The Phil Hartman Tribute Episode (Part 2) | Full Episode | Fly on the Wall

this is a continuation with even more special guests and uh we had a lot of

people who wanted to talk to Phil that um either couldn't get to the Groundlings 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 um so overall it's just a it's a lot yeah we go up we let we let it go off on

a lot of different tangents there's some interesting stuff uh around one particular show called The Simpsons

maybe you've heard of that talk about that a lot also okay you guys here you go

William Farrell is our guest today yeah or should it be Willie Willie Willie

Farrell as Lauren Michaels would call him Willie Farrell is always good will

anything this week didn't he say you were in the top two recently he's in the top two I said he

what did he say top three he told me he told me all the time I have to put you

in the top three which order I don't know that's good though

I mean 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 uh you know there's Danny there's Eddie

there's there's The Usual Suspects uh Mike you know maybe you would did John died and that sort of pushed him toward

the top oh my God hey talk about well-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 have 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 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 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

sharioteri 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 uh 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 him some props and just

remind everyone yeah and we did uh because I lived around the corner we were friends with with bran and Phil and

their kids and we reached out to his daughter Bergen and she gave her a blessing she went to the the live show

if people have listened to that episode at the Groundlings which by the way I'd never been on that stage but I've 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 uh pretty pretty special place and uh

just to I mean so many great memories even just doing because you do a lot of your the class

work up on that stage too uh uh and it's just you know what it's 99 seats and it's

just audience is right there and uh um yeah 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 beloveds and

Hartman and Lorraine Newman hello uh Pee Wee Herman and all these people uh but

it's fun 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 and I

was like what 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 it was really two things that brought me back

to watching the show and it was it was you and Mike Dana doing Wayne's World that was like you know 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 was a very strong cast but then this guy Phil Hartman and

I 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's 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 was Bill Clinton at the McDonald's

and 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 yeah take a bite take a bite

and you use it as an analogy that he's you know a warlord and you know a to

mogudishu and this at one point starts choking I think

Schneider hands him like his coat and uh to help him and but I I was like God

that he was just so funny but also so technically

gifted but um and I 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 uh you did very

you did very very well no Phil or you are people like you with

that kind of range it's like what couldn't Phil do yeah 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 of the show in like a rah-rah way or was he did he just kind of keep to himself and he was just so good

that the the writers just knew they could always go to him for every type of sketch he he was friendly and accessible

but he also was kind of private and he did 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 played Super broad or very realistic film yeah feature film type

acting so I he was uh 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 I mean he just was Will is like that I think I

don't know will uh uh I I do think that you're because a lot of your character is a little uh out there and crazy are

you asking about my antique coin collection um no do do you actually have one or is

that no 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

and it made the local paper it was some dimes uh FDR dimes that were rare we

were we were I was nine I I apologize now to Brad that's the guy who Garth is based on dude it's beautiful if you

tried to take a run at my 1916 D Mercury Diamond beautifully uncirculated

condition I'd [ __ ] 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 snl2 extremely amazingly different cool cats

on SL 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 um my

reverence for him affected me I think I think I think I told this story when when we did the

show at Largo uh but I'll tell it again was when he came to host we're all you know there on Tuesday

night and he's going in from office to office and listening to all the pitches and uh

I think I was in the office with a couple a couple other writers and

they were kind of you know doing all the talking and I was I was a part of their pitch but I

didn't really have anything to add they already they pretty much said what the I idea was in addition to be to

being an 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 Pharaoh

kid dad got your time Phil Hartman doing an impression of Phil

Hartman yeah yeah it was just of course that

didn't I just went yeah well you know what they said and I was just

like God you just must think I'm an idiot uh but he's he did student you

know he's such a nice guy 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

40s like him and Lovitz had that connection could we play something right yeah let's play them Greg this sketch uh

well we're gonna play you we're gonna surprise our guests you were in and I never saw it until a week ago and I

[ __ ] 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 your loss if you did congratulations

Troy talk to me uh yes Bobby I spent uh five and a half hours watching a homeless lady shut up get up what are

you working on um 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 something this is something

Kelly who is he Aladdin Troy Aladdin shut up you're not listening Brian who is he

Aladdin no Troy good sick oh my God

so there you go that's uh he was that's fill 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 until a little late 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 growlings

that had a house yeah and he invited love us 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 a 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 ground Lane yep and then it was John

Lovitz and then it was Phil in 86 and then it's like so many people you know

sharioteria or Chris catand 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 it yeah exactly she thought it was a tribute to David Spade and what she found out it was Phil

she quietly went out aside because of how much I was talking she's like what is this actually about I was like

here we go there we go uh well let's let let's let will go but I just we wanted

to thank will for coming on I don't know if there's anything you want to add but uh I had to show you that sketch we [ __ ] cracked up we saw that the other

day this is this is something they had the Rhythm away goes right back

um I don't wanna I don't wanna uh well I don't want to you know tune my

own horn here but I think Molly and Chris and I wrote that schedule 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 yeah everyone exactly so someone really did that this is something this is nothing this is

something I think that was all Catan yeah you 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 up Cadet 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 Knight Rider

you know he has their credits as if they're a really big deal 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 was his showed his range one time I one time it was some

some class where one of the one of the 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 is a great writer he wrote peewee's big adventure with with yeah 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 a show even when he was parasailing after read through but you guys must have been thrilled

when he started and started rehearsing that on anything 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 beer but anyway well thanks thanks one of the greats yeah hi 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 [ __ ]

it's sort of a feeling in that in that building that you might get fired it just washes over you no matter how it's

How well it's going all right watch the show I'm gonna get fired that's what I feel like I feel like if if life is a

boss that I could get fired at any time you know so that's true or sort of

nicked but um anyway we're joined by Mike Myers hello

hold for Applause yes who did a nice run Michael how long was your run with Phil

was it your whole time there it was there for five or this years that I was there

he left in my last year I believe he was in So I Married an Ax Murderer which was

fun and uh 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 and he was also very if you were one of the more experienced

um ivy league writers or if you were a dumb kid from Toronto uh he sold your sketch you know what I

mean and I always made it better than written yeah I never 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 with color coding like how musicians have

notes he would go a little bit of Charlton Heston plus a little bit of this in the universe it was color-coded

I caught him huh I caught him that's great too is he had the best instrument

of any uh comedic actor I've ever met his voice and his body was

unbelievable and uh Peter Sellers like in my opinion and Alec Guinness like and

uh just one of those um I thought he was a very good writer and

I thought he was one of the best interpreters of things written

and bad cold reader ever in my life yeah

unnatural you know to that to your point about Alec Guinness because we were talking about that the other day little

birdie told me Phil had this move where he could make his eyes kind of go dead and and he would go very he did it in So

