Interview: Tom Scott & the original score to Fletch

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:02):
Broadcasting live and around the world from Cabana
One, the only podcast.
That's all ball bearings.
Your ultimate source foreverything, fletch.

Chevy Chase as Fletch (00:19):
Thank you , doc.
You ever serve time.

Announcer (00:22):
Laker Jim and his beat reporters will stop at
nothing to make sure Fletchlives forever.
They don't shower much.
This is Fletchcast.

Laker Jim (James Kanowitz (00:42):
Thank you, sammy, and welcome
everybody back to Fletchcast.
Sammy, you outdid yourself onthat intro.
I'm your host, laker Jim.
It's a brand new year and, formany, a year of resolutions, a
year of reflection, but forFletchcast it's going to be a
year of exclusive revelations.

(01:03):
Now, before we get started, letme reintroduce my co-hosts, two
men who wear way too much eyemakeup Jake and Big Bob boys.
It makes you look cheap.

Jake Parrish (01:15):
We love it Well, thanks very much.
You know, the only reason why Iwear so much eye makeup is to
say it distracts from my baldface.

Big Bob West (01:22):
So I mean, I mean I'm in prison so much that I
need to do something tointimidate everybody else.

Well, that's true too.
That's true too.

I'll keep my horse away from you then I definitely
moved on from horses.
I'm all over the place.

Well, you live in Florida, so you're probably more
of a reptile guy now.
Anyway, right.

In Florida it's practically state law that you
have to do it.

Well, I mean the way Florida is going.
It does surprise me.

Yeah, it's like when you go to the voting booth,
it's like how many horses arebeing the last to do it?
It's like they're like back inline.

Well, you keep me updated on that buddy, because
I'm looking for a new hobby.

Laker Jim (James Kanowitz) (01:54):
Well , speaking of getting back on
the horse, like I mentioned,fletch cast is back after an
extended break and we'vereturned with a really exciting
episode.
Legendary jazz man Tom Scottwill be joining us in a few
minutes and, as many of you know, tom was hired to score the
soundtrack with Fletch and, forthe first time ever, he's going

(02:15):
to give his side of the story,tell us how it fell apart, how
Fultomar swooped in.
Yeah, honestly, we have so muchto talk to Tom about.
I just hope we can fit it allin.

Yeah, I was blown away when I started doing
research.
This guy is the real deal.
Here's just part of the list.
He's collaborated with theBeach Boys, michael Jackson,
paul McCartney, the GratefulDead, whitney Houston, carol
King, pink Floyd, frank Sinatra,eddie Freaking Money it's about
75, I'm forgetting.

Laker Jim (James Kanowit (02:48):
That's him.
I forgot.
I picked the hotline to my cellphone.

Announcer (02:53):
Well, actually he did the theme to Family Ties.

Loved Family Ties.
I need somebody to help me setup my ringtones.
Wait, do people still useringtones anymore?
Is that still a thing?

No, they don't.
In fairness, I made that hisringtone back in 01.
Makes sense, I'm going to grabthis before he hangs up.
All right, boys ready Joiningus today on the podcast, a
Grammy Award-winning composer,mr Tom Scott?

(03:26):
Tom, welcome to Fletchcast.

Tom Scott (03:28):
Well, thank you very much, appreciate it.

Now Fletch fans listening at home.
I'm sure you're scratching yourhead and thinking Tom Scott,
tom Scott, where have I seenthat name?
Take a look at your Fletchposter.
Re-watch the Fletch trailer.
Music by Tom Scott.
Now we're going to get to thebottom of the mystery as to why
Tom is associated with the musicof Fletch.
But Tom's connection to FletchChevy and this podcast runs much

(03:51):
deeper.
It's like six degrees ofseparation, because there's been
many times over the course ofthe first 40 or so episodes
where we've turned a corner andrun smack dab into Tom Scott.

That's very true.

So we're going to get into those
connections in a little bit.
Tom, where I wanted to startwas how did you get into music
in the beginning?
Because, as a dad of small kidsand owner of a keyboard piano
which has been played, by theway, since they were interested
in taking lessons how did youget started in music?
And when should I give up oncreating the next Tom Scott?

Tom Scott (04:31):
Never give up.
Never, ever give up.
Damn you.
There's always a chance.
All right, I won't.
No, look, my success was acombination of very fortuitous
parents and being in anenvironment that was very, very
friendly to and encouraging.
By that I mean music teachers,high school, junior high high

(04:55):
school music teachers that werefantastic.
But to back up a little bit, myfather and mother met when they
both worked at NBC Radio on thecorner of Sunset and Vine in
Hollywood in the 40s.

Your dad, of course, the legendary
composer Nathan Scott.

Tom Scott (05:10):
Yes, my father was a tremendous composer, very
talented guy who had gotten ascience scholarship to Caltech
but a left after a year because,in his words, as he said to me,
son, I just couldn't keep awayfrom the piano.
So he decided to enroll at CalBerkeley and got a music degree

(05:35):
there, did some writing andcomposing and stuff.
He had a friend who was parkingcars at the NBC radio parking
lot so he got a job thereparking cars and all the time
was writing arrangements, hopingfor a chance to get them played
.
And he befriended the chiefsound engineer and then managed

(05:58):
to get some of his arrangementsplayed and some extra downtime
with the NBC Orchestra.
In two years he was a musicdirector.
Wow, what perseverance.
Yeah, he went on to amass over700 film and television
composing and arranging creditswhich include years.

(06:19):
He didn't write the theme ofDragnet, that was a guy named
Walter Schumann, but he came in.
Walter was very ill with aheart problem.
My dad came in and did all theunderscore for the original, the
black and white Dragnet seriesin the 50s for several years,
then went on to become a staffcomposer at CBS and wrote

(06:42):
episodes of raw hide, wagontrain, laramie and other shows
and then my three sons wrote allthe music for the last 12 years
of Lassie when it was on theair, and a bunch of other stuff.
So there was always, obviouslythere was always music going on
in my house and there was alwaysa rumor which my dad co-opted

(07:04):
as a music studio.
He had no flair for selfpromotion whatsoever, he was
just a nice guy.
He enjoyed being a family guy.
He didn't want to become aceleb or anything like that.
After he passed, which is around2008, I think I saw John
Williams, an acquaintance not aclose friend, but an
acquaintance and he came up tome and he said he was so humble.

(07:29):
First thing he said was Tom, Idon't know whether your father
remembered me or not, and I said, john, I'm quite sure I didn't
ask him, but I will bet moneythat my father remembered you.
He says well, the reason I wantto I'm asking you this is
because when I was a studiopianist in the 50s, debating

(07:49):
whether I wanted to become afilm and television composer to
dive into that, you know thatchallenge One of my first
assignments was with your fatheras my supervisor and one of the
reasons that I decided to takethe plunge into film composing,
is that your father was soincredibly kind and encouraging

(08:10):
to me.
Now, first of all, what a nicething to say about one's father.
But secondly, what if my dadhad been an asshole?
You know who would have doneJaws or Raiders or anything like
that?
Indiana Jones, star Wars,superman, you know so.
So my dad was.
Look, he was a great guy.
Everybody adored him.

(08:31):
He was all business when he,when he stepped up to the podium
and went gentlemen, ladies,gentlemen, can we have an aide
from the elbow?
Let's go, but anyway.
So there was always music goingon and I took up the clarinet in
elementary school and my dad,wanting to, you know, show me

(08:52):
the best clarinet player that heknew, he bought me a Benny
Goodman record from 10 yearsbefore I was born.
So I wore that record out andthat sort of the bug had bitten
me by then.
And then, in in junior highschool, or what they call middle
school now, I took up thesaxophone and you know the rest,

(09:13):
as they say, is history.
I started listening tosaxophone players that that my
father had recommended and theones that I just heard and liked
in those days.
It was people like JohnColtrane, cannonball, adderley,
stan Getz, Jerry Mulligan andothers.
So by the time I got out of highschool I was.

(09:35):
I was working, started to workjobs and things that in fact by
four I think I was 13 or 14.
When I did my first I think itwas a bar mitzvah at a country
club made 15 bucks.
It was the best 15 bucks I'dever seen in my life.
What people are going to pay mefor this?
Oh my God, this is great.

