The Phil Hartman Tribute Episode (Part 2)
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Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.

Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it.

Okay. Part two. We're here laughing because we just heard part one of Phil Hartman and we have part two coming up. This is a continuation with even more special guests. And we had a lot of people who wanted to talk to Phil that either couldn't get to the groundlings or we couldn't fit that many people on the stage. So there's some great SNL cast members and people associated with SNL that talk about Phil Hartman's brilliance. We'll talk about Phil. We're going to meander around and just

Crack each other up. So overall, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, we let it go off on a lot of different tangents. There's some interesting stuff around one particular show called The Simpsons. Maybe you've heard of that, David? Talk about that a lot also. Okay, guys, here you go. William Farrell is our guest today. Or should it be Willie? Willie Farrell, as Lorne Michaels would call him. Yeah.

Willie Farrell is always good. Will, anything this week? No.

Didn't he say you were in the top two recently? He's in the top two. What did he say? Top three? He told me, he told me, I have to put you in the top three, which order I don't know. That's good though. That's still pretty good. He goes, you're in the top. He told me, he goes, you're in the top three chunks of 30. Yeah. You're in the lower 30, 30% quadrant. Yeah.

Let's ask. You know, there's Danny, there's Eddie, there's the usual suspects. Mike, maybe you would did. John died and that sort of pushed him toward the top. Oh my God. Hey, talk about Will being in the top three. Sorry, Phil. Phil Hartman is our focus of this episode. And he, what was his latest ranking? But it was definitely, might've been top five. I don't know. He's up there for sure.

Yes. You know, I, you guys are so, it's so cool that you're doing this only because my wife and I recently, and I think it was, I think it was with our kids and a couple of their buddies were referencing Phil Hartman and they had no idea who he was. And I, we were like, wait, you guys don't know Phil Hartman. And so anyway, it just, it just dawned on me that he's,

He's one of the greatest ever to do the show that because of the circumstances of what happened to him, I don't know if the comedy world still knows, you know, how impactful he was and, and just what a legacy has. Uh, but he's still kind of unknown.

That's why we did this. And it's because of you and Bill Hader or Sherry Oteri. A lot of people just mentioned their admiration for Phil as one of the best sketch players in the history of Saturday Night Live. Well, that's right, because the insanity of what happened and how crazy and out of the blue was overshadowed a little bit. And then it was sort of hard to talk about. And then he was just hard to talk about. So sort of all...

It was a tough situation, but I think time has gone by where it comes up so much now that it's time to give them some props and just remind everyone. Yeah. And we did, because I lived around the corner, we were friends with Bren and Phil and their kids, and we reached out to his daughter, Bergen.

And she gave her a blessing. She went to the live show. If people have listened to that episode at the ground lanes, which by the way, I'd never been on that stage, but I'd been in at a show or two. What an incredible room to do sketch comedy in, but she was there. Yeah. So it's, uh, that place is a pretty, pretty special place. And, uh, just to, I mean,

so many great memories, even just doing, cause you do a lot of your, the classwork up on that stage too. Uh, uh, and it's just, you know what, it's 99 seats and it's just audiences right there. And, uh, um,

yes, so many great relationships were made, you know, at that school for me. And, and you'd look up on the wall and you see the, the photos of, of Lovitz and Hartman and Lorraine Newman, uh, E.W. Herman and all these people. Uh, but it's fine. I was trying to think of the chronology of, of like my exposure to Phil, but I remember, I remember kind of,

taking a break from even watching SNL. And it wasn't until college when my roommate at the time was like, you've got to watch, he had done a Wayne's World sketch for his communications class. And I was like, what is this? What are you doing? He's like, oh, you don't know Wayne's World? I'm like, no, I haven't watched a show in a while. And so,

I started watching and it was really two things that brought me back to watching the show. It was you and Mike Dana doing Wayne's World. That was like an epiphany in terms of, oh my God, the show's back. Who are these guys and these characters? And then the second thing that brought me back, obviously it was a very strong cast, but then this guy, Phil Hartman. And I just...

I just was like, God, this guy is like so solid and everything. He's, um, he's really funny, but then he'll do something like the anal retentive chef, which is so precise and is like, I mean, if you read that on paper,

I don't know, maybe that got laughs in the room, but it's like, it's so technically done. But the fact that he just hung in the pocket with this really quiet premise and the audience just, he just brings them along in such a way. And,

And the other thing I remember watching was Bill Clinton at the McDonald's. Yeah. Knowing how hard that is with props and going from... I think he uses like every part of the set. And he is having to... Take a bite. Take a bite and you use it as an analogy that he's, you know, a warlord and, you know, aid to Mogadishu and...

At one point starts choking. I think Schneider hands him like his coat to help him. But I was like, God, he was just so funny, but also so technically gifted. And I just remember thinking, oh, that's, you know, if I ever could be on a show like that.

I'd love to be that guy. You did very, you did very, very well. No way. Well, no, Phil or you are people like you with that kind of range. It's like, what couldn't Phil do? I mean, you could throw anything. Yeah. For you guys. So when he was, was he, was he like a,

Was he like a quarterback of the show in like a rah-rah way? Or did he just kind of keep to himself and he was just so good that the writers just knew they could always go to him for every type of sketch?

He was friendly and accessible, but he also was kind of private and he had a lot of hobbies that were more important than the sketch comedy. I'd never seen anything like that. He was very organized about his bits and he could, you know, talk to you like about Evinrude motorboats for a half hour and then say rehearsal, go up.

do some accent, some character, some physical piece of comedy, play super broad or very realistic film. Yeah. Feature film type acting. So I...

He was interesting that way. Had no apparent ego about it. He just was great at it. But he'd rather be flying his plane or on a boat. He just was brilliant at it. Will's like that, I think. I don't know, Will. I do think that you're, because a lot of your character is a little out there and crazy. Are you asking about my antique coin collection? No.

Um, no. Do you actually have one or is that? No, I wish. Yeah. No. Because my brother did. I have three older brothers. And then my brother Scott and I went in there one time and ravaged his coin collection. Oh, gosh. And bought some jawbreakers. Oh, I'd fucking kill you. And it made the local paper. It was some dimes, FDR dimes that were rare.

I was nine. I apologize now to Brad. That's the guy who Garth is based on. Dude, if you tried to take a run at my 1916D Mercury Diamond in beautifully uncirculated condition, I'd fucking knock you out. That was worth 125 when I was in eighth grade, folks.

So what was interesting is you and Bill Hader, the Coke and Pepsi of SNL, two extremely amazingly different, cool cats on SNL, both referenced Phil Hartman as being like, oh, Phil, you know, Phil's the man. And so that's also another reason we did the show. We thought, you know, he's spanning generations. I think my reverence for him is,

affected me. I think I told this story when we did the show at Largo, but I'll tell it again, was when he came to host, we're all there on Tuesday night and he's going in from office to office and listening to all the pitches. And I think it was in the office with a couple other writers and they were kind of doing all the talking and I was a part of their pitch, but

I didn't really have anything to add. They pretty much said what the idea was, in addition to being incredibly intimidated by being in the room with Phil Hartman, that he then just called it out. And he's like, what's up with the feral kid?

Yeah, I've got your tongue. And it was like Phil Hartman doing an impression of Phil Hartman. Yeah. And it was just, of course, that didn't, I just went, yeah, well.

you know what they said. And I was just like, God, he just must think I'm an idiot. Uh, but he's, he did student, you know, he's such a nice guy. He had, he had that voice or that persona he would, he would put on sometimes to when he wanted to lighten up the room. Hey fellas, make sure you read it funny. It was a little, little forties like him and Lovett's had that connection. Um,

Could we play something right now for fun, Greg? This sketch, Will, we're going to play you. We're going to surprise our guests. You were in and I never saw it until a week ago and I fucking cracked up. And put up the volume, please. This is just a piece of it. It's just a piece. Last week, you were told to set aside at least five hours a day observing human behavior. If you didn't do it, it's your loss.

If you did, congratulations. Troy, talk to me. Yes, Bobby. I spent five and a half hours watching a homeless lady. Shut up. Get up. What are you working on? I'm working on my weakness, which you said last week was voice addiction. So I thought I could sing A Whole New World from Disney's Aladdin. Good. Alan Menken, good friend of mine. You got music? No. Good. Go. I can open your eyes.

Take you wonder by wonder. Stop! Who are you? I'm Aladdin. I don't know. Are you? I am. No, you're not. You're Troy. I'm Troy? Look at this. Look at this. This is something. This is nothing. This is something. This is nothing. This is something. Kelly, who is he? Aladdin. Troy.

Shut up. You're not listening. Brian, who is he? Good. Good. Good. Oh, you're sick. So there you go. That's, uh, he was, that's Phil in the pocket and playing it almost like he's in a movie. He's so committed and so real. Was he, um, the other interesting thing about Phil was it, I don't think he came to comedy because,

Until a little later, because I think he had a whole career as like a graphic design artist and everything like that. Between voiceovers and graphic design, he actually was one of the first groundlings that had a house and invited Lovis to his house. And he didn't really want to get famous, according to John. He was very conflicted about that. He liked his life and it had to be kind of pulled along. When I got there, Phil was just going to be a writer.

And John kept saying to Lauren and everybody, no, no, he's because he was, he was famous at the groundlings. I mean, after 11 years, he was just dominant, you know?

Yeah. It's interesting how many came aboard after Lorraine Newman, the first groundling. Yeah. And then it was John Lovitz. And then it was Phil in 86. And then it's like so many people, you know, Sherry O'Terry or Chris Kattan, you, I don't know. It's just like Lorraine came the other night. Yeah. Was she at the show? Yeah. It's great. She left early. I heard.

She left when I started to talk about something. Yeah, exactly. She thought it was a tribute to David Spade. And when she found out it was Phil, she quietly went out a side door. Because of how much I was talking. She's like, what is this actually about? I was like, yeah. Yeah.

Here we go. Here we go. Well, let's let Will go, but we wanted to thank Will for coming on. I don't know if there's anything you want to add, but I had to show you that sketch we fucking cracked up. We saw it the other day. This is something... They had the rhythm where he goes right back at him. I don't want to...

Well, I don't want to, you know, toot my own horn here, but I think Molly and Chris and I wrote that sketch. Whoa. Because, oh yeah, he was a guest host. That was when he's hosting, right? Because it was based on different people, acting teachers you met. Everyone. Exactly. So someone really did that? This is something? This is nothing? This is something? I think that was Al-Qahtan.

yeah came up with this whole thing of just just gibberish that of course an acting coach would throw at you right and all the the ego stuff was so funny get up get out get out and also just everyone was his friend and then there's the next little run on his friends all did uh b-level guest parts on like night rider you know he has their credits as if they're a really big deal i just

I just remember any acting coach I ever had in a group setting could not help themselves from talking about their projects. A Pringles commercial showed his range in that sketch. One time it was some class where one of the students was like, could you please...

give us an excerpt from your one man show. I can't, I can't please. I was like, what are you doing? And then sure enough, this guy goes on for five minutes of like from his one man show. About you guys writing that, that makes sense because Phil, uh,

is a great writer. He wrote Pee-wee's Big Adventure with, with, but he was in so many things. And when you write something, you're kind of the de facto producer of that sketch. He just didn't have the time because he was in like nine things to show even when he wasn't. And he's parasailing after read-through.

But you guys must have been thrilled when he started rehearsing that on Thursday. Well, it was just one of those things where it was like, oh, he's doing it exactly the way we pictured he'd do it. Yeah. And he looks ridiculous. He looks ridiculous. He's got that little beard. But anyway, thanks. One of the greats. Yeah. Bye, guys. Here's another all-star cast member and a good friend of mine, Mike Myers, who was very happy as a Canadian.

to come and talk about Phil Hartman. Here's Mike. A fellow Canadian. Oh, fuck.

It's sort of a feeling in that building that you might get fired. It just washes over you no matter how well it's going. If I watch the show, I'm going to get fired. That's what I feel like. I feel like if life is a boss, that I could get fired at any time. Yeah, that's true. Or sort of nicked. But anyway, we're joined by Mike Myers. Hello. Hold for applause. Yes.

Who did a nice run. Mike, how long was your run with Phil? Was it your whole time there? Phil was there for five of the years that I was there. He left in my last year, I believe. He was in So I Married an Axe Murderer, which was fun and just brilliant in it. And he did what Phil always did with anything, which is make it better than written. Yes. You know, he always brought stuff off the page and he was also very...

If you were one of the more experienced Ivy League writers or if you were a dumb kid from Toronto, he sold your sketch, you know what I mean? And always made it better than written. Yeah, I would never walk through. No, no. He always tried to make something funny and he was always prepared. He's the most prepared performer I've ever met in my life.

I saw him. He had a binder with color coding, like how musicians have notes. He would go a little bit of Charlton Heston plus a little bit of this. It was color coded. I caught him. That's great. I caught him. That's great. The other thing, too, is he had the best instrument of any comedic actor I've ever met. His voice and his body was amazing.

Unbelievable. And Peter Sellers, like, in my opinion, and Alec Guinness, like, and just one of those. I thought he was a very good writer, and I thought he was one of the best interpreters of things written and best cold reader ever in my life. Yeah. So unnatural. You know, to your point about Alec Guinness, because we were talking about that,

the other day, a little birdie told me. Phil had this move where he could make his eyes kind of go dead and he would go very, he did it in So I Married an Axe Murder in the Alcatraz scene. And if anybody out there wants to see first class film acting, comic acting, it's such a brilliant move. And Alec Guinness could make his eyes go kind of dead. I don't even know, I don't know what that is, but when Phil used it- It's control. Yeah, complete control.

Complete control. I think what you were talking about, Dana, before earlier, you're talking about how Farley was about explosion and not having any limits on yourself. Phil was almost the inverse and opposite. He was all about control. And, and, you know, they always talk about if great comedy acting is, is great dramatic acting. It's,

it's just 99.99% how it is in life with 0.001% commentary. That's how I felt about Phil. Just a little, like the dead eyes is an example of just a little bit of exaggeration. Yes. That's the, the,

the finer the comedy acting, you know what I mean? Is how small the exaggeration can be. It makes it so funny too. Cause if you're in an absurd sketch, like I was doing church chat with him, I'm in the dress and everything. He comes out and says Saddam Hussein and he's playing it like it's drama.

I mean, it's, there's no winking, no nodding, no, no, it's just flat, real and kind and intimidating and scary. And so that just makes the whole sketch lifts up the sketch to have someone play that. And in Axe Murderer, I didn't have a blow to his little speech of, you know, he scooped out his eyes and pissed in his ocular cavities. And I didn't have a blow to it. You know what I mean? And then Phil on camera during the take goes this way to the cafeteria and

Right after that. Yeah. Right after the movie. Hot pudding. Yes. I think when you're a newer comic or a new comic actor,

An easy way to do is go, you take the lines and you put a big spin on them, put a lot of English to make it funny in quotes. And the more you are in it and you watch people, when they do the microscopically tiniest things, that's the most fun after a while to see. I think he was so perfect at that. Yeah. Super, super small, super controlled.

Super tasteful. And he was also super nice to me. I mean, that's the other thing too, you know? Yeah, because you came in, Phil and I came in and you were there like maybe a season later, season and a half later.

Right. And you were welcomed in, in different ways by different cast members. But Phil, I'm sure it was because, you know, everybody, the new kid has a new kid in town, whatever that Eagle song is. You were fantastic. You took me under your wing. You told me, you basically gave me the relative real estate of, uh,

This is where you want to be home base. This is where you want to be. And Phil, the same. Phil was very generous. Conan was super generous. Yeah, it seemed absurd to me to be upset with the person who's getting their break. Like they didn't plan it. If he wanted to be upset, just talk to

Lauren or something, but you were just someone who crushed all the way through your early acting second city. And then Martin short said, Hey, there is this guy. And then you got on the show and pretty quickly by the end of the first season, you had a bunch of hits. I mean, a bunch of big, big sketches. Wow. Thanks. You know, and that was a lot of like the crew, uh,

were very supportive and you were insanely supportive and um phil and so you know i got to know

I got to know Phil also too. He was, he didn't, he, he towards the end when I was there, he didn't write so much and I was always struggling for material. I was like, I'm dry. I'm dry. I'm dry. And like, I said this a lot of times, but then I'd go into his room and he was doing a different hobby, you know? Right. So one who was looking at yachts, building a model or something. Yeah. And then it was diamonds and he had like a jeweler's loop and he goes, the three C's or whatever it is cut.

And then the last time I saw him, he was putting a ship in a bottle. Oh, funny. He was like, just hold on, Mike. And it was the last thing of pulling the mast up. And he had these long scissors. How do you have such time? I'm sitting here. I'm pulling my hair out. I think I'm being fired. I've got no material. And then at read through, because he's such a great comedy actor, he had a stack of

He had a stack of scenes that he was in, and I had the three that I had written. You know what I mean? Right. And people put him in 42 of the 44 sketches. Yes. So he's always got something to do. And I was like, I got all the time in the world. Yeah. He was, was he a hobbyist, scuba diving, sailboat guy?

And there's just- Tropical Islands. That was the other one. Mike, do you ever think about buying a tropical island? Nope. I can safely say I've never thought about buying a tropical island. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's sweating over their yellow notepad writing. When I walk by his, he's like, Spade, come in. Hey, Spade.

And like, everything's relaxed. I'm like, sorry, I'm freaking out. The show's in two days. I'm freaking out. The one character he did, I think he did in his audition, but he really like could look like John Wayne. He had just a kind of,

He had a handsome man face and he could leverage it when he wanted to. When he played... I don't know, Hans and Franz, he played a sad sack cameraman brilliantly. But when he wanted to be the handsome guy, he could really go for that. And his John Wayne was...

he really looked like he just looked like it was charlton heston oh it's heston yeah there's no one he was charlton heston you know just the chin up and the wide mouth and kind of gapping for air well i can't do it but it was so perfect yeah i mean him as ed mcmahon is a great memory too just just and this german guy with the fake uh sid caesar german you know the yeah

But then he'd do John Wayne German, which is, Ick, haba, flunk, and my death perception is down. And he'd be like, that's two things that you can't just pull out of your bag like that. I know. It's amazing how effortless it was for him, or it seemed to be. Well, he was a hard worker, too. He prepared. He did. He always came to be the first one at the read-through table. Mm-hmm. And...

he would make his little notes, you know, and I had the joy of sitting next to him and I had the option of moving closer to the host as I was there longer, but I just, I stayed right next to Phil 'cause I learned almost everything about cold reading and about preparing. I never had nearly what he had to prepare, but, you know, I just, he was so generous to me and so it was all about the work for Phil, you know what I mean?

And then when it wasn't about the work, he literally had no time for show business whatsoever. It was literally like hobbies and Mikey being on a catamaran. It was always like a new exotic thing. Mike, have you ever made a bean bag? Yes. Have you parasailed Mike? Yeah.

I can't think. You ever want the skin of a dead person to get into the other realm and understand what's happening on the other side? Were you there, Mike? Were you there for Reagan Mastermind?

