Bonnie Hunt

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, hello, David, you had me at hello.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
See that's good for you to say, because that's from
a movie called Jerry McGuire that our guest today is
a featured star in.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
She is so great in that movie. But I guess
she's so great in everything she's said.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
And everything she's especially great in life. Yes, not only
is she a fantastic actress, hilariously funny. You've loved her
in Jumanji, The Green Mile rain Man, the movie you
just mentioned, Jerry McGuire, Beethoven one and two, so many things.
She's a producer, she's a director, she's a writer, she's

(00:44):
a great improviser. She was a talk show host.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
And she's a nurse. Come on, she's a saint.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Ladies and gentlemen, Bonnie Hunt.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought,
jokes on tap, talking with our mouthsful, having fun with
a piece of cake and humble pies, serving up slice love,
leave the dressing on the side. It's naked lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Clothing optional.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So today's lunch, people, is from Lorenzo, which is in
Beverly Hills. They make beautiful sandwiches and sounds. Literally the
size of this tuna semon. Come on, oh my, isn't
that lovely?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
We go sailing on that.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
You want a piece.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Which you got a change into a Chicago You want
a piece of me? No, but thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Okay, David?

Speaker 4 (01:49):
That's beautiful. Everything they make is beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, them before, Yes, I love them.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I think some of the best sandwiches in LA.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Don't you agree? Yes, that's why I gotta sound uh I.
I first of all, let's thank yes Brad Paisley because
I think, uh come on, yeah, he was a theme
song and today I I sort of begged him to
reach out to you, and he made it happen. So

(02:19):
let's hear it from Brad.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I could have made this happen.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Well, that was so funny. Whenbrego's can I give them
your contact information?

Speaker 5 (02:25):
I thought, Phil, she's.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Been here for a movie night.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I yeah, but but did you ask run the projector
for her? It still took me to ask Brad she
made she made me put in a bathroom just for her.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
It's exactly right. I like my privacy.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
As big a fan as I I have been of years,
I sort of had forgotten that you were a nurse.
Uh No, I've been a fan forever, but I didn't
remember it.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
I used to love your work.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Uh, but I was just I just spent like a
week sitting in a hospital dealing with oncology nurses like
and are you okay? I'm fine. It wasn't me.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
It was for sorry, for.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
A close relative who I was just trying to be
supportive of and be there. But I had a political
social revelation, which is like because it was in the
middle of all the political craziness right now, and I
was like looking around at these nurses at the oncology
you know M d Anderson an amazing hospital, yes, and
seeing all these nurses, different races, different ages, probably different politics,

(03:30):
and all of them were just nice and trying to
help people, and it maybe realize we just need to
nurse our society back to hell.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
True, you know, And I've never fully left. I'm a
patient advocate. I'm a volunteer patient advocate. I'm in the
hospital every week and it's a big part of my life.
It never I never fully left my nursing background.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, you were actually a nurse when you ended up
in Rainman? Is that the real story?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yes, I auditioned for that on my lunch hour I
was like, all my patients are like love story.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
How did that happen?

Speaker 4 (04:02):
I saw it listed as an audition and I could
never get an agent. But I was a nurse. I
was working in the cancer word at Oncology and at
Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. And so I said to my boss,
I said, Steve Rosen, who was still one of my
best friends, I'm going to run, you know, this audition.
So I might need fifteen more minutes, you know. Actually

(04:24):
I don't know if I'm going to be I don't
know if there's be a long line because it's cattle call,
you know, where they just anybody can come. So I
went and it was, you know, a hallway full of
girls auditioning for this waitress role. I didn't know who
was in the movie or anything, and I knew it
was Barry Levinson, you know, I already was a fan.
And I went in and there was a clean xbox

(04:49):
on the table and I took up Kleenex and put
it at my head and the girl goes, what's that.
I go, well, no, waitresses don't say where stuff on
their head. She's like okay, and I, oh, well, I
just lost this because she's or something, and I did
the scene and I went back and told my patients
about you know, I mean, I love my patients so much.
I mean they were my whole life. I was single,

(05:10):
I had a little apartment and a dog, and my
patients were my whole life. I mean this was during
the AIDS crisis and all that stuff. So they were
all cheering me on. And then I get a phone
call a couple days later that I've got this part.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh you do it, no even callbacks, you just nailed it.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
They just gave it to me.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Wow, they gave it to me.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
I still can't believe it. And I had to ask
for three days off from the hospital because I had
to go film in Cincinnati. So I got three days
off and it was I get there. I don't know
who I'm in the scene with. I have the size
for the scene. There's a little scene and they're like, okay,
so Dustin and Tom are gonna be ready. I'm like,

(05:56):
you know, I thought I was like walking through a
scene with a tray or Dustin Bernstein in Ver exactly exactly.
Bob Gooley, Yeah, so I you know, it was amazing,
And I'm talking Dustin Hoffman telling him that I was
a nurse and I got three days off, you know,
and then I'm working at Second City at night and

(06:17):
stuff like that. And uh, he says, I said, oh,
you know my parents, I mean my mom and my
sister's already so excited. My father had already passed away.
And so he says, oh, so does your mom work?
And I said, oh, yeah, you were at Shiner's hospital.
So I leave the set for something.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
They they changed my whole look. I had my hair down,
and they're like no, and Bear Levinson's like no, Tom
Cruise's character would pick her up.

Speaker 6 (06:41):
We gotta make her a little more dowdy. Yeah, And
I was like, well, that's what I did today, just
for you. I tried to downplay the raw sensuality.

Speaker 7 (06:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
So I you know, they went and changed the way
I looked normally as I was.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
They had a really worse on a tract.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
That's right, you had too much chemistry with me.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
They called him like three makeup artists to do the work.
I was in prosthetics.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
How many people died as a result of you abandoning
your post be an actress?

Speaker 4 (07:15):
No, no, no, no. But anyway, when I was a
legit lunch hour. When I came back to the set,
Dustin's on a mobile phone. At the time, it was
like his biggest sent right. So he's holding this boone
box next to he said, and he's talking, and he
had called Chiner's Hospital, asked for my mother, then asked,

(07:38):
He said, I'm in a Bonnie Hunt movie and I'd
like to talk to Alice. Hunt calls my mom and
he invites her and asks her boss to give her
a couple days off to come to Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yes, what a sweety pie. And then she came. Yes,
and then he was sweet to her and great.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
And my sisters.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes, this is the best story I ever heard, I know,
except for the twenty five dead people at the other
hospital that you left to go Phil. They were my No,
I'm kidding, because I loved the kid about stuff like this.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Of course, didn't you do a whole tour on death?

Speaker 1 (08:12):
I did?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Oh, So, anyway, would you say you're a better nurse
or a better actress?

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Hopefully I'm a better nurse.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
How much acting is involved in nursing? Oh, you're gonna
be fine.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh yes, yes, I remember one time I went into
a patient's room and I didn't. The whole family was
there all the time. I almost said his name, like
say his name, But the whole family was there all
the time, and they were beautiful and I loved them
very much. And I went in and they were all
sitting around the bed and stuff. And I went in

(08:48):
just to I had just gotten in starting my ship.
So I walked in. It's like six thirty in the morning,
and I walk over and I see them in the room.
So I went to say hello to the family. And
I went over to say hello to him, and I
touched him, and I knew immediately when I touched him
that he was gone. And I thought, oh my god,
they don't know. They're all sitting in here.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
So I said, oh, I'll be right back. And I
said to his name, mister so and So, and I said,
excuse me, and I walked out and I went to
their station. I went to doctor Keith and I said,
mister so and So, you know, I think he's gone,
and the whole family's in there, and I didn't want
to say anything, and he goes, yeah, yeah, he's that's

(09:29):
why they're all here. And I said, I was just
in there talking to him. He goes, oh my god,
it's a miracle.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
So they're probably looking at each other like.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Bonnie, Yeah, oh my god, that's great. I know. But
you know, there was never I mean, they were filming
nothing in common at my hospital and a movie.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
I am obsessed with him. I heard you met Gleason,
met Gleeson.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
So I say to my patients, Okay, they're filming a movie.
This is I've never seen a movie filmed, right. So
I said, I'm going to go down. And they're on
the bridge where you know, there's this bridge that we
all took that connected the different hospital buildings. They're filming there. Okay,
So I have my twenty minute break and I run
down and I'm in my lab coat and Jackie Leeson

(10:17):
sitting in a wheelchair in the hallway, and Tom's getting
touched up, and I'm.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Like, different, Tom, We've gotten Hanks and crews in the
first Unbrievable.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
But you have to understand, I'm looking at Tom Hanks,
Oh my god, the guy from Bosom Buddies.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
I'm just like, oh, there he is. But Jackie Leeson
is Jackie Leeson. And you know, my dad died when
I was eighteen so, and my dad made me go
to nursing school because I shouldn't say made me encourage me.
And you know, here I am a nurse and there's
this one of my dad's you know, great loves, Jackie Leeson,
that we would watch The Honeymooners, and we watched the