And you worked with your, your father, a few
times, didn't you?

Tom Scott (10:01):
I did yes.

Phone projects yeah.

Tom Scott (10:04):
Yeah, he, I did a movie called Neighbors with John
Belushi and Dan Ackroyd.
That score was also, by the way, dumped for similar reason well
, not similar, but reasons thatreally had nothing to do with
the quality of the music, had todo with outside forces, shall
we say.
But but yeah, that was really agreat experience because he had

(10:27):
orchestrated a lot of the mycompositions and he conducted
while I was in the booth.
So we were we were a prettyimpressive one to punch there
for a while.
It was great.

Laker Jim (James Kanowit (10:36):
That's very, very cool.
When I look at your career, youhave worked with the absolute
royalty of the music industryLegends.
I can only compare your careerreally to like an onion as you
peel each layer, the next layeris more impressive and as you
keep peeling and peeling, youfind just the most incredible

(10:58):
collaborations that you've done,the most incredible works, the
most incredible situations thatyou've been in.
Do you ever just pinch yourselfand think like, wow, what a
life and what a career I've hadup until this point?

Tom Scott (11:11):
I say to myself how incredibly lucky I have been in
my life.
Let's face it a lot ofopportunities that come to all
of us.
Some of it may be skill, someof it may be, you know, right
place, right time, but it's luck, man.
Luck is what really drives somuch of it.
I just hit at the right time, Ithink, in terms of my playing.

(11:35):
Another thing I had as acomposer as a film composer I
started on Intellivist.
Intellivist, of course.
What I had going there was, ofcourse, I had my father's
blessing and whatever.
He didn't teach me or anything.
But if I was working onsomething and was a teenager
trying to figure out some chordor something I was listening to,

(11:56):
I could always go to him andhe'd say what, dad?
What is this?
He'd show me.
So that was great.
Having that.
These opportunities have a lotto do with just being lucky,
being at the right place at theright time.
So I was going to say what,what?
When I first came on as acomposer, I had the, also the
recommendation of Dave Gruessen,who got me one of my very first

(12:18):
television scoring assignmentsfor a television show called Dan
August, which was on in thelate sixties, with a then
unknown actor named BertReynolds and it was a typical
cop show and I of course had, asa composer, had also embraced
the R&B or the world of R&B andjazz and so on.

(12:38):
And that was thanks to startedwith Hank Mancini actually doing
Peter Gunn, hank Panther, andjazz kind of came into the fold.
And then but I was kind of theyoung like I had the funk thing
going on.
So I used to say for thoseshows like Dan August and later
ones, I was, I was the law andorder funk composer.

Well, storsky and Hutch has that funk.
It does.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, I love Storsky andHutch.

I know it's cool about you and
maybe it's just playing the sax,because the sax player is just
inherently cool, right, yeah,and all the ladies gravitate
towards the sax player, probablythat in the singer.
If anyone hasn't listened, Tomhas a podcast, Tom Scott's
podcast express.
I recommend checking it out.
I binged it.

(13:29):
I went there looking forinformation about Tom and this
is part of why you're cool,because cool people don't brag
about their life and you haveevery right to brag all day long
.
I wanted just episodes aboutyou, but when you listen to your

(13:49):
episodes and you have guestslike Jim Belushi or Vanessa
Williams or even Ed Bigley Jrand I was wondering like okay,
what does he have to do withjazz or music or Tom's life,
Right, and you realize theseincredible stories unfold about
your life with these guests.

(14:10):
You know it's you and Ed, likerunning around with Belushi and
I just I enjoyed the hell out ofit.
I really did Every episode.
I feel like you earn a piece tothe puzzle of your amazing life
and career and, believe me,it's one of those 10,000 piece
puzzles.

Tom Scott (14:27):
Well, I appreciate that it has been proposed that I
do a podcast of myself andmaybe I will one of these days
Speaking of Jim Belushi, whichwas my favorite one that you did
.

Oh good, we're big Blues Brothers
fans.
Ah, here you go.
Blues Brothers fans.
Yes, I mean check this out.

Tom Scott (14:44):
They even have an L-Word tattoo.

I don't have one of those to match
, but Before we get into Fletch,can you talk to us a little bit
about how you got into theBlues Brothers?

Tom Scott (14:56):
Sure, sure, that's.
That's quite a funny storyactually.
Of course, I happened to seethe Saturday Night Live episode.
I was a big fan, like everybodyelse my age I think.
Oh, they are their firstappearance as a as a bit on
Saturday Night Live, when theycame out and sang for the first
time with what became the BluesBrothers.
It wasn't even named that yet,but what I learned later was

(15:20):
that the look that Dan and youknow, the suits and the ties and
the hats and the sunglasses.
They were actually doing kind ofa riff on Roy Orbison who
dressed kind of that way.
Having seen that, I then readin the paper in line so, of
course, that's all in New York.
I'm in LA and I read in thepaper that the Blues Brothers

(15:42):
are coming to Los Angeles toplay a week opening for Steve
Martin at the UniversalAmphitheater.
I'm like, oh my God, I got toget into that.
I did know two of the musiciansfrom the Saturday Night Live
band Lou Marini, lou Lou, orshall I say Blue?
Lou Marini, yeah, and and TomBones Malone.

(16:06):
We're both friends of mine.
So I thought, geez, maybe I'llcall one of those guys and see
if I can.
You know, just get backstage.
I'd love to.
I've been meeting three of thehottest comics in in America.
That would be cool.
So turns out I didn't have tobecause Tom Malone calls me one
day, I guess a couple of weeksbefore the engagement, and says

(16:26):
look, tom, my wife is scheduledto have a baby right in the
middle of that week that we'redoing at Universal Amphitheater.
Could you sub for me while I,while, while and it all, come in
on probably Wednesday.
I'll get in Wednesday, but ifyou could do Monday, tuesday,
that'd be great.
I say absolutely so.

(16:48):
So I show up on the Monday forthe first, the run through the
sound check and rehearsal and,and, and John and Danny were
very nice and and you know, theband was great.
I especially loved the drummingof Steve Jordan and we have
remained friends for all thistime where we talk quite
frequently.
Still, obviously, paul Schaefer, a great, a walking

(17:12):
encyclopedia of all things popmusic and can rattle them off in
a second wallet, which is whyhe was such a good MD for
Letterman all those years andyou know, and Cropper and Duck
Dunn and all them, and the hornsection, fantastic, alan Rueben.
Alan Rueben was so funny soit's so dry like sarcastic humor

(17:35):
which he just drop it every nowand then.
No, sir Mayor Daly no longerdying, sir, he's dead.
Sir, just kept you in stitches.
You know, it's just just a hoot.
So we get done with rehearsal, Iplay the gig, have a ball, I
come back Tuesday and do thesame thing, and then Wednesday I

(17:57):
expect to go and just kind ofhand it off back to Tom Malone.
Oh, one other thing.
Oh, no, okay, I'll do this inorder.
So right, I'm going to hand itoff back to Tom Malone at the
amphitheater and I walk in and Isee John and I said, yeah, I'm

(18:18):
here to just, you know, saythanks and everything and hand
it back to Malone.
And he says, well, listen,let's just make it four horns
instead of three.
Tom, you're a blues brother.
Oh, wow, wow.

Announcer (18:33):
Originated by the Chips and sung by the Blues
Brothers band back in 1979.

Irwin M. Fletcher (18:39):
Tommy Scott Blues Brother, right here, there
he is.

Announcer (18:45):
Thank you, gentlemen.

