They Already Wrote My Obituary. I'm 87 and Not Done Yet | Ep. 395 with Maury Povich

0:00There is no doubt that our shows in the 90s and early 2000s spawned all the Housewives shows, all the Kardashians, any kind of reality show now on cable was all sparked by our shows. 31 years, we never got fake on the air. You are not. You are not.

0:18Daniel Robbins:You are not the father. Five words that turned daytime television into a cultural obsession. He outlasted every trend, every network, every critic. Now at 87, Maury Povich is doing it all over again. The thread for my entire career was I was chasing other people's stories. I was never able to kind of reveal myself. And so with the podcast, I feel unchained. Today we find out what fuels him at 87 and why he's not done talking. I want to do everything my brother did. I thought that was the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me, that my brother, who I looked up to all of my life, thought that I was his hero.

1:01I can even tear up about that. I've spent the last couple of years talking to the New York Times about my obituary, which is written. I don't think I've told anybody this, Dan.

1:24Daniel Robbins:so maury povich the obvious thing is i'm gonna have to say the phrase that that really puts you on the map which i'm sure at this point you could be annoyed hearing this because you've probably heard it so many times but there's a reason why i'm gonna say it so you are not the father is the phrase that everyone knows you by, or it could be you are the father, depending on the episode. However, what I want to know, though, is what emotions, what feelings, what thoughts come to mind every time somebody says that to you? Well, I consider it a it's a badge of honor to me. It's it means that if people say that to me, that means that I'm I'm part of their culture.

2:11And so So that means that the show had some penetration and and that they either watch that show for entertainment or for information or for knowledge or for as Shaquille O 'Neal used to say, he and his buddies used to bet on whether the guy was the father or not.

2:32Daniel Robbins:So I'm curious about how it was at this time. I mean, I've seen documentaries about your friend Springer and about how things were during that time for them. How was it for you, though, behind the scenes of creating this machine? I was very proud of the way we came up with our themes and the way we employed them. My show, we had production teams, and it was like being in a newsroom. They had to check out these people who wanted to come on. Obviously, the 800 number helped with whether it be DNA or lie detector test or out-of-control teenagers. And so these producing teams would check every story out.

3:21And I can say in 31 years, we never got faked on the air. Sometimes we got faked before the show ever started and we sent the guests home, but we never got faked on the air. And so I applaud the way we handled things. Jerry's show was different. Jerry kind of gave me the best compliment I ever had when he would publicly say, you know, Mari, your show's the real deal and my show is wrestling. And so that's how I differentiated it.

3:57Daniel Robbins:So how did that go? Because I've heard that you became friends at some point. I guess you were kind of like rivals, essentially. Jerry and I, we started the same month in the same year, 1991. That's when he started his show. I started my show. And we would both admitted back then in the beginning, the shows were very kind of tame. I mean, they were just afternoon or morning versions of the Today Show. We would do topics. We would, I mean, our, you know, if there was an edginess to it, it would be, you know, I have favorite crushes, things like that. I mean, that would be as far as we would push the envelope.

4:45Pretty tame next to where we ended up.

4:47Daniel Robbins:At what point did you realize, like, in order for this to really take off like a rocket ship, we need to, you know, we need to move the needle over here? I think one of the reasons we changed was when Ricky Lake, who, by the way, is our guest this week on the podcast. I hadn't seen Ricky. Yeah. And so Ricky came in and she, first of all, most of us were in our 40s and 50s doing the show in the early 90s. Ricky was 24 years old when she started. and she was able to do something we couldn't do. And that was get a young audience to watch. You know, the average age of our audience was probably near 50 and she was getting kids to watch daytime talk.

5:39And so therefore we had to start doing some subject matter which would appeal to a younger group. And so I'd say about six or seven years into the show is when we started with the themes of paternity and lie detectors and out-of-control teenagers.

6:00Daniel Robbins:So it seems like, you know, basically it was the beginning phases of reality TV, which I know people have mentioned to you before. Like you were the pioneer, one of the pioneers of reality TV. And it seems like whether it was reality TV then or how shows are now on YouTube, you always have to come up with something new. You always have to push the envelope. It's almost like you had to create virality on TV before, you know, virality now is more of an Internet thing. So what was the secret sauce behind like continuing to do this? Well, first of all, there is no doubt that our shows in the 90s and early 2000 spawned all the Housewives shows, all the Kardashians, any kind of reality show now on cable was all sparked by our shows, the first reality shows of the 90s and 2000s.

