Did Jim Downey Write that?

26:57Yes. Will Ferrell was Larry King. It was the minor party candidates, and it was the female circumcision party candidate, totalitarian

27:12Dana Carvey:Chris Kattan and they would do the most ornate female whatever you just said and then Perot would always go the same old clap track that's what I hear all the time and it was the weirdest policy idea you could ever hear that was what I loved about it it was a long run from Chris Kattan Kattan was a great great sketch player absolutely he had those great groundling chops and And he was doing this thing about once we mandate and fully fund female circumcision, you'll see the economy take off. Same old, same old, you know, candy coated ice cream sundae with a cherry on top. We don't have the money, Larry.

28:00Dana Carvey:We don't have the money. Larry, can I finish one time? You can interrupt me? Go ahead. Well, it's like you have complete freedom.

28:10Dana Carvey:Anyway. Can I finish one time? No, that was so, so much fun. Still kills in my standup. It's the best. I think I might have voted for Perot in that election just because I, you know, he was right about NAFTA, I think. And it would have been fun to have him as president. He was right about the debt. Remember we had the chalkboard and the pointer? Here's our debt. Here's where it's going. We're just giving the credit card to our kids. Prescient. Jim, David Spade here. Yes. Can you tell me if you have been asked to write or rewrite some of these movies we've seen out there, some of these comedies?

28:55Or punch up? Punch up. Um, you know, from time to time, uh, I have been asked to, to work on stuff and I, um, it's not, it's not my favorite thing to do. The one thing I think that, uh, one reason that I have been asked as often as I have is because I, I never want my name on anything, which, which, um, well, just cause I, I, I don't particularly, you know, if it's, if it's someone else's script and I'm just, throwing some things into it. I don't particularly need it. And the, that's really important. It makes you very popular with the other writers on the project, you know, because most people when they do contribute something, then they, they often, they start sort of messy fights.

29:49Yeah. Get their name on it. And then there's a guild arbitration. Less work, more credit. so um but it's been a long time since i've um did you ever write one scratch sorry uh well yes we did i wrote i wrote one with uh tom tom davis and al frank and many many years ago that that um we had some funny stuff in it but it never never went anywhere it's funny i was asked i was asked one time uh bill murray asked me to um to take a look at a script that he was considering doing. And he said, I really think it could use some of your help with this. And the script was Lost in Translation, which won the Best Screenplay Oscar.

30:40And to my credit, I said, I think this is a great script, and I wouldn't change anything. Certainly, I can't think of anything that I would do to change it. And so I'd recommend that he do it. and that it was good as it was. It was great. I'm sure Bill does go to advice from a lot of people, it doesn't seem. Oh, Bill loves you.

31:03Dana Carvey:I've been in the room with you and Bill. Bill, like when you start to mention an idea, Bill gets quiet in a good way. He's like, what were you saying? Well, you guys were, if people don't know, you were either roommates or office mates at SNL or just friends, right, during the early years? Well, we were first office mates before we became friends, but we were both hired at the same time. And so they put us in the same office. And over time, we became very close. And I still, I talked to him just the other day. He's fun to talk to. One of the most beloved dudes out there. Not you, Bill. Was it your idea?

31:46Dana Carvey:It's just kind of interesting that because people would remember this at a certain age for the lounge singer to sing the theme to Jaws or was it? Well, that actually, the one of my earliest memories is Billy singing a fragment of that in the office. And I remember he came in, he came in, he had seen Jaws at a theater in times square. And he told me that his favorite thing about it was there, There were guys in the audience during the scary scenes going, get him, Jaws. Get him. And so that was where he started calling the shark Jaws. And so I remembered he would sing a bit of that around the office.

32:34And I thought, we've got to do something with that someday. And we talked about it over the years. So it goes all the way back to 1976. and then when we did the 40th in 2016 14 or whatever it was yeah 2015 it must have been 2015 anyway um i i really i i um i added more parts to it and then uh we got together with paul schaefer and it became a thing a very successful thing some say in the 40th anniversary

33:11Dana Carvey:I was part of the cutting around to music. I was doing John Brocklin on the piano. So I was up on the stage. And so I looked right on top of Bill. And watching him electrify that audience with his incredible commitment. Yeah, he does. So this is for people at home. You think of an idea like that. And it's kind of wispy, but there's something there. and you're like, this is how you either make it good or ruin it. You say, how do we package this into a sketch? Like, so I think one of the first I remember he was at a ski resort and a lounge and maybe Lorraine's there and he's going from table to table and he's maybe singing Star Wars.

