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Was it easy leaving the group chat when the bubbles turned green and every message was Cam likes this and Claire dislikes that? Oh yes, yes it was, because I get enough overreacting at home. Like liking messaging again with WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Hi, my name is Ron Howard and I feel...
Frankly indifferent about being Conan O'Brien's friend. You know what? No one says this often, but Ron Howard, you prick. Hello there.
And welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. I wanted to start out a little different, so I went with yellow there, and that might become a thing. Yeah, like a Midwestern DJ from the 50s. Yellow there. That's cool. Yeah. That's cool. That's really cool. By my pals. Yes. The cool bar here is exceedingly low. Joined by my compatriots, my confederates, compadres, co-owners, uh,
What? I have steak in this thing? Oh, no, no, not this. No, no, no. No, no, I bought a 1954 Nash Rambler and we're co-owners. I am satisfied. Yeah, it's an old kind of car. Can you just do a different car that I would know? Yellow. Yellow.
It's Sona Movsesian and yellow. It's Matt Gorley. Sona. I just had a very nice experience. I had to go into a jewelry store to have one of my many chain pendants repaired. Why do you have so many chain pendants? Because Mr. T sends me one like once a year. Oh, that's cool. And then I feel like, yeah, you got to wear them. I want co-ownership of that. So, no, I had to have a...
something fixed a little bit. And I went in there and they were immediately like, Conan! And it's all because of you. It's because they're Armenian and they saw it as a hero. I think you're kind of discounting how big I am in the Armenian community. Oh, are we? Yes. Oh, they did say, where is Fussy Man? Uh-huh. Yeah, which is Armenian for coolest dude ever. Uh-huh.
Yes, of course. Why, just look at my posture. Anyway, we had a nice exchange. They were very happy that I went to Armenia with you. That is the gift that keeps on giving. Yeah, in L.A. especially, to have street cred with the Armenians. You're in. Yeah. Eduardo's nodding a lot. Eduardo, your wife is Armenian, am I correct? Yes, Von Cess. Yes. Check him out. What do you mean, check him out? He said, how are you? Yeah, Von Cess.
Oh, I thought you said her name was Von Cess. No, her name's Aza. Yeah, I know. When you said Von Cess, no one, everyone listening just assumed that was her name. Except for our Armenian fans. Yeah, which we have a lot of. Of which there are two and they work at a jewelry store right up the street.
Von Cess, yeah. But he said, I said brev, and he said inch per second. I said lavem, and he went, whoa! Yes, so what's that? Let's not keep it pushing. I'm hungry. Yes, yes, greba, greba. Don't do that. Why? What's the matter? Don't do your fake Armenian. You're doing so well, and it's just a matter of time before you... Matt didn't know it was fake. And I'm fluent. Yeah. And you do say every now and then I hit a real word accidentally. No, I don't. Greba stabi? Not at all. Hush.
Hush. Yeah. Yeah. Hush. What dialect do you speak? I don't like that. I almost fell for it. Do you even know that you asked a real question? Yes. Oh, no, you don't.
you don't. I speak Western dialect. Yeah. Oh, come on. Yes. Yes. Um, uh, anyway, uh, I'm in, uh, I'm, I think I'm doing well in the Armenian community. And I think if we go community by community, eventually it will have everybody under our tent. Did they hook you up? Can I go there and get some shit for free? Yes, they did hook me up. They gave me six pounds of dried apricot.
It's rolled up like a carpet. Yeah, khush. It's dried up like a carpet. Well, you remember when you and I went, that's what they kept giving us was dried apricot and dried pomegranate. And it was very good. But I said, you know, we call these back home a fruit roll-up. And they said, why are you speaking in that crazy way? And I said, I'm doing a comedy.
And this is a fruit roll up. Yeah. And remember, then they said, you need to leave Armenia immediately. Yeah, they did. They almost kicked us out of the country. And they also were like, that's not funny. Even if we understood what they said, we they said, we understand the reference now and it's still not funny. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And I said, yeah, you could fool me because this looks like a fruit roll up.
You doubled down? Don't double down. By now it's quadruple down because I think I'm on the fourth go around. A fruit roll-up. But we had a nice bond. That's nice. And so I do sincerely thank you for hooking me up in the Armenian community. They're very nice people. Well, you know what? I mean, this is sincere. It was your idea to go there and that always meant a lot to me. So thank you for taking that.
taking me to Armenia. Oh, of course. It was cool. Free trips are the best trips. Yeah.
Also, it was your homeland. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, that too. It wasn't a Vegas U-turn, you know? And what would you consider your ancestral homeland, Matt? Would it be Scotland? I always thought it was Irish, then learned it was definitely Scots-Irish. But now I think I'm mostly English. So let's just go hit all three, you and me, huh, buddy? You know what? I'm up for it. Okay. So are you in on this trip? Yeah. Yeah. You're paying? Well...
It's not going to be me that's paying. We're going to find a sponsor. Oh, okay. Okay. I'll totally go for reals. Yeah. We're going to get Solo Stove to back this. Do we have to use a Solo Stove on the plane? We have to fly a plane that's made of Solo Stoves. They're all welded together. And the plane is constantly on fire, but there's no smoke.
Yeah. And it's kind of a jet turbine. Exactly. So... If you point it the right way. No, that's my idea that I've had for a while. And I think I've mentioned this, which is I just start talking up a product a lot. Now, we happen to have a relationship with Solo Stove. They're not paying for this mention right now. This is a freebie for you guys. Shout out to Solo Stove. But...
I do think we should start talking about products that we don't have a connection to. Agreed. And then we'll get into bed with them. Yeah. And I mean, like, Apple. Where has Apple been? Right. Apple's a huge company, and this is a cool podcast. Adam, you're... And they need to advertise. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know what? Even hardcore Apple fans, if they aren't made aware that there's a new Apple phone somehow through advertising or something, they're not going to know. I need to buy a new desktop. I'll wait. Okay.
Okay. I think, why don't you do a preemptive Apple read right now? That'll get them, let them know that you really care about the product. You know, I love Apple and I always have because, well, Apple just gets the job done, you know? Get her done. Wait, that's not good. Okay. This is, this is,
That was a good song. That does work because that's Larry the Cable Guy on Cars, who's a Pixar, which is owned by Apple. No one else made that connection, though. He just sounded like he was having a breakdown. No, he meant to do that. He's the Rain Man of useless information. That's true. No, but what I believe is that, look, I'm just going to say it. You know, I got the Apple Watch. I use the Apple phone, known as the iPhone to many fans. Yes. I don't see the Apple Watch on your wrist right now.
