture
a perfect game.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Thing.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He goes, oh, that's great. Odd tease called me tea tee.
That's great odds, unbelieve. I wish I was there. I
can't wait to see pictures. Maybe there's video of it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And I said, I think I've got something here, and
he sits me down. He goes, you're not that good?
How great is that?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
He was? Now your sister, Kelly, though, tells the story
of you all growing up. I interviewed Kelly. Oh good, yeah, okay,
all right, good, and she talked about the household and
that it was the funniest house in America. It was great.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It was great because my dad never yelled, and I
never hear him swear, really, never yelled at anybody ever.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
With six kids, six kids.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And five boys, you know, one an older older sister,
then five boys and all of us, you know, ady
D eighty HD O D D all. You know, a
lot of leaders flying around the house. But he never yelled.
I remember one day. My curfew in high school was midnight, right,
I had to be home at midnight, which is pretty good. Yeah,
(04:17):
back then in.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
The seventies, there was a lot of room.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So I get home at about six thirty in the morning,
you know, drinking all night, smoking cigarettes. You know how
sixteen year old doing regular sixteen, right, and my dad
comes in, knocks on the door around nine o'clock and
he said, sometimes you get home last night? I said,
around eleven fifty eight ish, right around and there, and
he says, he goes, that's funny. He says, he's walking
(04:42):
out and he says, you know, the La Times gets
delivered at five thirty in the morning. And I said,
and they starts walking away. I said, what does that
have to do with me?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He said, well, your car's parked on it. Now.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now that's the way of him saying, don't.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do that again, right, you know, this is why he
did the private eyes. That is a private eye. I
love that. Your sister tells the story if you will
on Easter Sunday. She lies, yeah, but this is the
thing about the carrots. Somebody popping somebody in the eye
with a carrot. Oh, okay, what was that about?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
What happened was my dad had you know, there was
there was an Easter basket that we all wanted to
take a picture of and there was gonna be a big,
you know, a huge picture for next Easter to send
out a family picture of everybody. And so we had
the big Easter basket. We had all the kids, and
my dad brought home, brought out the carrots, and they're
(05:35):
all limp, you know, because they're sitting under light for
three hours. So he put them in the freezer. You know,
we all get them up, we all get back together,
and my brother takes one bang right my other brother's
eye and to go to the emergency room and go, hey,
my one brother stab my other brother, and the and
the eye with a frozen Carrot's like, ah, got five boys.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
This is a terrible line opener on Easter Sunday, No
doubt right, no, less.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We used to have a house account at the emergency room.
You know, when you have five boys, you're going to
be going there a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
He would take you all to the horse race.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Okay, wait a minute, where did this come from? Well?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I was doing well in math as a third grader, right,
So he said, hey, he says, I'm gonna take you
to the track. I'm gona take you out of school
one day, take you to the track. That'she You're gonna
learn math. So I go to the track and he
everything is math furlongs the way of the jockey, trifecta, superfecta, exact,
how much the jockey ways the furlongs, how much the
(06:35):
wind play show. Everything is math. Everything at the track
is based on math. So after a day I sort
of picked it up and I got into it and
I became, you know, a little better at math. So
next day missus Bernstein's class third grade Matt, Billy and Tim,
your speech is today. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know,
and she said, well, you have three months to prepare it.
So I look at my backpack, and I have a
(06:57):
racing program. So I pulled the racing program out and
I said, and I taught go to the chalkboard and
I teach the third grade how to box an exacta.
If you like it five three, go three five five three.
In case it comes in three five, you have it
both ways. Principal's office calls my dad and said, hey,
that's borderline child abuse to teach your third grader how
(07:20):
exacta right how to gamble. And his response was, let
me tell you what child abuse is. He has it
three five, it comes in five three, and he doesn't
have it box.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's child abuse. That's a true story. That is so
lair but you still like the horse.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I still go, as my dad used to say, only
when they run. I go almost every Saturday and Sunday.
