hello i'm tom Gammill i'm max pross and we were at the late night show from the very beginning
1982 through most of 1983 and then we left to work with lorne michaels on a short-lived show called
the new show which in research retrospect was not the best uh career choice right max you never know
it might get picked up again yeah but anyways we laid it on our feet don't worry about us folks
we've we've been working and the phone is ringing off the hook but anyways we did come back in 1985
and 86 to help uh dave with some films some short films one of them dave marries mrs hal gurney and
so there's some excellent acting by dave and paul and that says he can't eat tomatoes because of
a sensitive stomach but i think he just doesn't like my cooking doesn't like your cooking doesn't
like your cooking i remember we shot that at the francis tavern the oldest restaurant in new york
where george washington hung out and while we were shooting i remember dave just sitting at a table
having coffee with us thinking i can't believe it like george washington was here and now we're
doing this this is the saddest thing i've ever seen he was so he was so upset that we were like
shooting this crazy video at a historic monument and actually uh the bed scene
was shot there too upstairs yes yes dave in bed with her was shot in like a corner room of the
broncos tavern i think the next clip we want to talk about is something we did early in the show
it was at the very end of the show the show was over and we showed dave
saying goodbye to everybody yeah we love the idea that the show was like a traveling carny
and people who came to see it actually had to buy tickets and the voice of ms bill wendell was jude
hey we're on our way to a love in you want to come no thanks paul i'm going to just hang
around here clean up a little then hit the hay ah okay have fun though good night paul
see you there hiram love you bro well i love you too will i miss you see i
not that dumb i don't know these new york audiences are so messy cause this place
was spotless this afternoon it was just look at this i'll let the crew clean up tomorrow i gotta
hit the hay and get some shut eye good night mr melvin good night dave
dave when do i go on i'm dr arlene ginder the edible plants uh specialist
oh yeah gee i'm i'm sorry we uh you know just ran out of time and you got bumped uh we'll have you
on again really soon though uh maybe tomorrow okay i'll wait just oh wait right here okay
how'd we do i did not bad we almost broke even yeah selling any lemonade that's not
going three weeks not much i don't know i thought the heat and all you know we'd
sell it stuff i think we're gonna try cookies okay good night barry okay one eight lemonade
no that's all right knock yourself out uh see you hal hi dave good night
good night paul
i wonder when john chancellor is getting back from vacations it's been quite a while oh
damn neighborhood kids messing with my flowers again oh hi neighbor hi bill how's it going
hey those little kids around here have a trash your garden no are they pretty much
leave me alone bill yeah oh incidentally could i borrow the charcoal grill oh sure
take the coals and the starter it's all yours anytime that's very kind
thanks very much lawn looks great i did a lot of work on it i know you have bill thank you
good night good night get in here and go to bed paul and jane it's a lovely woman okay
well andy kaufman and the plant lady yeah we'll have her on real soon
oh big show tomorrow what do we got a boxer and a music guy yeah yeah a lot of work there
lights out mr letterman oh yeah sure this stupid network all these damn rules
and another thing wendell how come you never get to host the show
at least mcmahon gets to sit on the couch i wish they'd buy a trailer
when the show started i would call my parents and i'd say did you watch a show last night and
they'd say yes i go well what do you like about it and there'd be a long silence and then they'd say
we liked when we saw your name but here's a piece they like because i was in an elevator etiquette
very early on in the show written by meryl marco when you live or work in new york city
there is one thing you can be sure of you're going to have to spend a lot of time riding
elevators and with any form of transportation your ride will be a lot more pleasant
your ride will be a lot more pleasant if you learn the rules of elevator etiquette
for example when you first get on board the elevator it's perfectly acceptable to
introduce yourself to the other passengers give your name and your floor hi i'm david letterman
14th floor marie o'donnell seventh floor oh seventh floor that's the commissary floor and i
i guess it's very nice this time of day isn't it yes it is 14th floor is nice too
hi tom gamble second floor tom gamble second floor what a wimp couldn't walk up a flight of stairs
every elevator car comes equipped with a standard electrical outlet
why is it there you're asking yourself well for your personal use take advantage of it dry
now of course the topic of elevator music is it proper to ask someone to dance
you bet but be considerate always take into account their floor destination care to dance oh
i guess so uh but only until the sixth floor fine be delighted to the elevator is a wonderful way to
make new friends and isn't that what traveling is all about don't mind me i'll just dance by myself
sure good idea when uh the late night started uh alec baldwin was an actor on a soap opera
called the doctors and my wife then girlfriend sandy gillis had worked on the doctors before
she got promoted to receptionists at late night alec waldron would come up and sit in the lobby
visiting my wife sandy but it was clear he wanted to get on the show and i remember one
day dave came into our office and said why is that handsome man with a shirt on button
talking to your girlfriend and i said tom button your shirt please and we said don't worry sir uh
that's uh alec waldron he's gonna be big one of these days and it was jim downey who said
this guy is comedy gold and he's the one who wrote the piece the first appearance of alec baldwin i
guess i don't have to tell anyone in this studio audience that next month the daytime soap opera
the doctors is going off the air now it's always a very no no no that's very sad
it's very sad when a program ends they have been on the air i believe 20 years now
naturally everyone wants to know how will the series come to an end and since they
taped the show right here in our building the rca building we thought that we would go down there to