33:55I didn't work on that piece, but that was Billy. He just, he, it started with him just having that, that, that kind of Vegas character that you don't see that there are no acts like that anymore, probably in Vegas. And they haven't been for a long time. He was always, one of the first things he did around the office was that kind of cringy, greasy, you know, minor showbiz character. And I'm trying to remember the very first one. I think the star Wars one at the ski lodge was the second. That was the one where people really started paying attention. And then there was one they got, we would look for ever more eccentric locations.

34:44And there was one, my favorite one was on the auto train, the Amtrak train where you can drive your car onto one of the service cars and then ride your train. You'd ride the train down to Florida with your car on the train, right? And that sounds fine. And so I remember Billy had this great speech there where he's doing one of his, you know, I was thinking watching him load the cars. And, like, you may drive a Dodge Comet. I may drive a Nissan Altima. And Joe over there might drive a Coupe de Ville. But yet every car on the auto train is treated like every other car. And then he gets kind of up and everyone starts.

35:38And then he sings, don't go changing to try to please me. It was early. It was like early, I guess, what they would call cringe comedy today.

35:50Dana Carvey:Maybe. Yes. I mean, it's not. Yeah. Well, I have two questions for it. One is how do you recall something like that right now? The second one is watching all that original cast go through that four or five year period. It seemed like Bill Murray, I would never imagine him not being at a 10 in terms of confidence, but did some cast members, were they all sort of fully formed or who were the ones that sort of evolved? Because just in terms of confidence, because the way Bill Murray does comedy, you have to be utterly committed to it. you can't have any kind of fear of not getting a laugh too seems really like oh yeah so those are two questions why do you have a photographic memory of 50 years ago i don't i don't know i i um i but i people have commented like um as though i must be forgetting more important things because Your whole life was sketchy.

36:49Minutia.

36:50Dana Carvey:Forgetting weddings. Yeah. I remember things that make an impact on me, and it's easy to, if something really makes you laugh, it's a little easier to remember that. But I would say, as to your question about confidence, all of these people had, like Lorraine had come out of the Groundlings, and Lorraine, Danny, Belushi, Billy, Second City, So Jane had done improv stuff up in Boston, so they were used to live audiences. And I think, Dana and you guys both having been touring stand-ups, that's the tough school, right? Oh, yeah. I would look at the audience if I got a laugh in a sketch. My impulse was to look at the crowd laughing, so I had to kind of go, oh, no, I'm in a sketch.

37:43Dana Carvey:First catch I ever did, forget theater or anything, anywhere, was the meteor hitting Jan on the head. I think it was Jack Handy. That was a cold opening. So I was going to ask you this question for our audience. What was your first impression first, even before we did anything? David Spade and me. First impressions. Don't think. I thought you were... Losers? No, that's not losers exactly. I thought you were well-meaning. No, I thought you guys auditioned. So I thought you were funny. So before we ever met, I had already seen you. And for all you know, seen hundreds of hours of tape. We didn't just, you know, do this stuff willy-nilly.

38:36We actually took it seriously. So no, you guys. Yeah. And, yeah, you guys came. You didn't need to impress anyone.

38:48Dana Carvey:Okay, David, your first impression of Jim Downey. Oh, Jesus. Mine was, how can you get Dana out of here quicker? David's on deck. If you should fall, he's there. First of all, me not being aware of, like, you're here to light a fire under Dana. I go, I don't think Dana's scared of me. I go, I don't do these impressions. He runs this whole operation. I'm sitting here going, let me do a fucking update. Let me do something. Let me just get out there. And, uh, but everyone was just so good. It was just hard. I, I think I joined in a pocket when there was so many good writers and so many good performers.

39:32And, uh, it was a little harder to swim to the top. So just treading water there was good enough for me for a while, but I'm just glad I got through it. And Jim was my boss or people don't know head writer came up with the idea of Thursday rewrites. I didn't know that till today. Um, and which were fucking grueling worse than the green berets. I'm not even joking. Worse, harder than the Marines. And, um, basically, uh, I, I like Jim cause he's very pleasant guy. Fun to hang out with fun to walk down to doors with. And he had a really hard job of feeding all the little birds in the nest. And then he gives you something and then you go.

40:15Well, the great thing about Jim, I love often pre-masticated things.

40:21Dana Carvey:Jim would do this if the people around were kind of riffing on ideas. And then Jim would just look up, not say anything. And just usually the entree was, there's something really funny about. Yeah. and then and then this brilliant idea would follow it it would be this weird off kilter one time jim told me dana he goes i think he maybe told the table he goes or maybe just me and schneider when we got started he goes there's sometimes you're gonna pitch an idea and i'm just gonna say i don't think that'll work and i can't sometimes explain why it's just from experience i just don't see that working and so that was good to know because sometimes he just said I wouldn't write that up.