No. Do you know that one, Dana? That was the first season. Yeah, I was in it as Jimmy Stewart. That was like Reagan being the bumbling, doddering, sweet old man. And then the guest leaves and then there's a switch and then he's this brilliant. He's speaking foreign languages. It was a choice for Phil. That was the first season. John Frozen, Caveman Lawyer is a prime example of like...

So his caveman takes no nods whatsoever to grunting and me like fire, you know, whatever. Yeah, speaks perfectly. Articulate, bourgeois, you know what I mean? He's a lawyer. Some of those lines are like, you know, I'm a caveman. You know, he goes back to that. I'm a simple caveman. I'm a simple, I was chipped out of the ice. Then he goes...

But I do feel my clients deserve 20 million in punitive damages and also another 5 million for that. It goes right back into being a lawyer. Your planes frighten me. These are birds of a feather. Oh, that's right. Jack Candy, the writer. Yeah. But if you don't, you know, shovel the snow off the front of your porch...

you know law 25 point b states you know anyway yeah yeah just playing with that that was you know pretty stout makeup for snl a complete prosthetic and he played it obviously flat real again played it dramatically actually and also you felt a lot of empathy for the character it it it the more people are around and think about that sketch it's kind of become

shinier and brighter you know there's been anything quite like it you know well and then there was a series of uh of course somebody has a can you hear the plane somebody next to me has a uh what do you call it oh a drone oh a drone okay the uh can you hear it you must be able to hear it

I don't. Do you hear it, David? Oh, okay. Yeah. Yes. Kim Jong-un is his neighbor. He has a lot of toys. He must be. Lighting up his rockets. I pissed off the wrong man. Phil's, the breadth of his work, the variety of things that he could do, the

He was just, you know, it is damning with faint praise and not correct to say he was a utility player. He was the most versatile comedy performer I've ever seen. And I put, like I said, I put his versatility up there with Peter Sellers and, and God, Christopher Guest. You know what I mean? I could, you know, the family of detailed comedians.

controlled restrained but sharp as attack performers yeah you could go up to him and before read through and say can you do a russian accent he's like what part of russia yes exactly i'm like i didn't know there was more than that what i'm doing is more rostov street yeah yeah

Yeah. That's nice. Good Lord. And he could be explosive too for, you know, somewhat reserved, you know, a scientist really offstage in many ways or just an explorer of life. But when he wanted to do a character that just went out, when he needed that gear, he could do that too, which was just another part. Well, how about taking over in the Sinatra group, how he just would take over? Yeah, exactly. It's either one day's Eggman. Bless you. I think somebody's...

cutting grass out there. One day he's Eggman and the other day he's explosive in the Sinatra group. Yeah. Yeah. He ran that whole sketch and then immediately after the Sinatra group, you're like, oh, well, that's going to be one for the best of. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And I felt that way about the McLaughlin group too, which is...

Brilliant. Yeah. The first one. And then it accelerated with putting Frank Sinatra was in there was this inspired and then having Phil play Frank Sinatra and Jan playing Sinead O'Connor. Because we all know Sinead and apology. I think that's one thing to, you know, I don't know. They were a bit of a duo, uh,

In those first five years, Jan and Phil did a lot of things together because it was male-female stuff. It was restaurant dating. It was game show host for Phil or father. So just giving some sugar to the great Jan Hooks right now. Jan, what a home run hitter she was. Those two together. So in my very first sketch in the cold opening, game show psychic, Phil was a game show host and Jan was this kind of doddering character, Midwestern person.

So yeah, can you imagine like you're with those two pros and your very first sketch. So it was like, oh, this is really cooking. Everybody's on point, you know? And that's what I felt like for the first two years. I felt like I'd been brought into an all-star cast and, you know, I felt like somebody who'd

played for Saskatoon all of a sudden playing for New York Rangers. Yeah, but truth be told, you were like the star, well, basketball or whatever, the star, you know, an all-star. You were making it universal and not foreign to the Canadian like I just did. You had that European influence and your stuff was really fresh. It really brought a whole new vibe to the show and you've melded completely with all of us, I thought, you know.

Lothar of the hill people Sprockets Lothar were the hill people Middle aged men I think I may have mentioned Lothar I got nothing from anybody on the street for Lothar ever Except the people Nothing ever Except for the people that worked in Central Park Really? We'd go for a walk on Sunday After the show on Saturday through Central Park And it'd be oh my god it's Lothar

And I thought I was being punked. - Lothar! - I love Lothar. I was like, am I being punked right now? What is that? - Yeah. - Thank you. - And for people who want to look it up, Lothar was a-- - A Middle Earthian person. And was the character I would do when I played Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. And now my kid is thoroughly into Dungeons and Dragons.

Does he do Lothar as he plays it? No, they don't do voices, which I was like, well, why do Dungeons and Dragons if you're not going to have to act out your character? Do a character. Yeah. But Lothar was, he was trying to understand...

modern psychology centuries ago and he would do it in a rudimentary kind of language about men and women's relationships. Yes, exactly. I always found it very funny. Thank you. I do not know what this woman... Yes, I do not know what goes on. But,

Which I always love, like whenever I barbecue anything that has bones, I always go, come, let us talk of the hunt. Yeah, that's right. The gazelle is a noble creature, yeah. He gave himself up for us. They must have talked like that in 15th century wherever. Haltingly, without contractions. He gave himself up for us. Very articulate. Yeah.

Oh, boy. Well, you've given us so much. I don't know. I think we've covered. I loved him. We love him. We miss him. We miss him. I saw him as a hero and a mentor and a very good friend. He raised the bar for everybody when it was possible. And, yeah, I would have loved to see him.

What do you be working on now, you know?

I sometimes think when live streaming came in, especially the amount of work he would have gotten if he wanted to take it. Because of his range. You could have put him in any of these shows. Plug and play. He would have worked nonstop. Yeah, nonstop if he chose to. He could be in The Crown. Of course, you could too if you wanted to. I feel that he could have also directed because he had such a...

um he's an artist i mean yeah it's a visual artist yeah and because he came from drawing as well you know he thought in pictures you know what i mean yeah which is you know that's one of my favorite you know people always you know who was a big influence on on me and i always go you know buster keaton as much as chaplin as much as peter sellers you know what i mean because i love

Picture comedy too, you know what I mean? And so did Phil. And you can see it in Pee Wee's Big Adventure as well. Which Phil Cole wrote. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

uh, it, it is always magical when you, well, especially when there was no sound with Buster Keaton, but when there is sound, but, but a scene chooses just to go to a, maybe the, some music or whatever. And then everything plays out non-verbally. It's never underestimate that as a cinematic. It's shown and not told, you know, and that was a great quote that Lorne Michaels always had, which is you always want the movie to,

to still work as a story and as a comedy, even if you didn't buy the headset on the plane and you're looking over somebody's shoulder at to what they're watching. And I mean, yeah, I mean, my phrase for it was funny with the sound off. Yeah, exactly. And I, and I think Phil would have been a great director, you know, of comedy. Oh yeah. I think, yeah,

We were just watching. The whole family. One of the great things of having three kids under the age of 12 is I'm able to show them movies that

My wife Kelly and I love. That's so much fun. You showed them Breakfast Club. Okay. We just saw Breakfast Club on Saturday. Molly Ringwald. Judd. Is that Emilio? Yeah. Anthony Michael Hall. Yes. And Ali Sheedy. It's spectacular.

But the framing, you know, she steals stuff and it's just how they had a locked off frame and then she just sort of entered in the back and stole something. Like, just to know...

Good framing. You know what I mean? But not know it then when you're watching. And then now you look at it with different eyes and you go, this was designed. This wasn't smart. Yeah. This is somebody who knew that there was an extra laugh in there just in how it was shot. And I think Phil had that kind of brain. You know what I mean? Yeah. You could see it in Peewee's Big Adventure, which is a masterpiece of comedy staging. You know how...

When Pee Wee is the guy in the, you know, Paul Rubens is playing himself as the bellboy. Yes. Beijing Mr. Urban. Yes. Yes. And generally kind of keeping it wider and moving masters and letting stuff happen in the frame. A lot of what they call front of stairs, front of stairs shots. Yeah. Yeah. Head to toe and just follow it.

And let Fred dance, right? Yeah. Let it all happen in his rhythm. Yeah. And Kubrick did a lot of that with Peter Sellers. Supposedly, Kubrick got a Fernie pad and went to the base of the camera and would just lie on it and just kind of let Peter Sellers do his thing. And his job was to make sure that he had some kind of coverage. Yeah.

Yeah, Kubrick. He sat there with a big smile on his face, you know? I watched, you know, sometimes at night you go to sleep, so it's like, okay, YouTube comes up and it's the scene from Dr. Strangelove. Yeah. Peter Sellers, almost better than Dr. Strangelove, is his vacuous, almost effeminate president. Yeah, Merkin. And then George C. Scott, who apparently...

Kubrick gave him Carpenter's okay go way too big because he was you know and then it ended up you know being you know just startlingly brilliant to watch that and I think Phil could have done the president or that yeah totally he could have played five parts in something each of them brilliant yeah yeah

Good Lord. Good Lord. You know who else did drawings? Simon. Here we are still loving him. Yeah. Simon likes drawings. Phil could have done Simon. He could have done church. But yeah, we were just so lucky to all find each other at that time in our lives. And there was a lot of great chemistry and,

And during those years with Phil as sort of, again, we'll probably bring this up a lot, nicknamed the glue. It was the glue. Glue. They're not saying boo. They're saying glue. They're saying glue. That's what the announcer says in the arena. Yeah. It's like, who are you going to call?

Phil Hartman, if you need that, that, and that. But he meshed beautifully with us in different ways, you and I, and Kevin Nealon. Kevin's brilliant as well. So we had a lot of... We were all just a little bit different. I always say that Kevin was the George Harrison of our cast. He didn't write a ton of songs.

But the songs he did do were, you know, Here Comes the Sun and something. You know what I mean? Yeah. The sketches he did write were just awesome. Well, the one that someone is going to be on this show honoring Phil Hartman and his brilliance, I mentioned Kevin Nealon's Waiter Without a Pad that I think went to dress. Oh, Phil was in that. Yeah.

Yeah. Waiter without a pad, but I don't know if it went to air, but it was one of those things. Oh, it did. Okay. I love it. Waiter without a pad is, is a, is a, I use it in my life when I'm trying to explain to somebody, please write it down. Yeah. And Phil kept going on, you know? Yeah. Guy, please. Come on.

he's like okay spaghetti for the lady and uh cream de cassis he's like hey fella uh it's not even close to what we ordered if you could just maybe grab a pen and and he goes no no no i got it he goes it's a and he goes kevin's trying to guess what they're so good this next young man went to the same community college as i did bill hater um

in Scottsdale. And he was a big admirer of Phil, along with many others. And I don't think he ever got to meet Phil, but he had a lot to say about him. I have to apologize to Bill because, Bill, when I saw you, you don't remember, I saw you at this dinner the other night. I remember.

You would never remember. I was at the dinner. I was sitting a couple down here. But anyway, I had hurt my hand a couple days before. And so I went to shake hands and I forgot. And so when I shook hands with people, I go like this and it hurt every time. And Bill was really nice because I think he could sense my weakness just in the air. So he didn't totally crunch me with his strong hand because I felt so weird not shaking hands and I knew it was going to hurt. So I'd go, hey, and then I go, all right.

Cause it's hard to give that lefty one. It looks a little weird. Lefty fist bump. I know it turned into fist bump, but everyone gets a little jarred. So, and then here comes Mulaney, that motherfucker. He saw me weak and he came in, he crunched all the bones as hard as he could. And he didn't know what he was doing, but of course he gave me that Kung Fu grip. And then, and that's when I went to the doctor the next day and I go, something's definitely wrong.

And then he X-rayed it and he goes, yeah, you broke, you have a broken bone in your hand. That's what hurts so much. Oh, you broke a bone? You broke a bone? I don't know if Bill broke it or Melanie broke your hand. That's the clickbait story. But I think it was broken when I got there. Well, I remember that Bill used to call him baby Hercules as like a little side reference, you know? And so I guess he has superhuman grip strength. He doesn't even know it. You never know that about John. Yeah.

Yeah. Really strong. Comes off like a square ball. I remember about that dinner was showing up and it was a birthday dinner that John was having. And we, me and Dave looked at each other and we both were like, we saw there was like 20 people there. And we both had the same thought, which was like, are we paying for this? Like who's paying for this? Cause John had a birthday for himself. And you're like, yeah.

You can't pay for your own dinner. We can't let him pay for his own dinner, but there's a lot of people here. Like, are we all pitching in? And then, and then of course, Nick Kroll was the one who was like, I'll ask him, John, we're not paying for this, right? John's like, I'll pay for it. Don't worry.

Yeah, before he did that, I saw Sarah Silverman scooping extra potatoes. I go, relax over there until we figure this out. Comedians are starving artists. I'm surprised Lorne didn't pick it up. I know. Oh, yeah, Lorne. Bill, and we'll get to this in a second. I thought the Lorne

tag was a joke. I thought it was like, oh, look, it's Lorne. He's not here, but we always save a place for him. And then Lorne Michaels showed up and we were all like, I got it. It was like, Warden. Yeah.

inmates straighten up yeah yeah yeah everyone got quiet for a little bit right i think everybody did get quiet and it was you know what are we is there a part of us that is still trying to impress lauren on are we still kind of yeah i'm sure you were funnier than david david was funnier than marin yeah and yeah well he it was a thing where

You go over and sit with him and it is like I picked up the last conversation I had, you know, five years, you know, two years ago. It's like I sit down and he's like, and Charlie Chaplin's house in Sweden is there. I don't think your update, it played, but it didn't land.

it got air but it didn't stick it is he's the best summer upper of of activities ever just gets it down to five or six words did he have anything post barry you'll go that kubrick route you go the kubrick now he never mentions that he's usually very sweet he's just like how are your kids how was that yeah everything okay i saw him scribbling and it said uh

Patton Oswalt, two quips. And he circled him. He said, Nick Kroll's blanking. And then I put, glad I didn't hire him. This dinner proved it. I made the right call. Nick Kroll audition, question mark? Did he audition? This is his second audition and it's going just as well. Yeah. The dance is very sweet.

very quiet i did he was sitting next to lauren and i just saw him turn to lauren and he was trying to think of something to say and he picked up his name tag and i heard him just say i believe we get to take these home who was that i didn't get that who was that damn man he's very funny he's a voice on uh bob's burger or something

uh really funny he's a piece of pickle he's a pickle i thought it would have been five people at koi five people at koi that's what i thought people at koi would have been great perfect yeah you know but lauren was fine but yeah i think initially i was like wait he's actually coming and he came in it was great yeah he is always fun and he brought his kid yeah and eddie who's the nicest guy in the world yeah it was really smart guy i like eddie

I was diametrically the furthest person from Lauren. So there's really nothing I could do except trudge down there. There's no chair next to him. So I got to lean over. Hey, Lauren, did anyone do bits about the name tag? He goes, one guy did. Okay. Well then I'll go back. Yeah. It's like the table read. I was, I don't know where you guys said the table read, but where I was at the table read was where you were at. It's like you were right across from him when you were doing your,

sketch and it was dying you could see him out of focus beyond losing patience sad dad looking sad or looking over his glasses like out of your fucking mind you know why why are you putting me through any bails on the exposition oh yeah that's the worst so

And he leaves the room with a tear in his eye. All right. On to the next. And I'm watching his bumper. And you're like, well, shit, wait, where am I?

Wait, didn't you do this thing called Mr. Poopy, Dana? Funny Little Poopyhead, just so Lauren would have to say that exposition. He about to say Funny Little Poopyhead literally 20 times. Funny Little Poopyhead sits down. Or Funny Little Poopyhead is sad. Hmm.

Funny little poopy head. Sad. Funny little poopy head. I had that catchphrase. I got to, got to, got to go. And Jan, the great Jan Hooks was fun. Mrs. Funny little poopy head. And I'm going with him. And Lauren, I don't know if he ever know, maybe he'll know now if he hears this. I'm trying to pull a fast one on me. Did you ever do a gag one? Did you ever do one just for fun and read through Bill where you knew it was just to, just to make it silly? It was always just fun when,

you know, you would get, you know, there was just, you would turn the page and it was just tons of dialogue. We would all just kind of start, I would just start laughing because I could feel Lauren's impatience and he really plows ahead. He doesn't skip around, especially if someone brought in a film piece that was a former writer like Smigel or someone writing a thing, you know, and it would be like a big tape that was mostly like visual.

you know, just hearing him do that. But me and Kenan Thompson used to do that. It was always Lorne, like in a shower and he couldn't get out and the shower was filling up with water and he starts to drown. It was him in that voice being like, you know, starting the shower and he's washing himself. And then look down and go, wait.

and then like the water is racing and one was him with a hang glider on a hang glider talking like that but like that was our impression of warren it wasn't like him speaking words it was his read through voice his read through and it was just gibberish that's hysterical yeah i do like when he gets excited after a bomb what you just did where a sketch bombs and then it's a pause and people are turning their pages and he goes

Hanukkah song and we go to add update desk Adam Sandler with a guitar trying to get the energy back yeah he gets it back he goes maybe this one will work yeah did you guys ever have a host say what is this I'm not into this

In the middle? In the middle, Elton John. And I don't, he was like, I'm not doing this. He just said, I'm not doing this. Oh, no. Like, don't worry. He's like, I can't do this. I can't do this. These people are friends. You know? He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

yeah yeah yeah oh that was the other thing yeah his motorcycle yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah no no no this is the funny stuff and then now we'll talk about phil because you when you were on i think you did mention that uh phil was uh one of the people you probably looked at you and also will ferrell specifically mentioned phil in our various interviews so that was kind of uh interesting that's why we decided to do this because phil

Phil, you know, is just sort of, well, he was a very low key individual, whatever, but his record on that show is so brilliant and people like to talk about it. So, yeah, I was, he was definitely when I got the show and, you know, you, you, you, you look at, you know, you know, it is kind of like an 18 thing. And especially when I came out, we had a huge cast and,

And so it was kind of like where, you know, it's the A team, like, what do we not have here? Do we not have like a dynamite person or a guy who can,

you know uh build a bridge or i don't know it's like you needed like your own special yeah your short stop your catcher exactly what are you going to play what am i you're the dad what are you the game show host and then i and then yeah and then you sit and you look at phil hartman and i just thought well i could you know i've always really had a i was always just very much attracted to his kind of

that he could do it all you know that he really could do the game show host and he was so committed as the game show host he wasn't trying there was no um no winking or anything it was all so committed you know and I was like oh the reason this other stuff is so funny is because he's so committed to being straight and that makes everybody funny

You know what I mean? So he, I always just appreciated that about him. And it was like, Oh, I could, if I did that, then I'll maybe, maybe I'll be that guy, you know, just whatever you put me in, I'll just commit like that. Yeah. You know, even in motivational speaker, which is like the most bananas character, he plays the dad and he react. He is the only one not laughing. He's the only one just staring straight ahead going, you know,

we hired a motivational speaker he's been down in the basement eating coffee beans for the last three hours yeah this is so straight yeah he's like we've always encouraged uh oh yeah we've always encouraged him to write you know like doesn't notice the craziness around him yeah yeah it doesn't work if he's you know he's the base you know yeah he's like

but then when he was funny then when you see something like unfrozen caveman lawyer was the one that kind of blew my mind because i was like he really and truly just does not give a if anybody else finds this funny yeah that's what i felt as a kid because it was so emin jack candy wrote that right yeah oh yeah and it was like this is so

strange and I found it so insanely funny but that was my favorite kind of comedy where it was like this is just for us I find this funny if you're on board or you're not and that he was so committed to it yeah there was no like

you know, breaking or anything, you know, which I was definitely guilty of. But it was like, he was just so solid, you know. You know, Bill, to be on shows with, when I was newer and Dana was there, Dana and Phil were closer, but, uh,

Phil was so nice. And then if you're in a sketch with him or something, you wouldn't dare think about breaking in front of such a pro. You know what I mean? You know, that was looked down upon. You're like, don't you come in and fuck this sketch up. That's really the professionalism around there where we were like, that's why no one wanted to break his Lauren was against it. And then you knew the cast was like, no, we take this serious. We want these things to work as is or, or not. And like unfrozen was, he had a lot of dialogue and shit, but I think he loved that so much.