Are you trying to help or not? I wear it when I'm exercising. You're wearing it somewhere else. Can I tell you something else? Yes. Yes, they make a special one for other regions of the body, and we just lost Apple. You know who we have? Samsung. And Samsung is great. You know, Samsung is great. Do we really have them? Oh, we have Samsung. Why are we doing an Apple commercial? I thought about that halfway through Conan's Apple read, and I got a bad move. Can I say something? Can I say something?
Can I just say something? Let me just riff off the top. This is just, I just had this thought. Fuck Apple. You know what I mean? Like, what the fuck? I'm not buying a new desktop. I'm buying a new Samsung frame TV. And guess what? I'll tell you something else. This is why I should have been talking about Samsung. I don't even, by the way, does anyone use an Apple phone? Is it called an Apple phone? Is it iPhone or iPhone?
I think it's if phone, right? No, everyone calls it an Apple phone. Everyone does. Anyway. Keep saying it. Those, I mean, it seems like a badly run company with a product no one cares about. Yes. Here's the thing. Samsung, they actually have a Conan channel on the Samsung TVs, and it just plays me. This is my wet dream all my life. Well, I'm sorry. By wet dream, I didn't mean anything gross. I meant a dream that I would have at night that would make me cum. Oh.
Come on! Samsung, are you listening? Yeah! So I guess I did mean what you thought I meant. That's definitely what I thought. So anyway, it's this channel. Have you watched the Conan channel? I only watched it. It's fantastic. Yeah, it's amazing. I don't watch anything else. And sometimes my wife is saying, oh, you know, I hear Shogun's really good. And I'm like, we'll watch that later!
More! And her, she's crying and her, she wears a lot of mascaras, you know, and it's just running. Classic Liza. She's a big goth. Yeah, it's running down her face like Tammy Faye Baker and she's like, I just heard sugar. I said, quiet! This is me in 98. I'm killing it!
So, yeah, Samsung gets it done. And then I guess, what happened to Apple? They kind of fell apart for them in the late 90s. Well, while we were talking, they went bankrupt. That's what I'm told. We have that much kind of power. And when I said that much kind of power, that's not a real sentence. That much kind. That much kind. If I catch myself before you do, that's not a problem. Hey, I'm going to wrap it up right now. I just want to say yellow to all our listeners.
And remember, Samsung's the way to go. And if you need a phone, I don't know. I wouldn't waste my money. Okay, don't ever do a code name. And they do everything. What? Appliances. Who are we talking about now? Samsung. Oh, I thought you were talking about Apple. Apple doesn't do shit. Okay, now you're going too far. Oh, I'm sorry. What if they're about to buy in? Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, we gotta leave the door open. What did you think about that? Yeah, I think we should leave the door open. I'm gonna leave the door open to crack and say, I think they do make a fine product. Oh. But we love Samsung. We love Samsung. We love Samsung. But...
Why isn't there room in this world for both? I don't know what that voice is. It's a good yellow for all of you. And what'd you say to me? I said, and I can't wait to meet her. I can't wait to meet your wife. I'll be like, you're more beautiful than I thought. And she'll be like, what are you talking about? Why are you saying you're more beautiful than I thought? Eduardo's wife. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I, you think the von says is weird.
You know what? You're way more beautiful than I thought. You know what? I've been saying that. There's so many layers to that. I've been saying that to women for so many years, and I have to say it, not getting a good reaction. No. No, so many times I say to women, you know, people bring their spouses by and they go, oh, you're so much more beautiful than I thought. And it's weird. You're essentially saying I thought you were ugly prior to seeing you. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And it also implies I'm thinking about you a lot. Yes. And think of you as ugly. Hey, would you do me a favor, Eduardo? Tell Von Ciss. Tell Von Ciss I'm very sorry for what I said and I didn't mean it. And I can't wait to meet Von Ciss. Keep her away from him. All right. We got to get into it. And what a show we have today. What a show we have today. My guest on the podcast is an Academy Award winning director.
Ron Howard, welcome.
You have this reputation of being like, oh, he's the nicest guy. And then you come in here and you take me off. I can take it or leave it. Yeah. I'm here. But I'm here. I'm here. You know, to be honest, you really could. I mean, I was shocked you showed up. You've had a level of success. Frankly, I'm surprised when anyone shows up.
But you've had a level of success where, yeah, you do not need to be here. And I'm appreciative that you're here. No, I actually do. I've always loved conversations with you. Going back to your rookie year on TV. That's right. You came on. You were one of the early people to come on the show. And you agreed to do a bit. No one knew who I was. And we were trying very, very out there bits. And we said, what we want to do is we want to saw your arm off.
And you said, okay. And we did a bit where you had a stunt arm. And at one point we're talking and I just take out a saw and I saw your arm off and you're screaming and you were fantastic. And of course, most people didn't know who I was. You were, you know, you've been iconic since, I don't know, 1965 and beloved. And so people, I remember this is back when people would write in with complaints, but people were saying the way you treated Ron Howard. Yeah.
I didn't really saw his arm off. I loved it. Hey, a funny redhead. There you go. Okay. I have a very clear, distinct memory of getting invited to some event. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was like a vanity fair party, something that where I would feel a little bit out of place thinking, do I belong here? And I'm with my wife and I get
They seat me at a table with you and your wife and a couple of other people, but we're all right next to each other. And then you and I start to get into this very intense conversation. And I remember people at the table thinking, wow, what's, where are Conan and Bob?
oh, and how we're talking about, it's really intense. Like, are they talking about film? What are they talking about? My wife leaned over and she listened and then she said to the rest of the group, sunblock. And it was true. It was true. And I was, and you were saying like, yeah, no, no, here's what I do. I always try and wear a hat, but you know, it's gotta be at least a 45. And I was like, yeah, yeah, but is there zinc in there? And you're like, here's, here's the deal. Zinc can be problematic. Yeah.
And we went really deep. And of course, your wife was like, yeah. Well, my wife's a redhead. Your color, it's vivid redhead. And same as Bryce. When Bryce was our firstborn, the first time that we took her in, we went to the dermatologist, Cheryl and I.
and brought Bryce and Bryce was literally in her arms. So she was maybe, maybe a year old. And the dermatologist, you know, gives us each our checkup and so forth. And then he, and then he says, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna have to keep a hat on her. You're going to have to keep her. And, and then he, she looked at Cheryl and looked at me and he said, you know, she's very pale. She's pale. I said, yes, we know. He said, you're not going to have any more kids, are you? Oh my God. He meant it.
Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. I remember distinctly having a conversation with a dermatologist once where he said, okay, okay, this is when I'm in my 30s. And he went, okay, okay, I mean, but look at the freckling you have, the sun damage. And I went, well, yeah. And he said, do you do sunblock? And I said, yeah. And he said, do you wear a hat? Yeah. Do you wear long shirts? Yeah. Okay, but what about some days...
do you ever like walk? How do you get from like the car to that? And I said, you know what? I live on the planet earth and there's nothing we can do about that because it has a son. So some son is going to get to me. And it was like, well, it's your death. It's like, they're afraid you're going to bring down the level of life expectancy for their patients. They smirch their record. Yeah. It's going to lead to a lawsuit. You mentioned Bryce who, uh, I,
I adore. Thank you. She's a terrific talent, beautiful. You must be very proud of her. You told me that when she came on my show once, it was a very tense moment for you. Why?
Well, I mean, I'm a parent of adults. That sort of constant worrying about your kids is kind of faded. I feel pretty confident about that. I don't have that. I never had. I just thought like, hey, man, I'm in show business. I got to worry about myself. These kids are on their own. Well, good for you. But...
You walk your path. Yeah, okay, okay, okay. But she said, I'm going to cry on demand.
On Conan show. And I said, Oh, come on, Bryce. And I've seen her do it. She can cry. She, you know, she can cry on, on command and, and, and, uh, and I, and I said, but that's not, I mean, it's a show, it's a live show. I mean, you know, it's, and she said, no, I'm going to do it. And, uh, and, and so then she told me it worked.
So I know that. And yet when I watched her on the show doing it, I was so edge of my seat still. I'll tell you, I recommend if you get a second, check this out because Bryce was on the, was on the show and she did this. And it was really, I think, I mean, I can't say this about my own show, but it was a very cool moment of television because she said she was going to do it. The whole audience gets very quiet and she,
There's a process and you can hear a pin drop. My heart's pounding because I'm thinking I'm the host of the show. I can only imagine. Failure's not that funny. Yeah. I had gotten used to it at that point. But I was, I was, and then it happens and it is you. It was a moment like, and I've heard about it from so many people. And when the tear finally rolled down, I was like, oh,
Oh, yeah. Everybody cheered. Might as well have been a Super Bowl touchdown. Yeah. But here's the thing about Bryson crying. Her first professional job, maybe not her first, her first time on Broadway was this Tartuffe, this classic show.
And so here she is in this theater opening night. She is sick, fever. Cheryl and I had to get her to the theater and we weren't sure she was going to be able to even do the show. But of course, it's opening night, so she's doing it. And there's this scene where she's
She's at her father's feet and begging for something. And she starts crying. And we're sitting in like the third row. And it's, you know, it's theater. So people can fake cry and it kind of works. But she's really crying. Tears are going down her face. And it's just like an unbelievable moment for me coming from a theatrical family and all that. And I looked over and Cheryl's just kind of sitting with her arms crossed, kind of with a little smile on her face. No emotion whatsoever. Right.
So we get to intermission, and I said, babe, weren't you knocked out by that moment? I mean, you know, there she is. She's got a fever. It's opening night. She's crying real tears on Broadway. And she said, are you kidding me? She did that every day of her life when she was 17. Because she couldn't use the car. We've all seen that. ♪
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You mentioned coming from this family. It's really worth noting that your career, improbable in so many ways, because just on Andy Griffith alone, you could have spent the rest of your life setting up a card table and going to conventions and having that amazing experience. And it's so funny because I'm around, I get to interview so many terrific actors, talking to Walton Goggins the other day, talking to Billy Bob Thornton. Both of them cite the Andy Griffith show as being seminal for them. And I think...
I understand it because it's character comedy. Not afraid of a long pause. Right. Not afraid of, and I was saying there are scenes outside the courthouse or in the barbershop that feel like waiting for Godot. Yeah. And beautiful. Like it really does hold up. Well, it's, you know, it was so much a function of a kind of singular creative voice. Not that Andy wrote. He wasn't, you know, he wasn't even, didn't have a producer credit. Right.
But it was his show. It was tailored to his sensibility. And Sheldon Leonard, the executive producer and very active on the show, was this old character actor who had become this incredible television producer who had great success with Danny Thomas and Van Dyke and Andy Griffith Show. And for a moment, he was like the comedy producer. But he was there all the time. And they were always stressing character. And Andy used to kill jokes if they were too broad. Yeah.
And he just kept saying, the South is plenty funny on its own without having to reach for it and do slapstick and stuff. He didn't like Petticoat Junction and Hillbilly Elegy. Not Hillbilly Elegy. That's a movie I directed there.
He didn't like Beverly Hillbillies. Right. Beverly Hillbillies. Right. And, you know, because they were doing sketch, basically. Yes. High concept. He didn't like Little Abner. Right. And so...
As a result, I don't know that there have been other single-camera shows that kind of held that tone. Maybe Real McCoy's a little bit, but they didn't have Don Knotts. Yes. And I was remarking recently that it's the ability to have two characters just talking about, oh, it's a nice day. Well, those bits...
were usually when the show was short. Yes. And they would come. So we would shoot Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, single camera, rehearse on Thursday, read on Thursdays, rehearse Fridays, shoot Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And several times these scenes, the kinds that you're citing. Yeah. Usually between Don and Andy. Yep. I remember vividly Aaron, Aaron Rubin, our showrunner coming down and saying,
talking to Andy and then, and then Andy would, he always called Don Jesse. Yeah. And he was like, Jesse, we're short. Come,
Come on. And at the very last thing of the end of the Wednesday night shoot would be the two of them. And they would have just talked about it a little bit. And they'd wind up doing one of these scenes. And they're amazing. And it's just, I love watching them because they're just playing the silences. And it's so well. And of course, you've got these two consummate, beautiful actors. They're just such great comedic actors. But just, oh boy, it's a nice day. Sure is, isn't it? Sure is.
Yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yep. And you're watching it and you're thinking, I have this theory that comedy has been increasingly compressed to the point now that when any series starts, they have to start at the most dramatic moment. And then that's a flash. That turns out it's a flashback because they can't start slowly. You might.
People can flip to another streaming platform too quickly, right? So every show starts with main character has five bullet holes in them and is screaming and then you cut to two weeks earlier And I think they don't trust us that some that this is going somewhere and there's a lot of parallel editing and everything and just the idea that one of the most popular shows in television history could often consist of people
playing things and it's that pace. And the fact that the show really does endure. I mean, it's actually on like all the time. And especially over COVID, I kept hearing from people that it was, it was like a lifeline, you know, for them. But here's the thing. How lucky was I?