It's a dying sport. I understand that, you know, people
have moved on, but I have it. I go all
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It is a fund stay. It's great, it really is.
You know Louisiana Downs.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I mean you must have gone.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, New Orleans, Yeah, we go. We go to the
New Orleans Downs all the time. My grandfather used to
go and all his friends were there, so we still
when the season opens, we go. It's fun.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It's an uncle, a grandfather, or father. They introduced you
to the track, and if you have a relationship with
any three of those, you you found your way to
the train and you keep going. It's like going to temple.
That's right, you know, you keep going just to keep
their memory life. We used to go on Thanksgiving. I
use my dad and I would go to on Thanksgiving
for they ran an early card at Hollywood Park and
we'd have a turkey dinner. The best turkey dinner was
(08:19):
at Hollywood Park. So be me and my dad and
eight hundred homeless guys, you know, all eating turkey dinner. Together.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was love it well. My producer Chris has such
a fond memory. I interviewed your dad several times at
the house, right and as we were setting up, so
knock at the door. There's Mannix.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know, there's Mike Connors.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Mike Connors, the actor, Mike Connor's there. And my producer
was just like, oh my god, you're Mannix and you're like, yeah,
Mike Connors, my normal neck.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Can I come in?
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It was your dad's birthday. Oh, that's great. And he
comes in. He gives your dad a little card and
they talk for a minute. He leaves Steven Dy bringing
the sweater to your dad. It's like, what is it
like Dean Martin show was going somebody a guest stark game.
But it was so there was a sense of community.
Tell me about that. Growing up in that environment, my.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Dad never really hung out with a lot of celebrities
as much he did later on in life. But he
came from Cleveland, so he related more to the guys
doing the lights or the electric you know, electrician, or
the guy doing you know, lifting the cameras.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Whatever he was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
He had more in common with the guys behind the scenes,
because that's what he did. Yeah, you know in Cleveland,
and those were racetrack guys. Those are guys you know
that know you know how to get a drink where
if you need one.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You know, those are the guys that that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Moved money around and and and and they.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Get things done. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, they work with their hands, not with their heads.
Actors and actresses work with their heads.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And my dad was always.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Uncomfortable around people like that, you know, He'd rather be
around guys work on their hands. Yeah, and and he
always and because he worked on his hands, he was
a finished carpenter.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I mean he literally built out the entire.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Interior of his house and Encino, he.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Built the bar, the shells, everything and you and he
really raised duel and Nsino, so you weren't in the
middle of the Hollywood glitterati, right.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Like for instance, he was a big Rams fan. They
were in Virginally in Cleveland, and when they moved to
La I became a Rams fan as well. And we
used to go to Sunday games. And then he had
six kids, so he couldn't go spend every Sunday with
me for four hours and then spend another Sunday with Patty.
He just didn't have enough time. So one of his friends,
McLean Stephenson from Math, of course, was also a RAMS fan,
(10:32):
And I said, Dad, look, I know you can't go
every week, but McClain goes, can I go with him?
So I go with McClean Stephenson's down to the coliseum
to these games. McClean stephen has has like nineteen beers
during this game. So he get back in the car,
he gets pulled over. He gets a duy. Back in
the early seventies, it was a ticket, and they said, hey,
be careful and you move on.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You kept going.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We get back to the valley, he gets another one right,
gets pulled over again, but he's McLain Stephens, so they
don't get ticket right. And I never told my dad
that story until I was forty five years old, because
if I knew, if I told my dad that story,
he would hurt his relationship with McLean and I would
come out.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
What I love about this. And the first time I
heard you on the radio, I thought, this makes perfect sense.
