Name: Ed Asner Collection on Letterman, 1982-1995
Uploaded: 2021-08-29T20:19:29.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ed Asner Collection on Letterman, 1982-1995' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-08-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ed Asner Collection on Letterman, 1982-1995' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-08-29. Transcript available.

Ed Asner Collection on Letterman, 1982-1995

Thank you very much. Welcome back to the show.
And everybody who participated in our bad phone call segment
receives one of these lovely, handsome David Letterman late-night sponges,
ladies and gentlemen.
Sure, you can applaud that.
And we have a wonderful show for you folks.
A little bit later, a report on the shame of the city.
And two gentlemen, each of them representing the East,
one the East Coast, the other the West Coast.
They both work for NBC.
We'll talk a little bit more about them later.
My first guest is one of the busiest...
That's the stupidest thing I've ever been a part of.
It's just plain big.
Settle down or I'll clear this dump.
My first guest is one of...
He's probably not coming out after this, and I don't blame him.
My first guest is one of the busiest people in Hollywood.
As actor, labor leader, and political activist,
he's been appearing on television weekly since 1970,
but right now happens to be between jobs.
Please welcome Mr. Ed Asner.
Sorry to subject you to that buffoonery.
I had no idea that was back there.
Oh, I was warned.
Doesn't bother you?
Well, I've seen a lot of that stuff.
I worked with Ted Knight.
Oh.
How are you?
How are things?
Things are not dull.
Not dull.
I sleep deeply at night, and I don't dream even anymore.
I just sleep.
When I get up, the challenges are there.
Here you...
So life is pretty much...
Well, you said not dull.
I feel younger than ever.
Yes.
I tell you what, let's get right to it here.
There's a couple obvious things we ought to talk about.
First of all, your show, of course, Lou Grant is gone.
Where?
No, it was canceled, Ed.
When?
I read about it a couple of weeks ago.
Oh, there's another new challenge.
Now, of course, you've talked this over and over again,
but what are your feelings about that now?
Oh, I think we got robbed.
Yeah.
I think that we had good enough ratings
to be supported by the network for another year.
We had done faithful service.
And that the wimps outside
created enough pressure and fright
and booga-booga,
and they took us off the air.
The wimps?
Yeah.
Now, who would the wimps be?
Well, you have...
Let's see, this is New York, right?
This is no wimps in New York, Ed.
Well, there's a congressman here.
He's kind of shaky in his seat,
so they made him head of this organization.
Send in your $5, $10, and $25.
And we'll get this commie, Ed Asner,
and we'll intimidate the sponsors.
Unfortunately, the show got canceled
about the same day his letter went out.
So I don't think he got much money in on that letter.
And then there was Kimberly Clark.
They withdrew their advertising,
and people can't use their Kleenex anymore
on the Lou Grant show.
And then there's another outfit in New York
called the Caucus of Conservative Consumers,
and they were going to boycott all of the advertisers
on the Lou Grant show.
And then Jerry Falwell,
he falls into that category.
He took out ads against me,
saying I was anti-Reagan
and therefore must be a communist.
But I read this afternoon
where he also said that he enjoyed the program.
He did. He did.
I guess he wanted to watch what the enemy was doing.
Uh-huh.
So then generally...
But he also asked for the $5, $10, $25, and $35.
People were making more money off us peripherally
than you can shake a stick at.
So there was pressure brought on the network and the sponsors,
and you also say that people were somehow
finding a way to make money at this?
Well, they wanted to continue these programs
of pointing out who the commies were.
Mm-hmm.
Le Boutillier,
and that's an all-American fellow right there.
Now, have people called you a communist
because of this...
Yeah, well, he called me everything
but the murderer of the four nuns in El Salvador.
It was just short of that.
I think.
He's written a book, and it's sold,
and I guess he wanted to write again.
He wrote about four pages on this letter,
and I should have brought it to you
because it's harem scarum,
and it's really whipping it up.
All right.
We'll pause here.
We're going to ask Mr. Asner
a few other questions right after this.
We'll see.
Paul Schaefer, and welcome back to the show.
Ed Asner is here,
and we're talking about, among other things,
is the cancellation of the CBS series,
Lou Grant.
Now, did anybody from the network
or the production company come to you
when you started taking a more politically active role
in things and saying,
gee, Lou, we've got 100 people employed here.
We're all making pretty good dough.
The network is getting a little nervous.
Can you back off or at least wait
until the series has its run?
Nobody from the network ever came to me.
Somebody from the...
Two days after the death threat,
somebody from the production department
came to me and said,
See, you know, it's...
With you spouting off like that,
the show just doesn't seem quite the same
as it was before.
And I said, well, that's...
I guess I said, that's too bad.
But that was about all.
What about the folks...
If you're in television especially,
you fight and you fight
and you fight for a job.
You get a job,
you still have no guarantee
that it'll last more than a weekend.
You had a show
that was on the air, what,
four years going to its fifth or...
Oh, it was five.
Five going to six.
And so suddenly,
it looks like because of your politics now,
other people are out of work.
Yeah.
That's the guilt you have to overcome
if you're going to open your mouth.
And I guess in my second or third year,
I might have thought of that
or of myself.
I don't know.
And kept my mouth shut
when I may have wanted
to speak a little louder.
But finally, in the fifth year,
I felt that I didn't want
to keep my mouth shut anymore.
And that's one of the things
that tends to intimidate you.
The other thing is that...
I just think it's a crying shame.
We were number 17 last year in shows.
And this year, we took a five-point drop.
And nobody got upset,
seemed alarmed,
seemed excited.
And you would think
that they would have said,
hey, let's pump it up.
Let's do a little something
before the wimps can claim
they drove it off the air.
And nobody did anything.
