July 21, 2025 • 63 mins
Comedy Saved Me: Tom Bergeron with Host Lynn Hoffman
On this special episode of Comedy Saved Me, host Lynn Hoffman sits down with legendary television personality Tom Bergeron for an insightful, candid, and often hilarious conversation.
Best known as the long-time host of Dancing with the Stars and America’s Funniest Home Videos, Tom shares his remarkable journey from local radio to national stardom. Discover how comedy became his secret weapon, helping him navigate the high-stakes world of live television and life’s unpredictable moments. Tom reveals:
• His earliest comedic influences and what drew him to the world of entertainment.
• Behind-the-scenes stories from his years hosting TV’s biggest shows.
• How humor has helped him maintain resilience, especially during times of challenge both onscreen and off.
• Personal anecdotes that blend laughter and hard-won wisdom about the healing power of comedy.
Lynn and Tom’s conversation is filled with warmth and honesty, proving that sometimes, a good laugh can truly save the day. Whether you’re a fan of comedy, television, or inspiring stories of perseverance, this episode is a heartfelt reminder that laughter really is the best medicine
Check out Tom Bergereon on Shark Week on Discovery with "Dancing with the Sharks"
Support the show: https://takinawalk.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Unless you're really full of yourself, you never lose that
young fan, you know. I mean, there's still in me
whenever those things were happening with Steve or Tim or
you know.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Carr will be.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
So much of me is still that kid from Haveral,
Massachusetts who's pinching himself.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Welcome back to Comedy Saved Me, the podcast where we
explore how laughter lifts us up, helps us heal, and
connects us in the toughest of times. I'm your host,
Lynn Hoffman, and today's guest is someone who's quick wit
and contagious charm has made him the beloved fixture in
American television for decades. You know him as the iconic
(00:45):
host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the ever gracious master
of ceremonies on Dancing with the Stars, and the man
who kept the laughs rolling on the Hollywood Squares. But
behind the bright lights and the live broadcast, Tom Bergeron
is also a lifelong comedy fan who understands the power
of humor and how it gets us through those bumps
(01:07):
and bruises in life. In this episode, Tom shared stories
from his early days as a radio DJ, obsessed with
Comedy Records, the lessons he's learned from working with legendary comedians,
and how laughter has helped him stay grounded even when
the cameras are rolling and the chaos is just a
heartbeat away. Oh boy, do I know that?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering Tom Bergeron's work,
where have you been? You will love his insights on
why comedy matters, how it brings us together, and why
sometimes the best way to get through.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Life is to laugh at ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
So settle in, get ready to smile, and let's dive
into a great conversation with the one and only Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Tom, Welcome to comedy safety.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh my pleasure, In my pleasure. I feel like the
bar has been set high now. That was a great introduction.
I want to live up to it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
My gosh, you lived up to it ten times over.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I mean I literally grew up with you in Boston,
and you know this is how it went in order
and I'm not making this up.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It went.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I wanted to be share a mixture of share Carol Burnett,
pretty much everyone on Saturday Night Live and Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh I'm honored to be. That's a pretty lofty list.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Well, you you had this magic about you when you
get in front of the camera and you could tell
that you weren't reading lines like you were at libbing
and you got thrown things live and the way you
handled yourself. I mean I started with you with People
Are Talking in Boston.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
And that that show, which was for those who don't know,
it was on the then Westinghouse stations. Each Westinghouse station
had a People Are Talking Show. It was in most
cases a midday, one hour live show. In Baltimore, Oprah
Winfrey was the host. I don't know whatever happened to her,
(03:05):
but anyway here she's probably doing okay. But yeah, So
that was like cramming for an exam every night because
we ran the gamut on that show, from serious topics
of regional issues or national issues to pure frivolous stuff
celebrity interviews and offbeat topics. So every night it was
(03:28):
like cramming for a different kind of exam the next day,
you know, with no opportunity for a second take, which
I kind of love.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I think that's the best. I mean, live to tape
or live is the only way to go but it's scary.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It's funny. For me, it's never been scary.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I get more nervous in like a neighborhood association party
or something that's not work related. I'll get all sweaty
and looking for the exits and all that kind of stuff.
But you know, being on live TV in front of
twenty thirty million people in our heyday on the dancing Show,
it was like I had bedroom slippers on. I mean,
it was just I meditated in my dressing room between
(04:11):
the dress rehearsal and the live show, and I was
ready to go. I just was, you know, eager to
find out what shit would go down. We can use
all that kind of language, can't we on this Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And we will in a few minutes when I get
to a question that I'll remind you of the answer
you gave me very many years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But you started your.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Career out as a DJ in the radio business, and
I personally think that's one of the reasons why you
are as kind and giving and wonderful as you are,
because I feel like everyone from radio is really down
to earth, they understand the grassroots of it all and
hard working, and you know, you worked your way all
(04:54):
the way to the top. So when you started what
I always wanted to know what drew you to com
in the early days? And do you remember a moment
when you realized how powerful humor was and how healing
it can be.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, well, I think what drew me to it. I
think it was just in the DNA. Interestingly, nobody else
in my family, either the immediate or extended family, are
performers or were performers any in any fashion.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I thought you were going to say, No, one in
my family was funny.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Some some were not intentionally.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I know those.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Some they weren't in on the joke, but some were
very funny. No, my mom had a fairly acerbic sense
of humor. My dad had the eyebrow, so I got
that from him. But the that killed me. You know,
I've gotten more mileage out of that thing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I think. Oh, look, I even.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Have Do you have a picture of yourself doing it?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
No, I have a bobblehead with my eyebrow.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, that's one of the America's funniest videos, bobbleheads with
the eyebrows. As a matter of fact, And I'll get
back to your original question. There'll be a lot of
this going off on tangents. But when I did an
episode of Sesame Street, I played a character called Johnny
Gotcha who had a hidden camera show and he was
(06:27):
looking for people with bad behavior, and of course the
premise for everybody but Oscar the Grouch, was well, you're
not going to find bad behavior on Sesame Street. Oscar
was very excited. But as I'm playing this character, I
suggested to friends, you could turn this every time my
eyebrow went up into a drinking game, and you would
(06:47):
not get through Sesame Street sober.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's hilarious. Yeah, like a board game.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, like Johnny Gotcha, you know, and the eyebrow would
go up.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And right, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But so comedy has always been sort of a natural
thing for me. I remember, like in high school, well,
in grade school, I was in a Catholic grade school
for eight years, and when you're surrounded by nuns, you
got to either get a sense of humor or an
escape plan, and so, you know, it was always I
(07:23):
kind of wrote the school play and did you know
based on laugh In, which was big at the time
late sixties. And then in high school, I remember my
freshman high school history class I won the Boob of
the Year award for being have that award Simon Cohen,
(07:44):
my history teacher, would give that to the funniest person
in the class at the end of a school year,
and it was between It was between me and Michael Laregan,
and I beat the bastard out.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You remember his name, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
He was. He was a little less funny than me, thankfully.
That's well, you've.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Been doing this a long time, being goofy like that.
I read that at seventeen you interviewed Larry Fine and
Mo Howard of the Three Stooges, which is incredible to
me only because I grew up with them obviously watching them,
but I mean I still watch them every Saturday night
before Sveengoli on Me TV.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Lynn, you were one of those rare women who likes
who loves the Three Stooges.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I showed it to my nephew who's thirteen, and he
was cracking up, and it was like the Hitler.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Episode, like they're doing something crazy, right. It was so funny.
He didn't know why he was laughing.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I think it's just the physical comedy of us all slapstick.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, And he knew it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Wasn't real, but yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
But how did that shape your comedic sensibility?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That was that came about even before I got my
first professional radio job. I was in high school and I.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It was, as I remember it, it was a Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
My folks were out, my sister was at a friend's
house sleeping over, and I had no life.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
So I Saturday night I watched that, just me and
a phone and a cassette tape recorder, and I knew
that two of the original three Stooges were still alive,
Moe and Larry.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So I actually called information in LA and asked for
Mo Howard or Larry Fine, and she had a number.
She had a couple of m Howard's, but she had
a Larry Fine. So I called, and it wasn't Larry
of the Stooges, but this was a household that got
those calls periodically. So the woman who answered said, oh,
(09:45):
I know where he is. He's at the Motion Picture
Television campus in Woodland Hills. I can give you that number.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yep? And so I called that number.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I had my little cassette tape recorder with a suction
cup microphone into the phone and called got the operator
at the Motion Picture Television campus, which is not far
from where I am in California right now, and he said, well,
Larry's playing poker. Can you call back in half an hour?
(10:16):
And I did, and Larry came on. Now, Larry had
suffered a stroke, so there was a little bit of
that in his voice, but it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Was still him.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You could still hear, and about I don't know about
ten minutes in the conversation, he actually said to me,
you want Moe's number, and he gave me Moe's home
phone number, which Moe was not thrilled about initially.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Oh my god, Well, you did a good impression on Larry,
so you could have pretended you were him.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
But I think with I think once I told him
that Larry had given me the number, and it was
clear to him that I was a fan, and that
I that I was a legit fan, that I really
knew their stuff, and asked questions that he responded to,
like one, I don't know where in my research at
sixteen or seventeen, I got this, but I said, would
(11:05):
you say what you do was slapstick or farce? And
he went, you absolutely absolutely right. What we did was farce.
I don't know where the hell I pulled that out
of my botox, but at sixteen seventeen, yeah, But in
the I think the next eighteen months until they each
(11:26):
passed away, we spoke about a half a dozen times.
Sometimes I would just call to say hi. There was
one time we were doing a fundraiser for charities in Haveral,
where I grew up in Massachusetts, and we were doing
that in the high school auditorium, showing three Stooges shorts,
and I thought I should call Mo. He can address
(11:48):
the audience. So I ran into the principal's office with
my ever present cassette recorder called MO. He was sweet
about it. He gave a little address to the audience.
I walked back into the theater. We stopped the film.
I'm taking the stage getting booed, and I went, just
wait a minute, you're going to like this. And then
(12:09):
I start playing MO addressing them, and the place went crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Did you know you were going to do that?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I know, it just occurred to me while everybody was
there we were showing the shorts. I just thought, you know,
in that way, you can just yeah, I'll give my
buddy moa call. Yeah, and he was just lovely.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He was just lovely about it.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
That's an incredible experience. And it just goes to show
you that you know perseverance, the fact that you just
picked up the phone.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I mean someone once told me that too.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know, I'm going to go to New York and
be a big television personality or whatever host, and how
I'm going to get that job? And someone said, why
don't you just pick up the phone and call up
an agency and say, hey, I moved to New York
and I'd like to have some auditions.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And I'm like, well, that's an easy idea. No one
ever thinks of that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No, No, what's the shortest distance between two points is
a straight line, so just go right toward Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Common sense.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
The theme of our podcast, Comedy Saved Me, by the Way,
is how comedy can.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Be sort of a lifeline.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yes, was there a time in your life, personally or
professionally when comedy you feel saved you or helped you
get through maybe a tough time or moment?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Absolutely? And I actually wrote about this moment years ago.
I have a book back in two thousand and nine.
It's called Them hosting as fast as I can, right,
And I wrote about.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
That exact moment. I was having a tough time.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was unemployed, prone to dark moods occasionally, and.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Was in it kind of you a dark place, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, never would know.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Good, Well that's good. You know the meditation and medication work.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yes, that is true. I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, I had done radio in my hometown, but
but I had left that job, and I'd worked with
a theater company and that had you know, we had
kind of disbanded, and I just was at a loss.
And I went to the ward Hill Industrial Park in Haveral,
Massachusetts to apply for any kind of job. Right, I didn't.
(14:19):
I just needed money. I was bumming beer money off friends,
I was behind in my rent and all that stuff.
So I was filling out a job application form. I
remember the moment so vividly, and you know, it's name
background Da da Da da da, And then there was
a little box for salary desired. And I guess they
wanted you to basically negotiate against yourself by putting a
(14:41):
figure down, and so next to salary desired, I just
wrote yes, I and I broke myself up. I started
laughing at just writing yeah, no shit, I want a salary?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah what I fuck? You think I'm here for? Yeah?