41:03I'd probably write up the other one, you know, cause you're kind of also wanting that advice before you write and everyone wants a piece of them and he'd maybe go work, not hide, but work in your office and lock it. And then Schneider would sleep against the door and we'd all go in there and try to go. When he comes out, we got to ask. It was just constantly on top of you.

41:22Dana Carvey:It's hard being head writer of that show. It was hard to, I mean, the part that I, I, you know, you have to decide how much you're going to lie to people to, and sort of string them along and, and give them false hope and, and how much, and, and, but I remember the, the old expression, my father always used to tell me you should always tell the truth because it's the easiest thing to remember. Yeah. You know? And so I, I very early on, I think I did. I, I, I just said, you know what, I'm just going to explain to people if they come in and look at the board after read through. And we'd have a read for, you know, the audience of the podcast.

42:08We would have our read through Wednesday. And then Wednesday evening, Lauren would would slip out of the room and go to dinner. and then I'd be there when the cast and writers streamed in and looked up at the board to see which pieces represented by little three-by-five cards were part of the show, at least for now, and which weren't. And there were always outraged people demanding to know why A was in the show and their B wasn't. And, you know, I tried to be as honest as I could, but in an encouraging way, you know, and I tried to, sometimes I actually was the only voice in the room for a particular piece that ended up not making it.

43:02And so I tried to avoid doing the chicken shit thing. And so I was for it. Smigo used to tell me Frank and hated it when I asked him about mine. Frank and hated it. But by the way, David, you were talking about the idea of when you come onto the show, like looking for a way to emerge more clearly. But the way we cast the show, and I'm not saying it was necessarily the ideal way, but we're like those people who go to an antique store or something, and even though they already have a dining room table, they so fall in love with this other dining room table that they go, like, I'm just going to buy it, and we'll figure out what to do with it later.

43:55So if you've been in people's homes where they have like three or four of everything, it wasn't well thought out. So if we saw people who were really funny, if someone else was brought to our attention, it's like we just want them here. We just grabbed them.

44:14Dana Carvey:Give them their$600 a week and bring them in. Yeah, it's only going to cost us$600 a week. Yeah. But that was the first junior varsity era. I mean, we added Mike Myers, which was incredible for us. And then we started adding more and more. And I actually did a song about it when I hosted that 90 to 93 was very post. Because we had Sandler and Farley coming up. Spade was coming up. Schneider, Tim Meadows, on and on. And we still had Phil and myself and Mike and so forth. I was going to ask you this question, because it's always these just fun of best cast or best cast member. but behind the scenes and i don't know if you want to answer this question when was the most potent writing staff because i only know my era like was because you were there in the knots of will ferrell era and amy sure polar all that so do you have an answer to that or was it the original writing staff or were they all just very comparable well i have five seconds okay i would say and then will say the right answer the the writing staff that had um you know robert smigel jack handy uh al frank and tom davis um uh that that era was a pretty good writing staff was that my yeah cohen was around that's where i guess from you know 86 to like the early 90s And it wasn't a gigantically large writing staff.

45:51I mean, it was the early writing staff, though, was like nine people of whom like six or seven were fairly active. You know, and nowadays, I mean, I think they have like more than 20 writers.

46:06Dana Carvey:And they, yeah, go ahead. But there were great writers, you know, at every period. The other thing is a lot of the best writers were performers. What do you mean? I mean, people ask me occasionally, hey, who wrote that thing? Because I've accepted it a long time ago, but you don't get a writer's credit if you're on SNL as a main cast member. If you're a feature player, you get a writer's credit. So I remember Mike came on the show like in April as a feature player writer. He soon went up to the main company. But then we won the Emmy. So on the plane ride back to New York, Mike had this giant Emmy.

46:46Dana Carvey:He'd only been there like three weeks as a writer. That happened. I mean, there were, we figured the longer you stay at the show, it comes out in the wash, you know. But it's true, there were some strange things. But yeah, the idea was, I suppose, that performers are going to get – writing for themselves is good for them. Right. That's its own reward. And if they're not paid necessarily – They would have had to pay us, right? Because I would have taken a credit without pay, but that would have been outside the union. Yeah, that's writer's guild stuff. What I told Lauren, just from my perception, and it's not just about me, but from 90 to 93, he had a lot of weapons.

