Phil Hartman on Late Late Show w/Tom Snyder, April 10, 1995

[Music] hi folks and welcome back everybody I'm Tom this is the simulcast I've been running now live on Monday night the 10th of April 19 and 95 with Phil Hartman the star of the brand-new show on NBC which is called news radio and a bit later on the real role from roe v-- wade Norma McCorvey is here tonight Norma McCorvey with a very unusual story about the abortion clinic at which she works and the occupants of the suite of offices next door Phil Hartman and the real role from roe v-- wade Norma McCorvey on tonight's show I was away last week as you know you figured out that the program was in repeats and I thank you for watching those and for your kind calls to the office on voicemail last week and I was up in my favorite city in America that would be San Francisco California and I'm going through the paper up there last Monday and I notice in the listings for TV on channel 5 the CBS affiliate there that at 11:00 o'clock they have the Late Show with David Letterman and at 12:00 midnight they have the Late Late Show with TS I thought man this is great because normally they run the show a little bit later at night in San Francisco but we finally have achieved primetime status in the city by the bay and I thought why not call the general manager of channel 5 and thank him personally for the upgrade so I did and a very nice lady came on the phone and she said I'm sorry but the manager ism is in a meeting right now but would you like to talk with the program director I said absolutely what is her name and she said that would be miss Roach as in motel see she didn't say that but I I added that and you'll find out now how the conversation went okay so miss Roach Kay mother was very very nice system by the way I said I really want to thank you for the upgrade that you're running our show at 12 o'clock in San Francisco I'm very very happy and I can't thank you enough she said well Tom before you thank me to profusely keep in mind that the upgrade is for one night only it's n-c-double-a basketball night and tomorrow you'll go back to your regular time and I said what would the regular time be and she said that would be 2:30 in the morning so she said however she said you know we have to run Northern Exposure at midnight and then because there a Westinghouse station they have some other stuff that they have to run she said but you go on at 2:30 and I want you to know that we get a lot of complaints and when I say a lot I mean many many complaints from people who love your show and they videotape it every night and she said our goal is to get you on @midnight as quickly as we can I said thank you very much this is a nice end of the call right so you know as quickly as she can which I would imply to mean soon like the old gag about when the guys talking to God but I don't tell jokes so I won't do it but it'll be soon we'll be on the air at midnight don't beg in San Francisco anyway he said God how long to you is 600,000 years and God said a second and he said God how much to you is 650 million dollars and God said a dime and he said God could you spare a dime and God said sure just a second we'll be on channel 5 in San Francisco just a second back with Phil Hartman and your phone calls on the toll-free line after these messages thank you all for watching we'll be right back after a short commercial break [Music] for eight years and more Phil Hartman made us all laugh as one of the stars of Saturday Night Live and now he's back at it with his own sitcom which is called news radio on NBC thanks for coming over my friend and welcome to CBS it's good to have you here thanks town pleasure - first off what has become in the last couple of weeks here the bashing of Saturday Night Live I mean the people on this show have been criticized in New York magazine newspaper accounts you had some quotes in the New York Post what what happened in your view at Saturday Night Live to bring it to its present position yo you were there the past eight years from the glory days to now yeah gosh you know it's difficult to talk about it because any criticism levied against the show ultimately takes on personal overtones and impugns the reputations of the comedians who are there now and I'm loathe to do that I'm not asking you for that my friend but you know you you you had a telling point and a quote you gave to the New York Post well I listen I was there for eight years the show was close to being cancelled when I was hired in 86 and and so after my tenure I can't help but have an opinion and I feel irrespective of the talent that's on the show now and I adore these guys you know and and women I worked with them it seemed to me that what really made this show peak was having utility players who could do a lot of different things I I did that Dana Carvey did Dan Aykroyd Billy Crystal people who could do a lot of different things impersonations voices Bill Clinton you were a you were Ed McMahon you were Phil Donahue you were the waiter in the restaurant you were any number of people who they could take you week from week and make you somebody different because you are malleable you were flexible well so my contention is that having performers like that on that show expands the possibilities in the realm of the writing area you can do political debates you can do the OJ trials you can do Newt Gingrich in Congress whatever's in the news and one might say that the show is at its best when it is satirizing what was in the news week and now you have a lot of funny people on the show but they're relatively limited in what they can do comedic Lee and I I think there's nothing wrong with that show that a few utility players male and female wouldn't solve but where are these people you know we tried when Jan hooks left when we threw ten women out there and couldn't replace her you can't take talent for granted and I think that's the one thing that's borne out in this whole situation but telling quote that you gave was that Saturday Night Live was always a show that was very good at irreverently kicking people when they were down or suffering misfortune believe me I've had some experience now the show itself finds itself being in the very position of the people it parodied for so many years and that's ironic as you pointed out yeah I'm it seems there might be some poetic justice than that but the truth is I think everybody who loves comedy and political satire and specifically would love to see it make it come back no question and forces their lobbying to engineer that come back now what about drawing the line on something like Saturday Night Live or in living color or the other satirical programs on the air when you want to Lampoon somebody you want to make the most of a political joke or a personal caricature yet you don't want to cross the line where it becomes offensive in the audience's oh my god they went too far does everybody at Saturday Night Live or did you know when you work there where that line was the line that you would not cross well unfortunately we often found the line after the fact you know when you're writing satire you don't really know exactly where the line is it's a precipice that you walk up to and look over and you know if you don't get close to that line you're accused of losing your edge and if you go too far the audience tells you instantly when did they tell you that you knew right afterwards that you've gone too far when they're one with Chelsea Clinton yes on Wayne's World they did a top ten list the top ten things about having the clinton-gore administration in and one of them was those groovy gore babes and Mike Myers said too bad about Chelsea I guess she's a babe in waiting and it got kind