So I wrote yes, I started to laugh.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I crumpled the paper up, tossed it in the wastebasket,
walked out of there, and thought, my sense of humor
is my way back?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Really? Yeah? What year?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Roughly?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That was like around nineteen eighty okay, And I did
a I decided, you know what, if I'm going to
go down in flames, I'm going to go down in
flames with my instinct, you know, I'll crash land with
my own comedic instinct. So I devised a resume because
(15:38):
I used to do editorial cartoons for local newspapers in
my hometown, so I'm a cartoonist too.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And I drew a and a mime.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So you are an international man of mystery.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Well I'm like a mile wide and an inch deep,
So sure I've got also a mime.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't know.
Are we're going to have a video version of this?
Is that's pretty good?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah? We might have to use this for the promo
on TikTok or something.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
We can actually lean on midair and I'll look at you.
So I did a cartoon illustration of me as a
mime right leaning on mid air, and in my thought balloon,
I put all my resume material. Right, that's great, and
I just I went to radio stations in northern Massachusetts
(16:26):
and southern New Hampshire and I'm distributing this resume.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Would that be w l H and w E.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It was like WCCM and Lawrence and then w and
then the one that ultimately hired me was WHGB and Portsmouth.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, you worked with my husband, my current husband, actually
he was up there years ago. Your current husband, my
current husband, yeah, my only husband.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well, you know you're leaving your options open. I think
that's smart. I can't believe that my current husband. We're
not sure.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Still, ye's who you.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And Billy Bush also I believe worked up there in
Harry Jacobs and Willie b was up there.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, you know, a lot of a lot of talent
came from Bob Lobell from BZ Sports, came off on
wg I R in Manchester. So there was only one
response to this crazy resume, and that was from the
program director of whg B, a guy named duncan doer
and he he called me and said, can you come in?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I just I just want to meet you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And I got there, he said, I have to be honest,
we don't have any openings. But I had to see
who it was that devised a resume like this.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So I figured at that point, I'm in the door,
and I'd always yeah, see, I guess it's a drinking game.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It'll just keep yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I will take a shot hold on all.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Right, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I thought, well, you know what, now I've kind of
established a little bit of a connection with this radio station.
Maybe I should use this connection to do something I've
always wanted to do, which is a because I loved
like Threau and Emerson and Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck's
travels with Charlie and all that stuff I wanted to do.
(18:18):
And I proposed to them a five week hitch hiking
plane hopping radio series where I would go across country
just I had a backpack with my sleeping bag and
a tent and all my you know, change of.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Clothes and all that stuff. And they paid me a stipend.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
They took it. They took me up on it.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
They took me up on it, and they gave me
coach airfare back to Boston from San Francisco.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
That was the deal.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
They went out and sold the series to Coca Cola,
so they were making money on it. And I would
do three reports a week from whoever I met, wherever
I was on the road, And literally it started with
me just hitching by the side of the road and
then led to me going to private pilot terminals and
airports and getting rides on planes and meeting people and
(19:10):
just having this incredibly immersive experience. And that went so
well that in the fall of nineteen eighty, when the
night Guide decided to start his own production company and leave,
they immediately offered me that shift. And that's where everything
really kind of took off from there.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I'll say, well, first, you were ahead of your time
with that pitch of the show. I mean, that's like
that's the Travel Channel in its original form, right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And I just had the great good fortune a close buddy,
kind of a mentor of mine who was a psychologist
and this adventurer and he would like hop freight trains
and go on mystery trips with his kids, and.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I thought, jeez, I yeah, that's the kind of thing
I want to try.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That'd be a great show.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, And so I did that for five weeks. We
called it the Month across America, and it got me
the full time gig.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That is so cool.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I'm so glad you shared that story because I feel like,
if there's anyone listening right now, who's you know, wants
to get in to do something or it was just
starting out and they're interested in how Yeah. I mean,
it doesn't get more basic than pick up the phone,
come up with an idea, don't be afraid to have
someone close the door and say no.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Right, absolutely right. And based on my prior dating experience,
I was used to that, so, oh gosh, I was
battle hardened.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah you were, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Well, you've hosted shows that spotlight humor sort of in
everyday life, hence America's Funniest Home Videos, which funny enough. Again,
I feel like we're kindred spirits because that was on
Friday nights and I was at home, Yeah, when everyone
else was out. I was watching Tom bergeron because I
was like taking notes.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
How does he do it? You know, how does he
do that?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
How does he have these quick comebacks to these crazy stories,
and I wondered, like, did seeing so many people find
laughter and all these mishaps and horrible accidents change your
perspective were like your resilience and humor.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
It made me decide never to buy a trampoline.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I can tell you that horrible.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I steer. I have a cup on now. As a
matter of fact, just it's the case, you never know.
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was gonna say, uh no, I can't. I don't
want to go there. We could, we could take this places.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Oh oh we on there in person, in the studio.
We'll do that, We'll do the interview we couldn't do here. Okay,
I like that, Yeah, yeah, okay, but yeah, it was.
It was interesting when that when that job was first
offered to me. Uh and again that experience, as I've
said to a number of aspiring broadcasters and entertainers, never
(22:05):
phone it in. I don't care how small you think
the room is, how small the radio station or the
stage is. Show up. If you're going to do it,
show up. And I came back to Boston from out
here in California because I would host the New England
Emmy Awards every so often, and it wasn't being televised.
It was just sort of a grand dinner and I
(22:27):
was having a ball, reconnecting with old friends and getting
an award that night. Was Vin de Bona, who had
come through WBZ like I had years Bromrson College too.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Emerson College.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
He's a great philanthropist for Emerson still, and he was
getting an Achievement award for all of his producing work.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And I was just.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Doing what you know, you allegitum ad libbing my way
through this evening. We're all having a great time. And
Vin's late mother, Jean, leaned over to him and said
to hire that guy. So for like the fifteen years
that I hosted AFFE, for all the years she was
still with us, she'd go, where's my ten percent?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah she deserves that?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah wow, well yeah, and it really there was a process.
And Bob Sagett, who later became a really good friend
and helped me close out my last show.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
He was on my last aff.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
The two of us drove off on a golf cart together,
but we had very different approaches. Yes, I can do
those kind of character voices, yeah, that kind of thing,
but that was Bob's thing. And the first show I did,
I think I tried to do those and it just
it wasn't It felt like, you know, like fingernails on
a chalkboard.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Like you were trying too hard.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, trying too hard at trying to do what somebody
else did naturally. It just didn't naturally flow for me.
So we decided that a dryer, sort of the verbal
equivalent of an arched eyebrow would would be the way
I would do it, and a lot of and so
there was a process where I had to do a
(24:10):
lot of rewriting because they were still writing for Bob
and Daisy and John who had followed Bob immediately. But
we'd sit in a room before taping, and Todd Thick,
who was the head writer, would turn to the other
writers and go, Okay, this is where Tom kills your babies.
(24:34):
And it was just a matter of getting you know,
us all, kind of getting acclimated with what I thought
was funny and what you know, and trying to also
service what they thought was funny.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Based on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It was quite successful without me being on it, So
it took a little while to get that marriage.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
If you will, but ye, but then it was just
kind of gold.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Every Friday nights it was.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Harder to do than than Dancing with the Stars, because
Dancing with the Stars being live, you know when you're starting,
you know, and you know, and it's all aff being
as you're saying about live to tape. That's how we
did that one, and Vin was wonderfully gracious in making
it as close to live as we possibly could. I
(25:20):
remember one time there was a little lighting problem, but
a joke had really scored and the audience said loved it,
and Vin goes, oh, can we do that again? We
just had a light flicker in the back, and so
I went into the control room.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I said, no, you can't get that back again. Naturally,
I said.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
What's more important the audience reaction or a little flickering
light in the back? He goes, all right, you're right, fine,
So yeah, so we would we would keep There was
like one time, and this speaks to my love of
silent film comedy and where the mime thing came.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
There was a woman in the audience.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Of AFE and she just thought everything I said was hilarious.
She was probably stone, but I didn't pursue it. She
just thought everything was funny. So I sat down next
to her and I said to Vin. I said, Vin,
I'm going to try something. I'm not actually going to
introduce the videos. You just go to them whenever you
think it's the right time. And I would sit next
(26:17):
to her and she'd start laughing, and then if she
started to slow down, I'd put my head on her
shoulder and she'd start laughing again.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
And there were about three or four going to videos
coming back still silently, me sitting next to this woman,
just you know, ugh.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But that was that was all in the moment.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We hadn't planned that because we just didn't know somebody
would think I was that funny.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Oh my gosh, Tom, that eyebrown now that you bring
it back up again too.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
But it was physical comedy.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You're like a Jim Carrey meets like the world's best
television host of any topic, name it. I mean, it
didn't even have to be America's funny at home videos.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Like you said, dancing with this you were.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Just so much of yeah, so much of like I
grew up loving Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd Laurel
and Hardy and you know, there there's so much you
can do with a look. There'd be times on the
dancing show, if the judges were going off on a
couple or something and I knew, you know, where my
(27:21):
camera was and everything, and rather than go on a
long harangue, all I'd have.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
To do is go and they cut to you.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
You know, that says volumes, you know, And my connection
was always in that lens with the as I said,
the one person who's watching on the other side, not
twenty million, but one person.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
So it was like a connection with that person, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But that's that's a skill.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
That's really I think that was the hardest thing to learn,
is like when you're talking, you have to include the
people listening or watching, I mean, because that's who you're
talking to, really, I mean, you want them to enjoy
it as much as and feel like you've really are
communicating with them because you want to.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, I'd have friends come to the show because that
show had like seven hundred people in the audience and
you know, it's just a whole production with an orchestra
and all that. And during a commercial breakup friend of
mine said, hey, Tom, you know we can't hear you
what you're saying. I said, well, that's okay, because I'm
not talking to you, Yes, because of them.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Do you ever notice how many people who go to
shows will say that to you and you're like, well,
you go to a big show like the Grammys, for example,
and they should do it at a stadium, and you
can't hear a thing. You can see everything, but you
can't hear and you can't even really see anyone on
stage because there's cameras in front of everyone, right. And
I would always try to explain to people that you're
(28:44):
there to be a part of the experience.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But it's not a show for you. It's a show
for the people back home.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Watch exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, crazy crazy. Speaking of hosting,
you've said that as a host and I quote you
always imagine speaking to one person through the camera, like
you just said, how has that approach helped you connect
with audiences? And do you do you see a link
between that sort of connecting and the intimacy and the
(29:10):
healing power of comedy, Like, is that the healing part
of it?
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I think I think comedy's most effective when there is
some acknowledgment of commonality that you know, we laugh most
at the things that we've kind of thought of ourselves
or somebody's touched something that we never thought of it
in that way in our lives. But oh, man, I
wish I had thought to say that at that time,
you know. But that, for example, in when I started
(29:39):
in radio, when I was just out of high school,
to kind of focus my attention on that one person idea.
I had an album like right, like, here's the microphone.
I had the album cover there. I don't remember the
band or it was an attractive woman's face on the
album cover and I would talk to her. So I
(30:04):
my theory is that for the first couple of years
of my career, I just sounded horny.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Was it like Blondie?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
It wasn't Blondie. I remember she was a brunette. I
remember that.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I couldn't tell you who the who the group was
or why it was only her face. I don't even
think she was the singer, but it was just it
was just a face. I thought, Oh, if I've been
a look at a face, I'll take this one. And yeah,
so I would kind of you know, all right, let's.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Check the weather, you know, sultry weather for you. Come
on over, I'll.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Show you what the precipitation chances or not that kind.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
We'll be right back with more of the Comedy Saved
Me podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Saved Me Podcast.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Oh my gosh, live television is famously unpredictable, as you know.
