Name: George Clooney's Really Bad TV Show | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2026-01-01T16:52:30.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'George Clooney's Really Bad TV Show | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'George Clooney's Really Bad TV Show | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2026-01-01. Transcript available.

welcome back thank you very much for being here george it's nice to be here
great parking spot
right outside the building yeah sure you did well you look great you look to me
uh and i haven't
seen you in a year i guess just about a year the last time here but you look
like maybe you've uh
have you lost weight or yeah i was i was shooting a film in the carolinas i
played football every
day ah so you get in shape for that when you say you're playing football you're
playing real
football it was football from the 1920s so i'm perfect for that yeah um against
real football
players yes unfortunately against 21 year old kids who wow you know beat the
hell out of me yeah i was
directing the film i tried that rule of you know don't hit the director sure
that didn't work yeah
um so yeah i got i got beat up pretty uh pretty good i got uh what the
brightest move doing that
no um it seems to me like in the last couple of years whenever you're here
there's all always been
some kind of an injury that you're getting over there was the back thing you
had some back
yes yes and then you snapped your achilles uh yes i did do that yeah and then
now uh we heard the
couple of weeks ago you're in a motorcycle wreck i was in a motorcycle wreck
thank thank thank you for
bringing that up yeah but what's what was the deal on that that's pretty well
it turns out uh uh you just
you just can't ride in new jersey that's what it comes down to i found out that's
that's what i've
learned really and that uh um uh the motorcycles when they uh when they go down
that they can hurt
you yeah now you've been riding motorcycles most of your adult life right most
of my adult life which
i'm not quite sure how long i've been have you ever had trouble with one before
i've had issues
before but you ride don't you you ride motorcycle yeah it's you know every once
in a while um this
was one of those uh we never saw it coming kind of thing oh really what were
the circumstances one of
those uh uh somebody signaling left and making a right kind of moves oh that's
awful isn't it those
are always surprises yeah you know it's an accident and things happen but we
were everybody ended up
fine we all nicked up now you had a passenger on your bike i did uh um uh she
she went over the
top when we hit the curb and that's nice you can laugh about it now yes she's
uh she's uh uh got a
lawyer now i'll bet she does yeah that's worked out really well for me yeah um
yeah really happy about
that yeah um yeah no uh broke her a few bones in her foot and i cracked the rib
and got some nice
road rash when something like this happens do you think all right i'm going to
just put the bikes
away you're not going to ride the bikes anymore you know i i ride it every day
in los angeles get
around traffic so oh my god well that's the worst are you talking about surface
streets or uh freeways
you know a little of both a little of both it's terribly dangerous the traffic
in los angeles as you
know is god awful it is it's you know it's nice here it's well i'm not saying i'm
not saying that
we've solved the problem no oh that's what that was yeah yeah well i'm glad you're
doing all right
i was in the uh you know i'm up and you got me on the fifth floor up there the
window um my star
is clearly fading because you know the room you've put me in but uh they said
whatever you do don't
open the window oh my god and i and i'm looking out and all of a sudden light
bulbs start smashing
don't look out paint and then uh and uh uh kid rock threw tommy lee off what
hello look out i couldn't
believe that you see no but really i think flailing by you know uh i watched
this uh movie the michael
clayton yes and uh and this never happened before as i'm watching this movie
and watching you in the
film i just said to myself geez i would like to be in movies i want to i want
to i want to be
i'd like to be like you in in that movie it's a good job yeah you want to it
was so cool and and you
were so cool and i just thought well sure let me try that now i'm not asking
you to do me any favors
any big ones no no no big one but you could you could get me in a movie oh i
could slide you in yeah
yeah it's a we'll start you you know i'm not expecting to start at the top no
no we'll get
you in the entrance level we'll get you in the beginner level uh we'll start
you on a reality show
but you know the nice thing about the the a lot of people make a lot of movies
and and i see a lot
of movies and i got to tell you most of them just are not that entertaining so
when we ever see your
movies they're always high quality they're always entertaining they're always
informational they they
always cause you to think and and and they're just great how is it you know how
to do that and so many
other top film stars don't care about doing that yeah i think that they just
they do it they just don't
care they don't i think it's time you understand that they just don't care