Tom Scott (18:47):
And with that pronouncement what I didn't,
what I found out later, is thathe'd actually consulted with
Bernie Brillstein to make surethe money thing was okay, and
that's the other thing I got.
So no one had spoken anythingabout money.
You know, and you don't want toask other band members what
they're getting, because whoknows what the deal is with each

(19:07):
one of them.
They may have different dealsor the same deal, but you know
it's not cool to do that.
So I thought that I would havea moment where I could talk
about money with John I don'tknow who else to go to.
So on that day I guess it wasthe next day, the Thursday or
something he I brought my roadmanager, my tour manager, jim

(19:28):
Root, a great guy who had beenwith Cheech and Chong, and
that's how I met him and he wasjust a cool guy and a real road
rat, you know, perfect.
So I show up with him and Ithought maybe there's a moment
where, where John and Jimmy andI are alone and we and Jimmy,
maybe Jimmy can talk about thesubject, because it's I don't
like doing that.
So that moment occurs, there'sa lull in our conversation and

(19:53):
Jimmy's Jim Root says well, youknow, tom usually gets triple
scale meaning whatever unionscale is for any particular gig
like three times that.
Now, that was true, sometimesnot all the time, but it was a
good, you know, opening gambitright.
So John immediately goes ohreally, that's interesting.

(20:15):
And from that moment on I wasTom, triple scale Scott.

I was wondering if you got a cool nickname being
in the blues brother, somethingthey all have, like Bones,
Ballon and Blue.

Tom Scott (20:25):
Yeah, I was triples.
I was triple they.
They just shortened to triplelater, anyway, so that's how
that happened, that's how Ibecame a blues brother and we
finished out the gig, recordedthe album which is called
Briefcase Full of Blues.
The show we had like a 35minute opening act for Steve
Martin and of course nobody'dheard this band before, live or

(20:49):
otherwise.
So the reaction of the crowdwas what we used to describe as
a trout crowd.
By that we mean they're like,you know, you want to like hook
them and they're like, oh, jawdropped, you know, just
astonishment at this, at this,at this blues machine that was

(21:13):
driving towards them.
So it was great fun.

And how long did that last?

Tom Scott (21:18):
Well for me.
I mean, I did that gig, oh God,oh, you're bringing the stuff
back to me.
So that gig was over.
And then then the next thingwas the movie.
Right, and I get a script.
Yeah, and I've seen where I'm adishwasher at Aretha Franklin's
restaurant.

Oh, where Blue Lou was right.

Tom Scott (21:39):
I think that's where Mac-A-Tar Merchant, of course,
exactly.
And Blue Lou was great in it.
And look, there were three ofus blues brothers who, when it
came, when it came time tocommit to the movie, let me
first say, would I have liked tohave been in a blues brothers
movie?
Sure, but at that time I had toweigh the price that it would
exact from me in terms of,mostly in terms of time.

(22:01):
And I knew about I'd beenaround movie making and TV shows
enough to know that if you're asupporting player in a movie,
they may never know when theywant to use you.
So you end up sitting in atrailer for six months and you
may get called at five in themorning or you may get called at

(22:23):
one o'clock at night, and it'sboring as hell, I don't mind
telling you.
I mean, you really got to wantit bad to be willing to sit
through that just to be in amovie.
So here was the thing PaulSchaefer, steve Jordan and I all
had other things going on thatloomed larger, let's say, in

(22:44):
terms of our lives, our time andpotential success in our
careers than being in the bluesbrothers movie.
So I passed and I remember Igot a very angry call from John
Landis saying what are you doing, tom?
You'll regret this all yourlife, you know, just trying to
shame me into coming back.
And I said look, I know, no,I'm not doing it.

(23:08):
Well, go ahead, damn it.
Now here's the irony.
So the movie comes out.
Of course it's a big hit.
John was in LA and he opened thedoor to my studio and I was
sitting there and he announcedyeah, the Blues Brothers have
the number one record and thenumber one movie.
I mean, he was like on top ofthe world and success had had

(23:31):
come to him big time and it wasfun.
Listen, I love John.
His death was very, very tragicand unnecessary, but he was
like, he had two sides.
He could be a real.
Danny Ackroyd, in a letter to meafter John passed, once,
described it as trans and venom.

(23:52):
This was the kind of place hewould go.
But when he wasn't in thatstate, he was your uncle, johnny
.
He was a cool, sweet, lovingguy and, not to mention, funny.
So the movie's a big hit.
And now they want to do a tourpromoting the movie and I got

(24:12):
asked to come back and do thetour for the movie and I get to
the, which I did.
I don't remember how many datesit was, but it was great fun
and it was, you know.
Back with the boys again andAtlantic Records presented me
with a gold record for thesoundtrack from the Blues
Brothers movie, which I am noton.

No, it's a game.
You weren't in the moviebecause you would have performed
rawhide in the movie I wouldhave.
Yes, yeah, the show youmentioned your dad worked on
Rolling rolling, rolling yeah.

Announcer (24:50):
Dean from the TV show Rye.

Thank you.

Tom Scott (24:55):
So that was the sum total of my experience with the
Blues Brothers.
Now let's cut to this year.
A guy in New Jersey called me.
He gets celebrity guests toparticipate in an autograph
signing festival.
That happens in every year inParcipany, New Jersey, at a
place called the Chiller Theater.
We know it, it really is the.

(25:17):
It really is the ParcipanyHilton which becomes a giant
venue for this convention.

Like again what used to go there every year.

Tom Scott (25:26):
Oh, really, Okay, so you know.
So this venue is houses like ahundred celebrities from all
kinds of you know bit playersand secondary cast members and a
few you know major celebrities.
This guy said, listen, let's goas the Blues Brothers, and Paul
was in for a minute, PaulSchaefer, then he backed out,

(25:49):
Willie Hall, who was the playdrums in the movie, was in for a
minute and then he was out.
So the four of us that wereleft was me and my two original
friends, Blue, Lou, Marini, TomBones, Malone and Murphy Dunne,
who was the pianist in the movie.
I had come to know any winner,very nice guy.
So the four of us went to thisconvention and I gotta say we

(26:15):
made quite a bit of money thatwe can't given all the times
I've signed albums just for free, Right, but man, they came and
drove and they were great andthey were, you know, the fans
were very, very nice and theywanted to know anything I could
tell them about, you know, theBlues Brothers, and I told some
of them, I told the stories Ijust told you and it was great.

(26:37):
It was a great kind of reunionfor at least the four of us.

But there was only one fan that
asked you about Fletch thatweekend, and that was me.

Tom Scott (26:44):
Oh, that's right, so that's where we met, that's
right.
I'm sorry, I completely forgotthat's where we met.

Well , that's a perfect segue to
Fletch, because I know fanslistening at home right now are
dying to hear this story.
Okay Now, as we talked about atthe top of the show, tom was
hired as the original composerto the score of Fletch and, up
until about two weeks or sobefore the movie was to be
released, fultemeyer was notinvolved at all.

(27:13):
So I'm sure there's a lot tounpack here.
But, tom, take us back to thebeginning of your Fletch story
and how it all got started.

Tom Scott (27:20):
Well, it got started because of my friendship with
Chevy Chase, which had nothingto do with the Blues Brothers or
Belucey or Dacro or any of them, because of course, as you
probably know, chevy only didone season on Saturday Night
Live and he left and whichcaused no end to the
consternation from the othercast members and he had burned a

(27:45):
few bridges along the way, andthat's something he had quite a
talent for.
I might have.
I've heard he was another guylike John.
He sort of had two sidestim hecould be very nice and just a
dear guy, sweet guy, and thenthis other a-hole, you know, go

(28:05):
figure.
Anyway.
So I don't know whether youknow the lady Libby Titus.
She actually was a singer onColumbia, had her own solo album
in the 70s.
She became and is currently MrsDonald Fagan.
She married Steely Dan RightDonald from Steely Dan.
So we were friends, justacquaintances.

(28:28):
She called me one day and saidlisten, my French heavy chase
would really like to meet you.
I know he'd like you because heloves jazz and I'll meet you at
his house.
And she gave me the address andso I went there and in fact he
was.
Yeah, he loved jazz.
He made that very clear and thefunny thing is he could play on

(28:50):
any given day.
He could play recite a famousjazz pianist, bill Evans' tune
called Waltz for Debbie.
He could play it perfectly andthen the next day it was like a
child playing, trying to play it.
It was just so, and I thinkthis is true of him generally.

(29:16):
He has.
He had no self, no discipline,you know what I mean.
He had to focus and reallyconcentrate on getting a craft,
whether it be comedy or pianoplaying or whatever it is.
Just I don't think he had thepatience, I think he was just, I
don't know.
That was In a sense.
I think that was his downfallin many ways.