I Married an Ax Murderer in the Alcatraz scene and if anybody out there wants to see uh 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 it I

don't know what that is but when Phil used it yeah complete control complete

control I think what you were talking about uh 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 uh 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 .001 commentary that's how I always 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 finer

the comedy acting you know what I mean is how small the exaggeration can be it

makes it so funny too because 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 of Saddam Hussein and uh 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

cut and intimidating and scary and so that just makes the whole sketch lifts

up the sketch to have someone play that and an Ax Murderer I didn't have a blow to his little speech of you know uh he

scooped at 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

right after that yeah pudding yes I think when when you're a

newer comic or a new uh comic actor a 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 and I

think he was so perfect at that yeah yeah super super small super controlled super tasteful

um and it was also super nice to me I mean that's the other thing too you know yeah because you came in we Phil and I

came in and you were there like maybe a season later or 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 kids there's a

new kid in town whatever that Eagles song 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 based that's where the boat you

know what I mean and filled the same Phil was um 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 needed to 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 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 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 I'm looking at Yachts building a model or

something yeah yeah 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 just hold on Mike and it was the last thing

of pulling the Mast up but 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 a

a huge 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 uh was he a a hobbyist uh

scuba scuba diving uh sailboat and this just Tropical Islands that was the other

one Mike you ever think about buying a tropical island no I can I can safely

say I've never thought about buying a tropical island yeah yeah everyone's sweating over there over

their yellow notepad riding when I walk my heads he's like Spade come in sit down yeah hey and like everything's

relaxed I'm like sorry I'm freaking out the show's in two days for you know 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 like he had a handsome man face and he could leverage it when he wanted to when he played

um I don't know Hanson franzi played a Sad Sack uh cameraman brilliantly but when he wanted to be the handsome guy he

could really go for that and as John Wayne was he really looked like he just looked like he was Charlton Heston oh

intestine yeah but he was child and has didn't 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 is Ed McMahon is a great memory too just just and this German guy the fake

uh sitzis or German you know the yeah but then he'd do John Wayne German which

is ich have a flunk in my depth perception and I'd be like that's two things that

you can't just pull out of your bag like that I know it's it's amazing how effortless it was for him or it seemed

to be but he was a hard worker too I mean he prepared yeah he did was the

first one of the read through table and uh he would make his little notes you know and I I had the the joy of sitting

next to him and I and I I had the option of moving closer to the host as I was there longer but I just I I stayed right

next to Phil because I learned almost everything about cold reading and about

preparing I never had nearly what he had to prepare but um you know I just he was so generous to

me and so um 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 monkey being on a catamaran there's always like a

news Mike have you ever made a bean bag yes I'm having a parasaled my uh no I

can't think yeah it was on the skin of a dead person 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

daughter marine 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 yeah it closed the doors the smartest guy in the world for uh Phil that was her that

was the first season yeah on Frozen caveman lawyer is is a prime example of

like you know so his caveman takes no nods whatsoever to grunting and you know

me like fire you know whatever yeah speaks perfectly articulate bourgeois

some of those lines are like you know I'm a caveman you know he goes back to that and then he goes okay I'm a simple

I was chipped out of the ice and he goes but I do feel my clients deserve 20 million impunative damages and also

another 5 million for that it goes right back into being a lawyer Flames frighten me these are that's right

[Laughter] Jack candy the writer it was yeah yeah

if you don't you know shovel the snow off the front of your porch

you know a lot of 25 points States you know anyways yeah yeah just play with

that that was you know pretty stout makeup for SNL a complete prosthetic and he played it oh yeah 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 it has 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 yeah oh a green Cox chat oh oh a drum okay the uh can you hear it you

must be able to hear it I don't do you hear it 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 yeah um the uh Phil's

the breadth of his work the the the variety of things that he could do

um he was just you know it is damning with faint praise and not correct to say he

was a utility player um he was the most versatile comedy

performer I've ever seen and um I put like I said I put his versatility

up there with uh Peter Sellers and and uh God

Christopher Guest uh you know what I mean I could you know that family of uh detailed

controlled restrained but sharpest attack performers yeah you could go up

to him and before read through can you do a Russian accent he's like what part of Russia yes exactly

yeah that's nice good Lord and he could be explosive too for you know somewhat

reserved uh you know uh a scientist really off stage 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 how about taking over

in the Sinatra group how he just would do it yeah exactly but it's either one day's Eggman

thank you cutting grass out there oh one day he's Eggman and the other day he's walrus

explosives uh from the Sinatra group yeah yeah he ran that whole sketch and then

uh that that you immediately after the snatcher group you're like oh well that's gonna 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 sineaden apology

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 given some uh sugar to

the great Jan Hooks right Jan what a home run hitter she was another those two together so in my very first sketch

in the cold opening game show psychic he fills the game show host and Jan was this kind of daughtering 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 I'd been brought into an All-Star cast and

um you know I felt like a somebody who played for Saskatoon all of a sudden

playing for the New York Rangers or something yeah but truth

you were like this star well basketball or whatever the star you know it's an All-Star Universal and not yeah foreign

influence and you had your stuff was really fresh it really brought a whole new vibe to the show and it you've

melded completely with all of us I thought you know uh lothar of the Hill

People sprockets uh I don't know middle-aged men I think

I may have mentioned lothar I got nothing from anybody on the street for lothar ever except for people nothing

ever except Hill People except for the people that worked in Central Park so really we're going for a walk on

Sunday after the show on Saturday through Central Park and it'd be oh my God it's loathwa and I thought

I love Lo-Fi I was like like am I being pumped right now yeah what is that yeah thank you and

for people who want to look it up lothar was a a middle earthian person and it

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 and does he do lothar as he plays it no they don't they don't do

voices which I was like well why why do Dungeons and Dragons if you're not gonna have to act do a character yeah but

lothar was I remember he was trying to understand uh modern psychology centuries ago and

he would do it in a rudimentary kind of language about men and women's relationships yes it does found it very

funny thank you I do not know what this woman

I always love like whenever I eat barbecue anything that has bones I always go come let us talk of the hunch

yeah that's right you can tell it's a noble creature yeah

they must have talked like that in 15th century wherever ultimately without

contractions I gave yourself up for us very articulate

oh boy well um I mean I don't know I think you've we've

covered I love them and um we love them we miss them we miss him I saw him as a

as a hero and a mentor and a very good friend and uh very

he raised the bar for everybody and what was possible and uh yeah I

I would have loved to see what he'd 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 yeah because of his range you could have put him in any of

these shows Plug and Play non-stop yeah non-stop if he chose to he could be in

the crown you know of course you could too if you wanted to but um I I feel that he could have also directed because

he yeah he had such a um was an artist I mean yeah 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

let's go you know Buster Keaton as much as chaplain 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 peewee's

big adventure as well which Phil wrote yeah yeah uh you know it is always magical when

you especially when there was no sound with Buster Keaton but when there is sound but the bit of scene chooses just

to go to a maybe the some music or whatever and then everything plays out non-verbally it's uh never underestimate

that as a cinema not told you know that was a great quote that Lauren Michaels always had which is you always want the

movie uh 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 to what they're watching you know what I mean yeah I

mean my phrase for it was funny with the sound off yeah exactly and I and I think

um Phil would have been a great director you know of Comedy

oh yeah I I think I'm just watching you know uh the whole family are 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 when we showed them so much fun you showed them breakfast breakfast club okay we just

saw a breakfast club on Saturday Molly Ringwald Judd is that Emilio yeah uh

Anthony Michael Hall yeah yes and Ali shidy it's

spectacular but the framing you know you know she steals stuff and it's just how

they had a locked up friend and then she just sort of entered in the back it's still 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 and then 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 Pee-wee's Big