their studio on the third floor and find out now obviously i can't go i have to stay here and look
at the world's most peculiar dogs with you folks so okay if you watch the monitors let me give
you some information information now this is alec baldwin who portrays billy aldridge on the doctors
or he did alec was secretly investigating how the series would end when his character was brutally
murdered on last friday's show he's young debonair and so very very dead you're going to need a guide
so ladies and gentlemen the actor who played billy on the doctors meet now alec baldwin alec
thank you very much for being here uh uh alec is uh working for us now since his character
on the show was killed off and uh i understand you're bitter is that correct alec uh that's
right i'm bitter and uh i'll do anything i can to destroy the doctors as they destroyed me
okay so on on that note of optimism uh ladies and gentlemen i'm going to send
you on your mission good luck and report back to us when you find some information about how the
series comes to a conclusion as you know earlier in the show we sent two
audience members down to the doctor's studio along with ex-doctors actor alec baldwin
uh their mission has been completed and they're back with us in the studio to report on what
they've uncovered first of all alec uh when you left earlier you seem to be pretty bitter
how do you feel now uh seeing the place where i used to work uh only made me feel more bitter
so we gotta talk about the very first episode it was bill murray and uh mr wizard don herbert and
we knew bill a little bit because we had worked on saturday night live the year before so he called
us up the week before and he's like look this has got to be good i can't just go out there
and wing it so he came in on the friday before the monday it was gonna be on the air he called
all the writers and a lot of the production people into the writer's room and then he noticed that we
had these fluorescent lights and he was like oh guys we cannot deal with these you should not be
under these fluorescent lights so he made us get all the uh lamps from the office and bring them in
and then he also some kids and we get some vodka so i remember the executive producer coming in
and the whole office is drinking vodka in this generally lit room and he just sort of
poked his head in and then closed the door i remember even going home on the elevator getting
it going on the elevator with dave and dave just looking at me you're really drunk aren't you
it's like uh yeah is that bad like this is an office you know and then because we didn't even
finish what we were doing bill murray said no no we still don't have enough stuff you
guys are gonna have to come to my house tomorrow your house so me and you and george had to take
the train up to bill murray's i spent the day up in his house upstate working on stuff and i
just remember thinking man i love this fun working hanging out with bill murray but are we going to
do this with every guest on the show spend days working with him we'll die this is impossible
so then one day it was the day of the first show i think he showed up for the dressy aerial just
for a little bit but then he disappeared and then about three hours before the show
dave called me and max into his office we had never been in his house before we were sitting
on the couch and then he picks up the phone he calls meryl and he goes um could you get in here
just get in here and he hangs up and meryl comes in and they go okay where's bill and we're like we
don't know where bill is and then it's like well is he gonna show up it's like oh sure he's gonna
show up and he showed up about two minutes before the show started i hope you don't take any sense
offense of what well i just came in it's you folks in the studio probably don't notice but i had to
go feed i had to go back home and i came right back and uh i got caught and trapped they were a
little nervous out there and it uh was no problem it's just that i'm not wearing shoes right now
yeah i'm just kidding he did a let's get physical and he did a funny rant yelling
at dave about mr wizard well i wish that you would quit trying to run my life dude
no i mean this i mean it i'm real i'm like you've got everyone here under your spell it's obvious
uh you know you had him doing deep breathing exercises before the show
i don't like to see it you know i know you're on here in late night where no one can stop you
but this kind of thing is not going to go on as long as i have some connections here in this
building the rca building i saw what you did to mr wizard don herbert he has the wizard in his pocket
and you just can't use science for your own ends you can't play god with people when are
you going to get off the high horse smell the coffee bruin so do you miss saturday night live
sure i i miss it uh i miss going back i miss the old gang bob tischler of course my old friend is
producing it my brother brian doyle murray is on the show and one of the stars of the show
wait a second what's happening to me i just fell back into your old trick your old
mind game i'm reading these goofy questions i'm answering your little questions off the card
or do i miss saturday night you never missed any buddy or anything
you got out of indianapolis and didn't look back
oh yeah i'm just waiting for the other shoe to fall on you man and i want to be there
when it hits the floor you're what i'm saying clear yet i'm going to do nothing about you
even though i could you know it's interesting i had a chance to strangle richard nixon and
i didn't and i regret it and here i am inches from i don't know what's keeping me from doing
so now that you're well known is it harder to be funny
no it's not well it's a little bit different you know you go out to a restaurant you can't eat you
know and people want your autograph and so forth and it's hard to eat am i doing what's happening
i swear letterman if it's the last thing i'm gonna do i'm gonna make every second of your
life from this moment on a living hell it ended up being great and then of course bill returned many
other times and in 1987 i think it was when they did ghostbusters 2. if you watch that they say
they mentioned gambling press which we figured that must have been bill so thank you bill murray
for all the laughs you brought us in late night and dave too for the employment oh yes absolutely
the best thing that came out of late night for me is i met my wife sandy gillis
and we've been married for 40 years and we couldn't be happier isn't that right hon
you