47:40Dana Carvey:I've heard they don't do as many reoccurring characters now, except on Update or whatever. But back then, you could have a Toontz's or a Sprockets or a Hans and Franz or a Hollywood Minute or Sandler would sing a song, his opera man. And there were so many to start the show with that it just seemed like a very. And then I said that to Lauren on this podcast. And then I heard him talking about it to the New York's time. The early 90s, we had a lot of weapons. Yeah, we had we had a lot of variety within. We had a lot of variety within the comedy, the show so that distinct flavors, you know, And so a lot of people could pick, you know, a dozen people would pick maybe eight different things as the best thing in the show, you know?

48:31Dana Carvey:Yes. And we should mention, but I want you to continue, but Bonnie and Terry Turner as well, because they were, they could punch, they could punch things up. They were really great with the church slate and other things. So go ahead. What were you going to say? I'm just saying that, that, that era, I was just identifying it with, with, and I know I, I, whenever I'm asked, asked questions like that, I, I, I like to worry about is people like inadvertently leave out. Yeah. Accidentally we're leaving out people for sure. But there have been every year of the show. And by the way, I think there were like, there were like three or four distinct periods of the show where I thought that we were doing a lot of really great shows, like the early years.

49:16Yeah. And the next great period. Well, the next great period was that one year with Marty short and Chris guest. yeah and then and harry shearer did great stuff that year and um and then um your era which i i would make like 86 to like 93 that was the time i was yeah yeah then there was the second farley

49:38Dana Carvey:the will ferrell era and then david was overlapped with that a little bit i was in there yeah i was i overlapped one year with will but will ferrell was yeah but he was another force coming on yeah Right. And then that cast that's sort of that Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, yeah. The Lonely Island guys, yeah. And that, so there have been enough of those, enough great eras. It's like, you know, it's like the Yankees or something. Oh, yeah. It's only to talk about for fun. Because they take time to think you're good. No one really told us any of us were any good until 10 years later. And then Will Ferrell said, they said we sucked.

50:25And then 10 years later, they said, oh, they were great. So it takes a while to look back. Like right now, you'll look back later and go, oh, these people were really, you know. That's just how it works. Yeah, I gave up a long time ago trying to answer the question. Like if you had to pick like an all-star team because it ends up being like 25 people, you know. Yeah.

50:52one of the things i i really liked about the 50th and then dana i i'm sorry that that you know that you weren't there he didn't care but there was you've got so many people on camera in combinations that you'd never seen before that was really nice to see um you know yeah i mean i wanted to introduce something with eddie murphy i thought that'd be a perfect time for us to get together sort of a dress article that spat has lasted

51:22Dana Carvey:so long but I think is it finally done? People don't know David made fun of Eddie on Weekend Updates years ago. Probably because of Jim Downey probably Jim Eddie if you're watching this I was dead against that absolutely I worked with Eddie in that in a film that Andy Breckman it was his thing he directed it Not moving what was it? It was the white like me thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was. You did work on that. That was during. That was the first time I was ever recognized on the street in New York was just from that brief, you know, exposure with the great Eddie Murphy. Was I never? No, it was it was a film piece and it was where Eddie was in white face.

52:14Oh, yeah. OK. Yeah. Yeah. I remember it. Yeah. I remember it. that's that's your vision that andy andy bregman director i'm sorry andy the thing about uh

52:24Dana Carvey:the thing about eddie which now that we have 50 plus years you know it's kind of like um how did someone get that evolved and confident i guess at 19 he gets on the show but he put in his dues he started at 17 and his dad would drive the comic but seriously being i i got on at 31 i was still waitering till i was 24 i mean it's just eddie is amazing how great he was it's not a hot take it's just interesting in the context i remember um i had recommended when when the original writers and cast left the show in May of 1980, and Jean Domanian took over as producer. I always got along pretty well with Jean.

53:14Her office was directly next door to Billy and my office. And so she asked me if I had any advice, and I recommended a couple of writers, one of whom became a very valuable writer for the next couple of years. But anyway, when I would go to visit these people, you know, I was at Letterman at the time or I was doing something else, but I would come by and just to, you know, stick my head in and say, hi, I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy. This was who was a featured player. And he was just going into everyone's office and being hilarious. And I remember going to Gene and saying, you know, Gene there's the that Eddie Murphy guy I mean I don't think I'm this mad genius who's spawning something no one else can see I think I think you're really you got I think you might want to put that guy on camera and her attitude I remember it as being like I think he needs a little seasoning um he's got there's something there there's something there for sure but I just think

54:24Dana Carvey:he's not ready to go up against I heard about him as a stand-up in the comic strip because I was living in New York doing the Mickey Rooney show with Nathan Lane. And then a friend of mine was on Broadway with Mickey. He was a juggler, Michael Davies. And he just, we're walking around New York and he goes, there's this comedian, young comedian at the comic strip. You should really check him out. But this is what I want. I just popped into my brain. There are certain things that are, I just stick with me as being really funny. And that was just James Brown in a hot tub. I don't know why, but that still would get me every time.