Your dad started in the radio. That's right, That's what
he did. And not only was he working the show,
he was the guest. He would do rotating voices and hello,
I'm ready to do. All the characters we later knew
him for, he kind of coined them when he was
(11:33):
in radio. Yeah, he had. He loved radio.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
You know. He got most excited in his life for
doing radio when he got a call from Larry King
or Michael Jackson, who used to be the morning guy
at KBC.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
He was very excited.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
He would get up at five, you know, four o'clock
in the morning to go do radio, you know, to
go local radio. He loved the immediacy of it. He
loved the fact that there's you know, like like you,
there's one person who's telling you what you should do.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
In this room.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
When you go to Fox News, there is eight hundred people's.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And they're all in your ear exactly like you're mad.
But that's why this is so great.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You can do whatever you want. You have the freedom
to do whatever you want and nobody's telling you what
to do or you know, what to wear anything.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And it's in the moment. Yeah, I didn't get the
relaxed memo. Thanks no casual Friday here, But do you
feel you're carrying his torch a little bit? I'm carrying
on the family tradition.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I hope not. I hope not. I don't. I don't think.
I think there is a little bit of pressure there.
But he never put any pressure on for me to
do that, not at all.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I know, But that's not my question.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
My question is, I mean, you didn't understand it. Maybe
that's the tradition of my family. I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You don't understand. Let me clarify. You have a get
You're very quick, you're funny. It's not filthy or dirty humor.
I hate low humor.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I hate low I'm with you. I'm a Brian Reagan
fan Maniscalco.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Great comed real comedian. That's right, and you can you
can suggest things without getting explicit. That the four letter
words cheapest joke, and they're the easiest joke. But it's
becoming the norm. Your dad was the opposite. Yeah, never swore,
never swore, was clean, funny, it had a little educationally right,
but never a curse word, never filth. He never went
(13:13):
to the gutter.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I've always been I wanted to be kind and gentle
to people, and I think it's paid off. Not I
wasn't looking for monetary reasons, but I mean for an
audience to enjoy what we do without the fear of
nudity or language or anything that. Of course around my
house there is, but certainly not in the air. And violence,
a lot of violence, a lot of violence.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
OK, we won't get into that run.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know, he used to travel around the Midwest doing.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The circuit, the you know, the Broadway off Broadway circuit.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And you go to Akron, Bowling Green, Columbus, Louisville, you know,
I Detroit, and you go around the Midwest, because you
know he would they would sell out four or five
thousand seed arenas. You know, Tim Conway's coming to town. Yeah,
and he was in a play called Wally's Cafe. And
the circuit was you would go from one theater to another,
to another, and then another a different play would follow, right,
(14:05):
and you would always announced at the end of the play,
thank you for coming. Next week's show Rose Marie, Right, yeah,
exactly right. But the next week's show was going to
be the best little whorehouse in Texas. And he wouldn't
say that on stage. He would say, next week, come back,
You're going to see the best little blank house in Texas.
He wouldn't even say that word wow. In the title
of the play, wouldn't say this.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Do you feel you're carrying any of that legacy? I
don't mean to burden you, but you look what you
do on radio, what you do on podcasts. It's clean, fun,
it's engaging, and everybody can listen to it. You can
listen to it on the way home with your kids.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Okay. I understand that you at your great relations to
still do with your dad. Yes, okay, So when you're
growing up, you didn't want to get a DUI because
you don't want to embarrass your dad. My dad told
me this at a very young age when I got
my license. He said, if you get an accident, call me.
If you get in kind of trouble, call me, you know,
call me an anything. Anytime you're in jail, because you're
(15:02):
going to be in jail, call me, he said. Accept
if you get a duy, don't call me. That's all
he had to say. And I and I and I
and I never got it. I knew what that meant.
Don't drink a drive, don't embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He was.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I was in the National Inquirer when he was in
the Carabernet Show, and it said Tim Conway's oldest son
is a gay drug addict. And my dad comes in
to my bedroom with that article and he gives it
to me. Goes, hey, he goes, I didn't know you're
doing drugs? How great is that?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Tell me? He was the king of the understatement and
the slope. And then he just wait, that's right. That
takes real confidence. That's right, real talent. Waits can't wait
that long.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
But I didn't want to embarrass him as a kid.