(10:51):
Gleast and show anything, every rerun, every We knew everything
about him, all his movies. And I'm looking at Jake
Leeson and he all of a sudden he our eyes
connect and he goes, are you an actor or a nurse?
Said I'm both, but I'm not acting right now. I'm

(11:12):
on my break. And I said, oh, mister Gleeson, I
could I It was like I was meeting I don't know.
I just wanted to turn to my dad and go, Dad, look,
you know, he recurged me to be a nurse. I'm
standing here with Jon, you know, and he just started
talking to me for like two minutes, but it seemed
like an amazing eternity of greatness. And he said, oh,

(11:33):
I'm going to be at the Maroon Raccoon tonight. I'm
going to be conducting the band.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
You should come the Maroon ra.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Oh my gosh, I said, I'm going, I'm going to
be at the lodge, and so.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
That was me.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
So I go back to the floor and I have
these three patients room. They're doing like these painting things,
you know, because it was oncology floor, so we were
always doing things to encourage get your mind off your fears,
which was the great part of entertainment I found because
I would bring my VCR, I would bring the player
in and tapes to show patients movies because in that

(12:10):
moment of what we do that's so powerful is they
would forget all their fears and just for a moment,
you could see how powerful wonderful storytelling is. I remember
I would look at the TV and look at the patient,
and I even when I would look at my dad
when I was a kid and look at the TV
and see him forget. He's got all these responsibilities, seven children,

(12:31):
his brother, my grandma, all depending on him.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
And when it happens to us, yeah, we know how
it's done.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
That's right. It's it's so powerful. It's medicinal and healing
and wonderful. So so I tell these patients, they said,
did you meet Tom Hanks? I said, no, he was
right there, but I was too, I said, Jaie Gleeson,
I tell him most story.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
One of my patients says, oh, you know, when I
get to have an I'll tell God to put you
in a movie with Tom Hanks. I said, oh, well,
I think God's got more important.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Things to do.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
But then, you know, years later, I get the Green
Mile and I'm on the set and I'm playing Tom
Hanks's wife, and I'm just thinking this is I have
a lot of guardian angels. You do, my dad the
first and now recently my mom, but all those patients,
you know, and so I take what I do really personally,
like my my professional career. That's why I'm when there's

(13:19):
a long time between when I do stuff, because I
wait for the right you know, something that feels like
it might bring joy or something that who.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Wouldn't want bond to be there? Nurse, you're the sweetest, greatest,
I mean, you're just just the way you are in
life is so beautiful and lovely. It's true.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Oh that's very much why I love you.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Oh thanks, you're starting with rain Man to be you know,
to have that be your first.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
I was done? What do you think I was done? Well,
there's like I've got a videotape for when I'm in
the nursing home. I can say, you know, one time
I was on the scene, and because I worked at
a nursing home through high school, so I would people
would share their stories. And I was already thinking of
my stories at fifteen fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old, you know,
as a volunteer, and my mom was always putting us
to do that stuff, and I think about it all

(14:06):
the time.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
You're right, ray Man, Well cons Meryl Streep's ex boyfriend
who he made three movies and their Raging Bull. What
is this? It's an unbelievable godfather Raging Bull and Deer
Hunter right there.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, but what has he done lately?

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Very very little, But I guess And by the way,
I'm going to do this now and fil can be
mad at me. We have a guest surprise question. This
is David because of your Tom because you already mentioned
Tom Cruise. This is a question.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
I did two movies with Tom, Yes, the.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Other one this is a question from Cameron Crowe, who
I wrote yesterday, and this is his question for you.
By the way, I think when I reached out to
Cameron to do the podcast. He never responded. When I
asked him to send a question for you, he did
it within ten seconds. Thank you for asking so kind
to me. Here's what Cameron wanted to.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
Know, and I hope this is the real Cameron.

Speaker 7 (15:07):
Hi, Bonnie, it's me Cameron Crowe, invading your conversation with
David and Phil and I just want to say Happy
August and thank you for your genius work. I've just
finished my daily appreciation session where I thank you and
the heavens for your improv Don't cry at the beginning
of a date, cry at the end like I do.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
And now I'm moving on.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
To a mysterious, hopefully compelling question to add to this conversation.
I would like to pose this to Bonnie. What about
your deep, spiritual, and often sports based friendship with the
great Eddie Vedder.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I'll hang up and listen.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
What do you want to know about Eddie? Eddie's my
my buddy. I'm gonna seem tomorrow. He is, you know,
Eddie's prolific. He's a poet. He's insightful and kind and
emotional and a Cubs fan, great artist and a Cubs fan. Yes,
we're Chicago kids, you know. And we got to experience

(16:07):
the game together. Game seven, when we won the World
Series in twenty sixteen, we were sitting right next to
each other in Cleveland, right behind home plate, and we
couldn't believe what was happening. We might as well have
been ten years old waiting outside the park for a
ball to come over the side, because that's what we
both did with our baseball mits, you know, And I mean,
I'm one of seven kids in ridley Field was we

(16:29):
grew uped off of Addison, west of Braleyfield, but we
would take that bus down there and spend our days
outside the park sometimes and sometimes inside the park, and
it was the best. And Eddie and I share that
history and that love and the nostalgia for a sweeter, gentler,
better time, and we share a love of writing, of

(16:50):
music family. He wrote a beautiful song about my mother
called entitled Alice, which we played at her memorial service,
and it was so beautiful, I mean saying that he
lives in the shade of the tall trees that she
nurtured and raised, and you know, just beautiful.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Just Eddie, just Eddie, and just an example of how
you know, like nurses to the importance of being nice
to people when I've moved here. In ninety one, I
was at visiting a woman, sus Sawyer, who was the
head of publicity at Virgin Records, and she had a
very lovely young assistant named Beth, who said, sort of shyly,
would you listen to my boyfriend's band. I have this.

(17:37):
I have this tape and it was about to come out.
It was the first Pearl Jam record and I heard
it and I said, please tell your boyfriend he's great.
He's absolutely great. So cut to within a year of this,
I think the Bob Dylan thirtieth anniversary tribute Madison Square
Garden the biggest deal, and it's George Harrison, Eric Clapton,

(17:57):
Bob Dylan, everybody is there, but the biggest deal is
that Eddie Vedder who had just become the king of
rock there and he calls me over to thank me
again for the nice words, and last time I read,
he still thanks me every time. And you realize, Okay,
it's good to be when someone asks you listen to
my boyfriend's tape.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Take the time, take them in it and listen to it.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yes, but I have to say, most of the time
it's terrible.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Phil is coming off the mean one for the first time.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
In history that Phil is the sweetheart.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
The sweetest man. Yes, isn't he hurts.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
The humor hens the humor?

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Cameron Crowe? What a difference did that role make in
your life?

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Eric Cameron was I was going through a really tough time. Well,
you know it was it was during I had a
show that I loved very much that I worked really
hard on that was being let go for reasons other
than it wasn't good or viewers.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
It was really that happens in show business.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yes, and I was really sad about it. But I
felt like doctor Bellows, I was seeing a room full
of goats that nobody else was seeing. So there was
really nothing I could do about it but say, okay,
say Levie, it's over and now but I'm now I'm
doing Jerry Maguire, which is wonderful. And Cameron, you know,
he's just where there's talent, there's no fear, and he

(19:21):
was a true collaborator. He was open on the set
kind and he could notice that something was making me
sad and he's like, is it us? Is it something
you don't like? And I mean there was just like
a compassion and empathy. But that's what makes writing so
much better, and the humor coming character driven. And he
allowed me the freedom. He gave me freedom. I mean

(19:43):
there were scenes where I wasn't even in where she's
getting into the van with Tom and we're like, well
we still have the window. She can stand and look
out the window, and I'm like, don't get in the car,
you know, and He's like, just go And it's like,
what a what a thrill for me to have somebody
trust me, to let me explore and heighten what he
he gave me as a character, because you can't do
it without the written word. This town is gone without writers.

(20:06):
And so I respect the writer so much because I
am one and I understand how much words mean to everybody.
But also I always let people explore and heighten, like
you want to take you want to do one? And
Cameron was really great that way, and so it was
Renee and Tom. Yeah, you know that was It was
so great to be with you.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
A story that I was told yesterday that how you
greeted Tom at the door in can you tell the
story of what that was?

