Yeah, I thought she was beautiful
and she thought that I was taking up space.
(Deborah and audience laughing)
How did you guys meet?
Do you have a cute meet?
A meet cute?
Yeah, it's funny, your producer backstage,
tell the meet cute story.
I'd never heard-
I thought it was like maybe a very good looking steak.
I don't know.
(Deborah and audience laughing)
I didn't know what meet cute was.
Al, it's an old Hollywood term.
Yeah, it's an old Hollywood expression.
Do you have a cute story about how you met?
Well, we were working together
and Deborah's at NBC and I thought she was beautiful
and she thought that I was taking up space.
(Deborah and audience laughing)
So, she was assigned to go to the Olympics
and asked me because we were friends, so I was safe.
You were in the friend zone.
I was in the friend zone.
Oh, bad place to be.
Yeah well,
It's like being in the Phantom Zone in the Superman comic.
(Rachael laughing)
So, she said, "could you take care of my apartment?"
You know, water the plants, check the mail.
You were the house sitter?
I was literally-
The house sitter!
I was plant boy-
So I went
So, I go
and most guys would probably go look
in the bedroom.
I'm looking in the kitchen because I'm curious to see what-
So, I open the fridge and there's
like a bottle of champagne, an old piece of cheese
and a thing of Grey Poupon.
I don't know about Grey Poupon.
And I look in the pantry
and it's like, again, cobwebs, you know,
I mean like little tumbleweeds.
And then I thought, well, I wonder how dirty her oven is.
And I open, I open the oven.
There's still cardboard on the racks!
It's true!
The oven had never been used!
You know, it's a new oven. It was a new oven.
I said well why don't you just use this
for sweater storage.
So new meaning less than five years old.
Yes! So I thought, well, she's coming back.
So I stocked her fridge. I stocked the pantry
(Rachael and audience aww)
and I left flowers on the table and said, welcome home.
And then I got a date the next week.
There you go.
I broke outta the friend zone, baby!
You gotta ask the follow up to that honey.
So let's hear about the first date?
The first date, obviously.
You now, I have to tell you,
I don't even really remember all that.
And there you have it!
Wow! Thanks for coming everybody.
Because it feels like we've known each other forever.
That's why.
I don't think that cleans it up!
No.
We went out to a beautiful restaurant here in New York city.
Yes.
And it was a relatively new restaurant
and it felt very sparkly.
It felt very elegant.
It felt like, you know, New York city we're out on a date.
And I thought this is a really sweet guy.
So give him a shot.
Just at least give him a shot.
And I did.
And of course, you know.
30 years later
He won me over.
He won me over. Yes.
How did you guys get engaged?
How'd you pop the question?
Well, I had already planned a year ahead to do it.
A year?
A year
Oh man you're making me look bad Al!
Well I think it worked out okay!
Yeah, it did.
But, but I had planned a year ahead 'cause we were,
I wanted to do it at the Grand Canyon
'cause I was hosting at the time the Fiesta Bowl Parade.
And there's this, this hotel, the El Tovar.
Yes.
You have to book like, you know.
Forever.
Right. So I booked, but in the meantime,
Deborah, a number of her friends had already gotten engaged.
We were not engaged.
Yes.
And, and she, and she, my own sister told her, you know
you're gonna have to either to make him
Give him an ultimatum!
Or leave him!
[Rachael Yeah.
This is my own sister.
Because, because the year is ticking along
and I'm like, we've been talking about marriage.
I mean, I kind of think we're gonna do this.
I'm not getting any younger.
What are we doing?
So New Year's Eve came and went and she's
I was not happy.
We're having breakfast.
I was not happy.
So if one were to be expecting a ring,
when would one be expecting that?
I said, well, you know, no later than maybe Groundhogs Day.
Who knows when Groundhogs Day is?
I don't even know. No body knows when that is.
I was gonna break up with him.
I was actually going to break up with him.
No!
Yes! And I thought, okay,
we're gonna get through this New Year's Eve.
And that's it.
When we get back to New York done, I am done.
Yeah. So New Year's Day,
I'm driving like a bat out of hell
to get to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix.
And she said, I need to stop for the bathroom.
No, we can't stop! I got something to do!
He's a lunatic, I am, this guy's a lunatic.
I'm definitely breaking up with him.
So we got to the El Tovar,
we check in it's 17 degrees outside
'cause it's New Year's Day.
And I said, you know what? It's beautiful.
'Cause I wanted to do this at sunset, you know?
I said, let's go outside.
And she said no, not going.
No, no, I'm not going out with you.
I said, come on we have to go out.
And then you said
I said, you wanna break up with me?
That what's happening. You want to break up with me.
You're not breaking up with me!
Let's just go out.
So we went out and there was kids drinking beer
and finally they clear the area
and I dropped to my knee and I started babbling.
I thought he fell.
What is wrong? What is going on?
What is happening?
I actually helped,
I was trying to help him up.
And I get on the knee and I break out the ring,
and I asked her to marry me.
And I started crying and you know, it was beautiful.
It was beautiful.
(audience applause)