And now that I have my own daughter, I don't
want to embarrass her. And she came along right as
he started, you know, his decline, and I never got
a break Raymond. I never got a couple of years
where I could stretch out and get in trouble with
the law and move around a little.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Wow. Tell me about those Carol Burnett years. Obviously, he
was a star long before mckail's Navy, and he had
done a string of television. You know, he was all
over television, but the Carol Burnett Show, which was a
guest star, never a regular player. He was.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
He wasn't regular until later on, the last three years
he was practically the star of the right against almost
every week.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Why did that work? I know you knew her too.
She would come in another house.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I think it worked because they all had the same
sense of humor, you know, Harvey, Carol, Lyle VICKI and
my dad where they all were clean, and they all
just you know, it was one big family. And and
you know he used to just love breaking Harvey Corman up.
I remember going to the Carol Burnett Show when this
(16:46):
girl had broken up with me and I was depressed
out of my mind.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
The first time a girl says, you're.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Out and I'm talking to my dad and he's saying
to me. He goes, you know, never pursue anybody that
doesn't want to hang out with you. And he's actually
put on pantyhose because he's the he's he's he's dressing
up as as a woman for his schedule. So he's
putting on makeup and telling me, you know about the
about don't pursue a woman, don't do that, Yeah, how
(17:13):
to get how to keep a relationship while he's doing
his hair and his eyelights.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He was such a carricter.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It was great the Cara Burnett Show. You know, still
to this day. Here's a quick story. There's a sister
station in Los Angeles called KLAC, and they do a
benefit every year for paralyzed Veterans of America.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Great charity.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So James Worthy, you know, one of the stars and Lakers,
comes in and I'm never starstruck with anybody. So I
go to James Worthy. I say, hey, I just want
to meet you. He says, what's your name? I told me,
he said, your relation to any relation to Tim Conway
said yeah, and he stops and he says, I've won
championships in high school, i won championships in college. I
(17:52):
won championships in the pros. I made more money than
I could ever spend, and I would give all of
it away like a goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I'd tell us, I give all of it away.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
For ten more minutes in North Carolina with my grandmother
watching the Carol Burnet Show.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Oh my, how great is that? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I mean, you know, they never met, and he has
that kind of attachment you feel somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Everyone felt that way. Oh.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
We were the New York Yankees of comedy at the
time because everybody was so in tune with the other person.
Nobody disliked somebody. We all loved each other. We couldn't
wait to get there on Monday. When you came in,
you knew the script right away. You couldn't wait to
get to the wardrobe and you know, the makeup and
everything just it was.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It was a wonderful one.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And it's attributed to Carol, because if you're the headman
or the head woman, that's where it begins. And if
you're annoying, that show is going to be annoying.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
First time I met him, I thought, in fact, I
remember he opened the door and I just stood there
for a second because it because you knew him from
the time you were a child, right, and the joy
joy is such a rare thing, tim when people bring
you joy, I think you're right, Yeah, that's what. And
when I asked him what was the secret to the
Carol Burnett show, he said, love. We loved each.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Other and it brings me joy. Fox News brings me joy. Boy,
about that, boy, you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Have a real low tolerance or joy, real low tolerance
for joy. But thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Goodness, I watched that scene and unseen all the time. Well,
it's one of my favorite things on fire. You're very kind.
You don't like hearing that You're like me. You don't
like compliments. And it's great, very nice.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's always very tight, well prepared, great video, great comments,
and always original material.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Only a pro would know that. Everybody else thinks it's improvising.
Don't tell them again.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It is. Well, it is this exact second, it is
and every beats very beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well Laura, and Laura knows how to move with me,
and that's Finding a good partner is the hard part.
That's right, and you either have it or you don't.
