Since this is PBS, good luck using this.
You should be TV star!
Oh, no, too much pressure
and you have to get up too early.
I don't think there's anyone here who isn't aware
that this is a little special moment in time.
For once, I am not going to be Jan Brady.
I'm going to be Marsha, damn it.
Oh, my nose!
I came out to be funny.
Here I am!
I don't think anybody else
on the show was trying to do that.
Pure dyn-o-mite!
Oh, god, I wish Ethel was here to see this.
I'm willing to be silly and dumb and foolish
and fall on my ass.
Why on earth you'd want to go out with a man
you know nothing about.
Hello.
Oh.
I got lucky. I won the lottery.
Pioneers of Television was made possible
contributions to your PBS station
from viewers like you.
They played the doctors and nurses we watched every week.
It's still in people's consciousness from that time.
You know, people, "Didi-didi."
"You mean nanu-nanu." "Yeah, that's it."
Nanu-nanu!
Oh!
I grew up in a house where we watched a lot of comedy
and we would then go around and imitate it.
-You think I'm funny? -You're funny!
You think so? 'Cause people say I'm funny,
but it's like, aaagh, I don't see it, you know?
You got to get messy in comedy.
It's got to be ugly.
You've got to take the pie.
I rate it "D" for dyn-o-mite!
Their acting skills amused a generation.
I didn't think about being funny in those days.
Just thought about being an actress.
Physical pieces that I would put in,
and by the time it got to showtime,
we were so excited it present it.
What can I do to make you like me?
Get off the stage.
It's two crazy guys, you know,
that have just been released from a major hospital.
[Babbling]
Sometimes method acting can be like urinating
in brown corduroy pants --
you feel fabulous, we see nothing.
You have to think, "I know what this is about,
but how can I do it in a more interesting
or fresher way?"
I really admire you,
for having the nerve to stay here
after that humiliating experience.
[Laughter]
Together they brought comedy acting
to the television age.
They are the pioneers of television.
In the late 1970s,
Robin Williams took television by storm
with a different approach to comedy,
a manic style he showcased on Mork & Mindy.
So, you're from outer space.
Yes, you mind if I take a few pictures
for the folks on the home planet?
They'd like to get some postcards.
[Laughter]
No.
Okay, watch the blookie.
[Laughter]
It came at a time when people were going, "What's this?"
And we got lucky, and then it was just this thing of --
it became every Thursday night, people going --
they wanted to see how crazy it would be.
-Like to buy a record? -I'm just kind of browsing.
Let's offer you a special deal, new from Hotel,
Marcel Marceau's greatest hits.
Who can ever forget "Man Ascending an Escalator"?
"Man Watching the World's Largest Staircase"?
There he goes walking across it now.
Let's just forget the vinyl see the other exciting things
you get free with this -- look, it can be a hand glove.
It also can dice, slice, and make julienne fries.
[Laughter]
It can also be a party favor, a King Tut hat, who knew?
Also a puppet for a two-dimensional child.
Hi, Mom, nice to have you home.
Long before his breakout hit, Robin Williams had spent years
honing his skills, beginning with a class
he took in a new kind of comedy performance
called improvisation.
And it was this beginning of getting laughs,
especially around improvising, which I went,
"Literally can create it there in that space?"
They went, "Yep." "Okay, let's do this."
The response to his early comedy performances
in San Francisco encouraged Williams
to take the next step --
moving to Los Angeles to try his luck in clubs
and improv groups, adually working out the bits
that would later make him a star.
My god, Nanook of Norinne.
My god!
This is a lovely -- look at this thing.
Right now there's a whole bunch of animals going,
"Is it cold? Jesus!"
[Applause]
Woo!
It's the idea of, you know, just starting off with concepts
and then just building off of that,
and weirdly, a lot of times just playing off the audience.
Oh! I guess you couldn't afford the bottom fur.
[Laughter]
I feel like Liberace right now, going, "Just leave me
with the candelabra, damn you, leave me the candelabra."
This is wonderful.
Robin's wearing the lovely pants from Hefty Bag.
[Laughter]
¶ La da di da ¶
Took a while to kind of just get the feeling of,
"Okay, try this, try these," and essentially these characters
were jumping around, a lot of different characters.
There was a little kid, a kind of pretentious little --
I remember I did a character called Little Andrew,
"Who was very, very intelligent.
A long time before the iPad,
I was basically downloading information."
"How?" "Psychically.
Don't make me hurt you."
But it was just, you know, some people would like it,
other people, you're like, "Whoa, what is this?"
One was a Russian stand-up comedian
kind of a takeoff named Nicky Lenin
who did "suppressions."
A Soviet poem of pain and suffering.
Little robin upon my windowsill with tiny breast of red.
I brought the window slowly down and crushed the sucker's head.
[Laughter]
He's gone, but sometimes works.
Soviet ventriloquism. Johnny, you happy to be here?
[Muffled] Delighted!
At small comedy clubs like this,
audiences are notoriously fickle,
but Williams learned from each performance.
I remember there was one show we did at a club
and it was the opening night of this club
and the mics all broke and the sound system went out
and the guy went, "What are we going to do?
What are we going to do?" "I can talk loud."