(29:37):
But in any case we becamebuddies, friends.
And the next thing I know he'sdoing this movie and he talked
the director Michael Ritchie, Ithink was his name, right,
mm-hmm, yep, and I did, I had afew credits.
So he talked the director intohaving me do the score and I
don't know whether we discussedthis.

(29:58):
We probably did.
But when you've got a movielike Fletch and the same thing
was true with Neighbors, which,as I said, I've also got that
score thrown out but thephilosophy of a movie that's got
the basically a dramatic moviewith comedic.
You know things happening offto the side, but they aren't the

(30:20):
focus of the movie.
The focus is the story,whatever it is.
I mean, fletch is a detective.
I don't even remember what thestory was anymore, it's too long
.
But he's got to solve somethingright.
He's got to file a murder orwhatever he really is.
There's a mystery about bothDancer, it doesn't matter.
All right, okay, so I wrote ascore that was by its very

(30:42):
nature very contemporary butdramatic.
Let the, let the comedy playout by itself, and they dubbed
the movie, they previewed it forTom I can't think of his last
name at Universal at the time,the president, maybe Tom Pollock
Right and what happened wasright around that time a little

(31:02):
movie called Beverly Hills Copcame out and the composer of
that movie, harold Faltermeier,had written a thing which played
all through that movie, whichwent Dan Dan, dan, dan, dan, Dan
, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan,dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan,
dan Dan.
And of course I used to tease,I used to joke about that

(31:23):
because you got to chase sceneDan Dan, dan, dan, dan Dan, love
theme Dan Dan, dan Dan,stalking criminals, the bad guys
Dan Dan Dan.
You know, whatever one size fitsall, but whether that
philosophy is correct or not,the point is that that tune
became a hit and I think Tomwhat's his name at Universal saw

(31:45):
the movie and said well,there's nothing in here that's
going to be a hit, let's getthat guy who did Beverly Hills
Cop.
So my score was thrown out.
I don't think, I don't knowwhether director, I don't know
whether any of the actual moviemakers that produced or director
had any say in it, or whetherthey what their thoughts were.
I never got that far.

(32:06):
I never heard from any of themagain.

How does that conversation go, though, tom?
It's like they call you to say,you know, sorry, I mean, that's
got to be a big blow.

Tom Scott (32:16):
Well, the call came, I believe the call, I know the
call came from my agent, okay, Ibelieve, who had found it out
and told me, and first of my,after, it was a jeez.
You know, it was a great score,I really wanted to have it in
the movie.
And my agent very, verycorrectly says Tom did the check
clear.
Well, well, yes, it did.

(32:36):
Okay, you know what they can doanything with the music that
they want to do.
That's their right.
So you know, get over it.
So I did.

But do you own the ?
You own the rights to thatmusic, though, correct, oh, no,
oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

Tom Scott (32:53):
Unless you're, you know, a Henry Mancini or John
Williams or something like that,it is almost universally a
prerequisite of of you'regetting to compose the music for
it A television or a movie thatthe publishing entity whoever
it is usually associated withthe, with the film company is

(33:16):
the publisher, and what thatmeans is that the publisher
actually owns the music, and thepublisher and the composer, or
composers, share 50, 50 inwhatever royalties accrue.
So that was the deal and, yeah,they own it.
They could do whatever the hellthey want.

So unfortunately, that great score
just lives in limbo somewherebecause it really can't be used
by you and it probably won't beused by them.

Tom Scott (33:42):
Well it you know what .
No one would ever know if Istole it back.
Actually, yeah, and if there'snot a whole lot of money to be
made, it's not worth it forlawyers to go after anybody.
I doubt that anyone will comeafter me because I, you know, I
haven't.
But I'm saying, if I did, Idon't think it'd be a problem.

Do you think that they back catalog a song or the
score that you made and maybethink, maybe in another movie
someday they'll use?

Tom Scott (34:06):
it.
Well, it's possible.
I've never.
Well, I will say not.
In that case.
I have certainly, on my royaltystatements from BMI, have seen
that pieces of my music havebeen inserted in other movies
and television shows.
That's not uncommon, but notthat one.
I don't think.

How much direction do they give you
when you're creating a score?
I mean, obviously you must seethe movie with no music.
Do they give you what they'relooking for in each scene?

Tom Scott (34:37):
That varies.
Okay, some directors are kindof give you a general idea.
See back in the.
I remember I wrote the music forone of the original Planet of
the Apes movies and at that timea guy named Lionel Newman, who
was part of the Newman family,which included his nephew, randy

(34:57):
Newman, and Alfred Newman, afamous film composer, and others
the music supervisor of thestudio really was the guy that
called the shots.
I mean, I saw Lionel Newmanthrow a producer out of a
recording session once becausehe thought he was being a jerk.
Get out of here, let us do ourjob, leave it.

(35:17):
We don't care what you think.
So it's not like that anymore,I guarantee you.
But in any case it all depends.
I don't honestly I don'tremember the meetings I had with
Michael Ritchie.
I'm sure I did.
I will tell you that my fatherwas briefly involved in some of

(35:39):
the composing for the movie theColor Purple, which Quincy Jones
was the music music overseer,and there were several composers
who we hired to do variousscenes, and I managed to obtain
a copy of Steven Spielberg'snotes as to what the music
should do.
It scared the hell out of me.

(35:59):
I don't mind telling you he waslike every detail what he
wanted the music to do.
Almost second by second, it waslike, oh my God, and I found it
just stunningly specific.

Laker Jim (James Kanowitz (36:15):
Would that be easier or harder to
follow?

Tom Scott (36:18):
Well, I just thought if I had to write a music based
on this, I'd be like I'm afraidto do anything.
The fact that John Williams hasthrived with that, with
direction like that, is just onemore reason why this guy is so
great.

And he's still going.
91 years old, is still going,he's still going strong.

Tom Scott (36:38):
He's a beautiful guy.

He certainly is.
Ok Fletch fans.
It's time we tease the bigsurprise, and here it is.
I asked Tom if he had any ideawhere the original score to
Fletch was.
His response I have no idea.

I did also Some idea.

But he went home and Tom dug through
40 years of his archives and hefound it.
I did, and he's going to shareit with us today.
Ok, tom, is it safe to say thatin 40 years no one has heard
this music?
No, let me ask you who hasheard it.

Tom Scott (37:18):
Well, the people who recorded it my band, other than
that, I think that's about itand the people involved with the
film had to cut it in, but ithasn't been heard publicly since
1984.
That movie, or 85?
Yeah 85, yeah.

Now I know I can speak for the three
of us as well as probably theFletch fans listening at home.
We feel very special andhonored to be joining this
unique select group of peoplethat have heard this.

Yes.

Laker Jim (James Kanowi (37:51):
Because fans just never get to hear
this type of stuff.
So this is really cool.
Now, which one are you playingfirst?
So I guess we'll play thecredits.

The main title.

Tom Scott (38:00):
The main, because the main title comes after the
opening scene.
So if you're going to play thisfrom the start of the movie, it
would be that opening, openingcue.
Yeah, opening cue.

And if you're trying to match it up
in your head at home, this playsover the title sequence
introing the movie.
It basically runs through everyactor that appears in the movie
and, a minute and 24 secondslater, fades into Chevy on the
beach.
Yeah, I can totally see thatplaying over the title sequence,

(39:16):
which is something that moviesdon't do anymore, right, yeah?

Honestly, it's not too far off from what we heard
in the opening credits of FletchLids.
Yes, it's a different variationof the Baltimore theme, but I
mean it's there's the same kindof tone there.

Yeah , I definitely agree.
I think it shares some innateDNA, Fletch DNA.

Tom Scott (39:35):
You must have stolen it from me, damn it.

Wait up, let's hear this part.
It immediately gives you thatmystery vibe.

Is that what you're?
I assume that's what you weregoing for.
Tom was that kind of mysterybecause there's a little jazzy
and influence in there too.
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Scott (40:02):
Absolutely, absolutely.

Maybe a little noirish, a little noir going on
there, you know.

Tom Scott (40:08):
That's right, exactly , that's the way it struck me.