7:00That's, I mean, you can just trace it. I mean, that's the thread. Now, when it comes today, YouTube, now including AI, it's one of these things where you never know. I saw the other day, and this went viral, millions of looks. There was an AI Instagram of Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini coming on my show, and I was going to determine whether he was the father of one of her children. And it was all AI. And they had my set.

7:50Daniel Robbins:A year and a half ago, I was going through one of the hardest periods of my life. I was dealing with anxiety, depression, brain fog, and a huge part of it was because I was not sleeping. My schedule was brutal, late nights, early mornings, constantly pushing my body. I tried everything, but nothing really worked. Then someone introduced me to Magnesium Breakthrough by BiOptimizer. Night one changed everything. I had the best sleep I had in years. I woke up feeling calmer, clearer, and more rested. I even started having these vivid dreams again, which made me feel like my body was finally getting real sleep.

8:24Daniel Robbins:What I love about Magnesium Breakthrough is that it's not just one form of magnesium. It has seven forms designed as a multi-delivery magnesium system to support absorption, tolerability, and how magnesium is delivered in the body. I've taken it for the last year and a half, and I was a fan long before they sponsored the show. So if sleep, stress, or recovery is something you're working on, I say check out Magnesium Breakthrough by Bioptimizer. You can get it at Bioptimizers.com. Huge thank you to Bioptimizer for supporting the show. They had everything. I mean, it was so real that my sister called me and said, did this happen?

9:06And I went, no, it didn't happen. Don't you think you should apologize? I said, I'm not apologizing. It's AI. you know that's what it is and so therefore when you go on youtube today you got to figure it out

9:20Daniel Robbins:whether it's real or not it's almost scary right like it it's it's really it's entertaining but it also is so scary because people have sent me many videos and i'm like this is definitely ai and they're shocked they're like this is ai i'm like you can't tell this is yes this is ai these are like very smart digitally focused people i'm like can you imagine the people that aren't as smart or digitally focused they don't know they could be easily manipulated what do you think about that yeah i mean it's it's it's going to cause it's a quandary uh with ai because it it it really does look real in a lot of ways i mean i know there there are great benefits to ai I know what doctors say, that AI is going to make sure that we all live longer.

10:14In terms of medicine, it's going to be spectacular. It's going to give a lot of professions shortcuts to success, and that's fine. But when it comes down to the Internet, and we all use it, we all look at it, you're going to have to decipher whether it's real or not.

10:37Daniel Robbins:I mean, you're like in your 60s, right? But you look like you're in your 40s. You could live through 100. You might only be halfway done. Oh, gosh. You might have. I'm in my 88th year. I mean, I'm just. Wow. I never would have. I hope I'm like you when I'm 88. Well, I'm going to be 88. I'm 87. I'm going to be 88 in about six months. What's been? Is it Connie? that's been like the rock that's why you look so good and why you have so much energy because my wife makes fun of me that I have like 80 year old knees and I'm in my 40s but what is it for you that I mean I love your you have this love for life I can tell and I love that you love I could tell you really love your wife at the same time and you're in your 80s yeah I've always said that If you ever looked at my career where, you know, I did television news in various cities over the years, local news, and we got married in 1984.

11:43And right after that, Rupert Murdoch bought the local station I worked at in Washington. And my whole national career from 1986 on, I firmly believe it's because I married my wife. I there are many people, particularly in New York. I mean, I've you know, I've been Mr. Chung for 40, almost 42 years. So I wear that proudly.

12:10Daniel Robbins:So obviously she's an extremely celebrated journalist. Incredibly, like you said, honorary Ph.D. Always seemed very serious to me when I would watch her serious exposés. you on the other hand seem always I don't want to say comedic in a bad way but you're humorous you're fun like what was it like sitting at that dinner table between the two of you well believe it or not she is much funnier than I am and uh that I mean she has one of the great sense senses of humor uh she is uh uh you never know what's going to come out of her mouth I mean, I had her on my first podcast on par with Mari Povett.

