Name: Gilda Radner on Letterman, October 3, 1983
Uploaded: 2018-01-29T03:10:44.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Gilda Radner on Letterman, October 3, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-01-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Gilda Radner on Letterman, October 3, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-01-29. Transcript available.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the show, and once again, my
thanks to everybody who helped us out with our inaugural presentation of Stupid
Human Tricks.
My first guest tonight, boy, we're very excited that she is here. She was the
very first performer chosen for the cast of Saturday Night Live, and since
leaving that show, she's gone on to success on the stage and screen, of course.
Her latest project is this book, which she has co-authored with Alan Zweibel,
Roseanne Rosanadana's Hey, Get Back to Work book.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure now to welcome Gilda Rabner.
Nice to see you.
Well, it's nice to see you, too.
Thanks for being here.
Now, I saw you earlier, and you were worried that we had actually seen one
another before the show.
Well, I was worried. I thought we should just see each other for the first time
now.
I want you to know this is the first time I've ever been on an interview show
where the guy was behind a desk.
Really?
It really is the first time, I swear. Usually, like, you'd be sitting here two
seats. Like, now my neck hurts from talking to you.
Well, is there... Would you be more comfortable in some other configuration?
No, this will be fine.
See, I think they're making up their own jokes out there, which is...
I know. As long as they're laughing, it's okay.
Yeah.
Now, but is there some sort of... This is not an old kind of superstition, is
there, about seeing each other before the show?
No, I just... No, actually not. But I thought we shouldn't talk, you know. We
might say something we were going to say.
Yeah.
You know, it wouldn't be, like, fresh.
Yeah.
Because we would... Or we'd talk and get sick of each other right in the... In
the makeup room.
Oh.
So, I waited.
So, apparently, you've seen the show before.
Yeah.
Let's talk about the book. I was reading this book. It seems to me that the preface
of this publication is, what, about 101 pages?
It is 101 pages long.
Yeah.
The actual book is 10 or 11 pages.
Now, why... What's the reason for that?
Well, the book company hired Roseanne to write a self-help book on dealing with
the unemployment problem and having confidence and getting your job back if you
lost your job.
And she chose, instead, to tell her whole life story, where she was born and do
a complete autobiographical study of herself.
And then the editor keeps coming in and reminding her to get on with the self-help
part, but he gets fired eventually.
And when she finally gets to the how-to part of the book, there's only enough
room to make it 11 or 12 pages or the book would be more expensive.
Well, sure.
Right.
Well, as long as there's a good reason for that.
Right.
Now, are there valuable finding job tips to be had in here?
Absolutely.
All based on confidence and getting a good attitude.
There's also little things to do, like connect the dots while you're waiting to
get a job.
Advice on television shows you could watch to lift your spirits.
That's right.
Yeah, and many, many other things.
Right.
So it's a practical book as well as a spiritually enriching project.
Absolutely.
Oh, good.
Right.
We have a commercial here we're going to do, and then we'll come back and we'll
talk about Roseanne and other things.
Okay.
You all right?
I'm okay.
Okay, good.
We'll be back when we go to Radley.
Thank you, Paul.
Well, welcome back.
Gilda Radner is here.
Later on tonight, you'll see Michael Caine here.
Tomorrow on this program, Jay Leno and Rip Thorn will be joining us.
Gilda, I was looking through this book, and we have pictures of Hernando, Rosanna
Dando.
Right.
And someone called the rhyming bum.
Oh, yes.
People that Roseanne met during her rise to fame.
And David Brinkley?
I should explain that David Brinkley is in the book because he was very helpful
in getting Roseanne her job at NBC.
She was looking for a job at the time and walking along 57th Street, and she
saw David.
He was covered with mud all over his pants and his suit and gook from the
street, and he was, I don't mind saying, swearing like a dock worker out there.
And Roseanne, it just so happened Roseanne's family was in the dry cleaning
business, so she took Mr. Brinkley down to her father's dry cleaning
establishment, the very dry cleaners.