other people that's really
they don't do you do yeah no you know um uh for the most part those those films
you're talking about
um well they bomb right yeah those films that i've been doing so no no no no no
no no no no no no no
maybe you're highly regarded and beloved as an entertainer and a film star yes
tell me um if you can uh i know you have a villa in italy yes i do uh tell us
about the the summer
just concluded to paint the word picture for us what was it like over there it
was a good summer a lot
of guests house guests always always a lot of guests we've pretty much had i
think pretty much
every uh uh talk show host there except for you really oh yeah i'm a little
hurt no kidding regis
was there of course oh now what is that like that's just gotta be i mean my god
well joy is terrific joy is terrific yeah but who could afford the full-time
nursing oh
i can't yeah okay okay well of course what am i saying for years
um uh al gore was there we had al gore there he spent the night now that would
i mean i think
there are certainly things to admire about al gore but wasn't it sort of
uncomfortable knowing he was
in your house i i found it to be uh reassuring reassuring all of the you know
the secret service
around us i felt safe oh the secret service was there as well sure italian
secret service oh
hi where do you think you go mr clooney i don't know it's my house i'm gonna go
over there
uh and how did i understand how how regis got there but how did al gore get
there he was just
traveling through um he was speaking in uh in milan which is very close to my
home in como yeah called
up and uh i invited him for dinner and he asked what a nice hotel was and i
said probably my place come to
your place which is open for all of you as well well that's right come on by
just drop in anytime
you want call from the airport in milan where do you keep your academy award do
you keep it a little
personal don't you think yeah but you have it on display is it out in public as
a matter of fact
it's right here yeah uh it's in my it's at the house in italy yeah yeah i uh
whoever comes and
visits uh i i get them to get up and we uh photograph them giving an acceptance
speech so
i like that yeah we have walter cronkite holding up giving an acceptance it's
pretty great walter
cronkite has been there as well yeah i'm telling you we've really had pretty
much i really i can't
think of anybody uh on television who hasn't been there all right see walter cronkite
okay most trusted
man in america al gore vice president regis philman but give me the name of
somebody who's been there
that would really piss me off jay leno oh no oh no no no we've run out of uh
people that have
took come to visit we need you bonnie hunt stayed there for i like bonnie hunt
how's bonnie doing by
the way doing very well now uh listen uh we have some uh we checked the the
photo uh the film archives
we have some of your early work i think this predates i think this predates uh
uh er
i think it's it was a show called sunset beat oh you did did you
sunset beat when was that uh roughly that was about 1989 1989 thank you how
long was sunset beat on well it
ran for all uh seven episodes wow that we shot probably if we shot more yeah
but they just stopped
us was it a network uh it was an abc series i played a undercover cop on a harley
during the day and a
rock star at night just you know that's that show sells itself all right do you
mind if we show the
folks do you really you have a little clip here do you have a good hair in it
so you guys will enjoy
that all right george clooney and you say again 1989 yes it was all right
sunset beat take a look oh this
it's gonna hurt
what the hell is this get the hell out of here
wow wow wow wow thank you thank you if if we give you the tape of that will you
take it up on the
roof and drop it off i will uh now that's just remarkable you know it was it
was quite a show
i know i did a lot of really really good shows yeah but you know what what's
interesting to me is uh
when you're starting out when anybody is starting out and somebody says we're
doing a show a b and c
come and be on the show you said well sure sure because you want the experience
you want the
exposure and then a lot of those people uh are sucked into the abyss and never
heard of again
but you uh triumphed and went on to persevere and and uh look at you now if i
get hit by a bus today
well because you know i could be doing this show no i think you're in pretty
good shape years from now
i think you're i think your legacy is well what happened to you george and i'll
be like oh you're fine
speaking of uh legacy this is you and your buddies putting their feet in the
cemented grauman's chinese
theater there's uh jerry weintraub right and uh matt damon and pretty boy pitt
yeah
that's jerry weintraub i'm guessing yeah sure and this is you is that correct
me with my eyes closed
and this is uh you know he's uh brad pitt yeah and that's uh mr matt yeah and
the thing about that
is i think when matt damon was on the show he said that you called him yeah the
day of the uh
the thing and said here's the tip here's how you handle this well have you um i
mean have you ever been
to you know man's chinese and seen you know the footprints yeah so from stars