To grow up in that situation where, in fact, the environment was set up for actors to not improvise, but participate, make suggestions, things like that. And even as a six year old, I mean, my dad was having to read the lines at the read through and I would just kind of sit there at first. My father rants. But later, you know, when I started to learn to read and so forth, I was in it.
And I actually started occasionally making a suggestion and they'd never, you know, it never went anywhere. Kind of pissed me off a little bit in that first year. And I will never forget, it was the second episode of...
of the, of the second season. And I had turned seven and, uh, we were rehearsing this scene where I was supposed to come into the, into the courthouse and Otis, Hal Smith, Otis, that was over here. And Andy was there and Don was somewhere else. And, uh, and I came in and I was supposed to say, Hey, Paul, something, something, whatever the line was. And then I sort of stopped and
the director, Bob Sweeney said, what is it Ronnie? And I said, well, I don't think a kid would say it that way. Oh. And he said, well, how do you think a kid would say it? I don't remember what the line was, but I would, I pitched my little, my little fix on it. And he said, okay, good. Yeah. Do it, do it that way. And it was just like, I was a part of it. I just felt this surge of, of, of, you know, of, of, of being involved in something. And, um, Andy from across San Diego,
said, what are you grinning at, youngin'? And I said, what's the first idea of mine you've taken? And he gave it the proper beat and he said, well, it was the first one that was any damn good. Now let's rehearse the scene. To a seven-year-old. But you know what's also nice? If you look at the history of situation comedies, especially usually and increasingly so through the 70s and 80s and 90s, the kids' role...
was to say something overly sophisticated and wise-ass, wise-assy that a kid would never say. Right. So that's where you get all these, you know, the Gary Coleman character that's just like, well, if you ask me, sounds like this guy's paying too many taxes. Yeah, yeah. You know, and...
I love that episode. I know. I agree with him. I think we are painting a test. And what I think really holds up well is your character is a real boy. You're playing the reality of the situations. You're not saying, let me get this straight. Otis is drunk again? Sounds like someone needs rehab. And like...
Winking at the camera, which, by the way, would have been a great line. But well, OK, this is something that that means a lot to me. And it was and I didn't know anything about it at the time. But later, Andy told me this.
So when we were doing like a revival return to Mayberry or one of those interview sort of specials or something, Andy told me this, that in that very first season, the first episode that my dad was an actor, not a famous actor, but it was he was professional and working, took it upon himself to just go up quietly to Andy at one point and say, now I see they're writing Opie now.
Kind of the way they write the Rusty Hamer character on Danny Thomas. And like so many shows where he's a wise ass. Yeah. And he said that, you know, Ronnie can do that and everything. But what what if he actually respected his father? And Andy thought about it and told me years later that he went back to the writers and said, let's write.
Let's write Andy Opie like Ronnie Rantz. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And let's try that. And they went for it. Yeah. Well, it stands out. We've been fed a steady diet of everyone hates dad. Dad's an idiot. Right. And the kid knows it. And the kid knows it and is always letting him know it. And it got amped up, sometimes stretched out in kind of a meta way, like on Married with Children where, you know, or sometimes The Simpsons where they're actively plotting their father's death. Yeah.
But it does make me laugh. It's effective. No, no. It's really funny. And I think the right way to go. My point is, your dad was wrong. And I don't think you should be here.
That's fascinating to me that you were part of that and you could have been part of so many shows, but that one's different. Then you go from that, you're in film, and then you start to think, you know what I think I'm going to do? You're interested in directing because you're around, you're watching directors, you're interested in it, and there's a job you take on a TV show and you think, well, this probably won't get in the way of me going to film school. Right.
Because what TV show lasts more than a pilot or a first season? And so you sign up for happy days. Correct.
You idiot. Which now, I mean, I mostly know Andy Griffith's show, Mayberry RFT from reruns because I really come of age in the seventies. The thing is happy days. Like it's suddenly the only show on TV that we all watch. And you're just right there at the heart of this thing, this juggernaut.
And it was not the plan, right? No, it wasn't really the plan. And also, of course, the course of the show, it evolved, you know, as Henry Winkler's character, Fonzie, took off. Right. You know, the whole show shifted. It was pretty thrilling to be around it. And we went from a solid show to sort of drifting like that we get canceled to let's put Fonzie front and center. Yeah.
and take advantage of this. And then I think we became a number one show, even that first season that we went in front of an audience, which was a huge education for me because I'd never done anything in front of people. And here we have this Gary Marshall, this great bunch of writers, Lowell Gans among them, who wound up writing with his partner, Bob Lou Mandel, you know, Night Shift and Splash and all, and so many other movies, League of Their Own and City Slickers. Anyway, but suddenly it was about these hard laughs
And that I had never really been around that search. You know, Don Knotts would sometimes get there, but it was more of a, it was a general, you know, totally based on reality. I was terrified doing it, but I learned so much. And Jerry Paris was this consummate comedy director. Just educate film nerds out, I mean, TV nerds out there. Jerry Paris was the neighbor of,
on, uh, Andrew Griffin's show. I mean, I mean, and they, and they had let him direct and found that he had this incredible gift and he was a funny actor, but he was a brilliant comedy director. And we had him for almost 95% of our episodes was, was Jerry. And he was a ringleader and just tremendous and a great teacher. Um,
And and and suddenly, you know, I'm feeling the audience and I'm understanding timing and all these kinds of things in a way that I never did before. Of course, Henry, great stage actor Tom Bosley was on the show, you know. And when I finally get a chance to start directing comedy where we are going for laughs, which is night shift and then splash.
I was so grateful to have in my head the kind of the rhythms that I'd learned about, not from the Andy Griffith show, but from happy days. One of the things I remember, I think the first time I saw it on happy was on happy days. And then you later on saw it more and more, but characters would enter and, you know, first season of happy days, I remember it was single camera. Right. And, and,
shot more in this very filmic way. And then second season, you're in front of a studio audience. And then the show is becoming super popular, crazy popular. And so characters will enter and the audience will go crazy. And so characters had to, they're entering with important information. Like there's a fire across the street. So Ron, you'll enter, you'll enter the, you know, whatever, the malt shop. And you'll be like, hey, hey. And everyone will go like, yeah.
like yay and you'll stand there right just take a pause because you can't talk and you're not and look around and then you'll go then what's finally when everyone dies down it is a fire across the street and if you take the reality of it there's something you're like a sociopath like why didn't you tell everybody right away but there's a fire i was waiting for my applause man
Well, that was it. I mean, look, that was part of the excitement was to take the, you know, all the hysteria around Fonzie and put it in front of an audience and, you know, and actually directly compete with J.J. Walker.