Here's we were talking about this content that drew generations together,
and your dad throughout his career, whether he was on
SpongeBob or The Carol Burnett Show or Michael's Navy, the
whole family could congres get, or his own show from
his own show, the Tim Conway Show, for everybody could
(20:04):
congregate around that material and those shows. Why have we
lost that too? Well?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
You know what I think where we lost a lot
of it is streaming. You know, I mean when when
we were kids. I'm a little older than you are,
but when we were kids, you had on the on
the Tuesday two weeks before Christmas, you had to be home,
Rudolph was going to be on Frosty and you had
to be home to see that. You didn't weren't home
to see it. You're you're missing it and you didn't
(20:30):
see until next year. Right now, everything is immediately available
at all times at all times, so you never have
to sit with your family to watch anything that you
don't have. There's a no appointment watching of TV unless
it's a sporting event we have to watch live or
a high speed chase in Los Angeles, and you know
those are the two things you got to watch live.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, you need to see them lost, that's right, But
how do we get them back?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
With all these phones, it's individual watching. You said, yeah,
everybody's watching individually. You don't have a communal experience, right,
which is a heartbreaker.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know, you're familiar with casting offices, how they work.
Everyone gets together. A friend of mine's a casting age.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Where is this going?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And I go to visit the other day. He's got
a room full of you know, twenty five women who
are in their thirties. There are going to be a
young mom and some soap opera and everything. And in
the old days, and you know this because you're you
know a little younger than I am. In the old
days you would go to a casting meeting to to
communicate with the other actors. Hey, who's going where? What
(21:32):
was they looking for? And you network? Now I went
to that, I went to visit my buddy. Every person
was looking at their phone, no contact, nothing, silence but
before phones, like oh I saw you in this. Hey
is this guy looking for somebody? And I'm not good
for this, but you could be good for this. Nothing
nothing that's over, you see.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
And I would argue that camaraderie that your father had
with that huge group of talented people Bob knew heard
and Rinckles and and Carol Burnett, that Steve and Edie.
Your dad didn't sing, but he was. They were close.
They were in the same circle, and they communicated with
each other, and they loved each other. That's right. They
(22:13):
fill in for each other when one got sick on
the road or they in Vegas, Tim would fly in
and fill in for them. That world is gone. I
think you're right. We suffered because of it. Yeah, I
think you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
And you know there have been shows where you know,
you know, that kind of camaraderie has existed. Everyone loves Raymond,
you know Seinfeld friends. But I don't know where that
is today. I don't know. You know, the office is another,
you know, perfect example where that it seemed like a family.
It seemed like everybody, you know, it was at each
(22:43):
other's throat on age, but they were all very close.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It was great. Tell me about Licorice Pizza, which you
appeared in.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Thank You.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The Paul Thomas Anderson that's right now, Wait a minute.
Was he a neighbor of yours?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
No, he wasn't a neighbor, but my dad when he
was growing up in Cleveland, his first job at Channel
five was with Ernie Anderson, you know the voice of
the Love bo that d voice Ernie Anderson is. Paul
was my dad's best friend and they came out from
Cleveland together to make it in Hollywood. Well, Ernie Anderson's
son is Paul Thomas Anders.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
I didn't know that. Yeah, is it true? I was
at Is it true? He's named after your dad? The
middle name the Thomas is it might be. I would
have to look that up.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's right. Yeah, the real name is Thomas. But I
was at Ernie Anderson's house when Paul Thomas Anderson came
home from the hospital when he was born. So I've
known the guy since he was two days old, and
it's his first movie he's put me in. How about that?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You know the guy for forty eight years? Vic the director? No,
you know what he did?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
If he did a movie called Cigarettes and Coffee very
early on about Las Vegas, and he asked me to
be in that movie. And I said, Paul, I'm not
an actor. You need actors. You got to get really
good actors to be in your stuff because you're gonna
get one or two shots here in Hollywood, and that's it.
Don't put your friend to go out and get great actors.