And they canceled it.
And they can say
that politics had nothing to do with it.
But if politics had nothing to do with it,
then they should be ashamed anyway
for not making some kind of stand
for a show that was so critically acclaimed.
Yeah.
Let me ask you another question
about being in television and so forth.
You, again, you work all your life
to attain recognition
as being a talented person
and success that comes with it
and so on and so forth.
And you were lovable as Lou Grant
on the Mary Tyler Moore Show
and maybe not so much lovable
but revered as the city editor
on this program.
Are the average viewers still behind you
or has that begun to shift?
Oh, that's bound to have affected
some viewers
who wanted good old
fuddy-duddy Uncle Lou
and he disappointed them
by getting a little sharp
in private, well, publicly private.
And I guess that's created
some disaffected fans
who wanted me to be good old sweet
fuddy-duddy Lou.
I suppose in my childhood
and in my youth,
I disowned actors
that I had come to accept
as a certain type of person
and then they switched roles
on me to show
they were a good actor
and I thought they stunk.
And I suppose a lot of people
may view me in that same light.
Do you have any fears
that you may never work
on American television again?
No.
No.
I'll work.
I may not be offered
another series
because of sponsor pressure,
but it's still feasible
and difficult to blacklist me,
I would say,
if I was just doing TV movies.
It's hard to drum up
a whole $5, $10, $25 campaign
if you're only going to be
on the air one night.
Yeah.
Can't get that money in that way.
Yeah.
So I'm sure I'll still be doing
TV movies,
hopefully features.
I would want to do a series,
I think,
because you're in touch
with a certain part of America
that nobody touches
in any other form.
Yeah.
And again,
it sounds like we're talking
about a man
who barely has
a couple of dimes
to rub together,
but you've had a long,
enviable,
successful career
in television and acting.
Fine.
How much do you want?
I want to thank you
for taking the time
to stop by here tonight, sir.
You're a gentleman
and a scholar?
Well, I don't know
about the latter
or either way.
And above all,
you didn't razz me.
Oh, you get razzed a lot?
Oh, yeah.
Well, no,
I wouldn't razz a guy
like you.
You treat me nice.
Thank you very much.
It was a pleasure
meeting you.
Here's a man
who gets razzed.
We'll be back
with all kind of stuff.
All right.
All right.
We're taking this show
to Chicago.
We'll be there
May 2nd through May 5th.
And if you don't have
a ticket, come anyway.
No, no.
If you don't have a ticket,
don't come.
Is that right?
You have to have a ticket
to get in.
There are no tickets.
And I'm not sure
why I mentioned this.
But we'll be in Chicago
May 2nd through the 5th.
I hope the weather
is lovely.
Don't you, Paul?
I think it'll be
very nice there.
Based on what?
I don't know.
Just based on your desire
to play along.
I appreciate that.
Anything I can do
because we were off
to such a great start.
Our first guest tonight,
a talented actor
who is lodged
in the hearts and minds
of many Americans
in his roles
of Mr. Grant
and also Lou Grant.
He is currently
on Broadway
in the comedy
Born Yesterday.
Ladies and gentlemen,
here he is,
Ed Asner.
Ed Asner.
I haven't seen you
in quite a while.
Nice to have you here.
No, no.
How you doing?
I'm doing fine.
I had just a good time.
You're just spilling
money everywhere.
Look at all this dough.
That's what they said
I had to do
to get back on this.
Oh, now stop.
No.
No, no.
We're going to have it now.
No, but we'll just,
we'll see that you get
this after the program.
Yeah.
How you been?
Fine, fine, David.
Tell the folks.
Which road do you take home?
No, no, no.
Tell us,
tell the folks
about the play.
About the play,
it's wonderful.
Well, you had
Madeline Kahn on here.
She's very nice.
You always liked her
better than me.
No, that's not true.
I think you did.
Do you guys get along
all right in the play?
Oh, wonderfully, wonderfully.
I slap her around
every night
and she keeps coming back
for more every other thing.
Are you enjoying this?
Now, you do a show
every night.
No, Monday,
you're dark, right?
Well, it's hard
because we don't get
a lot of celebrities.
Like, you haven't
been there yet.
No, I'm coming.
It's on my list
of things to do.
When do you think
you'll be there?
Well, you know,
now that we decided
to start rehearsing,
so my schedule
is going to be
completely...
You mean you're
going to have
to learn lines?
Yeah,
completely jammed up.
You know,
they can plant
electrodes in you...
Well, that's what
we were hoping.
...whereby that happened.
I heard once,
I mean,
the technique you did
about the thing here...
Right.
I heard that...
I don't know if it's true,
but there's a story
that when Brando
was doing the formula
with George C. Scott
that he used
a hearing aid.
Somebody would feed him
the lines that way?
Yeah,
and his first speech
and he took
the hearing aid out
and said,
damn thing doesn't work.
So, anyway,
now back to the play.
Yes.
Now, are you enjoying this?
Is this going to be
a long run?
Well, it ends happily
for her and sadly for me.
How so?
Well, she goes off
with this creep
and I'm left alone
with my millions.
And will this continue now
for another couple of years?
Well, no, no, no.
It's a limited run.
I only have so much juice in me
and New York is a summer...
I don't even know
what that means.
New York is a summer festival,
which I don't know
if I want to go through.
Have you done a lot of theater?
Oh, yeah.
I started out in theater.
It's the only way
to begin, David.
You get to learn lines that way.
Let's, tell me about you.
You know, we're going to Chicago.
That's my Wild Oatstown.
That's where I first
began learning lines.
Are you from the Midwest originally?
I'm from Kansas City.
Went to the University of Chicago.
Dropped out
because I began acting
extracurricularly there.
And I love it