Adventure which is a masterpiece of comedy staging you know how

when Peewee is the the guy in the you know uh Paul Rubens is the playing himself this is the Bellboy

yes yes and and generally kind of keeping it wider and moving Masters and

letting stuff happen in the frame a lot of what they called um uh Fred astaires

for the stairs yeah yeah head to toe and just follow it and let let Fred dance right yeah let it all happen in his

rhythm yeah and Kubrick did a lot of that with Peter Sellers the supposedly Kubrick got a Fernie pad and went to the

base of the camera and we just uh lie on it and just kind of let Peter Sellers do

his thing and all his job was to make sure that he had some kind of coverage

and yeah exactly 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 the scene from uh doctor Strangelove

yeah Peter Sellers almost better than Dr Strangelove is his vacuous almost a

feminate president yeah American yeah and then George C Scott who apparently

um Kubrick said gave him carbox okay go way too big because he's you know yeah and then it ended up you know being you

know just startlingly brilliant to watch that yeah and I think Phil could have done the president or that yeah yeah

Phil could have totally he could have played five parts in something each of them brilliant you know yeah yeah

good Lord good Lord you know what else did drawings Simon

here we are still loving him so yeah Simon likes drawings Phil could have done Simon he could have done Church

please yes but

yeah we were just so lucky to all find each other at that time in our lives and

uh there was a lot of great chemistry and uh during those years with Phil as

sort of again we'll probably bring this up a lot nickname the glue it was the glue glue they're not saying boo they're

saying glue they're saying that's what the announcer says yeah in the arena yeah it's like who you get Who you gonna

call Phil Hartman if you need that that and that but uh he meshed beautifully with us uh in different ways you and I

and and Kevin Nealon and Kevin was brilliant yeah so we had a lot of uh we're all just a little bit different

yeah I always say that Kevin was the George Harrison of our cast she didn't

write that he didn't write a ton of songs when the songs he did do were you know Here Comes the Sun and yeah something

you know what I mean yeah the sketches he did right were just awesome so well

the the one that someone is going to be on this show uh honoring Phil Hartman

and his Brilliance I mentioned um Kevin Nealon's waiter without a pad that

I think went to dress 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 it did yeah that's one of my I love it waited

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

yeah you know yeah guy please come on he's like okay spaghetti for the lady

and uh cream to cause he's like hey fella uh that's not even close to what we heard if you could just maybe grab a

pen and and he goes no no I got it and 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 Hader

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 it I have to apologize to bill because Bill

when I saw you uh you don't remember I saw you at this dinner the other night

you would never remember I was at the dinner I was sitting a couple down for you but um anyway I 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 for 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 gonna hurt so I'd go hey and then I go all

right because it's hard to give that Lefty one it looks a little weird Lefty fist bump I know it turned in a fist

bump but everyone gets a little Jarred so and then here comes mullaney that [ __ ] he saw me weak and he came

and he crunched all the bones as hard as he could and he didn't know what he was doing but of course he he gave me that

Kung Fu grip and then and that's when I went to the dock the next day and I go something's definitely wrong and then he

x-rayed it he goes yeah you broke you have a broken bone in your hand that's why it hurts so much you broke a bone I don't know

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 know about John 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's like 20

people there and we both had the same thought which was like are we paying for this like

because of course you can't pay for your own

dinner I don't think we can't let him pay for his own dinner there's a lot of people here like are we all pitching in

and then and then of course Nick crawl 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 Lauren didn't pick it up I

know oh yeah Lauren Bill and we'll get to this a second I thought the Lauren name tag was a joke I thought it was

like oh look it's Lauren he's not here but we used to always save a place for him and then Lauren Michael showed up

and we were all like I got it was like Warden

oh my inmates straighten up yeah yeah everyone got quiet for a little bit

right I feel everybody did get quiet and it was you know is there part of us that is still trying to impress Lauren on are

we still kind of yeah on him we 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 comp last conversation I had you know five years you know two years there's like I

sit down he's like and Charlie Chaplin's house in Sweden [Laughter]

I don't think your update it it it it it played but it didn't last

it got air but it didn't stick it is he's the best summer upper of activities

God just gets it down to five or six words did he have anything postberry you'll go that Kubrick route

now he never mentions that he's usually very sweet he's just like how are your kids what was that yeah everything okay

I saw him scribbling and it said uh Patton Oswald two quips and he circled

them and he said I can Nick crawls blanking and

then I put glad I didn't hire him this dinner proved it I made the right call

audition question mark this is his second audition and it's

going just as well yeah is very sweet very quiet he was seated

next to Warren I saw him turn to Lauren 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 damn man he's very funny he's a voice on uh Bob's

Burgers

yeah you know but Warren 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

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 gotta lean over hey Lauren did anyone do bits about the name tag he goes one guy did yeah okay

well then I'll go back yeah it's like the table read I was I don't know where you guys sat at 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 oh so when you were doing your

sketch and it was dying you could see him out of focus Beyond losing patience

sad dad being sad or looking over his glasses like out of your [ __ ] mind

you know why why are you putting me through any bails on the exposition oh

yeah that's a word

[Laughter] room with a tear in his eye all right

[Music]

it walks Bill and you're like well [ __ ] wait where am I doing this thing called Mr Poopy Dana

funny little poopy head just so Lauren would have to say that Exposition he about to say funny little poop he had

literally 20 times funny little poopy head sits down a funny little poopy head is sad he is sad funny little poop head

I had that catchphrase uh I got that got that got to go and Jan the great Jan Hooks was um fun Mrs funny little poopy

head and imma go on 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 I mean did you ever do a gag one did you ever do one just for fun and read through a bill where you knew

it was just just to make it silly it was always just fun when you know you would

get uh 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 right but he really plows the head 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 or 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 Keenan Thompson used to do that it

was always Lauren like in a shower and he couldn't get out and the shower was filling up with water and he starts to

drown but it was him and that voice being like you know starting the shower and he's washing himself

and then like the water is racing drowned and one was him with a hang

glider and 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

oh I do like when he gets excited after a bomb what you just did wear a sketch

bombs and then it's a pause and people are turning their pages and he goes uh 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 did you guys ever have a host say what

is this I'm not into this

these people are friends you know

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 you know this is sort of well it

was very low key individual whatever but his record on that show was so brilliant and people like to talk about it so

yeah it was he was definitely when I got the show and you know you you you look

at you know you know it is kind of like an A-Team thing and especially when I came

out we had a huge cast 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 you know

or a guy who can you know uh build a bridge I don't know it's like you needed

like your own species yeah you're a short stop your catcher exactly what are you gonna play 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 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

there's 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 fun you know what I mean so he I always just

appreciated that about him and it was like oh if I do that then I'll maybe

maybe it'll be that guy you know just whatever you put me in I'll just commit like that the way Hartman did yeah you

know even in motivational speaker which is like the most bananas character he plays the Dad and he react he's 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 that's right 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 I felt as a kid because it was so and