Can you share with us maybe a time when something
went hilariously off script, you know, whether it was on
Dancing with the Stars or any of the other shows
that you've been on, and how your sense of humor
sort of helped you handle it.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, there was one time, and it's not my proudest moment,
and it was an example of take an extra moment,
just take an extra beat, because things don't move as
fast as you think they are in your brain. Right, Yes,
So on the dancing show, Simone Biles, the incredible Olympic gymnast,
(31:44):
and her partner had just finished a dance and they
came over and Simone is to my immediate left and
her partner off beyond there, and the judges of being
two of the judges were being kind of kind of
really kind of hard on her, I thought, and then
Carrie Anne and Aba, the third judge, was being much
more complimentary. Now you know what an ifb is the
(32:06):
folks watching or listening might not, but it's a little
earpiece so that you can hear from the director and
producers in the control room if something, if they need
to move something along or something. And the showrunner at
the time, Ashley, whom I absolutely adored, said something in
my ear when the other judges had finished and Carrie
(32:30):
Anne was being complimentary and I wasn't looking at Simone.
I was looking at Carrie Anne, and Ashley went, gee,
Carrie Anne is being really complimentary, but Simone's not even smiling.
So instead of saying it like my way, which would be,
I noticed, Simone, you had some different reactions to the judges.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
How did you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's where I would For some reason, ashley last phrase
stuck in my head and I said, so, Simone, I
noticed you weren't smiling when Carrie and what woman wants
to hear a guy say hey, babe, come on, smile,
you know, just smiling, you know exactly, yeah, exactly, And
(33:18):
the moment it came out of her mouth, I went,
oh shit, oh damn it. And she was brilliant, without
missing a beat, she said, smiling doesn't win gold medals.
The audience went nuts, and I knew I had, you know,
a major omelet just dripping down my faith. So just
(33:40):
to show the humor part though, Simone had a shirt
made called and it said smiling doesn't win gold medals.
And a few days later the two of us posed,
She's wearing the shirt looking at me, and I'm looking
very sheepish. I'm you know, yeah, but it was kind
of making lemonade out of lemmons. But it was one
(34:01):
of those moments that also it was you know, just
make sure before you open your mouth that your brain
has engaged at least a little so that you put
it in your own words, because you know, I'm a.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Dad of two daughters.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know how much fun it is when a guy yells, hey, baby, smile.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Yeah, you know, but you know, also you're doing a
live television show. She was gracious, so everyone was very
kind to one another, which you know when you're with professionals.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
But that was sort of like one of those moments
where you realize, okay, it is a high wire and
I'm doing okay on a percentage basis, but every so
often shit's going to go down. You know, you're going
to say something the wrong way. Or it'll be perceived
the wrong way. You know, just minor stuff, but it.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Also goes to show you that, you know, what you
said really good advice that I need to take because
I tend to fill the dead air. That's the problem
of people from radio, is right. You can't have dead air.
That's like suicide on air. You know, you have to
keep it moving along. But a lot of times you
just open mouth and sart foot unintentionally because you're filling
the dead air.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I did. I did a mime performance on the radio
show in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
What and uh?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
And I would it would just it was like subtle
sound effects.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I would say, all right, now I'm going to walk
against the wind and.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
You and I would go silent and you just hear.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Tom.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I was just gonna say, you did a mime show
on the radio, how does that work?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Well?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
You know, back in the old days of radio, Edgar
Bergen was a famous ventriloquist on the radio. And then
when he got to tell it, I was Candas Bergen's dad,
and yeah, when he got to TV you could see
his lips.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Move and you really it wasn't really very good.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
It was better on the radio.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Better on the radio Funny.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Yeah, you've worked with legendary comedians and personalities in Hollywood Squares. Also,
the last time I interviewed you was when you and
Whoope were on the Hollywood Squares and you just won
your first Emmy.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
I want to.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Say, what's the best piece of comedic advice? And I
think I may have even asked you this on the
stage there, or you know, wisdom that you've picked up
from your guests or any of your co hosts, or
even things that were handed down to you through sage
advice from people in your travels.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Well, you know, I don't. This was Hollywood Squares.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
It triggered that the first couple days we were shooting,
because we would do if you remember, we would do
five in a day, right.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, Saturday Sunday.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
You do ten shows Saturday Sunday, right with the five
shows each day. And when I think the first couple
days we started back in nineteen ninety eight, I just
I was like a kid in a candy store because
I've got nine celebrities, you know, many of whom I'm
a fan of, like Carol you mentioned Carol Burnett, Carroll
(37:07):
was there, Harvey Korman and Tim you know, of course
Whoopee and Gilbert Gottfried and all these wonderful talents, and
I was having a ball and during the meal break,
Michael King, because the King brothers produced at Michael and
Roger King.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
They're both gone now, I believe, but.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
King World, Yeah, King World, Yah, King World, which then
CBS bot and all that. But Michael came up to
me and said, Tom, we're loving what you're doing. It's
going great. But I just I just need to remind
you it's not a talk show. It's the contestants want
to win stuff. And I realized I was getting so in.
(37:51):
I was enjoying the back and forth so much with
the stars that I was kind of neglecting the contestants,
and so once I kind of made that little shift
and made it about them and taking care of them.
In the same way on the dancing show years later,
I would make my focus taking care of the couples.
(38:12):
So if the judges were too hard and the dance
didn't go well, you know, I try to lighten the
burden a bit. But once I got into that mindset,
oh right, I want to help them win stuff, then
I kept my potterer quicker and the tempo changed. But
and that was a case of you know, especially a
(38:33):
show like that, the comedy's best when it's moving fast.
You know, it's moving a little quicker. Yeah, because it
was interesting. When Robin Williams was on Hollywood Squares with us,
he didn't get called on a lot, which I thought
was how can you not want to call on Robin Williams?
And the producer said to me after, because they want
(38:54):
to win things and they think Robin's going to go
off on a tangent.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
But that's the best part.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's well, it's the best part for us, but not
if you want to go home with a new car.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
If you want to go home.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
With a new car, you don't want to see Nanu
for five minutes, you know, I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It was just fascinating to get into that kind of
rhythm of but and again another tangential story but when
But it speaks to having a sense of humor, certainly
in this business. Whoopy and I were at Nappy, the
convention for syndicated television shows, just prior to Hollywood Squares
launching in ninety eight, and I had never experienced anything
(39:37):
at that level.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
You know, just a.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Massive photographers and reporters and flash bulbs going off, and
Whoopy was always so so protective of me really, So
at one point Robert Townsend, the actor, producer director who's
a friend of Whoopy's, came over to say hi. And
(40:02):
I knew that they'd want pictures of the two of them,
Whoopy and Robert Townsend together, So I start to get up,
and Whoopee grabs my arm and she goes, where are
you going? And I said, well, they want pictures of you,
and sit your ass down, so you know, so I'm
sitting there and the photographer, probably no more than five
(40:23):
feet away from me to my right, turns to the
other photographers, and to be honest, I love this the
moment it happened.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
He went, don't worry, I can cut out the white guy.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Oh no, oh my.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
God, And I thought, and for me, for my sense
of humor, I thought that was hilarious because it is.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Would be saying did she hear it too?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I think she was talking to Robert at that point
they were catching up, so I didn't.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
She didn't really respond to it.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And it's only because I saw him turn and I
heard him say it, and he wasn't really, I mean,
he wasn't being careful about volume.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I don't worry. I can cut out the white guy.
Oh my, but I love stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
One of my favorite headlines I spoke at my niece's
senior chapel when she was graduating from high school, and
the local paper in my hometown covered it, and the
headline was based on what one of the students had
said to the reporter. The headline was that I have
this in the book too. Bergeron not as boring as expected.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah, not as boring as expected.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Wow, I have two things that just popped into my
head and I'm not like we just talked about it.
I don't want to make this show isn't about me,
but but we're so connected.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
I have to share this with you.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
First of all, my first experience on a red carpet
was with Whoopy Goldberg and I had a crazy experience
with Tony Danza went out before me.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I didn't know what to do. I don't know how
to stand or anything.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
And I went over to They wanted me to take
a picture with him, and he was like, no, I
can't take a picture with you, and he ran off
and I was just standing there for all the cameras snapping,
and I didn't I didn't know how to hold my
I didn't know what to do, and I just sort
of walked off, like shocked. And I remember WHOOPI was like,
what happened? I said, I don't know, And I found
out later. I guess he and his wife were having
(42:27):
a thing and he didn't want to be pictured with
other women. Oh okay, So I had no idea, but
it was crazy. That was one weird thing. And well,
you're so gracious because you wanted to move and let
Whoopee have that spotlight. And I want to explain another
gracious side of Tom bergeron. So this technically is not
(42:48):
about me, but it is, but it's really about you.
When I came to interview you with the Hollywood Squares,
it was nineteen ninety nine and the radio station in
Boston that I worked for was having a huge two
day concert every year was called Mixfest, and that was
the year they sent I was working for BZ Channel
four as filling in for Joyce Cool Heywick, oh okay,
and they sent me to cover you, my idol in television.
(43:11):
So I was like, hell, yeah, I'm going to go
out there and do that. So I brought my two
best friends with me and I went out to interview you,
and I also had to play the show.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So now I know why I lost, because you were
more interested in the comedians and helping me win.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Most of the time.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
I was like this.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
I went home and my boyfriend at the time, he said,
you know, I saw your neck a lot because I
kept losing, Like oh, but then I had to interview you,
and then I had to do the whole piece for
Channel four. And you allowed me to on the Carol
Burnett stage of course, go up into the squares, but
you didn't release the audience or anything. So I had
(43:52):
to do the whole thing in between you taping your shows.
And You're just you were so gracious when I was there.
You were just wonderful and gracious and kind, and you
gave me some amazing advice because all I wanted to
do was show you my demo tape for hosting television
and get your advice, and you look and you did.
(44:13):
After the show, you watched it and you gave me
advice on something that I will never forget. And it
was like, this is the best piece of advice I
could give you is Lynn, when you go off to
work and do what you do, just remember you always
want to have the fuck you fund.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Yes, yes, yes, And.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
That's I've told I've passed that story along to so
many people. You know, you you seek to do and
be successful, but then what do you do when you
are successful at something? You have to manage yourself and
take and protect it so that if you get a
job and you hate the guy that you're producing the show,
you could say fuck you.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
And walk because you've got You've saved your money.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
That's right, and you were smart with it, and I
thought that was such amazing advice, So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
I remember actually Willard Scott and I having a conversation
about that backstage. He was on people are talking with
me and he was for those of you who don't
know the name, he was the weather man on the
Today Show for years, and he had this thing where
he would honor people at their hundredth birthday with Smuckers
(45:23):
as the sponsor Smuckers with a name like Smuckers, it damn.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Will better be good.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
Yeah, Oh my god, I was such geeks.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Okay, I no seriously.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
But Willard and I were talking about that off camera
the the you know, I don't know how we got
on it, but he was going, oh, yeah, you gotta
have a fuck you fun. Yeah, because inevitably it happens
in any career in entertainment. You know, if you're writing
code for computer whatever, you're going to run up against
people that you're going to have to look in the
(45:58):
mirror and go, Okay, do I just keep owning this
every day? This misery is not in my stomach that's
growing into a potential tumor, or looking at my i've
got some money to float myself for six months or whatever,
my little fuck you fun. That's when you go fuck you.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
No, you know, I haven't been able to do that
yet though, by the way, Tom, I haven't been able.
I haven't been able to say that to anyone because
I've been fortunate to love all my jobs that I've had.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Well, that's the goal is not you know, it's like anything.
It's like I'm sure every every law enforcement person who
has a gun in their holster would prefer not to
have to use it, but they know it's there, and yeah, exactly. Yeah,
So I think there have only been a couple of
occasions where I had to use it, and not always
(46:52):
in sort of an adversarial way, sometimes like when people
are talking. Was canceled and they asked me to do
interviews during the new news hour. And we had two
young kids. The girls were both really young at that point,
and suddenly I went from making this kind of money
(47:13):
to making that kind of money. And they offered me
the morning anchor job on the morning news at Channel four.
And I remember we were visiting Lois's parents' parents in
Florida with the girls, who were probably I don't know,
maybe three and one at that point, and I turned
(47:35):
it down, and I remember my late mother in law,
whom I adored, saying, really, you're not gonna I said,
you know what, Dot, We've put money aside for just
this kind of situation. I don't have the kind of
work I want. What's being offered could take care of
(47:55):
the money problem, but it wouldn't take care of the
me problem.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
To sleep at night.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
You get to feel a little bit that because I'm
used to getting up for early morning radio shows and
TV shows and would go on to do a show
on FX. It was on in the morning and fill
in on Good Morning America and the early show and
get up at three thirty and four. That wasn't the issue.