And that was the first time, and that kind of
also determined my style of just being off-mic
and not a standing target working the whole audience
and using that ability to project my voice
to kind of change the perspective in the room,
so that was the beginning of using literally
one of those skills.
Coming over here, it's nice to wander back.
Thank you.
Oh, we're just going to work on this,
we're going to tease it a little.
Just look at it.
How about those 49ers?
You think they're ever going to work again?
I don't know. Let's look over there.
Let's just look over here just a second.
Okay, we're going to put a little up here,
Hare Krishna, Hare -- sorry.
Right now she's going, "I worked all day on that!"
Ooh, more smoke. I want to die.
When it works, there's nothing better.
When it doesn't work, there's nothing worse.
Hence the metaphor is you kill or die.
There's no in between.
The metaphors are pretty brutal.
"You killed."
Or "you maimed."
You know, then when you don't do well, "You died."
Forward to Intellect, saving warning Sequence 2,
save your ass at any cost.
Phase in Sequence 2, dynamite opening response B.
Phase in amlac opening sequence B,
amlac phase in now.
Hey, nice to be here.
That's a routine I actually developed
that was called "what goes on inside
a comic's mind when you've bombing,"
and it's come inside my mind, and it was literally
thdesperation of looking for material
and trying to find the right joke
and eventually getting it out.
You go blue just because that's the only way to get out of it.
Move on to dynamite second routine 1B,
phase in now, amlac phase in opening response 1B,
amlac C, sequence A.
How 'bout that walking, eh?
Mayday, mayday, mayday!
And then finally your id comes up, like,
"Let me go, I can talk to 'em.
They're just -- just let it go, I've got some stuff."
No, not you. "Nah, hah hah!
Talk about your mother!"
You're not ready, you're not ready.
ABC saw William's act, and, in 1978,
fast-tracked a new sitcom in which he'd play an alien.
Critics were skeptical of the premise,
but Mork & Mindy was a big hit.
[Telephone ringing]
Ring! Ring!
Please get the telephone.
Oh, phone.
Primitive means of audio communication.
[Laughter]
I wonder what it looks like.
Hello!
Hello?
[Ringing stops]
I killed it.
It struck a chord because it was so kind of out of
left field in that way, but it was a blast.
The first year was crazy fun.
Ah!
I'm going home, mama!
[Laughter]
Hey! Don't take away my gusto!
[Laughter]
Ah, help me, I'm melting!
[Laughter]
Mork & Mindy was performed in front of a studio audience,
a long-standing technique that especially benefits
comedians like Williams, who need the feedback
of an audience reaction.
People forget that Chaplin, when he did a lot of his movies,
was performing in front of people,
that they sometimes would have --
a lot of the silent comedians would have, like --
because there was no soundtrack, they'd have an audience there.
They knew where the laughs were.
Or he would take it out as stage productions.
Like, the Marx Brothers did all of their movies
as stage productions first
so they knew where all the laughs were.
Television couldn't contain Robin Williams,
and soon he was starring in movies
like Good Morning, Vietnam.
Good morning, Vietnam!
Hey, this is not a test, this is rock and roll!
Director Barry Levinson took advantage of Williams'
improvisational skills by secretly filming him
from a distance as he interacted with locals.
There'd be just Thai kids and different people kind of
and we'd be talking and he'd just say,
"Start rolling," and wouldn't let anybody know,
and you'd get wonderful stuff with just the people
and just regular folks.
It's no big deal.
Look, ¶ How loving can you feel ¶
¶ When you got that moment when ¶
¶ Don't you know that time can be that-a way ¶
¶ Wacka-wack, wacka-wack, wacka-wack ¶
We ended up playing with a grapefruit
instead of a baseball, and there was one actor,
"This is not a real baseball, I have seen a real baseball."
And he just started arguing with me,
and Barry said, you know, "Keep rolling."
It was wonderful, 'cause he was like,
"No, it's a baseball."
"No, it's not a baseball. This is a piece of fruit."
It's much smaller and harder than this one.
You've got me there, Wilk, because, I'm sorry,
we have no budget, you see, and I've got to get on a plane
and we have to do with what we can.
Give me your hand. Thank you.
-Thank you all the same. -Thank you all the same.
Williams would go on to play a wide range
of both comic and serious roles in films,
winning an Academy Award for Good Will Hunting.
But for many, he remains the iconic Mork from Ork.
It still is that thing, even after winning
an Academy Award, for like a week,
people going, "Hey, Good Will Hunting, way to go."
Two weeks later, "Hey, Mork!"
It doesn't change.
By the fourth season of Mork & Mindy,
the producers decided to add a new character,
played by the only comedian who could match
Robin Williams' spontaneous comic energy --
Jonathan Winters.
I don't like you, Freddy.
Don't like you, Junior.
You wonder if I am different.
I am twisted and bent out of shape
because you took my parents
from me!
[Laughter]
In many ways, Jonathan Winters had
paved the way for Robin Williams
as television's first improvisational genius.
I know you're bitter because you had to leave
that plush job there in the Pentagon.
Yeah, it's cuckoo.
Cut that jazz out.
Let's face it, it's sort of a challenge for --
it's sort of -- hope you didn't get any on you.
