Name: Betty White's Naughty Game Show Answer | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-11-19T16:00:36.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Betty White's Naughty Game Show Answer | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Betty White's Naughty Game Show Answer | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-11-19. Transcript available.

Welcome back to the show.
Well, this is kind of cozy.
Yeah, I think so.
What'd you do?
Bryant got lips up on you.
You're still blushing, too.
You liked it, didn't you?
Well, it's not bad.
Take anything you can get.
I know, I know.
You know, you and I have known one another a long, long time at this point,
and I'm not saying that to him, but it's true.
We go way back.
Do you know where we first met you?
I do.
My husband, Alan Ludden, met you.
You interviewed him in Indianapolis,
and he was so impressed with you that when you came out to Los Angeles...
What was he doing in Indianapolis?
I know what I was doing, but why was he there?
He was going around doing, you know, publicity for Password.
In those days, you had to go from city to city.
Now they bring the cities to you, which is wonderful.
And I had a little nickel-dime radio show,
and he was nice enough to come by.
Well, and you really impressed him,
because then he was putting a pilot together,
and when you came to Los Angeles, he asked you to be at...
The pilot didn't sell, but you sure did.
Is that right?
I kind of remember that.
Yeah, that's right.
And then there was a show called Liar's Club,
where we all lied about the objects.
I loved that show,
because you could just make up anything you wanted.
I know.
It's kind of like...
I've spent 50 years doing that.
But that show was, like, never as big as I thought it ought to be.
Of course, the same could be said for this show.
But here it is.
Oh, man, take a look at this.
This is a good picture.
This is, of course, there's the lovely Betty White right there.
See, there's Betty White.
I look like Buddy Hackett's son.
Yeah.
Whatever you said...
Whatever you said must have been pretty bad for me to be off like that.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Oh, it was fun, though.
We had a good time.
No, but seriously, in that era, that was like the late 70s.
Everybody looked a little fruity.
Unlike now, of course.
So, 50 years, is that true?
You started, of course, obviously, when television was live, doing all...
What did you do?
I started when television started.
We were on five and a half hours a day, six days a week, live.
Yeah.
And what were you doing then?
About what you're doing now.
Not as well.
I'm sure it was more than this.
No, we didn't have...
And we'd have guests that came through.
But what was the show?
It was Hollywood on television.
And mostly, it was commercials.
And, of course, in those days...
So, I'm not kidding.
It was like one long, five and a half hour infomercial, six days a week.
And you would do...
Obviously, you'd have to do these commercials live.
Live, because we couldn't put tapes in there.
Tape wasn't invented yet.
Right, right.
And so, one day...
The most we ever did in one day was 58 commercials.
Somebody would...
You know, we had a few people kick in their sets, but not too many.
What kind of stuff?
I mean, who was buying time in those days?
Well, we had...
You had to ad-lib them.
You know, the sales department would come in, and they'd hand you a sheet of
paper, and you
didn't ever want to read them, so you'd try to remember.
Well, I got real carried away.
They do that in the middle of the show.
I got real carried away at this one point that it was a wonderful idea.
I thought a great product.
It was something you attach to your kitchen sink, and you put soap in there,
and then turn
the water on, and soapy water would come out.
Well, I was...
I had just looked at it very quickly.
And you know how you blank on a word sometimes?
Right.
Soapy water comes out of your...
Soapy water comes out of your gizmo.
I could have done better, but we had a cameraman...
I've been to the doctor for that, as a matter of fact.
I know.
Because we had one...
We were on one camera, of course, and we had a cameraman who, one of those
people who, when
he laughs, water comes out of his eyes, and so I couldn't see his face.
I would just see these drops of water from behind the camera.
Well, of course, that's all it took, and we were gone.
I think we were off.
You know, the strangest thing, though, about that, we never had to do that
commercial again.
I mean...
It went away.
It went away.
We all had a wonderful time, but the sponsor didn't quite see it the way we saw
it.
And you did a lot of game shows, because in those...
Now it seems like game shows are back.
They're really not back, because in those days, you had them all day long.
They had two or three networks.
Oh, all day.
Everybody would sit there and watch.
But you had to come up with the stuff out of your head.
You know, you just couldn't, couldn't, and that's dangerous in itself.
Were you in the match game?
Match game?
Well, you remember match game.
Sure.
The fun of match game was that you had these six celebrities, and they all had,
you know,
you give six celebrities cards and marking pencils.
I mean, that's like, that's like giving bananas to chimpanzees.
Now there's a show.
Yeah.
Believe me.