It was do I want to become a news anchor?
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yes, that's because it's and I knew it was wrong
for me. I just knew it was.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
It would be a creative death, you know, And so
that was that was sort of a genteel fuck you.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
I wasn't well, you didn't have to. There was no anger.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I was gracious and appreciative that they made the offer,
but I just knew it wasn't the right thing. And
we had enough of a buttress that I could kind
of go out and you know, ended up filling in
for a week on another FM station in town, and
that led to me being hired by Magic to do
the morning show for about nine months before I ended
(49:01):
up going to New York for FX.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Yeah, before you're like, I have to get out of
this town because this girl named Lynn is stalking me.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
No, no, seriously, I'd be a reason to stick around.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Frank, No, seriously, I really I remember one time. I
shall probably tell you after the show, but I did.
I did wait in the lobby of a hotel to
ask you questions about hosting. I was that person I
went to like clubs where the DJs were playing that
I wasn't even old enough to go in, and I
would sneak in and in between something, I would be like,
how did you get this job?
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Where do I need to go to school?
Speaker 3 (49:35):
That's no different than me calling Larry and Moe.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's the same thing. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
It's like, who's gonna Who's going to advocate for me
if I don't and nobody, nobody exactly, So you know,
we have to be our best advocate.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
And like you were saying, what's the worst it gonna happen?
You know, somebody says, no, I or Tony Danzer runs away.
There are worse things that can happen. Tony Dams are
running away from Yes.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
I mean as much as I was embarrassed with egg
on my face, like you I you know you.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Well right like this, we got him back for you,
Oh you did.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
He was scheduled to appear on the morning show that
I co hosted on FX called Breakfast Time, right and
we find and that was a live show. We find
out that morning and we have a good chunk of
the show format designated for Tony. We got a call,
he's not coming, what he won't be there? He cancels how.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Much time before the taping?
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Well, it's live. It was like, you know, fifteen minutes,
twenty minutes. We get a call. So we had a
couple of sisters on Joan and Lydia WiLAN who did
herbal and home health cares to cures and things. So,
being the kind of show that it was where we
(50:53):
wouldn't take shit like that lightly, we hired an ambulette,
an ambulet, a small ambulance, put Joan and Lydia and
a cameraman in the ambulet drove, had them drive to
Tony's hotel and they found him working out in the gym.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
No.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
And so just a little payback for Tony, thank you.
Joan and Lydia confront Tony with the cameraman. We're from
Breakfast Time on FX and you canceled and we find
you here in the gym, and he's like, oh shit,
he's saying, well, to be honest, I had the cocktail flu.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Oh he was hungover.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
He was hungover. Oh that's funny, and we and we ran.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
They come running back with the video, which he he
was cool with us running to his credit, But we
completely outed Tony Danza on the show. But that was
the way that show worked. Everything became a potential for material.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But see this. That was the other
thing I wanted to tell you. When I was interviewed
you at Hollywood Squares, I had to send that JumboTron
thing back. Sorry, getting back to that story, which I
forgot because we have so many side notes. And I said, Tom,
it's seven o'clock in the morning. We're at the w
Hotel in Westwood. I had to interview you, Gilbert Godfried
(52:17):
and one other lovely person who I oh, gosh, yeah,
And I said, Tom, I know you're from Boston. You
know can you will you help me out? I got
to do a video to send back for the JumboTron
for Mixfest. Sorry, now I'm connecting this story originally, Thank you?
And you said why, yes, I have an idea, And
I said what, And you said, let's grab the camera
(52:39):
crew and let's grab Gilbert.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
Gilbert, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Come over?
Speaker 4 (52:43):
And I had my friends with me and it was
you and me and Gilbert Gottfried at seven thirty in
the morning at the w with a full camera crew
and we went down to the pool after they struck
the set and you and I'm like, what are we
going to do?
Speaker 1 (52:57):
And you said, let's improvise.
Speaker 4 (52:58):
And remember you were giving me a like a shoulder massage,
like yes, Lynn, would you like some coffee? And I
was on vacation with Gilbert and I had a mic
on and He's like, it was the most incredible time.
So again, I can't tell you how important it is
to go for things and try things and not to
be afraid of things.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
But also exactly, yeah, exactly do you still have that?
Speaker 3 (53:22):
I would love to see that if you do.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
That was actually one of my friend had one of
the earliest digital cameras at that time, because this was
ninety nine, you know, the turn of the century as
old folks went through. So but yeah, I was in
my demo tape for quite a while. I went home
and I was like, we're adding this right now.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
To my demo tape.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Oh, I'd love to see that again. Gilbert was such
a sweetheart. He was loved him.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, he because he at that time I was we
would stay at what was then the what was it
became the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, but the Parkaya
it was the part Archaiat, and so all of us
from the East Coast would be put up at the
Park Kayat for the weekends that we'd shoot, and Gilbert
(54:08):
was always there. And like, I'd get back to my
hotel room and we had agreed to meet for drinks
or dinner or whatever, and the phone rings in my
room and I answer it.
Speaker 3 (54:20):
Hello, Hey, Tom, it's Gilbert. Who it's Gilbert?
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Because that voice, you know, he'd put it, it's sort
of like Bruno on the Dancing Show, that's his personality,
but he amps it up.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yes, yes, well Gilbert was like that too.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Gilbert was really just sort of almost a quiet soul
with a cerbic sense of humor.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
But that voice, when he turned the voice on, it
was amazing.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
You know it was you kind of looked like him too,
with that face.
Speaker 3 (54:50):
You got it like you're trying to pass a stone. Yeah, yes,
Oh that's gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
That was one of my i'd say, probably highlights of
my life.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
But isn't it fun to do stuff like that, to say, Okay,
let's let's make something.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Let's yes, no one believing me. You made him do that.
It was all his ideas. Tom Tom is the one
who's gonna say no to him. The camera crews like, uh,
can I just go home and go to bed at
seven o'clock in the morning, you know, and you had
to tape like five shows later that day.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
I had to come to this.
Speaker 4 (55:25):
Oh my gosh, Well, I don't want to take up
much more of your time, although I secretly do. I
could talk to you for hours and maybe you'll come
and we'll have a part deal. I would love to,
yeah here, but I would love to know if, if,
if you could host any show, real or imagined.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
With anyone from today or past.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Oh, that's such a good.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
That would use comedy to help people. What would that
look like?
Speaker 2 (55:53):
It would be me interviewing Steve Allen, Jack Parr, and
Johnny Carson.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
That sounds fabulous, and it would be.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
All about the genesis of the Tonight Show and their
own particular styles, three very different comedic personalities. Steve Allen
was is sort of more analogous to Letterman. I think
Parr was sort of his own breed. You never knew
(56:25):
where he was, which how he was going to be
on any given night. He walked off the show at
one point because NBC censored a joke and he absolutely
he had a fuck.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
You find that he wished and they got him back,
you know, finally.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
But and then Carson, who was so influenced by Jack
Benny and Oliver Hardy, and you know, a lot of
Carson's slow takes are really homages to the people that
he grew up loving. So to be able to you know,
those three people. Steve I actually interviewed in Boss, so
(57:01):
he was wonderful. And Carson I never met, but I
was friends with Carl Reiner, who was friends with Johnny
and I also worked with Ed McMahon on the Muscular Distript.
He telethon and would pick his brain all the time
about Carson. But to be able to sit like one
of my favorite lunch times at Hollywood Squares, and you're right,
we could just keep going for another hour.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Oh, I have so much more. I'm going to run
out of batteries on my iPad.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
There were four of us sitting talking together having lunch.
It was me, Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway,
just the four of us.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
I wanted to marry Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. By
the way, when I was kid.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Oh yeah, well them, Yeah, I get it. And I
said to Carol, I said, wasn't there half a season, Harvey?
Right after you left the show? Dick Van Dyke came
on for like half a season. And Carol said, yeah,
you know, we're friends. We did a show on Broadway
years ago and it just it just didn't work. It
just didn't work. And Harvey goes, you needed a jew.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
That's it. Secret sauce, secret sauce.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
T yeah, and the other Another quick story, Tim Conway
and his granddaughter. I'm getting ready to do Dancing with
the Stars Live show. Knock on my dressing room door.
It's Tim and his granddaughter and he's brought her to
the show and we chat and catch up a little bit,
and he's sitting in an aisle seat right where I walked,
(58:34):
Like during a commercial. I'd go up and just confer
with the producers and everybody and make sure we're all
on the same page, and then I'd get there. All right, Tom,
we're twenty seconds away. Get back to my mark, get
Ready Live TV. But all I wanted to do was
make Tim Conway laugh, right, so I get the word
all right, twenty seconds and you know his old man
(58:56):
walk where he would do that kind of thing right,
the feet barely move, but his arms are going. So
I started doing that old man walk right by Tim
while the stage manager's freaking out that we're about to
go live, and like now ten seconds and Tim breaks
up laughing, and I went, good, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
Now good.
Speaker 4 (59:14):
You can retire. If you made Tim Conway left forget it?
Speaker 3 (59:17):
Yeah, done, that was it.
Speaker 1 (59:19):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (59:20):
Oh you got to work with such amazing legends. And
you know, time is, you know, things are so different now,
and I wish the people today could have seen our
world of television and comedy of the past.
Speaker 3 (59:33):
Yeah, because I got one more all right, one more.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
Story, all right, I had eight percent left. I just
want to let you know. So this goes off.
Speaker 3 (59:41):
It's like Sherlock Holmes the seven percent solution.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
So I'm out a lunch with Carl Reiner and his
daughter Annie, and Carl tells me Steve is coming to
lunch for a little bit. He's shooting Steve Martin right,
And my goal then is I got to make Steve
Martin laugh just once. So Steve sits next to me.
We're all getting together Annie, who's a lovely poet and
(01:00:05):
therapist and all this. But she goes off on this
monologue talking and I think she's just trying to impress Steve.
She's talking about Picasso and Nietzsche and Einstein and dropping
all these names, this labyrinth of a monologue, and she
finally takes a breath and I said, and how do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
They know Kevin Bacon.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Six degrees?
Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
And Steve broke up laughing and went, I'm good. I'm out.
Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
Steve Martin too, Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah wow.
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Well do you know Carol Burnett? Because she is literally
the reason for a living for me. I'm just absolutely good.
Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I think I might have to call her, you know,
because that's how it works, right, You just pick up
the phone.
Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Just call her up and tell her I told you to. Okay, because,
as you know, we shot the show the same stage
they did the Carol Burnett Show.
Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Oh that didn't go over me.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Yeah right, So during one of the tapings on air,
I said, so, Carol, you like what we've done with
the place, and she went, no.
Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
And where's the Bob Mackie drapes?
Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
Yes, yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
But to be able to be, and I don't think
unless you're really full of yourself, you never lose that
young fan, you know. I mean, there's still in me
whenever those things were happening with Steve or Tim or
you know, Carr will be It's so much of me
is still that kid from Haveral, Massachusetts who's pinching himself.
(01:01:39):
You know that I get to play in this playground
with these people whom I admire so much, And that's
that's the real apart from you know, any other fuck
you fun.
Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
That's that's a pretty sizable one too.
Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
It is.
Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
And then you get to get paid for having that
much fun, which always blew me away when I would
get a check every couple of weeks and I'd be like, wait,
oh yeah, I get paid to do this. It's so
much fun. I've never even thought about it. But that
was another piece of advice. You know, do what you
love and the money will come. Don't follow the money,
don't chase money, chase happiness and positivity and things that
(01:02:15):
you enjoy. Yeah, yeah, that's why you can't retire. Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
I will refuse to say this. I can't talk about
it yet.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
I might be able to tell you about it, okay,
off my off camera, but I was lured back to
hosting something.
Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
It's a one.
Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Off okay, how exciting.
Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
And it is hilarious.
Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Oh my god, is it gonna mean network streamer?
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
It's going to be on a cable network, okay, And
and it'll air in July. And I think when when
people hear what it is, they'll go, oh.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Oh my god, I've got goosebumps. You still do that
to meet Tom?
Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Well, I will when we're when we're done with the podcast, okay,
And now if you can listen or watch anymore, I'm
going to let then know what it is.
Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Okay, Well, then I guess we have to end it here,
But how about to be continued, because then you'll have
to come back and talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
This new one off show.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Yes, yes, and some other things.
Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
That we didn't get to that were hilarious, like.
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
All right, so this is only part one, okay, Part one?
Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Tom bergeron thank you for being on Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
It has been such a thrill and an honor and
it just warms my heart to be able to talk
to you again.
Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It's going to make me cry.
Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
It's great to see you again. It really is
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Unless you're really full of yourself, you never lose that
young fan, you know. I mean, there's still in me
whenever those things were happening with Steve or Tim or
you know.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Carr will be.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
So much of me is still that kid from Haveral,
Massachusetts who's pinching himself.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Welcome back to Comedy Saved Me, the podcast where we
explore how laughter lifts us up, helps us heal, and
connects us in the toughest of times. I'm your host,
Lynn Hoffman, and today's guest is someone who's quick wit
and contagious charm has made him the beloved fixture in
American television for decades. You know him as the iconic
(00:45):
host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the ever gracious master
of ceremonies on Dancing with the Stars, and the man
who kept the laughs rolling on the Hollywood Squares. But
behind the bright lights and the live broadcast, Tom Bergeron
is also a lifelong comedy fan who understands the power
of humor and how it gets us through those bumps
(01:07):
and bruises in life. In this episode, Tom shared stories
from his early days as a radio DJ, obsessed with
Comedy Records, the lessons he's learned from working with legendary comedians,
and how laughter has helped him stay grounded even when
the cameras are rolling and the chaos is just a
heartbeat away. Oh boy, do I know that?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering Tom Bergeron's work,
where have you been? You will love his insights on
why comedy matters, how it brings us together, and why
sometimes the best way to get through.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Life is to laugh at ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
So settle in, get ready to smile, and let's dive
into a great conversation with the one and only Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Tom, Welcome to comedy safety.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh my pleasure, In my pleasure. I feel like the
bar has been set high now. That was a great introduction.
I want to live up to it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
My gosh, you lived up to it ten times over.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I mean I literally grew up with you in Boston,
and you know this is how it went in order
and I'm not making this up.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It went.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I wanted to be share a mixture of share Carol Burnett,
pretty much everyone on Saturday Night Live and Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh I'm honored to be. That's a pretty lofty list.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Well, you you had this magic about you when you
get in front of the camera and you could tell
that you weren't reading lines like you were at libbing
and you got thrown things live and the way you
handled yourself. I mean I started with you with People
Are Talking in Boston.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
And that that show, which was for those who don't know,
it was on the then Westinghouse stations. Each Westinghouse station
had a People Are Talking Show. It was in most
cases a midday, one hour live show. In Baltimore, Oprah
Winfrey was the host. I don't know whatever happened to her,
(03:05):
but anyway here she's probably doing okay. But yeah, So
that was like cramming for an exam every night because
we ran the gamut on that show, from serious topics
of regional issues or national issues to pure frivolous stuff
celebrity interviews and offbeat topics. So every night it was
(03:28):
like cramming for a different kind of exam the next day,
you know, with no opportunity for a second take, which
I kind of love.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I think that's the best. I mean, live to tape
or live is the only way to go but it's scary.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It's funny. For me, it's never been scary.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I get more nervous in like a neighborhood association party
or something that's not work related. I'll get all sweaty
and looking for the exits and all that kind of stuff.
But you know, being on live TV in front of
twenty thirty million people in our heyday on the dancing Show,
it was like I had bedroom slippers on. I mean,
it was just I meditated in my dressing room between
(04:11):
the dress rehearsal and the live show, and I was
ready to go. I just was, you know, eager to
find out what shit would go down. We can use
all that kind of language, can't we on this Oh?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And we will in a few minutes when I get
to a question that I'll remind you of the answer
you gave me very many years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But you started your.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Career out as a DJ in the radio business, and
I personally think that's one of the reasons why you
are as kind and giving and wonderful as you are,
because I feel like everyone from radio is really down
to earth, they understand the grassroots of it all and
hard working, and you know, you worked your way all
(04:54):
the way to the top. So when you started what
I always wanted to know what drew you to com
in the early days? And do you remember a moment
when you realized how powerful humor was and how healing
it can be.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, well, I think what drew me to it. I
think it was just in the DNA. Interestingly, nobody else
in my family, either the immediate or extended family, are
performers or were performers any in any fashion.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I thought you were going to say, No, one in
my family was funny.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Some some were not intentionally.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I know those.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Some they weren't in on the joke, but some were
very funny. No, my mom had a fairly acerbic sense
of humor. My dad had the eyebrow, so I got
that from him. But the that killed me. You know,
I've gotten more mileage out of that thing.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I think. Oh, look, I even.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Have Do you have a picture of yourself doing it?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
No, I have a bobblehead with my eyebrow.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, that's one of the America's funniest videos, bobbleheads with
the eyebrows. As a matter of fact, And I'll get
back to your original question. There'll be a lot of
this going off on tangents. But when I did an
episode of Sesame Street, I played a character called Johnny
Gotcha who had a hidden camera show and he was
(06:27):
looking for people with bad behavior, and of course the
premise for everybody but Oscar the Grouch, was well, you're
not going to find bad behavior on Sesame Street. Oscar
was very excited. But as I'm playing this character, I
suggested to friends, you could turn this every time my
eyebrow went up into a drinking game, and you would
(06:47):
not get through Sesame Street sober.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's hilarious. Yeah, like a board game.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, like Johnny Gotcha, you know, and the eyebrow would
go up.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And right, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But so comedy has always been sort of a natural
thing for me. I remember, like in high school, well,
in grade school, I was in a Catholic grade school
for eight years, and when you're surrounded by nuns, you
got to either get a sense of humor or an
escape plan, and so, you know, it was always I
(07:23):
kind of wrote the school play and did you know
based on laugh In, which was big at the time
late sixties. And then in high school, I remember my
freshman high school history class I won the Boob of
the Year award for being have that award Simon Cohen,
(07:44):
my history teacher, would give that to the funniest person
in the class at the end of a school year,
and it was between It was between me and Michael Laregan,
and I beat the bastard out.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You remember his name, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
He was. He was a little less funny than me, thankfully.
That's well, you've.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Been doing this a long time, being goofy like that.
I read that at seventeen you interviewed Larry Fine and
Mo Howard of the Three Stooges, which is incredible to
me only because I grew up with them obviously watching them,
but I mean I still watch them every Saturday night
before Sveengoli on Me TV.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Lynn, you were one of those rare women who likes
who loves the Three Stooges.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
I showed it to my nephew who's thirteen, and he
was cracking up, and it was like the Hitler.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Episode, like they're doing something crazy, right. It was so funny.
He didn't know why he was laughing.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I think it's just the physical comedy of us all slapstick.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, And he knew it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Wasn't real, but yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
But how did that shape your comedic sensibility?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That was that came about even before I got my
first professional radio job. I was in high school and I.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It was, as I remember it, it was a Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
My folks were out, my sister was at a friend's
house sleeping over, and I had no life.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
So I Saturday night I watched that, just me and
a phone and a cassette tape recorder, and I knew
that two of the original three Stooges were still alive,
Moe and Larry.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So I actually called information in LA and asked for
Mo Howard or Larry Fine, and she had a number.
She had a couple of m Howard's, but she had
a Larry Fine. So I called, and it wasn't Larry
of the Stooges, but this was a household that got
those calls periodically. So the woman who answered said, oh,
(09:45):
I know where he is. He's at the Motion Picture
Television campus in Woodland Hills. I can give you that number.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Are you serious?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yep? And so I called that number.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I had my little cassette tape recorder with a suction
cup microphone into the phone and called got the operator
at the Motion Picture Television campus, which is not far
from where I am in California right now, and he said, well,
Larry's playing poker. Can you call back in half an hour?
(10:16):
And I did, and Larry came on. Now, Larry had
suffered a stroke, so there was a little bit of
that in his voice, but it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Was still him.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You could still hear, and about I don't know about
ten minutes in the conversation, he actually said to me,
you want Moe's number, and he gave me Moe's home
phone number, which Moe was not thrilled about initially.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Oh my god, Well, you did a good impression on Larry,
so you could have pretended you were him.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
But I think with I think once I told him
that Larry had given me the number, and it was
clear to him that I was a fan, and that
I that I was a legit fan, that I really
knew their stuff, and asked questions that he responded to,
like one, I don't know where in my research at
sixteen or seventeen, I got this, but I said, would
(11:05):
you say what you do was slapstick or farce? And
he went, you absolutely absolutely right. What we did was farce.
I don't know where the hell I pulled that out
of my botox, but at sixteen seventeen, yeah, But in
the I think the next eighteen months until they each
(11:26):
passed away, we spoke about a half a dozen times.
Sometimes I would just call to say hi. There was
one time we were doing a fundraiser for charities in Haveral,
where I grew up in Massachusetts, and we were doing
that in the high school auditorium, showing three Stooges shorts,
and I thought I should call Mo. He can address
(11:48):
the audience. So I ran into the principal's office with
my ever present cassette recorder called MO. He was sweet
about it. He gave a little address to the audience.
I walked back into the theater. We stopped the film.
I'm taking the stage getting booed, and I went, just
wait a minute, you're going to like this. And then
(12:09):
I start playing MO addressing them, and the place went crazy.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Did you know you were going to do that?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I know, it just occurred to me while everybody was
there we were showing the shorts. I just thought, you know,
in that way, you can just yeah, I'll give my
buddy moa call. Yeah, and he was just lovely.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He was just lovely about it.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
That's an incredible experience. And it just goes to show
you that you know perseverance, the fact that you just
picked up the phone.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I mean someone once told me that too.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know, I'm going to go to New York and
be a big television personality or whatever host, and how
I'm going to get that job? And someone said, why
don't you just pick up the phone and call up
an agency and say, hey, I moved to New York
and I'd like to have some auditions.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And I'm like, well, that's an easy idea. No one
ever thinks of that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No, No, what's the shortest distance between two points is
a straight line, so just go right toward Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Common sense.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
The theme of our podcast, Comedy Saved Me, by the Way,
is how comedy can.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Be sort of a lifeline.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yes, was there a time in your life, personally or
professionally when comedy you feel saved you or helped you
get through maybe a tough time or moment?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Absolutely? And I actually wrote about this moment years ago.
I have a book back in two thousand and nine.
It's called Them hosting as fast as I can, right,
And I wrote about.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
That exact moment. I was having a tough time.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was unemployed, prone to dark moods occasionally, and.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Was in it kind of you a dark place, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, never would know.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Good, Well that's good. You know the meditation and medication work.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yes, that is true. I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, I had done radio in my hometown, but
but I had left that job, and I'd worked with
a theater company and that had you know, we had
kind of disbanded, and I just was at a loss.
And I went to the ward Hill Industrial Park in Haveral,
Massachusetts to apply for any kind of job. Right, I didn't.
(14:19):
I just needed money. I was bumming beer money off friends,
I was behind in my rent and all that stuff.
So I was filling out a job application form. I
remember the moment so vividly, and you know, it's name
background Da da Da da da, And then there was
a little box for salary desired. And I guess they
wanted you to basically negotiate against yourself by putting a
(14:41):
figure down, and so next to salary desired, I just
wrote yes, I and I broke myself up. I started
laughing at just writing yeah, no shit, I want a salary?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah what I fuck? You think I'm here for? Yeah?
So I wrote yes, I started to laugh.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I crumpled the paper up, tossed it in the wastebasket,
walked out of there, and thought, my sense of humor
is my way back?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Really? Yeah? What year?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Roughly?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That was like around nineteen eighty okay, And I did
a I decided, you know what, if I'm going to
go down in flames, I'm going to go down in
flames with my instinct, you know, I'll crash land with
my own comedic instinct. So I devised a resume because
(15:38):
I used to do editorial cartoons for local newspapers in
my hometown, so I'm a cartoonist too.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And I drew a and a mime.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
So you are an international man of mystery.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Well I'm like a mile wide and an inch deep,
So sure I've got also a mime.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't know.
Are we're going to have a video version of this?