from the beginning
of motion pictures so you go and you put your feet in humphrey bogart's and
they're you know
they're little shoes oh is that right yeah and you're always like wow that's
little feet yeah
i thought you know we're all getting bigger and taller as time goes on and you
want these things to last
so i called up matt and i said you know what size are you and he said like 10
and a half yeah and so i
said wear some 15s and he and i wore 15s 15s oh my god so if you go to man's
chinese like clown shoes
for god's sakes look like a look like a dolphin
but i i found it interesting that you know uh tips like that oh i i thought
this one through you know
the problem is your hands yeah yeah what are you gonna do well you gotta put
them in and you gotta
move them back a little bit i see because you know let's face it small hands is
not good no you don't
need that no you know what they say you are a genius you're a filmmaking genius
we didn't tell brad though
good
now this uh uh michael clayton i'm not even sure how to explain the movie
except that you really if you
don't go see it there's something wrong with you uh it's a tremendous film and
it's everything you want
in a motion picture now you explain specifically what it it's a about a law
firm you're a guy who's a
janitor at a law firm but not a janitor literally it's not like we see you in
the lobby with a bucket
no no but i i clean up uh messes that clients get into that's right my job and
uh um one of the the
major this is a it's a law firm that's representing and defending a big
corporation basically that's
guilty of making the pesticide that kills poisoning people poison people
inadvertently and actually
tony gilroy wrote this based on a a very specific case of a car company that
was uh uh rather than
recalling cars absorbing the 300 deaths a year and taking the class action
suits so uh it was based
on that idea what was the car company yeah i know i i want to say but the warner
brothers said don't
don't say it wasn't the pinto thing was it i don't want to say okay but there
was a horse name
now now the wheels are starting to spin you you have a beard you don't normally
have a beard i don't
i'm doing a movie with the uh the cohen brothers right now and they asked me to
grow a beard i thought
it'd be great in autumn in in new york yeah those are the old days yeah it
doesn't get cold anymore
al gore was right let's see absolutely was right it's this is you know not been
good for me uh
anyway did we set up the clip did we show the oh uh yes we did and how was i
yeah i thought you were
great how long you've been out here my hair was like tell them about the clip
uh i'm not sure which
one it is but i think it's probably there's a guy who works for the law firm
who goes uh sort of off
the reservation goes crazy tries to do right my job is to bring him back in all
right take a look
michael clayton but i'm uh it's a great film i really enjoyed it and i hope a
lot of people go see
it uh anything else you want to talk about uh you know i'm having trouble with
my parents again really
they don't understand you they don't they they never did yeah but they're
starting to have you
have you tried increasing the sum of the check does that work yeah that's good
george clooney ladies
all right let's go back up to the roof of the ed sullivan theater building and
see what's going on
hey george how you doing up there i'm really good dave be very very careful be
very very careful what
are your thoughts on uh we're going to throw 400 decks of playing cards okay
all right and not the
buckets you want to pat do you want to let him wear your hat yes you'd like
that george you wear like
that yeah that's right all right you ready be very careful george be very
careful
oh that's nice
thank you very much george clooney ladies and gentlemen
you

George Clooney's Really Bad TV Show | David Letterman

welcome back thank you very much for being here george it's nice to be here
great parking spot
right outside the building yeah sure you did well you look great you look to me
uh and i haven't
seen you in a year i guess just about a year the last time here but you look
like maybe you've uh
have you lost weight or yeah i was i was shooting a film in the carolinas i
played football every
day ah so you get in shape for that when you say you're playing football you're
playing real
football it was football from the 1920s so i'm perfect for that yeah um against
real football
players yes unfortunately against 21 year old kids who wow you know beat the
hell out of me yeah i was
directing the film i tried that rule of you know don't hit the director sure
that didn't work yeah
um so yeah i got i got beat up pretty uh pretty good i got uh what the
brightest move doing that
no um it seems to me like in the last couple of years whenever you're here
there's all always been
some kind of an injury that you're getting over there was the back thing you
had some back
yes yes and then you snapped your achilles uh yes i did do that yeah and then
now uh we heard the
couple of weeks ago you're in a motorcycle wreck i was in a motorcycle wreck
thank thank thank you for
bringing that up yeah but what's what was the deal on that that's pretty well
it turns out uh uh you just