I like that it was one of those that was so weird and a jack handy and it sort of crossed over to the mainstream where they liked it too. Yeah, it really was. I don't, did, was he always incredibly prepared? Yes. How did he prepare for things? Cause he would, you, Dana, you too, you guys had a lot of heavy lifting. I go, I would sit and watch the SNL when I was there, we got the server. We could go back and watch old sketches. Yeah.

And we could watch old dress rehearsals and things like that. Wow. And so I would go through all that stuff and I would go, Dana and Will Hartman had so much heavy lifting in those shows, man, especially the cold opens and everything. And I'm just like, what was the preparation like for that? Well, Phil was very meticulous. He had a beautiful binder. He would be in a lot of sketches because he was so versatile.

And great. And so and he was always super prepared. And I think that a theme that's come up is that he was just a great actor and he would play that baseline and play it so real, whether it's anger or whatever. I just want to say one thing personally about Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. When I was on the soundstage, when that started.

And I remember thinking to myself, this is so funny. I'm kind of numb. I can't laugh now, but I'll laugh later.

because just the whole idea of it and phil being so serious you know some things are so funny you just go you go quiet i can't this is you're taking it all in you're like wow what is this thing is this what i think it is are they really doing this yeah and we your ways confuse me and frankly i am but a simple caveman yeah the way that this caveman was using it

the caveman to curry favor from a jury, but that he was full of shit. He goes, I want to jump out of my BMW and run out. What is this? I like her. He goes or whatever. Yeah. Sometimes at toward the end of the sketch, he goes, cause again, I'm a caveman in the world. Friends and confused. Talking down to the jury. Yeah.

Yeah. God damn. Monsters in my house. I don't know. You know that when my client 20 million, yeah. Impunitive damages. He knows those words. Bill was Jack Handy ever sending in sketches when you were there? Jack Handy was a, um, you know, a legend obviously for deep thoughts and everything, but, uh,

he was the guy that like when downey or or um al franken or someone would come to the show they would say oh god jack handy did this sketch the one they always talked about was giant businessman

let's talk about where where phil was a giant remember this sounds familiar and he's in he's inside a house that's jack candy's kitchen he's in so he's in like a little doll house like in an apartment and people next door or it's like a punk band or something they're playing and he goes down the hallway he's huge and he knocks on the

the door with his finger and he's like excuse me could you keep your the noise down and it's you know punk guy whoever it was and it was like no and if you knock on a door again i'll kick your ass and then he goes back to his apartment and he picks up a tiny telephone and he goes action program

And that was the sketch. So him being a giant and being a business fan had nothing to do with any. Yeah. That's that's like Downey. And yeah, that was like, like how Frank and I'd be like, Oh my God, he would do these things that were just like, we never thought that you could do that. You know? Oh, how about this? This guy, this writer, Matt Piedmont, just out of the blue, he's texted me yesterday. And he just says, cause he listened to the podcast and he goes,

Hey, have you done Jack Handy yet? And I said, no, we're trying to find him in the woods or whatever. And he goes, do you remember Harvey Keitel's show when he did an insane idiot and his collection of descending size deer heads? One of the greatest sketches ever. Deer heads. I think about deer heads once a month. I really do. Keitel. Deer heads. It's one of the best sketches of all. And he sent a clip from it. I'm like, oh my God.

where he's like this i shot this deer this isn't it yeah it's like a deer then like a smaller deer

And it's him with like a tumbler of scotch. And he's like, here's a deer I killed. And here's a smaller deer. There's another deer I killed. It's not as big as that deer. And then here's, and then I get to the point where it's like, this is like a hamster that cut its head off and I put antlers. And this is, this is a toy deer that I just cut the head off. And then the ending is like a microscope.

And of course, Downey's favorite line of sketch was, he goes, now can you get your camera in there? And they bring the camera. You see that little, and it's like a Petri dish. And it's like, you see the little dot over in the corner? That's a deer. And I think with the right technology, I could cut its head off. And he goes, well, I need a fresh enough. And he goes over to the bar and then,

Yeah, big crumbly Ben-Hur letters and Pardo's voice. This has been an insane idiot and his descending collection of beer. This has been an insane idiot.

I'm going to have to look at that after we finish this. That whole Harvey Keitel episode is pretty amazing. It's like very funny. That's the Kevin Nealon is the bathroom attendant. Is that that one? I think that one. And then there's a one where there's subway announcers and they're just like...

Goddamn. Great New York dramatic actors can kick ass on that show. But yeah, well, Hartman was always the guy that I just, I don't know. I was just always so, yeah, just like kind of talking about just the professionalism and the ease in which he did everything. He just seemed so confident, you know? And so kind of like, it was okay to be,

you know, those thankless parts where you're, you're the game show host, which I played a ton of those where you're having to kind of, you're facilitating everybody and your, your rhythm is kind of driving the sketch. Like if you're slowing down, then everything's going to start to slow down. So you have to kind of keep it at a certain pace and it's hard and you're facilitating everybody else that that can be fun. Yeah.

And that you can actually make that funny by having the right attitude and still service it. You know what I mean? It just taught me. It was like, oh, that's how a sketch is supposed to work. Everybody can't be at a 10. Everybody can't be insane. And then the thing is, as people get to know you,

Then I would have writers like John Mulaney and Simon Rich and America Sawyer and these people start writing for me, the game show host, but he had a weird personality. But you couldn't do that out of the gate. Lauren would tell me that. He's like, they got to get to know you first. Then know it's something different. Then you can start messing with...

But you've got to like come in in a way where they they like you and they come to you and then you can start messing with it. And I feel like Phil Hartman kind of did that because to me, he was always, you know, the straight guy. And then so that's why when like Unfrozen came in lawyer or annually retended chef or, you know, or whatever.

when he played peter graves you know and he goes oh right you know that stuff like that was that was unbelievable played andy griffith we found out yesterday i forgot about andy griffin during his rich cracker phase or something that's what's what smigel said his rich cracker like um yum and good i don't know what it was like yeah yeah i don't know deadly squad about norman

Yeah. Yeah.

shit in snl there were people last thoughts the office was insane like smigel's office the mount of chaos and then phil's office was meticulous with different stations of uh fly fishing equipment color coding oil painting and he liked everything amazing painter too yeah he was like uh did all these albums poco and uh

He he was a pilot. He had boats. He had scuba diving equipment. I mean, he was completely he's a blues player. You know, he was an album fisherman. So all that stuff, like the comedy was just one aspect of it. And was he remember Tom Hanks telling me that he remembered Phil at table reads when like under the table would have like a fly fishing scene.

uh, magazine. Yes. It's so easy for him looking down. So non-stressed about being an 80 sketches. Yeah. That's wild. The calm me down. I mean, I would come out to eight H with nerves. And when I saw Phil, uh,

in his costume you finally were going for this it would definitely be a calming effect was he you'd ever see him get nervous or was he always just cool as a cucumber i never never saw him i never saw him got nervous um like you i was like you like which is very well you know but i was more like like i was very nervous and you'd see those people for me it was always like amy pauler

or uh fred pet armisen could literally be sitting there having a chat with somebody and i go oh hold on and then do kill on a sketch and i go right back go yes anyway whatever i was saying and you know like i don't know how do you do that losing my mind was phil uh was he like ever um how is he i don't know if you can use this in the show but i'm just curious how is he with a weak host

like if the host wasn't bringing it was he would he would he wow that's a good question do you know what i mean or what was you know what i mean you know like i don't want to name names but i remember you have a host and it's like not working you you can get frustrated and pull back or you could go all right we gotta like

Yeah, I don't think that was in Phil's... Phil was just an immensely likable person and generous. I don't think that we would have that gear. I think I would see him just wanting to give the host confidence during rehearsal. And that's great. And, you know, the other person, don't worry if you drop a line. And, you know, I think that's the way I would see him not getting frustrated. Yeah. Because his interests were so vast. Yeah.

And he also was doing his star Saturday Night Live. He was a fisherman on a pilot. And we would go to Van Nuys Airport and put headphones on and just listen to the tower. Wow. Really? Yeah. Just listen to the traffic. Because I said, look, I'm too. I can't go fly with you in a single engine plane. He got it. But we love it. Would Phil do bits? Yeah. Yeah.

In certain situations, yeah, he would definitely get it. We once, I said this before, but we were once at dinner, you know, because Saturday Night Live, weird things happen, me and him with Neil Young and a few other people.

So I said, let's make Neil Young, let's make him laugh his ass off. Let's go crazy. And Phil was doing, it was, it was the early nineties or something. And Phil's doing a Japanese pilot and stuff like that. And we got, we got Neil Young just helpless. So Phil would have that, that, that gear.

sometimes and i watched his audition too i found his audition before i auditioned oh at the groundlings and it was awesome i haven't seen that his audition's pretty he says i can do any accent any accent at all just tell me and they go and i could i forget what it was but he says i can do uh he does german because i can do any accent and then someone says up french and he goes i don't do french

Well, he'd been at Groundlings 11 years and he had turned down the show and said he didn't want to be famous. And he had a pretty good life as a visual artist and doing some voiceover work. He owned a house. You know, we just found this. Did you feel like when you started the show and he came on, he was like an adult? Yeah. You know what I mean? You're like, oh, shit. We have an adult on the cast. Yeah.

I came on with him and my very first sketch was with him and Jan Hooks. So it was right away. Was it broccoli? No, it was, we were doing a game show psyche. It was a game show and I was a psychic. So I would answer before he asked the question, you know, and Phil, oh, you know, I'd say a red balloon. Well, let me get to the question first. And then a red balloon would appear. And so that's,

That was, I'd never done a sketch company. So being with Phil and Jan, they just lifted me up because I was just crazy nervous, you know, but Phil never, Phil was just, I don't know. That's he's unique in that way, his calmness. And then he could just score, play the elevator man, do whatever. Yeah.

No ego, no really overt ego or competitiveness anywhere lurking in his nature. How is he when you guys showed up like when the new day like when you and Sandler and Barley guys are coming? Was it really?

Yeah, it was friendly and supportive. It was more, Dana was like an older brother and Phil was like a dad. Oh, really? Like it was more fun. You know, Phil, I gave him his room because he also wasn't in the writing room. You know, like mostly I would see the Smigels and Conans and Greg Daniels, those guys around because everyone's writing all the time. So there's drifting around. Phil was like, it was a job. He'd go home.

Come back? He didn't stay up and write. Did he write at all? If he did write, like if he wrote Mace or maybe he helped on, he did write sometimes. But most of the time, I didn't see him until, you know, read-throughs at a rehearsal. But he couldn't have been friendlier. He was very light, you know, and it was good to go to him because he wasn't so stressed about, like, we were all so tight energy. And he was like, hey, fellas. He would do that. He put that persona on sometimes for fun.

I'm sure you'll come up with something terrific, fellas. This is Phil Hoffman saying good night. But he also did all his business when we first started making a little extra money. He had it in a briefcase and he was incorporated. He did all his taxes and stuff. It's all in here. He would open it up.

He was just extremely organized and hardworking about memorizing things and knowing where he was going. So maybe that calmed him down a lot. He's probably the first guy I knew that had a house. Yeah. I mean, Dana said that. It's so true. It's like, I knew guys that owned cars, but I don't think any of my friends owned a house.

Yeah. He was kind of my friend. That's like a rich thing that I didn't have yet. No one had that. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny hearing that he didn't. He just must have been like the perfect guy to like all you guys. But it's just like, oh, we could bring him in there. Like when you're writing, it's like, oh, we just have this.

this guy who can do anything and be totally fine playing the, you know, the straight guy, the dad. He's walking by you by the piano in the writer's room at read-through day and he's breezing in. You're like, hey, Phil, you're Russian in mind. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I got that one. I mean, he was famous. He was a rock star, according to John Lovitz, and I'm sure it's true, at the Groundlings. Just infamous, just as the guy, the go-to guy.

But just a generous, nice person, you know? Just a sweet, sweet person. That's all I heard from everybody. He was like, when I first got there, that was, you know, he was like, you go into SNL and you see all your guys' pictures up on the wall, up on 17. It's like everybody who's been on the show. And you're like, Jesus Christ. That is weird. It's so...

uh terrifying you know it's like and i feel like it's so perfectly put on the wall as you walk to the table read and or you work to your offices so it's fun just so you know constantly reminded this is on your this is the lineage you got to keep going i'm seeing you guys and

Phil and you know Bill Murray and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and Lorraine Newman and Jan Kurt and all these be you know Jan Hooks and everybody and you're just like oh yeah yeah how do you do this and so I um but yeah man I just think that's so cool that he

you know, was so chill. You know, I would try to, I would ask everybody. I was like, Oh, that was like kind of the first, you know, talk to my, I'm talking to Mike Shoemaker and being like, Oh, when did you start here? And when I do the math, I'm like, well, it was full hearted. I'm like, you know, love it. Came and did a bit on your show, Dana. And I asked, you know, talk to him about it. And then, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We, we miss him. And he's, he's just a brilliant, brilliant guy. And it's fun to be around someone who just loves hobbies. Yeah.

is passionate. It's very healthy. You're never bored if you have a hobby, you know, and you'd go, go out to his boat. He had a sailboat and, and a Boston whaler motorboat and you're just driving down there with him. And then once he got on his boat, he didn't really, you didn't really interact with him. He's just looking at the tying knots and I haven't said this, but it was just sort of a weird thing. We, we went on a sailboat and,

First time I'm on a sailboat. So he's showing me how we're doing it. It's like, I don't know, maybe a 15 footer. It's just the two of us. And it was stunning, stunning day in L.A., just crystal blue skies. And we went around this buoy and the seals are there. And it's like the Great Gatsby or something. And then we look and there's these plumes of smoke rising from L.A.

what the hell is this? So we come in and it was the Rodney King verdict. Oh my God. So then we, it was just one of those strange things that we shared, you know, trying to get back to the Valley, get home, you know, but anyway, yeah, I had no hobbies when he said, he goes, so we got a week off coming up. Uh, what are you going to be doing? I go grinding my teeth. I don't know. Freaking the fuck out. Cause we're coming back. Yeah.

Yeah, crossing my fingers. I can make mouthpieces for you. I've got a little workshop in my garage. Take care of that TMG. I'm but a simple sketch player. What are you, a medium? Nothing but a simple sketch player. Bite on this balsa wood. Mace. Mace was the bad man. I'm a bad, bad, bad man. Batman apple. Rotten to the core. Okay.

All right. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for coming on. Bill Hader, everybody. Nice to see you, buddy. Thank you, guys. As a Ford owner, there are lots of choices of where you get your vehicle serviced. You can choose to go to their place, the local dealership, your place, home, apartment, condo, your workplace, even your happy place, like your cottage on the lake. Go to your Ford dealer and choose Ford pickup and delivery to have your vehicle picked up, serviced, and brought right back.

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Next up is Sherry O'Terry, who's also an all-star groundling. And she was excited to come on and talk about her admiration for the great Phil Hartman. Here she is. I'm sure people have told you that you're the one. We've done like a hundred of them. As far as the reaction. Yeah. That's called number one? No, no, no.

I did not know that till Greg said to me, you know, you were in the top three. I'm just saying from my wife and other people, when we bring up, oh, what was your... Oh, Sherry O'Terry. Really? Oh, yeah. I would say number one. There's no pressure on you today. It's a little, you know, you don't have to do it, but it's kind of nice to be number one. I mean, it's pretty... Honey, I'm blown away by that. I mean...

was so hesitant. I said, not really for a while. I was really hesitant and it ended up being

So fun and so easy. For us too. And I'm like, where we went with it, I would have never guessed in a million years. It was all you. It's just you put out all that fun energy. So it just makes it easy. Wow. It really pays to be alone a lot. You remember David Spade? Look at his hair. It's perfect today. I love her. I know. My face is still beat up.

But the hair looks good. The hair looks good. The hair never lets you down, you know? You know what, Dane? I was thinking, if you looked at, we just were talking to Mike Myers, and if you looked at all our backdrops, you couldn't tell anyone has any money. Mike's is blank. Mine's shitty. All white. Boring. I know. I got to spruce goose it up.

We used to tease a guy in high school who had really young hair. I can't explain it, but he had like 10 year old boy hair. So we did a song, young hair, get out of my head. You belong in a cradle bed. You better run hair. You're much too young hair. Sorry, I'm not a singer, Sherry. You can sing. Yeah, it's like some classic. Young girl out of my mind. Yeah, that's it. My love for you.

You're much too young, girl. You're much too young, girl. Oh, that's all of your girlfriends, David. Whoops. No, Sherry, a lot of those old songs were like, you're 16. You're kind of a little young for me. I'm a pedophile.

You're mine. She's 17. And you know what I mean? What do you mean? Just 17. You know what I mean? No. In the song, I'm 17. You're like, I know, but you're an adult singing it. We don't like. No. His original lyric was she was just 17. A real beauty queen. And then Lennon was the one said, you know what I mean? So that's how they work together. Just like Sherry work together.

with all her bandmates. Sherry O'Terry. Remember you did the cheerleaders with Wilton? Do you remember that, Sherry, or you don't remember? Do you remember the cheerleaders? Oh, my gosh. If I could tell you every time I was in the gynecologist's office and they said to me, ask me to do a cheer. It was like, I'm going to need my legs to hit the floor for this. And he goes, I'm going to operate you like a puppet. Yeah.

Disgusting. Disgusting. I don't know where this podcast is off the rails right now. We are so outside the lanes, ladies and gentlemen. This is the F95 live. We're going to try to get Sherry out of her shell today. Sherry Oteri. Was that intentional? Whoever named you? Sherry Oteri. No, it was always pronounced Sherry Oteri. I pronounce it Sherry Oteri. I've never said Sherry Oteri. Oh.

Oh, I've been saying Oteri from everyone does. It's too late. Yeah. As soon as I moved to L.A., you know, people said Oteri because why wouldn't it be pronounced that way? If Sherry is E.R.I. Yeah. Is E.R.I. But, you know, but I never said Oteri. But then when I was got FNL.