Is that's pretty good?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah? We might have to use this for the promo
on TikTok or something.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
We can actually lean on midair and I'll look at you.
So I did a cartoon illustration of me as a
mime right leaning on mid air, and in my thought balloon,
I put all my resume material. Right, that's great, and
I just I went to radio stations in northern Massachusetts
(16:26):
and southern New Hampshire and I'm distributing this resume.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Would that be w l H and w E.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It was like WCCM and Lawrence and then w and
then the one that ultimately hired me was WHGB and Portsmouth.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah, you worked with my husband, my current husband, actually
he was up there years ago. Your current husband, my
current husband, yeah, my only husband.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well, you know you're leaving your options open. I think
that's smart. I can't believe that my current husband. We're
not sure.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Still, ye's who you.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And Billy Bush also I believe worked up there in
Harry Jacobs and Willie b was up there.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, you know, a lot of a lot of talent
came from Bob Lobell from BZ Sports, came off on
wg I R in Manchester. So there was only one
response to this crazy resume, and that was from the
program director of whg B, a guy named duncan doer
and he he called me and said, can you come in?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I just I just want to meet you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And I got there, he said, I have to be honest,
we don't have any openings. But I had to see
who it was that devised a resume like this.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So I figured at that point, I'm in the door,
and I'd always yeah, see, I guess it's a drinking game.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It'll just keep yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I will take a shot hold on all.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Right, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I thought, well, you know what, now I've kind of
established a little bit of a connection with this radio station.
Maybe I should use this connection to do something I've
always wanted to do, which is a because I loved
like Threau and Emerson and Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck's
travels with Charlie and all that stuff I wanted to do.
(18:18):
And I proposed to them a five week hitch hiking
plane hopping radio series where I would go across country
just I had a backpack with my sleeping bag and
a tent and all my you know, change of.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Clothes and all that stuff. And they paid me a stipend.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
They took it. They took me up on it.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
They took me up on it, and they gave me
coach airfare back to Boston from San Francisco.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
That was the deal.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
They went out and sold the series to Coca Cola,
so they were making money on it. And I would
do three reports a week from whoever I met, wherever
I was on the road, And literally it started with
me just hitching by the side of the road and
then led to me going to private pilot terminals and
airports and getting rides on planes and meeting people and
(19:10):
just having this incredibly immersive experience. And that went so
well that in the fall of nineteen eighty, when the
night Guide decided to start his own production company and leave,
they immediately offered me that shift. And that's where everything
really kind of took off from there.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
I'll say, well, first, you were ahead of your time
with that pitch of the show. I mean, that's like
that's the Travel Channel in its original form, right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And I just had the great good fortune a close buddy,
kind of a mentor of mine who was a psychologist
and this adventurer and he would like hop freight trains
and go on mystery trips with his kids, and.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I thought, jeez, I yeah, that's the kind of thing
I want to try.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
That'd be a great show.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, And so I did that for five weeks. We
called it the Month across America, and it got me
the full time gig.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That is so cool.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I'm so glad you shared that story because I feel like,
if there's anyone listening right now, who's you know, wants
to get in to do something or it was just
starting out and they're interested in how Yeah. I mean,
it doesn't get more basic than pick up the phone,
come up with an idea, don't be afraid to have
someone close the door and say no.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Right, absolutely right. And based on my prior dating experience,
I was used to that, so, oh gosh, I was
battle hardened.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah you were, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Well, you've hosted shows that spotlight humor sort of in
everyday life, hence America's Funniest Home Videos, which funny enough. Again,
I feel like we're kindred spirits because that was on
Friday nights and I was at home, Yeah, when everyone
else was out. I was watching Tom bergeron because I
was like taking notes.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
How does he do it? You know, how does he
do that?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
How does he have these quick comebacks to these crazy stories,
and I wondered, like, did seeing so many people find
laughter and all these mishaps and horrible accidents change your
perspective were like your resilience and humor.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
It made me decide never to buy a trampoline.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I can tell you that horrible.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I steer. I have a cup on now. As a
matter of fact, just it's the case, you never know.
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was gonna say, uh no, I can't. I don't
want to go there. We could, we could take this places.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Oh oh we on there in person, in the studio.
We'll do that, We'll do the interview we couldn't do here. Okay,
I like that, Yeah, yeah, okay, but yeah, it was.
It was interesting when that when that job was first
offered to me. Uh and again that experience, as I've
said to a number of aspiring broadcasters and entertainers, never
(22:05):
phone it in. I don't care how small you think
the room is, how small the radio station or the
stage is. Show up. If you're going to do it,
show up. And I came back to Boston from out
here in California because I would host the New England
Emmy Awards every so often, and it wasn't being televised.
It was just sort of a grand dinner and I
(22:27):
was having a ball, reconnecting with old friends and getting
an award that night. Was Vin de Bona, who had
come through WBZ like I had years Bromrson College too.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Emerson College.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
He's a great philanthropist for Emerson still, and he was
getting an Achievement award for all of his producing work.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
And I was just.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Doing what you know, you allegitum ad libbing my way
through this evening. We're all having a great time. And
Vin's late mother, Jean, leaned over to him and said
to hire that guy. So for like the fifteen years
that I hosted AFFE, for all the years she was
still with us, she'd go, where's my ten percent?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah she deserves that?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah wow, well yeah, and it really there was a process.
And Bob Sagett, who later became a really good friend
and helped me close out my last show.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
He was on my last aff.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
The two of us drove off on a golf cart together,
but we had very different approaches. Yes, I can do
those kind of character voices, yeah, that kind of thing,
but that was Bob's thing. And the first show I did,
I think I tried to do those and it just
it wasn't It felt like, you know, like fingernails on
a chalkboard.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Like you were trying too hard.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, trying too hard at trying to do what somebody
else did naturally. It just didn't naturally flow for me.
So we decided that a dryer, sort of the verbal
equivalent of an arched eyebrow would would be the way
I would do it, and a lot of and so
there was a process where I had to do a
(24:10):
lot of rewriting because they were still writing for Bob
and Daisy and John who had followed Bob immediately. But
we'd sit in a room before taping, and Todd Thick,
who was the head writer, would turn to the other
writers and go, Okay, this is where Tom kills your babies.
(24:34):
And it was just a matter of getting you know,
us all, kind of getting acclimated with what I thought
was funny and what you know, and trying to also
service what they thought was funny.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Based on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It was quite successful without me being on it, So
it took a little while to get that marriage.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
If you will, but ye, but then it was just
kind of gold.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Every Friday nights it was.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Harder to do than than Dancing with the Stars, because
Dancing with the Stars being live, you know when you're starting,
you know, and you know, and it's all aff being
as you're saying about live to tape. That's how we
did that one, and Vin was wonderfully gracious in making
it as close to live as we possibly could. I
(25:20):
remember one time there was a little lighting problem, but
a joke had really scored and the audience said loved it,
and Vin goes, oh, can we do that again? We
just had a light flicker in the back, and so
I went into the control room.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I said, no, you can't get that back again. Naturally,
I said.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
What's more important the audience reaction or a little flickering
light in the back? He goes, all right, you're right, fine,
So yeah, so we would we would keep There was
like one time, and this speaks to my love of
silent film comedy and where the mime thing came.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
There was a woman in the audience.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Of AFE and she just thought everything I said was hilarious.
She was probably stone, but I didn't pursue it. She
just thought everything was funny. So I sat down next
to her and I said to Vin. I said, Vin,
I'm going to try something. I'm not actually going to
introduce the videos. You just go to them whenever you
think it's the right time. And I would sit next
(26:17):
to her and she'd start laughing, and then if she
started to slow down, I'd put my head on her
shoulder and she'd start laughing again.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
And there were about three or four going to videos
coming back still silently, me sitting next to this woman,
just you know, ugh.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
But that was that was all in the moment.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We hadn't planned that because we just didn't know somebody
would think I was that funny.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Oh my gosh, Tom, that eyebrown now that you bring
it back up again too.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
But it was physical comedy.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You're like a Jim Carrey meets like the world's best
television host of any topic, name it. I mean, it
didn't even have to be America's funny at home videos.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Like you said, dancing with this you were.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Just so much of yeah, so much of like I
grew up loving Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd Laurel
and Hardy and you know, there there's so much you
can do with a look. There'd be times on the
dancing show, if the judges were going off on a
couple or something and I knew, you know, where my
(27:21):
camera was and everything, and rather than go on a
long harangue, all I'd have.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
To do is go and they cut to you.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
You know, that says volumes, you know, And my connection
was always in that lens with the as I said,
the one person who's watching on the other side, not
twenty million, but one person.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
So it was like a connection with that person, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
But that's that's a skill.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
That's really I think that was the hardest thing to learn,
is like when you're talking, you have to include the
people listening or watching, I mean, because that's who you're
talking to, really, I mean, you want them to enjoy
it as much as and feel like you've really are
communicating with them because you want to.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, I'd have friends come to the show because that
show had like seven hundred people in the audience and
you know, it's just a whole production with an orchestra
and all that. And during a commercial breakup friend of
mine said, hey, Tom, you know we can't hear you
what you're saying. I said, well, that's okay, because I'm
not talking to you, Yes, because of them.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Do you ever notice how many people who go to
shows will say that to you and you're like, well,
you go to a big show like the Grammys, for example,
and they should do it at a stadium, and you
can't hear a thing. You can see everything, but you
can't hear and you can't even really see anyone on
stage because there's cameras in front of everyone, right. And
I would always try to explain to people that you're
(28:44):
there to be a part of the experience.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But it's not a show for you. It's a show
for the people back home.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Watch exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, crazy crazy. Speaking of hosting,
you've said that as a host and I quote you
always imagine speaking to one person through the camera, like
you just said, how has that approach helped you connect
with audiences? And do you do you see a link
between that sort of connecting and the intimacy and the
(29:10):
healing power of comedy, Like, is that the healing part
of it?
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I think I think comedy's most effective when there is
some acknowledgment of commonality that you know, we laugh most
at the things that we've kind of thought of ourselves
or somebody's touched something that we never thought of it
in that way in our lives. But oh, man, I
wish I had thought to say that at that time,
you know. But that, for example, in when I started
(29:39):
in radio, when I was just out of high school,
to kind of focus my attention on that one person idea.
I had an album like right, like, here's the microphone.
I had the album cover there. I don't remember the
band or it was an attractive woman's face on the
album cover and I would talk to her. So I
(30:04):
my theory is that for the first couple of years
of my career, I just sounded horny.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Was it like Blondie?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
It wasn't Blondie. I remember she was a brunette. I
remember that.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I couldn't tell you who the who the group was
or why it was only her face. I don't even
think she was the singer, but it was just it
was just a face. I thought, Oh, if I've been
a look at a face, I'll take this one. And yeah,
so I would kind of you know, all right, let's.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Check the weather, you know, sultry weather for you. Come
on over, I'll.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Show you what the precipitation chances or not that kind.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
We'll be right back with more of the Comedy Saved
Me podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Saved Me Podcast.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Oh my gosh, live television is famously unpredictable, as you know.
Can you share with us maybe a time when something
went hilariously off script, you know, whether it was on
Dancing with the Stars or any of the other shows
that you've been on, and how your sense of humor
sort of helped you handle it.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, there was one time, and it's not my proudest moment,
and it was an example of take an extra moment,
just take an extra beat, because things don't move as
fast as you think they are in your brain. Right, Yes,
So on the dancing show, Simone Biles, the incredible Olympic gymnast,
(31:44):
and her partner had just finished a dance and they
came over and Simone is to my immediate left and
her partner off beyond there, and the judges of being
two of the judges were being kind of kind of
really kind of hard on her, I thought, and then
Carrie Anne and Aba, the third judge, was being much
more complimentary. Now you know what an ifb is the
(32:06):
folks watching or listening might not, but it's a little
earpiece so that you can hear from the director and
producers in the control room if something, if they need
to move something along or something. And the showrunner at
the time, Ashley, whom I absolutely adored, said something in
my ear when the other judges had finished and Carrie
(32:30):
Anne was being complimentary and I wasn't looking at Simone.
I was looking at Carrie Anne, and Ashley went, gee,
Carrie Anne is being really complimentary, but Simone's not even smiling.
