Name: Bob Newhart & Don Rickles on Donahue, November 13, 1989
Uploaded: 2017-10-28T00:29:21.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bob Newhart & Don Rickles on Donahue, November 13, 1989' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-10-28. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bob Newhart & Don Rickles on Donahue, November 13, 1989' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-10-28. Transcript available.

Bob Newhart & Don Rickles on Donahue, November  13, 1989

- I am pleased to welcome you from a whole bunch of places.
This is a lot of suburbs in search of a city,
including good old Burbank, California,
Van Nuys, Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Laguna.
You pick your town.
This is Southern California.
And,
you know how to make a guy feel good.
Hey,
and you're not kooky and you're just like all of us.
You look just like the folks in New York.
And we're counting on,
well, I hope you're complimented by that.
I am pleased to present
two of the most successful entertainers in our business.
They've hit the long ball for a long time.
And what do you know?
They've been buddies for almost 25 years.
Here are Don Rickles and Bob Newhart.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
And we're going to be here.
You've been pals for almost 25 years.
You've been around the world together.
Your wives are pals.
You guys have been in trailers.
You've been to Israel.
Incidentally, Don, have you met the Pope?
Why?
I met a few rabbis, but never the Pope.
I would be honored if I had met the Pope.
No.
Bob had -- Well, we did meet the Pope in a way.
I don't know if this is the time to tell you.
But it was at the Vatican.
We were on a trip to Rome.
And Bob and a fellow friend of ours, Carol O'Connor, said,
"Listen, I have influence that you guys can see the Pope."
I said, "The Pope?
Wow, this is terrific.
The Pope, the holiest man in the world.
This is wonderful."
And Bob's a devout Catholic, and I'm a Jew.
And I remind him of that every single day.
And we both were in Rome.
And Bob said, "Okay," Carol O'Connor called and said,
"So-and-so, Father so-and-so, is going to take us to the Vatican to see the
Pope."
I've pictured seven of us sitting around with a cigar and a cigarette,
saying, "Holy Father, what's new?"
You know.
And we got up that morning, and I said,
"Bob, it's time.
We're ready.
We have --"
And he said, "Well, let's get some sleep."
Bob talks like that because he fears an earthquake that didn't hit him yet.
And to make a long story short, I had to wake them up.
We went to the Vatican, and there was 1,500 people in a packed auditorium.
There was a little man on a litter, 70 miles from us.
And he went, "Holy Father!"
That's how we met the Pope.
That's true.
Bob, just try and tighten up the answers just a little bit.
It's only an hour of show.
You didn't really need me for this show, did you?
No.
Well, there's something going on here.
I mean, obviously, you guys must be good for each other to be traveling like
this.
How'd this happen?
I mean, do you remember?
Did you work together?
Or what --
No, actually, what happened was that my wife, Ginny, knew Barbara.
She was a secretary for an agent, and she was going with the agent, so she knew
Barbara.
So Don was in the -- we were in Vegas together.
I was in the main room, and Don --
True.
And Don was in the lounge.
So Ginny called Barbara, and she said, "Why don't we get together with Don and
Barbara?"
No, you were married, both of you at the time.
Yeah.
No, we were single, working the air.
All right, I missed that.
So Ginny called Barbara, and Don, at that time, was still one of the big spenders,
invited us to have dinner at the cafeteria at the Sahara.
So we did, and Don was saying, "Oh," and at that time, there was just Mindy,
and I think we had Rob and Tim.
And Don was saying, "Oh, there's Mindy, and I hate to be away, but you've got
to be on the road."
And as we were leaving, we were going to see Don's third show in the lounge,
and Ginny said -- Ginny said to me, she said, "He's such a sweet man.
He's such a lovely man."
I said, "Well, honey, it may be a little different once we get into the lounge."
So we got in the lounge, sat down, and he said, "I want to introduce very good
friends of mine,
the standing idiot from Chicago, Bob Newhart, and his hooker wife from Bayonne."
And it was love ever since.
Ever since.
Yes.
Whose hand did I see over here?
Somebody.
Yes, ma'am.
This question is for Don.
Why do you hide your feelings for -- you're so patriotic.
Sometimes it comes out in your nightclub acts, and sometimes it doesn't.
Why do you hide that?
Why does he hide his patriotism?
Yes.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
He did.
This is what I've been waiting to ask him a lifetime.
He can be so funny and then yet bring tears when he --
Well --
The end of your show, you can --
Pardon me?
The end of your show, you say things about our country, and I saw you -- yes,
he does.
You liked him, didn't you?
He's good at it.
Yes, well, I was in, unfortunately, World War II as a sailor, and I say these
patriotic
things, and in case they want a man over 60 again, I don't want to go.
Yes.
Yes.
I was wondering, Don, how you got interested in your particular brand of humor.
Well, I'll say one thing.
Compared to the young people that are coming up today, I'm a priest.
This is a question for Bob Newhart.
What's it like working with Daryl and his other brother, Daryl?
Well, they become like -- they become almost cult figures.
They're like -- they become generic, because I'll go to a place and somebody
will say, you
know, we got Larry and Daryl and Daryl in the back, have them fix it, you know,
whatever.
But they're great.
They're very unusual.
They're fun to work with.
And the interesting thing is that Daryl and Daryl come to the script reading,
which is
on Monday, even though they know they aren't going to have any work.
This is for both of you.
Excluding each other, who are your role models?
Excluding each other, who are your role models?
Well, I can only speak for myself.
My role model was -- is -- is, thank God -- is Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle.