So that's what Greg Matola was going for in the
new Fletch movie was a.
It was a very jazzy soundtrack,Right.
So I and he had mentioned morethan once that he was really
influenced by old noir films andthat kind of score, so it
sounds like that's where youwere going as well, yeah, and
I'm a lover of noir too.

Tom Scott (40:31):
It's great, okay.

Now the next track that Tom was able
to find for us is what he callsthe title sequence.
Now, this immediately followsthe credits music and
essentially would be where theFultemeyer Fletch theme sits in
the movie where Chevy does thevoiceover and sets up what he's
doing on the beach.
Now listen, we all love theFultemeyer Fletch theme.
We're not going to pretend,just cause Tom's here, that we

(40:56):
don't Right, but let's listen tothis with an open mind, pretend
we've never heard that musicand let's try to see what this
would sound like as the originalFletch theme.
I don't know about you guys,I'm big in it.

(41:55):
I'm a big fan of the Fletchtheme.

Tom Scott (42:45):
I'm a big fan of the Fletch theme.

As I'm sitting here listening to
you talk, I'm kind offantasizing about the movie and
how this music would fit in.
Let's take a listen to whatthat would sound like.

My name is Irwin Fletcher.
I'm an investigative reporterfor a Los Angeles paper.
You probably read my stuffunder the byline of Jane Doe or
the Haste Better than Irwin.
The last three weeks I've beenloitering around the beach
trying to pass for an amiableminor league junkie.
I'm not out of gruel, it's tooobvious.
It's like you don't give a crapand you fit right in.

This is really picked up.
Huh, it's a good pose.

What is it?
The Columbia National Hall?
Yeah, that's awesome.

It sounds pretty damn good.
That fits, that's great.
Did you know that was going tofit?

Tom Scott (44:22):
I did.
I knew it would fit.
I'd seen it in my head.
I mean, that's what's in.
You know, if any film composerworth his salt is visualizing
the scene and composing, youknow you're not trying to like.
It's not like fitting a squarepeg in a round hole.
This is what the film says tome musically.

I'm just thinking about how many
places that fits that.

I know, I love the beginning, I know.

Tom Scott (44:53):
I know it's very like oh.
Something's happening.
Yeah, something's going tohappen.

Something foreboding, you know.

Tom Scott (45:01):
Yeah, exactly, right, right.
Well, if you get that from it,then mission accomplished.

How long is something?
I know that we're just talkingin generalities.
Yeah, how long would somethinglike this take from composing to
recording?
I mean, what's the timeframe onsomething like this?

Tom Scott (45:18):
Well, I don't remember in this particular case
exactly, but I would say fromthe inception of the, for the
first meeting where we're, youknow, okay.
Now the composing begins, fromthis point forward is probably
two to three months, okay.

(45:38):
So let me let me back up alittle bit and say that there's
kind of an inherent, inherentproblem in being a composer for
films, in the sense that addingin the music is at the very end
of the process.
The process begins, of course,with a book or a script, and
then they got a package tofigure out who's going to the

(45:59):
studio decides to do it, they'vegot to decide who's the
producer, the director and allthe other tech people and so on,
and then the movie's filmed.
That takes months and monthsand then they start editing and
right around that time they wantto like start talking to
composers, if they haven'talready.
So I ran into this not in thisparticular case, but I've run
into this before that duringthis, somewhere, during the

(46:23):
shooting, the producer and thedirector start arguing, having
differences.
So by the time I brought in,there's a full blown, you know,
war going on between twofactions, or maybe the studios
at odds with the director.
You know, there's so much roomfor for for unpleasantness to

(46:43):
happen.
You know that you're very luckyif you get all through that.
Everybody's like loving it.
So I've been caught in themiddle of like, what do I do
when this guy says this to me?
And this guy says this, okay,so initially it's the director,
it's supposed to be thedirector's vision.
That's my job, as I woulddefine it to help musically,

(47:05):
help the director realize hisvision, whatever that is.
So that one of my, one of mypoint was like, while I'm
composing music to what I have,to the version of the film that
I have or that I have been shown, things could change and of
course that affects the musicgreatly if a scene becomes
shorter or longer or getschanged or deleted or screwed

(47:29):
with in some other way.
That obviously because music isabout exact timings and so
that's that.
So you have to deal with that.
So you know I would I'd guessedtwo and a half to three months.
It would be this average timefrom start to finish.
Because in a movie like thatthere's you know that's a that's
probably an hour and 15 minutemovie, but like 75 minutes, you

(47:53):
know there could be as much as40 minutes, 45 minutes of music
and that's.
You know, that's like a wholealbum is worth of music.
Yeah, when we used to, when weused to have albums which we
don't anymore.

From what we've heard, fultemeyer
only had a few weeks to composehis version.
Have you ever been on that sideof hey?
You don't have two to threemonths, you have a few weeks and
you bang this Well.

Tom Scott (48:16):
I'm sure I have.
I try to remember and you know,look, you just have to crank
out something.
It may, it may not be your bestwork, or you may end up like
you know, coffee and things tokeep you up, you know, beyond
your normal schedule to get it,get it done.
There is a certain panic thatsets in if you're in on a

(48:39):
deadline.
Which kind of well.
I did so much TV and filmduring that period, the 70s and
80s, that I thought of myself askind of a deadline composer.
Give me the deadline.
And because I won't, I can'tthink of anything until I know
that there's like on WednesdayI'm gonna, I gotta show up with
some shit, you know.

Okay , so now, if that wasn't awesome
enough, tom also found twochase scene tracks.
Yes, now he's not 100% surewhich scenes these belong to, I
don't remember, but let's thinkabout the fledgling movie.
Okay, there's two kind of chasescenes that I can think of that
have music to them.
One is the car chase scene withthe kid, and the second one is

(49:26):
when Gummi's getting arrestedand Fletch and the other junkies
are running from the cops.
So I'm going to say, because ofthe length of each track, I
think this one that we're aboutto listen to probably is the car
chase scene, okay, when hecommandeers the car.
So let's lay that dialogue overthis one and see if it works.

(49:50):
And we're hearing this for thefirst time, so let's, let's give
this a listen.
Afternoon Smart patrol.

How'd your emissions checked?
No, sir, lower carbons, oh sir,no sir.
Well, let's drag it out, weshall.

Smell's pretty good and this is a
straight-viewing, but thickburrs in the out-biter of the
woods or in the woods, pinsomeIn as well.
Then piss it off.
How do you catch a shut-eye?
Just stay back in the door.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
By the way, through your nose,I always use a little chewing

(50:23):
gum on these rides.
They're filters out thepollutants.
Oh shit, I wish you got somegood drill work there.
Keep out the ocean.
I gotta get this thing up to 95.
Check out the floor.
Carbon output.

Don't worry about the speed limit here
.
That's why we got the policeescort.
You're a cop.

As you know, are you gonna take me to jail
for car theft?
Right, you steal the car.
What's your gain?
Well, I'm not insured.
That's a crime anymore.
There's a lot of changes to law.
No, I could add a little fame.
I play with my buddies, kind ofa hide-and-seek kind of thing.
I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'mnot sure, I'm not sure, I'm not
sure, I'm not sure, I'm notsure, I'm not sure.

(51:10):
I think it works.

Had we never heard Dan Hartman's get
out of town, you know, musiclike this would definitely fit
we wouldn't think anything of it, and I think in a way it almost
works better with no vocals inthe song, undoubtedly.
Kind of allows Chevy's comedyto be the focal point and no
audio competition.
By the way, a few years laterthis might have been stolen as

(51:47):
the airwolf.

Tom Scott (51:48):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know what it was astyle of that time.
I think there was a groupcalled Tangerine Dream.

Oh, yes, I remember them.

Tom Scott (51:57):
They were repetitive, very, you know, rhythmic.
Actually, some of that stuffwith groups like Tangerine Dream
they did electronically.
I wanted to do it acoustically.
So I actually had a wonderfuljazz musician, one of the great
jazz musicians of all time,victor Feldman, playing the
marimba.
He's doing that Just on amarimba, you know, with mallets.