Jack Handy wrote that right yeah oh yeah and it was like this is so

uh 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 either on board or you're not and that he was so committed to it yeah

now there was no like you know breaking or anything you know

which I was no we uh you know 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 of them 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 [ __ ] this SketchUp that's really the professionalism around

there where we were like that's why no one wanted to break because Lauren was against it and then you knew the cast

was like no we take this here we want these things to work as is yeah or or not and like unfrozen was he had a lot

of dialogue and [ __ ] but I think he loved that so much I like that it was one of those that was so weird Anna 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 can you prepare for things because

he what 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 oh whoa and we could watch old dress rehearsals and things

like that wow so I was cool yeah they can go through all that stuff and I would go

Dana and no Hartman had so much heavy lifting in those shelves 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 bass line and play it so real whether it's anger

or whatever um I just want to say one thing just personally about unfrozen caveman lawyer

when I was on the Sound Stage 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 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 do ways confuse

me in fact I am but a simple okay yeah the way that this caveman was using it

the caveman the curry favor from a jury but that he was full of [ __ ] he goes I

want to jump out of my BMW and run out wood whatever like what is this I like

Gringos or whatever yeah sometimes uh at toward the end of the sketch she goes

because again I'm a caveman the world friends and confusing

sure sure yeah goddamn and then monsters in

my house like 20 million yeah

in punitive damages he knows those words dead bill was Jack

Handy ever sending in sketches when you were there

Jack Handy was a 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 the sketch the one they always

talked about was giant businessman let's talk about where where Phil was a giant

remember this [Music]

he's in like a little doll house like in an apartment and people next door it's like a punk band or something

they're playing and he goes down the hallway and he's huge and he knocks on

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

[ __ ] him and then he goes back to his apartment he picks up a tiny telephone and he goes

Action Program and that was the sketch that was it

so him being a giant and being a businessman had nothing to do with any

yeah that's that's like Downy and yeah that was like like Al Frankenstein 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 texting me yesterday and he just says uh

because 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 sized deer heads one of the greatest sketches ever deer heads yes

it's one of the best sketches of all and he sent a clip from it I'm like yes

or he's like this I shot this dear this is an idea it was like a deer then like a smaller deer

in a Tim was like a tumbler of scotch and he's like here's a deer I killed and here's a smaller teacher there's another

Dairy kill it's not as big as that deer and here's the point where it's like

like a hamster that cut its head off when I put antlers [Laughter]

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 sketches he goes now can you can you get

your camera in there you see that little it's like a petri dish and it's like you see a little dot

over in the corner that's a deer and I think with the right technology I could cut its head off

well I need it fresh enough and he goes over to the bar and then yeah big crumbly been her letters and parto's

voice this has been an insane idiot and his descending collection of deer head this is

I'm gonna have to look at that after we finish this fight that whole Harvey Keitel episode is pretty amazing it's

like very funny that's the uh Kevin Nealon is the bathroom attendant is that that one I think that one and then

there's the one where there's Subway announcers and they're just like

foreign

[Laughter] God damn great New York dramatic actors

can kick ass on that show but yeah but Hartman was Phil Hartman

was always the guy that I just I don't know I was just always so um yeah it was just like kind of talking

about just after the professionalism and the the ease in which he did everything he just seemed so confident

you know and so yeah 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 you're

your rhythm is kind of driving the sketch like if you're slowing down then

everything's gonna 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 you know and that you can actually make that funny by having like

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 you know and everybody can't be insane you know and then once after and

then there's things like as people get to know you then like 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 like a weird

personality you know but you couldn't do that out of the gate I Lauren would tell

me that he's like they gotta get to know you first mm-hmm then no it's something different then

you can start messing with the thing but you gotta 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 the straight guy and then

so that's why when like unfrozen Cayman lawyer or annually pretended Chef or you

know or uh when he played peer Graves you know and he goes oh right you know

that stuff like that was it was unbelievable played Andy Griffith we found out yesterday I forgot about Andy

Griffith during his Ritz cracker phase or something that's was what Smiggle

said it's Ritz cracker like um yeah I'm good I don't know what it is

like yeah yeah I don't know deadly Squad about Lauren

you know SNL there were people last thoughts the office was insane like

smiggle's office the amount of chaos and then Phil's office was meticulous with

different stations of uh flag colors 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 uh he was a pilot he had

boats he had 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 because remember Tom Hanks telling me that he remembered The Fill at table reads and like under the table would

have like a fly fishing uh magazine yes it's so easy for him looking down so

non-stressed about it being an 80s sketches yeah that's wild they calmed me

down I mean I would come out to 8h with nerves and when I saw Phil in his costume you finally we're going

for this it would definitely be a calming effect which was he you 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 you I was like you like which is very well you know but but I was more like like I was very nervous and you'd see

those people for me it was always like Amy Poehler or uh Fred Armisen could literally be

sitting there having a chat with somebody and then go oh hold on and then do kill on a sketch and I go right back and

go yes anyway whatever I was saying and you know like I don't know I need to do that

losing my mind was Phil uh did was he like ever

um how is he I don't know if you can do this on the show but I'm just curious how was he with a weak post

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 a 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 I think that's the way I would see him not getting frustrated yeah because his his interests were so vast

and he also was doing his Stars Saturday Night Live okay he was a fisherman or no

pilot I mean 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 I'd look I'm too I can't go fly with you in the single engine plane he got it but

um yeah in in certain situations yeah he would he would definitely get it get we once I

said this before but we 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 90s 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 gear sometimes 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 is pretty he says I can do any accent any accident

at all just tell me they go and I could I forget what it was but he says I can

do uh he does German he goes like any accent and then someone says up French

and he goes I don't do a friend did

well he'd been at Groundlings 11 years and he 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 voice over work he owned a house you know we just found

this out he was like did you feel like when you started the show and he came on he was like like an adult

yeah you know what I mean like oh [ __ ] 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 uh right away exactly 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 uh red balloon well let me let

me get to the question first sir and then a red balloon would appear and so that was I'd never done sketch comedy so

being with Phil and Jan they just lifted me up because I was just crazy nervous you know yeah 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

yeah it was friendly and supportive it was more Dana was like an older brother and uh 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 Conan's 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 you'd go home

come back you didn't he didn't stay up and right was did he at all if he did

write like if he wrote mace or maybe he helped on um he did write sometimes but most of the time I didn't see him until

you know read-throughs then 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 also tight energy and he was like hey

fellas 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 you know but he uh he also did all his business

when you know 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 you don't even open it up yes and he was

just extremely organized and and hard-working about you know memorizing things and knowing where he was going

it's like maybe that calmed him down a lot I mean he's probably the first guy knew that had a house yeah yeah I mean

Dana said that it's so true it's like I knew guys that owned cars but I didn't

don't think any of my friends own a house yeah he was kind of my friend that's that's like a rich thing that I didn't

have yet no one had that yeah yeah I it's funny hearing that he didn't

um he just must have been like the perfect guy to like all you guys but it was just like oh I could bring him in

there like when you're writing it's like oh we just have this this guy who it will can do anything and

be totally fine playing the you know the straight guy the the dad he's walking by

you by the piano in the writer's room at read through day and he's breezing and you're like hey Phil you're rushing in

mine okay yeah

yeah yeah I got that one I mean he was he was famous he was a rock star according to