55:02Dana Carvey:Do you know the bit, David? Well, you can just say it and it sounds funny. This is a scenario. And the way he could do James Brown, how he could hit the scream after the thing. So it's one of those, why is James Brown near a hot tub? Why does he keep sticking his foot in the hot water? Why is he screaming? I feel you get to five questions. It has the absurdity to last. Maybe it's a little bit like chopping broccoli. Like, why does this exist? But that was transcendent as just a full sketch. You guys are writer performers, but I think you'll agree with me that the show really is, is a performer show.

55:43I mean, it has more scope for writing than most shows like this do, but, um, it's like, they always say that in, in baseball, you know, good pitching beats good hitting. it's like performing trumps the writing and that a piece like that that has a great premise i mean i'm assuming it was eddie but it could easily have been could have been anybody who wrote with him who said like how about james brown in a hot tub i mean but it doesn't matter it was just for the however long that piece was it was like flat out yeah just high energy laughs i mean i've never written anything that can compete with a piece like that for energy and last you know um hmm

56:25Dana Carvey:i mean you know obviously that is bob odakirk's but full peak chris farley uh doing oh yeah or something there are those kinds of things that are just uh okay that's a kind of a one-off you know but also eddie went right into movies and the conference and immediately good like yeah so that that was he was good SNL good over there like it was pretty crazy like I say he had he was plenty confident backstage and and I'm talking about yeah 1980 81 it's just that um he um it wasn't appreciated and then when Dick Eversall came the next season he very quickly broke through oh so he didn't blow up the first year I didn't well he wasn't he didn't get a lot of camera time um his only year of struggling i love that he got a little taste of all the shit that we all go crazy about jay more but also daryl hammond calls him the world's greatest impressionist not that he does a lot of impressions but the ones that he did were you know he did his stevie wonder i was the first one to do that you know he could sing like stevie wonder yeah it was like he had every metric going you know like jamie fox has some really good ones too secretly it's like a secret weapon yeah but i still like hans and fronds that's still kind of my favorite thing only because um they're so insecure they have this cable show and they're imagining people denying them and then they're threatening to go to their house and do these really evil perverse physical things to them i mean i actually have a very clear memory of you coming to me and pitching that idea and you explaining that, but they're just incredibly abusive without actually helping their clients.

58:19So it's just like humiliating. They have the breakdown part really well, but not the buildup part.

58:28Dana Carvey:Yeah. Well, because then they bring it to themselves. And if you don't think we're properly pumped, let me tell you something. Properly. We could very easily come to your house and stretch the flap of your back into the shape of a rope ladder so it could crawl down in the sewer because that's where losers live you know it's supposed to be a jack la lane show helping people and they always turned it by the way they're on one client they've never showed them working someone out it's just always yelling at the camera and i love the kevin neil and when we would be right before right before the camera came on kevin would just lower his iq i'd seen will ferrell have that trick kevin would just make his eyes go stupid and it really made me laugh you know it's just yeah you know so so kevin and i are playing a gig together and we'll come out as hans and franz we're playing it in seattle yeah so i'm already thinking yeah the puget sound should be called puny sound because the jokes are so bad and they're so pleased so anyway i still like that and you worked a lot on that you've yeah so so glad to have you and smigel come in at a given time with kevin and that was that was just you know so easy to to you know to just we were like bouncing stuff off in the room i mean you guys had you knew what you were doing and it was another thing where it was a a single shot so you could just go to town and um but i remember the very first time that was on it was the last piece in the show yeah five to one and um you know it just shows if if you lead the audience you know you bring them along they they might not recognize at first how much they really enjoy it but if you well that's a really true statement i mean you know dana let's say jim was there for cheap burger cheap burger cheap burger i look back at conehead some some of the The early ones don't work at all.

1:00:26And the audience just has to sort of absorb what's going on. And the next time they do it, like recurring, then everyone's onto it now.

1:00:34Dana Carvey:Yes, because I think they thought we would pick up fake barbells. Yeah, they're figuring it out. We're on the front. And I think we had padded things. I think that that's what they thought. We never even touched barbells. That was never going to happen. But in that case, too, my character evolved. Because when I would look in the mirror and I was so much smaller than Kevin, it just became sorry whoops do our muscles fries on you so that made me happy because I get bored very easily but that was so anyway that was fun to work on anything else for Jim who was the first five years of SNL first five years of Letterman maybe first like two yeah You have Letterman and then you went back.