It's sort of man against the jungle, you might say.
You know, malaria, yellow fever.
Animals. No offense, Rodney.
You see, I'll be shoving off before long,
and, look, you're into me for 200 now.
Keep your hands out of there.
WILLIAMS: He made it possible
for me to think that you can do anything.
He made it possible to do voices,
characters, sound effects, and all those different things
that just open the world up.
He was morphing before the technology.
So it was a bit -- that was, for me,
like the beginning of, like, wow.
Tell me, Mr. Groundhog,
do you predict six miserable,
lousy weeks of weather ahead of us or not?
I don't know anything about the weather, Jack.
I can tell you that it's
a crummy hole I live in down there.
It's rotten, it's damp, the missus is about
he ugliest broad I have ever seen.
[Laughter]
Now, Robin Williams said to me one time,
"Pops, you're my mentor," and I said, "No, don't --
Listen, don't say 'mentor.'
In Ohio, they think that's a salve.
Say 'idol.' Everybody gets that.
I love 'idol.'
See, mentor's -- that's like a pharmaceutical thing.
Put that on your skin."
Jonathan Winters' comedy skills ran deep.
As a boy in Dayton, Ohio, he listened to his grandfather
joke about the town celebrities,
Wilbur and Orville Wright.
WINTERS: And I met Orville Wright when I was a kid.
My grandfather went to school with these guys,
and he said they were devoid of any humor,
they were not funny.
I went like to this to them and I said, you know,
"How's the airplane, Orville?"
As a young man,
Winters hoped to become an artist,
but his wife set him on a different track.
My wife said, "Enough.
Your art isn't that good.
I'm going to tell you, I love you," this and that.
"You don't have a style, and you've got to have a style.
As a performer in the music business and acting,
you've got to have a style."
And I didn't have a style.
Winters went to New York
and developed his unique improvisational style.
Soon he was a regular on the talk show circuit.
He has a plan to save Cuba. Listen to this.
Please tell them.
[As JFK] Well, my plan is this, Jack.
[Laughter]
From one Jack to another,
it has been my feeling right along,
and I tried to get Congress to go along with me,
my friends.
Lyndon, who I saw about a year ago.
[Laughter]
Jonathan Winters was almost unknown
until he had the Jack Paar experience,
and people who came on that show became suddenly known.
Did you ever undress in front of a dog?
[Laughter]
Um...
[Laughter]
I'll tell you...
You think about that for a minute.
[Laughter]
I don't know, people, you know, it's funny.
A bird somehow doesn't count, right?
[Chuckles]
Or a cat.
But a dog, they really stare.
[Laughter]
If Jack Paar liked what you were doing,
you know, the rest of the guests could come back the next night.
I'd just come out of the shower and here was my dog.
[Laughter]
You know they can talk, right?
So when they look at you like...
[Laughter]
Yeah, and wagged her little tail
and went out and told her friends what she'd seen.
I remember seeing him -- watching him with my father.
My dad was kind of, you know, very kind of quiet like this,
and Jonathan did a thing where he came on one time
on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar
and came out and said --
and Jack said, "What are you?"
What are you?
I'm the Voice of Spring!
[Laughter]
I bring you some little goodies from the forest.
[Laughter]
[Whistles]
[Laughter]
And I saw my dad lose it and I went,
"Okay, this guy, I like this guy."
Where did you decide to do this?
This is something new.
Well, I've been to the forest, and the --
You've been on Third Avenue, is where you've been.
[Laughter]
Weeee!
Took me 45 minutes to get that in there.
I'm sorry, in the forest, we don't care.
[Laughter]
At each performance, Winters would morph into
a collection of characters, all funny, all spontaneous.
That was very touching, boys and girls.
Excuse me while I shed a tear.
I don't want to do it in front of you.
CHILDREN: Aw!
Oh...
[Laughter]
Ah!
Ah, just a little medicine.
"And the boys said, 'No, no.' Jeez, I'll tell it."
"I am not from Paris, I am from Bordeaux."
"And we seen this light up there and it was a huge saucer."
"I have a marvelous appetite.
You can tell that by looking at me."
"Oh, god, I wish Ethel was here to see this."
"Take me to your leader! Take me to your leader!"
"And did you take him to your leader?"
"I didn't know who my leader was."
[Laughs nervously]
"Stop that, boy."
In 1956, Jonathan Winters got his own television show,
the first-ever series broadcast in color.
It didn't last long, but he was back in 1967
with another series showcasing his comic genius.
Margaret, if you'd be kind enough to plug in that
new electric knife that you gave me,
there's a special turkey here.
Would you plug it in, sweetheart?
[Laughter]
Thppt! Oh!
[Laughter]
I'm sorry, Uncle Willie!
Try to stand, will ya?
[Laughter]
Cut your tie off, didn't it? Aw!
When we're talking about improvisation,
it's a little scary.
It's always scary.
A lot of you people have asked why my strange headdress.
[Laughter]
Well, don't ask anymore.
Ppt, ppt.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
When you saw him on his show where he would come out with
a box of stuff and just take out something.
One time, I remember, he came out and said,
"My name is Tommin Turney,
I come from the country of Tangwai.