John Lovitz and I'm sure it's true at the Groundlings yeah you know um just just Infamous just as the guy

the go-to guy um 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's like you're just you're going to SNL and you see all your guys pictures

up in the wall up on 17 it's like everybody who's been on the show and you're like Jesus it's like 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 like just so you know constantly reminded

because of my this is on your this is the lineage you got to keep going I'm seeing you guys and still and

you know Bill Murray and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and Ryan Newman and Kurt

and all these you know Jan Hooks and everybody and you're just like oh my God yeah how do you do this and so I

um but yeah I am 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 well that was like kind of the first you know I'm

talking Mike Shoemaker and being like oh when did you start here and when I do the math I'm like well what was so hard in my you know yeah love it came and did

a bit on your show Dana and I asked you know talked to him about him and yeah yeah yeah we we miss him and he's he's

uh just a brilliant brilliant guy and it's fun to be around someone who just loves Hobbies

is passion 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 them 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 tie knots and I haven't said this but it was just

sort of a weird thing we went on a sailboat in first time I'm on a sailboat so he's

showing me how we're doing it it's like I don't know if 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 it's like The Great Gatsby or something and then we look and there's these plumes of smoke rising from LA

what the hell is this so we come in 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 gonna be doing I go grinding my teeth I don't know freaking

the [ __ ] out because we're coming back yeah crossing my fingers I can make

mouthpieces for you I've got a little workshop in my garage

I bet a simple sketch player what are you a medium

balsa wood I forgot mace mace was the Batman amazing

batman Apple rotten to the Core [Laughter]

okay all right thanks thanks Bill thanks for coming on Bill hater everybody nice

to see you buddy thank you guys

next up is Shari Oteri who's also an All-Star growling 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 you're of we've done like a hundred of them as far as the reaction

yeah that's called number one no no no 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

and oh shario Terry I mean yo yeah I I would say number one I don't know there's no pressure on you today it's a

little you know it's you don't have to do it but it's kind of nice to be number one I mean I'm Blown Away by that

was so hesitant I said I I was really hesitant and um it ended

up being so fun and so for us too and I'm like

where we went with it I would have never guessed in a million years I was all you

it's just you put out all that fun energy so it just it makes it easy you know wow it really pays to be alone lot

you remember David 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 it we just we're talking to Mike Myers and if you look at all our backdrops you couldn't tell anyone has

any money [Laughter] all white boring I know I gotta 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 he did a song Young hair get out of my head you you belong in a

cradle bed you better run there you're much too young hair sorry I'm not a

singer sharer you can sing oh yeah what uh yeah it's like some classic

um yeah that's it

you're much too young girl you're much too young girl oh that's all you're in

Stevens no Sherry a lot of those old songs were

like you're 16. you're kind of a little young for me

and you know what I mean what do you mean it's just 17 you know what I mean he goes no in the song I'm 17 you're

like I know but you're an adult singing it we don't like no he 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 worked

together with all her bandmates Sherry or Terry remember you did the cheerleaders with will do you remember

that Sherry 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 it was like um I'm gonna need my legs uh

to hit the floor for this and he goes I'm gonna operate you like a puppet

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 f-95 live we're

gonna try to get Sherry out of her shell today uh Sherry oh Terry was that was

that intentional whoever named you it was always pronounced Sherry otiri

mine I pronounce it oh I've been saying oh Terry for yeah

everyone does it's too late yeah as soon as I move to La you know people said oh

Jerry because why wouldn't it be pronounced that way if Sherry is ERI

yeah but you know but I never said oh

Terry but then when I was got SNL and I remember I first 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 I love that he introduced himself with that voice as if you wouldn't know and he said Jerry

um 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 up the tongue and did he did he do it did he say it

yes yes 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 correct anybody I you know

what I mean yeah but yeah the rhyme was uh nice but that didn't happen until I moved to LA I like it Sherry you were so

wonderful on the show but we we're calling you again because Phil Hartman who I don't uh we don't even think you

knew well because it was a different time but you were someone I think was probably either influenced or oh my gosh

he to me was like a dramatic that did comedy

[Laughter] Bob Barker over there

um I've got uh but I remembered when I first walked into the Groundlings ever in the early 90s and everybody's head

shots were on the wall and the first two headshots I saw were Phil Hartman and

Paul Rubens oh and 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 it's 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 and 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 or houses like you know studio apartments yeah and you're just [ __ ]

around and writing and being creative and the pictures of them being so young

where it just made my eyes cheer 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 Ally 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 uh Groundlings to people's playhouse and then at that time they were both you

know at like the height of their success I would say [Music] um 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 love

it's the two of them yes yes they could go they could go 40s so so easily you

know yes and he was just don't solid in every way I mean it was I think

it was Jan Hooks who just said that he was the blue to the to the cast at that time sure yeah and Jan was the other

clue my God Jan was another yeah I mean she's a song Hero I'm not gonna say unsung because everyone knows I love Jan

it's unreal it's just oh yeah uh yeah I would say um Jen and

Nora I mean they both had care I mean of course the Sweden sisters Sweeney sisters

it's uh Pat you know she had the talk show that cracked me up oh yeah um but

oh God I got to meet Jan and that was really exciting but um and then I just was thinking about

between all the voices they did on The Simpsons you had

news radio you I mean and then what he did on SNL between like Frankenstein and

like Ed McMahon and um but the funniest thing that I love

that he did was uh oh two things was um uh the the caveman unfrozen Cake Man

lawyer um how you who thought Howie thought I'm gonna put a pair a lawyer with a

neanderthal and it just Jack Jack Handy Jack Handy

really we haven't done this yet on on our our special show but would you like to hear a clip from unfrozen caveman

lawyer yeah that's like 30 seconds all right Greg cue that up and we'll that'll be fun to hear

could you give me another drink [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] I'm mad and I'm frightened by your

strange flying machine so get me another deuce and water printer we got a lot of

Clips but yeah I I hadn't seen that one him playing the the lawyer wasted on an

airplane I mean he was so like um

uh what's the word um it just was so like sarcastic and it

just cracked me but and I love the Zed big man um that stupid laugh that he he did as

Ed McMahon he was so condescending as the caveman and like a condescending

caveman he's just like what in the world to me perfectly and played perfectly

written perfectly and um but my favorite was how we did Frank Sinatra as such a

dick

it made me laugh so hard like I wanted more sketches with him being so I

expected so when he hosted the show as you know when I was on I was so excited

and um so I was a little shy because I was I was pretty excited and um I just

thought he was such a pro and so Molly and I were doing leg up with Ann Miller

and Debbie Reynolds yeah and it was like oh my gosh we got to do this with him

and Frank Sinatra it was so funny he was

just like that like just such a dick um that's Frank and um it's just talking

down to you as Dames or something yeah and Broad days and everything but like I

mean we held our own we held our own but it was um uh you know

um but one of it was just so funny and I remember when we first wrote

leg up Lauren called me in his office and he goes Sherry

uh what demographic are you going for because it was for people who don't know

it was too 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 what's my demo of this sketch yes and I

and I uh when he said and he was serious and he waited for me to respond I went I 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 uh and I said well maybe

it I think even if they don't know who they are they they still might think

it's funny and then he was just crying he just was like um 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 Phil 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

because you know you look up to the guy and he where did you meet him in that Monday meeting or where do you meet him yeah yeah yeah yeah

um you know a lot of times I 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 oh you'd save it no it was just too intimidating

it was scary you know I just did what it was going to do and next you know I see yeah I never tried to

make it funny I think I might have just said uh we're thinking of doing a leg up with uh

um Phyllis Frank that's Frank Sinatra okay all right Chris Parnell

oh 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

yeah it was like please next next get off me yeah get off me oh because the

host is staring at you Lauren's staring you and every [ __ ] person that remembers 30 people going that's it uh I

didn't even care truly I didn't care I just I just wanted to be done with me

but um and then he did whatever else did I love it he did the anal retentive Chef right you know