1:01:23Dana Carvey:Huge influence on the Letterman sensibility because you were right there in the beginning. He was lucky to have you. I mean, you see him out there anymore. You talk to him a lot or no? Well, actually, yeah, we just did. I hadn't seen very much of Dave over the years, except running into him now and then. But the we did. I did his podcast, The Barbara Gaines Show, which is. Oh, that's right. It's always Barbara Gaines introduces Dave and his guest. And I did that back in December and they made it a two-parter, I think. And then Robert approached him about doing Robert Smigel's new podcast, Humor Me.

1:02:10Dana Carvey:Yeah. And Dave said, why don't I do it with Jim again? So we did that. Oh, you did that? Okay. Yeah, I've seen a lot more of Dave than I have since I left the show in 1984. But, yeah, he was – that was a real case. We were talking about bringing an audience along and sort of training them to – it's like the first time you had sushi, if you can remember that. It was a little – you weren't sure about it. And then, you know, it became your favorite food. Jim, I have a last story about sushi that you remind me of. So when we were at, I lived on the Upper West Side when you were there. And Farley, we'd never had sushi.

1:03:04So someone recommended we go to this place on the Upper West Side. And so he's like, I love, you know, he's just, we were probably four of us there. And then they brought us out like a dessert with sparklers. And they come on, oh, my God, though. And they go on. And when he gets close to Chris, he goes, oh, my eyes. And then he dives on the ground that the sparks got in his eyes. And then he rolls on the ground screaming. And the whole place stands up and goes on. They're like, oh, no, no. They don't know what to do. And then he goes, I'm pulling. I'm pulling. I'm fine. And they're like, what's going on?

1:03:37Is they still trying to get help for him? And he's like, it was a bit. They don't know. You had to be very careful with Farley as to what you dared him to do because it was a weighty responsibility. Because do I really want to say, you don't have the nerve to pick that waitress up and carry her down the stairs. Put her in the fountain.

1:04:00Dana Carvey:Or poo out the window on the 17th floor. I was on record as opposed to that. What about the broomstick up? The liability. Oh, wow. Okay. that's that's for the after hours yeah that's for the post show i do remember i do remember the time and i'm sure you guys were there in the room we were doing rewrites and um uh i think it was tara eli who was the writer's assistant uh comes up to me i'm at the head of the table and and whispers to me uh just so you know uh chris chris farley is out in the hallway and he's completely naked and so and so we had those big heavy metal doors with that you know they're pinned in the middle you know and so i i told everyone okay farley's gonna come in you guys he's gonna come in naked so it's vitally important that no one give him anything no one we just have to sort of go oh yeah hey chris what's up back to our work and so farley comes in and he had his privates tucked between his legs and he's fondling, he's tweaking his nipples and going like, do you think I'm pretty?

1:05:18That kind of thing. And then we all did the same kind of oh, hey, Chris, hey, we got to talk about that update thing later. And he was so upset. Too bad

1:05:31Dana Carvey:iPhones weren't around back then. it's all just there was some fake subpoena given to him at the yeah that was that was a um that started with it was partly just a practical joke yeah yeah yeah but but we also liked we had been on a film shoot it was a piece i wrote um it was it was do you remember the show tales of the highway patrol oh highway patrol it was a reality it was an early reality show It was like cops. And it was like some other network's answer to cops. And anyway, it was we did this thing and it was like 1993 or something. It was Tales of the Arkansas Highway Patrol. And so it was basically Bill Clinton, you know, just having engaging in illicit sex with various women in parked cars with guarded by Arkansas state troopers.

1:06:27and then it ended with a scene where it's a domestic abuse case and he's clearly had the shit beat out of it by Hillary and so it's the, he's refusing to press charges and he's claiming he fell down the stairs, you know, that kind of thing anyway, so we had to drive to the shoot and Farley was deep in character, you know, it's like little lady, I got a problem, see it seems, they gave me an expense account, unless I spend And, oh, they're libeling got me back. So he was hitting on this woman who was an extra. And Schneider and I were in the car. And we finally had to, like, physically jump between the two of them to prevent to head off something.