(52:19):
And Richard T played piano, oneof the great pianists, a New
York based pianist who was oneof the great great pianists ever
.
There'll never be another onelike him.
And I just had all the you knowlisten.
I, when I listen to that, Ijust think very fondly of the
actual recording process andwhat a joy it was to be in the

(52:39):
room with these great players.

So almost 40 years ago.
That music can still put you inthe recording studio that day.

Hell yeah, great memory, all right.

We got one more chase track.
I'm going to link this up tothe gummy police chase under the
pier and I'll sprinkle in somemovie quotes and sounds so you
guys get a feel for kind of whatI was thinking.
All right, let's give this onea listen.

Larry, it's me.
This is to see if you've gotanything on stand where from the
time you used to live in Utah.
Yeah, and also check out arealtor in Provo.
His name is Swarthout.

Hey, what are you doing?
Tell me again, it's weird.
Hey, what are you doing?

(53:42):
Hey, you're really nuts, youokay?
Yeah, I feel like a hundreddollars.

Yeah , wow, there's so much soul in
this music.

You got to check your records.
I swear to God, that's what I'mgoing to use in Roadhouse and
they might not be following that.

I know it was.

Tom Scott (54:11):
Well, again, it's a style that was very Now.
I had programmed that in asequencer and then let the guys
kind of make up parts around ittelling them I wanted to do some
kind of thing here.
I gave it in very general terms, knowing that these guys would
just come up with great stuff.

That was my question, Tom, is how much of
that is improv versus what youwrote?

Tom Scott (54:38):
Yeah, it's a mix.
It's a mix.
Yeah, I know it's this long.
I know at this bar it's got tochange.
There was a point where themood changes and I suggest,
maybe to make that mood, whydon't you just lay out and just
sort of give general direction?
I got that from Quincy QuincyJones.
Years ago he was writing a scoreto one of theback in the days

(55:01):
when we liked Bill Cosby.
He had a show before the one,the famous one.
He had one where he was a gymcoach.
It was sort of a sitcom orwhatever the hell it was.
Quincy wrote the score and Iwas in the band playing on some
of the things.
It was always a small band andQuincy didn't write any music.
He would just go around with astopwatch draped around his neck

(55:22):
on a chain and he'd go.
This scene has to be okay.
You do this and you triedsomething like this and it was
just and it was great.
It was so fun and it took a lotlonger than the score where all
the music's written out.
So maybe the producers were youknow, po, that they that it
cost them more than you, but themusic was totally unique.

(55:44):
Because of that, nobody wasdoing that at that time
Everything was like verytraditional film score.
You know, we have music and wehave these studio musicians, we
conduct them.
Now Quincy was like no, let's,let's, let's make some stuff up
here and it's, it has a soundall its own.

And so that that lesson was not lost
on me, Well, let me tell youwhat's not lost on us is how
uniquely rare and special todayhas been.
Same.
What we just listened to issomething fans don't get to
listen to.
Yeah, and us in particular,were a fandom that has never

(56:21):
been given deleted scenes.
We've always been on the huntfor something.
Hearing your music with themovie laid over, it's almost
like we were given given somecut scenes.
It's almost like we weretreated to some cutting room
floor fledged stuff.

Oh yeah.

And to have it done on our Fledgcast
the fact that Tom Scott is nolonger just a mysterious name on
the trailer or the poster.
Your music is now part of theFletch world.
I think that's pretty damn cool.
I'm so happy we were able to bea part of it today.
This was amazing.

Tom Scott (56:59):
Awesome.

Tom, you mentioned your friendship
with Chevy Chase.
Did that help you get the gigon his talk show?
Yeah, as his band leader, yes.
Now what was that like?

Tom Scott (57:12):
When he called me and said he wanted to do it because
I had just done the Pat Sajakshow, which had gone a year and
a half.
Right, and Pat unfortunatelywas not either, did not have, he
didn't have the real enthusiasmto really really try and make
it a hit.
And I don't think he had themakeup either, because he was

(57:33):
not a stand-up comic.
The monologues we did, and thepoor writers, they were doing
their best, but Pat didn't knowhow to deliver jokes and he
would come out sometimes andwhen he he would deliver the, do
the setup and then deliver thepunchline and actually back up a

(57:54):
little bit because he was like,are they going to throw us?
I don't know what he wasthinking, but let's put it this
way, he lacked confidenceBecause you got, if you're going
to be good at that thing,you've got to, like, believe in
your joke.
And the other thing was we hadI haven't thought of this in a
while we had a sea of blue hairin our audiences.

(58:15):
They had to go out and actuallybust people in from, I guess,
senior citizen homes.
I don't know where they gotthem all, maybe the universal
tour.
Yeah, that's right, exactly.
I remember one night HarryShearer you know from, you know
Harry from from from theSimpsons Final tap Final tap, of
course and a friend of mine.

(58:35):
He was on the show and I forgetwhy he was.
He was obviously, I don't know,promoting something and the and
he did some jokes which justwent straight over the heads of
the audience and out the doorand and I I was a crime across
the studio set is set up wherethe desk and the, you know, and

(58:58):
the guest seats are on one sideand the band stands on the other
.
But I could.
I could hear enough and readlips enough to know what
happened.
We went to commercial and Pat,pat Sajak says to Harry Shearer.
He says, look, I'm sorry aboutthe audience, and Harry says
what audience?

Oh, wow, that's awesome Anyway.

Tom Scott (59:25):
So you're back to Chevy so.

Oh wait, sorry to cut you off, but
but Chevy was on the very firstepisode of the Pat Sajak show
and I remember, oh my God, hewas there to promote flash lives
.
Oh, that's why I mentionedearlier There've been several
corners that we've turned andrun right into you.

Tom Scott (59:43):
You probably mentioned me, probably Didn't he
, or not he?

did Probably did.
I'll play for you what Chevysaid.
No, we were talking about.

Tommy Scott a second ago and I was
saying that this is honestly Ialways say this the best read
man in the country.

Yeah , so there we go.

Tom Scott (01:00:04):
Cool.
I'm sure it's been a while, awhile, geez that kid.

Laker Jim (James Kanowitz) (01:00:08):
Well , I don't know if this will jog
your memory, but when Pat Sajakwas introducing Chevy, he
couldn't remember the name ofthe Fletch movie that he was
bringing Chevy out to promote.

Big Bob West (01:00:19):
I'm tickled to death that this guy is here
tonight.
He is an Emmy Award winner forhis work in Saturday Night Live.
He's now become a big motionpicture star and he has another
Fletch movie coming out.
I don't know, son of Fletch, orFletch Returns, or here's your
Fletch.
He'll tell us in a moment,ladies and gentlemen, chevy
Chase.

Tom Scott (01:00:34):
Unbelifficable, unbelievable man.
How can?

you.
How can you do that?
Did the exact same thing, bythe way, at the end of the
interview too.

Announcer (01:00:41):
Fletch, it's called Fletch Lives, lives.
Yeah, I knew that, and that'show the march, as far as you
know.

Tom Scott (01:00:48):
What are you getting?
Oh gosh, I've got another PatSajak story I just remembered.
So, yes, you know, the mostextreme example of disinterest
in a guest I have ever seen wasit was some soap opera person.
And listen, admittedly they'renot exactly, you know, geniuses

(01:01:09):
in any sense, or interesting inmany, in most senses.
So it's if you're going to havethem on, you've got to, you've
got to do a little work.
So this guest came on.
I don't remember whether it wasmale or female, I just don't
remember.
What I do remember is that Patwas borderline rude in his, you

(01:01:30):
know, almost showing contemptfor the guest.
And we went to commercial and Istepped on the button and I can
talk to the director and I saidwe're doing this over right and
he says no, no, we're keepingit.
I said really, and at thatmoment, and we're in commercial,
so I, you know we're, I don'tknow we, sometimes we played
during commercials most of thetime, but I, all I remember is

(01:01:53):
thinking I came this close towalk, to putting off my take on
my headset, walking over to Patand saying don't ever do that
again.
That's amazing.

Jake Parrish (01:02:03):
I can't believe he lasted as long as he did I mean
, that's how, that's how, that'show pissed I was.