And I remember when I first got there, Don Pardo walked down the hallway. And I couldn't believe how tall he was. And he came up to me. And I love that he introduced himself with that voice as if you wouldn't know. And he said, Sherry, I'm Don Pardo. And I go, yes, you are.

And he goes, how would you like me to pronounce your name? I like the rhyme. It rolls off the tongue. And did he did he do it? Did he say, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, my dad was a little disappointed, I think, you know, but, you know, it wasn't that much of a difference for me to to correct anybody. I you know what I mean? Yeah.

But yeah, the rhyme was nice, but that didn't happen until I moved to LA. I like it. Sherry, you were so wonderful on the show, but we're calling you again because Phil Hartman, who I don't, we don't even think you knew well because it was a different time, but you are someone I think was probably either influenced or... Oh my gosh. He to me was like a dramatic lesbian that did comedy. I'm on, I'm on.

Bob Barker over there. I've got, but I remembered when I first walked into the groundlings ever in the early nineties and everybody's headshots were on the wall. And the first two headshots I saw were Phil Hartman and Paul Rubens. Oh, and what,

What's so funny is that we're doing this for Phil because I've been inundated on my Facebook of pictures of Paul and Phil because I'm going to Paul's funeral on Sunday. But there's been so many photos of them when they first started the Groundlings. And there's a lot of them with Phil and Paul. And I'm telling you, they're just so young and it just...

Looking at it, like they're all laying all over the floor and in someone's dingy apartment, like broke, but having the time of their lives, you know? And I just remember myself being in that position when you just went to people's houses, like, you know, studio apartments. And you're just fucking around and writing and being creative. And the pictures of them,

being so young, where it just made my eyes tear up. It was just like, it was just beautiful. And those two were the first ones that I saw. And I just, and then I became friends with Paul when we did Ellie McBeal together. And I just, you know, talked to him about Phil being, you know, Captain Carl. Captain Carl. I remember that. Yeah. And how it went from,

Groundlings to PBS Playhouse. And then at that time, they were both, you know, at like the height of their success, I would say. But like Phil's film noir love for I feel like he was born in the wrong time era, you know? Oh, yeah. Him and John Lovitz, the two of them. Yes. Yes. They could go. They could go 40s so, so easily, you know? Yes. And he was just

So solid in every way. I mean, it was, I think it was Jan Hooks who just said that he was the glue to the, to the cast at that time. Sure. Yeah. And Jan was the other glue. My God, Jan was another. Yeah. I mean, she's a sung hero. I'm not going to say unsung because everyone knows if you bring up Jan, it's unreal. It's just,

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would say Jen and Nora. I mean, they both had care. I mean, of course, the Sweeney sisters. Sweeney sisters. Nora with Pat. It's Pat. You know, she had the talk show that cracked me up. Oh, yeah. But oh, God, I got to meet Jan. And that was really exciting. But and then I just was thinking about between all the.

voices he did on the Simpsons. You had news radio. You, I mean, and then what he did on SNL between like Frankenstein and, and like Ed McMahon. And, um, but the funniest thing that I love that he did was, uh, Oh, two things was, um,

the caveman, unfrozen caveman lawyer, how he thought, "I'm gonna pair a lawyer with a Neanderthal." And it just cracked. - Jack Handy. - Jack Handy, of course. - Really? - We haven't done this yet on our special show, but would you like to hear a clip from unfrozen caveman lawyer? - Yeah, let's hear it. - Like 30 seconds? All right, Greg, cue that up and we'll, that'll be fun to hear. - Stardust, could you get me another drink?

I'm sorry, sir, but the chief steward says you've already had enough. But you don't understand. I need this drink. I'm a caveman and I'm frightened by your strange flying machine. So get me another Dewison water pronto. We got a lot of clips. But yeah, I hadn't seen that one. Him playing the lawyer wasted on an airplane. I mean, he was so like, what's the word?

He just was so like sarcastic and it just cracked me up. And I loved his Ed McMahon. That stupid laugh that he did as Ed McMahon. He was so condescending as the caveman. It's like a condescending caveman. It's just like, what in the world?

And written perfectly and played perfectly. Written perfectly. But my favorite was how he did Frank Sinatra as such a dick. He was such a dick as Frank Sinatra. It made me laugh so hard. I wanted more sketches with him being Frank Sinatra. So when he hosted the show, SNL, when I was on, I was so excited.

And so I was a little shocked because I was I was pretty excited. And I just thought he was such a pro. And so Molly and I were doing leg up with Ann Miller and Debbie Reynolds. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, oh, my gosh, we got to do this with him as Frank Sinatra. It was so funny. He was.

Just like that, like just such a dick. That's Frank. And it's just... Talking down to you as dames or something? Yeah, I'm broad, dames and everything. But like, I mean, we held our own. We held our own, but it was, you know, but it was just so funny. And I remember when we first wrote Leg Up, Lorne called me in his office and he goes, Sherry,

What demographic are you going for? Because it was, for people who don't know, it was two song and dance people, obviously famous, famous people from musicals in the 40s and 50s. And I truly didn't, like, I'm just starting television. I'm not even thinking of a demographic. What's my demo of this sketch? Yes. And I go, what do you say? And he was serious and he waited for me to respond. I went,

I don't know. I didn't think about that. Yeah, well, no one knows who Ann Miller and Debbie Reynolds is. And then I go and I said, well, maybe I think even if they don't know who they are, they still might think it's funny. And then he was just kind of just. And then we did it. And it was like it was great.

Oh, I think I even told you guys this before, but I think the second time we did it, it was still coming on. And I'm like, oh my God, we can have him do Frank Sinatra. And it was, he was so awesome. I mean, just nice, polite. Where'd you see him? So you had to pitch it to him. Is it, is it tricky? Cause you know, you look up to the guy and he, where did you meet him in that Monday meeting or where do you meet? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

You know, a lot of times I think I would, I was never great in the pitch meetings. I would, I would never try to get a laugh in the pitch meeting. It was already. Oh, you'd save it? No, it was just too intimidating. It was scary. You know, I just said what I was going to do and next, you know. Oh, I see. Yeah. I never tried to make it funny. I think I might've just said, oh, we're thinking of doing a leg up with Phyllis Frank.

Thanks, Sinatra. Okay. All right, Chris Parnell.

Right? Because Lauren goes around the room and he goes, that's it, Sherry? Okay. Chris Parnell. Maybe a leg up. Molly, I guess you're in on leg up. Anything else? Yeah, it was like, please, next, next. Get off me. Get off me. Because the host is staring at you, Lauren's staring at you, and every fucking person in that room is 30 people going, that's it? Yeah.

I didn't even care. Truly, I didn't care. I just wanted to be done with me. And then he did, what else did I love that he did? The anal retentive chef. Oh, right. You know? Mm-hmm. I mean, and all the Simpsons characters. It's like, I would have loved his career. Yeah.

You know, because there was just so many things that he could do. And he was doing, you know, animated voiceovers. He had that amazing voice. Like Chris Parnell had that kind of voice, that radio voice. And then he goes to news radio. Yeah. You know, I mean, what a varied voice.

you know, a career that he had. He just, there wasn't anything that he could do. And yet he was kind of like low key.

Yeah. Very low key. He was brilliant, but low key. And then he would suddenly just that you'd see him on on 8H. And I think he played Barbara Bush or something. You'd see him in this ridiculous outfit, you know, and then he would just crush it and then kind of go back to his, you know, magazines about motorboats. So, yeah, somebody said to me it was Daryl.

Maybe not that Daryl copies anybody. Daryl has his own, you know, but he copied, you know, Clinton, maybe a little bit from Phil. And I go, yeah, just like I copied Ross Perot from Dana. And, you know, you know where I got Ross Perot from Ross Perot. Yes, I know you did. I can't claim it. I mean, I just lifted it from you. You did all the work.

Can I finish one time? That's all I have left 30 years later. That's it. It's James Brown as Ross Burrell. Can I finish one time? But you did it great. I thought, you know, I never had any sort of they can't do it because I did. I don't even think even with George Bush senior. I mean, anybody's available for to do an impression of. Well, I know. But like to me, sometimes it's what I liked about what you did.

You always did a take on somebody. You didn't worry so much about doing them exactly. And when someone does a take on somebody, their own unique take on them, it's funnier to me. Sherry, you're probably a kindred spirit that at some point I am trying to amuse myself within reason. So when I would extenuate some of these people, it just would make me laugh inside that the audience is hearing and accepting that this is what this person is. So, you know,

I totally, it was like, that's what I did with Barbara Walters. I was just kind of like, how can I have a different take on her? You know, and just studying, studying, studying her. And then once you, the audience accepts it, then you can go off from there.

Once the audience buys it, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think Gilda, who was adorable and brilliant, she had her own take Baba Wawa, but yours, what yours is kind of extraordinary. Cause you recently did it on one of those new year's Eve shows.

And it was so out of the blue. I was just clicking around and there you were. Could you, could you just do 10 seconds of it? Just, just for me, you just do one hour. Could you do a one woman show right now? We're recording. No, can I tell you a story that the, um, I was already, um,

to do barbara this past new year's eve um promoting her own podcast from stature to the streets brought to you by doc relax hot interview saw stool see that take of those rhythms there's something about them teased out from her you know you kind of sound like her though you do sound like oh yeah and i'll tell you and i'll tell you i um

I wrote the whole thing and we had pictures in the back because what she was doing is she was going to have, you know, people from rappers and all that stuff. She was going to have a podcast and then she was going to compare the rappers to who they were like in her day, you know, like Takashi six, nine. Oh, and I say something about a, um,

Spanish rebel was, you know, in Greece. Trini Lopez. OK, Trini Lopez. Like truly I was, you know, we'll go from Lizard Eliza from I had them all paired up. Yeah. Like who would be the older equivalent? That's a lot of work too. It was. Yeah. And like I did from from Stiles, Harry Stiles and Sadaka.

Yeah. I mean, so I did this whole thing and I had the pictures up and the both of them next to whoever I was pairing up with each other. And so I rehearsed it the night before New Year's Eve. I was at CNN and then I went downstairs to meet my friend for dinner and I had the wig, the outfit, the whole look. And they said, Sherry,

It was really loud in the restaurant. She just passed. And I went, Oh, what? And I said, Wow. What? Who? Sherry, I'm telling you, it was five minutes later. I go down to meet my friend and Barbara just passed. And I just welled up. It didn't feel real. And I'm like, I was in such shock.

shock, you know, that the timing and everything. And I thought I knew that, you know, she was up there and everything, but I just loved being able to, because if she was younger, there wasn't any news medium that she would not have thrown her hat into. And so I could see her doing a podcast. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah. She was driven, driven, driven. Oh yeah. I mean, she kept up.

with, you know, and so I went home, I went, I went to my hotel, and I couldn't sleep, you know, and I thought, and I just from a stream of consciousness, I just started writing. And they called me at like, one in the morning and said, we want you to say something. And, and I said, it's funny, because I've just been writing. And so I go, why don't you just take what you want,

from what I wrote and then, you know, and so I sent what I wrote to them and they go, "Sherry, we're going to, I want you to say exactly what you wrote." And I go, "Yeah, but this is just more personal. It's got no background information." She goes, "Everybody's going to have her background information. It's the personal thing that not everybody is going to have. And you have a personal connection, you know, to her." And so,

I did. And I thought to myself, I'm so lucky, like in a way that I have this platform to at least say what she meant to me, you know? And then my social media was like, everybody was reaching out to me saying that I was the first person they thought of. And I thought to myself, me, you know, like, I guess that's the reference or whatever because of SNL.

mostly you know i mean no completely because it was snl but like it made me feel like her daughter in a way you know people were worried about me and saying they're sorry to me to express their own grief yeah you know interesting yeah five minutes after i rehearsed it and oh my god i'm so sad that i never got the chance to do it but um

I should have just done the whole thing on your show. Yeah. We just saw a little snippet and a one and a two and a three. No pressure. Terry with snippets. That's a great story. Wow. I mean, I mean, a poignant story. Um,

It's interesting how you get connected sometimes when you do impressions of people and then they pass and, you know, people want to talk to you. Yeah, and so many people, you know, they're grieving. And it was their... They think of you. Yeah, I mean, I grew up, you know, she was in my whole television watching from ever since I was a kid. And doing her as an adult like that is crazy. Right.

And being able to interview her as her on her last view show was one of the highlights of my career. Wow. Sherry, she interviewed me. Did I tell you that? Did she? I have a picture of me and her because she did a spinoff show called The Nine Most Uninteresting People of 2006. Wow.

No, it was one of those interesting shows. I made some cut. She interviewed like seven people. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because I remember I was out of town. They made me fly in for it. And I have a picture. And then she wrote, I told her that my mom loved her, blah, blah, blah. And then she wrote my mom a note. She just stopped what she was doing and wrote my mom a note about me. Because she just interviewed me. And then she said, give this to your mother. Oh, my goodness.

That's sweet. That is so sweet. Like the teacher, David did good. Yeah, that was what she was. This, this guy's going to make it. My mom's like, he already made it. She's like, Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know who he is really. I don't know what he does, but I see potential. Anyway, Sherry, we will jump off in a second, but is there anything else you want to add Dana? Anything you.

Me personally? No, I just, I couldn't agree more with everything Sherry said about Phil. I love that you saw Phil. You got to work with him. Oh, it was like, yeah, from the first day of walking in for the first time ever at the Groundlings and seeing his picture and then seeing him on SNL and then doing a sketch with him on SNL, it was like, wow, this has come full circle. Yeah. You know, my journey with Phil, he really was inspiring.

Up next is Conan O'Brien, who we all know and love. And Conan worked with Phil on the show, and he also worked with him a lot on The Simpsons, which we get into. ♪

Conan, your party resume, writer for two years on The Simpsons. And so since we're doing this tribute to the great Phil Hartman, he also did a lot of voices. Yep. Do you interact with him? Yeah, we we I wrote an episode, the monorail episode, and I wrote a part for this smooth talking kind of music man salesman.

And I called him Lyle Langley. And it was just always written kind of as a Phil role because Phil did a lot of great voices on The Simpsons. And so it was fun because I went to The Simpsons after I was at SNL. So I worked for a bunch of years with Phil and you guys at SNL. Then I move on to The Simpsons and I write this episode. But there was a chance to kind of reconnect with

professionally with Phil, which was a really cool thing. And one of the things I like about that episode is Phil is obviously great. He's fantastic. And he he played a character also called Troy McClure on The Simpsons. He's just beloved. Yes. He played a few great characters. But I was very fortunate because I wrote this part for him and he could do it.

And he, of course, was amazing, as he always was. And what's nice about that episode is it just bounces around in the universe. Those Simpsons episodes just rocket around the world. So it doesn't matter where I go.

There's all these people that have they're like, oh, yeah, I guess you did some stuff in late night. But man, Simpsons, dude, you know, and so it resonates. It really resonates with them. I'm not familiar with that episode. So when you said Music Man was Phil kind of talk singing as well. Yes, yes, yes. There's a part where basically as the Music Man tried to sell, the episode starts out as kind of a Music Man parody episode.

And then the second half of it is a Irwin Allen disaster movie parody. And but the first part is Lyle Langley shows up in town and he's a guy who's the town is coming to some money and they're trying to figure out how to spend it. And of course, Marge wants to spend it sensibly. And then, you know, this guy stands up.

who's wearing a straw boater and it's, it's Phil and it's Phil doing his, you know, Phil was so good at smooth characters. Yeah. So good at kind of saying, Hey, I think I can help you out here. I'm Lyle Angley. And, you know, uh, and then he basically tells them what you guys want is a monorail. And I loved monorails were just always felt so stupid and silly to me, like this fake promise of the future that doesn't really accomplish much. It's just a, a trolley in the sky. And, uh,

So anyway, he sings a talk, sings a song about the about the monorail. And, you know, it you know, and it's and of course, Phil did it beautifully and it was really fun. And it's just nice that it's out there. And then a nice come about all these years later was the Simpsons did a big reunion show.

I don't know if it was their 30th or must have been their 30th. And they had a big show at the Hollywood Bowl.

And Matt Groening and James L. Brooks asked me, and the Simpsons writers said, hey, Conan, would you come back and sing the monorail song at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Game Events Choir? And the answer to that is yes. I remember that event. Yeah, I didn't go to it. I remember that. It was huge. That was really fun. It was really fun. And it was one of those moments where you just...

you get to take your long thin spoon and pick the whipped cream and the cherry off the top of the sundae. It's just perfect because not a lot of work, just come in. Score. I think we did it twice. We did two shows. You get a nice score and it's just, it's the fucking Hollywood Bowl. And it was very nice to just, because obviously the way I did it was just to channel Phil as best I could. Did you dress up like his animated character? Yes, I did. Yeah.

They got me the suit, the Lyle Langley suit and the hat. And I have a great photo they sent me of me holding my hat in the air, full song and dance, you know, Jimmy Cagney and Yankee Doodle Dandy with the Hollywood Gay Men's Choir behind me. And it's a prized possession because it looks like, wow, Conan had a very successful career in vaudeville. So that makes me happy. But yeah.

Yeah, I have to say, I'm happy you guys are talking about Phil, but he is one of those people that all these years later, it's still surreal to me that he's not with us because he's, I don't know, he's such an indelible character, such an indelible person. And so he's one of those people that I think like, no, no, Phil's still here. He's still here. He's, you know, that's- You haven't seen him for a while, yeah. Yeah.

I just haven't seen him for a while, but he's here because I do think if you're talking about a utility player, a guy who could do everything, I think we'd all agree that Phil Hartman was kind of the ultimate utility player for SNL. He could just be everything. Do you know what I mean? He could be, you know, he could be.

It's crazy. I'm trying to think of who else in that cast could be the father, the grandfather, the punk kid, the boyfriend, Frankenstein, the boyfriend, you know, the jealous weirdo. I mean, the caveman. Yeah. Like you cannot. And he used to game show host the game show host. The,

The upper crust cad. The upper crust cad. I mean, it's just you can't name anything he couldn't be. And within different sketches, he would, you know, in one episode, he'd be like, I'm the father greeting the young punk at the door. Come on in, son, and I'm going to talk to you. And then he's the young punk at the door in a leather jacket in the next sketch. That's that's, you know, that's three minutes later. It's I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else who could do that.

You know, Conan, when you do this, The Simpsons, going back to that for one second, if you write it, I don't know how it works there, but do you say, can we reach out to Phil for this? That's important to me. Or is that out of your hands? You know, I think it was so obvious that it was Phil. And I probably, you know, there's a good chance I wrote Lyle Langley, you know, think Phil Hartman, but Phil Hartman, they had him on speed dial. So,

that wasn't a big issue. The thing that was funny about that episode is I wrote a cameo in it for George Takei and George Takei, 'cause at the second half, all these celebrities get invited on the monorail, which has been cheaply made and it's bound to self-destruct and go haywire. And yeah, and so I wanted George Takei, who I was obsessed with, and George Takei said no.