Speaker 4 (20:33):
Well, we on the set and Tom people were calling
him Jerry because he was in the character and in
between scenes he would put his music on you he'd
get in the zone of what he was doing. And
I experienced the same thing on rain Man. He prepares
in between takes, so you kind of, you know, respect
that process, and so like, you know, he's in the
Jerry zone. And the first take of him coming to

(20:53):
the door was you know, knock, knock, knock, or ring
the doorbell and I answer it and I said, oh
my god, Dorothy Tom Cruise is at our house. Thankfully
he laughed. And I think the next one I did
the guy from Risky Business because he had the sunglasses

(21:14):
on and Tom, you know, was like ageless. It looks
just like he did.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
I went to see Risky Business like ten times when
I was a young girl, you know, having a crush.
And yeah, on Joe Pantelliano who played the pimprint.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Wasn't Jim Brooks a round a lot for Jeremyguire? Was
he on the set?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
And how how much did he influence what was happening there?
I'm just curious.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Because he's a friend and yes, I love it.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Was that was that Cameron's first movie, No, No, No, no,
oh no, no, no, he's Cameron was.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
I mean I was a fan of Cameron's. I mean
I was excited to work with him. But how much
was Jim influencing it? I don't know, because that you
know he was.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
He's very hands on and involved always right, Yeah, I
guess so.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
I mean, I haven't been directed by Jim. I've gotten clothes,
but I haven't quite made the grade.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
You know, I was directed by Jim, you were. I'm
in Spanglish. I have a small partner, oh, in Spanish.
Right before my scene, he brought me over to the monitors.
I want you to see something, and he shows me
Kirk Douglass a big scene in the movie Champion where
he's a boxer and he got the shit kicked out
of him and he's still like, like, you know, with

(22:27):
arms raised. And I watch it and okay, and he
looks at me and he goes, huh. And I have
no idea because I'm not playing a boxer. I'm a
sooux chef for Adam.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
Yes, I remember the movie. So what was his motivation that?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I have to tell you? Bonnie and Jim and I
are friends to this day. That was I don't know
twenty years ago. I've never asked him what the hell
was that, but I it certainly shook me up because
suddenly I realized I must know nothing about this part
I'm about to play on camera for the first time.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, that's terrifying, Believe me, and rain Man, I know
exactly how you felt. I mean, they're like, you're going
to hit your mark, and I said, yes, I didn't
know mark. I thought it was on your market set go,
So I ran in. When he said action, I ran
and he's like, cut, cut, What were you doing? I said, well,
I'm getting my mark. He's like, you're going to get there?
And I'm like, oh my god, that's a door?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Is it in?

Speaker 4 (23:29):
Some crew guy with a cigarette sitting on an Apple
box goes it's a piece of tape. I'm like, oh
my god, thank you. I made love to that man
that night.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Nice And if you're listening, kids, this is the way
to get ahead and show business.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
That's right. And that man was Cameron Crust.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
What from your You've done so many great things, so
many great movies that everyone knows. What has happened to
the movie business? What's going to happen? Where are we going?

Speaker 4 (24:10):
I don't know. It's it's watered down, it seems. But
I don't want to be like, oh, you know, the
old days were the better days.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I think that, but they were.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Yeah, you have to. I guess it comes to like
the stuff that I've been getting offered. You know, I'm
lucky to get offered.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
No, but they're not even making the big budget comedies
like like Beethoven's.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
But you don't need a big budget no, I know, but.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I'm saying it used to be. Those used to be
meat and potatoes for the movie business. A great big
comedy with you and Steve Martin, Yes, you and Martin
short you and that you know doing Charles Groden.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
Yes, Charles Groden and Charles Grodin came to all the
tapings of the building.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Are you serious? Okay? Any stories? Because I never met him?

Speaker 4 (24:57):
Love.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
And by the way, Elaine May, who's the Lane May's
what Elaine May? My buddy? Uh, Phil, tell the story.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
You have to understand, Phil, That's why I was so
spoiled by the time I got to Hollywood. When I
was a second city. I first got in the touring
company and they gave me all Elaine May's material, like
so much of her sketches. Oh my god, And I
was like it was and those were scenes she improvised
that later later became scripted to Go The Best of Right,
to Go on the Road for Second City. So I

(25:28):
get to LA and I started getting sent sitcom scripts
and I'm like, I was doing Elaine may material the distinks.
Oh my god, she's.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Tell me she's a genius.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Sorry, I didn't mean to Charles grod.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Oh oh oh, but that I because Heartbreak Kid to
me is, I think, the greatest movie of all times.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
So I'm like seven years old or something. My parents
go to the movies. Maybe I was even younger. I
just remember them coming home after seeing The Heartbreak Kid.
What year did The Heartbreak Kid come out? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I say seventy two.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
But I was a child, a baby, and you know,
so then those years later, I was twenty nine and
Charles Grodon was just before his sixtieth birthday that we
did Beethoven. Wow, the oldest daughter in the movie I
would have had when I was fourteen.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Oh my god. Well but thank god, I alright, Hollywood casting.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Well, but also I went in to play an ancillary
role and then I said something about the wife the
mom to Ivan Wrightman because he was just talking to me,
and I said, oh, I said, you know that mom.
I said, she's I want to make her a little smarter,
you know. And I said, my mom's brilliant, and she's
stayed home and raised seven children. She's the most brilliant

(26:42):
person I know. She could run a corporation or trauma center,
whatever put in her hands. She's got it done. And
then I and then he said, oh, well, what do
you mean? And so I came in to do some
writing on it with some other guy that I later
saw years years later at a inner party. He said, hey,
remember we did that punch up on that Beethoven script.

(27:03):
He goes the fastest five hundred thousand I ever made,
And of course it hasn't paid anything.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Holy cow.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
It's like, what, But that's okay. I learned a lot,
you know. I was just hitting in the business.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
You learn business works exactly.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
No, but it was a thrill to And then as
I'm punching up the wife.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Roll, you thought, you know, who would be good?

Speaker 4 (27:23):
I didn't you think anything like that? He I just
started reading scenes to him and then I was like
maybe and Michael Chinnich, who was the casting director. He's like,
you know, I think she can do this, and you know,
I was built like a woman, our last figure to
bed as a lay part of the hour, as Groucho
Marx would say, and you know, I believeable. I could
have three kids. And so that was I got that part,

(27:45):
you know, So that was worth doing the punch up
because I ended up getting to be with Charles Groden.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Do you have a favorite story about Gorodon? Because I
just I never met him, and then I saw the
talk show and I thought, Okay, he's slightly out of
his mind. But I think one of the greatest comedy
is comic guy I've ever seen.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I've saved every note he's ever written me. He was
so smart and so funny. I was he quirky, yes,
but I don't know. It was just I was brand
new and within a week he treated me as if
I had all the years in the business he had.

(28:22):
I would improvise something and he was keep that good.
You know. It was never oh, somebody's trying to I
mean I love when somebody's challenges me or funny and
not that I challenged him, but you know what, I mean,
it was just respect. It's such a luxury because you
know when you don't have it, you know, when you're
on a set and you're like, oh, you know this

(28:44):
is going to be hard, and you know I've been
there recently where you just go, oh, you know, just okay,
just get get it done, do your best, do the
best you can within these parameters, and you do it.
But then there's those luxury of his people like Charles Grodin,
who is a joy, a joy to work with. We laughed,
we'd go to dinner and we'd laugh or we couldn't
even eat. You know, he was great. I love wonderful

(29:06):
and I miss him.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
I love hearing that.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Is it true that you reached out to one of
like I know you got to know Carl Reiner, who
was part of the inspiration for this show because we
had so many lunches thanks to Phil with him and
he was the greatest figure ever. But since Caesar also,
did you reach out to Sid?

Speaker 4 (29:23):
I called four one one, called four one one, I
got the phone number for Sid Caesar.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
She gave me a phone number, and you called him
and talked to him. He answered the phone amazing.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
I said, Hi, mister Caesar. I'm a girl from Chicago
and I worked at this improp theater and blah blah blah,
and I was I think I was already on my
first series, and uh yeah, he said, I said, you know,
if there's any way I could take you to lunch,
and just I grew up my parents, you know, gave
me such an appreciation for you, and I love you
and yeah, and we became friends. And then we did

(29:57):
the Jonathan Winters Kennedy Center Honors together, Uh, Steve Allen,
Sid Caesar, me, Carl Reiner. I mean, it was so
crazy and I'm in the green room with these guys
and I remember I made I said something that made
Since Caesar laugh about when he did his translator bit,
and I remember thinking, oh my god. I mean I

(30:20):
remember being feeling I just made Sid Caesar chuckle at something,
and you know, life is good. Sid Caesar and I
got to meet incredible yes, and he introduced me to
Emma Jean and I got to get to know her. Oh,
I of all of us together.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
The night after we were married, we had a tiny
three day honeymoon in New York. That's all we could
afford at the moment, and we were working and they
were doing their nightclub act at the oh yeah hotel.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
What bicycle sketch and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes, she did the strip tease. Yes, yeah, the funniest
thing I've ever seen in my life, I know. And
it wasn't funny just because old lady doing strip teas.
She was hysterically.

Speaker 4 (31:01):
She was brilliant. They were both brilliant. And I worked
with Audrey Meadows too, and she told all these stories
about Sid Caesar.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
You know, wait, she would have told you about Jackie Gleeson.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
She did, but she told me about Sid Caesar. She
worked with him too, Yes, yes, yes, I didn't know that, yep, yep.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Is that where she started?