12:59She was my first guest. I didn't know it was going to happen. You never know what's happening with her. I mean, she can be, when it comes to me, she can be very insulting and do it in a humorous way. And I'm much more serious personally than she is. But we've always, I mean, our axiom has always been we always took our work seriously and never took ourselves seriously. And so we really don't take each other seriously.

13:36Daniel Robbins:I love that. Maybe that's why you're here. Oh, no. She just, you know, there is no way. You can never have a full chest with each other. You just, you always got to be, you always got to be ready for the insult. A little cut here and a cut there. I like that. My wife told me that she thought it was really weird when she first met me, but the weirdness was also funny. And she liked that part. I think, I think she was attracted to the humor, not to my fading hairline at that time. It kind of reminds me of like misconceptions. Do you think there's misconceptions about you? Well, I'll tell you, there might have been only because, I mean, the thread, Daniel, for my entire career was, you know, I was chasing other people's stories.

14:28I was always looking at events. It was never about me. When I did the talk show, it was about the guests. It was about their stories. I was never able to kind of reveal myself. And so with the podcast, it's great. I mean, I feel unchained. I can, if I talk to a guest, for instance, about them being fired at some point, I say, well, let me tell you about when I was fired. Let me tell you about the list of guys who I didn't get along with, who were my general managers at various stations. And I had a list, you know, a revenge list and things like that. And so they said, well, did you ever get revenge?

15:11And I said, well, believe it or not, every single time, I had about five people on the list. I said, every single time, you know, I was looking for revenge at one point or another, they all got fired. And I felt sorry for them. I was so mad that I felt sorry for them instead of seeking revenge. Because I just, you know, I just know, I know what it's like to be fired. It's not pretty.

15:37Daniel Robbins:I've been fired. And, you know, the last time I got fired, my manager who fired me also got fired like a day after I got fired. But it was the best thing ever. Honestly, it was I was miserable anyways. So you obviously have a lot of wisdom and I'm sure you've gotten to me and I've heard some some great stories about the people that you've met in your life. But is there anyone who you've met doing this podcast or is there something that you're looking to take away or learn from these people? Some of the most successful podcasts we've done are with comedians. And I'm just fascinated by comedians because I think when you take a look at their work, you're taking a look at the present around the world or in our country, what the present is like.

16:29I think comedians reflect that more than anything else. And what I'm so excited about is In my younger days, I was very lucky to have interviewed people like George Carlin and Richard Pryor and Mel Brooks and Don Rickles. That was my generation of comedy. And now I have all these kind of youngish comics in their 30s and early 40s, like Josh Johnson and Adam Friedland and Dan Soder and Mark Norman. And next week I'm going to, I just interviewed him. He's very, very funny. Giannis Pappas. So, I mean, all these young guys, young to me, 30s. Leanne Morgan, a little older. I think it's fascinating to kind of look at the world through their eyes and how they perform.

17:33We have a Josh Johnson who can go two minutes. I've compared him to George Carlin. He can go two minutes telling a story without a laugh, and he's fine with that. And yet a guy like Mark Norman, I mean, he's a machine gun. And so I'm fascinated with the various ways they get their comedy across.

17:57Daniel Robbins:I mean, it almost saddens me that you said they're in their 30s and they're younger. And they're in their 30s and they're also younger than me. Because I see myself as 20. I don't know. But when you talked about some legends, I've always been obsessed with comedy. It was really my way to escape reality. So all those people, I've loved all the things that they've done. Is there a time where you met one of them? Something interesting? I don't know. Maybe you learned something you discussed. Well, I'll tell you one of them. Mel Brooks was great. I was doing a talk show in Philadelphia. Local. I was anchoring and doing a talk show called People Are Talking.

18:35And so Mel, I think, is coming. Maybe one of his movies or something. This is early 80s. So he comes on the show. And he's so funny. He's so, so funny. And so, uh... I said, so what do you do, Mel? What do you do for your off time? What do you do? I play tennis. Oh, you really? You play tennis? Oh, yeah, we go to Merv's house. Merv? Merv Griffin. We go to Merv's, the four of us. I said, well, who's there? He says, well, it's me and, uh, Corman and Dom DeLuise and Merv, and we all play, and that's what we do. And I said, you play three times a week. I said, oh, I don't believe it. He says, let's get him on the phone.