I mean, it's the Simpsons and it's the Simpsons. Let me point out, it's the Simpsons in like 1991. And he said, no. And we said, I'm sorry, I don't understand. He said, it makes fun of public transportation. Yeah.

And I'm on. Oh, my. I'm on. Oh, my. I'm on the I'm on the I'm on the transportation. I'm on the transportation board here in San Francisco. And we can't be mocking the concept of mass transport. And so I thought, what the hell? And so then Al Jean told the bookers to reach out to someone else. And so they came back and they said, Leonard Nimoy will do it.

And I said, what? That's fantastic. He outranks Sulu. Take that, Sulu. This is incredible. Yeah. Scotty passed as well. Yeah, so I got to go to a recording studio and there was Leonard Nimoy and he...

He did it and said one of my favorite exchanges, which is at the end when after there's all this carnage and everything, there's just a close up of Leonard Nimoy. And he says, well, my work here is done. And Barney, the drunk, goes, you didn't do anything. And he goes and and and Leonard Nimoy says, didn't I? And then beams out. And it's just so stupid. So.

Sounds like Lovett's, didn't I? That's weird Barney would talk to him like that. Yeah, didn't I? Barney should look up to him. You're right. Well, Barney was intoxicated. That's right. I forgot. I forgot.

We all do things when we're drunk that we regret. Yeah, I'm sure you regretted that one. And we were talking to Alec Baldwin about, you were there for, remember Greenhilly? That was a funny one I always talk about. Oh, yeah. Remind me about Greenhilly. Greenhilly, Alec's first show.

And the music would swell up and he kissed someone and then someone else comes in and barges in. His wife comes in and says, what are you doing? Then he kisses her. The music comes up. And then Phil comes in and breaks him up and tries to fight him. Full great Gatsby. Yeah. Put up your dukes. Was this a Jack Handy, do you think? Or like a Jim Downey? It sounds like that. I don't think it was quite enough to be a Jack Handy, but then he kisses...

I think Nora and then Phil says, that's my wife, sir. And then they turn around, they go to fisticuffs and then they gaze into their eyes, then they kiss. Yeah, nice. And then a dog is outside going, ruff, ruff. And everyone goes, oh boy. And he kisses the dog, but really goes for it. No, that's actually Alec, but Phil and Alec, Alec remembered that one. And it is funny. There was one, do you remember?

Do you remember? I don't think I was there. I don't think you were, Conan. And Dana, you had left 30 years. It was when he played an acting coach and he goes, this is something, this is nothing. This is something, this is nothing. He was an acting coach. But I wasn't there, yeah. It was Will Ferrell. That's when he hosted. Oh, it was? Oh, yeah, when he went back and hosted. I just saw that this weekend. I was like, goddamn. Almost everything he says in that whole thing is a joke. It's all funny.

I don't know if you had this experience, but my thing was people asked me about Phil and I always say, if you saw him on the show, that's who he was because he didn't, at least I never penetrated the Phil exterior. And what my memory, my biggest memory of Phil was I'd be with Odin Kirk and Smigel and, you know, Greg Daniels and we'd be working on something and Phil would come rushing in and he'd see us and he'd go,

keep them flying boys keep them flying and you're like a big thumbs up and i think if i had said to phil i think i'm having a nervous breakdown and i'm really worried about my my health i need someone to talk to he'd have said well you just keep them flying there kid i don't know i could never crack through yeah that guy but uh

I think it just made him laugh, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hey, fellas! Hey, fellas! You walk in that writer's room and there's no one there and he goes, he's reading, you know, Fisherman Weekly and he looks up and goes, David Spade letting everyone know who's boss. And then he goes back to his magazine and I go, oh. I remember I went skiing once. It was one of those weird occasions where I forget why this happened, but

I'm with a couple of other writers and we decided to go skiing in some small hill like outside New York City, like a tiny hill. But we're desperate to go skiing. And I forget what happened, but I think one of the writers wiped out and we were standing around the writer trying to saying like, hey, are you OK? And he's like, yeah, yeah, I'm all right. I just got to find my other ski. And just then this guy comes down the mountain with perfect form.

perfect form and skis right up to us. And he's just like, Hey fellas, what's happening? And it was Phil. And of course he was an amazing skier and an amazing, I mean, he was one of those guys that you touched on David, who,

Fly fishing, boating, parasailing. I don't think you could name anything that he hadn't done. You know, those weird, yeah, those weird things where like a propeller is pushing you along and there's like a kite pulling you. And yeah, exactly. I think, oh, I've got one of the, I've got four of those. Fantastic. Well, keep them flying boys and then take off.

Do you want a hydroplane on the dinner break? Yeah, exactly. So did he have a ski suit on that was very, looked very together, like one color or something? Yeah, he was immaculate. Of course, we were all, you know, I grew up in Massachusetts, so I was skiing in my jeans, probably with long underwear underneath it. And, you know, wearing a T-shirt that I probably had in high school. And he's just, I had never seen anyone look, because people don't look like,

that in New England. Maybe they do now, but I had never seen it growing up. Everyone just looked like shit when they were skiing. And there was a rope pole. And then here comes this guy who looks like he's in the Olympics. And hiya, fellas. All right. You know, and I think if we had said, well, it's Robert Smigel. He wiped out and we think he's dead. Well, that sounds rough. Keep him flying, boy. He's got a broken femur.

I'm going to use that 2023. Keep them flying, boys. Keep them flying, boys. It really means nothing, is funny as far. It means nothing. It's very positive. Keep on keeping on. Yeah. So Troy McClure was basically, that was the one I think most people know. And I know the monorail was, was,

Was, I guess, a one-off of just one of the most memorable ones. It was, you know, Troy McClure was great. What was he? What was Troy McClure? Troy McClure was always doing... Was he a weatherman? No, Troy McClure was always a spokesperson. So whenever they showed any kind of... Oh, right, right, right.

or whenever there was a commercial, it would be like, hi, I'm Troy McClure. If you want to learn how to, you know, and then he would always, he would list his acting credits. You know, you probably know me from, and then three jokes, or maybe you've seen me in two jokes. And he was fantastic. It was great. It was a great running character. And then, you know, they did the right thing. When Phil died, they retired Troy McClure.

Because obviously it's animation. They could have tried to get someone else to do it because it was such a great go-to. But of course, that wouldn't have sat right with anybody. You know, when I just said, was he a weatherman? A Simpsons guy shot me like a sniper, a fan. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. I mean, my son, my son, who is 17, knows every Simpsons episode perfectly.

by heart. And it's funny because when he started watching them as a much younger kid, he had no idea I had anything to do with it. And then he was working his way through the episodes and then he got to mine. And I saw just for the first time a half glimmer of respect from my son, which quickly disappeared. But anyway, the important thing is that he knows all the episodes and loves Troy McClure and he's

knows all of those. He's not the kind of guy that memorizes, but he just absolutely loves Troy McClure and is very happy when he shows up in a Simpsons episode and loves that joke rhythm because it was always...

Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You probably know me from, and then it was just hilarious joke bucket. It's always fun to say hi, and then your name. Yes, yeah, exactly. Set the table immediately and get to the jokes. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's also great, especially if you've said something else first. Like, this looks like a real, you know, this looks like a real problem. Then see the camera. Hi. Hi.

You know, wow, that was nasty. Hey, exactly. We should all do that. Curiosity. I mean, I don't I probably know the answer, but to work with Phil or just work on SNL and then go to the Simpsons. Was it like a lot easier, more difficult or what was the different? I would say less difficult.

Well, it's funny because eventually I found it to be less stressful. I mean, I loved SNL. It was just really the defining time of my youth. But as you guys know, it's also terrifying. And there's a lot of pressure. And one of the things that I appreciated about The Simpsons was...

everybody's working together. We were all, we were all, you know, at SNL, everyone's writing different sketches and trying to get them onto limited real estate. And, and then suddenly at, and what was nice is later in the week, people would all come together and help to improve all the sketches. But early in the week, you really, there was no way around it. You're, you're fighting for a square inch of, of land in a very small country. And,

I'm taking that too far, but like say Israel. And so it's- Keep going. And let's just say you wanna be near the sea, but that's the West Bank. No, but so what gets tricky is that can get, sometimes you can feel other people's elbows and I'm sure I threw a few elbows too. And what happens when you go to a show

that's putting out 20 episodes a year, uh,

and everybody's working together on the scripts. I mean, I wrote the monorail episode and then all the writers came together and just did all this punch up on it to make it so much better. And I, and I thought, and, and it felt like all the oars are going, everyone's pulling the oars in the same direction. Cause if somebody cracks it, if somebody comes up with the answer, we all get to go home early. So, uh, so in that way, uh, initially the Simpsons terrified me cause it was such a

crazily powerful writing room. But eventually I started to see the advantages of that kind of work, which is individually you don't feel as much personal fear, you know?

If I was there, I'd be crazy, Dana, and I'd walk by his office and go, you know, I was thinking about a monorail thing I was working on like a couple weeks ago. Just to get in your head and be like, well, I didn't steal it. I'm like, no, no, I'm just saying you might've heard something just similar in minds. Yeah, mind games. Yeah, gamesmanship. But yeah, also if you crack an episode, like if you, and this is the last, we'll bug you about this, but if you crack an episode of The Simpsons,

and everybody likes it, then it's such a great victory because then everyone's like, oh, I get what you're doing. I get that idea. We all agree it's funny. And now let's pile in and fix it. I mean, it's great, right? Yeah. Well, I think what... Yeah, you know, you pitch the ideas and if the idea gets chosen, then eventually you get to write up a first draft and then everybody jumps in. But man, when everybody jumps in and you have...

all that horsepower behind you making the show just better and better and better. It's a delight. It's a real delight. All right, let's let him go, Dana. He did a good job. All right, I love you guys. And let's hang out soon at one of those meals where we just make fun of each other. Let's go to our favorite, you know, kind of Japanese style place. Koi! Let's do it. I'll see you on the text chain. All right, Conan. Bye. Peace out. Thank you.

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Visit buyatoyota.com, the official website for deals. All new Toyotas come with ToyotaCare, a no-cost maintenance plan. See your dealer or visit buyatoyota.com for details. Let's go places. Up next is Alec Baldwin, who spoke about Phil Hartman when he was our guest on Fly on the Wall. And so we invited him to be on. Here he is.

So are we going to do this like every six weeks? What are we going to do? Yeah. Okay. Am I a consultant? Am I a featured guest? You are really. You're the... I guess... Well, yeah. I mean, it's... No, I just keep coming back. You're like Lamb Chop. We have to have you underneath. It's flying the wall with us and then you're just underneath featuring Alec Baldwin. Wait, wait. Speed. Did you just say Lamb Chop? What did you say? Yeah. Yeah.

Every time I see girls with fake eyelashes, I'm like, is this fucking Lamb Chop again? What's happening? Lamb Chop, Sherry Lewis, 1964. I love that show. Old reference lost on younger viewers. I did a TV movie once, and I come to work the second day, and everybody's huddled up, the producer, the director. They're all upset. They all seem pretty grim in a circle.

And I walk up and I go, what's going on, fellas? And the star was this veteran, veteran actor who wore a lot of makeup. He wore like, you know, three, four pounds of makeup every day. He had like a lot of makeup on. And I said, fellas, what's the matter? He goes, well, we looked at the dailies. The director said, he says, Jim's got on more. Jim's got on more makeup than Dorothy Malone. Even I don't know Dorothy Malone. Speaking of not wearing makeup, I've always felt that Hartman

I'm going to jerk the wheel this way now. Hartman. This is the jerk. It's Johnny Segway. Ladies and gentlemen, Hartman. I always, this isn't true, but you always got the sense that he was like, I'm not going to wear any makeup. I'll just conjure a caveman. I'll just make myself look like a caveman.

Like altered states. He'd go into a deprivation tank and come out looking like a kid. That's like when he did Charlton Heston. He just completely became Charlton. Guys, fellas, we've been here for thousands. I can't do it, but he became Chuck Heston. That was part of his bag of tricks.

The chameleon, the everyman, the glue. And you mentioned him a few weeks ago. You brought him up spontaneously when we did our... He was the better... I wouldn't say the better, but a distinctive group of people. Not just SNL veterans and alums, but other people in the comedy world.

They're good actors as well. They're not just stand-up talent and improv talent and sketch comedy talent. Easy, easy. Yeah, I was going to say, because those people are fucking god awful. You've got to cut around them. There's the Emmy for editing right there when you have those people on board. But Hartman was a good actor because he would –

Play off of you. You let what you say affect him. Whereas I worked with some comedy people where they're just staring at you, winding up. Wait for their line. They're waiting. It's like they're winding up a pitch to deliver their next line. They have like a glaze in their eyes. They're just like, are you done with your line? Are you done with your line? Note to self, do not have a glaze look in your eyes when doing Saturday Night Live. But yeah, I mean, I'm just thinking...

the other day, but since you hosted many times with Phil, because Phil was, could do anything, you must have done many, many sketches with Phil Hartman, right? I mean, I did a bunch. I did a bunch. He was, and he,

There was weird guys who they would go moment to moment with you. Meadows would do that. Meadows was really good moment to moment. He'd let things you say affect him. This has nothing to do with SNL or comedy performers, but there's actors I've worked with where whatever...

Your line is they just immunize themselves against whatever you're going to say. They don't really let it affect them. You know, they're like, they're super tough. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Would you, would you ever considering, uh, is the actor's studio still around? I mean, cause you'd be a good host of that.

I am the co-president at the Actors Studio with Ellen Burstyn and Pacino. I knew something was going on with the Actors Studio. Somebody in your research gave you that. That was teed up a little too soft. I don't know. No, that was no research. That was just intuiting the way you talked about acting just now. But basically, to go full circle, the thing about Phil is that he was a great actor. He was a good actor. And a brilliant sketch player. He could do both. And...

We can play a clip. If I mention some of these. Oh, yeah. They're just kind of fun. We're going to show these sketches. Tell me if you remember them. Frank Sinatra. Frankenstein. You and he played lovers in a sketch. I don't know if it's just more. Green Hillie. Green Hillie. Green Hillie. Oh, is that Green Hillie? That's where I kissed the dog. I stick my tongue in the dog's mouth. Alec, didn't you get an Emmy for that show? I got an Emmy for Green Hillie.

For that sketch. On my, exactly. On my, it says for Green Hillie. No. Well, I remember I would use Green Hillie as a reference because that was my third show. I think I've told you this, but I was new and you came in and just fucking cleaned the clock. You were, every sketch was pretty funny in that show and I didn't know how good I had it because I,

Some hosts come in and shows are uneven, but that one, it was Green Hillie, and the music comes up, and then you kiss somebody, and the music comes up, and then you kiss someone else. You also did the soap opera, that guy that couldn't say the words right. Yes, you have Canker of the East of Vegas. Yeah, exactly. We've said Canker for three years. Should we look at Green Hillie? I think we have it. Do you have the clip from Green Hillie? Just as I thought. What?

Prepare to defend yourself, Mr. Cherrywood, if that's your real name. Huh? Here's the music. Well...

I'll be going now. They're just kissed. He goes, I must be going. I must be going. Wow. My favorite, though, is when he's in the courtroom. When he's in the courtroom. Yeah. And he says...

And he says, you know, I was I fell into a crevasse. Your ways are strange. I mean, I say that line to this day, like a waitress will come up and say, can I have some ice? And she doesn't bring the ice. And I'm like, her ways are strange to me. Now, when you worked with him.

Were you like pals with him and you got to hang out with him? Or was he one of these people that like went home and, you know, he was private. Did he hang? Yeah, he hung out a lot. Him, yeah. We were all friends, him and his wife, Bren, and my wife and Lovitz. And we live close to each other. After the show on Encino, we bought houses like two blocks away and

I came in with Phil. My first show is with Phil and Jan hooks. Can you imagine? And I never done sketch comedy. And suddenly I'm in this sketch with them. So, um, but Phil was private. He had so many other hobbies and interests. He was not interested in celebrity or show business per se.

But just when you look back on it, because he was just sort of quiet about it. And then you look back on it. That's why we want to do this show. Like and you look at these sketches and the range of him. And also we have talked about how he would play things so, so real. And if you were kind of that, it would carry the sketch, you know.

And I don't think we had a better actor on the show than he was as a just playing the straight man when he wanted to. He was just also like a really warm guy. There's people I worked with who, I mean, they're very rare, but they have a certain kind of insecurity. So when you're around them,

The whole dynamic is what I call log rolling. I mean, I'm like, you're going to go in the water. They're just more clever than you ever could imagine. And they're very kind of shy or awkward. Or...

They're just not programmed that way. I went to go to that. Remember that old card game? I'm wondering. I'm assuming either one of you, but Norby Walters card game in West Hollywood. Norby, yeah. Did you play at Norby's? I think George Siegel used to play in that. Yeah, exactly. He was there. And I got invited to Norby's. And for people who don't know, Norby Walters was in the music business

And he had an apartment, like a penthouse on top of a building near like Holloway, like near Barney's Beanery in that area, right in that ridge off of Sunset. And he and his wife, you come in and they literally, it was like, you could only buy $100 worth of chips. Once you were out of the hundred, you were out, it was over. This was not about spending money. Also, he had no alcohol. He had like Velveeta cheese, right?

Coca-Cola, and he had jujubes. He had candy. It's like 1960s. Yeah, exactly. It was like M&Ms. It was like flight attendants walking around like you're on Southwest Airlines. And he had nothing. And the famous people that would come to this game, it was unbelievable. Harvey Korman would come and Tim Conway and all these amazing people. But one time I go...

And Don Adams comes. Don Adams. And I'm completely freaked out because here's Don Adams, who I've never in a million years would thought I would ever run into. He's in a white jumpsuit. I mean, a China white, not cream. It's like as white as Spade's walls. His jumpsuit is white.

And like he's in some FBI forensic team has come in to detox the crime scene. And he's sitting there and he doesn't say anything the entire time. He doesn't say anything. He takes his cards and he gestures for his cards. So I'm assuming that at some point someone's going to go for it. I mean, and it's got to be done well. And I'm not that funny, quite frankly, but I just went for it. And it was my turn to turn over my cards. And I was like,

I have three of a kind. And he looked at me with this look in his eyes like, okay, okay, that's okay. I knew it was coming. That's okay. I wasn't sure it was going to be you, but okay, that's okay. Maxwell Smart for our younger audience. Maxwell Smart. And it's like there's guys you meet who are –

people in the comedy world who are just dead serious. Do you, do you feel, do you see that? Have you seen that? Sure. Oh yeah. Or, or even extract the comedy. I would say that Phil had, I don't know, no ego in a sense. And like he was happy to maybe there was no sense of competition, even, even in a friendly way. It was just, he was just Phil. I mean, very secure about what he was doing. Is that how you found it?