Some of my best friends.
But they asked, the way the show worked, it was cold blank.
It could be cold shower, cold water, whatever.
And then the end game was you had to come up with three.
They'd give you a word, and then you had to come fill three of the...
So they gave us the word willow.
Willow.
Do you want to try it?
Well, one thing is just kind of like flashing now in my mind.
But there has to be three things.
Yeah, no, I can't get beyond that one thing.
In other words, you're thinking weeping willow.
No, no, that would, no.
No.
All right.
Now I see that there could be two.
Yes, yes.
Now I see that...
Okay.
There's always tit willow.
See, tit willow didn't come to me either.
No, that's it.
So it was Willie.
I mean, Willow.
It was Willie, too.
It was Willie, too.
It was Willie, too.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So really, the three choices would have been what?
Weeping, pussy, and tit.
They were gorgeous.
Yeah, they were gorgeous.
Yeah, they were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
Yeah, they were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
They were gorgeous.
Oh, man.
They were gorgeous.
Oh, man.
They were gorgeous.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
You'd try that with the likes of Richard Dawson
and Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Summers.
How'd you like to be on jury duty with me?
I love it.
I love it.
Oh.
Oh, my God.
Talk some more about Alan Ludden.
How long were you guys married?
We missed 18 years by three days.
Well, that's close enough.
Yeah.
18 years is very good.
18 happy years.
How did you miss?
On password.
Is that right?
I was a guest on password and we just, I had seen him on GE College Bowl for
years.
Oh, that's right.
College Bowl.
What a great show that was.
College Bowl.
Fantastic.
He made up that game out in the backyard on a yellow one.
Is that right?
Yep.
Yep.
Oh, he loved that game.
Yeah, it was terrific.
And he worked with the youngsters.
He was, that was his pride and joy.
But then at one point, GE College Bowl and password were, that one was one half
hour and then on another network, the other was that way.
And he had to make a choice between the two and that was a tough choice.
Mm-hmm.
So he picked the lucrative one, which was password.
And that was, that was a good choice.
So, uh, yeah, you, you.
Well, look at it this way.
If he had picked, if he had stayed with GE College Bowl, I'd never have met him.
Well, yeah, that's probably.
But I didn't, I was too old for college.
I was too old for most things.
And you'd never consider going out with a younger man, I guess.
No, I wouldn't, as a matter of fact.
Um, so did you guys start dating immediately?
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
But our agents booked us into summer stock, uh, on Cape Cod.
And, uh, so he brought his, he was, uh, his wife had died and he had these
three great kids.
So we brought the kids to Cape Cod and, and I met there and we did a show
called Critics' Choice.
And, uh, it was, it was delightful.
I was going very steadily with somebody at that point with Phil Cochran.
And who was.
And Phil Cochran is, uh.
Flip Cork and in the old Terry and the Pirates that was based on Phil Cochran,
who was a war hero.
He was a fighter pilot, war hero.
Fighter pilot, yes.
And, uh, so Phil came up to see the show.
And at the end of the play, there was this lovely reconciliation scene.
And a tender kiss.
And that was it.
Well, Alan knew that Phil was in the audience.
And he held that kiss.
And he held that kiss.
And he held that kiss.
And he held.
And it was such a sweet moment that I couldn't very well pull away.
It would change the whole ending of the show.
of the show so he kept holding the kiss and finally from the third row i heard
it was phil and uh afterwards phil said i don't like alan ludden yeah i said
everybody likes alan
ludden he's one of those people everybody likes he said i don't okay he's a
very nice man very
personable and great on the password show yes and a real good kisser you know
and and what are you
doing in new york just hanging around i just hanging around and and talking
about ladies
men it's sweeps week and we are having such a good time on that show alfred molina
and sharon lawrence
are just delights to work with as are the two girls shauna and alexis you play
you play the
i play the his mother uh alfred's mother who's a little far out she's uh she
has her own agenda
you might say and you you steal the show oh yeah oh yes of course absolutely
absolutely hands down
it's true i'm not going to be able to go back with them no no no no i want to
tell you they're lucky to
have you my dear i'm having absolutely i'm gonna i'm gonna see sharon on this
trip it's a very flying
trip i won't get to see her in chicago she's she's uh i mean in the play chicago
she's doing it now on
broadway and i want to see it so bad and i have to go home before i get a
chance to see it and the the
show your tv show ladies man is on monday is what what time money at 8 30 on cbs
on cbs which i have
tattooed on my chest we're almost whoa nelly thank you for being here thank you
darling the lovely betty
white we'll be right back