Speaker 4 (31:18):
And then I can't remember if she was mostly telling
me stories about Sid Caesar, like you know, out when
they would go off for to have a drink or something,
and then she'd always tell me about Gleeson. Of course,
I turned down designing women when Delta Burke left. They
offered me the role in designing women for more money
than I made in New Year's a Nurse to make
each week. But at the same time, the producers of

(31:42):
the Jonathan Winter series Davis Rules came to me and
Jonathan was improvising so much. They need somebody that would
improvise off of it, but bring him back to the
script around him again. So they said, you know, they
had worked with me on a series before that, and
they said, you know, we think maybe you could We
could let Jonathan improvise as long as you can and
bring it back to the storyline. I was like, well,

(32:02):
that's the greatest job anybody could ever offer me. But
it was half the money. So I told my agent
I'm going to and they said, and your mom's gonna
be played by Audrey Meadows. I'm like it was there
was no contest, and I went to meet with Linda
blood agent.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
When you tell them that too, I want to take
less money.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yes, that was not that was Yeah. I remember the
agent say pick a lane and I said, what do
you mean. He goes, you want to be a writer,
you want to be an actor, you want to be
a story I want to be a director. I said, well,
you know Sidney Pollack, who later became a mentor of mine.
I said, he does. I go, I know I'm not
Sydney Park, but you have to start someplace. And and
you know, when I did the building no one had
ever done that before, and I didn't know it. So

(32:43):
I had to go meet with the unions about writing
and starring and producing my own series. Because all the
women in television up until that point, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett,
Mary Tyler Moore, Linda Blood were Times and Diane English,
Frand Rusher. It doesn't matter who they were, they all
had their husbands as their producer of their shows. So yeah,

(33:03):
that was the That was the the beginning of that.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
You mentioned Jonathan Winters, so I.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Took that it was the best thing I ever did. Jonathan
and I were best friends.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
There's a quote that Jonathan Winters. I remember. He told you,
I think at a very emotional tough time in your life,
you I think Robin Williams suggested you call. Can you
tell me a story?

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yes, So, I'm going through my divorce and I'm very
everybody who's gone through divorce, and no was that. It's
just so sad because he was my best friend and
now you know, the marriage is over, and and it
was over a few times and he kept fighting to
keep it back, and you know, so I can always know,
like each movie, when I was going through the sadness

(33:45):
or you know, you always associate that thing. And so
I'm talking to Robin, and I only confided in a
few people. No one knew I was doing life with
Bonnie written basically writing my marriage, you know, explore and
heightening it. And so I tell Robin and then Robin says,

(34:06):
let's call Jonathan. And now Robin and Jonathan were on
my book NDS. They were my confidants, my friends. We
just had a share, we just loved each other. So
I call Robin says, let's get right. Jonathan on the call.
So we bring Jonathan in and Robinson's Jonathan. Bonnie and

(34:27):
you know, john are getting divorced and body's having a
really hard time. So I'm like kind of sniffling, and
Jonathan goes, well, what do you expect you married a
mere mortal? They don't understand us. And I don't know
what it did, but it just it just helped me.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Of course. Yeah, becau have one of the comedy gods
tell you. Yeah that right, it's kind of it's kind
of nice.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Yeah, And Jonathan stayed in my life, uh, you know,
un till he passed away.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
And those are two amazing angels to have Robin and Jonathan,
and I think I met Jonathan once, but Robin I
did get to work with a lot, and what I
think of him, I think of the kind that the
generosity of spirit with comedy, because there's a lot of
comedians who are jerks when you you know, or can
be to a lot of people unless they're in the

(35:18):
comedy pantheon. Also, Robin Leims was such an exception. I
remember because I was always doing like award shows with
him and he would literally do five minutes of jokes
just for every PA. Yes, he completely democratic. He wanted
to make everyone happy.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
He did on Geology, he didn't ever left the set,
you know, it was the time to entertain the troops basically,
and that's that's who he was. Yeah, he's Robin was
you know, very special, good friend. And Jonathan would later
after I did Davis Rules with him. It didn't last long,
the show didn't last long, but we had so much fun.
He would improvise like crazy, and I would justify whatever

(35:56):
he improvise and bring it back to the story, which
was my challenge every week, and I welcomed it and
loved it. But later I would put him on Life
with Bonnie as an author with a multiple personality disorders.
We had five books out under five different names, and
he didn't know any of the books. We made them
up and when he came to the set, I would
just pick up a book and say, tell me a

(36:17):
little bit about this, and he would take a hat
out of a bag and become that character. We had
no no plan, nothing, that just that I just said,
I said, I'll set you up as this character. And
he's like, I would love to do that. And he
got nominated for an Emmy for our show and he
was so thrilled about it, and I thought, that's why
I turned down designing Women.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yes, you got it, just a quality of life issue.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, you're right, And you know, being on collegy nurse
at a young age, it kind of puts that in perspective.
Make choices that feel right in your heart.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
That's it. That's I've lived my whole life this way,
never after I could feed myself. I never did anything
for money, never right.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
I was thinking about that because when you talk about
podcasperiences and TV, your experiences in television, I think, like,
that's why you and Phil are connected in my head,
because you both seem to like Raymond is a rare
example of a humanistic, beautiful, I think healing kind of
family show that it succeeds on that level. But all

(37:19):
of your work is sort of tied with trying to
You're still a healer in a you know, laughter, in comedy.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
There is so powerful music, you know, is so medicinal
and healing and so important.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Can you play music?

Speaker 4 (37:33):
I can, but not like my talented friends.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
So I just kind of you play an instrument.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
I do a piano and guitar.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Can you sing too, right?

Speaker 4 (37:42):
I do, but not that I'm not trained in any
of those things. That My mother was a singer, so yeah,
but her voice was perfection.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
And did you ever play professionally?

Speaker 4 (37:54):
I sang at the Tambourine Lounge in Chicago across from
the Jury Lane for about a year on the Wednesday nights,
and I went there for an open mic and then
they gave me a night wo Yeah, so that was
wonderful and many standards, you know, no I think so no, no, no, no, no,
I'm just very been, very lucky.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
That's how I feel.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
And that informs everything, doesn't it?

Speaker 4 (38:18):
And you know it's interesting, yes, And when I when
I when the show, the show that was canceled during
the Jerry Maguire when then went on to Raymond. You
know when I was working with that company, they had
never done a sitcom before, and I had you're.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Talking about David Letterman's company. Yeah, that's what, Yes, that's
where we started.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Yes, but but do you have to understand I wrote
that show, sold it had a thirteen episode commitment, and
shot the pilot before Worldwide Pants. But the way it's
written is they got me that show. But I wrote
the show, sold the show, got a thirteen episode commitment,
and filmed the pilot, and then sent the pilot to

(38:57):
Dave because they told me that I needed to get
a partner, you know, a woman by myself. And I
went to meet with Gary David Goldberg and he said,
you don't need anybody. You stick to your guns. You're fine.
Because he read a bunch of episodes and he said you,
I mean, he gave me. He was amazing. And then
I met with Carl Reiner and Carl's Reiner wrote, like

(39:22):
sixty episodes of the Dick Vandyke Show. He goes, just
do what you do? Yes, he goes, you have to
set the tone, and your material is specific, like his
materials specific. He said, I you know, I have the
writers come in and we talk about what happened with
our wives on the weekend, and that was our episode.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Yeah, so can.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
You perhaps learned a thing or two from that.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
Directly from that, but then the whole modus operandi is
that right? Of course, by the way, he wrote the
full season of Dick van Dyke before he showed it
to anybody. He thoughts, that's what you do if you
want to That's what I did.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
I sold when I wrote the building, I wrote an
entire season amazing, and you know, brought him in and
I'm only did end up doing five episodes, but still
just that, you know, we had worldwide pants in common.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
And then so you send it to Dave because you've
been on the show.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
And we became friends and you became friends.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
But then Dave's not really hands on, no, he said,
you know, he's but that the thing.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
He was honest, He's like, you'll, yeah, you can put
my name on it, but you're going to tell me
what to do. I mean, it'll only be a titular thing,
you know that that'll be it. And I said, that's fine.
It'll make them feel comfortable. I mean, especially you're David Letterman.
He was coming to CBS and my ideal was at CBS, right,
So I just remember going into tell him what my
partner was. That was so funny. What year was this

(40:33):
ninety three?

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Right?

Speaker 2 (40:35):
So we come along and was that ninety three? Yeah? Yeah,
we come along and we our dealer is in ninety
five and we get on the air in ninety six.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
Yeah. Well yeah, and I did a show in between,
then another one with Dave yes, and then yeah we
know that we don't need yeah, we need to go
to that part. But but but the uh Dave played
a part on the building too.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Is that is that available to see?

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Yes, it's on YouTube. Oh he he didn't want to see.
He didn't want his face to be seen. So I'm like, oh,
is he in an accident? He's got mummy wrap, you
know what. My brother Pat came up with the whole premise.
He said, no, he's he's you know, because I played
the good girl on the show, right, And he's robbing
a porn shop and my friend's in there getting ready
for a bachelor party. He forgot his wallet, so I

(41:18):
go in to bring my friend his wallet, and then
Dave robs a porn shop and it's on the news
because he's holding me hostage. So now it's like the
Randolph Carpet girl Bonnie Kennedy is in was in the
porn shop shopping at the time of the robber.

