Name: Mary Tyler Moore Collection on Letterman, Part 1 of 2: 1980-1993
Uploaded: 2020-08-14T17:37:24.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mary Tyler Moore Collection on Letterman, Part 1 of 2: 1980-1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-08-14. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mary Tyler Moore Collection on Letterman, Part 1 of 2: 1980-1993' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-08-14. Transcript available.

Mary Tyler Moore Collection on Letterman, Part 1 of 2: 1980-1993

Hi there. Good morning and welcome to the show. And we're having more fun than
humans
should be allowed to have. But that's pretty much standard procedure for us. My
first guest
on this show is the star of the motion picture Ordinary People. Please welcome
Mary Tyler Moore.
People are very nice, very nice. They really are. You know Mary. Especially
Betsy. You look
good and you smell good. You really do. Thank you. You smell very nice. I've
always felt that way
about you, David. Really? Thank you very much. Not a lot of people say that to
me. I just want to
take a second. I saw this movie, Ordinary People. What a... It's a killer. It's
just terrific.
Thank you very much. Did you have to wait in line? I waited in line for about
an hour. It was cold and
nasty, but... That's the kind of dedicated guy you are. Thank you very much. It
was worth it. It was
wonderful. And you were terrific. Donald Sutherland was terrific. Yeah, really.
And tell me about
Timothy Hutton. Timothy Hutton is the most extraordinary actor. He's... He was
19. He just turned 20. He had
done a couple of television movies before that, but a rather limited background.
And the scope of his
performance, I think, is just so incredible. Yeah. He's going to be something
to watch. Talent to watch,
as they say. It's unbelievable. And a really nice, nice young man. Now, what I
forgot about during the
course of the movie, which is, I guess, the way it should be, the man who
directed it. Yeah. Is Robert
Redford. Indeed. Now, how can you be in the room with this guy and not feel...
Well, how did you feel?
It's interesting, because he is one of the brightest, most sensitive people I
have ever
been around. And we would be deeply into conversation and really involved
talking. And then every once in a
while, I'd pull back and I'd say, oh, my God, look at the face. It's just
amazing. He has the
demeanor of an unattractive man, one who has had to work on the inside, you
know, and not counting what
he looks like. How does he smell? Wonderful. Different. Different. Not better,
David. Just
different. This movie, and I know we're not supposed to dwell on this movie,
but nobody had an easy job.
It was such intensity, but it's not the kind that wears you out. It just, it
captivates you. Was it
tough to do this? It was challenging, yeah. But I love a challenge. It really
was extraordinarily good
work. And there was a lot of rehearsal and a lot of freedom. Bob is a wonderful
director
in that way, in that he really lets you contribute. And he knows what he wants
going in. But if
you have a better idea, his ego is such that he can accept it. Well, those are
terrific working
conditions. Yeah. We have a snippet of this production that we're going to...
Snippet?
A snippet, yes. A tiny excerpt of ordinary people. So if you folks here in the
studio will watch
the monitors, and at home, I guess the TV would work. Mary Tyler Moore. And we
have to pause
for a commercial. I forgot to have you explain to folks what that was about.
Maybe you can
do that. Too late now. No, no. She'll do it when we come back.
Oh, welcome back to the show. Mary Tyler Moore. I know I've done this backwards.
Forgive me.
What did we look at there? What was going on? I don't know. I haven't seen the
movie. That
was a scene toward the end of the picture where Beth, who's a real matriarch,
begins to feel
threatened by the fact that her son is going to see a psychiatrist. And Calvin
is beginning
to sense that there's a real problem, not just with the son, but with the
relationship that
exists between the three of them. Focus mostly on Beth, who's not a good
communicator. Yeah.
This must be a lot of fun for you because you were loved and adored as Mary
Richards, who
was anything but what Beth is. And now you're loved and adored because you're
just kind of
a nasty, not a nasty person. I don't know if I'm loved and adored. Times
past, people would come up to me in the street and say, "Hey, Mayor, how are
you?" Now they're
interested, and that's nice. Is there anything in your, I don't know anything
about you personally.
What should we know about you? Well, most of the things that you should know
about me, I'm not going to tell. Was there any kind of, did you have anything
in your own
life with your family that was helpful when you played part of this? Oh sure,
and not just
with my family, though, with people I've known, people I've worked with who,
you know, are
tough and uncommunicative and give other people around them a problem. You know,
some people
that I worked with on a variety series that I did, for example, there was a man
who came
out and was the antagonist. Yes. We, there was, it was a show that I was on
with you, which
was on for three weeks. Yeah. And then it went on to finish up without me for a
little
longer. Yeah, it did, and did spectacularly well. I don't know what the reason
for it was.
It was, oh well, enough about that. Let me ask you this, you know, how did you
get that job
on that movie? Well, uh, what? Frank's laughing because he's thinking about how
he's going
to get a job now that we're done. But, I mean, you, you were terrific in it,
but who had the
foresight to say she'd be great? Bob Redford told me that when he had first
read the book
in galley form four years before, he had envisioned me as, as the mother,
before he knew he was going
to buy the, the property and, and make a movie. And he said also that he had
always been fascinated
by what might be the dark side of Mary Tyler Moore because in most everything I've
done, it's been
sunny and open and optimistic. And, and he knew that little devil that there,
there was a lot of other
stuff happening. Did, did you ever grow to resent that? The fact that you were,
uh, the, the gal next
door, excuse me for that. Uh, only, um, in that it might limit what I could do.