I mean uh I mean and all the sentencing characters it's

like I would have loved his career you know because there was just fun there

was just so many things that he could do and he was doing you know animated

voiceovers um he had that amazing voice like Chris Parnell has that kind of voice that

radio voice and that owns her yeah and of course and then he goes does news radio yeah you know I mean what a varied

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 see even this was 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 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 bro from Ross Perot yes I know you did I

can't claim it I mean I 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 Brown can I finish one time but uh 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 you can't 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 I with that's what I did with Barbara

Walters I was just kind of like how can I have a different take on her uh

um 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 is

adorable and Brilliant she had her own take blah but yours yours is kind of extraordinary because 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 no can I tell you a story the the um I was all ready to do Barbara this

past New Year's Eve um promoting her own podcast from stature to the streets brought to you by

Dulcolax odd 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 and all

that stuff she was going to have her podcast and then she was going to compare the rappers to who they were

like in her day you know like Takashi six nine

um oh and I say something about a um Spanish Rebel was you know increasing

Trinity Lopez okay truly I was you know we'll go from

Lizard Eliza from uh I've had them all paired up yeah like

who would be um the older equivalent I think it worked too it was yeah and like I did

from from Styles Harry Styles and sadaka um yeah I mean so I did this whole thing

and I had um the pictures up and uh of the both of

them next to whoever I was pairing up with each other and um 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 uh-huh and I said wow

what who Sherry I I'm telling you it was five

minutes later I go down to meet my friend and Barbara just passed hmm and

I just weld up it didn't feel real

mm-hmm and I'm like I I was in such

shock you know that the timing and everything

um 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 ad into and so I could see

her doing a podcast yeah of course you know what I mean absolutely um yeah she was driven driven driven oh yeah I mean

she kept up with you know um

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 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 uh Sherry we're gonna 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 gonna have her background information it's the personal thing that

not everybody is gonna have and you have a personal connection you know to her

and um so I did and I thought to myself

um 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 greed 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 to sometimes when you do

impressions of people and then they pass and you know people want to talk yeah and so many people you know they're

grieving it's and it was their think of you yeah I mean I grew up you know she was in my my whole

television watching from ever since I was a kid and be doing her as an adult

like that it's crazy and um 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 I have a picture of me and her because

she did a spin-off show called uh the nine most uninteresting people of

2006. no I was it was one of those interesting shows I made some cut She interviewed

like seven people you know what I mean and uh 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 and then she wrote my mom a note just 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 God

that's sweet that is so sweet like the teacher David did good yeah that was

what she was this you got a sticker you got a Barbara this guy's gonna 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 um but I see potential

um anyway Sherry we will jump off all right 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 I

love that you saw Phil you got to work with them yeah oh it was like show with them yeah from the first day walking in

for the first time ever at the Groundlings and seeing his picture and then seeing a muscle and then

doing a sketch with him on us now it was like wow this has come full circle yeah

you know my journey uh with Phil he really was inspiring

up next is Conan O'Brien we all know and love and uh Conan who worked to sell on the show and he also worked with them a

lot on The Simpsons which we get into Conan Europe 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 uh yeah we we uh I wrote an episode uh 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 fill role because Phil did a lot of

great voices on The Simpsons and uh 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

uh 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 uh and he

he played a character also called Troy McClure on The Simpsons he's just yes he played a few great characters but

uh I was very fortunate because I wrote this part for him and he could do it and uh 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 uh just rock it 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 uh 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 or yes yes

there's a part where basically as the music man tried to sell uh the episode starts out as kind of a music man parody

and then uh the the second half of it is a um Erwin Allen Disaster Movie parody

uh and um but the first part is Lila 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 uh uh 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 it's smooth characters

yeah so good at kind of saying hey I can help you out here I'm Lyle Langley and

you know uh and then he basically he tells them what you guys want is a monorail which and I 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 talks sings a song about the uh about

the monorail and You Know It uh you know and it's uh 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 uh 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 uh had a Big Show at the Hollywood Bowl

and Matt Groening and James L Brooks asked me and and The Simpsons writer

said hey Conan would you come back and sing the monorail song at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Game Men's Choir

and the answer to that is yes oh and I remember that event yeah I

didn't go to I remember that it was huge that was really fun it was really fun and it was one of those uh moments where

you just you get to take your long thin spoon and pick the 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 we did it twice we did

two shows you get a nice score and it's just it's the [ __ ] Hollywood Bowl and it was it was very nice to just because

obviously I did it was just a channel fill as best I could uh did you did you

dress up like the his character yeah they got me the uh the the suit the

white 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 it's a prized possession because it looks like wow Conan had a very successful career in Vaudeville uh so

that makes me happy but um yeah it's yeah I have to say I you

know I'm happy you guys are talking about Phil but he is one of those people that uh all these years later it's still

surreal to me that he's not with us because he's he's such an indelible character you

know such an indelible person and it's yeah and so he's one of those people that I 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 I just haven't seen him for a while

but he's here uh because I I do think if you're talking about util 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 uh 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

Frankenstein the boyfriend uh you know the jealous weirdo I mean the caveman

yeah like you cannot and he used to game show himself the game show host uh the

Upper Crust CAD the Upper Crust cat 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 it'd be like I'm

the father greeting the young punk at the door come on in son and I'm gonna talk to you and then he's the young punk

at the door in a leather jacket in 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 Kona when you do this The Simpsons going back to that for one

second if 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

uh 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 uh funny about that episode is I wrote a

cameo in it for George Takei and uh George Takei because at the second

half all these celebrities get invited on the monorail which has been cheaply made and it's bound to uh self-destruct

and go haywire and uh yeah and so I wanted George Takei who I was obsessed with and George Takei said no and it's

The Simpsons and it's The Simpsons uh let me point out it's the citizens in 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

I'm on the oh 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 uh algene uh told the Bookers to

reach out to someone else so they came back and they said Leonard Nimoy will do it and I said what yeah that's fantastic

he outranks he outranks

yeah so I got to go to a recording studio and there was Leonard Nimoy and he uh

he did it and said one of my favorite exchanges which is at the end when after there's all this Carnage and everything

uh there's just a close-up of Leonard Des Moines he says well my work here is

done and Barney the drunk goes you didn't do anything because and and

Leonard Nimoy says didn't I and then beams out and uh it's just so stupid and

sounds like love it yeah that's where dead money 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 we all do things

and we're drunk that we regret yeah I'm sure you regretted that one and uh we

were talking to Alec Baldwin about you were there for remember green hilly that was a funny one I always talk about oh

yeah remind me about green Hillary Alex first show and he the music would swell up and

he he kissed someone and then someone else comes in and Barge is in his wife

comes in and and says what are you doing then he kisses her the music comes up and then Phil Phil comes in and breaks

him up Gatsby yeah yeah put up your dukes

was this a Jack Handy do you think or like a gym Downey it sounds like that I don't think it was quite enough to be a