Speaker 8 (41:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
It's one of those sitcom thing that's really but Dave
was hilarious and we had we had our wardrobe. Lonnie Reynolds,
the talented Lonnie Reynolds hand Nit a ski mask for him.
So when he's broadcast on the air, his girlfriend calls
and says, that's the ski mask I handed him for Christmas,
so he's recognized. I mean it was. But my brother
Pat came up with the whole premise.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
If you've seen him speak publicly or on TV right
or with his new show where he interviews people, I
a gentler, kinder.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Dave, Yeah, I mean I never, I mean, we always,
we always had such a great We ever had any issues.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
But I see, like even his public persona is nicer,
and I attribute that to him having a kid.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Oh I'm sure, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
I mean that's uh, and probably not having to host every.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Night yeah, and I think that happened pretty quickly. Yes,
when when he was born. You know, I think that
that was a big change in Dave's life. I mean,
hopefully in anybody's life. I mean, I'm like that when
I get a new dog. You know, any dog straight,
always hit straight.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
We had our dogs on in a recent episode and
they were fantastic guests. We had our wives first, but
we had our dogs more recently.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
Wow, so you didn't put him in order priority?

Speaker 8 (42:48):
I guess no, exactly, no judgments?

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Are you ever in awe of I think about some
of your friends and the fact that, like, like you
start out in a Tom Cruise movie. Here we are.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
That's that Barry Levinson too, well, Darry.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Levinson, but like Tom Cruise at the time we're speaking
like I just read this morning. Oh, he's going to
sort of end the Olympics with a jumping out of
a like.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
The Hollywood sign or something like he's sixty one or two.
Be careful, right, I want.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
Him to be careful. Yes, that's you know, you don't
want anybody.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Oh my god, that's stunt with the motorcycle with the parachute.
That's the greatest thing I ever saw a human being.
I can't even believe.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Yeah, I was up for that, Barry Levinson, you know,
That's how I got my screen actors. That's I got
my sad card was rain Man and Richard kind of
loaned me the money. Oh, I want it back in
one lump sum, I said, rich can I just pay
you fifty dollars at a time? No shave the money,
I said, I'll never be able to say that much money.
I can't say one of the twelve hundred and fifty
hundred dollars whatever it was at the time, and wanted

(44:09):
one lumpshump. It was, what am I a shark? I'm
going to be meeting you in the alley for your
fifty dollars And I said.

Speaker 5 (44:14):
No, oh god, he's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Yes, oh my god. Richard and I roommates. We were roommates,
lived on de long Prey, right off of Sweet Sir.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Yeah, our manager made pornos in his apartment downstairs. Oh yeah,
I canna hear him typing, oh baby baby.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Oh is that how you meant? Think? That's all your
early originally through Richard.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Richard and I were in the same cast at Second
City on stage and then George was in town doing
a play, and then Richard met George, and that's how
I met George through Richard. And then they did The
Bennett Brothers Together, a sitcom where Richard was on a diet.
So George had the wardrobe world keep taking in. Richard's
wardrobe was an inch and he's like, I swear to god,

(44:56):
I'm starving to death and I can't rea. He also
had me call Richard once as a girl. George like,
can you do her voice?

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Like I think?

Speaker 4 (45:07):
So he goes, okay, okay. So he had told us
a story about this girl having a liaison with the
famous actor. Richard goes, don't. You cannot tell anyone she
convided in me. So George is like, okay, you have
to leave a message on his machine saying I can't
believe you told people.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Oh my god, and what do you do.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
He called her before we got to him. No, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
See what happens with your practical jokes.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
But but this is the thing. Richard didn't get mad
at George. I'm very upset, but I'm most disappointed in you.
You should have stopped George.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
But George, oh my god, the story is so unable
just in our in our one of our only collaborations
that very meaning was on the Tribute to Heroes telethon.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
We were both writers and George was just gonna be
one of the actors helping to put it together. But
George being George, sat outside my office, which was in
Television City, and he said, can I run copy for you? Literally,
he was like offering one of the bigger stars and
not even got bigger later. But at another point, you'll,

(46:26):
I think you'll remember this. I look outside and there's
Brad Pitt sitting next to him, and he calls us
in and goes to Joel Galan, who was producing this telethon.
He goes, Brad would like to be on the telethon
and was told I'm sorry, we're booked now, at which
point George, the genius that he is, said why don't

(46:48):
we have like a phone bank where people like Brad
could sit there and take money for the people from
nine to eleven. I believe that thought, that one sentence
is the reason there's probably two hundred million dollars were
donated that night because of that one.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Brother, you have a chance of talking to someone like
Brad Pitt when you call him with your pledge.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I remember that.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I saw every network it was and George who orchestrated
the entire thing and put it together as a producer
the night of this live event worldwide. He's a pa.
He's just running around doing it. Yeah, yep, he's a hero. Yeah,
he really is.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
And he was so kind to do that, to do
the building with me because his star was starting to
rise and he but he was he never said no.
He's always been there for me always. He's Uh, there's
a lot of good guys. And look at the guys
you guys have worked with, like David. I mean, that's crazy,
what you you know, He's met everybody in music, everybody

(47:46):
the music's the most important medicine in the world.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
There's someone I never met who I loved, who you met,
you worked with and I wanted yesterday would have been
his hundredth birthday or today maybe Carol Connor. You got
to you got to direct Carol Connor. And it's funny
I had to for a Rolling Stone book they asked
me to write about like the book the Best of
the seventies. I went back and watched all the family

(48:11):
years later, and you go, this is like Arthur Miller great,
and Carol Connor.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Arthur Miller great.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
It was just in the nuance and like that, and
just like you're seeing with George Clooney on the building.
It's a scene in a comedy, but it's literally like
one of the great romantic scenes. It's like a classic film.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
What writing is to me, it's not a genre, it's
a story. It's are we laughing when we're sad? Are
we sad when we're laughing our hearts breaking? Are we
being polite when we want to scream?

Speaker 1 (48:43):
And that's what Norman lear in All the Family. That's
when you go back and look at it, you go,
oh my god, this is the human comedy. It's the race.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
I swear that's what happened to me. That's the influence
of that show, at least on me, if not the
whole world. It wasn't the political statements, as great as
they were. It was the human in Auanity characters. They
were so specific, him pantomiming killing himself every time she
went on with the story is one of the funniest
things ever.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
You know. When I got to meet when writing returned
to me, it was like, that's all I could think
of is Carol O'Connor, because my dad watched all the
family and laugh, and I was a kid and I
would see how powerful it was. But I got this
script to him somehow and he called me and he

(49:31):
hadn't read the script, and he said we had instant
kindness on the phone. I said, mister O'Connor, I'm such
a fan. I know you hear from everybody, A huge
influence in my childhood, seeing my parents laugh and escape
all the worries and years because of your brilliance and
the brilliance of everybody on the show and Norman, and

(49:51):
I said, I wrote this part with your voice in
my head, with your instant credibility the minute of the
camera's on you. And he said, oh, honey, I'm I'm
old and I'm rich, and I'm very sad because I
lost my son.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Oh god, I remember that. Yes, And we went after
the drug dealer, poor Carol.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
That was he and his wife, their only son. They
adopted him in Italy and he was their whole life.
And I said, I understand, and I'm so glad you're ready.

Speaker 9 (50:22):
Goes.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Oh I didn't read it, and I said, oh, that's okay,
I said, but if you ever did read it, that
would be an honor. And it's okay, but I understand.
He says, oh, I'll read it. I'm going to read it.
And I said, oh, thank you, and I hung up.
And I was so emotional, just anything connection to my father.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yes, yes, you know.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
I was emotional because I just felt like somehow I
was connecting with my dad, you know, who had been
long gone. And the next day he called me back
and he said, I read your script. He said, you
want to come to Malibu and have dinner with me.
I just I just want to meet you in person.
I said, yeah, sure, So I drove out to Malibu

(51:02):
and met him for dinner and we were just talking
and in the middle of the meal, he just put
his hand on my hand and he said, you know, kid,
I'm not one hundred percent healthy, but I want to
do your picture. Come and I you know, and then
look at how great he was in the movie. And

(51:23):
there were many nights in the ear where he didn't
feel well. But I said to him, I'm the director,
but i'm and I'm the writer, but I'm also mostly
a nurse, so I will be right with you. And
I shared his wife, I would be right there with him,
and I was. He had a couple of nights where
we were in the air till three or four in
the morning, and my brother's a doctor, and my brother,

(51:44):
you know, we we just took care of him. We
was at Northwestern a few times. But he was so happy.
And MGM didn't want them to have separate drivers, like
they wanted them to get into a van with their cast.
So I paid for him to have a personal you know,
litt will pick him up every day. And Robert Loja
as well, and the other two gentlemen that were in
the scene, they just wash. You know. I was, I

(52:08):
was really lucky. I was really lucky. But that was
Mike Carol O'Connor and he was so and he got
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We did
so many screenings for his friends, merv Griffin, whoever he
wanted to invite because he was so, so, so proud
of the movie. He was so happy making the movie.
And then you know he I think the next year
he passed away, and yeah, he was pretty special.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
It just reminds me what we didn't know what this
podcast was about until the like the first ones we
did were Brad Paisley who started talking about like meeting
Andy Griffith and learning the lessons of his hero. And
I know that's one of your your favorite shows of
all time. We had Ray Romano and Brad Garrett and
we ended up all talking about our Rickles stories. And