of a groan from the audience and Hillary immediately responded in the press with vehemence and the show wrote an apology to the white house and we knew that we had gone too far with that I mean obviously here's a young child who is having enough difficulty I'm sure adjusting to this new lifestyle that's been thrust upon her and to to tease her like that it could have had repercussions beyond the obvious you know with friends and so on at school and it was wrong so we're with Phil Hartman on the toll-free at 1-800-800-9797 [Laughter] bilko and Danny's playing Colonel Hall glenne Headly is playing Rita the love interest and I'm the villain major Colin thorn and the director wanted me to look Aryan I'm one-quarter German and it all came out with the bleach you know I have to wear blue contacts what a great show member Silver's and and and Paul Ford the guy that was his card like I said where it's a trembling noise I don't know but let's back over here and take a look just what those guys taught you about comedic energy and and the glory of a great ensemble fantastic and the pictures before the lenses now for a religion around this year what a terrific idea for a movie what a terrific idea for a picture on Saturday Night Live who were your favorites of all I would hope that Ed McMahon was one you corrects it yes oh I just did so many you know Frankenstein and Phil Donahue yes and then impersonating the president and you met the president and was this after all the spoofing and everything else uh-huh and what'd he say well he was very charming he I told him that I had voted for him hoping to increase you know and he got up on stage later and said I want to thank Phil Hartman for voting for me but it doesn't make up for all the abuse I've taken he's a charming man but you know I I'm sure it gives him the willies having somebody make him look like a fat slob Gordon MacDonald junk food you know it's an ironic thing time I there was an interesting article in New York Times a few years ago about how when there's a Republican administration in power we tend to attack their policies we liberal satirist you know and and like now the Republicans are taken away kids lunches are putting women in the streets right whereas the Democrats well with the Democrats we agree with their policies so we attacked them personally their womanizing their drinking there you know the fast food addiction and that's much more hurtful to someone that and and so I don't expect to be invited to the White House Dana Carvey stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom and he did just a more or less a benevolent caricature of George Bush and and I did some pretty mean stuff with Clinton yeah but it was funny I remember the one time when when you said to the guy in the fast-food restaurant you're gonna finish those fries and then to the other guy could have a little your coke to wash it down I think the president would understand that kind of humor anyway I'm the news radio and and Phil Hartman after a commercial break were with Phil at one eight hundred nine five CBS TV you know it you love it you call it stand by we'll be right back after this break [Music] we're back with Phil Hartman of news radio on NBC in which he plays bill McNeal the crazy co-anchor of news radio now how many times did you visit the radio station or a news radio station to prepare yourself for this rule all told ya zero anyway well no I spoke to some people who worked at KNX our local shores radio station you know the show isn't really so much about radio as it is about an office environment and the interoffice politics and rivalries and peccadilloes and romances and things like that so I think it's more recognizable than just about anybody who works in a corporate situation Paul Sims wanted to call the show the office but the name was what's taken yeah yeah so you couldn't do that and what about playing the same character week in and week out and on Saturday Night Live you would have the luxury of being Bill Clinton one week Phil Donahue the next week a waiter the following week etc etc whereas here you are this one character all the time how difficult is that for you well I I was very anxious about it before the fact because I thought of myself as a utility guy and a variety performer but in doing it I realized there's an upside which is that you get to explore the full dimension of a character in by doing it in serial you you know one week you touch on this aspect of the persona the next week something else and so I'm really getting to know this guy and and it's it's also a more natural acting style what kind of a guy is he the word weenie springs to mind you know he's a very self-absorbed passive-aggressive manipulative and willing to stoop pretty low to get his own way talk to the right people but you know those are the kind of characters that are just fun to play because they're rife with the foibles of human age and now with a series in primetime on the network comes all the responsibilities and worries that you never had before the ratings the demographics what your competition is you know Saturday Night Live played against mr. moto takes a chance in markets whereas here you're up against some tough competition yeah it's it's a very cluttered busy landscape out there and and now for the first time how did we do what are the numbers what are the overnights what do you know what's the National and then what about dealing with the NBC television network you probably don't get involved with that but your producers certainly have to because I'm sure the network has designs for the program and hopes for the program that may not be those of the producers well Tom you know if the show does well they tend to leave it alone true I was developing a completely different concept I had a deal to do a variety show the Phil show and and boy I was having it was out of grief the Phil show yeah and and I wanted to do three sketches in a half-hour and over time it became so difficult because I was executive producer of the show too and I experienced the negative side of network politics when they don't have faith and what you're trying to do look out then they're all over you and I would what happened was the the reputation of variety in primetime just became more and more buried in disasters of course there was all the people look at Dolly Parton that didn't work look at look at Howard Cosell in the 70s on ABC that didn't work I mean there are any number of failures they can point and more recently Dave Thomas Carol Burnett's come back Robert Townsend Paula Poundstone and finally when Martin Short show was pulled off the air I just said that's it I don't want to be next and Newsradio was just waiting for me so it was it was just so fortuitous to be able to feel the relief of letting go the responsibility oh yeah and and walking into something that that had a great team already in place Jimmy burrows Paul Simms from the Larry Sanders Show all people that those folks watching have no idea who it is well on the inside there very important people when they said Phil we're gonna make you a blonde did you just say okay fine you know nobody's ever asked me to do that but like to an actor to a man especially when they say look we want you to change your hair color do you just go right ahead and say okay absolutely I've never you know I've never liked my own hair that much I'd shaved my head in a snap and plus I'm used to changing my appearance did they do your brows too no yeah I didn't want my eyes to wash out I said here is Neil on the toll-free now in Van Nuys California hello good evening calm good evening Neal Phil I feel you know to put it gently you are God you know clapping is God you you are you are