Jack Handy but then he kisses uh I think Nora and then Phil says that's my wife sir and then they turn on

they go to fisticuffs and then they gaze into the eyes then they kiss yeah nice

and then a dog is outside and everyone goes oh boy and he kisses

the dog but uh really goes for it no that's uh that's actually Alec but Phil and Alec Alec remembered that one and um

it is funny there was one 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 um what 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 when he hosted yes oh it was oh yeah when he went back I just saw that this

weekend and I was like God damn 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 ask 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 Fill exterior and what I my memory my biggest memory of Phil was uh I'd be

with Odin Kirk and Smigel and you know uh Greg Daniels and we'd be working on

something and Phil would come rushing in he didn't see us and he'd go keep them flying boys keep them flying

and you'll 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 him flying there kid I don't know I could never crack through

yeah that guy but uh he was uh I think it just made him laugh you know yeah

hey it is hey fellas you're walking that writer's room and there's no one there and he

goes he's reading uh you know fisherman weekly in the nighttime goes David Spade letting everyone know who's boss

and then he goes back to his magazine I go I remember I went skiing once it was

one of those weird occasions where I forget what why this happened but I'm with a couple of other writers and

we decide to go skiing in some small hill like outside New York City like

tiny Hill but we're desperate to go skiing and uh I forget what happened but I think one of the writers wiped out and

we were standing around the writer uh trying to saying like hey are you okay 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 were 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 and then take off do you want a Hydra plane on the dinner break yeah exactly so did he have a ski

suit on that was very looked very of course together like one color or something yeah it was 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 yeah and uh you know wearing a t-shirt that I probably had in high school and he's he's just I had

never seen anyone look because people don't look like that in New England maybe they do now but but I had never

seen it growing up everyone just looked like [ __ ] when they were skiing and there was a rope pull and then Here

Comes this guy who looks like he's in the Olympics and uh fellas all right you know when I think

if we had said well it's Robert Smigel he wiped out and we think he's dead no that sounds rough keep them flying boy

he's got a broken femur I'm gonna I'm gonna use that 2023. keep

him flying boys it really means nothing it's funniest part it's very positive

keep on keep it on yeah so Troy McClure was basic that was the one I think most

people know and I know the monorail was was I guess a one-off of just a one of

the most memorable ones um it was a it was you know Troy McClure was great and what was he what was Troy McClure

McClure was always doing the weatherman yeah no Troy McClure was always a

spokesperson so whenever they showed any kind of right right film 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 uh

he was fantastic it was great it was a great running character and then um you know they did the right thing when Phil

died they they retired Troy McClure because obviously it's it's animation they could have tried to get someone

else to do it because it was such a great go-to but uh of course that wasn't didn't it

wouldn't have sat right with anybody so uh you know when I just said it 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 uh by heart and

um but 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 uh 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 which quickly disappeared anyway the important thing is that he uh

he knows all the episodes and loves Troy McClure and 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 trying 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 the table immediately and get to the jokes yeah yeah no it's 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 you know uh wow that was nasty hey I'm

exactly we just don't do that Curiosity I mean I don't I just 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 uh it's different I

would say less was funny because um eventually I found it to be less

stressful I mean I loved SNL it was like you know just really the defining

time of my youth but I as you guys know it's also terrifying uh and

um and it can there's a lot of pressure and one of the things that I appreciated

about The Simpsons was everybody's working together uh 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 um and then suddenly at um 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 uh of land in a very small country uh

I'm taking that too far but like say Israel and uh and so uh and so it's it's

keep going and let's just say you want to be near the sea but that's the that's the West

Bank um no but so what what gets tricky is that you know that can get there

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 ores in the same direction because 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 because it was such a crazily powerful writing room but

uh eventually I started to see the advantages of that kind of work which is individually you don't feel as much uh

personal uh 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 yeah you might have

heard something just similar in lines 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 that's yeah well I think what yeah it you know you pitch the ideas uh and if the idea gets chosen

then eventually you get to write up a first draft Yeah and then everybody jumps in but uh man when everybody jumps

in and you have um all that horsepower behind you making the show just better and better and

better uh it's 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 uh let's let's hang out soon at one of those meals where we just make fun of each other let's go to our

our favorite you know kind of Japanese style Place let's do it I'll see you on the text chain hang out all right peace

out thank you 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 we're going to do this like every six weeks what are we gonna do yeah okay my consultant my am I a featured guest you

are really you're the uh I guess well yeah I mean it's so now I just keep coming back we have to have you

underneath it's flying the wall with us and then you're just underneath

did you just say Lamb Chop what'd you say yeah

the fake eyelashes I'm like is this [ __ ] lamb shop again what's happening Lamb Chop Sherry Lewis 1965. I love that

show uh old 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 of their all upset you know

they all seem pretty Grim in a circle and I walk up and I go what's going on fellas and and the star was this veteran

veteran actor who wore a lot of makeup he wore a lot you know three four pounds of makeup every day he had like a lot of

makeup and I said uh tell us what's the matter because well we looked into 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 remember speaking speaking of not wearing makeup I've always felt that Hartman

and jerk the wheel this way now Hartman drink it back it's Johnny Segway ladies

and gentlemen Hartman uh uh 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 cave man I'll just make myself look like a cape

like Altered States you go into a deprivation tank and come out looking like a kid that's like when he did

Charlton Heston he just completely the cave Charlie guys fellas had we've been

here for that I can't do it but he became he became Chuck Heston that was

part of his bag of tricks the chameleon the Everyman the glue and

uh you mentioned him uh a few weeks ago you brought him up spontaneously when we

were we did our he was uh he was you know the better uh I wouldn't say that better but a distinctive group of people

not just SNL veterans and alums but other people in the comedy world they're

they're they're good actors as well you know they they're not just stand-up talent and improv talent and sketch

comedy Talent where easy easy yeah I was gonna say because those people are [ __ ] [ __ ] they're [ __ ] god

awful you got to cut around them it's like you don't know what there's the Emmy for

editing right there when you have those people on board but um but but no Harmon was a good actor he would because like

he would play off of you he'd let what you say affect him or as I worked with

some comedy people where they're just staring at you winding up they're waiting they're ready they're it's like

they're winding up a pitch to deliver their next line they're like a glaze in their eyes they're just like are you done with your

line are you done with your life note to self do not have a glaze look in your eyes when doing Saturday Night Live

um 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

yeah he was uh and he he was it was like weird guys who they

would go moment to moment with you uh Meadows would do that Meadows was really good moment to moment like he was

waiting like he left things you say affect him whereas uh not just this has

nothing to do with SNL or comedy performers but this actress I've worked with where

you know whatever your line is they just immunized 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 Actors Studio

still around I mean because you'd be a good host of that I am uh um the

co-president of the Actors Studio with Ellen bursten and Pacino I knew something was going on with them

somebody in your research gave you that UT that was teed up a little too so I don't know that was no research that was

just intuiting the way you talked about acting just now but basically to go full circle uh the thing about Phil is that

he was a great actor and and a brilliant sketch player he could do both

and um we can play a clip do if I mentioned something yeah they're just kind of

these sketches Frank Sinatra Frankenstein

um you and he played lovers in a sketch I don't know if it's just more videos

oh is that green hilly that's where I kissed the dog in there I stick my tongue in the dog's mouth Alec you got

didn't you get an Emmy for that show I got an Emmy for green for that sketch on my I'm exactly it

says for green hilly no well I remember I would use green hilly 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 [ __ ] cleaned the clock you were every sketch was pretty

funny in that show and I didn't know how good I had it because some hosts come in and you know shows

are uneven but that one it was green hilly was and the music comes up and then you kiss them yeah somebody then

you get and the music comes up and then you kiss someone else you also did the um the soap opera That Couldn't guy they

couldn't say the words right yes you have canker of the Ace of Faith exactly we've said canker for three years

should we look at green hilly I think we have let's do you have the clip from Green hilly just because I talked

to defend yourself Mr cherry wood if that's your real name oh oh

[Music] [Applause]