Our country is 400 yards wide and 20 miles long."
And then they said, "What is your chief export?"
"Mainly rope."
It was like -- and he just started
building these things.
Give him a hat, he could go for days.
It's not easy here on this bloody ship, is it, matey?
-Is it? -It's not easy, sir.
'Course it isn't.
You want to go that route again?
Lock and load the cannon.
That's the cannon right there.
-Yes, sir. -See, I've been drinking, too.
I can't help.
These are all different from this afternoon.
You bet they are.
And he'd make these things up,
but then when it came time to do it again
on the live show after the dress rehearsal,
he wasn't as good because he wanted --
he didn't want to do the same thing,
and the time he did it first was the funniest.
That was the first thing that came in his head, boom,
and he did it and it was great.
Let's -- let's play swords.
[Laughter]
I didn't have to do anything
except just stand there and laugh at him.
I'd sing a song and supposedly I don't know
that he's behind me doing all kinds of crazy things.
¶ I'm starry-eyed ¶
¶ And vaguely discontented ¶
¶ Like a nightingale ¶
[Whistles]
Cracker.
[Laughter]
ANDY WILLIAMS: It was silly for me
to sing it in dress rehearsal and for him to do it because,
again, he was funnier doing it the first time
than he was the second time.
The reason a lot of these guys, Andy and Dean and Steve
and Jack had chosen me was a very dangerous thing,
but thank god, they would say,
if they were here today to say it,
I would bet on this, one thing about Winters,
you never knew what he was going to say or do.
When we had Jonathan on, it was amazing,
because he and I -- they would just do these things
like, "Jonathan and Robin riff here."
I was kicked out of Santa, sir. They found me in a dress.
Doesn't make any difference. They found you in what?
A gown.
Ah, gown's better.
[Laughter]
WILLIAMS: One time we did
a World War I takeoff.
They shot for like 45 minutes to the point where
the cameras were running out of film.
They were like machine gunners at Guadalcanal.
I'm out!
Get a gunner to camera three!
And were just riffing.
They're coming, father, look!
Thousands of Huns, Germans, Bosch!
Germans and Bosch! What's the Bosch?
-Small soup with beets. -I suppose.
And then eventually they would cut it down to five minutes.
[Imitating gunfire]
Ow, ow, my hand, my hand!
I'm sorry, sorry, take it out!
I'm hurt, I'm hurt!
I know you are, but you've killed
the old man with four fingers in his head!
[Laughter]
Well, it's two crazy guys, you know,
that had just been released from a major hospital,
and, "Ha, ha, ha, we're on the playground now,
you'll never get us.
We can get in that Jeep and roll away, bye-bye."
And he is on full throttle.
I mean, I can be on full throttle,
but I found out what full throttle can do to you.
It can -- you can end up hitting the pylon
rather than going around it.
Um...the thing to me, Robin is like a great air show.
Looks like the bloody war's over.
-No, sir. -What a shame.
And no action.
You know, I can't -- no, it's my medallions.
[Laughter]
There we are.
It would take him literally sometimes 30 minutes
to get from his car to the set on Mork & Mindy
because he would stop and perform for everybody.
The guys that comes up now, "Did I see you on television?"
Of course, a lot of times I will say,
"I'm Leland Buckhorn and I'm a bronco buster,
a bronco rider."
"No, that's not it."
"Oh, yes, it is. I'm Leland Buckhorn.
And I'm busting my whole thing down here
and riding them Brahman bulls.
It's just terrible for me.
I can't do it no more."
And have the woman turn to her husband,
"Eddie, I told you it wasn't him."
Jonathan Winters, as everyone knows,
is some kind of a...
savant or something.
I mean, I don't know.
He just never stopped. He was always
in some character.
I just thinke felt so comfortable there.
Writing for an improvisational performer
like Jonathan Winters was a challenge
because Winters liked to work out his own bits.
They would give him stuff to say that if
he didn't think was funny, he couldn't memorize it.
Jonathan, please.
Just do the lines.
What we've talked about for five days, okay?
Because he's so naturally funny that
I think it was like tissue rejection.
They would write him stuff to say and just, pbbt,
you know, and he'd go, "I don't -- no."
You got six to seven writers on the show, okay?
This one scene here in the second act, please,
let's just do it.
Tomorrow we'll do it.
Why can't we do it now, man?
I'd like to get it started -- you know,
I want to get this thing going.
There's going to be some big changes all week.
I know that, okay.
Now, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
skipping -- you're fighting for your life.
I'm fighting to get in some more.
I want to do a thing with a window out here with the kids.
What window?
The break front.
It's a fake window, okay?
Can you get that? You're getting 60,000 bucks.
A fake window.
Phew, medication.
[Gulps]
There we go.
Because he's so instinctually funny
that you just want to go, "Let him go.
Let him free-range. We'll be there."
You know, then when they did, it would work.
What made Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams unique
was their ability to create comedy
from nothing instantaneously.
Improvisational masters can conceive, write,
and perform a line all in the blink of an eye.
At the other end of the spectrum are performers
who focus on preparation, getting into their roles,
carefully crafting the delivery of each funny word.
Among the most honored of these formally trained comedy actors
is Cloris Leachman, who's won more
acting Emmy Awards than anyone else.