the most talented individual that's ever been involved with Saturday Night Live as far as I'm concerned and you're brilliant in news radio that out of the way I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about the artwork that you used to do because no one believes me when I said that you did the album cover for America's greatest hits and I'm wondering what some of the others were well Neal I did about 40 album covers from the mid 70s to the mid 80s I did several for the group poco including poco 7 and legend their biggest selling album I did several for America one of my favorite credits as a graphic designer I did a logo for Crosby Stills and Nash which they use on their current CD retrospective it's on the back of the CD with the tune titles superimposed over it it's a CS and intertwined and yeah I used to be in the rock and roll world and I rather enjoyed it but the problem was I was spending eight hours a day at a drawing board or more and by myself and I really was going buggy and that's what impelled me to join an improvisational comedy group and I've performed on weekends with The Groundlings and it led to a new career how much of you though still is at the drawing board as a hobby if you have time off do you do you go out and paint something or sketch something or - had a paper and doodle you know I don't I I pursue hobbies I have boats I have an airplane I have kids you know but I am I envision myself retiring and being a plein air artist and and doing it which plein air it's a sort of a landscape impressionist art style and I just have this vision of myself in later years doing pastels your dotage yes when I get out of this treadmill baby you called and thank you for watching thank you so much thanks my mind appreciate it when you say boats I've often heard that they that the happiest day in your life is the day you sell it the second is is that true or is that just from people who don't understand boating well the thing about boats is there's no way to win financial just they say it's a hole in the water that you dump money into but if you love the ocean I see I was a surfer growing up in California can't you tell by the hair sure can and so once saltwater gets in your blood you know I I just get out to those islands as much as I can and scuba dive snorkel hike and I love being a captain you know what they say if it floats flies the three FS yeah right before he went to the big ocean in the sky time to go right give me a you are correct sir we got him doing you back would fill after a short time out [Music] tomorrow night one of our infrequent but regular looks at the LJ Simpson trial with journalist Jeffrey Toobin and from CNBC cable my friend Bob how was your penis Berkowitz joining us tomorrow night here is Eric on the toll-free from Atlanta Georgia hello hello yes sir how you doing bill fine thank you sir what kind of preparation do you take when you get ready to do the voices that you do well some of them have come quite naturally and easily to me and others I had to study and of course there's some that I just can't get in fact one thing that was always interesting to me tom was that Dana Carvey and I who remained very close friends and neighbors to this day our kids play together we seem to complement each other he could do voices that I couldn't do and I could do voices that what can't you do can't do Jimmy Stewart can't do Julie you're one of the few because every every guy who goes does caricatures does Jimmy Stewart yeah every one of them can't do it can't do Stallone but you know the voices that are in in my range and have the same vibration to me they're just as simple as pie and in fact I often give a little demonstration in my according to my theory John Wayne Jack Benny and Jack Nicholson have the same voice as I do it's the same vibration the John Wayne pitcher says down here in the chest gyne takes pauses in places normal person wouldn't you move that voice up here into the back of the throat you see right in here that's Jack Brennan he's wonderful at swallowing his word you see now you move that same voice up up into the nasal pharynx you got mr. Nicholson I'd rather stick needles in my eyes but then it's you know it's effortless to me and I don't know why everybody can't do it but glad they can bought me a boat could you do are important again I could do Arnold Schwarzenegger let me tell you something oh you know that movie True Lies what a wonderful question great comedy some of the biggest belly laughs when he's got the terrorist on the rock and he goes you're fired Eric we're glad you call what is your favorite Phil Hartman voice probably have to be McMahon yes you are correct Eric thank you for calling all right Eric was in the dance troupe on Star Search three freaks in search of a sideshow terrific talented talented boys we'll be right back you said that you could do voices that Carvey couldn't do he did Carson when you did the McMahon yeah could you do Carson or would that be one I can't do it I can't do it because Carson and Benny are very close in my ear yeah so it seemed if you can do Benny you can do Carson but I can you mentioned that you joined The Groundlings you're brick your big career break came when you wrote a screenplay with Paul Reubens called pee-wee's big adventure for both Broadway and later for film that was the one that really well it was a stage show that we did here in LA it played at The Groundlings theater and then later at the Roxy theater in the summer of 81 and that really was the precursor to the pee-wee's Playhouse that became a Saturday morning show and then out of the heat off that we wrote pee-wee's big adventure and that opened up a lot of possibilities in the screenwriting area and I really wasn't cutting it as an actor in the early 80s and I decided to quit acting and and write because I didn't really care about being famous I just wanted to make a living doing something that was fun and I really love writing I'm not asking you for any stories about Paul Reubens except whatever happened to him is he living somewhere is he fine is he okay do you ever talk to him well he I just noticed that he got a cheers in TV Guide recently he made an appearance on Murphy Brown Paul and I had a falling out a few years ago because I talked about him on shows like this okay I'm not asked by do this my hope is that that he'll he'll come back and into the business and and perform because he's a brilliant actor you know life is like a hockey game you know and and there's this thing called the penalty box and we all go into it for a while for stuff we do that's really stupid and we've all done it you know I've done dumb things off and on on the air in a you know you go in the penalty box for a while and then you know you say folks it's time for the penalty for this particular offense to be over and I think sooner or later the time comes were in the case of Paul Reubens this guy let him out of the penalty box enough already well I think in this case Paul has to let himself out of the penalty box because he has lots of opportunity and I think there was a side to him that was temperamental and artistic and he withdrew from the business believe me Paul Rubens is not somewhere tonight worrying about you and me therefore may he be in peace and may he be having smiles on his face I thank you for coming over you know that I'm an enormous fan of yours I thank you for your kindness to me over the years and I wish you nothing but success in good times at NBC in Newsradio Thank You Phil thanks to my great pleasure and the boat be well with the back next with the real Jane roll her name is Norma McCorvey as the simulcast continues for Monday night right after these messages Phil again [Music]