And I think I made his career for that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
You did? You did? Tell me about audio content, this
is your world. Tell me about the power of the
audio format and how it's exploded in podcasting.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It really has hunh it's a different animal.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It really is great.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The guys that I grew up listening to were Bob
Miller of the Kings, Chick Hern of the Lakers, obviously
Vin Scully of the Dodgers, and I'd listen to those guys.
Paint a picture of where I was at. I was
punished a lot as a kid. Raymond, I don't if
you know that.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I'm getting that vibe.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
And I used to have a green bedspread, and I
would put masking tape as the foul lines and then
for three bases and home plate. And I was also
a baseball card collector, so I'd listen on my Emerson
headphones to Vin Scully and I'd.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Take the Reds play the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I'd move the cards around the field and I
could see the game while listening to Vin.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Scully all in your head, and I was at the game. Wow,
to what do you attribute this? People say, Look, our
attention spans are shorter, news is getting tighter, to our
segments are three minutes in length. Yet what you do
is ours. These podcasts go on for I don't have
the time to listen all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I'm with you. I love the podcast, but when I
turn went on, it's three hours, I'm like, who has
that time?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You got a beard by the time it's over.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
But I bet you do this, and I do this,
and most people I think too. I listen to every
podcast in double times.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I do triples, triple. Oh. I can live It's munch
can Land at my houseband right, but you can pick
it up. I can pick it up. I can get enough.
I can get enough. Do you tell me about the
power of humor? You use it every day? And why
do you think people are so they're attuned to it?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, I don't know where humor comes from. I you know,
because like diabetes and skips a generation. So I'm screwed
when it comes to that. Not But I don't know.
I think it comes obviously, it comes from you know.
You know, when you're a kid and you're in trouble,
you got to try to get out of trouble. You
got a quick thing quickly, you know. I was referred
(26:04):
to my my mom used to my dad just referred
to me as the artful dodger, you know, the guy
that could get out of anything. And you do that
through humor, you know, make people laugh, they want to
hang and you know.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're and you're moving right. But you've built a community
though in your show, you've built a community. I mean
Jay Leno called into your show one day.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, he comes in all the time. I mean, you know,
there was Adam Caroll on and.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
But it's a it's a community that reaches people of course,
we know, but then the wider community here that has
to be a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It's a lot of fun. We had a lot of
people in the news business who listen because they're in
the blue trucks, you know, out covering stuff and they
want to hear what's going on.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Tim. It's show prep. That's right, It show prep. You're right,
You're right, it's show prep.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And and and then so they listen to us and like, hey,
there's a you know, there's a fire in Hollywood, and
they are all, you know, moving in on the fire.
So you're right, it is show prep. But they help
us out as well, you know, because the news business.
I think news brings the community together because you know what,
you're Republican or Democrat. If there's a fire in Hollywood,
it's affecting everybody in that area. Okay, and I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
You've got to show to do, so I got to
make this fast, okay, very quickly. Some royal grande questions,
I asked.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Oh good, are you ready?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right? Who's the person you most admire?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Probably my daughter? Why because she's the most perfect person.
And I don't know how that happened because her mom
spent a lot of time with her. I spend a
lot of time with her and she and she surprises
us all the time. And I would say that it
would be my daughter. She is the most beautiful person
(27:38):
inside and out. She treats people properly, she's nice to
her friends, and the greatest thing in the world. You know,
I was never gonna have kids. That we had a
daughter in two thousand and five, by a billion light years.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I get goosebum.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I was talking about it's a great thing ever did
in my life?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh? No, it makes you a man?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, and I'm real quickly, I'm somebody. She works at
a school and some kid was talking poorly about their mom,
and she said, hey, that's not you should never do
that in life. I don't know where she got that from,
not from me, not from her mom. She created that,
I would say, my daughter.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Well, she got it from the love of her parents.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Maybe maybe, maybe What is.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
The thing that Tim Conway Junior knows that no one
else knows?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh that's great that I never win at the racetrack.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
After all those years, after all that math, crunching those
darn numbers, and nothing broke.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
AM a loser at the track.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I lose all the time. Okay, what's the best advice
you've ever been given the best advice?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I would say, don't panic, you know, never panic, And
I told it to my daughter. Whatever happens, never panic.
