-Our first guest is an Emmy-winning actor
who stars in "The Righteous Gemstones,"
which airs Sundays at 10:00 pm on HBO.
[ Drumroll ] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome John Goodman!
[ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪
-Oh! [ Laughs ]
Yes!
Finally. I love this!
-This is fanta-- -Thank you, Jimmy.
-I love this. This is fantastic.
John Goodman, thank you for being here
and thanks for being on the show.
It is nice to see you.
That is a beautiful --
Is that your living room?
Is that where you are?
-That's one of my living rooms, Jimmy,
[ Laughter ] out here in California.
-It's gorgeous.
-We propose it as a dining room and Amazon catchall.
[ Laughter ]
-What's been going on?
What's going on in the Goodman household?
-Well, we got a wedding coming up.
My daughter's getting married in...
-No way! Wow! -...March.
[ Cheering, whistling, and applause ] So there's a lot
of planning involved.
A lot of planning.
-Congrats, congrats.
-My idea of planning a wedding is
finding a huge, empty garbage barrel,
dumping about 10 cases of beer in there,
and throwing some ice on top.
[ Laughter ]
But my wife wants napkins and stuff like that, so...
-Ah, jeez. -...I'm letting her do it.
-Are you going to make a speech
or do that father of the bride stuff?
-I'm sure I'll have to. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -I'll find something.
I'll crib something.
[ Laughter ] -[ Clap ]
Yeah. We're halfway through January, John.
Did you make a New Year's resolution at all?
[ Laughter ]
-I kind of gave them up, by now,
but, over the course of the last two years,
I haven't been exercising
and I can't use COVID for an excuse anymore,
so my wife, for Christmas, bought me a rowing machine.
-Yes! -Yeah, it looks swell.
It's got a TV on it, and everything.
[ Laughter and applause ]
So I can work on that and watch TV at the same time.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
Have you done it?
Have you tried it out yet?
-I got it out of the box.
[ Laughter ] -[ Claps ]
-But, yeah, no, I did.
I did it this morning.
It was a guy teaching you how
to work a rowing machine with a TV on it.
[ Laughter ] And that was about 13 minutes
of talking, two minutes of exercise,
so I'm ready.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-John, I've said this before.
You're one of my favorite actors and I say this --
that, if you see John Goodman's name on a poster,
that means you're in for a treat,
a great movie, a great project.
Anything I see, I go, "John Goodman's in it?
I love it."
And it's always a fantastic performance.
But I was going to ask you, John Goodman,
do you have a favorite John Goodman performance?
[ Laughter ] -Usually, the movies that I have the most fun on
are the ones that stuff at the box office.
So. -Yeah, exactly.
-I like, I guess, "Big Lebowski."
Everybody likes it.
[ Cheering and applause ]
Had a lot of fun.
"The Big Lebowski," when it first came out,
it was not really -- it was like mixed reviews.
It wasn't that big of a hit, was it?
-I guess. I really don't remember when it came out,
but I usually don't read reviews
because they hurt my feelings real bad.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, of course. Smart, smart.
-I didn't know how it was received
and I didn't pay any attention to,
You know, the entertainment journalism, so.
I knew we did something good.
It just felt great and I knew we had a terrific script,
so I wasn't too worried about it.
So it lives on.
-Yeah. When did you realize it was like --
Because now it's like people,
they dress up as you and they,
I mean, people reenact.
There's festivals now.
-Yeah, I realized it was popular when I had guys dressed like me
showing up at my house with crap for me to sign.
[ Laughter ] -[ Clap ]
You know, we have Cecily Strong on the show after you.
[ Laughter ] I know, I know. We love her.
And I read this somewhere and I'm curious about this
because I've known you for a long time.
Did you once audition for "Saturday Night Live"?
[ Laughter ] John Goodman!
John Goodman, you did?!
-In 1980.
-Wow! -Yeah.
Not that I had any material to show or anything good to do.
I just knew they'd hire me.
[ Laughter ] Just for my pers--
because I'm a nice guy.
[ Laughter and applause ] -Wow!
It's the worst thing I've ever done
in front of people in my life.
I wrote something
about 15 minutes before I went over there and,
oh, God, it was awful. -You still think about it.
Isn't that weird? You still think
about those awful things, like, "Why did I?
It was so embarrassing," yeah.
But you didn't get cast, but,
you went on to host 13 times, buddy.
[ Cheering and applause ] Come on, one of the best hosts
-Yeah. -in the history of the show.
-That used to be the favorite thing I'd do every year,
would be "Saturday Night Live."
They always made me feel at home
and you're with a bunch of smart and funny people
and it just feels great.
-Yeah. I've done a bunch of fun things, great things.
That's where I first met you.
Do you remember we did one, once,
it was you were hosting and Tom Petty was musical guest?
And I think T. Sean Shannon wrote it,
or maybe Smigel. I'm trying to think.
But the monologue, you came out
and then I asked those questions from the audience,
you know that bit?
Where you go, "Anyone have any questions?"
-[ Laughing ] -You know, "Before we start the show --
[ Laughter ] Before we start the show,
does anyone have any questions?
And someone stood up.
[ Laughter ]
But someone stood up and they go,
"I just want to ask you, is tonight's show a repeat?"
[ Laughter ] And you're like, "No,
no, this is a new show.
This is 'Saturday Night Live' and we're live right now,
so this is not a repeat."
And they go, "I think I've seen this show before.
-"I've seen it." -It's you and Tom Petty."
[ Laughter ] Yeah. And then, I sit up.
I go, "Yeah, actually, I've seen this show.
It's very good. It's a funny one."
And you're like, "No."
[ Laughter ]
-That was Adam McKay.
-What was that, Adam McKay wrote that?
-Yeah, yeah. -Wow! McKay, I love that.
Oh, my gosh. And look at him now.
He's crushing it, huh? With the movies.
-Absolutely, man. -He's brilliant.
-He used to write some great bits to bomb in.
He and Will Ferrell would get together and write something
and, if they sniffed that it was bombing,
Will would just push the throttle forward
and go for it. -Yes, exactly.
-"We're going to kill everybody in here
and take them with us." -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] [ Claps ]
Do you remember?
I remember Will doing a bit
that was not working
and the cast who were not even in the sketch
would just go out to the floor to watch him bomb.
[ Laughter ]
Because it was so entertaining.
It was so funny to watch.
You were like, "Oh, my gosh. This is tanking.
No one is laughing. It is terrible."
And he was like -- It was just so fun to watch
and he would do it. He would take his extra time
and really milk it. -The kid's an artist.
[ Laughter ] -He is an artist.
John, when we come back, I want to talk to you
about "The Conners" and "The Righteous Gemstones."
More with John Goodman after the break.