Yeah, exactly. Which is, which is what times, good times. And that's what they were, that's what they were going for. And, and, you know, the same thing would happen with JJ on that show. Yeah. And, and so it was kind of a, it was kind of a, it was kind of a thing. Now, you know, I don't know. I'm, I don't have,
I'm not watching a lot of audience sitcoms these days, but I don't know whether... I think most people, they don't even shoot with an audience. I think they just block and shoot. It's so funny because tastes have changed. Times have changed so much. I think we're in a golden age. Sometimes people decry, oh, TV these days. I agree. You know, you were talking about...
speed and density of comedy and so forth. And when, when we, when, when we were beginning Arrested Development, Mitch Hurwitz and I talked a lot about The Simpsons. And part of that style was to create, I kept, I kept saying a kind of density of laughs. Yeah. And, and, uh, I was a big proponent of that. And, um,
Which kind of led to not only the style, which was sort of supposed to be originally much a little more faux documentary than it wound up being. But, you know, I was pitching the idea of a narrator and Mitch said, I don't think we're going to need that. And we did it and so forth. You know, and he just he shot it and it was funny. But he said, you know, we should try it as an experiment. I kind of think you're on to something. So I was I was directing a movie in Santa Fe. And he said, would you just temp in the voice?
And I, so I did it literally in the sound truck. We were on location in Santa Fe. I did it one lunch break for the pilot. Right. And so sent it off. Didn't think much about it. A couple of days later, Mitch called back and said, well, I have...
I have really good news and news that maybe is good or maybe not. I don't know. And I said, well, okay, well, give me the really good news first. He said, the pilot tested really well. And I said, well, what's the mixed news? He said, well, I just don't know how you're going to feel about it because the narrator tested the highest and now you have to do it.
We sold the show, but I said you're doing it. You're the narrator. But I loved being part of that. You know, it makes sense because my son and I watch, re-watch, re-watch, and re-watch Arrested Development all the time because he's got really good comedy taste. I'm not so much to his liking, but we'll watch it again and again and again. And what makes perfect sense to me
You know when something's done, you just take it for granted that everything is the way it is? Right. So, of course, it would never occur to me that you wouldn't be the narrator of Arrested Development. And I think, for my money, if you had to say, like, okay, there's... What are the absolute acme? What's the height of television comedy? And you can... Not one, but you can pick, like, five. Arrested Development's in there. Oh, well, thank you. The best of it is absolute perfection. And I do think...
that people know you, they like you, and they trust you. And your voice saying, meanwhile, Buster... Buster had his own ideas. And it's such a dense show. Buster thinking he's in Mexico, although really he's only 10 miles from his house, sleeping at his housekeeper's residence. It's a constant...
You're being taken by the hand through this absolute madness. And I don't think that show could exist without you there taking you along. Thank you. It was really fun. But whenever I'd have an episode where I really had a lot of lines, I said, Mitch, you've been struggling with this one. You're looking for the narrator to bail you out, man. Yeah.
Now, the reason that was funny is because...
When you found yourself reading lines like that. But Mitch, bona fide comedy genius. Yes. And the cast that we assembled from the first moment, it was like, you know, this is a little too good to be true. I mean, it's just home run hitters at every turn. Yeah, it is absolute perfection. I can't watch it enough. And it's still the go-to if my son's had a hard day or I've had a hard day or we both had a hard day, we'll...
Okay, Arrested Development is still the go-to. Cool. And we watch it, and there are certain moments...
that I go to again and again and again that I can't, and I'm friends with a bunch of these guys. So I will corner Will Arnett and say, why does it bother you if you're dancing as the magician, but Buster's dancing as well? What bothers you that, because he's often getting like, no, no, no, I do that. But I'll just hound him all the time about that stuff. And he's got answers. Yes, he's got answers. Yes.
So you've now hit a gusher twice, and that implies that you had nothing to do with it because you did. But you've had this great fortune. And then I remember very clearly seeing, oh, there's going to be this movie, Grand Theft Auto, and it's directed by Ron.
Ron Howard. Now, since then, we're very familiar with the idea of an on-camera person directing a film. But I remember at the time thinking, what? Yeah, I felt that pressure because, you know, I mean, I was that I might as well have had that famous T-shirt. What I really want to do is direct since I was about 14, you know, and I would and I would get the most sort of patronizing.
responses when I would admit it. And, but I, I, but I also made the most out of those situations and I would, I would hang with the directors and take notes and do all kinds of things. Um, and, uh, but, but you know, yeah, that was not a transition and, and particularly to have been a kid actor on a sitcom, you know, the whole thing, it was, it was ludicrous in people's, uh, minds. So, but you, but you have a, you must have a
because you knew, on some level, you knew, I got this. Yes, I did. I really, I mean, in fact, I started to think
shooting Grand Theft Auto the day after my 23rd birthday, but I was disappointed because I had really planned to direct a feature while I was still in my teens. That was my goal, you know. But, you know, again, the business was so much more closed then. And there was not even any MTV or anything where you could go and prove your chops.
somewhere um it was today people can make a film using their phone you take this phone and and you make something people go hey that was and then you put it online and if you don't need to convince a studio if it gets like oh this got like 10 million likes yeah you're good well by the way i just got to jump to the documentary that we're going to talk about jim henson
I made a documentary about Jim Henson and the Muppets. But he and his wife, Jane, were so much like young content creators of today. Yes, yes. Because the new medium, the new thing, the tech that was interesting to them was TV, which was just brand new. And he wasn't even interested in puppets, but he loved television. He wanted to be a part of it. He was living in Washington and he loved
He went down there and just kind of they looked for they were looking for a five minute puppet show to go with the news. I mean, you know, but they were just experimenting with TV and he got in on the experiment along with Jane ultimately became his wife. But you you look at these crazy little six second commercials they did and these little five minute bits they did for for after the news hour. And it was so intense.
inventive and, and it was all bets are off and just kind of whatever you want to do. But they were doing, they were getting their 10,000 hours in and they were doing what a, what a content creator does now, which is find your voice, see if anybody's interested, figure out what they're interested in and, and, um, you know, and go for there. Well, at that time there was, there was really no outlet like that for me. I mean, I literally was thinking about going down to public access television and trying to like do a show on public access television. Cause getting the chance to direct, uh,
a feature film, see, entertainment was so much smaller. You said it was closed. It was a very insular world. Yes. There's three networks. Right. There's a couple of studios. They make the stuff. They decide who the people are. And so, very impossible to...
crack into that. Yeah. And especially if they have a preconceived notion. Like, I'm sorry, you're the guy from Happy Days and you're Opie. Now, I could have had a chance to direct Happy Days episodes in a contract renegotiation, but I said no to that because I didn't want anybody other than Jerry Paris to direct. It would be not fair to the cast. And the other thing I thought was, well, what if I whiff? You know, every once in a while an episode doesn't work. Yeah. And if I do well, they say, well, it's his show. If I...