Ferdinand Marcos, I guess.
No, no, I would say -- I would say -- Jack -- Jack Benny would be -- would be
mine.
I'd like to ask Don how he developed the phrase, you hockey puck.
I really don't know how that came about.
I think in my days in Miami, in a little tiny club, I called a guy a hockey
puck.
He passed it to three other guys in Brooklyn, and it skyrocketed.
Yes.
Um, is -- are Larry and -- Larry -- or Larry and Daryl and Daryl -- is Daryl
and Daryl
ever going to talk at all before the show's over?
If -- if this year is our last year, that might -- that's a possibility that
they might -- they
might say something.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Hi.
You both have very unique comic styles.
Did you start with those styles when you first started your career, or did they
evolve
from something else?
Go for it.
Well, I don't know.
I think it's -- to me, it's just being around at the right time.
I mean, I -- this is -- I mean, I -- I talk like this.
I -- this is not a put-on.
No.
Weird.
Didn't you have a buddy -- didn't you have a double actor -- a guy by the name
of Gallagher
you worked with in Chicago?
At Gallagher, yeah.
You must have been 14 years old at the time, right?
Yeah.
We did a -- kind of a poor man, Bob and Ray kind of show, and --
Actually, on the real live radio, or just --
On radio.
We were in Northampton, Mass, Jacksonville, Florida.
And Idaho Falls, Idaho.
It's true.
In 1958, something like that.
And we charged $7.50 a week for five -- five-minute comedy routines.
And at the end of 13 weeks, one of the stations stiffed us, never paid us.
And two wanted to renew us.
And we wrote him back and said, "Thank you very much, but we can't afford to do
this show
anymore."
I mean, it was -- it was costing us more in tape to send it out than we were
getting it.
And he became a big-shot advertising guy, went into straight real work.
Yeah.
But, obviously, this was the origin of your one-sided conversations, et cetera.
Well, it is.
Yeah, there always seems to be somebody there.
Now, your pal is a -- your pal is Long Island.
Right.
Not bad.
Uh, your father was an insurance man and a dry goods guy?
What?
No, he was an insurance man for Metropolitan Life.
Uh-huh.
And, uh, he was -- he was a great -- he was a great salesman.
Yeah.
He must have made him laugh, too.
I mean, you must remember, huh?
He was the kind of a guy -- uh, the best way I can explain my dad was, rest his
soul,
was he the kind of guy, Phil, he'd put his arm around a lady and never be dirty
about it.
Uh, I -- I -- I think I know that kind of person.
We could use more of those folks.
Thank you.
You had how many in the family?
I was the only child, and my mother knew that every morning 'cause she put on
her patent
hat and woke me up.
And --
But you didn't -- you had a good childhood.
I mean, there's no -- you know.
I did.
I was backed against the radiator a lot.
And she went, "Why?!"
Uh, you were a good student.
No, no.
No.
Uh-huh.
All right.
I was the president -- I'm not proud of that.
I was the president of my high school and had trouble spelling "cat."
Uh-huh.
Now, here's everything I know about you.
This kind of humor, as to which, uh, the person in the audience referred a
moment ago,
didn't you have to work to a bunch of guys off the ship?
Uh-huh.
Where's the broads, you know?
Didn't you?
And you went out --
Wasn't you one of the guys?
Uh-huh.
And you went out and took him on and started coming back, and you killed him.
Right.
Well, that was because, as Bob knows, in our business, in our -- in our time,
uh, when
we stood out on the stage, you know, television and improv, there was no such
thing.
I worked in -- Bob came out of radio and television, and I came out of what
they call strip joints,
for the lack of another word.
Uh-huh.
Where they had 17 girls with a fan, and I used to stand in the back being
single and go --
And, uh, we had these shows, and the -- out of frustration, I did impersonations
badly, and
I had an act that wasn't too funny, and I started to talk to the audience, and
the sailors would
yell up and say, "When are you going to get funny?" You know, the old cliches,
and I would
tell them, you know, "How would you like it if I suck your neck?" You know, and
all of a
sudden, that became very funny. As you can see now, it had trouble.
Yeah.
It took a while.
Now, uh, just a couple other things. Um, you'll pardon this, uh, once again,
this preoccupation
with comedy. Uh, I'm impressed with the fact that you guys have hit the long
ball for so
long. And, in your private lives, I mean, your storybook guys, I mean, married
once, loyal,
faithful, I -- I mean, this is going to be a long show for me. We have no
scandal.
You know, I am not, uh, the first person that's going -- that you've heard --
you are -- you
guys are probably never going to get on Current Affair, now. You should know
that.
You also seem to have whatever neurosis there might be there, and I hope there's
some. That's what makes us human, but it's very, very manageable. Neither of
you drink,
certainly too excess. What is this? How'd this happen to the Gentile and the
Jew along
the way?
Well, somebody called me up and said --
You have a sister and nun, a real, live nun.
That's right.
Yes.
Well, I mean, this is --
As opposed to what?
Well, I mean --
Well, I mean, it's just a great Irish Catholic Chicago family. All right. Go
ahead. Interrupt you.
Go ahead.
Somebody called me up and they said, "Look, Don Rickles is looking for a best
friend. And none
of us want to do it with you." And I said, "How long?" They said, "A year at
the most." But we're so opposite, you know, that -- he makes me laugh and I
make him laugh. That's why we're friends. I don't --
Also, part of the question you ask is that humor has an awful lot to the
duration of a marriage. Some of the longest show business marriages are comedians