What led you to think that your dad maybe would have wanted to get into show business?

Well, first of all, he was funny.

He had a very active, strong sense of humor.

He would join organizations just so he could, like there were church groups that he would join at the church we attended, and he would become president of those church groups so he could be the center of attention, and he would always open with funny remarks.

He was a wonderful musician, but He could play the organ, the church organ, just sit down and play it.

And if anyone knows anything about these organs, it's like flying a helicopter.

Everything is busy.

you were very well into your career by the time you got clean.

Yeah.

And, uh, but eventually we came back, and I was still living with this trepidation that, "Well, this can't possibly go any better than the other one went." But, so you have that aside, and on the other hand, you have Bill Murray, and you think, "Oh, my God, who can't love Bill Murray?" So I had mixed emotions, and then the, the night of the show, I just felt fantastic.

And then that lasted, I, I guess till I, my, uh, feet hit the floor in the morning.

In those early days, it doesn't, a good show doesn't last particularly long as far as putting your fear to bed.

Well, that's right, but I don't know that we were doing a good show, Bill Murray excepted.

But we tried to be as unusual as possible, because nobody, there was nothing else on TV in those days.

It went away right after, uh, Johnny Carson.

So then we had this show, and we tried to make it as unusual as we possibly could because we knew- ... how many people actually watching? And they, and they said, "All right, we'll give you six weeks." So they gave us six weeks, and at the end of six weeks they said, "Okay, you can come back and do six more weeks." So through, through the first year, we were never certain beyond a month and a half or two months if we had a future.

Please

... it's fortuitous that I'm here today because m- much of this is new to me.

My dog, when, uh, we picked up my dogUh, tiny

We'll be right back.

Let me get my ham and get outta here.

[laughs]

It can-

Well, well also, you know, that, that I sort of felt that, um, you know, the, the, the show eats through a lot of ideas 'cause you're, you know, it's very idea-heavy, and we're doing, you know, five shows a week.

Or do we do four or five? I f- I try to remember.

We only did four because they had Friday night videos-

it feels like you, you might get a shot down the line.

My old manager, Jack Rollins, I can remember him sitting in a chair and he said, "Dave, these are, like, the material you're doing here is like a paper cup.

You just tear it up and throw it away." And as insulting as that might seem, it was factual, and, and the only way to live in that, uh, nonsense every night.

[laughs]

Come on.

You have to be careful because I don't know about you, but, uh, being a, uh, we have the one child and we spoiled the kid.

I can remember when he was six years old, one Christmas we got him a German shepherd.

And things, don't take anything for granted, turned out it was not a dog, it was just an old German guy who was a shepherd.

[laughs]

Now, this was a little older.

Okay, yeah, that, this is, this is killer.This was day one at the house, and there's nothing goofy about this picture other than it happened.

... we never saw him again.

Yeah.

I, I was sorry, he was, there was a fellow who was a, a, a comic of, uh, of some success, and he loved Johnny Carson, and he was out in Marina del Rey, uh, after the retirement, and Johnny's boat was anchored in a slip there at Marina del Rey.

And as he's walking down the dock, he sees Johnny in a chair on the dock reading the newspaper.

Well, now he's, he's crazed because, my God, there's Johnny, and he starts calling, "Johnny," bec- this is after Johnny has retired, and he, he wants an interaction with Johnny, and Johnny recognizes that he's being called, stands up, folds up the newspaper, and goes below decks.

[laughs]

Right

... because he wasn't an architect.

Um, tell us, um, tell us what you think about what happened last night to Jimmy Kimmel.

Well, this is, uh, a misery, and, uh, in, in, in, in the world of somebody who's an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship, sooner or later everyone is going to be touched.

But this is me for 30 years, I did this for a living, so I see this happen.

They took care of Colbert.

That was rude.

That was inexcusable.

The man deserves a great deal of credit.

Brendan Carr.

gang then?

Biker gang? Barrio.

Oh, okay.

Is that all right? Yeah.

Lowriders.

Yeah.

Okay.

Just work, work, work.

Did you enjoy poking fun at him, considering you're the hugest, or at least at the time, the biggest Colts fan on the planet?

Oh, boy.

Well, the thing about Mr. Belichick, he, you know, he's the walking Hall of Fame.

He's his own wing in the Hall of Fame.

And when you've achieved that level of success, you're going to be a target and you learn to live with it and take it and laugh at yourself.

And he was always pretty good at that.

The thing that I noticed that I was delighted by.

Two ears, one mouth, right?