Yeah, no, he was just, he was, he was, I always find that I'm, I'm thrilled when somebody is that talented and they're that gregarious and they're warm and they're fun. You know what I mean? Because a lot of people who I've met with who there's an inverse proportion, but the more talented and witty and good writers they are and clever they are.

not just doing, you know, bits and stuff, but they're really very bright and talented. They're very shy and they're very awkward and they're not very social, you know? And Phil was this amazing, he was charming. He was really charming. And he, you know, cause when I would, when you meet people on a movie set or a TV show, meet the crew the first day. So your brain is taking in all this stuff and you're meeting 20 people at once. And so you hate having to go, Hey, you,

And how are you guys? You know, Phil knew every crew member. Hey Bob, Hey Steve. You know, even when they were changing in and out, just, just another gear that he had, you know, it's like, and treated everyone exactly the same. Complete, completely just know. It was sweet is when I was newer Dana, um, that first, first year too, I knew a little bit about standup cause I was a standup. That's where I got hired. But to write a sketch is a whole different muscle and a whole new ball game that is so complicated. Um,

And I would have to go up to someone like, you know, even Alec, if he came with nerve wracking to go up to a big star or to go to the other cast members and,

And I remember Phil was always very gracious. Like I'd go in, I wrote this thing and you would play this guy and he goes, sounds great. And he could tell me about it. And then he goes, all right, we'll go get him. So I'll, I'll give it my best. He was never condescending, never like just staring at you going, yeah, yeah. All right. What do I got to do in this? He was upbeat and made me feel like it had a shot, whether it was good or bad, you know? And that I always remembered that it was very sweet of him. I did. I wrote him one, one of these receptionist sketches, um,

And he actually got a big lap. And then afterwards he goes, hey, thanks for that. You know, like it was all me. But very, very sweet. And just like pat on the back and kept you going, knowing you were all the new people were probably freaking out. He was a sweetie. I mean, obviously everybody knows that he had this horrible ending, but it's like kind of when I heard that, I was really just so sickened. I thought that doesn't make sense. But he was really...

Listen, I'm not saying this to butter you up, but I mean, both of you are people who are like incredibly

Funny, you've had great careers in television and films. I mean, my son, Spade, is going to throw up when I say this, but my kids wanted to watch Tommy Boy the other day. No. Yeah. And there's Spade. It's a great movie. Spade's playing a straight man there. And I thought, oh, look at Spade. He could have had a real serious acting career playing lawyers and bankers and judges and doctors. Look how serious Spade is.

look at fucking serious spade no serious spade the thing about tommy boy which i love was is only one person could could play farley's part but a couple people could have played my part you just really had to feed the guy and uh so i was lucky to be in that one but i love that your kids have seen it because you always wonder how these things hold up you know you just go well it's still pretty funny because it's still goofy lovable farley and uh

There was something pretty magnetic there. Oh, definitely. It's got to still hold up. Anyway, I got to run and go take, I got to go run and get my business dinner. No, no, you gave us plenty of time. An hour more. Hour 10 more. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Alec. Thanks for doing this. Up next, Robert Smigel, one of the all-star great writers from Saturday Night Live and many other things who wrote for Phil, who worked on the Sinatra Group, the million other sketches with Phil. And here he is chirping in.

We're here with the great Robert Smigel, a friend of the podcast, who's great at the show. That's the great, a friend of the podcast. So means when we ask for favors, he comes on. And so to remind our, our fans that might be listening, Robert, extraordinary writer wrote on the show from 86, uh,

Till just last fall. And no, he wrote 86 years. Fingers crossed the strike ends. Get you to get back. Robert told me something a while back because we actually talk not on the podcast. We're not recorded. But it was an observation just about and it may sound self-congratulatory. But when Phil Hartman came to the show, I happened to be tagging along. I got there, too. And so did Jan Hooks.

And we were in the cold opening as my first sketch. Actually, the first sketch, the cold opening was Madonna. She was the last previous year was all a dream. That's right. She was the cold opening was coming off that very rocky year with all these brilliant actors who weren't necessarily sketch comics.

So, Robert, so this first time you'd seen Phil Hartman perform, right? You knew he came from Groundlings, but... Well, I mean, I saw his audition and your audition, and I think they're probably the two most confident auditions in the history of the show. I must have faked it. I don't know. Wow.

David, have you seen their audition? No, I just like that. I forgot you had a hand in hiring. So you got to. No, I didn't have a hand in hiring. I barely got back on that year. That was the year I was almost fired. That was after my first year. Oh, OK. And yes, if not for like Dennis Miller and Lovitz and Whitney pushing for me, Robert was not Robert Smigel yet. He was just Robert.

And he wanted me to, he wanted to do an Eric Gommies sketch with Robin Leach. That was their first pitch to me. I think so. It was a really funny idea. I don't remember. But, um, so I'm just interested. So it's your second season. You see Phil, Phil Hartman comes in. And I, and well, Phil and Dana and Jan and Kevin and Victoria, but,

You and Phil and Jan were like the three sketch comedy pros that we never had before. Even though I'd never done sketch comedy. Even though you'd never done it and neither. And Jan had was not a ground. No, she came from the deep south. From from. Yeah, from the body. But but you guys were just so.

expert at like you did the first sketch of the show after the monologue, which was called game show psychic. And it was as if we were suddenly in a different show, Jim Downey said the audience feels safe was the way he put it. Like he, they just know that the sketches are in the hands of people who know exactly what

what they're doing. It was your first show. All at ease for being nervous. It's kind of, yeah, I'm sure you were faking it on some level, Dana. And I know God knows Jan was

you know, barely wanted to get on stage that night. But when we were out there with those two, which I happened to after that with church chat, they came on and did these brilliant things and Phil did Jimmy Swagger. Yes. But I think I was probably coming off them. Like jam was a laugh button with her character. And Phil was just so in the pocket as the game show host. So you sort of ride the wave of the people you're with, but you know, yeah. Yes. So,

Phil was always in the pocket. I mean, that was the thing about him is that he just became the characters. Like, you know, he just had that approach where he, he just approached everything as like almost the way a serious actor would approach the role, you know? And, and, and so like, you know, you came from standup and you brought this entirely different, amazing thing to the show where like the audience kind of,

with you like they're they they can feel you underneath every impression you do having a good time and and and including them and phil was more like you know just um they just thought he was that guy he was just that guy you know and uh and it's so funny the way he you know he had this incredible range as a as a and you know i mean like you could do a million voices and

But you were always kind of light. You know what I mean, Dana? I have no idea what you're talking about. Dana just left. I do think that for me, there's still... I had a stand-up thing where you had to kill to keep the job. Spade would come in. He'd crush. I'd have to top him.

And so then there was always like the playful light energy. Yeah. Because I knew in standup in these rowdy bars at midnight that you had to win them over and make them really happy. And so at least the way I did it, but yeah, yeah. Phil and I were a great combo along with Kevin. Everyone had a different, we did have a nice assortment pack when we came in with Phil. Yes. But Phil would like just throw himself into every role and he would play,

incredibly cheerful, superficial. Hello, fellas type of guys. Like Peter Graves is one of my favorite sketches in all those years at SNL that I was at. That's still one of my favorite sketches. What was the take on that? And Phil wrote it.

but yeah the discover sketch where he remember philip i remember that yeah uh he was for anybody who's over 60 like me yeah peter graves hosted a show called discover on pbs and then phil did and uh and phil played this cheerful kind of uh robotically uh you know

clueless Peter Graves and he wrote them himself and it was very deadpan and it was but then he could turn on a dime and play like the Mace character I'm a bad bad apple rotten to the core the crazy convict running from the police yeah like he could be really scary you know if he had been able to have a long movie career I'm sure he would have played just

Dark, heavy roles just as well as he would have played funny roles. Yeah, Alec Baldwin observed that too, that he was just a really good actor. I'm just going to jump ahead for a second because probably the sketch where he was the most overtly, besides Helmet, where he played the pathetic Hans and Franz punch bag, which was so great and overtly funny, but he played it flat real, almost, it was...

almost sad even in the context of yes just sort of resigned to doing whatever hans and franz will say about him or you know and another one um and this this one of course you uh wrote on a tremendous amount uh was him doing ed mcmahon was like the most overt overt comic character even though he was playing it real it was just such a great take on it so talk to ed his ed

Yeah. His head, that was actually closer to a caricature than almost anything. That's what I thought. It was the most overtly funny thing he's ever did because he only had like three words to say in the whole sketch.

Yes. Yes. You are correct, sir. So so I think he had so little to work with on one level that he he let himself he permitted himself to play a little bit a little funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was it was actually a funny role reversal because your Johnny Carson was probably as in the pocket.

as you've ever been in terms of sticking to the integrity of Johnny Carson's delivery. I couldn't agree more. That was the first time I was in a character. I wasn't trying to get laughs, and I knew it was so funny how sincere and earnest Johnny was in that role when he was a talk show. Those you don't know and you're listening to. And then I would set it up kind of real and straight, and maybe the nerds at home would be laughing at

that and then he would yeah he would release all the comic tension in the sketch yeah yeah so it was a wonderful any energy he was like in spades famous

One of my favorite spade sketches was the receptionist where he came in as Jesus Christ and he couldn't get past the receptionist. And you are. And Phil was just so perfectly placid. Yeah. You know. Sincere, calm. Sincere and calm. And then, like I said, on a dime, he could be incredibly dark. One of the most.

successful sketches I ever wrote for Phil and I had by I wrote, I mean, like other writers helped me, Downey, Franken, Meyer. So it was the Reagan sketch where he was the mastermind behind the scenes. Yeah. It was a parody of the way everybody else was playing Reagan as, you know, the senile doddering thing. It just felt so easy that I thought it'd be funny to. And it was just a perfect use of Phil, it turned out, because

He had that range where he's just he played charming, doddering Reagan at the beginning of the sketch. And then he gets really dark and serious running the show. Speaking for speaking foreign languages and all that stuff he could do. Dialects. Yeah. Just rattling off. Yeah. You were Jimmy Stewart. And then he had to play a different energy where he's trying to, like, get you out of the room. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. And Jimmy was a perfect foil for that because he was so, so slow. And so, you know, completely clueless. Yeah. And Reagan's just like, yes, well, Jimmy, I think we just have some things to do.

that kind of thing. And then, and then he finally snaps on you. And then Stuart gets mad at him. Doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Why? I think so. Yeah. Jimmy don't make me have to kill you. I think he says, don't make me have to kill you. You've changed. You've changed. I'm leaving. So yeah. God makes me miss Bill so much when we talk. In one of those, when you said the receptionist sketch, I just remember, I think there was a line where,

Jesus is not getting mad that he can't get in, but he's a little frustrated. So for Phil, who's playing it almost nothing, he gets a laugh off of just quietly going, listen, friend. Yeah. You can tell he's really getting boiling point. Yeah. Yes. It's like as angry as Jesus can permit himself to be. Yes.

Yeah, that was a fantastic moment. That slight passive-aggressive tiny move. He got a huge laugh. He got a huge laugh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how you can tell. You're giving him something, and he gets every ounce out of it, every possible laugh he could get. That was amazing. That was an amazing moment. Yeah, yeah. The thing about Phil, too, is I tend to get enfranchised, probably, luckily, in some of yours. McLaughlin Group, I guess we did a couple times, and then I'm leading to Phil, which really was...

is the McLaughlin group because the turn of Sinatra. Oh, the Sinatra group. I always. Yeah. I mean, we had done the McLaughlin group just a few months earlier, I think. And it was like one of my favorite things I've ever. Yeah. No, it was. It was. It was. Again, so far means that Conan or Bob helped me with it. But but but then. Yeah, I just thought it would be funny. Like the Turners had written for.

Frank. Or Phil as Frank Sinatra. They wrote a really funny thing between you as George Michael, I believe. Yes. It was inspired. Remember Frank Sinatra wrote an editorial in the LA Times or something lecturing George Michael about how he's blowing it? Oh, look at my butt. Yeah. And then it turned into the Turner's wrote a really funny back and forth between the two of you. Oh, okay.

And then I wrote this, I had the idea for the Sinatra group and I wrote it with Terry Turner and Downey. And yeah, again, and that was interesting about that is that Phil, you know,

the sinatra family didn't like it i guess oh well what was the the the classic line i got chunks of guys bigger i got chunks of guys like you and my stool yeah yeah when he was threatening uh billy i don't everyone was funny sting is billy idol was it jan hooks and sinead yeah and his shenaid yeah yeah and who was the other one uh steve and edie were mike myers and victoria

And Chris Rock was Luther Campbell. And Frank Sinatra just kept saying, I can't understand the word. Pops and whistles. Yeah, it's all pops and buzzes from here. Yeah, right. Occasional clicking sound. Yeah. Yeah, but my God, yeah, he just, he was just like a freight train in that scene. Oh, my God, yeah. But then, yeah, he could just go from that to...

Have you had on like Jack Handy? Cause he wrote so many great things for, well, we've talked a lot about unfrozen caveman lawyer, um, which is fun to talk about. And of course that's quintessential Jack Handy. It's quintessential Phil too. It's that super silly kind of, I'm, I'm, but a kid, man, your ways. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. No one else could have played that part. Honestly. Yeah.

Like in the whole world. I don't think anyone else could have been as funny. No, that, that is kind of one of his frequencies. That kind of guy, that, that tone. Yeah. Not quite Charles. Yeah. He, that was, he's a little higher. Yeah. Yeah. Like fake, uh, fake friendly, phony guy. He did it, you know, where he was really funny in, uh,

which is one of the funniest insanely stupid movies ever is uh jingle all the way the schwarzenegger movies have you seen yeah i don't know have you seen phil phil is so funny in that he just plays sort of a creepy phony neighbor uh and uh but yeah unfrazing caveman lawyer and also the simpsons he plays that a lot oh troy mcclure yeah this that was like one of his when he auditioned or when he did his he did a comedy album

before he was on saturday night live what was it called flat tv and he played he had a few kind of uh characters like that there too like spokesmen he he loved playing the uh the phony kind of spokesman you know he did he had fake commercials in there his brother once approached me we were going to try to animate his um you know his uh his comedy album but

Never got that done. We were going to another thing. I'm never going to do the two Sammies. Oh, boy. Don't get me started. We didn't know. But enough about that. But enough about. But yeah. Yeah. He. Yeah. And then he could step in and just grab an impression and make it work like Andy Griffith. I was just thinking about.

Do you remember that one, Dana? Where it's like Corbin Bernson with. Oh, Corbin Bernson show. I remember that one. Yeah. I remember Conan, I think, or Greg Daniels had the, they must have had the idea. It was about people who play lawyers on TV, all representing some guy, but they're just actors and they're incapable of doing anything. But,

carrying the gravitas of being a lawyer without knowing anything. Phil had a cameo as Andy Griffith, and it's just unbelievably funny for literally 15 seconds.

It was the Andy Griffith of the Ritz Cracker era. That Andy Griffith. Good crackers. Yeah, yeah. Good crackers. Good crackers. Yeah. Oh, my God. He did. I remember a Clinton one. Remember the Clinton one where he was walking? Oh, God.

He's walking around, he's kind of fat and he's in McDonald's and it's me and Farley. It's really everybody. It was maybe. That's the classic Clinton sketch where he keeps taking food from everybody as he's interviewing, as he's glad handing everybody. That was Franken and Dave Mandel wrote that, but it was, yeah, that was, that was the peak of his Clinton. But I remember the first time he did Clinton, the audience went insane. It was like, he was, he was again, because he could capture that kind of fake,

um, you know, smart, yeah. Like, I remember like, you know, kind of stuff. He was like the last guy in a, in a debate sketch. And he came on as Clinton and the audience just lit up right away. He had, he had the, you know, uh, the smile going and almost before he spoke, he had captured the essence of how people perceive Clinton at that time. He also played Donald Trump.

People forget. He was like the first guy who played Donald Trump. He did it on your church chat, I remember. He did it numerous times. His Jimmy Swagger was really funny because it was the story of the week. And Jimmy Swagger... He played a lot. Yeah, go ahead. No, no. He played a lot of evangelists. Well, the year of church chat, just a character I had, whatever, Rosie Schuster and I, she came up with, let's put it in a talk show. But we...

And then all these religious scandals. Like Jim Baker. Yeah, Jim Baker. And Jimmy Swagger. And Jimmy Swagger. Yeah. And he played Saddam Hussein on there, which was John Goodman dressed as the church ladies. There were two of us, and then we beat the hell out of him. It was like a five-minute fight scene with karate. But he played it so real and so straight. Was this during the Iraq War? No.

must have been like the first or even the beginning of it. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Wow. And we talked about how he could make his eyes go dead when he was playing sort of a villain like Alec Guinness. Is that the actor? Oh, yeah. Just the Phil could make his eyes go dead, which was fascinating to watch. But, um,

There's so many one-off sketches because you tend to remember franchises, you know, like Coffee Talk or whatever, Wayne's World. And then Phil had so many one-off sketches with one what he was hosting. I don't know. And it was an acting teacher.

This is something, this is nothing. Oh, this is when he hosted. Yes. And that was his own character. That was a character he created. And I understand that it's according to John Lovitz. It's literally exactly based on some acting, you know, where he's dropping all these third rate, um,

credits about this guy. Yes. Yes. Was on Maddox for two seasons and you know what? I remember that. Yeah. It totally killed. I was like, where was this character all these years? Yeah. Because Phil always wanted to have like he he had this kind of

I remember he took a lot of pride in the fact that he had a lot of one-offs and that he could step into anything and that he approached the show as an actor. But there was, I remember like the rare times where he had a hit recurring character, like the anal retentive chef. Yes. Another thing, Bonnie and Terry created. He would get really excited. Yeah. And Mace, he wrote Mace. He put Mace through read through a couple of times, right? Mace. And then Unfrozen came, that lawyer became like,

That's huge. Remember Sassy magazine? Sassy, yeah. Mandel, again, created that toward the end. Because we were always in those because it was always young guys and Sassy. Sassy, yeah. That was a great one.

I wrote one that, um, that he absolutely killed in. And then I never brought it back, which was the Matthew Modine drill Sergeant. You remember that guy? Oh yeah. Yeah. Who couldn't remember. He didn't, he didn't know how to give me nicknames to people. Like it was like a parody of full metal jacket. And, uh, yeah, you're, uh, you're called, uh, you know, Mr. Smiling, laughing, joking around. Mr. Talking after that guy, guy.

You know, more and more awkward and ridiculous. He just he just played it so brilliant. Played it scary. Yeah, because he could play it scary. But then he understood exactly how to be awkward with it as he was. Yeah. Stumbling. And what about this one? Yeah, there's the caller there. What? Phil Donahue. Oh, my God. Yeah. Phil Donahue. Why did he murder with that one? Murderer.

Yeah, right away. Like that was another one that was, was that even in his audition or did he just learn that when he. I don't remember it in his audition, but yeah. I don't think it was. I think he just learned it. It's the funniest impression to exaggerate it and just get the. Oh yeah. Oh my God. You're right. Yeah. Yeah.

You must be thinking that you know what you're doing all the time. You know, it's that. Yeah. You come home from work and you put your stuff down and you're thinking I'm the greatest guy. Everything he said was funny no matter what. Unbelievable. And yet he would never...

Then I remember the one time. Did he ever break more than once? More than Frankenstein? That's the only time I remember anyone breaking. We were terrified of breaking. That's true. You guys weren't allowed to break back then. No, we weren't. The fear of being fired. But Phil did break. It wasn't the ending like it is on some. Yeah.