1:07:14And so it began with that. But we decided to play a practical joke on it where we had him served with a fake subpoena. and had some of the writers from the Simpsons act as process servers. And it was at the last show party. And later I was told it was a cruel thing to do. And I'm like, come on, the poor actress who was in that car, that wasn't a picnic for her. Anyway, that's a true story. He fell for that one. I love it. He flipped out. What a character. Oh, yeah. Anytime. You don't even know what it's for. You just don't think. this is david david you always you always did a great impression of farley going from like innocent to like barking orders to his management and everything and it turning well it would be like uh i don't know i'm just i'm i'm i'm not i'm not really a reader i'm like listen listen i'm not doing it i'm not doing it for that money that kind of thing yeah tell him fucking six million or i'm out i'll fucking walk anyway i'm from wisconsin you have a mcdonald's here is it on wheels because we have one you still doing that yeah i don't know yeah he was uh he i like when he greased his hair back like christian slayer and wore the big glasses like ackroyd oh yeah yeah yeah but he um uh god he he was funny god damn i thought he looked cool to have grease back i remember me and him and christian slater went down to huxley's and he's like this hi christian you grease your hair back and he's like yeah chris i do and he's like yeah it was all the chris when me and dana met ringo star and mccartney we were it's always turns into the chris farley show it's the funniest thing to to to describe perfectly what you're doing you're too giddy you're excited asking something and just being like, oh, you were in the Beatles.

1:09:16Yeah, that was awesome.

1:09:18Dana Carvey:Don't want to make them angry is the main thing. Or bore them, you know? Yeah. If you're talking to a Beatle, you know, or something they've really heard. That was, it's a skill set. A dicey proposition to talk to super fans. Jim. Jim, anything else you want? A million things you've got going. Downey wrote that on Peacock. Downey wrote that, which Dane and I are in, and we're both in and thank you very much for that i'm sorry i i wasn't looking my best at the time i was covid did um a number on some of us and and i don't remember that i just remember someone i was in the room to get ready to come out to the patio to do the three-hour interview and i go really three hours it's okay we'll be hanging out and a woman came up behind me with just goop in her hands and just went like this out of your hair yeah without asking ever hey we got something for you i would have been like crack break pile drive yeah you're looking healthy you're looking good i mean when you turn 65 next year that's gonna be a big milestone we're kind of the same age i don't want to bring up numbers though well i'm older i'm older than than anybody now Anybody in America?

1:10:39Anybody in comedy. No. That's active and still at the top.

1:10:43Dana Carvey:You're at the top of your game. Jim. Well, I think you are. I would say I'm barking on a new career, like we talked about at the beginning. The actor. Performer with limited camera presence, but um i can deliver i can deliver a a low energy deadpan performance like nobody me too i'll see at the auditions you accidentally every time i see something that you're in i go fuck he stole it yeah he stole the whole thing have you what i am what i am is i'm kind of a good luck charm i mean if you think about it daniel day lewis best actor yeah sean penn best supporting actor what's the common denominator have you told PTA that maybe there's a spinoff and you're not pushing it but maybe your guy could spin off and like do a sitcom or something he's been made aware he's been made aware you're there you're ready to write it was this your idea because it didn't sound like you but it's been floated a sequel and it's going to be called one battle after another after another 100 episodes maybe make it a streaming show I'm not sure it seemed like it had your fingerprints on it I can't really tell one battle after another it sounds like it would be a funny something to do maybe on the show as a film piece and no it didn't come from me I made that up of course I think it's in the ether like people it's ready will there be a 60th last question will there be a 60th and will you be at it eight and a half years will Dana be at it I'd like to think that I will definitely be invited, as all of you guys will.

1:12:36No plus ones. Yeah, maybe not at that point. By the way, do you realize, I asked about this, because the seating capacity of Studio 8H is like, if you knock out every possible thing, it's like 300 odd seats. Yeah, mass. And there are, at the time, in February of 2025, 750 people had hosted the show. Oh, boy. So you kind of have to, if someone hosted the show, you kind of have to invite them, maybe hoping that they don't come. And then you can't exactly tell them they can't bring a guest. And then that's not involving music. And so that was a real, I did, all of us got to be inside the studio. Well, Dana, you could have been.

1:13:26You were not feeling well, I know.

1:13:28Dana Carvey:Well, what did I miss? How did it compare to the 40s? It was on TV. I watched it live. I thought both of them were actually pretty good shows. They had some fun stuff in them all. And you know what I got to say? There were little things like, David, you had that thing in the piece where you completely changed the energy of the piece for a minute, and you just sort of said, nope, I'm doing this. Then you guys can go back and do it. It was fucking great. Finish the sketch, yeah. And the other thing that really, this is a crazy thing, because you mentioned him, Nathan Lane. Remember, it was that piece that I think John Mulaney was the head writer on.

1:14:09It was like the history of New York in like eight minutes or something. And it was just Nathan Lane dancing through, did the funniest impression of a guy doing blow.