(52:53):
I really I watched him on your talk show. He
was I loved watching him in your talk show. But
the funny thing, I realized that's the common link. I
think among so many people. They respect their elders and
learn their lessons and not be here without them.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
Yeah, it's like, it's so true. It's so true.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Brand on the shoulders of those.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
That that's my me and Brad and Kim. I mean,
Brad Paisley is like my he's like my brother. I mean,
we're very, very very close.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
He never stops talking about you. That's why I felt
very comfortable asking him, you know, to ask you.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, we're recent friends. I just love him and the family.
Let me tell you all the greatest.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
And we all know, like the greatest comics in the world,
and we all make each other laugh, and you know,
we're so lucky. Brad makes me laugh and he's got
a heart of gold. And he also did music for
my mom's memorial and tribute to her. And he's just
the very bread and Kim are family to Hunt family,

(53:50):
and they're they're they're great, They're great, great people, so great,
so lucky. But you're talking about the respecting your elders.
When I was doing my talk show, that was another
bone of contential with me in my studio because I
had Dick Van Dyke on Marriach Holder more. Yes, but
it was kind of like, okay, you know, you need
the trends, your friend, but I just saw, you know,

(54:11):
I have one chance to do this and if it
doesn't last, it's okay, because I want Bob Newhart Tim
on Bob Newhart went to the high school with my dad.
It was a couple of years younger than a couple
of years older than my dad. Yeah, and so you know,
when I first met Bob Newhart, I'm like, my dad
was Bob. I know, the Hunt brothers stay ignacious. I
was like, yeah, my dad, my dad was one of

(54:33):
three boys.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
But I think you're like me in that way you
seek them out.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Yeah, well, it definitely fell. We have that in common
because we love them. We're fans come on. I like
when somebody you know appreciates what I do, it's like
the biggest thriller.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Why not do this?

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Why do this? If you can't use that to connect
with your heroes.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Because it's sincere, of course, it's it's not opportunists, it's sincere.
And I think Carl Carl Reiner could feel it. Carol
O'Connor did feel it.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I didn't want anything or need anything from these guys.
I just wanted to be with them me too.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
And so come up, Robert Looja, those guys on my set,
I mean, come on.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
And I think the crazy thing is on every level.
It's not only the fun thing to do or the
meaningful thing to do. I think it's even the smart
thing to do. Like when we started the podcast with.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
You just started saying you weren't sure what this podcast
was going to.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Be, right, Oh no, And it's about half of it
has been about the people you learned, your lessons from
your influences, who you got to know and who changed
your life. And that's sort of the running theme through
most every episode. But when you start a podcast, like
just like when you start a talk show, you know
you have a network executive going we should go for

(55:44):
you know, the latest pop tart and.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
You know yeah, and that was also too. They wanted
you to catch people off guard. That was the big
thing now. And I had been cut my teeth on
talk shows with Johnny Carson, you know, I was on
that show, and that feeling you got from Johnny was
and he was just going to take care of you.
He was never going to compete with you. He wasn't
going to embarrass you unless it was hilarious and you
would both be laughing. And I just decided my show

(56:08):
that everybody was a guest and I was lucky they
were showing up. And I was never going to do
anything to I mean, I had everybody on. Carrie Fisher
and Debbie Reynolds. We called her mom on the show,
and then we called my mom when Debbie was on.
In all those great moments, I mean, Carrie and Debbie,
I forgot about it. They were so genius, so funny.
But he gave me a poster of singing the Rings

(56:30):
signed by Althree donald' connor played my father in the
building and my mom tap danced with him over the credit.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
What yes, those moments I was doing a show for
Don Mischer, who was, you know, a great producer of
the specialist then called Movies Rock and he brought me
over to Debbie Reynolds because she had said writer, I
need a writer, which was like, oh my god, she
thinks it's still like MGM or something, and there's contract
bring me a writer, and I came, give me a joke,

(56:56):
can a snappy joke? And I gave her a joke
because I like that joke. Let's do another joke and
let me call my daughter Carrie Fisher. And it's like,
oh my god, you're dav So you know you're living
in a movie.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
Where it's just yeah, we can't believe it, and I
never I don't. I mean, Phil, you and I have
talked about this. We still have that feeling like we
can't believe it. How cool is this? It's the best.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
I can't believe you're here. That's true me neither.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
And naked lunch. I took it seriously. Thanks Monica for
these clothes. He that was embarrassing locked into my hands,
did you know, yes, Paul, of course, yes, yes, I
had Paul on the show. Sweet gentle Paul genius made
us made me like I saw him in concert at
the Park West when I was a kid doing you know, no, no, no,

(57:46):
you know?

Speaker 1 (57:47):
I mean, well, that's the other compelling reasons, as these
people their stories because a they have lived lives, so
they have stories. And we got Paul to do a
podcast he hadn't done probably more than a couple. And
we had Elaine May.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Who you guys question, was killing me.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
What did she say when you asked her to do
the podcast?

Speaker 2 (58:04):
What's a podcast?

Speaker 1 (58:05):
So we knew it was gonna be your verse.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
We got an exclusive.

Speaker 4 (58:12):
Who was your is that got to be one of
your all time favorite guests?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
You don't top her because again, no one else ever
got her.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
I mean, leave your money on the dresser, Chalcolate, those
are the senator's last words. I mean, you know she
every movie that she's touched. Yes, I know every Elaine
May line. I know when it's Elaine May, I know
she touched.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
I haven't eaten in three days. I didn't want my
mouth to be full in case you should go.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
My god, and still still like when we I couldn't believe,
how was she unbelievable?

Speaker 4 (58:42):
I got to listen to it. I can't believe I
haven't heard that.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
An unauthorized biography just came out about her. I don't
know if you know about that. Yes, but they actually
quote the podcast because there's no interviews with her.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Yeah, because I saw that. I know that girl that
was writing that.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Yeah, I saw it. Was I talk to her a
little bit. But I was with the Lane two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
She wanted me to read a part in a play.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
And does she live with her daughter as she does?

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Yes, yes, my mom the last two years.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Of myth they live in a great apartment overlooking Central
Park West. She said, would you read this part? And
I said sure, and then I didn't hear anything, and
they said, okay, it's today. I'm like, wait, wait, you
never called me. I didn't get a script. Don't worry.
Just come over. I come over. It's the lead in
the play that I'm supposed to read for Elane May. Again,

(59:32):
I'm not supposed to do this, but you did it.
It was fun. Monica did a little part two in it.
Oh wow. And it was something she's been writing and
working on since the eighties.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Was it? Were you like blown away?

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Well, listen, everything needs work, right, and especially something that
that's been working.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Yeah, but there's a lane made genius in it. I
know some of the lines and the situations are really funny.
Old Russian guy in his apartment, knock at the door,
vacuum cleaner salesman, and he doesn't want Yeah, that's how
long she's been working on this. Okay, vacuum cleaner sales
He comes in and he's the old Russian guys complaining,

(01:00:12):
doesn't want anything. It doesn't want anybody. How did you
get in here? I'm gonna have yours. And then he
won't let the guy go, and you slowly realize it's
because the guy's lonely.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
And it's so sweet and great by the end, right,
And they're friends, even though they it's like the Sunshine Boys. Yes,
even though they're finding fighting finding, but they love and
need each other because they're there was something great about it.
She's ninety three or four, but still she's she'll floor
you with the lines. You have to Next time I'm

(01:00:42):
in New York, I'm gonna tell you should come and
have dinner with us. You never met her, No, she
has to know you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
No, that's been my dream to meet Elaine May because
I just have so much respect had all the Nickels
and May album.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
I think modern comedy can be traced back to her specifically.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
I completely agree her influence on anything she would screen doctor.
I know it's like she comes in and adds all
the flavor and all.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
The depth, and there'd be no Senter night life without her.
No right, No, I mean that's style of comedy. Yes, yes,
Do you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Think your second City experience defined a lot of your
comic sensibility ever since?

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Or no?

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Yes? And my parents love for storytelling. My mom would
circle like certain movies in the TV guide where kids,
and she'd say, Okay, go to bed now because it
would be a school night or something. Go to bed now,
and then I'll wake you up at ten thirty for
some like it hot. And she would make a chef
boy already pizza. And my brother's pat said, by the
time he goes Bonnie, by the time you were born,
you could see through the pizza because she was pushing that.

(01:01:47):
And we'd watch the movie together and she would tell
us what to wait for, like, oh, there's gonna be
the scene.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
And your mom would let you stay up till ten
thirty at night to watch someone.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
There was no bedtime and return to me. There's a
state she and I are married and the kids are sleeping.
You know, there's he he pulls a kid from underneath
the dining room table. Who sounds We fell asleep wherever
we were. If we wanted, she didn't, And if we
want to stay home from school, she never said no.

Speaker 10 (01:02:10):
I had to sneak on the tiny TV into my
bed under the covers. We had one of those sony
tiny ones, black and white, and I'd sneak it under
under the covers in bed because Rickols was going to
be on Carson.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
That was well that we would stay up for that
as a family. Dun dun, dun dun.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yeah, yes, no, this was They didn't care who was on.

Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
Oh no, my parents were to go to bed. That's
so funny, terrible. Yeah, but I I sold candy bars
to win. You if you sold the most of them
out on the candy bars in high school, you can
win a little black and white TV.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
And you got it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
I did, and I got to watch Tom Johnny Carson
to Tom Snyder and I would and then The Fugitive
was on at one thirty, the last show of it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Wait a minute, how old were you doing this fourteen
But so when did you sleep or you didn't need sleep?

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
Oh no, there's no record of my mother actually sleeping.
The night before my mom passed away, she's getting ready
for bed, and she was sitting on the edge of
bed and she was with me at my condo in Chicago,
and I, you know, she said, Oh, I don't I
don't know if you should have the blinds open all
the time, Bonnie, I said, Mom, we're on the top

(01:03:14):
floor that somebody that's be forty feet tall. And just
as I'm saying that, a plane's going over and she says, oh, really,
that pilot just waved to me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Oh my gosh, it's funny.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
She's always funny.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
My mom awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
Nobody as fast and as sharp and is compassionate and
is kind and is brilliant.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
You lost her only is a couple of years ago. Yes,
And have you hit the point where you just enjoy
the memory now or is it still a little fresh,
Because I will say that's one of the kindest things
I think about life, is like, I think I've hit
the point where all I think are the things that
make me.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
Laugh, that makes me really happy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
I think that happened.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
Still grieving, which I don't say a lot because I
think people are like, oh, get over it. But you know,
she was my best friend, probably my most successful relationship.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
I have pictures of my parents they passed, you know,
with you the last few years. I pictures them around
the house and I don't like looking at them all
the time because it makes me sad that they're not here. Yes,
but I couldn't. I think about them every day. I do,
but I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
It makes me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Sad to see them. Is that weird? I know people
are like, no, no, you should have them see them
all the time, so they're always around it, but they're not.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
I think, give it a couple of years, I will say.
I just have beautiful things, like like I see when
Tony Bennett passed, I thought about the fact that when
I had a show on Bravo called Musicians, I invited
my dad to come see me interview Tony Bennett. At
the end of it, he called called me over and
my dad said, and my dad was he was a
wonderful man. He wasn't like the tough dad who had

(01:04:51):
to show his tenders. He was always tender, but he
said he goes, Dave, do you realize Tony Bennett just
said you're like a consummate professional? Do you really? Tony
Bennett is the consonment professional of all time. So if
he says you're the real deal, you're the real deal.
And that's that sort of stuff. You'll never nothing. It's
more precious than anything.

Speaker 4 (01:05:10):
But that's what made us do what we do, is
sharing it, like sharing my career and my journey with
my mom and my family in honor of my father
is you know, because my dad didn't get to see
any of it, you know, from earth. But that's what
the joy is for me, Like oh, are you happy?
Did you like the movie? Did you think it was good?

(01:05:30):
Or whatever? That's that's what I call. Those are the
critics that matter to me and the people that matter
to me. It's like, so, I don't know it's so important,
but I do feel like I'm still looking out. I'm
at a high school player or something, and I'm looking
at the audience and my mom's seat is empty, Like
i feel like I'm waiting for her to still see me.
So that I'm still dealing with that, but it's I do.

(01:05:53):
I'm so lucky I had her for so long. I'm
so lucky. But it's never long enough. And I say
that to people all the time. You know, I'm in
when when I'm in the hospital now with patients as
a volunteer advocate, I never think about the person's age
or whatever it's It doesn't matter. We never have anybody
long enough that we love. I never have them long enough.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Yeah, but treasure them.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Now, I say it all the time. Cherish, yeah, just
just cherish. Make it a priority. My family has always
been a priority. Always. It's always family first. Absolutely, Yep,
no matter what I've been doing or where I've been working.
My brother in law got a brain tumor. During the
talk show, I'm like, I have to double up shows.
I got to do two. I got a pre tape.

(01:06:35):
I gotta go home every weekend and be with my
sister and the kids. And you know that's.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
What I did when I was with my sister at
M D Anderson. And the last week I got a
call saying, can you write a I don't want I
shouldn't say what it exactly is, but a short comedy
film for something. And I was sitting there in a
cancer word writing jokes and just thinking but the truth is,
I go, that's the complexity of life is thank God

(01:07:00):
when she was asleep I could sit and do something
and not and help her when I could help her,
and then other times laugh have be able to have
my head in a different place. It's very important that way.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
It's so important. And even you know, when I was
doing Amber Brown, which I just did for Apple TV
last year, I was taking care of my mom and
I would read the episodes to my mom after I
finished writing them. I wrote all ten and I was
like just getting mom's approval and she would laugh. And
even when we were casting or casting via zoom during
the pandemic, and my mom would be watching the monitor

(01:07:33):
with me as I was meeting with these actors and
she'd say, you know, give me a thumbs up on people.
But is your sister. Is she okay that we're talking
about her?

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
Yes. I actually asked her on the way here if
I could mention where I wish. I said, I'm not
going to mention you, and she goes, no mention. The
nurses mentioned all of it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
You know, if there's anything I can do to be
of service to help her treatment cares.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Oh no, thank you. She is doing well right now,
and I appreciate that. I will say that what's weirdest
you'd never know with your family when you like with
my dad on his deathbed, I came into like a
hospice and the nurse said, your dad was telling me
about Sinatra. And I'm like what, and she said, he said,

(01:08:21):
he you thanked him on the liner You mentioned him
on the liner notes for a Frank Sinatra record. And
you go like, you could never repay a parent's love,
there's no way to do it. But the weird things
that could be meaningful exactly, you know, I couldn't paying
back for college, you know, and he was like a
kid who put himself through Cornell where I went, and
then he insisted I go there so that he could

(01:08:45):
pay full fare and not you know, I would never
have to have a student debt. Like that's who he was.
But like literally the one of his last things that
he was thinking about was my kid got me mentioned
on a Sinnata record, And you never know, like that's
the thing special, it's And I'll just tell you one
more story, which is just like and after they're gone,

(01:09:05):
I think you sometimes hear stories about your parents that
make them come alive for you in a.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Way that's just beautiful, so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
I had the road manager of a band called the
Black Keys at the Grammys one year come up to me,
this woman who looked really cool, kind of rocker chick,
and she goes, she looked at me. She goes, David
wild are you Stanley Wilde son? I go, yeah, She goes,
your dad saved my life, I said, I said. She goes,
I was in trouble. I had gotten mister drugs at

(01:09:34):
a certain point. I was my dad, you know, had
to sort of bail me out of a lot of trouble.
And he goes, I'm going to get you a job
and try to turn your life around. I'm going to
put you in touch. You're going to work for someone
a good man. And that he called my father and said,
would you put my give my daughter a break. She
needs a new break in life. And it's like this

(01:09:54):
woman had gone from that and now was like, you know,
a major like rock and roll road manager. And she goes,
your dad was the first person who believed in me.
And you go like, I can't believe. Years later you're
still finding out these things and there's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Your dad's tenderness as you knew. So well, yeah, that's
that's a big deal. I I think that that's just
live in honor of them. That's what you do. And
I always think about them every choices I make. It's important.
My mother would say, be mindful of the energy you're
putting into the world. That has a ripple effect. And

(01:10:29):
there's a there's actually a plaque at Costa Clina where
I'm a volunteer. I'm one of the buildings with my
mother's quote that they this the hospital did in honor
my volunteer work, you know, which honor my mom, because
that's who instills all that in you. Your your parents, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
It's funny you said that about the high school play
and looking out. It goes back to that and before that. Yeah,
and I always thought whatever we were doing, like on
the sitcom.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
Well wait a minute, tell me about your parents, Like
did they see all that?

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
I don't know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, they only did. Died
a couple of years ago. We're like, she looking out
at the in that guesthouse. That's where they you built
that for them, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
My mom my home in Santa Monica. My mom had
her sweet and it was the best.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
Yea. His parents saw everything, and I know I was
around them enough to know they were really proud, but
also they were parents, and it was one of the
most amazing things I ever saw. Was the end of
Everybody Knows Raymond, I think again, a show that, like,
to me, defines the things you've always stood for exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
And but when it ended was literally the day it
was ending, I think we were in his hotel suite
and he was showing them a pilot of something he
was working on. And at the end of it, your
father said, what you know what you should add a
Kramer type character.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
Okay, that is so funny.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
It doesn't matter who you are. It's like it's like
there's there's always the parent thinking, you know, you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
Could, It doesn't matter what you do. I actually got
to direct Bill Clinton in a video, and while he
was president in the emotion right now, he was.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
In the Wait wait a minute, you directed Bill Clinton?

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Yes, in the White House day, I wrote jokes for
him all eight years I had a connection in the
White House, and I wrote jokes whenever he did.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
He wrote Monica Luincy. That was all his bit.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
That was a bit yeah, no, uh, great, casts they had,
They had a humor season, and you would write material
for the President at like the White House correspondence dinner,
when the President is always funny. So I always said,
let's do a little video, and then we got to
do a video.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
It's one of the great last.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
His last year, and they called me in to direct
the President of the United States. And I'm there and
I'm telling and.