In 1946, Cloris Leachman nearly won the Miss America contest,
but beauty pageants weren't her goal.
She wanted to act, a dream since she
stepped onstage as a little girl
and learned her first lesson about comedy.
I, like, twirled and did -- and I slipped
and fell flat on my ass, and I was horrified.
And everybody laughed.
And it changed, I'm sure,
my outlook for the rest of my life,
that it's okay to fall flat on your ass.
The audience is with you.
They're right there with you and for you.
Studying under Elia Kazan at the famed Actors Studio,
Leachman learned the techniques of dramatic acting,
which she then applied to comedy.
LEACHMAN: Kazan emphasized using objects
in a scene instead of using your face.
Well, gee, you know, he would have you
do something with an object that would show how you're feeling.
We're gonna get this business deal on its feet, all right,
and then the feet's gonna be right on your neck.
Now, that's a damn lie!
Now, listen, this outfit is going to go through,
but the arrangement has got to be between you and me.
So I said, "I need something," and the prop department said,
"Well, what do you need?" "Well, I don't know,
I -- a candy?"
So they gave me this bowl on a stem
with wrapped candy covered.
My goodness, let's not grobble.
Yeah, let's not fight about
anything silly like old Maureen.
I mean, what the hell.
[Laughter]
Crack.
I cracked it.
Oh, yes, it got a big laugh.
That's the sort of thing that's wonderful,
to use objects.
Throughout her career, Leachman has been careful
not to play stock comic characters.
Instead, she works to make each performance unique.
LEACHMAN: It's so easy
to do clichés.
We all know what -- in fact,
some actors who think they're really good and they aren't,
they think they're good because they know their clichés.
Oh, I know, you stand this way or you don't cry
or you do or whatever at this point.
It's all clichés.
So you have to think, "I know what this is about,
but how can I do it in a more interesting
or fresher way?"
Cloris Leachman's breakthrough role on television
came as Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
So this is the newsroom?
Yeah, this is it. Morning, Gordy.
Hi, Mary, how are you?
Oh, Gordy, I'd like you to meet
Phyllis Lindstrom, my new assistant,.
This is Gordy Howard, our weatherman.
Gordy, I just want to say one thing.
I'd love you to come over for dinner
so we can really get to know each other.
[Laughter]
I mean as human beings.
Because we're going to be working together.
Yeah, uh-huh.
Gordy and I really hit it off.
[Laughter]
Leachman's comic nemesis on the show
was Valerie Harper's Rhoda.
We loved each other. We were great friends.
We'd go to lunch every day and decide what
we were going to do so we wouldn't take
so much time on the set, 'cause Mary and Jay,
the director, they'd do it and that's the end of it.
Rhoda, you'll give me an honest opinion, won't you?
Uh, not necessarily, Phyllis.
Well, listen, I'll taste it.
Give it a try here.
I love this pie.
[Laughter]
So it's come down to this.
I've become such an object of pity
that even Rhoda is being kind.
No!
The Phyllis character was eventually spun off
into her own show,
but with a different cast, the comedy dynamic changed.
Lars proposed to somebody before me?
Oh, he must have known her long before he knew me.
Oh, no, dear, I think he was going out
with both of you at the same time.
[Laughter]
When you take a character out of a group
like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, it's not a character.
It's only defined by the people around you.
So it was tricky, and each week I thought,
"Who am I going to be this week?"
It was a little tricky. Isn't that interesting?
Always looking to stretch her comic skills,
Leachman took movie roles,
including an iconic turn
as Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein.
That was your cigar smoldering in the ashtray!
Yes!
And it was you who left my grandfaer's book out
for me to find!
-Yes! -So that I would --
Yes!
And you and Victor were --
Yes! Yes! Say it!
He was my boyfriend!
And then Mel Brooks gave me a one line reading,
and all I've ever done with him.
I said, "Stay close to the candles.
The staircase can be treacherous."
He gave me this line reading.
"Stay close to the candles.
The staircase can be treacherous."
That means a couple of people have died already.
[Laughs] Isn't that funny?
Stay close to the candles.
The staircase can be treacherous.
In High Anxiety,
director Mel Brooks suggested Leachman
play the role of Nurse Diesel
just like she had played Frau Blucher,
but the actress had another idea.
LEACHMAN: He said,
"Oh, well, how do you want to play it?"
And I said, "I don't know, but I'm so hateful and evil,
I don't want anybody to recognize me,
and I think they know my smile from The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
so I think maybe if I don't smile,
[Mumbling] and I kind of talk like that."
Nurse Diesel!
Are you all right?
Yes.
We heard some weird noises emanating from the room.
We were...worried.
Weird noises?
It was the TV.
Sorry it disturbed you.
I've turned it down.
Is there anything else? It is rather late.
Leachman's acting skills were so strong,
she could play an over-the-top comic role
for Mel Brooks one day and an intensely serious role
for Peter Bogdanovich the next.
[Dish rattling]
What am I doing apologizing to you?
Why am I always apologizing to you,
you little bastard?
In The Last Picture Show, Leachman played Ruth Popper,
the role that would earn her an Academy Award
thanks to the power of this scene.