It's insurance now. It's an insurance policy now. Then we break and go to commercial. Imagine Lauren reading that in the stage direction. Horatio breaks. Time for a break. Cut to G.E. Smith. Rachel suppresses a laugh. Jimmy can't stop giggling. Go to camera two.

Oh man, we're just like calling out these hits, but it's fun. Totally.

Bate, how did you, did you ever feel like, did you ever have moments with Phil where you got to know him that well? You know, such a different generation. Yeah. He was super friendly. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because people say SNL is so tough, which it is, but no one's not really friendly. You know, everyone's sort of just in their own world surviving. So it's taken as everyone's so icy and cold, but.

No, no. Phil wasn't always writing, and so a lot of the problem with most people wrote, so they're locked in the room, stressed, trying to write something out. And so that's taken as like, you guys, nobody wants to play kickball? So with Phil, you walk by and he's reading something. Or painting. Hey, what's going on in Spade's world? And his office was fastidious. It was beautifully. Hollywood Minute this week? Yeah.

He was one of the most relaxed people on the staff, writer or performer, partly because he never was, I mean, the show always needed him. He was always in like seven sketches every single week.

You know, that's why I don't know if I came up with it or you or Jan hooks, but some, at some point he was nicknamed the glue for this very reason, because he was so essential to the show. Every show I'm thinking it was, it wasn't Farley. Farley just said it the most.

I think you're the glue. Glue. Glue. Glue sounds good. I glue. I glue. I don't know who came up with it, but Jan had her own language with Phil. They were like, you know, like Lovitz was like his little brother, probably. Is Lovitz going to be at the? Yeah, that was him that just called. He's coming over. Yeah, he's got to be there. And the other person who I wish could be there is Jan because nobody. Right.

had that. She had such a connection with him. They were like

they were almost like comedy twins, you know, they like who had their own language, you know, they had Nick. I think of it because they had their own nicknames for each other. She would like cinnamon and Sandy. He would. Hello, Sandy. Hello, cinnamon. It was like, yeah, Jan comes up on, on this particular podcast. We, you know, we love to throw her some light too, because she was such a brilliant. Yeah. Yes. Oh, without a doubt. And yeah,

Yeah, but the two of them were really like they just partnered up in so many scenes. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, might I say? Might you. You might. They were in sync. Think about saying that. Think about saying that. It feels good when I say it. And I think of them in a sketch together, riding a wave together in sync, both giving and taking.

They were like Nancy Reagan and Phil and she played Nancy and they were Hillary and Bill. And yeah, they did. But they did so many other things. And like on church chat, she was always like the woman that he was that the evangelist was.

was screwing over. It never got louder than when she did the Tammy Faye Baker that week. Oh my God. It never got bigger laughs that I'd ever heard. Yeah, that was amazing. That was amazing. But the two of them, you know what they called themselves? Clydesdales. That's what I remember. Yeah, because they were like- Show ponies. Or maybe that was probably-

it sounds like a Jan nickname because she was like, they're the show ponies. And then me and Phil are the Clydesdales who like are, are like carrying the load kind of thing. When I say that to women, they get offended at that compliment. Hey, by the way, Dana Lovitz is here. I got to jump off and love. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Stall him. I'll be there in a few minutes. I'll just talk. I'll say goodbye. Thanks for talking. You got it, bud.

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are a good source of just, you know, nibble, wake you up. They're always delicious. I actually named a character in a movie I did called Master of Disguise. The lead character's name is pistachio. That's how much I love pistachios. Ooh. Yeah. Well, wonderful pistachios have literally come out of their shells. It's the same taste. It's delicious, but...

It's a lot less work. As you know, cracking them open can be a little bit of a job. Less cracking, more snacking is what I say. That's what I say. That's what you say. And I'm going to use that when my wife goes to the store. Wonderful pistachios. No shells flavors come in a variety of award-winning flavors, including chili roasted. Honey roasted. Honey roasted.

Sea salt and vinegar, smoky barbecue. Sea salt and pepper is one I like the most. And I'm going to try this jalapeno lime. They don't have a red, red necky flavor just yet. Yeah, look at him there. Red, red necky loves pistachios. I like to crack things open and put them in my mouth.

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No shells. Flavors are delicious. Snacks that consumers can feel good about. Yeah. Next time you're shopping for snacks, you're craving something crunchy, something satisfying, ditch the bag of chips and grab Wonderful Pistachios. No shells. Your body and taste buds will thank us because we told you about them. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. This next guest is not our favorite. He begged to be on. We didn't have any room, but we said, all right. That's a lie.

No, it's John Lovitz, of course, and who is probably the closest with Phil. John felt he couldn't come to the live show because he would get too emotional. And so he came on with us and we let it bounce all over the place. We have a lot of Phil, but it goes a lot of different places. Here's John. Our guest today is actor, comedian, extraordinaire, John Lovitz, and a great singer, probably the best singer.

of a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Does anyone else sing like you, John? Jan Hooks. Jan Capel. Well, the women. Yeah, I was going for the men, though. Every woman, especially. She's like a professional singer. Oh, Anna, yeah. She goes on Broadway. She has albums. Sandra's a great singer. Oh, he did Opera Man with you. So maybe we need a new singer. Yeah, but he can belt it. He can rock. He's got a great voice. Yeah. He's a rocker. You? All I have is Chopped Broccoli.

Great drummer. Oh, that's really singing. So Phil was in that sketch. I watched it the other night because I look at my sketches late at night. Yeah. Show your wife. Yeah. That sketch, he did that move a lot where he's listening to music and he's just kind of like moving his head. Very funny. So it was the most absurd. It was a good shot by I guess Paul Miller, the director. Anyway.

Who was the director back then, John? Paul. My first year was Paul. My first year. Well, I was on the year before you in 85. It was Dave. Oh, Dave. Davey Wilson. Dave Wilson. Yeah, but that first year, I think Davey came back. Called him Davey. But I think it was Paul. He was there two years and then Paul was there, I think, the next three. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, Phil had this incredibly funny take. And that was the end of the first show that I did with Phil. We came in together, you know.

I remember when Phil and I met you for the first time at... And you already knew Phil. ...Realstein Gray's offices. Yeah. And you were very nice. And then we didn't know... I didn't know you at all. Neither did Phil, but we met you. And then you left. And then Phil and I said...

Or maybe we left, but we said, "Oh, I hope that guy gets the show. He's so nice." You're welcome. Did I do any characters or anything? No, you were just so nice, and Phil and I just liked you right away. Well, the way I remember- And then, you know, the three of us became great friends. We really were, the three Musketeers, and with Dennis, a quartet of Musketeers, Kevin. But Phil, just for our listeners, so John is an alumni, an illustrious alumni from the Groundlings, along with a lot of people.

and you knew phil from the groundlings and you knew how brilliant he was yeah when i when i got to the groundlings there was four people in the company that were like the stars that we you know we thought of them as stars it was phil and tim stack and then the women were tress mcneil does a lot of voices on simpsons forever and um lynn stewart who is in peewee's playhouse miss yvonne paul paul rubin's

was Pee Wee Herman. He invented Pee Wee Herman at the Groundlings. And I saw him there in 81. And then I went back five years later. So, but when I got back in, Pee Wee was already big in movies and Phil was like the king of the Groundlings and,

Everybody looked up to him. He was the only guy in the group. He had a house. He had a new car. He had a job. The rest of us were dead broke. Was he doing voiceover work? Or guest spots on things? He was a graphic artist. His brother, John, was a music manager of the group America, a horse with no name. And I asked John, how did Phil do this? He said, well, I just went to him and said, I need an album cover for America's Greatest Hits. And Phil drew this...

something he goes you mean something like this and John looked at it and said something like this this and that's the cover he was a graphic designer I don't know what his training he was a I'm gonna bring those they're online yeah Cosby still and Nash logo that's Phil yeah he got it all his brother was managing all these groups Poco um

- Falco. - So he was just-- - And he'd do voiceover stuff too, commercials. Someone sent me something recently where he was doing commercials for somebody, doing voices. - Yeah, he could just do it. He got in the Groundlings, he was at a birthday party there and there was an intermission in the show.

and all the actors are backstage, and they hear all this laughter coming from the theater during intermission. And they go, what's going on? And they walk out, and Phil's on stage entertaining everybody. And they just said, you want to be in the group? He's like, sure. I mean, he was like that. One time at SNL, I walked into his office. I go, what are you doing? He goes, I'm reading a magazine about fly fishing. Yeah. Oh. Then three weeks later, I walk in his office.

What are you doing? He goes, I'm making flies. Three weeks later, he's got a full kit making flies that you fish with. Oh, yeah. My dad used to do that. And making them perfect. And he would just immerse himself in something fast. Yes. I walk by once. He goes, I'm gutting a lunker bass. Want to help? Phil, we have a show in an hour. Folks, look up lunker bass. I'm making antelope jerky.

I forgot you were here. Grab a machete. He would skin a bear in the mountains and make coats out of it with little kind of pebbly buttons. John, are you a medium? If he wanted. He could. He could do that. No, I know. He was amazing. He became a pilot. I flew with him a lot to – then he bought a plane. Then I flew with him to Catalina a couple of times. Well, one time I did. One time I flew with him. I forget where. But anyway, he became whatever he was doing.

So when we got in this plane, he starts talking to the tower on the radio and he sounded like a pilot from United Airlines. Yeah. This whole Demeter change. It wasn't Phil talking to you. It was the pilot. This is nine or one. Yeah. Just like, you know. This is American too. And when he got on his boat, he was like a Mr. Say. It just disappeared. He got meticulous into his boat stuff. He was surfing in his twenties. If he talked to Matt, he'd say, oh yeah, man, that's a good one. All right.

He became the character. Tom Maxwell is the director of The Groundlings said, one time Phil drove up to The Groundlings and he was wearing a truck and a cowboy outfit. He was just like a complete cowboy. Just because he has a truck? He just got into it. Just started talking like a cowboy. What you fellas fixing to do? I used to go to his house and he played guitar, right? So one time he was imitating a black blues player, but a guy that was like in his 80s.

And just, it was just hysterical, you know, and he's just playing. What do you want him, funny boys? Can we go back to that origin thing? We can go back to whatever you want, Dana. Because it leads to a clip. I have a method of my madness. Do you have a clip?

I think an audio clip goes back to the origin of coming to Saturday Night Live and meeting Phil and Jan and yourself and everybody. And those weeks before me, weeks before we would go downtown, we go, what was the club? The Bottom Line? We went down there and saw Buster Poindexter. So it was very otherworldly. And then you and Phil had this connection where Dynamite on our producer, you guys would go back and forth with the gangster 40s voices.

Hey, what are you doing here? Yeah. Well, what? Yeah. That was forever. You guys would go for out. I was like 18. And I remember I'd watch these old movies and I'd say to my mom, I go, why do they talk like that? So if I was like, hi, Charlie, how you doing? Good to see you. What's going on? Nothing. And you know, the phone would ring. I'm pretty good. How are you? Hang on. The phone ring. Hello. And I thought it was so funny. Well, it is. And then in the groundlings,

In 1984, the Olympics was in Los Angeles. So they had an Olympics art festival and they funded, gave money to nine equity waiver theaters, meaning is 99 seats or less. So if you're in the actors union, you could perform in a theater that had 99 seats or less. So anyway, they gave money to nine of these and the Growlings is one and they picked, and they gave money to do a show, but it had to have the theme of the Olympics in it. So they picked,

uh phil did he did a character chick hazard which was that's right satire like humphrey bogart you know sam spade and philip marley slow those legs he went up like a monkey boy looking for coconuts right is that so they picked that and i got to understudy it and that's how i got he had recommended me so i was so grateful i was like i remember the first time i met him he's walking down the hallway with like looking like humphrey bogart with the trench coat and hat and i and he goes hi john i go i go no and it

No, I saw him. I go, Hey Phil, I'm John. Yeah, John, I know who you are. I go, you do? Oh yeah. I go, well, thanks for recommending me to understudy this part. He goes, Oh yeah, I think you'll be fantastic.

And he was such a big star there. In my head, I remember thinking, oh my God, Phil Hartman spoke to me. Like, I didn't know him at all. He was like a legend there. You know what I mean? Just, it would be like, you know, like Kenan Thompson on SNL. He's been there 20 years and you get the show. Oh my God, there's Kenan. He was like a host. It was like that when hosts talk to you. Yes. Huge. So then he had a house. I go, I want to see your house. And he had me over to the little house in the valley.

And he said, you know, you're the first person from the Groundlings I've ever had over to my house. I'm like, what? You're kidding. You've never had anyone over? He goes, no, why? He goes, I'm very private, you know. Oh, this is a good thing. When he got SNL, he turned it down. He goes, I don't want to be famous. I like my life. I kept wanting to recommend him.

And Phil and Lauren said, my second year, he said, we want to know people you work well with or dynamited to this producer. So I recommended Phil and Tim and Lynn and Tress. And Lauren said, well, John, how long has Phil been in the Groundlings? And I said, 10 years. And he still hasn't made it. There must be a reason why.

I said, yeah, I guess. Cause I was saying, I said to Lauren, look at it. If you think I'm good, I go, you'll love Phil. He's a genius. You know, I looked, he was nine years older and he became like my big brother. And I looked up to him and kind of how you, Dana, looked up to me when you got the show. I'm nervous right now. Yeah, me too. I know you both. Do you mind if I call you dad? No, I just want to say to both of you, I don't blame you for being nervous. You're only human.

You know, this isn't videotape, but I'm sitting on John's lap. I'm just a person. Yeah, you are. There's no camera right now, but I'm doing a handstand in joy that John's here on the table. David? Yeah.

But when I say I'm just a person, I'm joking, of course. I'm not just a person. So anyway, so Phil was always doing that 40s things and I loved old movies and I'd done improv. So we would always do it back and forth. We loved old movies. And I didn't realize when he auditioned,

He had his audition, I think the same day as you and Jim Carrey, right? Yeah. So, um, yeah. And the, some guy, the siren went off in the middle of your audition and Jim Carrey, some guy was jumping off a building at NBC and Burbank. And, but anyway, if you watch our audition at one point, Lauren goes, John, go up there. And Phil and I started doing those lines and I didn't realize how much of them ended up

In the sketch. So about three years later, so I said, Phil, we're always doing the 40s things. Let's write a sketch. So I had the idea that I was the head of a studio and he was a movie star playing a World War II pilot. And now the war is over, but he's just gone crazy. He actually, he's gotten carried away with his part and I have to fire him. But then we wrote the sketch together and-

So let's hear that now, because that was, you guys did it on the first show or maybe the first few shows?

I don't know, we did that. We've been there about three years or four years. By the time you did this? Yeah, I said, we're always doing it. Let's write a sketch of it. So we wrote it. Okay. And Phil, by the way, Phil, he said to me, this was his favorite sketch of any sketch that he did. Well, you guys were in such sync. Let's take a listen. We learned our lines. We have made too many of these war movies. Maybe I should take a rest. Well, I'm glad you brought that up, Johnny. I think you should take a rest too. A permanent one.

What do you mean? I'm letting you go. You mean? Yes, your contract isn't being renewed. But Harry... You're finished, Johnny. Don't mince words. I think you stink. Listen, Harry, if you're unhappy with my work, tell me now. You're through. Do you hear me? Through. You'll never work in this town again. Don't leave me hanging by a thread. Let me know where I stand.

I think you're the worst actor I've ever seen, and I get 500 letters a day telling me the same. What's the word on the street? That was, you know, both of you guys were so great. The funniest part in that sketch was when he goes, he goes, I'm... Don't leave me hanging. I'm sorry, Harry. He goes...

Is it the pills? No. The booze? No. The sheep? The goats? No. No. Your wife? No. What? Huh? What? Stop it. Get out. It's funny. Is it the sheep? The goats? No. No. What about the one where, Dana, I think you're robbing something? What? I'm sorry. Oh, David's here. I'm here too.

I know, I'm sorry. You're important. I was in the middle of a sentence. You know what, David? Get off my lap. What do you want to ask? Hang on, let me crawl back to my chair. When he goes, I think Dana was robbing like a 50s mall shop. And he goes, you're the man, Johnny. No one's going to hurt you. And Dana's like, okay, I'll blow her head off. He's like, you're the man, Johnny.

No one's going to hear it. It was like a cop talking you down. Do you remember this? That's not the one. There was one where I had a catchphrase. That was Steve Guttenberg's show. I tried to land this catchphrase. Why I ought to pound you. Yeah, we did a spoof of the movie The Front Page. Yeah, but that was my catchphrase. And Lorne thought, I think it could catch on. Why I ought to pound you. Holding up a fist. No, it was great, though. They talk like that in the...

That sketch, one more mission. Phil's humor, I didn't think it was that funny, but sorry, Harry, I let you down. You've always been like a father to me. And I went, oh, Johnny, Johnny. Oh, Johnny, Johnny. He thought that was the funniest thing in the sketch. I'm like, that? It is funny. By the way, your dog's biting everyone. But he could do, I remember in his audition, you can see it online, he...

He could do impressions. So he did it at the Groundlings. He did it too as a German talk show host, Gunther something. And he's all gibberish German. And then he would impersonate Jack Benny in German and John Wayne in German and Jack Nicholson in German. And I mean, he could do everything. He did that on his audition, I believe. Yeah. And the weird thing though, when he was on the show, he never did, he really didn't do any of his characters.

that he did in The Groundlings. I kept saying, why don't you do it? He only did Chick Hazard once. Really? And that was in a sketch that I had done, was Eddie Spamosa, the gangster. He only did it once. He wouldn't do his characters. I go, why don't you do them? He goes, no, I'm saving it for my own show. And he was supposed to do his own show after SNL. He had a deal. The sketch show? Yeah, the purple...

That would be tough. I forget what it's called. The purple something. Like a primetime? It didn't happen. He was very disappointed. Like a different network? No, at NBC, but his own show. Primetime then. Because I heard when I was leaving, he still was there when you guys left. Right? And then he said- Oh, yeah. I heard he got a three-year, maybe like $10 million deal to stay. And I was like, what? Jesus. I was like, holy shit. Holy crap, I should have stayed. $10 million? I remember I asked him once- I said-

Who do you think's funnier between Dana and David and I? And he said, well, John, you know, I think you know. Who'd you ask, Phil or Lauren? Phil. I think you know. And it was me.

It was me? I think you're right. John? I ought to pound you. What? Johnny, you're the man. What are you saying? I just made that up just now? You're the man, Johnny. Hey, fellas. How you doing? So Phil had this sort of this persona he would put on sometimes just to kind of lighten things up, that sort of high pitch. What's up? What's going on? It's like a Simpsons guy. Is that a character from The Simpsons? That's kind of that vibe. That rhythm he does? Right, John? The answer is yes. Well, The Simpsons, they hired him a lot. He did a, I don't know.