So instead of saying it like my way, which would be,
I noticed, Simone, you had some different reactions to the judges.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
How did you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's where I would For some reason, ashley last phrase
stuck in my head and I said, so, Simone, I
noticed you weren't smiling when Carrie and what woman wants
to hear a guy say hey, babe, come on, smile,
you know, just smiling, you know exactly, yeah, exactly, And
(33:18):
the moment it came out of her mouth, I went,
oh shit, oh damn it. And she was brilliant, without
missing a beat, she said, smiling doesn't win gold medals.
The audience went nuts, and I knew I had, you know,
a major omelet just dripping down my faith. So just
(33:40):
to show the humor part though, Simone had a shirt
made called and it said smiling doesn't win gold medals.
And a few days later the two of us posed,
She's wearing the shirt looking at me, and I'm looking
very sheepish. I'm you know, yeah, but it was kind
of making lemonade out of lemmons. But it was one
(34:01):
of those moments that also it was you know, just
make sure before you open your mouth that your brain
has engaged at least a little so that you put
it in your own words, because you know, I'm a.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Dad of two daughters.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know how much fun it is when a guy yells, hey, baby, smile.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Yeah, you know, but you know, also you're doing a
live television show. She was gracious, so everyone was very
kind to one another, which you know when you're with professionals.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
But that was sort of like one of those moments
where you realize, okay, it is a high wire and
I'm doing okay on a percentage basis, but every so
often shit's going to go down. You know, you're going
to say something the wrong way. Or it'll be perceived
the wrong way. You know, just minor stuff, but it.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Also goes to show you that, you know, what you
said really good advice that I need to take because
I tend to fill the dead air. That's the problem
of people from radio, is right. You can't have dead air.
That's like suicide on air. You know, you have to
keep it moving along. But a lot of times you
just open mouth and sart foot unintentionally because you're filling
the dead air.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I did. I did a mime performance on the radio
show in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
What and uh?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
And I would it would just it was like subtle
sound effects.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I would say, all right, now I'm going to walk
against the wind and.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
You and I would go silent and you just hear.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Tom.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
I was just gonna say, you did a mime show
on the radio, how does that work?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Well?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
You know, back in the old days of radio, Edgar
Bergen was a famous ventriloquist on the radio. And then
when he got to tell it, I was Candas Bergen's dad,
and yeah, when he got to TV you could see
his lips.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Move and you really it wasn't really very good.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
It was better on the radio.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Better on the radio Funny.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Yeah, you've worked with legendary comedians and personalities in Hollywood Squares. Also,
the last time I interviewed you was when you and
Whoope were on the Hollywood Squares and you just won
your first Emmy.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
I want to.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Say, what's the best piece of comedic advice? And I
think I may have even asked you this on the
stage there, or you know, wisdom that you've picked up
from your guests or any of your co hosts, or
even things that were handed down to you through sage
advice from people in your travels.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Well, you know, I don't. This was Hollywood Squares.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
It triggered that the first couple days we were shooting,
because we would do if you remember, we would do
five in a day, right.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, Saturday Sunday.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
You do ten shows Saturday Sunday, right with the five
shows each day. And when I think the first couple
days we started back in nineteen ninety eight, I just
I was like a kid in a candy store because
I've got nine celebrities, you know, many of whom I'm
a fan of, like Carol you mentioned Carol Burnett, Carroll
(37:07):
was there, Harvey Korman and Tim you know, of course
Whoopee and Gilbert Gottfried and all these wonderful talents, and
I was having a ball and during the meal break,
Michael King, because the King brothers produced at Michael and
Roger King.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
They're both gone now, I believe, but.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
King World, Yeah, King World, Yah, King World, which then
CBS bot and all that. But Michael came up to
me and said, Tom, we're loving what you're doing. It's
going great. But I just I just need to remind
you it's not a talk show. It's the contestants want
to win stuff. And I realized I was getting so in.
(37:51):
I was enjoying the back and forth so much with
the stars that I was kind of neglecting the contestants,
and so once I kind of made that little shift
and made it about them and taking care of them.
In the same way on the dancing show years later,
I would make my focus taking care of the couples.
(38:12):
So if the judges were too hard and the dance
didn't go well, you know, I try to lighten the
burden a bit. But once I got into that mindset,
oh right, I want to help them win stuff, then
I kept my potterer quicker and the tempo changed. But
and that was a case of you know, especially a
(38:33):
show like that, the comedy's best when it's moving fast.
You know, it's moving a little quicker. Yeah, because it
was interesting. When Robin Williams was on Hollywood Squares with us,
he didn't get called on a lot, which I thought
was how can you not want to call on Robin Williams?
And the producer said to me after, because they want
(38:54):
to win things and they think Robin's going to go
off on a tangent.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
But that's the best part.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's well, it's the best part for us, but not
if you want to go home with a new car.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
If you want to go home.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
With a new car, you don't want to see Nanu
for five minutes, you know, I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It was just fascinating to get into that kind of
rhythm of but and again another tangential story but when
But it speaks to having a sense of humor, certainly
in this business. Whoopy and I were at Nappy, the
convention for syndicated television shows, just prior to Hollywood Squares
launching in ninety eight, and I had never experienced anything
(39:37):
at that level.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
You know, just a.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Massive photographers and reporters and flash bulbs going off, and
Whoopy was always so so protective of me really, So
at one point Robert Townsend, the actor, producer director who's
a friend of Whoopy's, came over to say hi. And
(40:02):
I knew that they'd want pictures of the two of them,
Whoopy and Robert Townsend together, So I start to get up,
and Whoopee grabs my arm and she goes, where are
you going? And I said, well, they want pictures of you,
and sit your ass down, so you know, so I'm
sitting there and the photographer, probably no more than five
(40:23):
feet away from me to my right, turns to the
other photographers, and to be honest, I love this the
moment it happened.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
He went, don't worry, I can cut out the white guy.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Oh no, oh my.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
God, And I thought, and for me, for my sense
of humor, I thought that was hilarious because it is.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Would be saying did she hear it too?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I think she was talking to Robert at that point
they were catching up, so I didn't.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
She didn't really respond to it.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
And it's only because I saw him turn and I
heard him say it, and he wasn't really, I mean,
he wasn't being careful about volume.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
I don't worry. I can cut out the white guy.
Oh my, but I love stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
One of my favorite headlines I spoke at my niece's
senior chapel when she was graduating from high school, and
the local paper in my hometown covered it, and the
headline was based on what one of the students had
said to the reporter. The headline was that I have
this in the book too. Bergeron not as boring as expected.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah, not as boring as expected.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Wow, I have two things that just popped into my
head and I'm not like we just talked about it.
I don't want to make this show isn't about me,
but but we're so connected.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
I have to share this with you.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
First of all, my first experience on a red carpet
was with Whoopy Goldberg and I had a crazy experience
with Tony Danza went out before me.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I didn't know what to do. I don't know how
to stand or anything.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
And I went over to They wanted me to take
a picture with him, and he was like, no, I
can't take a picture with you, and he ran off
and I was just standing there for all the cameras snapping,
and I didn't I didn't know how to hold my
I didn't know what to do, and I just sort
of walked off, like shocked. And I remember WHOOPI was like,
what happened? I said, I don't know, And I found
out later. I guess he and his wife were having
(42:27):
a thing and he didn't want to be pictured with
other women. Oh okay, So I had no idea, but
it was crazy. That was one weird thing. And well,
you're so gracious because you wanted to move and let
Whoopee have that spotlight. And I want to explain another
gracious side of Tom bergeron. So this technically is not
(42:48):
about me, but it is, but it's really about you.
When I came to interview you with the Hollywood Squares,
it was nineteen ninety nine and the radio station in
Boston that I worked for was having a huge two
day concert every year was called Mixfest, and that was
the year they sent I was working for BZ Channel
four as filling in for Joyce Cool Heywick, oh okay,
and they sent me to cover you, my idol in television.
(43:11):
So I was like, hell, yeah, I'm going to go
out there and do that. So I brought my two
best friends with me and I went out to interview you,
and I also had to play the show.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
So now I know why I lost, because you were
more interested in the comedians and helping me win.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Most of the time.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
I was like this.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
I went home and my boyfriend at the time, he said,
you know, I saw your neck a lot because I
kept losing, Like oh, but then I had to interview you,
and then I had to do the whole piece for
Channel four. And you allowed me to on the Carol
Burnett stage of course, go up into the squares, but
you didn't release the audience or anything. So I had
(43:52):
to do the whole thing in between you taping your shows.
And You're just you were so gracious when I was there.
You were just wonderful and gracious and kind, and you
gave me some amazing advice because all I wanted to
do was show you my demo tape for hosting television
and get your advice, and you look and you did.
(44:13):
After the show, you watched it and you gave me
advice on something that I will never forget. And it
was like, this is the best piece of advice I
could give you is Lynn, when you go off to
work and do what you do, just remember you always
want to have the fuck you fund.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Yes, yes, yes, And.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
That's I've told I've passed that story along to so
many people. You know, you you seek to do and
be successful, but then what do you do when you
are successful at something? You have to manage yourself and
take and protect it so that if you get a
job and you hate the guy that you're producing the show,
you could say fuck you.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
And walk because you've got You've saved your money.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
That's right, and you were smart with it, and I
thought that was such amazing advice, So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
I remember actually Willard Scott and I having a conversation
about that backstage. He was on people are talking with
me and he was for those of you who don't
know the name, he was the weather man on the
Today Show for years, and he had this thing where
he would honor people at their hundredth birthday with Smuckers
(45:23):
as the sponsor Smuckers with a name like Smuckers, it damn.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Will better be good.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
Yeah, Oh my god, I was such geeks.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Okay, I no seriously.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
But Willard and I were talking about that off camera
the the you know, I don't know how we got
on it, but he was going, oh, yeah, you gotta
have a fuck you fun. Yeah, because inevitably it happens
in any career in entertainment. You know, if you're writing
code for computer whatever, you're going to run up against
people that you're going to have to look in the
(45:58):
mirror and go, Okay, do I just keep owning this
every day? This misery is not in my stomach that's
growing into a potential tumor, or looking at my i've
got some money to float myself for six months or whatever,
my little fuck you fun. That's when you go fuck you.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
No, you know, I haven't been able to do that
yet though, by the way, Tom, I haven't been able.
I haven't been able to say that to anyone because
I've been fortunate to love all my jobs that I've had.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Well, that's the goal is not you know, it's like anything.
It's like I'm sure every every law enforcement person who
has a gun in their holster would prefer not to
have to use it, but they know it's there, and yeah, exactly. Yeah,
So I think there have only been a couple of
occasions where I had to use it, and not always
(46:52):
in sort of an adversarial way, sometimes like when people
are talking. Was canceled and they asked me to do
interviews during the new news hour. And we had two
young kids. The girls were both really young at that point,
and suddenly I went from making this kind of money
(47:13):
to making that kind of money. And they offered me
the morning anchor job on the morning news at Channel four.
And I remember we were visiting Lois's parents' parents in
Florida with the girls, who were probably I don't know,
maybe three and one at that point, and I turned
(47:35):
it down, and I remember my late mother in law,
whom I adored, saying, really, you're not gonna I said,
you know what, Dot, We've put money aside for just
this kind of situation. I don't have the kind of
work I want. What's being offered could take care of
(47:55):
the money problem, but it wouldn't take care of the
me problem.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
To sleep at night.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
You get to feel a little bit that because I'm
used to getting up for early morning radio shows and
TV shows and would go on to do a show
on FX. It was on in the morning and fill
in on Good Morning America and the early show and
get up at three thirty and four. That wasn't the issue.
It was do I want to become a news anchor?
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yes, that's because it's and I knew it was wrong
for me. I just knew it was.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
It would be a creative death, you know, And so
that was that was sort of a genteel fuck you.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
I wasn't well, you didn't have to. There was no anger.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I was gracious and appreciative that they made the offer,
but I just knew it wasn't the right thing. And
we had enough of a buttress that I could kind
of go out and you know, ended up filling in
for a week on another FM station in town, and
that led to me being hired by Magic to do
the morning show for about nine months before I ended
(49:01):
up going to New York for FX.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
Yeah, before you're like, I have to get out of
this town because this girl named Lynn is stalking me.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
No, no, seriously, I'd be a reason to stick around.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
Frank, No, seriously, I really I remember one time. I
shall probably tell you after the show, but I did.