There's a picture in here of that.
Yeah, there's a picture of the storefront.
And so her father, Bert Rosanna Danner, I can't say it anymore, Rosanna Danner
Jr., he cleaned David Brinkley's pants, but he couldn't get some of the heavy
gook out of it.
And Roseanne came up with the idea that when you do the news, you really don't
have to wear pants, right, because no one sees your legs.
And Brinkley was so happy, he gave her a job at NBC.
Well, that's an exciting story.
And there's many other stories like that in the book.
What did David look like in his, did she actually get to see him in his...
Yes, he wears bikini underwear that says Home of the Whopper on them.
You never know.
That's uncharacteristic for the man.
You know, there was another friend of yours or a character that you made quite
popular on your show, Emily Letella.
That's correct, yeah.
Now, there's an interesting story behind the origin of that person, isn't there?
Right, well, I was actually raised by a woman who is 90 now and lives in Canada.
Her name is Mrs. Gillies, and I call her Dibby.
And it was her voice, you know.
It's actually her voice and her difficulty with hearing a little bit that made
the character get developed.
Do a little of the character.
Well, she would go...
What's all this fuss I keep hearing about David Redman?
You know, something like that.
I can still do the voice.
Well, good.
So, but this was...
An actual person actually talks this way.
That's right.
That's right.
And she raised me.
Did I say she's 90?
Yep.
She is 90.
Wonderful.
And when the people were writing the show, would they talk to her?
Well, what we do is, like, Alan Zweibel, who wrote the book with me, the Roseanne
book, we also wrote a lot of the Emily Lutellas together.
And we'd call her up to get her voice intonation and to see what she'd have to
say about it before we would write the Emily Lutella.
And other writers who wrote for the character, they'd call her up, too.
Okay.
And that's what we're going to do here.
We're going to give her a call and see if she actually sounds like Emily Lutella.
Okay.
I'm making books.
Now, remember, she's 90.
Okay.
Well, you're going to talk to her.
Now, what part of the world are we calling here, Adela?
We're calling Canada, outside of Hamilton.
Okay.
Better get the right number.
Oh, this makes me terribly nervous.
I've been doing this for 21 years.
Here, I hope that's Mrs. Gillies.
I find it difficult to believe that she sounds just like you.
Will you all hear her?
Yeah, I think we should, unless...
Yeah, we should.
Give her another chance.
Yeah, I may have screwed that up.
Do you want me to dial for you?
She's tired after dialing all these years.
One more chance.
Okay, geez, I hope that's...
What would she be doing this time of day?
Oh, talking on the phone, probably.
Wow, it's kind of a Star Wars deal, isn't it?
Okay, this will be...
Okay, this will be...
All right.
This is Debbie Gillies.
Hello.
Hello?
Deb, it's me.
Hello?
It's me, Gilda.
I can't hear you.
It's me.
It's me, Gilda.
Yeah, but you're staying miles away.
Well, I am, Deb.
I'm in New York.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Okay.
It's me, Gilda.
How are you, Deb?
I'm just fine, sweetheart.
Oh, what are you doing now?
I'm having my supper.
Oh!
Did we interrupt your dinner?
Huh?
Did we...
It's good when I get down.
I had a...
What did you say?
I said I had a piece of chicken that tastes good.
Yeah?
And what else?
Yeah.
What else?
Oh, no.
I've got potatoes and tried to make our ripe tomatoes.
Yeah?
Yeah, and some green onions.
Oh!
Deb, I know they all want to hear you say, never mind.
Can you say that?
Never mind.
That's terrific.
Gilda, thank you very much.
Love you, Deb.
Good luck with the book, Gilda Radner and Mrs. Dibby Gillies.
Thank you very much.
She sounds terrific, Gilda.
Thank you so much.
We'll be back.
This is our telekid and favorite TV show has been canceled.
That was very sweet.
Thank you.