Tom Selleck on Letterman, May 23, 1985

and now a message from Tom Selleck and David Letterman hi you know when we play private detectives on television we look pretty good on our Hawaiian shirts you might even say we've started a fashion trend well that's true but lately we've heard some pretty disturbing news apparently American stores are currently being flooded with knockoff cheap imitation Hawaiian shirts they're not from Hawaii and that's facing in many cases they're not even shirts so don't buy Hawaiian shirt knockoffs and don't watch this man's television show I'm sorry I don't want to stress lately [Music] thank you very much Paul thank you to our wonderful studio audience let's get on with the scheduled program shall we it's certainly it's certainly a pleasure to welcome my first guest to this program tonight he is the star of a series on another television network the program now on which he is the star is called magnum p.i please say hello to Tom Selleck [Applause] thanks again [Applause] [Music] pretty nice you like that I would guess yeah I like that a lot yeah no it's very nice yeah now this was just a joke was it sure was just a joke do you know Bill Cosby I think I met bill once a long time ago in tonight actually I'm glad you asked that question because everywhere I go now people are trying to turn this thing you know we're on the air at the same time right there been actually things printed in newspapers magazines the you two are having some sort of a battle or a feud or you don't like each other yeah yeah and that's I mean I met bill and I think he's a real gentleman yeah I sent him a note I sent him a note to try and kind of diffuse all that no I don't want to start anything because no he said he's a very nice man and he deserves his success and it was a good show but you know what I think maybe people are under the false impression that just because his show is doing so well that your show is doing badly but your show is not doing badly at all is it it's not doing as well as it was before he went on the it's still doing very well is it how well is it doing well it's doing something show it's a big show it's a top 20 show instead of a top ten show right now but well the top 20 that you'll be on for yeah we finished about I don't know yeah whoever they may be but no we finished I think I hate to quote the ratings but we finished about 15th for the year that's about where we ended up yeah but we were three or four we tied a couple of weeks with dynasty and then now I found this very new sink we've peaked who you and me on our show I'm gonna bail out on me no we're just getting hot here no the show is no I think better than ever and I think you know if anything you're you're younger looking than you were when it first went on the air and I find it more exciting now I don't know what you've done but it's you know more exciting more stimulating intellectually as well as I'd like I have all these personal problems but I see it anyway I find it interesting that while you're in the East you're you're doing something besides show business kind of things tell the folks what you've been doing all week well if I walked out kind of funny I I've been playing volleyball yeah this is kind of my outlet and I play for the Outrigger Canoe Club now what kind of if this is an organized tournament yeah this is the national championships it was in Long Island this year is this a professional team well no no no this is amateur but I play for a club in Hawaii and we won the national championship the last three years in a row so we were defending national champions in the 35 to 45 but it's still very comparable that'd be Tom's seniors that's that's called man senior yeah but it's very competitive yeah see but I didn't do anything for a month because I was in London doing a two-hour episode of magnum p.i grumpy I heard next season I love it when you leave the country yeah anyway so I was I was really out of shape and but the team said they kind of needed me and it's a great outlet for me so where did you get interested in volleyball have you been a player most of your life I played it at USC and I used to play on the beach in California kind of - man yeah volley back dude and then I didn't do anything for a long time and when I went over to start Magnum in Hawaii the Screen Actors Guild went on strike so I was out of work for about three months before the show ever started and I started playing volleyball with some of my friends over there it start playing and what's the most important thing about is it spiking is I know so little about the game other than it's very exciting to watch well for me it's like that's what I that's my job well I I'm what they call an outside hitter I don't my forte is not really you know when they serve the ball over the net you kind of pass the ball up to your teammates and I'm not always that accurately and doing that so my job is to hit the ball over the block over the net oh you do play right at the net yeah yeah and I and I'm a Spiker and if everything was going really well I was I was kind of out of shape but I was playing on adrenaline and we won when I got there three straight matches and got to the finals of the national championships great and we got to us we tied the other team and had to play one sudden-death game for the national championship and I made a big mistake day which was well it's one of you know if you've ever played sports you just kind of replay things for the rest of your life well I'm trying to get this out of my system it's gonna haunt you for awhile appreciate it I got a set and you know a set means the setter sets the ball up and you're ready to put it away spike it and you're hitting usually against two or three guys with their arms up you know trying to block it well nobody tried to block the set which doesn't happen very often and it was very close to the net so I decided to hit it straight down which would have given us a lot of momentum and I hit the net with my hand ooh gave them their 14th point and you only play 215 so it's possible that I may have been the goat yeah well it sounds to me like it showed it make you feel any guy the winning team you didn't mention the winning pot Chuck Steakhouse and Nick's fish mark it's not Chuck Steakhouse and Nick's fish market it's chuck steak house slash yeah next just but it doesn't mean you're playing a bunch of Busboys and waiters senior we're chucking Nick at the game Chuck Chuck last check was I didn't see Nick but these are these are big guys you know they used to be all Americans yeah this is a terrific game anybody who's watched the Olympics knows this is a very physical well it was that I started describing it I mean volleyball was on the upswing and no you're in good shape yeah what happened we're what we're gonna do here is a do a commercial then we'll be right back with Tom Selleck [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Tom Selleck is here and DeRozan cash will be here