I haven't done anything wrong.
Why can't I quit apologizing?
You're the one ought to be sorry!
I wouldn't still be in my bathrobe
if it hadn't been for you.
I'd have had my clothes on hours ago.
You're the one made me quit caring if I got dressed or not!
[Sighs]
As she got older, Cloris Leachman found herself
back on television, ntinuing to create
a unique character for each role.
["Jingle Bells" playing]
You do this to torture me? To hurt me?
You don't like Christmas music?
It sounds like the song they sang
when they would ride through the villages
and throw the babies into the fire.
They sang "Jingle Bells"?
They sang something.
I have a -- a knitting needle,
my grandson's here, perfectly lovely darling boy.
["Jingle Bells" plays]
And I get mad -- I don't know what --
I stab him with my knitting needle in his thigh,
and he goes, "Ow!"
["Jingle Bells" plays]
Ow! God, what the hell is wrong with you?
You like pushing me. That's what happens
when you push, big, tough guy.
Oh, and I -- and because he goes on about it,
I jiggle -- I -- oh! I'm just horrible--
[Laughs]
Isn't that terrible?
You shouldn't even be allowed to be a grandma!
Are you finished?
Yes! I am -- Ow! Ah!
Ah!
Oh! I am so sorry.
I should have kissed your boo-boos and made them better.
It's always been a big challenge not to repeat myself
and not to do clichés.
Even a script will say, "She comes and sits,"
and, oh, you don't want to sit, then.
You find out a way to do something else
or maybe start to sit and not or get on one leg or lean.
You've lost your mind and you're never lucid
for very long, so listen up.
I understand, go, let's do this.
We'd like you to quit smoking.
What are you talking about?
You guys aren't letting me smoke, are you?
I quit smoking in 1971.
-You did? -Yeah.
I quit when Virginia was born.
You quit smoking for me?
If you're Virginia, yeah.
I wanted to live long enough to see what you'd grow up to be.
Doesn't look like it was worth the wait.
Well, I think it's fun to bring comedy to serious things
and bring serious things to comedy.
And we won't let you smoke anymore.
In fact, since you're quitting,
no one in this house is going to smoke anymore.
[Dog barking]
[Lighter flicks]
Oh...
Good luck with that.
For a versatile actor like Cloris Leachman,
the subtle nuances of each character
were the key to her performances.
But another group of comedy actors
were quite happy to play it big and broad
in iconic roles that audiences loved.
Junior. Junior!
Junior.
Don't stop me now, Mama!
I'm past the point of no return!
[Laughter]
Jimmy Walker played just one role on television,
yet few actors have shot to prominence more quickly
or created more controversy than Walker did
on a show called Good Times.
I came on to be funny.
That was my plan of attack.
A black family should have a black symbol.
If Mama sees that there, she's gonna kill you.
Jesus may have your soul, but Mama gonna have your behind.
[Laughter]
When I come out, I want nuclear bomb comedy,
and I don't think anybody else on the show --
they're actors, so they're thinking,
"We're acting." I came out as a stand-up.
Different deal.
And, Junior, don't think of taking mail that ain't ours.
[Laughter]
I don't take things, Mama, I find them.
[Laughter]
Then don't find any mail that ain't ours.
God didn't make man to steal.
Then how come he gave us more pockets than hands?
[Laughter]
Producer Norman Lear had designed Good Times
as a vehicle to portray
the African American experience,
but Jimmy Walker's character became so popular so fast,
he changed the direction of the show.
Overnight, Walker's comic catchphrase
became part of the national vocabulary.
Dyn-o-mite!
"Dyn-o-mite" made Jimmy Walker famous,
but the very first time he used it,
Walker wasn't so sure.
WALKER: Director John Rich, he said,
"I want you to do it like this,"
and I went, "John, that's a little silly.
That's -- to just have somebody stand up
and say 'dynamite' in the middle of the show?"
He says, "This thing is going to be big."
Dyn-o-mite!
[Applause]
Jimmy Walker's outsized acting was popular from the start,
but backstage, controversy was brewing.
I thought that they -- we had lost the focus,
which was the family as a whole
and not just, you know, buffooning.
Today hasn't been a good day in the chicken delivering business.
Well, what happened? Somebody rip off the coleslaw?
[Laughter]
No, worse than that.
I lost my job.
You lost your job?
Oh, honey, what happened?
What, did they catch you finger-licking again?
[Laughter]
And I made it clear as to what my feelings were,
that, you know, how much more of the --
how many more chicken hats and how -- you know,
how long can we do this?
WALKER: As talent, I don't think
Norman Lear agrees with anything that I've ever done.
I think that Norman felt that his show was hijacked,
his idea, what he wanted to do,
and I think to this day, he still regrets that.
Sometimes we would have a moment,
and Norman Lear would always say,
"Well, didn't that moment feel much better than
that tomfoolery you're always doing?"
And I would go, "No.
That's it. I'm here for laughs.
If you need a laugh, let me bring it.
I'm coming in on the big Boeing 707.
I'm trying to kill."
For Walker, sitcoms should be about laughs,
and the way to get laughs is to play it big.
In any sitcom you do, someone has to be the guy
to take the pie.