Tom Scott (01:02:07):
And yeah, lasted longer than Chevy showed.

Oh, much longer yeah.

Tom Scott (01:02:11):
Yeah, but see, for actually why I thought it would
be good to do the Pat's agentwas I had seen him.
There's a show, a morning,local morning show called AMLA
on ABC, on Channel seven hereABC, and he had he had sub
hosted a couple of mornings andI just happened to have the TV
on and I thought, geez, he'sreally good at this and he was

(01:02:33):
funny and glib.
He didn't have to do an openingmonologue, he's just out there
with whoever the co-host, thelady was, I can't remember who
was.
So when the offer came in Ithought, okay, pat, this is what
Pat wants to do.
This is great, it's going to bea good thing and I liked it.
I went and met the producer,nice guy, and I got a great band
.
I'll say that man, I'm very,very proud of them.

(01:02:56):
But Pat's heart really wasn't init and we came on the same time
as just a week from our cityhall.
So in the press it immediatelybecame our city hall versus
Pat's.
Say, jack, you know it was likea they, they manufactured a war
.
Now, when you're doing a showlike that five nights a week,

(01:03:17):
it's all you can do to just keepup with each day.
At least you know you're notpaying attention to what they're
doing over there.
But of course in the press theygot nothing else to do.
So why not?
But we lost the war because Ihad seen Arsenio Hall enough
times to know this guy reallywants it bad.
And he got he.

(01:03:37):
He got all his friends to, youknow, to strong on all his
friends to come on and had thisenthusiasm and had a, you know,
had an audience that wasenthusiasm and we got blue
haired ladies.
I mean, it's just that's not awar, you can win Right, and plus
, he just wasn't.
You know he had the other, hehad the quiz show to fall back
on, which is exactly what he did.

(01:03:58):
You get the Lakers.
Yeah, I'm lucky if I can getthe real first one.

That's great, and plus, johnny was still on at the
time too.
You know Johnny was on.

Tom Scott (01:04:07):
So at that time there were like four.

Chevy Chase as Fletch (01:04:09):
Yeah.

Tom Scott (01:04:10):
Or three, wait us, johnny Arsenio, yeah, three,
three major ones, and there's afew other that had come and gone
before that.
Anyway, in Chevy what Chevycalled me and said I'm doing a
show for Fox, which, by the way,had just decided to make the
move to be the fourth majornetwork, it was just three.

(01:04:31):
And I said I remember this verywell.
I said, chevy, I appreciate theoffer, I just don't think the
world is, is is ready for a yetanother talk show.
And he said, well, and you guysprobably won't remember this
because you're too young, but hesaid do you remember the old
Steve Allen late night show?
Now, steve, Allen on a show inblack and white and I was a kid

(01:04:56):
and I loved it because he wasright on Vine Street there, next
to a place called the HollywoodRanch Market, which was just a
little local market, you know,with open air, steve Allen among
, and he was so good at justmaking something out of nothing.
He would go across the streetwith a microphone on a long
court, literally across thestreet and just start talking to

(01:05:19):
customers in the market and itwould be fantastic, hysterical.
He just makes stuff happen, youknow, and be so glib and funny.
So Chevy says to me that's thekind of show I want to do.
I said well, that thatinterests me.
That sounds good.
Another thing with guests andtalking their latest products,
whatever it is.

Irwin M. Fletcher (01:05:41):
Fantastic.

Tom Scott (01:05:57):
Well, fox had other ideas, because they were trying
to try and so hard to show thatwe can have the best guests and
we can do what Johnny does andwhat the rest of them do.
That that's all they wanted isa show with guests hawking
products, and so Chevy wasn'tgood at that.
I never found out whether hewould have been good at the

(01:06:18):
other thing Just going out, andI never had a chance.
I have a feeling he wouldn't beas good as Steve Allen.
Steve Allen was exceptionallygood at that kind of thing and
you know we were on for what?
Six weeks and off.

Did you do any test shows, and then I think we
did, I hope we did.

Tom Scott (01:06:37):
I know we did on the Seijak show, three or four of
them, which is great, to kind ofget the feel of it.
Yeah, we must have done testshows.
I don't really remember muchand I remember he had a guy, a
guy who played, who was abasketball player to shoot hoops
, kind of a distraction, and hehad oh, he had a piano installed
in his desk which again hecould be great one night and

(01:06:59):
just suck the next night.
It was in a fish tank behindhim, just like all this shit.
I don't know even why, but thefirst, what I do remember, the
first show where he had GoldieHawn on was a disaster.
It was, the interview was awfuland they started.
You know, they know what youalways hate when you're two

(01:07:20):
people, they start talking aboutstuff that only they are in on,
like, remember when?
you had the inside jokes likethe audience might as well not
even be there.
I don't know what they'retalking about.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it was.
Didn't she start singing to?
God, I hope not mistaken, therewas a like.
I think there was a part whereshe started probably.
Well it was, I don't remember.

Tom Scott (01:07:40):
It was her son's birthday and he was there.
There was something about abirthday cake, I don't know, it
was just not the cake.
Into the coming guys laugh,yeah, god, god awful.

So how was Chevy during this time?

I mean, did he seem enthusiastic about it?

Did he?
Was he like, okay, no, no,here's the thing.

Tom Scott (01:07:58):
You know, I don't know what.
This happened right away orvery shortly, it was only six
weeks.
It had happened quick, prettyquick.
They started calling him inthat Lucy, something who was the
head of Fox at that time, orlittle Fox, head of Fox Crime
time program, whatever theirtitle was.
She was the boss anyway of thatof our show for Fox.

(01:08:21):
She would call a meeting aftereach show.
I didn't attend them, but Iknow that Chevy went in there
and he just got, probably gotpasted.
And you know who asked to dothings, that I mean they wanted
it to be Johnny Carson.
I'm sure he's not Johnny Carsonand never was and never.

(01:08:41):
Here's the biggest problem.
Chetty didn't, didn't reallylike people that much, he didn't
really give a shit about them,and so it makes it difficult to
to, to, to seem like you careand do an enthusiastic interview
.
So those meetings, I know, werejust really hard on him.
Now, 10 years later, the phone,my phone, rings on my car and I

(01:09:03):
pick it up and he says Hello,ass wipe, which what he would
call me from time to time.
Maybe he called other peoplethat I don't know.
I said oh hi, chevy, how areyou?
It's a long time.
No, you're from.
How are you?
He, in his way, I think it wasan attempt to apologize to me
for what he admitted was a lotof self medicating.

(01:09:24):
Now I don't know what thatmeant, but I knew that.
I realized that part of hiscondition was due to his drug
use and and it certainly didn'thelp he was probably just taking
them to numb himself from thepain of having to do something
they didn't really want to do.

Never fallen off of Christmas trees and
everything else he did on theoriginal SNL show.

Tom Scott (01:09:49):
Yeah maybe, maybe there was some brain damage for
a while oh.

God, Johnny and him didn't like each
other because they had theywere amping him up to be the
replacement for for.

Tom Scott (01:10:00):
John.
Well, there was a period that'speriod where that was true.
I don't know how Johnny feltabout it.
I, you know.
I mean, I guess, where there'sa potentially young gun in town.
I suppose to the old guy it'salways been intimidating.
There'll never be anotherJohnny Carson.
He was.
He was unique and great in hisway, as was Steve Allen and a

(01:10:20):
few of the other guys, but allin their unique ways.
But neither Pat Sejek or ChevyChase were cut out to be a late
night talk show host.

That's just the bottom line especially with our
city, of being so powerful.

Tom Scott (01:10:33):
Yeah, that's right, that certainly didn't help, yeah
.

Yeah, I mean, they don't they a lot of people that
are listening and worryingaround for that, and they'll
understand how much of anaudience or senior had and how
much of a megastar he wasn'tthat time.

Tom Scott (01:10:44):
Right, Well, he just he just exuded enthusiasm and
you know, hey, we're going tohave a great show tonight and
you know you, he meant it.

Electric audience with the whoop, whoop, whoop and
everything you know right, patwas, like you know, just
announcing.

