Name: Mary Tyler Moore on The David Letterman Show, October 13, 1980
Uploaded: 2018-11-16T00:56:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mary Tyler Moore on The David Letterman Show, October 13, 1980' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-11-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Mary Tyler Moore on The David Letterman Show, October 13, 1980' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-11-16. Transcript available.

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. Thank you. 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. 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.
Tell me about Timothy Hutton. Timothy Hutton is the most extraordinary actor.
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 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. 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 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. And 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.
Those are terrific working conditions.
Yeah.
We have a snippet of this production that we're going to...
A 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.
Conrad should get something for my mother and father. He's not supposed to get
something for his doctor, is he?
I don't think so. I think we should go see him, Beth. Dr. Burby.
What?
I thought we could all go and see him together.
Why?
He thinks it's a good idea.
Oh, he thinks it's a good idea? What does he know about me? About this family?
I've never even met him.
Exactly. That's the point. Wouldn't it be easier if we all talked about it in
the open?
About what? What are we going to talk about?
Don't try to change me, Calvin. I don't want any more changes in my life. For
God's sake, hasn't enough happened?
Let's just hold on to what we've got.
Darling, that is what this is for. Maybe you'll get a surprise.
I don't want any surprises.
Look, I know I'm not perfect. And if I can't go around hugging everybody all
the time the way you do, then I'm sorry.
I'm not asking you to be perfect. You're missing the point.
Look, I don't want to see any doctors or counselors.
I'm me. This is my family.
And if we have problems, then we will solve those problems in the privacy of
our own home,
not by running to some kind of specialist every time something goes wrong.
Are you folks ready to order?
Now, could you give me a couple of minutes, please?
Sure.
I'm running to experts every time something goes wrong.
I know you mean well.
I want this to be a nice Christmas.
I do, too.
I want all of them to be nice Christmas.
We need time together, Calvin, you and I.
We have to get away.
New Year's.
We can spend some time in Houston with my brother and Audrey.
You know, play a little golf.
Relax.
We need time together.
Okay?
Okay.
Okay.
I love you.
Mary Tyler Moore.
And, uh, 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.
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, uh, toward the end of the picture where, uh,
Beth, who's a real matriarch,
uh, begins to feel threatened by the fact that her son is going to see a
psychiatrist.
And, uh, Calvin is beginning to sense that there's a real problem,
not just with the son, but with, uh,
the relationship that exists between the three of them.
Focus mostly on Beth, who's not a good communicator.
Yeah.
Uh, this must be a lot of fun for you because you were, uh,
loved and adored as Mary Richards, who was anything but what, uh, Beth is.
And now you're loved and adored because you're just, uh,
kind of a, a, a, a nasty, not a nasty person, but...
I don't know if I'm loved and adored.
Times passed.
People would come up to me in the street and say,
Hey, mayor, how are you?
Now they're going, uh, hi.
But that's terrific.
I mean, you're, you're, you're receiving a lot of, uh, uh,
Well, they're interested and that's nice.
Is there anything in your, I don't know anything about you personally.
What, what, what, what should we know about you?
Uh, well, most of the things that you should know about me,
I'm not going to tell.
Is, was there any kind of, uh, do you have anything, uh,
in your own life with your family that, uh, was helpful when you played part of
this?
Oh, sure.
And not just with my family, though, with, with people I've known,
people I've, I've worked with who, you know, are tough and, uh, uncommunicative.
You know, 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, and was the, um, antagonist.
Yes.
We, uh, there was a, it was a show that, uh, 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, and did spectacularly well.
I don't know what the reason for it is.
It was, uh, oh, well, uh, enough about that.
Um, let me ask you this.
You know, um, 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 doing it.
But, I mean, you, you were terrific in it, but who had the foresight to say she'd
be great?
Bob Redford, um, 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.
And 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.
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'd 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 agent's idea.
Uh, the producer, Manny Azenberg, had called him to ask about the availability
of another actor to replace Tom Conte.
And my agent 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, 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, it's so fascinating.
You, 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, it's friendly.
Go out on the street.
They'll touch you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very, very friendly place to be.
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.
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?
It's a terrific thing for you to stop by.
I'm real pleased you did that.
Thank you.
So am I, David.
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.
Thank you.