But that I mean that person has to be the one
that you look to laughs.
You've got to commit,
snot's got to come out your nose,
your eyes got to water,
you've got to have hands flapping.
You've got to get messy in comedy.
It's got to be ugly.
You've got to take the pie.
Somebody -- and the person that takes the pie
usually is going to surface, 'cause that's where
the person -- that's where people gravitate.
Much of Jimmy Walker's appeal came from his ability
to use his wiry frame for comic effect.
It's part of a long tradition of TV actors
best known for their physical comedy,
a group that includes Art Carney,
Don Knotts, Penny Marshall,
John Ritter, and Michael Richards.
Man, these are tight!
Squinch your hips in!
I am squinching my hips!
Squinch 'em!
[Laughter]
It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work.
Let me just think for a second here.
You'd better get me --
[Laughter]
[Telephone jingles]
Here, get me -- get me -- get me --
Oh, hold on, hold on.
Hold it, look.
You're gonna need the jaws of life to get out of those things.
Among television's all-time most-gifted
physical performers, Dick Van Dyke.
ANNOUNCER: The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Starring Dick Van Dyke.
He missed the ottoman sometimes
and sometimes he tripped over the ottoman.
Loved it. I just loved it. Still love it.
CONDUCTOR: And Clarksville!
That's our train!
As a boy, Dick Van Dyke spent hours in the movie theater
carefully studying his favorite physical comics.
If there was a Laurel & Hardy,
my mother would have to come and get me,
because I would sit through two or three runnings of it.
I just loved those guys.
Come on, Stan!
This is the last train today!
Come on!
Van Dyke got his first chance to showcase his skills
on national television on Pat Boone's variety show
in 1958.
[Stairs creaking]
[Bicycle horn honks]
[Laughter]
[Horn honks down stairs]
[Clock cuckooing]
[Laughter]
Van Dyke's physical skills were unlike any other
comedy performer on television.
[Wind blowing]
[Laughter]
That same year, Van Dyke landed a guest shot
on Phil Silvers' show and buzz began to build.
They had me on that show playing a hillbilly
who could pitch with both hands.
Got any more throws like that?
Yeah, I've got one I call my bender.
Your bender.
Yeah, that's in case of a squirrel
a-hiding behind a tree.
I'll show it to you.
[Laughter]
Wait, hold on. The target's over there.
I know.
He knows, he knows.
[Laughter]
[Man yells]
A fastball, a change of pace, a curve,
it's too good to be true!
I could kill a squirrel with either hand,
and he tried to sell me to the Yankees.
As a pitcher.
--Did you say Yankees? -Yeah.
Now, listen, now, keep this as a surprise, Hank.
You're going to get a tryout with the New York Yankees!
Oh, I don't reckon I can do that, sergeant.
My daddy wouldn't hold still for me being on
the same side with the Yankees.
Oh, wait a minute, what is this?
The Civil War's been over 90 years!
Well, I'm sorry, sergeant, but my pappy says
General Lee give up too soon.
Dick Van Dyke is a very adroit man with comedy.
He can do physical comedy
and he does spoken comedy very well.
Dick Van Dyke landed his own sitcom in 1961,
but the first scripts weren't written
to take advantage of his physical comedy skills,
and so Van Dyke would try to work in bits each week.
VAN DYKE: We did a lot of improv during the week of rehearsal,
physical pieces that I would put in,
and by the time it got to showtime,
we were so excited to present it.
¶ Everybody ¶
¶ And now you're doing the twist ¶
¶ Everybody ¶
¶ You're gonna be getting a kiss ¶
He will break into a tap dance at the drop of a hat
and he can do card tricks and he can do impressions.
He's just wonderful, but he doesn't flaunt it.
Physical comedy always has the potential for injury,
and The Dick Van Dyke Show was no exception.
Today's modern-day comedian
comes out in front of his audience
and talks to them in a relaxed -- oh!
[Laughter]
I'd sometimes come in on a Saturday
to come up with something...
Laughing at people in pain is a manifestation of
a deep-seated hostility.
[Laughter]
[Laughs]
Thank goodness we have reached a point
in our civilization today where we no longer laugh
at people destroying themselves.
[Laughter]
It was one of my favorite things.
I'm very happy to say
that you'd have to look all over the world
to find someone who would laugh at a man, say, falling down.
Oh, no!
[Laughter]
It did hurt. I didn't do it right.
But it's funny to lo at.
The Dick Van Dyke Show was performed
in front of a live audience,
because even for physical comedians,
the feedback of an audience is key.
I just don't see how people do comedy shows
without an audience, because they do half the work.
They're the ones that give you the timing.
You go with their reaction.
And I can't work without an audience.
At the very end of the show, I didn't handle myself too well
with that Patrick rat.
Aw. He got you to say something embarrassing,
didn't he? What was it?
I said Alan Brady is bald.
[Laughter]
I just don't understand how people can not have that,
you know, that interplay, 'cause that's what makes comedy.
Oh, without an audience,
I don't know what I would have done.
An audience may have been critical for Dick Van Dyke,
but the more recent crop of television comedians
have eliminated the studio audience altogether.
They represent a new kind of comedy actor,
confident in the writing,
less worried about instant feedback.