Tom Scott (01:10:59):
He's like announcing.
Did you ever talk to?

any other Like did you talk to Doc?
Or anybody like that, beforegoing on to maybe.

Tom Scott (01:11:05):
Oh, Doc and I may have remained friends to this
day.

I watch old Johnny Carson clips and and Doc was so
talented I mean, he was a hugepart of that show.

Tom Scott (01:11:16):
And the guy played practice trumpet, you know,
three hours a day for every dayof his life.
I mean, yeah, lord, I don'thave that kind of work ethic.
I'm sorry, but I don't have asaxophone player.
You don't need it.
He depends on these lips, sothey've got to be.
You know, he's got to keep themup.
You can.
You can get away with notplaying that much and still

(01:11:37):
sound pretty good.
The sax.

Laker Jim (James Kanowi (01:11:39):
Luckily you didn't get the call for the
magic hour, the magic Johnsonshow.
Sheila, you got.

Chevy Chase as Fletch (01:11:43):
Oh, that's right, that's right, that
last one that lasted about thesame as the lake that ours, geez
.

Tom Scott (01:11:50):
They were throwing anything at the scene, what
would I know?
And magic was received like apleasant enough guy, but he had
no chops, as I mean that's, youknow to do that five nights a
week.
That is a gig for which youhave to be uniquely qualified.

Hey Tom, by any chance, have you
seen the new Fletch movie?

Tom Scott (01:12:07):
I have not.

Laker Jim (James Kanowitz (01:12:09):
Would I like it?
Yeah, I think you would.
It's called Confessed Fletch.
John Ham plays Fletch in thisone.

Tom Scott (01:12:13):
No, I won't like it because I will say to myself why
didn't he call me?

And, as we mentioned earlier, the
director, reg Mottola, huge fanof jazz, huge fan, huge fan of
Fletch.
He kind of fantasized thatmaybe, since Fletch is a LA guy,
he's a fan of, maybe West Coastjazz.
So he laid his favorite Iforget if it's Chet Baker or
Chet.

Martin, chet Baker , chet Baker, yeah.

Turns over the movie, thinking the
studio will never go for it.
And when they sort of bit onthe jazz theme, yeah, he was
able to put together asoundtrack.
That sort of like a dream cometrue of him getting to make a
Fletch movie and use jazz as thesoundtrack Wow, awesome, I
should get to know him.

Tom Scott (01:12:58):
I like any director who likes jazz, is good in my
book.

We're hoping for a long string of new Fletch
movies from this director, oh,wow.

Laker Jim (James Kanowit (01:13:07):
What's his name again?
Reg Mottola.
He's a big supporter of ours.
He's a big fan of the show.
Oh great, he listens.
I'm sure with you as thesubject of today's episode, he's
definitely listening.

Tom Scott (01:13:17):
Okay, hi, greg, I'm still available.

What are you working on now, Tom?

Tom Scott (01:13:21):
What's you doing?
Well, of course I have my ownradio show, an Hour a Week on
KJazz here in Los Angeles.
Just finished show number 110.
So I guess it's going to lastCongratulations.
I plan to do podcasts.
I'm doing the Guy who Does that.
Another great cop show withjazz in it, michael O'Connelly.

Oh yes, bosch, Michael O'Connelly, who does
Bosch, and the Lincoln Lawyerand stuff like that, yes.

Tom Scott (01:13:50):
I'm doing a podcast with him, oh great.
I'm doing Rita Wilson, tomHanks' wife, who's great.
And I'm doing Tim Matheson,barbara Hershey, so I've got a
lot of that going on.
I found that I discovered thatI really loved doing the
research.
I loved it.
Thank you guys.
I love to go and interviewsomebody where I know what the
hell I'm talking about, because,god knows, I actually years ago

(01:14:11):
did a radio interview with aguy and I sat down and he said
to me now, have you ever playedwith a band before?
But I enjoy it, I do.
You know I obviously I useWikipedia, I use any other
sources I can find, and it's fun.

I got to ask you more Talk about working with.
You mentioned Fagan and SteelyDan and obviously they have a
big jazz influence, but thatalbum is just Asia, asia and
that band is just.
I mean, they're massive.

Tom Scott (01:14:41):
I could not agree with you more.
There's something like we saidthat the movie music that I
wrote for Fletch it sounds likethe 80s.
I mean, it's unmistakable.
Asia is maybe, maybe the only,certainly one of the very few
records I've done.
That seems timeless.
It could have been done lastyear or 10 years ago, 20 years

(01:15:04):
ago or in 1976 when we actuallydid it.
It's got this quality.
That's just amazing to me.
I think largely because it'sacoustic.
It's very little electronicstuff that puts it in a, you
know, in the 70s, 80ssynthesizer category and it's
just so expertly played and thecombination of those amazing,

(01:15:26):
mysterious lyrics of theirs andFagan's voice and great, great
songwriting and great arrangingand great recording, that's just
a classic.
And I got that gig because I hada mutual friend I suppose I can
say this now.
He was a pot dealer and WalterBecker and I used to go to the

(01:15:47):
same guy and one day I met himthere a couple of times.
I didn't have any associationwith Steely Dan up to that point
.
I was acquainted with a coupleof their hits, but you know, not
really that far into it.
But he says to me look, we're,we're making our new record and
we're going to need some hornsection stuff.
You do that stuff, don't you?

(01:16:07):
I said, yeah, I do, in fact Ido, and so I met.
I went to the village recorderswhere they were working in West
Los Angeles, met with, metDonald and the producer, gary
Katz, who I can never figure outwhat Gary Katz did.
I liked him but he was justlike Donald Fagan would go.

(01:16:30):
I think this would be good.
Be good here.
What do you think Gary and Garywould go?
Oh yeah, it was just like a yesman, yes man.
But but obviously he, he wasthere for whatever reason and he
gave those guys comfort inwhatever way you know, you never
know.
Right.
So they gave me a real, realtape of the songs and they.
The only input they said was wedon't like high trumpets, like

(01:16:53):
screaming trumpets.
Fine, no problem.
So I walked in on a Mondaynight with these six
arrangements they had neverheard, and eight guys and lo and
behold, I managed to get allsix arrangements done in four
nights in the same week.
Wow, I lucked out there.

I'm telling you if I'm not in a good mood.
I think Peg is probably one ofmy favorite songs of all time.
I mean, there's there's not abetter song out there.
It's such a.
I agree with you.
Everything about it is just agreat, great song.

Tom Scott (01:17:21):
I know, I know every aspect of their music is like
top notch it is.
So I was lucky again.
I was lucky just to be.
I'm lucky to be in the room andshare that experience.

Lowdown is one of my, you know it's a great song.

That would be me, and let's not
forget that Chevy Chase was invery early drummer in Steely Dan
.
That's right.
See, it all comes full circle.
Six degrees of time, that'sgreat.
Well, tom, I just want to thankyou so much for your time today
, for the laughs, for thestories and, most importantly,
for letting us hear the music ofFletch.

(01:18:01):
To have the original scoreplayed on our platform, on our
Fletch cast, means the absoluteworld to us.
This will go down in the annalsof Fletch history.
Yeah, and the score around theoriginal score has finally been
answered, and we just want tothank you so much.

Tom Scott (01:18:18):
Well, you guys are a pleasure to talk to and I thank
you for indulging me.

Laker Jim (James Kanow (01:18:22):
Everyone .
You can follow Tom Scott onsocial media at Tom Scott
jasmine.
One word on Instagram andTikTok on there he's got tons of
great stories and MichaelJackson and growing pains.
Oh, we didn't even get thegrowing pains.
And don't forget to listen tohis podcast, the Tom Scott
podcast express Great,definitely looking forward to

(01:18:43):
that math lesson episode andhead over there, grab a few and
you'll be hooked, tom.
It's been an absolute pleasure.

Tom Scott (01:18:51):
Thank you so much.
It's my pleasure.

Thank you guys for Jake Bob and Tom
Scott.
I'm Lincoln, jim.
Thanks for listening.
Fletch fans, we'll talk to younext time you got it.
Thank you for listening.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Interview: Tom Scott & the original score to Fletch

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

All Episodes

Interview: Tom Scott & the original score to Fletch

Dateline NBC