If I have an off episode, then I can't even direct his own show. And it's three camera, not what I wanted to do. But Roger Corman was one of the few people who was taking that kind of a risk. And I knew that about him. And he wanted me to act in a movie called Eat My Dust.
And I read Eat My Dust and I didn't much care for it. I saw no Oscars in, you know, no Oscar opportunities in that one. But I did have a script that I'd written that was kind of a slice of life about a guy stuck over college break and, you know, in Hollywood. And I had some short films.
I was supposed to go in and have this meeting about Eat My Dust. American Graffiti had been a big hit. Happy Days was becoming a number one show. And Roger wanted me to be in this car crash comedy. And my agent was going to come with me to sit with me to have this meeting. And he was my agent for like my whole childhood. And I remember...
saying, you can't go in with me. I was only 21, but I knew I was going to try to barter. And he didn't care about that. I knew he didn't care about that. So I remember the look on his face. He was shattered. I mean, his client said, no, don't go to the meeting. So I went in, talked to Roger. I said, I don't love Eat My Dust, but what I really want to do is direct.
here's a script. I think I've raised half the money coming out of Australia, 150,000. I needed another 150,000 in distribution. And if you do that, then I'll happily be in Eat My Dust. He read it. He got back to me. He looked at my student films and he said, well, that's a character piece. It's very well written, but it's not what I do. And he said, here's what I'll promise you.
If you act and eat my dust, I'll give you a chance to write a script.
If you write the script and I like it and you're willing to be in it again, then I'll let you direct that. If that fails, I'll let you direct the second unit on something and the car crashes or the fights or something else. So I thought, okay, so my big... I leveraged my way into a second unit job. Yeah. That's going to look great on the resume, but I took it. And when Eat My Dust succeeded...
I went in and I pitched so many different ideas, a sci-fi thing, a noir thing, you know, just different kinds of projects. And he smiled and he said, he said, when we were testing, he was very erudite. I remember he had been to Caltech and he was an engineering, you know, an engineer at heart. He said, when we were testing titles for Eat My Dust, there was another title that came in a very strong second.
Grand Theft Auto. If you can fashion a car crash comedy that we can correctly entitle Grand Theft Auto. I'd probably make that picture. My dad and I cooked up an outline. We wrote a script in a month. It was the fastest green light I've had in my entire career as a director. Roger Corman passed, I believe, a week ago. A week ago, yes. Age 98. Age 98.
98 years old. So sharp. I talked to him six months ago. I mean, he went to see my 13 lives. He went to a screening. He was so supportive of all of his graduates. He just remained so connected. Well, he must have been incredibly proud of what you pulled off. He was proud of all of us. He was proud of all of us. Jim Cameron, Joe Dante, Alan Arkish, you know, Hal, Francis Coppola and Scorsese, Bogdanovich. The list goes on. ♪
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So I had this great treat yesterday, which is I'm told I get to see an advance copy of Idea Man. And I have a lot emotionally invested in this film because I have my own Jim Henson connection. I watched the film and it's fantastic. It's a fantastic documentary. There are so many things I learned about Jim Henson that I did not know. Jim Henson, I didn't realize his background was
growing up in this Christian science. His mom's a Christian scientist? His mom's a Christian scientist. And he wasn't formally, because he wasn't all that religious. But of course, you know, he was raised in that environment. But he was creative, he was smart, and he wanted to express himself. And his dad was a bit of a scientist, like an agricultural scientist.
And so they would travel around to different parts of the country, a lot of it in the South.
But Jim was looking for that kind of breakthrough. But it was a moment of transformation, and he seized that opportunity. But it's interesting that he wound up grabbing an ancient art form and elevating it. When I was a kid sitting around, we were talking about the Andy Griffith show. A lot of the character actors who would come on that show would be bitching and moaning because radio was dead or vaudeville had gone.
And yet we all know that not those mediums didn't vanish. Uh, you know, there, there isn't a vaudeville circuit per se, but there's standup, there's Cirque du Soleil there. You know, I mean, there it's the, the, the art forms are as, as well as relevant as ever. Uh, and, uh, and I think you're so right, Conan. I mean, I just think creative people figure out a way they find a way. And what's fascinating to me is so Jim Henson, uh, is very interested in puppets, puppeteering, uh,
And one of the things that he wants to do early on is, and I hadn't thought of this before, but it's in your documentary. A lot of puppeteering was done just in kind of a wide shot where you see... With the theater. With curtains and stuff. Presidium and little curtains and the characters are all bashing each other and things are happening. I don't know if it's Jim Henson or his wife Jane, but they understand that the TV camera has to be right up against the puppets. Right. Muppets. And...
that you can see their expressions and you can see a character deflate. And what's really fascinating to me is you have access in a documentary to all that early footage long before it's very sophisticated. It's basically Kermit, but they don't know it's Kermit yet. But the kind of the puckering of the mouth when there's a little bit of uncertainty and the looking to the side and then maybe looking back at the camera, all that stuff is there.
And it's in close-up, and they're looking at what basically looks like a kinescope. Right. The technology is very crude. Right. But you can see, oh, my God, this guy— Yeah, they're looking at the monitor and sort of seeing, well, where is the camera, and where do I fit in? Yeah. But the timing on this stuff was just fantastic, you know? Yeah. And we interviewed Frank Oz. Yep.
you know, gave the, the, the family was great. They made the archives available, but also they made themselves available in a really, in a really significant way. And then look, they're storytellers themselves. And so they, you know, they, they, they recognize the need to share what they understood about their parents, you know, in a, in a,
dimensional way. And, and, and so that was incredibly valued, but Frank was there side by side and he gave so much to the movie through his interview. In fact, stylistically, you know, I tried to sort of channel Jim Henson and that aesthetic, um, a lot of stop motion, a lot of very kinetic cutting and,
some animations and things like that. And the idea sort of stemmed first from me watching a lot of Jim's experimental movies that had nothing to do with puppets, which I didn't know about, by the way. Yeah. I mean, either. And they're cool, you know, and, and, and in fact, they anticipate a lot of what you're going to eventually see in commercials or even music videos. Right. You know, I mean, they're kind of hard days, night and stuff like that, you know? So Frank,
We did the interview and I just had this idea. We did it in a cube because one of his experimental TV shows was called The Cube. And it's like a human being trapped sort of just with himself and his ideas and thoughts. So we decided to have the interview subjects be in a cube. It also would allow us to use those cubes. They're almost like television tests to keep putting a lot of visual imagery in there and keep telling this story of Jim and the Muppets.