later and also Kenny the gardener tell me the the it was this was this the first movie that that you were in the the human the human aspects no the mental aspects of human responsibility that's exactly first film yeah no it was this a feature no this is an Air Force training film yeah were you in the Air Force no I was studying Business Administration at the University of Southern California at the time keep applauding when I say that out of business and man's here must be anyway no it was an Air Force training film and I got this this part in it I played airman Pickens and it was the first dramatic role that I ever had well tell us about the airman Pickens what was the I don't I don't remember a whole lot about him I didn't do a whole kind of personality breakdown and everything for him but I do remember I've always remembered my first line which was it was a training film for Air Force psychiatrists so I visit an Air Force psychiatrist and my first line was I don't know what's wrong with them sir I don't want to get any trouble but I think something's bugging now that's all I remember about that film day so airman Pickens sounds like he's ratting on a buddy doesn't yeah yeah I mean some trouble back at the barracks and I couldn't at the time you you try and learn ways as an actor to get out of those holes but I don't think I got out of that particular I ratted on do those do those pay well when you're doing those paid about minimum which is about $150 at the time yeah and hey you are also in the film coma you got some of my Biggie's coma was a pretty big film I don't know what's a very big film but I was you didn't see it no I saw sure that's why you don't remember me cuz I was dead I I had a a couple scenes at the beginning and were you there when Pickens again no I was more trouble at the base who was Sean Murphy and actually it was a it was a big part in the book so I kept lying to producers for the whole year after I did the movie before it came out I said I did Sean Murphy they thought I had a big party actually my kidneys and my body was in it more than I was they cut me open and it was terrible it was did you did you expire early in the film in the first five minutes yeah but then you're the the remains was with us throughout the oh yes I had to reappear and it was very important that the audience remember me because when did John Harvey booze oh now you hope I pronounced that right runs into this room in a moment of Terror and she was the nurse at the hospital where I was before I died when she runs into this room she and the audience have to recognize my face and I'm laying on my stomach face like this and my back was completely opened up and they removed my kidneys and sold them to someone rich and you had to play dead for what length of time at the most well on camera probably about a minute yeah is that's probably not too tough that's right oh yeah oh it is but for a minute well I didn't know the cameraman said I was very good at it I said I was one of the best stiffs that they'd ever seen yeah I hope that was referring to my dead part of the doing lines sure yeah had you been sick long no I waiting for it just to check up the point of the film was shoot I went in for simple knee surgery and they we're killing people to get their organs yeah for well that's no good yeah they shut that place down yeah they finally did Tom I you know you were really sweet to me a long time ago you called me on the phone about a year ago and you were very nice because we had been asking you would you ever like to be on the show we'd love to have you as a guest and you were very considerate to call me up and said I'll do the show as soon as I can work for your schedule and come easy well I was tonight but you at the time you mentioned a little something else you said when I come on the show I want to do something else tell tell the folks what you'd like to do and I guess we're gonna see it well I said I'd like to do something stupid and you said you've come to the right place so I spent a couple months trying to figure out what to do actually what I'm really after here is a late night sponge and then collapsible drinking cup I hope you're not out no no no anyway it's just I I didn't know what to do and then I thought of this thing the wonderful world of boat travel and the wonderful world of war travel all right and it's a little journey that I can take you on like another training film yeah it's kind of come full circle really all right since a little one-man demonstration do you need help Alyssa no you have to watch okay I guess you go right over there all stay here is it okay if I stay here you want me over there I may need you oh come on okay just to talk to in between all right the wonderful world of boat travel ladies and gentlemen as presented by Tom Selleck well first of all I have to say that this is not my trick this is Doug Hogan's trick oh yeah yeah well he's a friend of my brother Dan Doug I don't know anymore he does is my 40th birthday party and that's all worthy this is kind of a salute to Doug Hogan yeah now it's come it's a series of three things you have to use your imagination the first thing is if you can imagine yourself in a little row boat without a two and a half horsepower okay motor on it just kind of cruising out in the morning at dawn to fish in the runway the lake going after grouper are you really gonna do this [Applause] major star ladies and gentlemen a really big star there's water in yeah water okay this is a little rowboat - small rowboat yeah at dawn yeah two men in the boat two and a half horsepower it's really stupid isn't that okay well if you'd ever do it maybe we'd find out [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] the wonderful world of boat trouble let's take a look at it again there he is now there's more there's more oh yeah well there's more do we have time for the rest of time of course we have time for it sure I can do which I do my two or my one whatever you want to do oh okay I need a little prop for this this is a let's just say seaplane huh taking off down a flowing river yeah Donna it's on again and you said this would be stupid I said this okay this is the seaplane getting ready to take off down a river that's right and this is not doing justice to Doug Hogan no of course so if we'd had Doug Hogan he'd be here but we couldn't get it is that it now there's one more that takes a great deal of technical skill there that's it I'll give you a brief introduction it's a submarine with a full complement of submarine all right going out a lot of six-month journey all right going out looking for the missing crew of the probably under the polar ice cap for a long time but they're just cruising out maybe I'm San Francisco Bay here they go wow I'm selling one more [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 25,986

Rating: 4.873817 out of 5

Keywords: Tom Selleck

Id: G2dAVRbtMTw

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2017