19:20So now I got DeLuise and Corman and Verve on the phone with Mel on my local talk show in Philadelphia. And it's hilarious.

19:34Daniel Robbins:Spaceballs was one of my favorite movies. Like, I can recite so many lines, but no one ever knows what I'm talking about, sadly. I heard they're going to make another one. I don't know if they ever will. One I remember more than any is Blazing Saddles, because I had this, my son, who is now 30-something, 30, whatever. And when he's four or five years old, I put Blazing Saddles on. and it's the first time he ever laughed at a movie at the uh at the fireside scene when everybody is farting my four-year-old starts laughing crazily because he's hearing all these farts at the campfire scene with the beans i remember that too by the way i i love that movie why do you think farts are so funny i don't know what is it because it just seems like Like, it doesn't matter.

20:33Daniel Robbins:I think if you went back 200 years and you farted, people thought it was funny then. Yeah, it is. And worse, the most amazing thing is you can be 80 or you could be five. And it's the same reaction. Like, there could be a show of just people farting. Like, the whole goal, like, you talk. Like, we could have a serious conversation. But we're just, like, also passing gas. But you can't laugh. That would be a good episode, by the way. Yeah, that would. Yeah. You can take that and you don't have to give me credit. I heard that you love Montana. And you love Montana, but you love golf. And then you also love your show On Par.

21:14Daniel Robbins:I went to Montana a few times. My sister went to college there. Where? Missoula or Bozeman? Bozeman. So we went out there. We took her there. Montana State. Montana State. I was like, wow, the sky is so big. And then my wife and I went there during COVID on a few different road trips. What do you love about Montana? Well, I have to differentiate myself and all the people, all the kind of rich people who moved to Montana during COVID, wanted to get out of these cities. And they went down there near Bozeman and South Central Montana and built these big homes, which I don't understand, in a gated community.

21:59You can't say gated community and Montana. I mean, just can't do that. So this is what I'm proud of. We went to Montana 30 years ago, and we've been there that long. And we went not down there, but our place is near Glacier National Park, way up high, and then almost, you know, 50 minutes from Canada. And so, and we live on our own mountain. And it's, my son, our son lives there. He owns a machine shop. And I, you know, I go miles before I see my neighbor. It's, if you want to, if you want to be very restive and you're craving for silence, that's the way to do it.

22:55Daniel Robbins:By the way, not only are you a pioneer in TV, you're also a pioneer of Montana. Do you love silence, recharging, or do you love more being around people, being more extroverted? No. One of the reasons why I like golf is that even though you're playing with people, there's a sense of solitude. first of all you have nothing you have no one to blame or praise than yourself when you're playing golf I mean I've always one of the reasons why I like golf is if I'm playing with someone I can tell you in 18 holes whether I want to be with this person again because every single morsel of your character will come out on a golf course.

23:50All the demons, all the niceness, all the good, all the bad, all the ugly will be reflected in 18 holes of golf. And I can tell you whether I want to be with these people again as to how they demonstrate themselves during that rounds.

24:09Daniel Robbins:Wow. I've never, I've only played like happy Gilmore type golf. I've never done anything serious, but I think I need to. Do you, not to get too serious, but is there anything that scares you? If I was broke, I'd be scared. My family grew up. We were, I guess we were called middle class, but there wasn't a lot of extra stuff going on in our lives. I mean, everything was done because every dime was everything that my father made was spent there wasn't much of a cushion and so I believe it or not when I first got my television jobs in like the mid 1960s I said to myself if I could make $50 ,000 a year for the rest of my life boy, would I be happy.

25:05I mean, how unrealistic did that become? And so, I mean, that's the way we thought back then. Money, especially in the news business, we didn't make a lot of money. I mean, when I got married, my wife was making 10 times the amount of money I was.

25:23Daniel Robbins:Did the feeling of not wanting to go back to that or maybe not wanting to have that for your future family, did this inspire you? Sure. Absolutely. So I know you and your brother, David, from what I've read, were inseparable. Sadly, you lost him a few years ago. What memories or what do you think about? What's a special moment that comes to mind when you think about him? Well, I saluted him this year because he died at 87. And I wanted to be able to reach his age. So when I turned 87 this year, I said, David, here I am, and I'm still here, and I know that you would love to see me right now at 87.