But we did Frank's interview. It was very moving, very informative, very funny. And I said, you know, Frank, what if we did like, what if your entrance into the set, we were going to have you just come and sit down, but what if we did it stop motion? And he, of course, instantly knew what to do. So we put the camera up high. We had a chair kind of squiggle in, come in and stop. And he went in perfectly one take, laid out all the steps and all the beats so that we could do it. And it just established immediately for the editor, your editors and myself that, you know, we, we,
We were gonna inform this movie with this kind of aesthetic. Well, also, you were having fun. Yes. Which is the essence of Jim Henson. Yes. You know, my connection to it was that my whole reason I'm in comedy is I was always interested in comedy and doing it for my friends, and then I decide I need to be serious, so I go to a serious college, which turns out to have this very old humor magazine called
in it, uh, as part of it, the lamp, the Harvard lampoon, I get on the lampoon and immediate, almost immediately the person who's put in charge of it, the first woman to ever be put in charge of it is Lisa Henson. Oh, then she's my boss. I'm working for, uh,
Lisa Henson. And then every now and then Jim Henson's around and I'm losing my mind. And he could not have been a sweeter, nicer man. And in fact, Lisa graduates, I take over the lampoon. And at one point, Jim Henson calls me and says, hey, we just finished the Dark Crystal and we have these thrones that the creatures sit on in the Dark Crystal. And
do you guys want one for your lampoon building? And you've never heard me say yes to anything more quickly. And so I said, yes, how do I make this happen? Because I'm still, I'm just still a kid. I'm like 19 and I'm going, yes, Mr. Henson. So what do I, and he said, and it's funny because when you're talking to Jim Henson, you're talking to Kermit. So Kermit's on the other end of the line saying, well, you know, just get a van and come on down to New York and pick it up.
You idiot. And I'm like, okay, Kermit and Henson, bye. So I hang up the phone. We rent a van and my friend Mark Ganim and Maya Williams, we jump in this van and we drive down to Manhattan and I'm petrified because I'm like, we're drunk.
We're driving to Manhattan. Suddenly it's like a Muppet movie. Yeah. And I'm kind of a Muppet. And I'm going, what's happening? Beaker, stay out. Yeah, exactly. I'm Beaker. And we get there and sure enough, there's like Snuffleupagus is hanging from the ceiling and they say, oh yeah, here's the chair. It's made of, it's not that heavy because it's made of this super light material. We carry it like a jewel.
It's amazing. I sat in one of those chairs at the studio. Yeah. And I drove it all the way back to Cambridge and we put it in the Lampoon building. So cut to, I don't know, like maybe nine months ago, I'm in Cambridge and
a student comes up to me and says, hey, by the way, Conan, I'm on the Lampoon. Do you want to come by? And I went, yeah, sure. I've been there in a long time. So I go by and there's the chair. Great. A little banged up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they drink. I mean, the puppets drank. Yeah. It was that way when we got it. But,
But anyway, amazing. Well, Lisa's fantastic. She's amazing. You know, and so is Brian. You know, the whole family. Very talented. But it's kind of a tribute to them because, look, the reality is and when you see the film, we look, we deal with the family. We do. Jim and Jane had an amazing, very unique and very specific kind of romance and relationship and working relationship. And the very thing that brought them together was was the birth of this brainchild, the Muppets.
also was the thing that ultimately kind of caused the relationship to erode and the romance to be lost. And yet they...
There was still so much love and respect for one another and for creativity. And the kids are great. And the kids love each other and they appreciate their parents in a very in a very honest, you know, clear eyed way. And they knew they couldn't make this documentary themselves. You know, they're they're creative. They're producers and directors and so forth. But but.
I felt so fortunate that they would trust me. And I got very excited about it when I went to the studio here, the Chaplin Henson studio, and saw all this archival stuff because two things happened on that day. One was...
I saw those crazy TV commercials and that early, early stuff. I saw the experimental stuff that's just weird and strange. And yet you can see very avant-garde, very cutting edge, very ahead of its time. Uh, but you could see, you know, the way that it influenced the mainstream stuff that is so beloved that we all appreciate. Um,
And and yet and I also got to talk to the kids and I recognize that there was this family story to be told as well that would be so relatable because there is a there's of course, there's a
a cost to that level of output. And, you know, and a human, you know, there's a human factor there. And we're all the beneficiaries of all that hard work. But we didn't see all the things that he did that kind of misfired and at the time disappointed him, including Labyrinth, which, of course, now is a is a classic. You know, what's interesting is that you go back and you look at these moments and a lot of people forget this, but your documentary,
brings it back. I was a writer at Saturday Night Live for a couple of years. Then I'm doing the late night show and our studio was on the sixth floor. Saturday Night Live studio is on the eighth floor. But right down the sixth floor, not far down the sixth floor, there was a little office because in the early days of SNL, the first
the first season, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, they're doing, the Muppets are part of SNL and they had a little office and they drew all of these characters on these pipes. Right. And now, of course, it's been put behind glass and preserved. But in my day, you could just go by and there's some pipes there and they're just covered with- Those drawings. Yeah. Amazing. I'm not trying to wipe them off, you know, because I like clean pipes. Oh, no. I just think pipes should be clean. Oh, no.
But I couldn't get him off. No. But that was a misstep for them, right? Yes. Because that kind of didn't work out. Well, you know, what's interesting is that all the cutting-edge, cool, sardonic, you know, Michael O'Donohue's, you know, wise-asses at first season SNL were like, these puppets. What are they? These puppets are here. I hate these puppets. And so it was very...