you just can't ride in new jersey that's what it comes down to i found out that's
that's what i've
learned really and that uh um uh the motorcycles when they uh when they go down
that they can hurt
you yeah now you've been riding motorcycles most of your adult life right most
of my adult life which
i'm not quite sure how long i've been have you ever had trouble with one before
i've had issues
before but you ride don't you you ride motorcycle yeah it's you know every once
in a while um this
was one of those uh we never saw it coming kind of thing oh really what were
the circumstances one of
those uh uh somebody signaling left and making a right kind of moves oh that's
awful isn't it those
are always surprises yeah you know it's an accident and things happen but we
were everybody ended up
fine we all nicked up now you had a passenger on your bike i did uh um uh she
she went over the
top when we hit the curb and that's nice you can laugh about it now yes she's
uh she's uh uh got a
lawyer now i'll bet she does yeah that's worked out really well for me yeah um
yeah really happy about
that yeah um yeah no uh broke her a few bones in her foot and i cracked the rib
and got some nice
road rash when something like this happens do you think all right i'm going to
just put the bikes
away you're not going to ride the bikes anymore you know i i ride it every day
in los angeles get
around traffic so oh my god well that's the worst are you talking about surface
streets or uh freeways
you know a little of both a little of both it's terribly dangerous the traffic
in los angeles as you
know is god awful it is it's you know it's nice here it's well i'm not saying i'm
not saying that
we've solved the problem no oh that's what that was yeah yeah well i'm glad you're
doing all right
i was in the uh you know i'm up and you got me on the fifth floor up there the
window um my star
is clearly fading because you know the room you've put me in but uh they said
whatever you do don't
open the window oh my god and i and i'm looking out and all of a sudden light
bulbs start smashing
don't look out paint and then uh and uh uh kid rock threw tommy lee off what
hello look out i couldn't
believe that you see no but really i think flailing by you know uh i watched
this uh movie the michael
clayton yes and uh and this never happened before as i'm watching this movie
and watching you in the
film i just said to myself geez i would like to be in movies i want to i want
to i want to be
i'd like to be like you in in that movie it's a good job yeah you want to it
was so cool and and you
were so cool and i just thought well sure let me try that now i'm not asking
you to do me any favors
any big ones no no no big one but you could you could get me in a movie oh i
could slide you in yeah
yeah it's a we'll start you you know i'm not expecting to start at the top no
no we'll get
you in the entrance level we'll get you in the beginner level uh we'll start
you on a reality show
but you know the nice thing about the the a lot of people make a lot of movies
and and i see a lot
of movies and i got to tell you most of them just are not that entertaining so
when we ever see your
movies they're always high quality they're always entertaining they're always
informational they they
always cause you to think and and and they're just great how is it you know how
to do that and so many
other top film stars don't care about doing that yeah i think that they just
they do it they just don't
care they don't i think it's time you understand that they just don't care
other people that's really
they don't do you do yeah no you know um uh for the most part those those films
you're talking about
um well they bomb right yeah those films that i've been doing so no no no no no
no no no no no no no
maybe you're highly regarded and beloved as an entertainer and a film star yes
tell me um if you can uh i know you have a villa in italy yes i do uh tell us
about the the summer
just concluded to paint the word picture for us what was it like over there it
was a good summer a lot
of guests house guests always always a lot of guests we've pretty much had i
think pretty much
every uh uh talk show host there except for you really oh yeah i'm a little
hurt no kidding regis
was there of course oh now what is that like that's just gotta be i mean my god
well joy is terrific joy is terrific yeah but who could afford the full-time
nursing oh
i can't yeah okay okay well of course what am i saying for years
um uh al gore was there we had al gore there he spent the night now that would
i mean i think
there are certainly things to admire about al gore but wasn't it sort of
uncomfortable knowing he was
in your house i i found it to be uh reassuring reassuring all of the you know
the secret service
around us i felt safe oh the secret service was there as well sure italian
secret service oh
hi where do you think you go mr clooney i don't know it's my house i'm gonna go
over there
uh and how did i understand how how regis got there but how did al gore get
there he was just
traveling through um he was speaking in uh in milan which is very close to my
home in como yeah called
up and uh i invited him for dinner and he asked what a nice hotel was and i
said probably my place come to
your place which is open for all of you as well well that's right come on by
