-Our next guest is an award-winning journalist
and correspondent you know best from his long-running work
on "Dateline." The 30th season premieres this Friday,
September 24th, right here on NBC.
Please welcome to the show and the studio Keith Morrison.
[ Applause ]
-Wow.
[ Laughs ]
-Welcome back. Thank you so much for being here.
Really appreciate it.
Come on up. -Thank you.
Well, well, well.
This is where you live, huh?
-This is where I live. It's not too bad, right?
-I thought you were at that Italian restaurant
most of the time. -No, that's not me.
You're thinking of someone else.
30 seasons! -I know.
I know. -Can you believe it?
-Believe what? -That it's 30 seasons?
-Oh, that. Oh, that. Yeah. [ Laughter ]
No, I can't, as a matter of fact.
You know, it goes by about in a week and a half.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-When you started -- -Didn't I see you about
a week and a half ago?
-It felt like a week -- You were actually --
The first time you were here, you were in our studio,
was the first season of our show.
We did a sketch together where --
-Which was last week.
-It felt like last week. -Huh.
-But it was -- But would you believe
it was almost seven years ago that you were here?
Isn't that crazy? -Amazing. Yeah.
-When did you know "Dateline" was working?
-You know, it -- it actually worked from the very beginning.
It worked so well from the very beginning
that they wanted the show on five nights a week.
-Yeah.
-Even when we didn't do crime, it worked quite well.
And there were a lot of stories I loved doing.
Stories about a whale or a wolf or...
-Yeah. -You know?
-Do you -- Do they let you do many whale
or wolf stories these days?
-No whale and wolf stories anymore, no.
-No. That's too bad.
'Cause, I mean, I feel like you were at the --
at the forefront of this true crime --
-Of the whale -- Oh, no. Of the true crime.
-No, no. The whale. You guys were way at the end
of the whale -- the whale moment.
-Sure.
-But you guys were true crime. -Yeah, it's true.
It's true. And we discovered it
kind of by accident, I guess you could say.
But there were -- there were good stories out there,
which were crime stories.
We did a couple of them.
They did extraordinarily well,
compared to the rest of the programs,
so we did more of them. -Yeah.
-And then we just made them longer and longer and longer.
-And the world has done a nice job
by continuing to provide you crimes.
-They do that. -Yeah.
-Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. -And -- [ Chuckles ]
When you -- When you -- When they bring them to you,
when they say, "Hey, Keith, here's a new story.
Here's a woman."
It does seem like a lot of wives
want to get rid of their husbands.
Is that -- Would you say thematically that has --
-You know, I think that's --
I think that's a fantasy by some people.
-Yeah. I think you may -- Maybe they don't want to act on it,
but they don't mind watching a "Dateline" or two about it.
-The sad truth, it's usually the other way around.
So it makes a better story, you know?
-Right. That's true.
-It's the dog-bites-man story. -Yeah, exactly.
Everybody's like, "Finally -- Finally they're getting theirs."
-Yeah. -Did you know that your voice
would be a perfect fit for these kinds of stories?
-It is? No. No. -You didn't know?
-Well, who -- Come on, now.
What are we doing here, anyway?
No, I didn't actually. I had no idea.
-Yeah, but that seems to be one of the nice surprises about it.
-But it's -- it's odd. Yeah.
You know, people do imitations of it.
-Bill Hader did a famous imitation of you on "SNL."
When we were together the first time,
I texted him and said, "I hope you're jealous,
'cause I'm with the real -- the real Keith Morrison."
-Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.
-Did you enjoy his impression of you?
-It was -- Yes. -Okay.
-I did, and I didn't.
Have you ever -- Have you had some --
somebody do an impression of you?
-Yeah. -In kind of a parody like that?
-Yeah, but not quite like that. -Yeah.
- I mean, I feel like he really...
-So, if the first time you ever saw it,
you were unprepared for it
and it was on national television...