You can tell in the documentary, crushing to Jim Henson. And then he spirals off from that and creates The Muppet Show. Yeah. But he'd been trying to sell The Muppet Show for years and failing. I mean, all the networks turned it down twice. There's a hilarious pitch
sort of video that they made. Using the Muppets to sell the idea. Yeah, and going completely over the top and it's Jim's voice and it's just brilliant. You know, it's so interesting because Jim was, you know, you got to really know him. I met him only once, but he's so shy.
retiring in person, you know, I mean, just kind of, and, and you, you think of them as a performer, but, but not, not with a microphone, not, not with a camera on his face. It's through the puppets. You know, we were talking about Andy and Don, but I, I, it became so clear, not even so much from the interview with Frank Oz, because he was very modest about his contributions. But as I began to
recognize and look at these videos, what a comedy team they were. Yes. Not just Bert and Ernie, but, but you know, Miss Piggy, uh, and, and Kermit. There's a great bit in there with Fozzie and Kermit. And this is timing. I mean, it's like precision comedy timing and they just nailed these bits. Well, I think that's the thing is good comedy is good comedy. So if you're making it for kids on PBS or you're making it, you know,
for adults, good timing is good timing. That's why, I mean, I always got my timing from early on from Warner Brothers cartoons because they were shown as shorts in theaters to adults. They weren't...
weren't condescending. Right. So the timing was pitch perfect on those. Yeah. And then I think the same thing with when you look at a really good Sesame Street bit, it's just good. Yeah. There's no condescension of, well, this is funny for kids. But I didn't realize how many of those bits that Jim directed. I just thought he, you know, he brought the Muppets and performed and they did that. And I didn't realize that all those bits
that used to catch my attention when three-year-old Bryce was watching them were the counting bits and these great little experimental things that would make me sit down and watch the show and kind of admire what was going on there and envy it a little bit. And later I realized, well, that was one of the reasons Jim did it because he never wanted to do kids programming. But they said...
you know, bring the Muppets, but we'll also let you do your experimental films. But how about doing them for kids so that they can learn? And he had a son with severe learning disabilities. So that was something that he was, you know, clued into. And he was, wouldn't you say that the reason it really worked at every level was that he was really a satirist?
Right? Oh, definitely. It's always there. What's interesting is that the early way that he made money was by making television commercials. So there are these Muppet commercials that I don't know if you've seen them, but they're in black and white. And it's before anyone knew they were the Muppets, but it's, you can tell it's the same kind of almost the same characters, but they're prototypes, but they're doing like Hormel ham commercials. Right. But they're very, and they had, they, they last like seven seconds long. Yeah.
But because they're seven seconds long, they're very meta. They're very today's sense of comedy. Yeah. They're not...
buy a Hormel ham. They're very weird and very funny by today's standards and must have looked like very strange at the time. And yet really popular. Yeah. So they really, really broke through. I mean, they were doing some kind of, I mean, there was almost always an explosion or a gunshot involved in a Hormel ham commercial somehow. They made bacon. They're selling, they're pretty much selling anything, but they're doing ads the way we, as part of the podcast, we do ads. And I always do them
in my sensibility, my way, and then afterwards think no one's gonna pay for that. - Right. - And they do. - Yeah. - And you can leave this in. I don't think they should. But they do. Adam Sachs is gonna take that out.
But because they see the value of we found out that they like that people listen to the ads. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, they were look, they were emotional without being sentimental. Yeah. Definitely always had a point of view and always had something to say, you know, in and around the zaniness. But the Muppet Show, you know, I didn't think about it. I loved watching it. Yeah.
I didn't watch them, you know, religiously, but man, I watch them now. Yeah. I mean, those episodes hold up, but I didn't realize that he was basically taking the English dance hall, sort of almost like vaudeville, their version, and applying that to the show. And he was making them in England. Yeah. So it's sort of, once again, what's old is new. Yes. When put through this
- You mentioned earlier, I knew Jim well, and I can't say I did. I met him on a few occasions and he was really nice. And he actually suggested he had some show that probably never went.
and it was towards the end of his life but suggested that i because people were always like that conan's got like a look or something yeah he's irritating but he's got a look um and and jim henson suggested that i auditioned for something for one of his shows and and i i remember they sent over i've told this but they sent they sent over sides that had two actors
Two characters and I didn't know which one he wanted me to audition for. So I showed up and said to the woman who was running the audition, it says Steve and Mitch and I don't know which is which. And she said, oh, here's the character breakdowns. And she handed me Steve and it said, women want to be with him, men want to be him. He oozes sexuality.
And I was just like deflating. And then I said, I said, can I see the one for Mitch? And she handed me Mitch. She was like, this gangly, goofy, red topped goon stumbles his way through life. But people like him despite his many flaws and his asexuality. And I went, I think I'm the second guy. But, um,
No, this is a lovely tribute. And one of the things that really got to me is because of my connection when Jim passed very suddenly in 1990, and it was such a shock because it was just out of nowhere. He gets this- 53 years old. 53 years old. I was invited to that memorial. And to this day, it's the greatest send-off I've seen anybody have because-
because it's a funeral it's a funeral mass it's a memorial and it started with i guess a letter from jim that he had written which is like well if you're reading this it must mean i'm gone right and he just decided to write this in case he ever passed suddenly and he did and it was so lovely and then all the characters come out and we're all laughing and crying at the same time so you show footage of the memorial service and i was there yeah and i to this day have thought at
that's what everyone should be like. It can't be because we're not all Jim Henson, you know, but that's what it should be. It really should be a celebration. Well, it clearly was. And, you know, his son Brian read that letter. Yeah. We have a bit of that in the... Oh, my God. It was a, you know, tremendous tribute and moment. But he's so loved. Yeah. I mean, everybody we interviewed, it was, you know, it was actually great to make a film that I thought, wow,
was interesting, could be revealing, and actually just doesn't have a dark side. I mean, it's just that he literally was just a guy who lived in a positive light. He struggled, ups and downs, difficulties on a personal side in the relationship,
sure. And yet set such a great advance, you know, example, like how you navigate that too. I mean, winning's easy, but when you struggle, that defines the man or the woman. And, and you look at both Jim and Jane and you, and you sort of say, well, that's, you know, we, we should, we should do that. The documentary is atomic. I would recommend, uh, just, just watch it because it's
you will laugh very hard, but it's also informative about so much more. You were the right guy to make this. Oh, thanks. Because you have, just in every single decade of your life, contributed good stuff, you know? And I think that's...
who can say that? That's really remarkable. You know, and I, I, I'm, I'm so glad that you're here. I'm so glad I know you. I'm so glad you let me saw your arm off 30 years ago. And, and we're still at it. We're still, we're still at it. Yeah. Let's do a leg. Yeah. Oh, I checked out his leg on the way in. That left one looks like it could go at any time. Anyway, make sure Jim Henson, Idea Man, is just, is,
It's a gift. And make sure that you check it out. And Ron Howard, you're a gift. Thanks so much for being here. Great to be here. And let's get together, get a drink, and talk sunscreen whenever you want. Beautiful.
Take it away, Jimmy.
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