[Laughter]

my favorite though is when he's in the courtroom when he's in the courtroom yeah he says so and he says you know I

was I fell into a crew that your ways are strange

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 no way is this strange the um 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 uh did he hang yeah he hung out a lot him yeah we were all

friends him and uh his wife Bren and love it my wife and love it and we live

close to each other after the show and 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 so 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 on the show than he was as a as a just playing the

straight man when he wanted to you know he was just also like a really warm guy

there's people I worked with who um I mean this is they're very rare but

they're they have certain kind of insecurities so when you're around them the whole dynamic is what I call log

rolling I mean I'm like you're gonna go in the water you know they're just more clever than you ever could imagine and

and they're very kind of uh shy or awkward and or

they're just not uh uh they 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 and West Hollywood yeah did you play in Orbeez 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 uh like a penthouse on top of a building

near like Holloway like near Barney's Beanery in that area right in the that

Ridge on uh off of uh Sunset and he and his wife you come in and they literally it was like you could only buy a hundred

dollars 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 Coca-Cola and he had like Jujubes he had

like uh you know like he had like candy yeah exactly it was it was like

Eminem's it was like flight attendants walking around like you're on Southwest Airlines

and he had nothing I mean and the famous people that would come to this game it was unbelievable

you know uh Harvey Corman 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 but thought I would ever run into he's in a white jumpsuit I

mean a China White not a cream it's like his white as Spades walls his jumpsuit

is white and like he's in some like he's in some FBI forensic teams come into detox uh

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 gonna go for it I mean and

it's got to be done well and I'm not that funny quite frankly but I I just went for it and I it was my turn to turn

over my cards and I was like you know I I have three of a kind

and he looked at me with this look in his eyes like okay okay that's okay I I

knew it was coming that's okay I wasn't sure I wasn't sure it was going to be you but okay that's that's okay and uh

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 feel do you see that have you seen that sure oh yeah or even

extract the comedy out I would say that Phil had I 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 with Phil 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 uh 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 this is an inverse proportion that the more talented and witty and and good writers they are and

clever they are not just doing uh 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 yeah Phil was this amazing he was Charming he was

really charming and he you know because when I would when you meet people on a

movie set or a TV show uh 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 treating everyone exactly the same complete completely

just no you know what was sweet is when I was newer Dana um that first first year to I knew a little bit about

stand-up because I was a stand-up 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 and

I would have to go up to Someone Like You know even Alec if he came 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 and I wrote this

thing and you would play this guy and he goes sounds great and he goes tell me about it 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

and he actually got a big lap and then afterwards he goes hey thanks for that you know like it was all me it was a

very very sweet and just like pat on the back and kept you going knowing you were

all the new people probably freaking out he was um he was just sweetie I remember I'm obviously everybody knows that he

had this horrible ending but it's like kind of when I heard that I was really just so sick and I thought that doesn't

make that doesn't make sense but um he was really um listen I'm not saying this to butter you

up 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 Spain is going to throw up and I say this but my kids wanted to watch

Tommy Boy the other day no they're they're spayed it's a great

movie Spades playing a straight man there and I thought yep oh look at Spain he could have had a real serious acting if you're playing lawyers and bankers

and judges and doctors a good [ __ ] serious Spade no serious

fate the thing about Tommy Boy which I love which 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 gotta still hold up anyway I gotta run and go take I gotta go run and get no no you gave us plans

thank you okay thank you Alec thanks for doing this

up next Robert smigiel one of the uh 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 smile a friend of the podcast whose greatest show

that's the a friend of the podcast so means when we ask for favors he comes

home and so to remind our our fans that might be listening Robert

extraordinary writer wrote on the show from 86 till just last fall and

um 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 happen to be

tagging along I got there too and so did Jan Hooks and we were in the cold opening

um it's my first sketch well actually the first sketch the cold opening was Madonna

previous year was all a dream that's right she was the cold opening it

was coming off that very Rocky year with uh all these brilliant uh actors who

weren't necessarily sketch comics so so Robert so you this first time you'd seen Phil Hartman perform right

you knew he came from ground Lanes but well I mean I saw his audition in your audition and I think they're probably

the two most confident auditions in the history I must have faked it I don't know wow Dana David have you seen their

auditions 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 okay and yes if

not for like Dennis Miller and Lovitz and Whitney uh pushing for me Robert was

not Robert Smiggle yet he was just Robert and he wanted me to he wanted to

do an eragami sketch with Robin Leach that was their first [ __ ] to me I think

is that right it was a really funny I don't remember but um so I'm just interested so it's your second season

you see Phil Phil second season and I and well Phil and Dana and Anne 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 grounded she came from from the deep south

from from yeah from the Bonnie but but you guys were just so

expert at yeah 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 they're doing and it was your first show for being nervous yeah it's kind of yeah

I I'm sure you were faking it on some level Dana and I know God knows Jan was you know barely wanted to get out of

life but when we were out there with those two which I happened to after that with church chat they came out and did

these brilliant things and filled it Jimmy Swaggart 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 yeah so film 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 um

and and so like you know you came from stand up 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 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 it's so funny the way he

you know he had this incredible range as a as uh in in you know I mean like you

could do a million voices and but you you were always kind of light you know what I mean Dana

I have no idea what you're talking about Darius left I do think that for me

there's still I have a stand-up thing where you had to kill to keep the job

Spade would come in he'd Crush I have to top him and so then there was always like the

playful light energy yeah because I knew and stand up in these Rowdy bars at midnight that you had to right win them

over and make them really happy and so yeah at least the way I did it but uh yeah yeah and Phil and I were a great

combo uh along with Kevin everyone had a different we we did have a 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 uh cheerful superficial hello guys like you know like Peter Graves is

one of my favorite sketches in in all those years uh at SNL that I was at that's still one what was the take on

that and Phil yeah the Discover sketch where he

remember Phil remember that yeah uh he was for anybody who's over 60 like

Peter Graves hosted a show called oh yeah and then Phil did it and uh and

Phil played this cheerful kind of uh robotically uh you know

uh clueless Peter Graves and and he wrote them himself and it was very

deadpan and it was but then then he could turn on a diamond play like the mace character right you know the the