I did wait in the lobby of a hotel to
ask you questions about hosting. I was that person I
went to like clubs where the DJs were playing that
I wasn't even old enough to go in, and I
would sneak in and in between something, I would be like,
how did you get this job?
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Where do I need to go to school?
Speaker 3 (49:35):
That's no different than me calling Larry and Moe.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's the same thing. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
It's like, who's gonna Who's going to advocate for me
if I don't and nobody, nobody exactly, So you know,
we have to be our best advocate.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
And like you were saying, what's the worst it gonna happen?
You know, somebody says, no, I or Tony Danzer runs away.
There are worse things that can happen. Tony Dams are
running away from Yes.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
I mean as much as I was embarrassed with egg
on my face, like you I you know you.
Speaker 3 (50:06):
Well right like this, we got him back for you,
Oh you did.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
He was scheduled to appear on the morning show that
I co hosted on FX called Breakfast Time, right and
we find and that was a live show. We find
out that morning and we have a good chunk of
the show format designated for Tony. We got a call,
he's not coming, what he won't be there? He cancels how.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Much time before the taping?
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Well, it's live. It was like, you know, fifteen minutes,
twenty minutes. We get a call. So we had a
couple of sisters on Joan and Lydia WiLAN who did
herbal and home health cares to cures and things. So,
being the kind of show that it was where we
(50:53):
wouldn't take shit like that lightly, we hired an ambulette,
an ambulet, a small ambulance, put Joan and Lydia and
a cameraman in the ambulet drove, had them drive to
Tony's hotel and they found him working out in the gym.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
No.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
And so just a little payback for Tony, thank you.
Joan and Lydia confront Tony with the cameraman. We're from
Breakfast Time on FX and you canceled and we find
you here in the gym, and he's like, oh shit,
he's saying, well, to be honest, I had the cocktail flu.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Oh he was hungover.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
He was hungover. Oh that's funny, and we and we ran.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
They come running back with the video, which he he
was cool with us running to his credit, But we
completely outed Tony Danza on the show. But that was
the way that show worked. Everything became a potential for material.
Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, But see this. That was the other
thing I wanted to tell you. When I was interviewed
you at Hollywood Squares, I had to send that JumboTron
thing back. Sorry, getting back to that story, which I
forgot because we have so many side notes. And I said, Tom,
it's seven o'clock in the morning. We're at the w
Hotel in Westwood. I had to interview you, Gilbert Godfried
(52:17):
and one other lovely person who I oh, gosh, yeah,
And I said, Tom, I know you're from Boston. You
know can you will you help me out? I got
to do a video to send back for the JumboTron
for Mixfest. Sorry, now I'm connecting this story originally, Thank you?
And you said why, yes, I have an idea, And
I said what, And you said, let's grab the camera
(52:39):
crew and let's grab Gilbert.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
Gilbert, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Come over?
Speaker 4 (52:43):
And I had my friends with me and it was
you and me and Gilbert Gottfried at seven thirty in
the morning at the w with a full camera crew
and we went down to the pool after they struck
the set and you and I'm like, what are we
going to do?
Speaker 1 (52:57):
And you said, let's improvise.
Speaker 4 (52:58):
And remember you were giving me a like a shoulder massage,
like yes, Lynn, would you like some coffee? And I
was on vacation with Gilbert and I had a mic
on and He's like, it was the most incredible time.
So again, I can't tell you how important it is
to go for things and try things and not to
be afraid of things.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
But also exactly, yeah, exactly do you still have that?
Speaker 3 (53:22):
I would love to see that if you do.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
That was actually one of my friend had one of
the earliest digital cameras at that time, because this was
ninety nine, you know, the turn of the century as
old folks went through. So but yeah, I was in
my demo tape for quite a while. I went home
and I was like, we're adding this right now.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
To my demo tape.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Oh, I'd love to see that again. Gilbert was such
a sweetheart. He was loved him.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, he because he at that time I was we
would stay at what was then the what was it
became the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, but the Parkaya
it was the part Archaiat, and so all of us
from the East Coast would be put up at the
Park Kayat for the weekends that we'd shoot, and Gilbert
(54:08):
was always there. And like, I'd get back to my
hotel room and we had agreed to meet for drinks
or dinner or whatever, and the phone rings in my
room and I answer it.
Speaker 3 (54:20):
Hello, Hey, Tom, it's Gilbert. Who it's Gilbert?
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Because that voice, you know, he'd put it, it's sort
of like Bruno on the Dancing Show, that's his personality,
but he amps it up.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yes, yes, well Gilbert was like that too.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Gilbert was really just sort of almost a quiet soul
with a cerbic sense of humor.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
But that voice, when he turned the voice on, it
was amazing.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
You know it was you kind of looked like him too,
with that face.
Speaker 3 (54:50):
You got it like you're trying to pass a stone. Yeah, yes,
Oh that's gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
That was one of my i'd say, probably highlights of
my life.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
But isn't it fun to do stuff like that, to say, Okay,
let's let's make something.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Let's yes, no one believing me. You made him do that.
It was all his ideas. Tom Tom is the one
who's gonna say no to him. The camera crews like, uh,
can I just go home and go to bed at
seven o'clock in the morning, you know, and you had
to tape like five shows later that day.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
I had to come to this.
Speaker 4 (55:25):
Oh my gosh, Well, I don't want to take up
much more of your time, although I secretly do. I
could talk to you for hours and maybe you'll come
and we'll have a part deal. I would love to,
yeah here, but I would love to know if, if,
if you could host any show, real or imagined.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
With anyone from today or past.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Oh, that's such a good.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
That would use comedy to help people. What would that
look like?
Speaker 2 (55:53):
It would be me interviewing Steve Allen, Jack Parr, and
Johnny Carson.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
That sounds fabulous, and it would be.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
All about the genesis of the Tonight Show and their
own particular styles, three very different comedic personalities. Steve Allen
was is sort of more analogous to Letterman. I think
Parr was sort of his own breed. You never knew
(56:25):
where he was, which how he was going to be
on any given night. He walked off the show at
one point because NBC censored a joke and he absolutely
he had a fuck.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
You find that he wished and they got him back,
you know, finally.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
But and then Carson, who was so influenced by Jack
Benny and Oliver Hardy, and you know, a lot of
Carson's slow takes are really homages to the people that
he grew up loving. So to be able to you know,
those three people. Steve I actually interviewed in Boss, so
(57:01):
he was wonderful. And Carson I never met, but I
was friends with Carl Reiner, who was friends with Johnny
and I also worked with Ed McMahon on the Muscular Distript.
He telethon and would pick his brain all the time
about Carson. But to be able to sit like one
of my favorite lunch times at Hollywood Squares, and you're right,
we could just keep going for another hour.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Oh, I have so much more. I'm going to run
out of batteries on my iPad.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
There were four of us sitting talking together having lunch.
It was me, Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway,
just the four of us.
Speaker 1 (57:39):
I wanted to marry Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. By
the way, when I was kid.
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Oh yeah, well them, Yeah, I get it. And I
said to Carol, I said, wasn't there half a season, Harvey?
Right after you left the show? Dick Van Dyke came
on for like half a season. And Carol said, yeah,
you know, we're friends. We did a show on Broadway
years ago and it just it just didn't work. It
just didn't work. And Harvey goes, you needed a jew.
Speaker 3 (58:09):
That's it. Secret sauce, secret sauce.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
T yeah, and the other Another quick story, Tim Conway
and his granddaughter. I'm getting ready to do Dancing with
the Stars Live show. Knock on my dressing room door.
It's Tim and his granddaughter and he's brought her to
the show and we chat and catch up a little bit,
and he's sitting in an aisle seat right where I walked,
(58:34):
Like during a commercial. I'd go up and just confer
with the producers and everybody and make sure we're all
on the same page, and then I'd get there. All right, Tom,
we're twenty seconds away. Get back to my mark, get
Ready Live TV. But all I wanted to do was
make Tim Conway laugh, right, so I get the word
all right, twenty seconds and you know his old man
(58:56):
walk where he would do that kind of thing right,
the feet barely move, but his arms are going. So
I started doing that old man walk right by Tim
while the stage manager's freaking out that we're about to
go live, and like now ten seconds and Tim breaks
up laughing, and I went, good, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
Now good.
Speaker 4 (59:14):
You can retire. If you made Tim Conway left forget it?
Speaker 3 (59:17):
Yeah, done, that was it.
Speaker 1 (59:19):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (59:20):
Oh you got to work with such amazing legends. And
you know, time is, you know, things are so different now,
and I wish the people today could have seen our
world of television and comedy of the past.
Speaker 3 (59:33):
Yeah, because I got one more all right, one more.
Speaker 1 (59:36):
Story, all right, I had eight percent left. I just
want to let you know. So this goes off.
Speaker 3 (59:41):
It's like Sherlock Holmes the seven percent solution.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
So I'm out a lunch with Carl Reiner and his
daughter Annie, and Carl tells me Steve is coming to
lunch for a little bit. He's shooting Steve Martin right,
And my goal then is I got to make Steve
Martin laugh just once. So Steve sits next to me.
We're all getting together Annie, who's a lovely poet and
(01:00:05):
therapist and all this. But she goes off on this
monologue talking and I think she's just trying to impress Steve.
She's talking about Picasso and Nietzsche and Einstein and dropping
all these names, this labyrinth of a monologue, and she
finally takes a breath and I said, and how do.
Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
They know Kevin Bacon.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Six degrees?
Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
And Steve broke up laughing and went, I'm good. I'm out.
Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
Steve Martin too, Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah wow.
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Well do you know Carol Burnett? Because she is literally
the reason for a living for me. I'm just absolutely good.
Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I think I might have to call her, you know,
because that's how it works, right, You just pick up
the phone.
Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Just call her up and tell her I told you to. Okay, because,
as you know, we shot the show the same stage
they did the Carol Burnett Show.
Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Oh that didn't go over me.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Yeah right, So during one of the tapings on air,
I said, so, Carol, you like what we've done with
the place, and she went, no.
Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
And where's the Bob Mackie drapes?
Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
Yes, yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
But to be able to be, and I don't think
unless you're really full of yourself, you never lose that
young fan, you know. I mean, there's still in me
whenever those things were happening with Steve or Tim or
you know, Carr will be It's so much of me
is still that kid from Haveral, Massachusetts who's pinching himself.
(01:01:39):
You know that I get to play in this playground
with these people whom I admire so much, And that's
that's the real apart from you know, any other fuck
you fun.
Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
That's that's a pretty sizable one too.
Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
It is.
Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
And then you get to get paid for having that
much fun, which always blew me away when I would
get a check every couple of weeks and I'd be like, wait,
oh yeah, I get paid to do this. It's so
much fun. I've never even thought about it. But that
was another piece of advice. You know, do what you
love and the money will come. Don't follow the money,
don't chase money, chase happiness and positivity and things that
(01:02:15):
you enjoy. Yeah, yeah, that's why you can't retire. Tom Bergeron.
Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
I will refuse to say this. I can't talk about
it yet.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
I might be able to tell you about it, okay,
off my off camera, but I was lured back to
hosting something.
Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
It's a one.
Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Off okay, how exciting.
Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
And it is hilarious.
Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Oh my god, is it gonna mean network streamer?
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
It's going to be on a cable network, okay, And
and it'll air in July. And I think when when
people hear what it is, they'll go, oh.
Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Oh my god, I've got goosebumps. You still do that
to meet Tom?
Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Well, I will when we're when we're done with the podcast, okay,
And now if you can listen or watch anymore, I'm
going to let then know what it is.
Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Okay, Well, then I guess we have to end it here,
But how about to be continued, because then you'll have
to come back and talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
This new one off show.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Yes, yes, and some other things.
Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
That we didn't get to that were hilarious, like.
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
All right, so this is only part one, okay, Part one?
Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Tom bergeron thank you for being on Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
It has been such a thrill and an honor and
it just warms my heart to be able to talk
to you again.
Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It's going to make me cry.
Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
It's great to see you again. It really is
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