And I, I love, uh,
diversification. Um, to the extent that, uh, people wouldn't accept that, that,
that gets to be
a little frightening. But I think with this, um, a lot of the, the locked into
sunny girl next door
image will be dispelled and that's good. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, now tell me
about the Broadway
play. How did you, uh, you know, this is what I love about this situation.
After the variety show folded,
you were so successful for so many years. It's just like people are waiting for
someone as
successful as you are to have a failure. And they were, it seems true that they
were hoping maybe you
just retire from show business, but you didn't. You went to the Broadway play,
which was not an easy
thing to do. Oh, I, I don't have such a jaded view of people. It's that I think
there are maybe
about 17 people who hope you fall on your face, but we tend to magnify that. I
don't think it's true.
Uh, I'm awfully glad I did that play. And, um, it was, uh, my agents
suggested me and, uh, it just that quickly, Manny loved the idea. He had always
thought that it was
an asexual, um, play and therefore could be done by man or woman. And it was
wonderful.
So what are you doing now? You're living in New York, right? I'm living in New
York. Yeah, by dribs and
drabs. I keep saying, well, I'll just stay another month. Well, I'll just stay
another two months. Now I've
kind of committed to stay another six months. I really like this city. It's, it's,
it's so
fascinating. You can't be bored here. I mean, the minute you walk out your door,
you, you encounter
either a man walking towards you with a snake coiled around his hand, or you
can go to the
Metropolitan Museum. Yeah. Somebody. But it's life, you know, it's. There's a
comedian whose name I can't
remember now has the great joke. He says, people say New York's not friendly.
It's friendly. Go out on the
street, they'll touch you. Yeah. That's true. Well, what are you going to do?
Are you going to do
more features? I'd like to. I really like that form. Um, I go where the work is,
though. It doesn't
matter to me whether it's play, Broadway, or play or movie. But I'd really like
to do another feature
or two. I'd like to do another drama. And then maybe one after that. And
someday have somebody say to me,
yes, but can you do comedy? Uh, it's, it's a terrific thing for you to stop by.
I'm real
pleased you did that. Thank you so much. And your movie is just wonderful.
Thank you. So are you.
I love this show. Thank you very much. It's just the highlight of my morning.
Mary Tyler Moore. We'll be right back.
Um, oh, this is interesting. This display right here. You'll probably, probably
recognize this item from
the opening of the Dick Van Dyke show. Yes, it's the very same ottoman that
Dick himself tripped over
once a week for five years. Still in pretty good condition, don't you think so?
Now, uh, this simple knit cap picked over hundreds of hats, which auditioned
for a bit part in the now
classic opening of the tremendously popular Mary Tyler Moore show. It was
chosen for its unique
ability to defy conventional physical laws. Let me demonstrate how this works.
Okay?
Just pretend now that I wouldn't be very good.
Thank you very much, and welcome back to the show. Ladies and gentlemen, uh,
moments ago across the hall,
there is a program done for greater New York City, uh, entitled, uh, Live at
Five, and a guest on that
show was, uh, Mary Tyler Moore. Mary is here tonight to say hello.
That's very nice of you to come over. Well, it's, it's my pleasure, David. I
haven't worked in a long
time, so what I'm doing these days is just working from studio to studio
looking to see if there's
anything, you know, any little crumb. Door to door, kind of back to grassroots.
Yeah, you look terrific.
Thank you. I haven't seen you in a long time, and you must be kidding. You must
be on the verge of
some major project or in the middle of some major project. I am. I have bacon
on the stove as we speak.
Now. And I have to go home and turn it over. It's probably too late, isn't it?
When was the last time you cooked bacon? Do you actually cook? I actually don't,
at all. See,
I think of cooking as a kind of art form, and the thought of somebody, after
you've poured all
your creativity into it, eating it, is a kind of mortal insult to the artist.
So you don't waste
your time on that? No. Yeah. No. Let them eat cake. Now, if you, if you had, if
you had to leave
right now and go out and get yourself something to eat, what would it be right
now? A cheeseburger.
Really? No question. Yes. A bacon cheeseburger. The greasier the better? Yes,
absolutely. Cheapest
is best. Really? Where your cheeseburger is. Probably down in the Times Square
area down
there and get yourself a Wimpy's or something, or a Blimpin's. Yeah, right.
Probably best that
I don't go down to Times Square, though. No, no. You, you and I spent an
interesting summer
together once, didn't we? Are we going to talk about that?
Uh, no. This woman was, was, uh, kind, kind enough, uh, to employ me and some
other people
on a, uh, a program. And you were kind enough to be there and make me look
funny. Oh, no,
no, no, no, no. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. No, no. It was, uh, it was,
uh, the whole
summer was, what's wrong with this picture? And it was, why is Letterman
standing next to
Mary Tyler Moore? No, no, no. That was the problem. But it was a lot of fun.
The ill-fated
variety hour. It was not on long, but I learned an awful lot. No. So did I.
Really? Don't do it
again. Uh, so now you, you mentioned something about a baseball game you're
involved in? Yes,
last week. This will be after the fact. Right. There was a baseball game, uh,
between, uh,
the CBS All-Stars and North Shore Child Guidance, which is a mental health
organization of which I'm
a part. And you, you played or just showed up? No, I watched and didn't know
very much of what was
going on at all. Yeah. I'm one of those people who doesn't know the difference
between football
and baseball, really. Yeah. Well, it's really tricky. The pointy ended ball is
the one they use for
football. That's right. The pointy, the poi