-Right. -On "Saturday Night Live."
And you turn on the TV, and somebody's doing that.
-Is that how -- Did you see it first
or did you get a bunch of texts from people?
-No. Well, I got -- My daughter texted me.
-Yeah. Was she happy? Did your daughter like it?
-She was laughing her head off. -Okay, well, that's good.
-So -- -I think that's a good sign,
if your daughter laughs her head off.
-Yeah, well -- But it does a wonderful thing, actually,
for a person's sense of him or herself.
-I think so, too.
-It's a -- It's a -- You know, it's an amazing thing.
It feels -- makes you feel good,
but at the same time, you realize even when you feel good,
even when you feel noticed and appreciated, you're an idiot.
You always were an idiot. -I don't think that's --
I don't think that's the takeaway.
One thing that I feel like proves you're not an idiot
is you -- There's an Instagram account
which is all photos of you leaning against things.
-I never lean.
-This is something that you -- -That's fake photography.
-Will you explain why you have decided to lean against things?
-I didn't decide. It was just -- You know --
-Here. Here's another example. -Look. You know what happened?
When people talk -- Have you watched the news?
-I've watched the news once or twice.
-Once or twice, yeah.
So, they don't do it quite so much anymore.
But it used to be that you'd see some person
walking along the street,
gesticulating with his or her hands
and walking toward a camera
or walking somewhere and kind of telling you what --
And I always thought that looked ridiculous.
I liked the people involved, but why are they doing that?
And so -- -So do you mean, like,
a news story starts and someone's walking towards
camera, like, telling you what happened.
-Uh-huh. Uh-huh. -And you didn't like it?
-I didn't like it. No. -So you came up with the lean?
-[ Scoffs ] What do you mean "came up with"?
I was leaning to begin with.
-You were leaning to begin with,
but I feel like -- -I'm leaning right now.
-But, look -- I -- I mean, look, at this.
This -- I mean, it's such a pro move.
Like, this guy -- I want to hear what this guy has to say.
-Yeah. He's leaning on a fence.
-The guy's leaning on the fence.
He's not in a rush. He wants to tell you a story.
-Barbed wire fence. -Yeah, that part was weird
to me, that you would choose to not lean against the post.
-You have no idea how painful that was.
-Yeah. And then -- I remember that episode,
a solitary tear rolled down your face.
-That's right.
-As the -- As the barb cut through your sweater.
-Uh-huh. Yeah. -This one somebody mocked up.
I like that a good deal. -No, that's real.
-That's real? That's him? -That's the only real one.
[ Laughter ]
-Hey. Will you -- -Makes sense, don't you think?
-You have -- I feel like
when I do a tease for our upcoming guests, they're good.
You know, I think people are excited to see them.
But I feel like I don't add the sort of drama...
-Ah. -...that you could.
Do you mind -- Do you mind
teasing our guests for tomorrow night?
It's John Kerry and Jim Gaffigan.
-You have John Kerry on tomorrow night?
-That's pretty good, right? -That is pretty good.
-So, uh, do you mind? -I don't mind at all.
Join us tomorrow, when former Secretary of State John Kerry
shares a secret that changes everything.
And when funny man Jim Gaffigan swings by,
the laughter stops...
and the screaming begins.
Tomorrow on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
-See, I think that's gonna be big for us.
I think that's gonna be really big for us.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You're also -- You're also doing a lot of podcasting now,
which seems like a perfect fit. -We are doing podcasts.
Which is -- Yeah, they don't have to look
at my face that way. You can just talk to them.
-Do people ever recognize you from your voice first
on the street? -All the time, yeah.
-Yeah. And what do they say to you?
-"Why do you talk that funny way?"
-Well, that seems like a very fair question.
30 seasons. Congratulations.
-Thank you very much. -It's really an accomplishment.
And we really appreciate you being with us.
30th season of "Dateline"
premieres this Friday at 9:00 p.m. here on NBC.