hi I'm Barbara Gaines this is our friend Dave hi how are you Mary's not here where is Mary she's
uh On Assignment that's right she's on assignment I have a theory because uh it's Show Business and
I don't know that show business theories apply to life generally this is my theory uh one of
your programs that I happen to catch and by the way you know I can't stay up this late sure but
um you were talking about Brian tetta and how you were thinking of bringing him over to produce
your show which is in desperate need of production yeah I think it was you talking about it but yeah
I can't recall right uh but it's it's like is it too late for a CPR you know you go to the funeral
and it's an open casket is it too late for oh I guess that's kind of like your show in the best
sense of the expression but anyway here's what I'm saying here's what I suspicion is that Brian tetta
oh he got wind of us talking to you talking about hiring him over here then he started watching the
Barbara Gaines show he saw Mary he liked what he saw which is uh maybe the only thing you like what
you see when you watch this program right and then no offense to you by the way you do a great you do
a great why would I take offense yeah so here's my theory Brian saw Mary heard his name watched
the show saw Mary and has called her up and is probably right this very minute auditioning Mary
for a position on The View do I have proof no have I been in show business all my life yes so it's a
it's a strong possibility I think so wow yeah well we look forward to seeing Mary on The View well no
then you lose a valuable part of your own show you're not no then you engage in litigation and
and Sue uh Brian for every Nicholas worth oh I am so supportive of my of my people well look let's
just wait and see let's see if we if I'm right about any of this I could be delirious oh then you
could get oh maybe we arrange a trade right yes we get whoopee right oh this is brilliant brilliant
Walter nice going Walter all right yeah uh anyway speaking of family and Things We Lost a kind of
a family well this is very important to me very important to people who know things about comedy
in particular uh Bruce McCall uh passed away not sure of the man's age but it was very sad in his
80s we knew his daughter Amanda who worked with us on one of our shows Amanda McCall and knew of
his wife Polly and knew of the three of them as as family and adjunct to that I always thought that
Bruce McCall represented something very rarefied in the world of comedy and art and writing years
ago I came to know him because of National Lampoon published a Sunday supplement from the Dacron Ohio
newspaper and it was as funny and as tightly funny and as smart and crisp a parody as I've
ever seen and then it was later republished in a book that he did that I dearly love called zany
afternoons we love that place oh my God as one of two books that my son took with him to college
was zany afternoons and the other Adam resnick's book will not attend both great and those those
two books are I think maybe singularly if you can have two books representing a single impression
will make you laugh out loud and if you don't appreciate Bruce McCall and also Adam Resnick
luckily Adam did not pass away although check no I I've seen him recently oh yeah did you really
okay anyway those two books represent to me kind of a North star of Comedy so it was a great loss
and he he did several books zany afternoons Marvel town all foreign countries look like meat I'm
butchering the title no say it is something some something like that and then then this
one here which was was always a great thrill for me and a bit of an embarrassment and here's the
embarrassment Bruce McCall and David Letterman and and it was through Amanda that I suggested
this idea that wealthy people were buying up uh Wilderness land and turning it into peculiar
hobbies for themselves she took it to her father and her father like the idea of putting out a book
like this and I knew I was not going to really participate beyond that and and I didn't accept
that Amanda would bring in drawings that her father had done and I loved it because I got to
see the drawings and they smelled of tobacco cigar smoke because he when he was working on the book
he was still smoking cigars in their apartment and I found that one of many delightful aspects
of it but the reason that I kind of forced this issue was I just want another Bruce McCall book
because they're nothing but fun you know he was on the show oh yeah a few times he was on the show a
few times and he uh I think that the Lord taciturn uh uncomfortably taciturn and he's somewhere in
that between taciturn and uncomfortable and and I in awe of the guy so it looked like uh we are at
a workshop for beginning ventriloquists like the dummy wasn't right and the guy operating the dummy
wasn't right uh but they're hilarious because it was in those days neither of us really belonged
on television but anyway uh that's the reason for this and uh if if there were ever a second
printing I think I'd have my name taken off of there but I I loved the association with Amanda
and uh at arm's length working with her father and we were we were nominated for a Thurber prize
Bruce and I oh do you know who you didn't win no we didn't I forget who won but the person who won
you had to get up and give a little uh synopsis of your work and uh the the person who won game
it was like a sales pitch and it was eloquent and it was motivating and it was laughing and fun and
and then Bruce gets up and uh here we go and then you got a thing and that's all we got and then he
sits down and we're all what happened and by the way here's the other thing the New Yorker
magazine as you may know they were in such trouble financially and by the way from this point on none
of this is true I'm just making this up because I like how this sounds yeah uh the New York Magazine
almost went out of business and financially in great trouble and then Bruce McCall came along and
started illustrating covers for the magazine and I think he did 50 maybe not an exaggeration and then
they they became so successful the New Yorker that they were purchased by Readers Digest he brought
them back yes and from that point on to today uh they're still I think still purchased uh or Sports
Illustrated bought them and but it was thanks to Bruce McCall that they are still in business today
all right thanks for for watching and uh we'll see you soon we'll see you Labor Day right like these
lights always to follow me around oh brighter than the light's always here these yeah yeah