It's not gonna get you anywhere.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
What's your favorite book and the last great book you read?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Ah Man? First of all, the racing form is the.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Is the wonderful Superman edition for right.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Somebody asked me to write a book, I go, I
didn't even read them.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I would do it the old grutch Marks line. You
know I just finished a book. I think I'm gonna
read another one. You know. Final question, what happens when
this is over? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You mean radio or life?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I let you interpret it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Okay, Radio, we've done everything we needed to do. I
would feel if we walked away tomorrow, I'd be, you know,
totally happy with it, because you know, we got to
afternoon Drive on the biggest station in the biggest market. Incredible,
and we won number one on Barrett's US two years
in a row. And that's like the Bible of talk radio.
And so we've touched it. You hit the top, right,
(29:38):
But but after life, I can't wait to run into grandparents,
parents and run.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I think they're all up there. Me too, I do,
and I can't wait to see your dad and Harvey
Korman again, just to watch Harvey Corman break up and
not be able to hold it together for a second.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I quite often have a dream about my dad, maybe
two three times a month, where I go to the racetrack.
He's there, we spend the day at the race and
I'm going back down the escalator through the clouds. He
goes on, don't you just stay? I said, no, I
got a daughter, I got a wife. I'll see it
in a couple of years. Look, I bet that's like
a reoccurring drink. Really yeah, I can take an escalater
up to the clouds, go to the race track with my dad,
(30:13):
and then take a come.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Back, come back for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
It's weird, it's odd, it's a beautiful actually. But eventually,
you know, I'm gonna be staying up in the clos right,
Eventually you'll be able to stay at the track with him.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
That's not a bad way to go, that's right. Tim
Conway Junior, thank you are the best.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Thank you very much. It was so cool to have
me on. And I love you with Laura, I love
you back.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
So it's a mutual it's mutually beneficial. Doong with you.
Thank you, my friend. Great to see you. Okay, here's
the hole. What you do, what you show your family
is conveyed to your children and their children. There was
an antique sweetness to Tim Conway's comedy, and I think
you see that glow in Tim Junior. I also interviewed
(30:53):
his daughter Kelly several years ago. She has it as well.
Just to give you a sense of this, Tim Conway,
I'll bet you didn't know this a tailor. He could
sew clothes and all kinds of things. And the first
time I went to the house, this is what greeted me. Now,
is this your normal attire? One in this room?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yes, I come down here and relax.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I have a bedspread ut out of.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
The same materials, so I'm comfortable wherever it's on.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
My Thanks to Tim Conway Junior for reminding us that
joy and humor go on, they become a legacy, and
that fathers need to make both present in their families.
Before we go, we have a special offer for you.
I'm giving away twenty of these chosen hoodies as the
fifth season arrives on Netflix. How do you get one?
(31:43):
It's very easy. Subscribe to the Arroyo Grande podcast. Now
send evidence that you're a new subscriber. A pick or
a screenshot is perfect. Then send me an email at
Raymond at Raymondarroyo dot com, Raymond at Raymondorio dot com,
and we will pick winners at random. These hoodies everyone,
I've given one to love them my own family. They
(32:06):
want more. I won't give them to them because I'm
giving them to you. Subscribe and you might win a
free hoodie. I hope you'll come back to a Royo
Grande soon. Why live a dry, constricted life when if
you fill it with good things, it can flow into
a broad, driving Arroyo Grande.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
I'm raiming at Arroyo.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Make sure you subscribe. Like this episode, Thanks for diving in,
and we'll see you next time. A Royal Grande is
produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts and is available on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts
Host
Raymond Arroyo
Popular Podcasts
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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