How many characters? And they decided, you know, after he passed away, they were going to like not do those characters anymore because he just did them so great. Tori McClure and a lot of them. But the funny thing is when I started doing The Simpsons,

after SNL. And a lot of the writers there were all from, had been on Saturday Night Live. Who was it, Conan? Well, Conan was there. Was Craig Daniels? The guys that were there at first, John Schwartzwelder. I don't think he was there when you guys were there. John Schwartzwelder. George Meyer. George Meyer, yeah. And John Vitti. And they'd all been on SNL. And the reason is they're all those Harvard writers

you know, Lampoon writers. Right. They're all on The Simpsons. They're all on SNL, you know. Yeah. And Al Jean and Mike Reese who ran The Simpsons for years and they went to Harvard Lampoon so they knew Conan. Conan was like younger than four years younger. Al Jean's your boy. Conan was there, yeah. So that's one reason I think they hired it. They knew us, you know, and they go, yeah, but they love Phil there. He was like, you know, practically a cast member.

on The Simpsons. John, do you think you should get paid for what you do? We can talk about The Simpsons too. I like that really microscopic one. John and I used to do this and tease each other in Saturday Night Live. And so we wrote a sketch doing that with Robert Wagner, I believe. Yeah, Robert Wagner sketches the doodaloo guys. Like it looks like someone's sketch got on the show. Doodaloo!

It's an emphasis. Conan still does that every time I see him. First thing he says, doesn't say hello or anything. Anyway, so John Lowe. Sorry. Going back for just a second, because I remember that, yeah, Phil was going to come in as a writer and he always had a briefcase. He was hired as a writer. Yeah, and I remember you saying to me, you don't understand. He's the greatest. You were really pushing him.

To then become a cast member. So was he a feature player? I think he was a feature player. Oh, but I was telling you. So when he got the show, he goes, I got offered. I go, and he goes, he goes, I turned it down. I go, why? He goes, I don't want to be famous. I like my life. I don't want to do it.

And then you go, I'm the opposite. A few days ago, yeah, I'm the opposite. He changed his mind. Yeah, I was the opposite. Fame looks pretty good on you, Johnny. Well, yeah, I wanted to be a performer. And wanted to be famous. So, well, I didn't want to just be famous for me. I wanted to be, you know, as a comedian. Dana, there's a difference. Anyway, the point is. Thank you, John. He then said he would yes to the show. Yes. So I called him up.

Cause I wanted the credit and said, so Phil, you've changed your mind. You're going to do the show. I said, so did you change your mind because of me? Because I, I convinced you to believe in yourself and that's why you changed your mind. And he said, no, I'm like, oh, I really wanted the credit. I go, oh, all right. Well, why did you change your mind? And he said, uh, Joel Silver. Well, Joel Silver is a big producer of like lethal weapon and

We, we'd done a movie that Penny Marshall cast us in a Jumba Jack Flash and Joel was producing it. So I remember I kept saying to Joel, you gotta be, he liked, I would do the old movie stuff. I go, you gotta meet my friend, Phil, you're going to love him. We do this thing. So we did it. And Joel loved it because he loved old movies, you know? So he's, I said, what changed, when made you change your mind? He goes, Joel Silver. I go, what did he say? He said, he called me and said, you're crazy to turn this down. You've got to do it.

And that's true. That's it? He said, no. Everyone's dying to be on the show. Dying. It's like the biggest career break of your life. And he turned it down.

Down. Yes. And he turned it down. And he turned it down. And he turned it down. Speaking. We're on John Lovett's language. You know, it's interesting to me. What's interesting to note? This is why you guys look up to me. Immediately, you're imitating me. It's just how I talk. I'm not trying to talk like that. But when I emphasize something, it comes off like that. Balderdash.

Alderdash. Jealous. Jealous. Hey, John, I like your glasses. Then you put the glasses down and go, jealous. Jealous. One time we were doing a show. William Shatner was the host. I can't believe he hosted. Go ahead. Dana came up to me and goes, John. What?

I'm in... Go ahead, Tom. Well, there was a sketch. I think I was playing Ricardo Montalban from Wrath of Khan, of course. I had a chest plate there. I was like, gark, gark. But then I think I went offstage and did an offstage thing or I changed something. You had three sketches. Oh, I thought I did three characters in one sketch. I don't know. John, I'm in three. Three. I teased him for a week about that. John, you remember how many I was in? Three. Yeah.

But we would just laugh. Insult to injury adds a deedle-oo at the end. It was so overtly a competition, a friendly competition, we just made fun of the whole concept. Well, you said we got to talk about it because it's- It's too- No. So we did. And then one time we almost got over a deedle-oo. We almost got- We didn't get in a fist fight, but we were really-

Remember I asked you, could I do it? And you go, go ahead. And then I go, why are you mad? And then I did it. And you go, I can't believe you did it. I go, I asked you. You go, well, I was tired. And then we got in a car big argument. I mean, really big. Like we almost started punching. And then an hour later, Dana said, I'm sorry.

I did? Yes. God, I said that's all right. I'm such a good human brain guy syndrome. You always try it. I go, well, that's why I asked you. So I wanted to not have this happen. But did you say sorry? But Jim Downey wrote it. I didn't write it. Jim Downey said, can you do it? But John, by that point, I said sorry in the Hans and Franz character. I said, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. But there was some sketch Jim Downey wrote. And Jim, I said, you got to ask Dana. That's his bit. But that's what it was like. You come up with a tiny little thing.

And they go, I'm going to turn it into a sketch. And then if someone else took it, you know, it's like comedians stealing your jokes, your bits, and you go nuts. I remember Get to Know Me. Danny DeVito was hosting, and I said, I go, hey, Danny, you want to get ahead? Oh, he was hosting, and he'd just done Twins. It opened $100 million. I go, Danny, you want to get ahead in this business? Get to Know Me. Because I was nobody. Right. And he goes, hmm, cute.

Because that was the joke. Like, you get to know me like I know nobody. And then I decided to write it up. I go, oh, that'll be something to write up. And I go, what am I going to name the character? Well, they said, once you're on the show, anything you made up before that you own, but anything after that we own. And they wouldn't pay us as writers. And they go, you're not a writer. I go, but you put my stuff on every week. It was ridiculous. So I said, well, what am I going to name the character? And I go, I'll name it John Lovitz.

I'll name it me. And then they can't say, if they say anything, I go, well, you can't own me. That's clever, Kurt. They can't own you. So if you get a movie, get to know me movie, then you get it. So I named it that. That was smart.

Could you give us a little bit, for people who haven't seen it, give us a little, a couple bars. What it would have sounded like all those years ago. And 8-H, you are, I'm Phil Donahue and you are something else. Let me tell you, everybody's talking about the liar and here you are. And you got a sketch called Get to Know Me. So go ahead, give us a couple lines, please. Please. Hello, I'm John Lovitz.

Hello, I'm John Lovage. Do you want to get ahead in life? Then I have one piece of advice for you. Get to know me. Get to know my likes, my dislikes, what makes me tick, what makes me me. Where's my secret freckle? Have I always had this much hair? Why do women call me the anchor? Get to know me. Now here's a letter I recently received. Dear John, before I got to know you, I was nothing, no one, nobody.

I was trying to be a performer and couldn't get hired at all. Then I got to know you. And today they call me Dana Carvey. Get to know me. Did you use my name in that sketch? No, just Matt. Or you made that up? What did you say? I did this one. Dear John, before I got to know you, I was nothing, nowhere, nobody. I was short with black hair, looked like everybody else. Then I got to know you. Well, I'm still short and my hair is still black. But today they call me Japan. Japan.

Japan? Japan? What does that mean? Short and black? I'm taking credit for the whole country. I thought you were going to say Al Pacino. Dear John, before I got to know you, I was nothing, nor nobody. I had crooked teeth and...

It's funny how these things come back. Nobody looked at me. I got my teeth fixed and my hair straight. And today they call me Queen Elizabeth. Saturn. Now, you got to do that in your stand-up. John is a great stand-up. He plays all over the country. You should do that in your stand-up. I've seen her cut out all the rest and do that. You son of a bitch bastard. You son of a bitch bastard. You've got an anchor. Will you Phil and I would say that to each other? You son of a bitch bastard.

No, but that stuff, you know, then you can have a, you have a solid four minutes if you do that twice. If you do that, and John, can you do, just for, because it's fun to wind people up, Master Thespian. Remember when we were playing Vegas and someone mentioned it and you did this little soliloquy? You did a little. Yes. Can you do that or is that hard? I must, I'll start you. No, it's not hard. I'm Master Thespian. I'll do it. Now from the diaries with the greatest actor of all time, Master Thespian.

Thank you. And then there was the time when I had the keen insight to realize Shylock should be played as a Dane and Hamlet as a Hebrew. The theatrical community of London was so dumbfounded by what is now a well-known fact, they begged me to perform my version of the melancholy Jew before the Queen herself. To be or not to be? Oy, what a question!

Well, you can imagine the response. But for those of you who can't, here it is. Master Thesbian, this is Lawrence Olivier. Teach me to act. This is John Gielgud. Teach me to act. This is Prince Philip. Go fight yourself. And so I did. I taught them all. Olivier, Gielgud, Guinness, Sotoul, Schwarzenegger. Oh, yes. All those muscles he has. Acting. By God, the man's a stick.

So, no, you got two bits for your stand-up. You should get to know me. Dude, I tried doing that stuff when I started doing stand-up and it didn't work. It will work now, John, because you're so much more confident. No, but I do. No, you do it like these are from Saturday Night Live. You set it up. Well, I could, but what I've done. Made me laugh. Which really works. And I think you would agree. I said, hi, I'm John Lovitz. You know, I just saw my friend David Spade the other day and I saw a stand-up act.

And I think it went something like this. And then you do his best jokes. I do this whole act. And then I do the same thing with you, Dana. And what do you do after the standing ovation? I go, I saw my friend Dana Carvey the other day. I saw his standing act. He was really good. And I think it went something like this. You do it? I just do your act.

Saves a lot of time writing a whole book. I have a bit I do. It's called You Used to Know Me. You used to know me. I'm Danigani. You used to know me. Is it too close to get to know me? I don't think so. I used to have a character, Temple Woman. Temple Woman? Is that kind of like church? I don't see any resemblance. Well, she goes, well, isn't that special? You're in church. She's in temple. You're a lady. This is a woman. What's her catchphrase? This is not unusual. Mine is... Well, isn't that something? Well...

What an idiot. My stomach is special. I think Jerry farted. Then you did something. I thought it was like the liar, but the fibber? The fibber. Yeah, the fibber. Fibber McGee.

I had a dog fart in my face. Yeah, that's the platform. Oh, then you, David. I remember I did a sketch, Mr. Canby, the richest man in the world, but he was an idiot. I go, well, I'm off to safari. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. And Lauren was like, you can't just say goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. It was a whole character. Yeah, I saw the sketch. Conan, if you're listening, Conan goes, he's just saying a catchphrase. He was desperate for a catchphrase. No, Conan, there's a whole character behind it.

It was the richest man in the world and he's an idiot. There was a character. And I had a line when I, they go, I go, oh, Phil was in that sketch. They go, they go, what do we do while you're gone? I go, and I had a Kit Kat, but I go, buy Kit Kat. So then Phil and Whitney Brown are sitting there going, can you believe we work for this? Now Phil gets on the phone first. He goes, yeah, buy a, buy Kit Kat. And then when he goes, can you believe we work for this idiot? He's such a moron. And the phone rings. Phil goes, I know he's some idiot. What? Hello? What?

Oh, you're kidding. Whitney goes, what? And Phil goes, Kit Kat just went up 300 million. Then I come back in, hello, everybody. I forgot my wallet. And then they go, Kit Kat just went up 300 million. I go, oh, you see, buy what you love and you can't go wrong.

Well, Lorne thought that was the funniest thing. He died laughing. He goes, you can't just say goodbye, everybody, goodbye. The next year, a man named David Spade does a sketch where he's on it and says, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye. Wait a minute. Goodbye, everybody, goodbye. I'm not saying you took it from me. And then I get on the airplane phone and I go, bye, Almond Joy.

300 million. No, I'm not saying you took it from me. I'm not saying that at all. Buy $100,000. I'm saying they let you do that, but he, Lauren, he wouldn't let me do goodbye. Lauren goes, you're my savior. Everything about that is great. John did this weak, wispy bit. I'm saying goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. And he's saying goodbye. Of all the sketches with the goodbye word in it, it's in the top five. So then when I did Evelyn Quince. And buh-bye. Ooh.

At the end of it, the character in Tales of Rivalry, which John Bowman, who sadly passed away, wrote, and Christine Zander. They wrote a great sketch. What did he sound like? Helio. He sounds a little bit like the other guys. Welcome to Tales of Rivalry. It was a definite 1940s. Yeah, same guy as Mr. Canby. Eric Bloor, this actor. I'd see old actors. I don't want to play them. No, it was a higher pitch. He was in a lot of Fred Astaire movies.

Hello. So at the end of it, I go, we'll be back next week with another, you know, Tales of Rivalry. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. You try to grab it in there. And they said the whole control booth was cheering him because I finally got it in. Because you got it back. He did. I was so mad. I go, I'll get it on the air. You're sure? He's a jolly. It didn't help me, uh,

with the show, you know, remember, I'd always say, I'd always talk back to Lauren. You were out of, we would say, everyone would say their ideas on a Monday. I go, wait, wait, wait, what? I go, what are your ideas? And Dana would look at me like,

I couldn't believe it. How much shit would you give our boss? I know, Jesus Christ. What about you, Lauren? What do you got? All right, let's do a good show because it's better to do a good show than a bad show. Well, I was mad because they wouldn't give us credit as writers. I could just put my name on there. Nope. I got a credit.

Only one time. When I was voted the most racist comedian of 1986 because of Ching Change. Right. And they said, Saturday Night Live released a statement, Dana Carvey is Ching Change. So I got ownership. I got nominated. The only thing you wrote all of a sudden. Yeah. It's Dana Carvey is Ching Change. How is it racist? You go, it's a real guy that you met that had a pet store. Yeah. And he was Asian and that's how he talked. There was no stereotypical thing in it.

Well, John. That's the thing now. Acting is considered racist if you play a character that you're not. So I could, I could, you'd have one, I could play one part once. You can't just play a fat guy all the time, you know? And then anything else is, you know.

You're not that. Right, right. You just have to play yourself. People go, you're not really this. You're not really that. I go, well, I'm not really any of the people I've ever played. You can't just play a buffoon the rest of your life. You have to mix it up. Right. I have to. Wait, what? What? What? How dare you? You know, this has been a great time. Rap.

Well, I'm sorry, David Spade, that you're upset that I'm so much better at golf than you. Oh, yeah. What do people don't know about David Hartman that you know? What would you like people to know about your friend Phil Hartman? In your final moments, what would you say? He had a huge heart that they don't know. Well, as talented as he was, he was equally modest. And, you know, he was...

He loved to laugh. You and I made him laugh, like cry, laugh. He loved that. And he was a fan of people. He was not competitive at all. No, I had no, but he was the best, you know, he was just, uh, I would say, well, they never saw him do improv when he was in the groundlings. Uh, and then I remember I, I've gotten the company. So the first half of the show was sketches. And then the second half was all improv. So Tom Maxwell, uh,

was the artistic director. So he'd like to say, John, you and so-and-so get on stage, you and so-and-so. So then there'd be a, he'd go, okay, Phil, Phil and someone else and someone else on stage. And the rest of us were sitting, you sit on the floor at the, at the base of the stage, you know, waiting to be called up

And so whenever he would call Phil, it was real improv. Second City, I was there once. They'd get suggestions, and they'd go backstage for 45 minutes and write it out. Oh. I'd go, that's not improv. You've got to just go. So they'd say, where are they? They're in a department store, this and this. Lights out, come up, go. Yeah. And everybody would be talking, and Phil wouldn't say anything. But we were all waiting. We knew he was going to say something. Mm-hmm.

And that you would never imagine. And it would be hysterical. So we're all waiting and you just see Phil, he's just thinking and you could see he's getting like,

I don't know why he just did angrier and angrier. And then all of a sudden he'd go, yeah, well, I think that blah, blah, blah. And he would just explode in anger. And like the point where his face was beet red and you can see the vein in his forehead and just screaming. And it was just hysterical. And it was just, and we'd all be on the floor dying laughing. We'd go like, what's he going to say? What's he going to say? Because the improv would start and he's not saying anything. And we're all just going.

man, he's, he had, it's coming any second now. And then just like something like you've never imagined. He was just the best improviser. And Tim stack was in the company was great. The best guy besides Phil. And I said, but Tim, I go, wasn't Phil like amazing. He goes, he goes, Oh, he was on another level. There's a dog.

Yeah, the dog. Were you there the night we all decided to make Neil Young laugh? Was it Phil? I know that Phil and I, I remember we were at dinner with Neil Young for some reason, and I said, let's make, let's like, make Neil Young. Oh, I wasn't at that dinner. I remember being at an after party. And Phil was doing like a Japanese pilot. He was, you know, could do all these voices and characters. And we got Neil Young just helpless. Come on, fellas. Was he laughing? Yeah, laughing his ass off. I'm helpless. Helpless. We couldn't invite everyone. It was just a hundred people.

The animal that was in our studio, we apologize for the behavior and the audio technical difficulties. John's dog Jerry just chewed Heather's leg off. Jerry wasn't getting enough attention and decided to take revenge. He's now outside in a plastic punishment room. David and Dana are two human beings with their own podcast, and yet they're jealous of my 12-year-old 15-pound dog, Jerry. Here's John's new bit. Jerry Bruck, I mean, a third of his more credits than the two of them go together. This is my imitation of you two. Go ahead.

We're interviewing John Lovitz. Pinch me. Pinch me. Does life get any better than what she called pinch me? Do you remember my impression of you I would do all the time when we were teasing each other at SNL? I'd go, quick impression of you. What's going on? What are we doing? I don't know. I'm scared. What's going on? What a burn. I'd say it's my best impression. Bring me right back to the show. I think we can use all that, Greg. All right, John. I got to go. Just see yourself out.

Yes, and I will see myself to your... John Lovitz coming to, let's just say it, he's at the Tropicana. He's in a residency there, watch for him. In Las Vegas. The Laugh Factory in the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. Once a month. Oh, and I'm on a game show now. With the Byron Allen Company? Yes. Funny you should ask.

Is that the name of it? Just tell jokes. Is that the name of it? It's like Hollywood Squares, but it's just, there's no tic-tac-toe. Channel 44, I've already told you this. No, that's the name of the show.

Aren't those on in the middle of the night? That's the name of the show. Yeah, like three in the afternoon and two in the morning. Two in the morning. For Insomniacs. It's a funny show, though. It's fun. They shoot great comics. Whitney Cummings on there. Tiffany Haddish, Howie Mandel, Louis Anderson, God bless him, was on it. Scott Satin, who sadly passed away, created the show. Byron Allen, who to me produces it. Billy Gardell. Oh, yeah, yeah. Everybody but you two.

and Mike or something? You turn it down. All right, I'm going to leave, so everyone give me about 20 steps. All right, John Lovitz has been our, thanks for coming on, John. John, thank you so much. My pleasure. You two have fun making love after the show like you always do. This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes. Available now for free wherever you get your podcasts. No joke, folks.

Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.