Among the most successful, Tina Fey.
I'm not over it, and now I'm wearing this!
What is the deal with my life?
Are you imitating me?
No! This is what I sound like when I cry!
I think I'm a little insulted!
You're insulted? I'm crying!
Well, it's mostly this kind of single-camera approach
is just what's in fashion right now.
I think you can make a very good comedy in front of an audience.
I don't -- some people I feel think there's a stigma to it,
that it's too easy, but you look at shows
like Cheers and -- well, only Cheers, guess.
Like many modern TV comedians, Tina Fey learned her craft
at Chicago's Second City through performances that
taught her how to deal with success and failure.
Kevin, as a former Miss Tennessee,
there's two things I know.
One of them is that the children are our future,
and the other is that people respond to friendliness,
and that is why a friendly company --
-Is a successful company. -Yee-ha.
The high feeling of when something actually goes well
is great, but almost more valuable is the --
the thrilling free fall of when it goes terribly
and just goes terribly and then you sort of realize,
"Well, we didn't die. Let's just start again."
That is I think the thing that's the best for you
and performers to experience.
At Saturday Night Live, Fey was hired as a writer
and didn't join the cast for three years.
Two days before Britney Spears' HBO concert from Las Vegas,
someone broke into her dressing room and stole
the white Elvis-inspired rhinestone jump suit that
she wore to promote the event, and you know what?
I'm not giving it back.
[Laughter]
I'm keeping it now. It's mine.
When Fey got her own show, 30 Rock,
it retained a writer-centric approach.
Okay, are we going to talk about this like adults,
or are you just going to throw thing at me?
Okay, fine, get it out of your system.
All right, nothing that plugs in, you guys!
Nothing that could really hurt me!
There's a lot of work in that writers' room
to think about those jokes and those bits and that story.
But that focus on writing doesn't minimize
Fey's respect for actors who can make an audience laugh.
Going into something and I know where the jokes are,
and when the joke's well-executed,
that will make me laugh, but also when there's
a little nuance of performance that is sort of
an extra gift from the actor -- just a small facial thing
or a rhythmic thing -- that is --
that is just an, you know, an unforeseen gift,
'cause you go in -- mostly as a writer,
you go into it hoping, like,
"Yeah, nobody screw up my jokes."
For Tina Fey, comedy acting combines
the preparation of a writer
and the spontaneity of an improv performer.
FEY: There's a lot of talk about
relaxed readiness, and so I think there's
a lot of preparation, preparation, preparation,
and then you want to be in a state of relaxed readiness
so that if something spontaneous does happen,
you're there and you're capable of seizing that moment,
but I think you get there with a lot of prep work.
My god, Lemon, what is that?
This is how I cry now!
Ever since you made me get that off-brand eye surgery!
Lemon, what have we done to you?
It's okay.
Go home and get some rest. I'll take the hit.
I can't let you do that for me.
Let him go.
Like all accomplished comedy actors,
Tina Fey recognizes that the best comedy
is a reflection of reality, performances that tell a truth
while they make us laugh.
FEY: I think that's the biggest thing
you can teach someone,
is to play real characters that they know, or real --
or to portray the world as they see it
and not the way they think the audience expects it.
You know, we used to -- Amy Poehler and I
used to tour together for the Second City,
and we would do these old sketches
that were handed to us that a lot of times
were just a way for the girlfriend,
the waitress to come in and be like,
"Honey, well what's this?" Well, I would never do that,
so let's change -- let's make up new ones.
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
[Laughter]
I was so excited when I was told Senator Clinton and I
would be addressing you tonight.
[Laughter]
And I was told I would be addressing you alone.
[Laughter]
There is no single path to acting funny.
TV has a long history of physical comedians,
method actors, and improvisers.
Each performer is unique, but together,
they've kept us laughing for 50 years.
Is it rewarding? Yeah.
But is it hard work? Oh, yeah.
And as you get older, it's like it's harder work.
I had heart surgery halfway through the last tour.
You know, almost killed you.
I'm back! Hee hee, way to go!
I'm getting letters from third generation now from --
that show is still running around the world,
and I get letters from kids who enjoy the show.
Good feeling.
That is fun, to remind yourself that --
that jokes can be enjoyed by a live audience.
If the audience doesn't laugh, then it's not funny.
The end of it.
There's no more discussion.
I'd love to know what's next.
I can't wait, so exciting.
It really is exciting.
How often, how often can you say to yourself
watching whatever scene it is
that puts you on the floor and you say, "God,
I don't know when I laughed as much as I did tonight"?
That's how rare it is.
They are the pioneers of television.
Have I done a lot of Shakespearean plays? No.
contributions to your PBS station
from viewers like you.
They played the doctors and nurses we watched every week.
But could I?
With help and the right director.
You could, dear boy.
Don't be afraid to enunciate.
I met Laurence Olivier when I did the first Academy Awards,
and they said, "Mr. Olivier, this is Robin Williams."
"Hello," and he said, "Are you wearing makeup?"
And I said, "Yes, Mr. Olivier."
And he said, "Don't. It makes you look effeminate."
Thank you, Larry.
[Laughs]
Kept that in mind.
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