just drop in anytime
you want call from the airport in milan where do you keep your academy award do
you keep it a little
personal don't you think yeah but you have it on display is it out in public as
a matter of fact
it's right here yeah uh it's in my it's at the house in italy yeah yeah i uh
whoever comes and
visits uh i i get them to get up and we uh photograph them giving an acceptance
speech so
i like that yeah we have walter cronkite holding up giving an acceptance it's
pretty great walter
cronkite has been there as well yeah i'm telling you we've really had pretty
much i really i can't
think of anybody uh on television who hasn't been there all right see walter cronkite
okay most trusted
man in america al gore vice president regis philman but give me the name of
somebody who's been there
that would really piss me off jay leno oh no oh no no no we've run out of uh
people that have
took come to visit we need you bonnie hunt stayed there for i like bonnie hunt
how's bonnie doing by
the way doing very well now uh listen uh we have some uh we checked the the
photo uh the film archives
we have some of your early work i think this predates i think this predates uh
uh er
i think it's it was a show called sunset beat oh you did did you
sunset beat when was that uh roughly that was about 1989 1989 thank you how
long was sunset beat on well it
ran for all uh seven episodes wow that we shot probably if we shot more yeah
but they just stopped
us was it a network uh it was an abc series i played a undercover cop on a harley
during the day and a
rock star at night just you know that's that show sells itself all right do you
mind if we show the
folks do you really you have a little clip here do you have a good hair in it
so you guys will enjoy
that all right george clooney and you say again 1989 yes it was all right
sunset beat take a look oh this
it's gonna hurt
what the hell is this get the hell out of here
wow wow wow wow thank you thank you if if we give you the tape of that will you
take it up on the
roof and drop it off i will uh now that's just remarkable you know it was it
was quite a show
i know i did a lot of really really good shows yeah but you know what what's
interesting to me is uh
when you're starting out when anybody is starting out and somebody says we're
doing a show a b and c
come and be on the show you said well sure sure because you want the experience
you want the
exposure and then a lot of those people uh are sucked into the abyss and never
heard of again
but you uh triumphed and went on to persevere and and uh look at you now if i
get hit by a bus today
well because you know i could be doing this show no i think you're in pretty
good shape years from now
i think you're i think your legacy is well what happened to you george and i'll
be like oh you're fine
speaking of uh legacy this is you and your buddies putting their feet in the
cemented grauman's chinese
theater there's uh jerry weintraub right and uh matt damon and pretty boy pitt
yeah
that's jerry weintraub i'm guessing yeah sure and this is you is that correct
me with my eyes closed
and this is uh you know he's uh brad pitt yeah and that's uh mr matt yeah and
the thing about that
is i think when matt damon was on the show he said that you called him yeah the
day of the uh
the thing and said here's the tip here's how you handle this well have you um i
mean have you ever been
to you know man's chinese and seen you know the footprints yeah so from stars
from the beginning
of motion pictures so you go and you put your feet in humphrey bogart's and
they're you know
they're little shoes oh is that right yeah and you're always like wow that's
little feet yeah
i thought you know we're all getting bigger and taller as time goes on and you
want these things to last
so i called up matt and i said you know what size are you and he said like 10
and a half yeah and so i
said wear some 15s and he and i wore 15s 15s oh my god so if you go to man's
chinese like clown shoes
for god's sakes look like a look like a dolphin
but i i found it interesting that you know uh tips like that oh i i thought
this one through you know
the problem is your hands yeah yeah what are you gonna do well you gotta put
them in and you gotta
move them back a little bit i see because you know let's face it small hands is
not good no you don't
need that no you know what they say you are a genius you're a filmmaking genius
we didn't tell brad though
good
now this uh uh michael clayton i'm not even sure how to explain the movie
except that you really if you
don't go see it there's something wrong with you uh it's a tremendous film and
it's everything you want
in a motion picture now you explain specifically what it it's a about a law
firm you're a guy who's a
janitor at a law firm but not a janitor literally it's not like we see you in
the lobby with a bucket
no no but i i clean up uh messes that clients get into that's right my job and
uh um one of the the
major this is a it's a law firm that's representing and defending a big
corporation basically that's
guilty of making the pesticide that kills poisoning people poison people
inadvertently and actually
tony gilroy wrote this based on a a very specific case of a car company that
was uh uh rath