Speaker 4 (01:12:47):
Wait, wait, were your parents around for this?

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
What are they thinking? You're at the White House?

Speaker 10 (01:12:53):
I tell them this right, incredible day that I had.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Yeah, and what else is new?

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
I had the same thing I wrote for Clinton at
the White House on a show, and in it he
talked about Gershwin writing Porgy and Bess and it was
a line about how a young Jewish boy wrote the
Great Black Opera of the twenty cent just how music
unites all different cultures, making the point, but it was
Bill Clinton added a joke that made it much funnier.

(01:13:26):
He was brilliant at that, but he sort of swallowed
the Ish in Jewish. So my father when he saw
I said, David, did you ask the leader of the
free world to write jew boys?

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
God hysterical. Norman Lear tells a story. I told the
story about how he was inducted into the first television
Hall of Fame. They were having this thing, and he
called his parents to tell them, Ma, they're having the
Television Hall of Fame and I'm there with Lucille Ball
and Milton Burrell and are inducting me, say at the

(01:14:01):
same time, and his mother said, listen, if this is
what they want to do, oh god, that is Norman
Lear all the family.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
And by the way, if you listen to our Elaine
May episode, we're gonna get people that listened to the
Laya May episode by listening to this episode. She talks
about parents, like in that joke about the mother.

Speaker 4 (01:14:21):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
And it's interesting how you gradually learn. You grow up thinking, oh,
it's my parents, it's Jewish parents. Then you realize no, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
But the more specific you get, the more universal it becomes.
Mm hmm. Archie Edith works not you know, he wasn't
just a racist, No, he was the and what endures
is not the political stuff, but that's it's the marriage stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:14:45):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
It's the son in law stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:14:47):
Right, that's the stuff that's relatable, accessible, You can feel it,
you understand it, and it's It's what doesn't get overshared,
overshadowed by the politicists. It doesn't because there's that you
balance there of brilliant storytelling, character driven humor, characters.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
Driven pathos, and.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
You knew they loved each other. Yes, that's like Carl
Reiner would always say that to me. We would always
talk about we know our characters love each other no matter.
You know how great. I'm so glad Brad Paisley told you.
You told Brad, and I should say, does Brad made
me laugh? Kim Kim Williams. Paisley is another brilliant talent.

(01:15:29):
I'm telling you she there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
They're adorable.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
And what they do for the store if you want to,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
The toy store. Now I think they opened pet yes,
the pet clinic, clinic.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Like this week. The good that they do. And yet
he still manages to call me every ending of the
Dodgers when they're losing.

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
Yeah, we have our baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
You're a Cubs fan, so it's a whole different.

Speaker 4 (01:15:52):
Things different, but you know we respect each other's to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Do you go to Cubs games? I do every every
season you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:57):
I went to. I've been was to every home opener
up until the pandemic from the early seventies.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
But with all the kids from the neighborhood. I mean
it's the same. It's all the everybody I grew up with.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Did you ever meet Steve Goodman, the who wrote the
song A Dying Cup Fans Last Request? Great? That was
John Prime's buddy who was a giant, long suffering Cubs fan.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
But I mean it does. It's a philosophy for a life.
I did a documentary on optimism with Michael J. Fox,
you know, with his diagnosis and everything, and we I
talked about being a Cubs fan was one of those
things that you just never give up hope and you
hang in there, and you know, sports are powerful. When
you're watching the Olympics, I saw some of it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
You got to see some biles.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
You got to see that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
Oh yes, of course. My family had a text going,
She's on right now? Everybody, Yeah, yeah, we all watch that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
Some people you just are undenied that you have to
see Supergirl super Girl, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:52):
I saw the die watch the documentary where they showed
her house being built and everything that she went through emotionally. Yeah,
that's powerful stuff. Boy.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
And the other girl who had kidney disease and that
came back and got a medal. Yes, this week unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
And how about the kit tugs is ear there's a
kid who tugs her or.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
The kid the kid with h takes the same one. Yeah,
he has the glasses right, and he takes him off
and then he Superman.

Speaker 4 (01:17:19):
Yeah, Clark kent him. Clark kent Yes. Yeah, that when
that became a family text is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
So before we let you.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
Out of this house listening about twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Tell the people what you're working on now.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
And I got one of a particular questions because I
went to see Twistters the other night and the preview
was for Red One. Oh yes, uh so that's one
of the things.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
My friend Melvin Marr is the producer of that. Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
And did Jake.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
Casten Jake, Yes, yes, Jake called me at home and
bought that one. Yeah, Chris Evans, Dwayne Johnson, JK. Simmons.
So the movie comes up. I was that was shortly
after my mom that we made that movie two years ago,
and they're like, you're gonna play missus clause. So Jake

(01:18:09):
pitches the film to me and it changed you know
it evolved after that, but you know it's basically it's
a Wonderful Life meets Miracle thirty fourth. I'm like, okay,
I'm in. Uh but you're gonna play Missus clause. So
I'm like, oh, missus Claus. How great. Don't have to
worry about my weight. You know, I'm gonna have like
a little chubby costume on and a little you know,

(01:18:32):
white ruffles around my face and a big Christmas hat
and a wig. And uh so I'm you know, I'm
going in and out Burger and I mean, whatever I want,
I'm not worried about it. And I'm like, this is
a luxury. And I the first day on the set, JK. Simmons.
I don't know if you've seen his and I've know
I knew JK from years ago, but I hadn't seen him.

(01:18:53):
But he's like Jim what do they called Jim Jim Ratt? Yeah,
and no he's not buff. He's like what In the
first scene, we're in a gym. I go, wait, we're
in a gym. And then they they bring you know,
they're going over the wardrobe with me, and I'm We're like,
I'm like, what what this could only happen to me this.

(01:19:14):
You know, I'm making Christmas cookies for Santa. Apparently I'm
the only eating them. And but yeah, that was something.
And you know, and Duayne of course is like every
time I touched him, it was like running into a
lamp post. I mean, I was just like, what, I
like a man I can climb the sky? Was you
know something. And Chris Evans a wonderful talent, funny, smart, fast,

(01:19:40):
and that was delightful. Chris was delightful. So that comes
out Chris November fifteenth.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Yes, it looked like I was getting the big holiday push.

Speaker 4 (01:19:49):
Yes, it's you know, it's a it's a lot of
special effects, major you know, adventure. I don't know. I mean,
I'm sure it'll be great. It's it was changing as
we were doing it. It was all thing and it
was interesting to.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
See, well Jake directed you as missus Claws, Phil as
a rabbi in Walk Hard.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
You're getting my whole resume, uh.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Me as a rock critic on the audio disc box
of Cocks of Dewey Cox and Walkcards.

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
I didn't know you're gonna be saying, yes it's his name.
Oh no, yes, I remember, but so yeah, so you
guys both worked with Jay and then I just have
worked with the talented Jim Rash, who was amazing. He
wrote a film called Miss You Love You and Me Alison,
Jenny and Andrew Rerown.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
Oh I love.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Alison, Phil's best friend, great Allison.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
Yeah, I love Alison. I mean I was there in
a minute. Jim's writing is so thoughtful and kind and
funny and smart.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Will that come out this year too?

Speaker 4 (01:20:49):
I think so we just we finished, we wrapped that.
We were in New Mexico. I think that's been a
couple of months ago.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
She's so busy. I never see her anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
She's still yeah for good reason, right right, and she
gets good stuff, you know, like I'm You're always waiting
for the right stuff, the right thing to come along.
And I'm writing, you know, I'm writing a series and
uh so we'll see, you know, the best is yet
to come. My mother would always.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
Say, Bonnie, I need you. Uh uh, We're about to
start shooting season eight of our show, and I do it.
You know, this little tribute to my folks. My dad
would tell a joke at the end of each show.
I zoom with him from wherever I was in the
world and he would do a joke. So now we
do a joke for Max, and I call my funny
friends and they do a joke. So I'm calling you.

(01:21:38):
Is that all right?

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
Of course I'm very busy, but I'll Coursehill for in
honor of your sweet parents and your wonderful father.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Absolutely well, i'd be a coup to get you see
the podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:21:52):
My agent Brad Paisley.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Yes, make sure he's he's helped. God knows he's helped
my career. Don't tell him that, please.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
Well you made my day today, guys, you made some
mind and thoughtful and delightful. And Cameron crowl you know
I mean it's like those good people.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
Yeah, good people. Yeah, we should all be good people. Everybody.

Speaker 9 (01:22:16):
Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and David Wilde.
Theme song and music by Brad Paisley, Produced by Will Sterling.
Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal, David Wilde, and our consulting
journalist is Pamela Chellon. If you enjoyed the show, share
it with a friend. But if you can't take my
word for it, take Phil's.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
And don't forget to leave a good rating and review.

Speaker 9 (01:22:35):
We like five stars you know, thanks for listening to
Naked Lunch, a Lucky Bastard's production

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