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 80,907

Keywords: Tom Snyder, Phil Hartman

Id: thBO3PG5GPQ

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/tacos_y_burritos]

His John Wayne could pivot into a Patrick Warburton impersonation.

[u/badwhiskey63]

Imagine all the laughs we lost when he passed. Such a funny and talented guy.

[u/bowlofspider-webs]

In hindsight it’s cool seeing them be so respectful and kind to Paul Reubens, I was just a tot in ‘95 but I remember the media and general opinion being pretty rough on him.

[u/ApocalypseSpokesman]

Phil would be 71 today, and would have made 6 movies (2 great, 2 decent, and 2 embarrassing failures), 7 SNL appearances, 340 stints on the Simpsons, 4 appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience, and starred in the NewsRadio reunion.

[u/ImranRashid]

1995 was a quarter century ago.

[u/dbcanuck]

More people need to know about Jack Benny and his body of work.

the best, smartest comedian ever. so many schticks borrow heavily from him. he also managed the transition from vaudeville, to radio, to television and was the biggest name in all 3. unthinkable.

no jack benny, you have no Johnny Carson, Garry Shandling, Kelsey Grammer, Jerry Seinfeld. Arguably the night show format was an evolution of his television / radio program. One of Carson's wives said the only time she ever saw Carson cry was when Benny died.

[u/bhalverchuck723]

What a legend. Still miss him.

[u/highonnuggs]

One of the Titans of SNL. Phil’s work on News Radio was top notch as well.

True loss to comedy when he was murdered.

[u/kgb17]

I bet Phil Hartman would do a great Joe Biden