1:14:19Dana Carvey:Oh, right, right, right. That really cracked me up. That was right next to us in that scene. I'll bring that up. We're going to have Nathan on here. I don't know the timeline of these releases, but we will be talking to Nathan. Well, Jim, it's always nice to talk to you. Jim Downey. Favorite head writer. Going through that, you know, am I an actor? Am I a writer? And then Paul Thomas Anderson calls. Jim, are you going to host?

1:14:47I'm taking myself out of consideration for hosting. Okay, okay. I understand. I just, I've just too much on my plate right now. The plate is full. But I will say, I did want to mention, Downey wrote that. Downey wrote that. They're voting on Emmy nominations. On Peacock, Emmy nominations. And I've been asked to mention that. I want to mention Eddie Michaels was a great. Producer. To work with on that, producer. And everyone else who worked on it.

1:15:21Dana Carvey:Yes. Well, this is how I would do it as Hans. Fee-fi-fo-fum. I smell an Oscar. No, I smell an Emmy nomination. Here it come. Whoops. So long, other ducks. Fly away. You no longer want it. We already have our winner. Jim's face. Jim's is going what? I think you've made some excellent points there. You should have come on. This was what I thought about randomly. I thought that Jim would come on as the head of the network, so-called, and do your deadpan thing of like, you know, when you do that with the audience, it doesn't really increase our numbers. What do you mean? What are you talking about?

1:16:15Although it's appreciated. Yeah. The Billy Madison run is always on a meme or on Yeah, that's a famous run Good job on that one And we'll see you on the next interview And this might be our longest interview It was fun I'm going to be back, right? I'm going to be back Well, you know what?

1:16:34Dana Carvey:When you get the nomination, you should come back Because I like being a savant We'll never run out of stories to ask you about Because it's too funny No, I haven't I don't think we got to any of the things we were talking about discussing. I don't think we got to a single one of them. We're the worst, dude. Did we talk about POTUS much? A little bit? Not much. Not breaking it down. Not a whole lot. I did want to mention your Jerry Brown impression. Oh, that's right. It was one of my favorite things ever. I was proud to be one of the writers on that piece. absolutely i know and i looked for it because you mentioned that when we were talking to you on youtube dana carvey does jerry brown where is it because i was gonna i wanted to read now is not good i wanted to relearn it for this podcast because it's hard to remember the rhythm i know it was a thing and then you know it was that was a thing there but you know i i need to see it i i've got it i'm going to say one last thing before we sign off a few years ago well actually 24 years ago.

1:17:41I was in San Francisco. It was an event for the Harvard Lampoon. And we were staying at the home near the Presidio of a very wealthy Harvard Lampoon alumnus who was personal friends with both Jerry Brown and with Willie Brown. And this was at a time when Willie Brown was mayor of San Francisco and Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland. So at the dinner, we had this Mayor Brown of the month contest. And we got, we found another guy named Brown who was mayor of some other town. And we had a, and the way we did it was I briefed everyone in attendance saying, okay, I'm introduced to three mayors. They're not in the room right now.

1:18:25But when I introduce, you know, the mayor Brown of Vacaville or whatever he was, you know, I want, you know, polite applause. When I introduced Jerry Brown, polite applause. And when I introduce Willie brown i want everyone going crazy like standing on your chairs like ah and so we did it and willie brown instant and then we're doing it at the dinner the three of them willie brown instantly starts laughing because he gets a joke jerry brown was very upset his feelings were hurt that he didn't get the response anyway i did you start the one about welcome our host tom hanks Smattering. Next week, Sharon Stone.

1:19:06A huge applause. Well, that was a thing that Frank used to do. I did it. Immediately make the host feel like an asshole. That's fucking job number one at SNL. They're already nervous. They're like, who's next week? And they're like, it's going to be this. Someone's so much better than you. Funny. Always funny. They always feel like shit. Thank you, Jim.

1:19:34All right, listen, if you're enjoying The Fly on the Wall, of course, hopefully you are, click follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that goddang button on your favorite podcast app. Leave a review, a good one. Leave a five-star rating, nothing else. Whoops. And maybe even share an episode with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe, Dana. What do you think?

1:19:58Dana Carvey:I'm going to tell you this right now. Hear me now, believe me later. The Fly on the Wall, believe it or not, is presented by Odyssey. And executive produced by, hold for it, Dana Carvey and David Spade. Or David Spade and Dana Carvey. We don't write this stuff. Heather Santoro, Greg Holtzman, and Leah Reese Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox. With production support from Phil Sweet Tech. Talent production and booking by Sophia Lepore. .